It's been a while since last entry, but it feels good to write something down again and nothing is better for writing motivation than something that really ticks you off. Well, I've been catching up on my MMA viewing and came across K-1's World Gran Prix 2008, K-1's yearly end of year tournament. I usually try to watch these because I think tournaments are fun and K-1 provides a nice break from MMA once in a while and, at times, shows off some damn good kickboxing. To get into the Grand Prix fighters either have to win a tournament eariler in the year or win some big fights throughout the year, so it builds up some sort of excitement of progression through the ranks that other fighting organizations give you at a much slower pace one fight at a time.
Anyways, so this year's tourney line up didn't look that bad. It had the staple crazy old K-1 stalwarts like Peter Aerts and Jerome LeBanner, both have been freaking fighting since mid 1990's! Then there were some youngerer guns like Ruslan Karaev, Badr Hari, Gohsan Saki, Errol Zimmerman, Ewerton Teixeira and 1 time Grand Prix winner Remy Bonjasky. Haha, basically everyone else. But I'm not going to review the whole event here, for that go to official K-1 site and get the official propaganda version of what happened. I will however make a few comments on some fighters, fights and happenings without going off on too many tangents like I sometimes do.
Peter Aerts used to be an absolute monster in K-1 and owns some of the most vicious knockouts out there as well as kick ass kickboxing instructionals. If you ever get your hands on the K-1 10th year anniversary DVD's or just "youtube" him you'll see his best work. I'll say it again - vicious guys he used to be. I don't know what he did this year to get into the Grand Prix, but he looked terrible like he's been looking for past few years. It's really time for him to retire and just make piece with the facts that he's fought for as long as he fought, won the Grand Prix several times and will remain an all time great. He fought Badr Hari and succumbed to a "late Peter Aerts" habit of throwing legkicks when he's getting pounded in the face instead of protecting his head or moving out of the way and then low kicking or better yet remember for a second that he too has powerful punches and punch back. He was TKO'd because of that nasty habit.
Ruslan Karaev, who usually is a whirlwind of energy mixed in with fast punching and deadly spinning jumping back kicks, fought very timidly comparatively to his norm against a highly touted Gohsan Saki and paid for by losing first round, getting knocked down in second and not being able to do any damage in the third.
Remy Bonjasky neutralized Jerome LeBanner's powerful punching with his trademark kicking and rarely penetrable defense. LeBanner never really got off anything good and Bonjasky kept pushing the pace and wearing him down with kicks till he finally reinjured LeBanner's left arm and finished the fight. LeBanner's been fighting in K-1 since like 1995 and made it to the finals of the Grand Prix but could never win the title. He's been called the most talented K-1 fighter that has never ended up winning the Grand Prix title. This was yet again a very disappointing set back for him, though arm break came late in the third round and he would have lost the fight on points anyways.
In the semi-finals Bonjasky finished Saki with a huge whalloping jumping roundhouse kick. According to Ernesto Hoost, another K-1 great who was on hand to commentate, Saki injured his ribs in beating Karaev in the first round and Bonjasky's huge kick furthered the injury. Badr Hari ended up knocking out Errol Zimmerman and that set up Bonjasky-Hari Grand Prix finals.
The first round of Bonjasky vs Hari was pretty good with both throwing great combos with both being pretty fresh. Late in the round Bonjasky caught Hari with a weird blind downward hook and gave him a flash knockdown. Hari quickly recovered and finished off the round ok. As soon as the second round started Hari came out swinging till they both jump kicked and Hari ended up falling on top of Bonjasky. And that's when the Douche Bag Grand Prix started!
Douche Bag Silver Medal goes to Badr Hari, who for some dumb reason either lost his cool or tried to rough up a fallen Bonjasky and went too far. As the ref tried to separate them Hari proceded to do a kickboxing version of ground and pound by throwing two punches at Bonjasky's head and then stomping his head! WTF!? You you're in the finals of the greatest kickboxing tournament that only very few get a chance to get to, you're only 2 rounds away and you ARE doing ok and you try to stomp your opponent who is down and the ref is between you?! And while you are doing that you don't even land any of the cheap shots! What a Douche Bag!
So drama ensues. Hari is being disciplined in the corner by the pissed off referee in front of everybody, they had the ref's discipline speech for everyone in the arena to hear in the best Engrish he could muster, then he gets some symbolic yellow card. What a huge mistake! Remy Bonjasky is pretending he is really hurt by the cheap shot attack. He'd close his eyes, then open them to gage the situation, then close them for a bit more to think of how he could benefit from what Hari did to him, then open again to see what's going on. They sit him in the corner and the doctors are trying to do their best to tell him that he's just fine to continue cause he's alert and is just milking this whole mess. Ernesto Hoost and the commentators are all in the agreement that they could possibly be nothing wrong with Bonjasky. They show a tonn of replays where it is becoming even more clear that none of the strikes that Hari threw and especially the stomp which only grazed Bonjasky's forehead with the inner soft part of the foot did any damage at all.
May be Bonjasky is a big soccer fan and as soon as he saw the yellow card shown to Hari he proceeded to fake even more vigorously and convincing the doctors that he could not continue. The crowd started booing, a red card was shown to Hari and the bell started ringing and a new Gold Medalist of the Douche Bag Grand Prix was finally crowned - Remy Bonjasky! What a douche bag! He was on his way to beating Hari and only had 5 more minutes to go to get the title by natural means - by being one of the best fighters out there! Oh and they threw the 2008 Grand Prix title as a complimentary gift to being the biggest freaking faker and a douche bag. What a disappointing end to an otherwise good event.
Up next will probly be a huge catch up post or two on MMA happenings I didn't comment yet on!
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