K-1 World GP 2024 in New York [??-??]

[K1power]

New York promoter Lou Neglia

“My name is Lou Neglia, a former world kickboxing champion. I have promoted over 200 kicking events in large arenas in the United States. The event will be held at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden on June 22nd (*Final arrangements are being made between May 19th and June 22nd).The winner will be selected to attend K-1 World in Tokyo, Japan in December. You can qualify for the Grand Prix 2024 Final. K-1 is the largest kickboxing brand in the world in existence today."

Card details TBA

www.k-1.co.jp/news/39299

[K1power]

I'm not sure this one's happening. At least not on the listed date/venue.

None of the MSG venues have this in their schedule and June 22nd is in ~6 weeks.

[Shadess]

There was some talk about them not actually being allowed to do tournaments in New York. So that might be a bit of an issue

Glory did 8-man in NYC in the past, not sure if something has changed as far as sanctioning goes.

[K1power]

I remember how quickly the Spong/Ilunga final was stopped, allegedly because the very strict rules & regulations that were in place for that particular tournament.

That was in 2013, though. Things might've changed..

Wondering what a US based HW (qualifier) tournament in 2024 would even look like and whether it would draw attention, given that market has been pretty much abandoned again by major Kickboxing promotions.

[K1power]

K-1's America Expansion in Jeopardy – New York State Legislation Won't Allow Multiple Fights a Night

Looks like you were right, Shadess.

Wonder what K-1 will do if tournaments in NY are indeed non-negotiable. They could just move it somewhere else like Vegas or decide to do single fights instead of a tournament. Or save the money and scrap the US altogether of course.

I think it's a bit of a prestige thing for them to do an event in the States, though.

[larsenator]

A bit "weird" that they didn't check up on such things before announcing the event.

[K1power]

While I do agree to some extent, Glory was able to hold a tournament there before so I can understand if that wasn't really a concern when mapping out the 2024 schedule. I'd be more upset if they had already announced more specific details like the fightcard before finding out they can't actually make it happen.

What I don't like at all is that it takes so long for the public to be informed about an event that is supposed to happen soon. We've been getting details on all their other upcoming events in timely fashion, so don't drop the ball on this one. If they have to make changes, just make a decision and let us know about it. Don't wait until the last minute. I'm sure a lot of stuff is happening behind the scenes, but some timely transparency would be nice.

[Shadess]

These events aren't so much ran by K-1 as they are the local promotor, not sure how this happens to guys who run events in NYC/NJ all the time. Unless K-1 just blindly throws money at people and they take it fully knowing there'll be issues lol.

[K1power]

Since we've been speculating about this a couple of weeks ago, this news is not really a surprise.

I'm mostly just curious how this situation will be handled and hope K-1 learns from their stumbles.