K-1 World GP 2024 in Tokyo [14-12]

[K1power]

Fightcard
Openweight Championship Tournament
K-Jee vs. Errol Zimmerman
Ariel Machado vs. Rhys Brudenell
Feng Rui vs. Mattia Faraoni
Kwon Jangwon vs. Claudio Istrate

Tournament Reserve Fight
Tanigawa Seiya vs. Jitsukata Kosuke

Superfights
Riamu vs. Okubo Rui
Stoyan Koprivlenski vs. Hiromi Wajima
Kaneko Akihiro vs. Aslanbek Zikreev
Sina Karimian vs. Yamaguchi Shota
Kacper Muszynski vs. Valentin Mavrodin
Sasaki Daizo vs. Tsukamoto Takuma
Kiyama Momotaro vs. Ikeda Koji

Preliminary Fights
Komatsu Takaya vs. Sekiguchi Kosei
Rui vs. Raiki
Ren Ogawa vs. Taki
Daichi vs. Iwagami Yukito
Ueno Kanata vs. Sakuya Ueda

[K1power]

With Machado earning himself a spot, we now have half the Grand Prix lineup determined.
In a bit over a month the last qualifier decides number five and the remaining three spots will most likely go to wildcards.

I guess there's still uncertainty about Cvjetićanin's participation so there might be an additional spot to fill.

[lero]

If they can steal Allazov from K-1 I hope they can do the same with Kryklia and Opacic.

What about offering political asylum to Ben Saddik, and make him fight in Japan until he retires? He could get along well with the Yakuza masters and in the meanwhile knock the fuck out of everyone in this tournament.

[K1power]

Both Azizpour and Opacic have fought in Senshi now, Opacic even twice now. Kryklia hasn't fought since last year.

No matter where they ultimately end up, anywhere should be better than ONE limbo.

[K1power]

Guess we need a replacement for Cvjetićanin.

[vampiro]

Nidal Bchiri or Kadir Yildirim (I can't remember who) was in the comments section when the Osaka line-up was announced, and he was questioning why he wasn't chosen. I don't think either are getting that chance tho. They may want somebody bigger.

Also, I am not surprised Milos is with Glory. I had him as one of the chief favourites.

[K1power]

The second Miloš was added to the G95 card I was pretty sure what was coming next.

To be fair, since he was just a reserve fighter on a local qualifier it's likely that he didn't have a proper K-1 contract to begin with. I still think it's a dick move and I don't agree with the notion that "Glory should just poach any good fighters from K-1".

As far as his replacement goes, I think they should try to go for a bigger name as well.

[K1power]

As of now we have 6 of our 8 tournament participants:

1. Liu Ce (CHN)
2. Rhys Brudenell (GBR)
3. Ariel Machado (BRA)
4. Kwon Jangwon (KOR)
5. Errol Zimmerman (NL/CUW)
6. K-Jee (JPN)
7. TBA
8. TBA

In terms of international representation the field looks pretty good, but it's a bit of a mixed bag in terms of quality.
At least every fighter in there earned their spot.

With Cvjetićanin in Glory and Karimian/Istrate ending in a No Contest we have two slots left to fill.

K-1 could go out and get some quality freelancers and/or big names to fill up the final spots, but I'm afraid they'll just give them to Karimian and Istrate.

[vampiro]

I would prefer, as many Japanese on Twitter were saying, Istrate to be included. I think he is fun to watch, and has had an unfortunate experience of meeting Karimian twice. He is familiar to them now too. I saw more than a few Kuma-chan comments.

I wonder if Bchiri or Yildirim gets a shot.

I like this line up, and I reckon Cvjetićanin would have ran through the field. It's Liu Ce's to lose now. I reckon Machado or Brudenell have an outsiders chance. Basically, I really like the tournament winners side of the field lol.

I would say throw in Stoforidis for his performance against Machado in Senshi, or some of the other heavyweights from Senshi, but I don't know if ONE would like it.

[K1power]

I think Cvjetićanin vs. Liu Ce could have been a solid tournament final to build up to, but unfortunately that ship has sailed.

As for Istrate and Karimian. Ideally it would have been a double KO and we wouldn't see either of them near the GP.
Istrate might have looked good against Sina, but he recently lost to a random MMA guy who is also an actor lol.

Ideally K-1 gets some better fighters than Istrate or Karimian for the final GP spots.

[Shadess]

Glory may have snatched Cvjetićanin from them, but maybe there's some HW they're not using right now that could be loaned out to K-1?

Not entirely sure what the contractual situation of Koprivlenski was/is, but I'm assuming he still had ties to Glory and has been ok to fight in K-1 since Glory had nothing for him.

[K1power]

Sure, a decent name added in would be cool.

[K1power]

So apparently Istrate is getting the spot, because he was dominating Karimian before the stoppage.

Could have done without him, but out of the two Istrate is the better choice as far as I'm concerned.
This means we have one spot left to fill with less than two months to go. I hope they get a fun name and hold a draw soon.

[K1power]

Milos Cvetcanin, winner of the Eastern European qualifying tournament, will be absent from this tournament due to signing a contract with another organization.

The remaining participant will be announced at a later date.

www.k-1.co.jp/news/39943

[K1power]

Card announcement on Tuesday.

www.youtube.com/live/aJVX2WiOJ0g