Just some quick comments:
- Thought the card was very solid overall. It had too many fights on it, but was pretty well paced and unless I missed something there were no shenanigans going on.
- The 70kg tournament was really good. Obviously not the highest level possible, but if we compare this tournament to last year's Open weight/HW tournament, this was much better.
- A battle-damaged Koprivlenski taking care of business against Akimov. From being defeated at the final eliminations, to replacing the tournament favorite Feng, to winning the belt himself. This was a great night for both Stoyan and Mike's Gym, who has now produced a second champion in rapid succession after Kwasi.
- Shame Muszynski broke his hand and had to be replaced, but his replacement Sanchez did pretty well against Akimov. as for Akimov, Schiavello mentioned he started Kickboxing at 26. Is that accurate? Crazy. He's now a K-1 MAX runner-up.
- Even though Dengue looked lethargic against Verdonk, he looked solid against Stoyan. That was a hardfought bout. Stoyan showed some heart and didn't buckle under pressure like he sometimes does. His legs took a lot of damage though, messing him up for the final.
- Muszynski vs. Akopyan was - as expected - the highest level quarterfinal. Would have been nice to see them meet later in the tournament, but I'm not complaining.
- Akimov knocking out Bakboord was a surprise to me.
- Silva/Verdonk was a weird fight. Silva inexplicably kept cornering himself, barely throwing anything, even though anything he did throw bothered Verdonk. Then when I started writing Dengue off in the third, he knocks Verdonk down hard and goes on to win the fight. I did think Verdonk had done enough to go an extra round, but his body language showed he had resigned to the loss. Not sure if Dengue was sick or this is how he usually fights as I haven't seen enough of him. Perhaps it was a combination of jetlag and cutting weight.
- Buakaw emptied most of his clip in the first round, which I thought he won. After that it was mostly Koprivlenski, with that great extended highkick knockdown to cap it off.
- Sergio Sanchez with a nice surprise victory in the reserve bout after being mostly on the receiving end of punishment from Cabelinho.
- Yoza vs. Kongnapa was short, but sweet. I completely slept on that matchup. Both fighters were game, but Kongnapa never recovered from that lightning fast jumping knee Yoza landed.
- Matsukura vs. Amaritei was a pleasant surprise to me. I expected Matsukura to have a lot of trouble with the younger and naturally heavier Amaritei, but it was a fun and pretty even brawl.
- The first round of the 55kg tournament was better than I expected. Kaneko and Kumura made quick work of their opponents and it's a shame Martinos got injured in the Extra Round against Riamu. Okubo Rui has that J-Pop/idol vibe around him, not sure if he could become a star.
- Kan Meng Hong went down hard and was still out when carried away on a stretcher, hope he is okay.
- Bought the Triller PPV. Still think 20 bucks is a little steep for ANY event, but the experience itself was good. Great stream quality, pause ability, (unlimited?) replay availability. I even think everything until the tournament reserve fight was (perhaps still is?) available for free on there.
- I did miss the first 7 fights or so and tuned in when Yokoyama/Monteiro started.
- Venue had a small configuration; no real catwalk, short entrance to the ring, smaller crowd. It did feel energetic though.
- Thought Schiavello's co-commentator Stewart Fulton did a decent job.
- The K-1 website translated Nikudango's name to "Meat Bullet". Somehow I hope it's an accurate translation.
As
vampiro pointed out, the K-1 international return so far certainly hasn't been perfect, but I pretty much expressed since its very announcement that this reboot would be accompanied by growing pains. Question is how K-1 handles lessons learned and adapt/improve going forward. As for the PPV model, I've always been against it any time a Kickboxing promotion introduced it. I certainly don't see myself buying every (major) card. That said, people are going to bitch about things no matter what.
In this day and age, lack of social media traction is definitely an issue. I think K-1 should hire social media experts and perhaps - as much as it pains me to say it - start working with some influencers. They definitely need to enlarge their footprint. New stars have to be created and that takes time and effort.
