K-1 MAX FINALS IN THAILAND - OCTOBER 11th 2014

[themagi]

That little VTR was looking and sounding very promising indeed until it got to the 9 second mark and went all generic on us.

[Kenshin (Banned)]

I actually liked that one.^^

[K1power]

K-1 held an early presser in Thailand to promote the MAX Finals



More pictures at www.facebook.com/K1GlobalTV.ENG/photos_stream

[K1power]

Buakaw is having doubts about K-1's future and the scheduled K-1 MAX Finals in Thailand

[ecky]

No surprise there, I think pretty much everyone is thinking the same thing as Buakaw, K-1 is a mess.

[K1power]

Yeah, but why voice his opinion now? Just because this one is being held in Thailand? If anything there are more promising developments happening right now (with the Japan branch seemingly cooperating with the Global branch) than there were half a year ago when Buakaw competed in that shady looking event in Azerbaijan and we whitnessed that horrible event in Spain taking place that looked like it was held in a garage.

[rictor]

What's funny here, it's Buakaw and his team that are pretty much behind this event in Thailand. Doesn't make any sense. Wanting to make it in your own backyard and then bitch about it being held exactly there? Can't help but laugh to what nonsense money disputes lead.

[dvewlsh]

Sept 30, 2014 16:29:08 GMT 1 rictor said:

What's funny here, it's Buakaw and his team that are pretty much behind this event in Thailand. Doesn't make any sense. Wanting to make it in your own backyard and then bitch about it being held exactly there? Can't help but laugh to what nonsense money disputes lead.

Here's what's happening with it;

Buakaw's manager Yim was going to help organize the event. Yim doesn't have the knowledge or contacts to organize an event, so K-1 decided instead to work with local officials and businesspeople who could make the event happen. The event will now happen now that these people are involved (look at the July date and put two-and-two together).

Since then Buakaw has signed a TEN FIGHT DEAL with Top King. Top King have sent a representative to his gym to be there at all times and this representative is very, very upset with not only Buakaw fighting for K-1, but for this event taking place in Thailand, even though there is no contractual basis to be upset. 

Since K-1 decided to not use Yim to make this show happen and all of a sudden Top King has swooped in to work with Yim, Buakaw has been fed a bunch of stuff about how K-1 is going to fuck him over, etc. We could talk about people that K-1 has owed money to in the past, but Buakaw has been paid his contracted rate for every fight that he's had with them since signing with K-1 Global, even though K-1 Globa has had, well, uh..... Really low budgets on some of these shows. 

These past shows have been done on shoestring budgets and this one has had over $1m USD pumped into it, including prize money already set aside. 

It's probably time to start asking serious questions as to why Buakaw is always the victim in some crazy scheme and why he has these crazy press conferences to announce how he's been duped, right?

[rictor]

And here you have it. Gotta figure it would have to be something like this.

Buakaw is still a great fighter and a huge name but at this point in time he's such a huge pain in the ass to deal with that if it would be up to me I would have to rethink it a 100 times if it's really worth all the trouble (btw, I thought that the relationship between K-1 and Buakaw's team was awkward for quite a while now, I mean, all those posts highlighting how Alin was refereeing the fights but also preparing the Chinese fighters for that event in China on their facebook page for example). And I wonder how many people will still buy the old "poor Buakaw, always getting screwed by shady promoters" story now that more and more seem to notice that that's not necessarily the case.

[h]

yay drama

[K1power]

Yay marketing!

[ecky]

I think a lot of it has to do with the Thais in general, they are notoriously difficult to deal with.

[K1power]

The Championship Belt



Stream will be FREE too!

[K1power]

[rictor]

Thai PBS News. 7 October 2014. Buakaw is ready to file a report about K-1 regarding online gambling.

Buakaw Banchamek is ready to file a report at the Crime Suppression Division this afternoon, after finding out that K-1 has been linked to online gambling. This is because he fears that this will be damaging to himself & destroy his reputation.

The K-1 World MAX Finals, which will feature the championship title fight between Buakaw & Enriko Kehl of Germany on 11 October 2014 in Chonburi, might fall apart as Buakaw fears that taking part in this event might destroy his reputation. This is because he has discovered that it has been linked to online gambling, with bets being accepted not only for the title fight, but also for 2 other fights in the same event, & the facebook page for the K-1 event featuring the website that is accepting the bets.

The K-1 tournament has never accepted online bets before. In the previous format of the competition, the results were determined by fights that were all held within a single day, & so it was impossible to predict the match-ups beforehand. If online gambling is involved in this edition of K-1, it might result in unfairness & taint the competition.

Prior to this, Buakaw had mentioned in an interview that the organisation of this K-1 competition was not up to standard. The President of the Professional Boxing Association of Thailand had also said before that this competition had not received the necessary permission from the relevant sports organisation in Thailand.

The butthurt is mightily strong in them. Good thing that they managed to notice finally that K-1 accepts online bets, took them at least a good couple of months though