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Post by Shadess on Nov 23, 2017 8:00:41 GMT 1
I feel as if I was watching a Glory US only HW tournament or something so far.
Round 1 finishes because of quality of fighters.
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Post by karaevfan on Nov 24, 2017 6:03:35 GMT 1
I feel as if I was watching a Glory US only HW tournament or something so far. Round 1 finishes because of quality of fighters. It was effectively a four man tournament of an ok Glory contenders tournament level fighters with a round of Japan local crushing as a prelim. But hey, I'm not gonna complain about free KOs. Saving grace is that its over quickly and Plazibat does seem like a legit talent (though one that will need real competition). Takei, Yamato and Koya looked good. Seems like the following are likely for March Likely - Kubo Yuta vs Kimura Phillip Minoru - Wei Rui vs Urabe Koya - Hiramoto Ren vs Kaew WSR - Noiri Masaaki vs Yamato Tetsuya II - Takeru vs ??? (Takei? Winner of Saikyo Haruma vs Otaki?) Possible - Chingiz Allazov vs Winner of Hinata vs Hirono Yu - Taiga vs Komiyama Kosuke |
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Post by K1power on Nov 24, 2017 13:56:34 GMT 1
Full ResultsHeavyweight Tournament - FinalAntonio Plazibat defeats Ibrahim El Bouni by Unanimous Decision Heavyweight Tournament - SemiFinalsIbrahim El Bouni defeats Roel Mannaart by KO R1 Antonio Plazibat defeats Uehara Makoto by KO R1 Heavyweight Tournament - QuarterFinalsIbrahim El Bouni defeats Koichi Pettas by KO R1 Roel Mannaart defeats Iwashita Masahiro by KO R1 Antonio Plazibat defeats K-JEE by KO R1 Uehara Makoto defeats Pacome Assi by KO R1 Tournament Reserve FightAitaka Ryo defeats Furuta Taichi by KO R1 SuperFightsTakei Yoshiki defeats Victor Saravia by KO R1 Kimura Philip Minoru defeats Kido Yasuhiro by Unanimous Decision Urabe Koya defeats Christian Spetcu by Unanimous Decision Ren Hiramoto defeats Sasaki Daizo by Unanimous Decision Komiyama Kosuke defeats Stauros Exakoustidis by Unanimous Decision Yamato Tetsuya defeats Nakazawa Jun by KO R1 UndercardKondo Isao defeats Kojima by KO R3 Susumuakira Kaneda defeats Yokoyama Tomo by Unanimous Decision Ryuya Tsubawara defeats Kobori Imu by Unanimous Decision Yamamoto Naoki defeats Hakato Hayato by Unanimous Decision Hara Shota defeats Hayato Maeda by Unanimous Decision www.k-1.co.jp/result/155/
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Post by K1power on Nov 24, 2017 15:01:34 GMT 1
Between last night and today I've watched the event in parts, but other than the undercard I've seen the whole card. Unfortunately a lot of the results were spoiled to me via Facebook updates and YouTube thumbnails, but that's the age of internet for you.
On to the event:
I thought it was great.
While I agree that some of the quick KO's were due to a difference in skill level, I think some of them were just 'happy accidents'. While you could argue that the best Japanese fighter was matched up with the most beatable foreign fighter, I still couldn't predict Uehara finishing Assi in the first round. Likewise, I didn't expect Uehara to get taken out like he did by Plazibat, whom I -admittedly- knew nothing about before this event.
With the exception of Koichi vs El Bouni I thought the fighters were matched up fairly well. And even Koichi probably could have lasted longer if he hadn't decided to engage in a brawl with a younger, larger and stronger opponent. It just didn't help the Japanese fighters that they were mostly undersized, even against these relatively small foreign heavyweights.
K-1 could have went the douchebag route of matching up the Japanese fighters with each other to ensure one of them makes it to the final, but they didn't.
The difference between this and a comparable card going down in Glory is the sense of style, show and presentation. While Glory probably spends a good amount on production values which are pretty decent, money can't buy the look and feel of a Japanese event. But that's just me, some people don't care about that at all and that's cool too.
At the end of the day we got a ton of KO's with the two best fighters facing off in a great final. I also love the storylines and how - in a way - things have come full circle. This first heavyweight tournament of 'new' K-1 reminds me a lot of the first 1993 K-1 Final;
That one had a good mix of relatively unknown Japanese and foreign fighters with early stoppages as well. Furthermore, Japan's #1 of that era (Satake) won his first fight by KO only to get KO'd in the SemiFinal by the eventual -Croatian- winner of the Tournament as well (Cikatic).
I don't know if K-1 inviting a skilled Croatian fighter was an intentional throwback to Cikatic and the first K-1 tournament, but either way it played out brilliantly. I just hope this can gain some traction and Plazibat will be thrown in the mix on more future cards - against serious opposition.
I wouldn't even mind an all Japanese HW tournament in one of the smaller off-season events to decide a title challenger. We used to have those in the K-1 FEG days as well. As long as they come with fun superfights from all weightclasses there should be something in there for everyone.
On to the superfights, I really enjoyed those as well.
Minoru is back with a quality win, though I don't think Kido should fight below 70kg again. It clearly affected him. I'm still baffled how he made it out of that 2nd round. Good for him that he finished the fight standing, at least. Ren Hiramoto vs Sasaki Daizo had some great exchanges, especially late in the 2nd and 3rd rounds. While I agree with Ren taking the decision I'm not sure I agree with Ren taking all rounds on all scorecards. I think a case can be made for Daizou winning the 2nd round, but I guess it doesn't really make a difference in the end.
Some quick notes:
- Plazibat has some nasty jumping double knees.
- Roel Mannaart looks like Liev Schreiber.
- Ren Hiramoto is a DragonBall fan, which makes him infinitely cooler.
- El Bouni seems to be taking on the role of 'Badr-light'. As long as it's reduced to pre-fight antics at pressers and weigh-ins I don't mind, though.
- Man do I feel bad for Koichi. Getting trolled by El Bouni at the presser only to get smashed in 30 seconds. Why can't good ever triumph over evil?
- Kido's sense of humor is always on point!
- I LOVED seeing Kyotaro in the audience. I wonder if he was simply invited there or if he's contemplating making a return to kickboxing, though I can't imagine that happening before trying to go for a title shot in boxing.
I think that about covers it.
Edit: Man, I wrote a novel again. Sorry about that.
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Post by K1power on Nov 24, 2017 16:12:54 GMT 1
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Post by Shadess on Nov 24, 2017 16:39:40 GMT 1
hahah
I absolutely hated the quarterfinals of the event. All early stoppages but it just felt like complete waste of time. Those waste of time fights then also highlighted the POOR look of the event even more for me. That's not really a dig at K-1 so much as the shows in Yoyogi 2nd Gymnasium looked fine and felt great. Saitama Community Arena then on the other hand looks like a flat grey box and the atmosphere relayed via the cameras at least is that fitting of a flat grey box. Cannot wait till they go to the main arena.
The event got a lot better after the HW quarterfinals though. Just the start of the main card was one of the more painful events I've watched in a long time.
DO NOT FORCE THE SAME TOURNAMENT FORMAT EVERY TIME WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE THE TALENT FOR IT!!!
Don't much care for it in Glory when it's random tournaments and don't like K-1 forcing themselves into the 8-man one night format either if they aren't getting the necessary talent in. The quarterfinals were entirely skippable and you could've straight up just had an okay 4-man but they didn't because 8-mans are what they do. Format for the sake of format, pass, no thanks.
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Post by dvewlsh on Nov 25, 2017 8:39:15 GMT 1
Plazibat seems pretty legit.
I think it'll be interesting to see more of him and see who K-1 Japan can find to fight him.
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Post by Fox on Nov 25, 2017 13:34:27 GMT 1
I feel as if I was watching a Glory US only HW tournament or something so far. Round 1 finishes because of quality of fighters. It was effectively a four man tournament of an ok Glory contenders tournament level fighters with a round of Japan local crushing as a prelim. But hey, I'm not gonna complain about free KOs. Saving grace is that its over quickly and Plazibat does seem like a legit talent (though one that will need real competition). Takei, Yamato and Koya looked good. Seems like the following are likely for March Likely - Kubo Yuta vs Kimura Phillip Minoru - Wei Rui vs Urabe Koya - Hiramoto Ren vs Kaew WSR - Noiri Masaaki vs Yamato Tetsuya II - Takeru vs ??? (Takei? Winner of Saikyo Haruma vs Otaki?) Possible - Chingiz Allazov vs Winner of Hinata vs Hirono Yu - Taiga vs Komiyama Kosuke Kubo vs Kimura rematch should be good. Wei Rui vs Urabe would be awesome. Ren vs Kaew is a weird one, what weight would that happen at? |
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Post by K1power on Nov 25, 2017 13:42:08 GMT 1
hahah I absolutely hated the quarterfinals of the event. All early stoppages but it just felt like complete waste of time. Those waste of time fights then also highlighted the POOR look of the event even more for me. That's not really a dig at K-1 so much as the shows in Yoyogi 2nd Gymnasium looked fine and felt great. Saitama Community Arena then on the other hand looks like a flat grey box and the atmosphere relayed via the cameras at least is that fitting of a flat grey box. Cannot wait till they go to the main arena. The event got a lot better after the HW quarterfinals though. Just the start of the main card was one of the more painful events I've watched in a long time. DO NOT FORCE THE SAME TOURNAMENT FORMAT EVERY TIME WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE THE TALENT FOR IT!!! Don't much care for it in Glory when it's random tournaments and don't like K-1 forcing themselves into the 8-man one night format either if they aren't getting the necessary talent in. The quarterfinals were entirely skippable and you could've straight up just had an okay 4-man but they didn't because 8-mans are what they do. Format for the sake of format, pass, no thanks. They could hold an event in a barn and make it look appealing to me lol. That doesn't mean there aren't more suitable and appealing venues, but that kinda speaks for itself. While I can definitely see where you're coming from with the quarterfinals, I only really felt that way about Koichi/El Bouni. Uehara/Assi and Mannaart/Iwashita could have easily gone differently, they just happened to get caught early on. Plazibat probably still would have finished K-JEE at some point, but he was just on a different level altogether. I definitely don't feel the 8-man format was wasted on this, but I do feel the lineup of fighters should improve with a subsequent tournament in the future. But they might only do title defenses for the foreseeable future and I'm okay with that too. Needing the budget for 1 challenger rather than 7 increases the chances for high level opponents. Plazibat seems pretty legit. I think it'll be interesting to see more of him and see who K-1 Japan can find to fight him. I can definitely see them doing a rematch with El Bouni at some point as that was competitive and fun from start to finish. |
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Post by K1power on Nov 25, 2017 16:33:43 GMT 1
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Post by K1power on Nov 25, 2017 23:38:36 GMT 1
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Post by karaevfan on Nov 25, 2017 23:40:36 GMT 1
.. That one had a good mix of relatively unknown Japanese and foreign fighters with early stoppages as well. Furthermore, Japan's #1 of that era (Satake) won his first fight by KO only to get KO'd in the SemiFinal by the eventual -Croatian- winner of the Tournament as well (Cikatic). I don't know if K-1 inviting a skilled Croatian fighter was an intentional throwback to Cikatic and the first K-1 tournament, but either way it played out brilliantly. I just hope this can gain some traction and Plazibat will be thrown in the mix on more future cards - against serious opposition. - Kido's sense of humor is always on point! - I LOVED seeing Kyotaro in the audience. I wonder if he was simply invited there or if he's contemplating making a return to kickboxing, though I can't imagine that happening before trying to go for a title shot in boxing. Plazibat winning was a great turn of events. Crazy to think he was born a year within the first K-1 event back in 93. I guess history does rhyme. Its the small things like his storyline and the presence of Cikatic and Aerts that gives the impression of continuity and a sliver of legitimacy to the title. Its now on K-1 Japan to go out and build the division I suppose. Come on Kyotaro... you're the last hope of Japanese HW kickboxing. I am not sure why Kido thought it would be funny to let Kimura punch him in the face. Apparently he's going to try the division again, but man I can't see that going well for him at this age. 65kg. Hiramoto actually has moved up to that division. He just needed to get the rematch with Sasaki out of the way to clear his record. Its actually been a fight that they've teased for a while. Waaaay back in the first K-1 Japan event (2014 65kg) where Kaew won his belt and Hiramoto won Koshien, he freaked everyone out by saying he wanted to fight Kaew. Everyone was like "kid, you're 16 with no pro fights, you should chill", but he hasn't given up and issued a challenge to Kaew after his victory. I still think its a bit early. That said, I heard back in June that the plan for K-1 in March with the Super Arena was for Takeru vs Taiga III and Kaew vs Hiramoto as headliners. With Taiga getting derailed by Stauros, I have a feeling they're gonna be pushing for Kaew vs Hiramoto at least. Aside: Not sure what they do with Takeru for March. Barring some freak miracle that allows for Tenshin vs Takeru, I think Takei is the most natural match (unpopular opinion, but Takei can probably beat either of those two). However, when asked about the Takeru fight, Takei literally said something to the effect of "oh dear no. I wouldn't dare" and challenged Terado instead. Saikyo Haruma vs Otaki is going down for Survival Wars, so that could be the title eliminator. Problem is that while Saikyo has accomplishments to justify a title shot (double wins over Ozawa + win over Mahmoudi), he's from the same gym as Takeru. |
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Post by fartsmeller on Nov 26, 2017 0:45:00 GMT 1
Having watched some of this now, the most important take aways from it are that Plazibat seems like he has some serious potential, and the very first thing K-Jee did in the ring was slip, fall, and crush his own dick and balls. Masterful physical comedy.
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