“K-1 Asian Grand Prix 2007 – Hong Kong”
K-1 Asia Grand Prix 2007
Asia World-Expo Arena, Hong Kong
For the first time ever, K-1 came to Hong Kong and an almost capacity crowd largely loved the experience. An Asian Grand Prix Champion was crowned, a superfight involved a Korean giant took place, and one man now had proof that his balls are not made of brass – it was a heck of a night!
The Asia World-Expo Arena, located near the world-famous Hong Kong International Aiport, is a fairly new facility and plays host to some of the entertainment world’s biggest stars. For example, later this year Gwen Stefani, Avril Lavigne, and Nine Inch Nails will all be playing shows at the AW-EA. The Asia-World Arena (one part of the massive configuration) has a capacity of 13,500, but I estimate that with the elaborate K-1 stage in place, a sell-out would have been between 9,000-10,000. Of that, I’d say a good 85% of the seats were filled, so a final crowd number of between 7,500 and 8,500 would seem reasonable; an excellent turnout for a city that really doesn’t have a lot of exposure to combat sports.
Tournament Results
***
TOURNAMENT ROUND ONE, reserve fight
***
Reserve Fight: Erham Denis v. Dong Wook Kim
Round one saw Denis control with leg kicks. Round two saw Denis KO Kim with leg kicks. Kim was fat and had no idea what he was doing in there and it was obvious.
Winner: Erham Denis
***
TOURNAMENT ROUND ONE, Quarterfinals
***
Tournament Fight One: Musashi v. Yong Soo Park
Musashi is one of Japan’s top heavyweight kickboxers. He’s very over with the crowd. Yong Soo Park is a Korean tae kwon do practitioner. He came to the ring to the Ghostbuster’s theme song. Really.
Round One:
Within the first 45 seconds, Park managed to twice kick Musashi in the groin. After some delay, it was ruled that the fight would resume after all the first round tournament matches.
WINNER: TO BE DECIDED LATER
Tournament Fight Two: Wang Qiang v. Randy Kim
Wang is a champion in Sanda, the Chinese version of Sanshou, which basically means he’s a kickboxer than can incorporate takedowns. Even though Hong Kong has had its differences with mainland China, Wang was extremely popular with the local crowd, as they loudly changed his name (albeit in Cantonese, not Mandarin, so it was actually a different name altogether). Kim is a Korean shot putist (putter?). Well, this is K-1 folks, so don’t act surprised.
Round One:
A largely uneventful round that saw the crowd pop for everything Wang threw. Wang takes the round after controlling with leg kicks.
Round Two:
Wang knocks out Kim. It was obvious that the ancient discipline of shot-putting was inadequate on this night. Wang landed a beautiful lead left high kick that started Kim’s demise. He followed that up with several punches, with a left punch to the head being the last blow that landed clean before Kim fell to the mat.
WINNER: WANG QIANG
Tournament Fight Three: Yusuke Fujimoto v. Shi Honog Jian
Fujimoto upset Musashi when the two last fought and in the process became the de facto champion of Japan. Jian is another Chinese Sanda fighter. About Jian, the program said, “[beyond knowing that he’s fought in Sanda] there is no information on his favorite techniques making him a mysterious fighter to go up against.”
Round One:
Mostly Jian rushing in wildly trying to overwhelm Fujimoto. Even though neither man landed any telling blows, it was clear Fujimoto was a better fighter as he was far more calculating in his attacks. 10-9, Fujimoto on my card.
Round Two:
Fujimoto drops Jian with a right hand countering off a Jian low kick. A solid round for Fujitmoto, but outside of the punch, it wasn’t a dominating performance or anything. 10-8, Fujimoto on my card.
Round Three:
Flat-out awful. Neither man was willing to engage, Fujitmoto because it appeared he had the fight locked up and Jian because he just wasn’t that good. The crowd, which had been patient all night and reacted to the slightest action, booed this round without mercy. 10-9, Fujimoto on my card.
I have it 30-26 after three rounds. The judges largely agreed with two seeing it 30-27, and one having it 29-28.
WINNER: YUSUKE FUJIMOTO
Tournament Fight Four: Sentoryu v. Taiei Kin
Sentoryu is the American sumo who later turned to MMA and now kickboxing. From the looks of things, he would need a doctor’s note to pass a WWE Wellness Test. He began his pre-fight promo saying, “SUP!” Kin, one of K-1 original stars, retired from kickboxing in 2000. He’s fought MMA recently, and three weeks ago earned a surprising unanimous decision over long-time MMA fighter Kiyoshi Tamura.
Round One:
Kin knocks out Sentoryu with leg kicks in the first round. Sentoryu was dropped to the mat, answered before the 10 count. However, he was leaning against the ropes to stand and was clearly in no condition to fight and the ref waived it off.
WINNER: TAIEI KIN
Tournament Fight One (part two): Musashi v. Yong Soo Park
The resume the fight exactly where it was stopped after the low-blows, with roughly 2:15 left in the first round.
Round One (cont.):
Musashi really didn’t do much and while Park seemed somewhat loose with his attacks, consisting almost entirely of leg kicks, I thought he did enough to take the round. 10-9, Park on my card.
Round Two:
Musashi ends Park’s night with a beautiful one-two, left-right combination. Park was completely unconscious before he hit the mat, and his limp head actually snapped over the bottom rope on the way down. The crowd, who had been chanting Musashi’s name, went ballistic. Musashi also went ballistic as he stood over top Park, put his hands on the ropes, and started screaming at his sleeping foe. It took several officials to pry Musashi away. A lesson was learned: do not kick Musashi in the balls.
WINNER: MUSASHI
***
TOURNAMENT ROUND TWO, Semifinals
***
Tournament Fight Five: Yusuke Fujimoto v. Taiei Kin
Round One:
Both men were somewhat tentative, but I had Fujimoto taking the round on the basis of some solid combinations and a few decent body shots. 10-9, Fujimoto on my card.
Round Two:
Kin wins by TKO. He dropped Fujimoto twice and by K-1 Tournament Rules, two knock downs in a round during a tournament match is considered a knock out.
WINNER: TAIEI KIN
Tournament Fight Six: Musashi v. Wang Qiang
Round One:
This is the kind of round for which K-1 is known. It wasn’t a non-stop slugfest; it wasn’t a beautiful display of technical ability; this was a Spectacle with a capital “S.” The two are sloppily fighting when they lock up in a clinch. Wang decides that Musashi should really never have children and accidentally lays into him with a knee south of the border: poor Musashi took another shot to the junk. If this wasn’t absurd enough, three shots to the crotch in one night, chaos ensued. As Musashi laid on the floor, clutching his jewels and trying to fight back tears, his corner throws in the towel. Ya know how it goes: once, twice, three times in the balls and you become a lady. It appears that Wang wins the fight by forfeit – he was even announced as the winner over the PA. The crowd was quite happy to see the Chinese fighter vanquish the Japanese and all was well. Except to me, because I couldn’t figure out why a guy would be allowed to win a fight in that way. I wasn’t the only one, as the ring announcer then said that before the towel had been throw in, Wang had been docked a point. Because he had been penalized, the towel being thrown in was overruled and Musashi would be given the standard rest period to recover. (Something to that effect; it was a completely confusing ordeal.) There was a problem though: Wang had already left the ring. After hearing his name, raising his arms, and soaking in the applause, he headed to the back. I believe he did so in some kind of protest of the changed ruling.
Nothing happened for probably around ten minutes. Musashi sat in his corner trying to figure out how much a steel-plated cup would cost and Wang was still in the back. To make matters worse, the crowd, formerly behind Musashi when he was beating the Korean Park, was now angry with him. Those around me said they thought he was weak for not being able to fight – obviously the fine folks of Hong Kong, who’ve been quite gracious to this white foreigner, don’t really understand the finer points of getting thrice punted in the penis.
Then they ended up announcing that because he’d left the ring, Wang was being disqualified. At this point I was glad they didn’t allow alcohol inside the arena because I’ve never seen a crowd this angry before. They were screaming and stomping their feet in tremendous disapproval. I understand the fans felt the Chinese star had been screwed in some way, but I thought the ruling was a fair one.
WINNER: MUSASHI
***
FINAL TOURNAMENT ROUND
***
Wang Qiang v. Yusuke Fujimoto
After all that, Qiang ended up in the finals. Musashi was unable to continue in the tournament due to, well, you know by now so Qiang was his replacement. Taiei Kin was also unable to continue due to an injury his face sustained (that’s all they said), so Fujimoto ended up in his place. Yes, we have a tournament final featuring two guys that just lost.
Round One:
An embarrassing performance by Qiang. He was clearly not in Fujimoto’s league. Fujimoto dropped him early with a hard strike. Qiang got to his feet the way an infant stands for the first time. And while I’ve seen some pauses between numbers in a ten-count, the time between nine and ten was a good three seconds, at least. Not one single licensed referee in the United States would’ve allowed the fight to continue, but this is K-1! Qiang then took several hard punches to the head, was not defending himself in anyway, moved forward like his legs were made of string cheese, and finally, mercifully, was dropped with another punch. People began filing out before he hit the canvas: it was over and everyone knew it.
Oddly enough, even though the locals were soundly behind Qiang throughout the fight, and were really into him as he staggered forward after the first knock-down, they were quite happy to see him get knocked out. And they weren’t happy in the, “Thank goodness this is over, I couldn’t watch anymore of this beating” way, they were joyous at just seeing a brutal knock-out.
2007 ASIA GRAND PRIX TOURNAMENT CHAMPION: YUSUKE FUJIMOTO
***
Non-Tournament Matches
***
Badr Hari d. Peter Graham by unanimous decision 30-27, 30-27, 30-28.
The reigning K-1 Heavyweight Champion was seeking revenge against Graham. Graham and Hari had a bit of a rivalry, dating back to a previous fight where Graham knocked out Hari with Kung-Fu-movie-style rolling kick. Before that fight, Graham went to shake Hari’s hand at the weigh-in, but Hari snubbed him.
The first and second rounds were Hari controlling with crisp leg kicks. The third round was excellent, as Hari repeatedly punished Graham to the body, culminating with a straight right hand to the liver that crumbled Graham. The Aussie made it to his feet and even threw two of his rolling kicks, both times getting a grin from Hari and a round of applause from a crowd that knew that was his “finisher.”
Funny line came from a guy a few rows behind me. After seeing the video package building up the fight, including the rolling kick and weigh-in shenanigans, this gentlemen asked his friend, “Is this like pro-wrestling? Is it fake?”
***
Peter Aerts d. Nicholas Pettas by second round knock out.
Aerts isn’t the same fighter he once was, but it was neat to see him because, hey!, it’s Peter Freaking Aerts! Pettas had been a decent fighter a few years back, but had taken a four year leave of absence from the sport. Aerts had previously defeated Pettas.
First round was an almost shocker, as Pettas had Aerts in legitimate trouble on a few occasions. Aerts showed that though he’s lost a step, he’s still got a few tricks up his sleeve and survived without taking too much damage. Though I had Aerts losing the round 10-9, he was landing some good leg kicks and appeared to be feeling out Pettas, judging the distance, more than anything.
Sure enough, round two saw Aerts drop Pettas with a punch. Pettas did get to his feet, where he was then summarily kicked in the head with a brilliant high kick – the kind I’d witnessed Aerts throw so many times over the years. Everyone loved what they saw and The Lumberjack lived up to his moniker.
The excitement was somewhat quelled upon seeing Pettas fitted with a neck brace. Pettas would take the brace off and get to his feet to show everyone he was OK, but he really wasn’t. He then lay back down, where the brace returned. He left the ring on a stretcher. There was no mention of his status throughout the rest of the show.
***
The main-event was something else. Choi Hong-Man, who was supposed to fight Brock Lesnar in an MMA match as the main-event of the June Los Angeles show, took on Gary Goodridge. Ironically, Choi has a hearing scheduled for tomorrow regarding his not being licensed for that June show, yet here he was, fighting in Hong Kong. Even more ironic, Choi said he was going to take out his June frustrations on Goodridge.
I sensed that the people were into Choi in the same way folks used to be into Andre the Giant. He’s one of those figures that people instantly take to. Between his charisma and freakish size, you really can’t stop yourself from looking at him. He has a commanding presence and next to Qiang, was the recipient of the night’s biggest pops. Both for his fight entrance and pre-show introduction, people reacted big to Choi.
Goodridge came out to, “We Will Rock You” by Queen and the audience really liked that. They were also into his wife – a black woman with dreadlocks down to her ass is unique in HK.
The fight was short and comical really. Goodridge clearly had no idea what to do with Choi; he was literally pawing at the giant with his left hand, more trying to just touch Choi’s stomach than anything. Choi exploded with his first and only offensive outburst, overwhelming Goodridge and forcing the referee to declare a first-round TKO. To his credit, Goodridge never went to the canvas, staying standing against the ropes the entire time, but he wasn’t intelligently defending himself and the stoppage was the right call.
Winner: Choi Hong-Man.
Results:
Erhan Denis d. Dong Wook Kim, R2 KO.
Musashi d. Yong Soo Park, R2 KO.
Wang Qiang d. Randy Kim, R2 KO.
Yusuke Fujimoto d. Shi Hong Jian, unanimous decision.
Taiei Kin d. Sentoryu, R1 KO.
Musashi d. Wang Qiang, R1 DQ.
Taiei Kin d. Yusuke Fujimoto, R2 TKO.
TOURNAMENT FINAL: Yusuke Fujimoto d. Wang Qiang, R1 KO.
Badr Hari d. Peter Graham, unanimous decision.
Peter Aerts d. Nicholas Pettas, R2 KO.
Choi Hong-Man d. Gary Goodridge, R1 KO.
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