By Forrest Lynn

1. RYO vs. Masanori Tonooka

RYO is a pretty good up and comer who is a wrestler for ZERO-1 MAX in Japan, so there's something to invest in for K-1. Early trading from both, pretty lazy strikes thrown though. RYO bulls Tonooka into the corner and clinches with him until the ref breaks it. RYO hits him with a HUGE left and jerks Tonooka's head back, and then follows it with a massive right hand that drops him. RYO pounds him out for the win.

2. Bernard Ackah vs. Poai Suganuma

Ackah is a Japanese comedian from Africa with a background in taekwondo. Poai is an MMA fighter that trains with B.J. Penn. FREAKSHOW! I don't expect this one to last very long. Ackah tries to throw early but Poai takes him right down and lands in side control. Poai passes to mount and Ackah is in trouble. Poai takes Ackah's back and lays in some nice shots to the side of the head. Poai nearly gets a RNC, but lets it go and lands back in mount where he starts to pound Ackah's face again. Poai is just smothering him up top, and nearly gets an arm triangle. ref resets it in the center. Poai has mount and Ackah tries to escape, but goes right into an armbar. Poai has it in deep, but Ackah doesn't tap and the ref stops it. Crowd isn't happy with the finish. Poai schooled this guy on the ground like you'd expect him to.

3. Marcelo Garcia vs. Dae-Won Kim

Probably the second most intriguing bout of the night. Garcia is pretty much without question the top pound for pound grappler in the world, and he's stepping into MMA competition for the first time here. Let's see if he's Alberto Crane or B.J. Penn. Garcia immediatley goes for a takedown but Kim defends. Kim basically muscles Garcia off him, and Garcia throws a weak jab and tries another takedown, again stuffed by Kim. Garcia bulls him into the corner and finally gets him to the floor, so this could be bad for Kim. Garcia passes into mount and tries some GNP but it seems lagely ineffective. Kim tries to escape, but Garcia takes him back and nearly has a choke. Kim defends it well as Garcia continues to try and sink the hooks in. Garcia gets back mount briefly but keeps going for the RNC. Garcia still has the back but he is doing nothing with it. Ref might stand this up soon. Garcia's still going for the choke but appears no closer than he was to begin with. Kim escapes and Garcia almost locks in an armbar as the round ends. Round goes to Garcia but he looked extremely limited in the striking department, even from the mount. He should get the fight to the mat as fast as possible in this second round.

Round starts and Kim hits some BIG punches and Garcia is on the run. Big knee from Kim as Garcia desperatley tries to take him down; ref stops the action to get a look at Garcia and my god is his face massacred. Fight is waved off and Dae-Won Kim is your winner. Garcia may want to reconsider his MMA career, as his striking and striking defense looked very bad. If he was in there with someone else at his weight (say Melvin Manhoef) it would have been very ugly.

4. Lee Tae-Hyun vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto

Only highlights for this. Tae-Hyun caught Yamamoto with a nasty knee and then pounded on him from there for the win. UFC should sign Yamamoto, because he is guaranteed to lose to someone in spectacular fashion. Like Brock Lesnar.

5. Min-Soo Kim vs. Ikuhisa Minowa

Hey, look, a weird fight on a K-1 card. SHOCKING! Minowa lives for freakshow fights (he fought Butterbean, Bart Gunn, AND Kimo) and Kim lives to get his ass beaten. I expect Minowa wins with some kind of submission. crowd loves Minowa. note: Minowa is from Japan and his opponent is from Korea. This show, as noted, is taking place in Korea. Min-Soo Kim sucks. WHOA. Kim immediatley starts throwing and hits Minowa with massive shots and clinches in the corner and throws big knees. Minowa survives and starts throwing leg kicks, then goes for a takedown but is stuffed by Kim, and the crowd chants MINOWA. They circle and then Kim catches him with big shots again. BIG left from Kim and it's looking bad for Minowa. Minowa is just way too small and he's trying to strike with a guy much bigger than him. Kim clinches and hits another nice knee and Minowa's face is already swelling. Minowa is still trying to chop Kim down with kicks but I'm afraid it won't work. WHOA Kim hit him with a HUGE knee to the face on the ground, which is of course, CHEATING. Tef waves the fight off, then the PA announces the fight is not over. Minowa has time to recover and the doctors are checking out his eye. Kim looks like such a retard. Minowa is good to go and they restart. Minowa comes in throwing and Kim continues tagging him, hitting him with a big knee again. another leg kick by Minowa. Kim hits some more shots and Minowa is really not looking good. Kim gets Minowa in the corner and just starts throwing wild shots, and Minowa escapes, but just gets put right back into another corner. Both guys are pretty tired and just throwing wildly. Kim starts hitting Minowa and the ref notices Minowa can't see good enough to defend himself and waves it off for real this time. MIN-SOO KIM WINS A FIGHT.

6. Zelg Galesic vs. Taiei Kin

This should be entertaining, at least. Two strikers- Galesic trained with Cro Cop and Kin has been a kickboxer in K-1 for years. Fight starts and Galesic throws a nice combination that lands. Galesic checks a leg kick and responds with a high kick and a 1-2 combination, and Kin immediatley points to his eye and good lord he got caught right on the eyelid by that kick. Doctor stops the fight and Galesic is your winner at :38 seconds. Crowd's not very happy.

7. Dong-Sik Yoon vs. Fabio Silva

The "Dong-Sik Yoon vs. AN OVERHYPED STRIKER" tour rolls along. Staredown time. Silva still thinks he's Wanderlei; how annoying. Bell rings and Yoon gets a takedown with virtually no resistance and lands in the half guard. Yoon passes into mount but is bucked off to the half guard again. Yoon is working for a kimura, but nothing appears close. He tries to pass to side control, but Silva is doing a fairly good job holding him. Yoon passes back into the mount and throws some nice shots, then the ref resets them in the center. Quickly after the reset, Silva sweeps Yoon to his back and Yoon immediatley closes his guard. Not much going on, so the ref puts them on their feet. I predict an immediate takedown. Yoon clinches and Silva defends the takedown well, but eventually gets put on the mat. Silva just can't match Yoon's grip strength or experience here. Yoon tries for the kimura from the half guard again, but it still isn't close. Yoon briefly gets him in the little brother position (think Hughes vs. Penn II) and then transitions into a nice leglock, but Silva gets out. Yoon pounces and starts laying in some REALLY good shots, then passes into full mount. Silva is just getting tooled here. Silva gets half guard back but he just can't do anything with this guy- they get close to the ropes and they reset. Silva looks like he wants out. Yoon is just smothering him. Yoon passes into full mount again and transitions into a NICE armbar and rolls Silva over and extends. Silva taps and Yoon picks up his THIRD STRAIGHT WIN~! Will be interesting to see who they put him in with next, because he has virtually cleaned out the guys with no ground game.

8. Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Denis Kang

I'm excited for this one. As you all know, this is Akiyama's first fight since he DISGRACED MMA at Dynamite vs. Sakuraba by greasing up his legs. This is also by far the toughest fight of his career, so K-1 may be done protecting him. He got the big star entrance, complete with his extremely pretentious theme and somewhat gay routine of holding hands and praying with his corner. Good news is that he looks in-shape and is no doubt extra motivated to be fighting in his home country (he is a citizen of Japan, but a Korean national). Akiyama has a very nice record (his only loss was to Jerome LeBanner) and has looked very, very good thus far in K-1 (he had perhaps the best sub 2 minute fight ever with Melvin Manhoef). He has never faced anyone close to the level of Kang, though, so we'll really see what he's got here. Kang comes out to his old PRIDE song, which is still a cool theme. He looks like he's ready to FIGHT. He's billed as from Korea, which further confuses me to what countries he actually has citizenship in (son of a Korean father and French mother, born in Korea, moved to Canada as a kid, and now lives in America and trains with American Top Team). Kang gets a bigger reception than Akiyama. Cheating can hurt your image, you see. Akiyama is going to fight GI-LESS here, which is sad. Fight starts and they kickbox early. Akiyama throws a nice leg kick that misses, and they circle. Kang hits a leg kick and then a nice left jab to keep Akiyama back. Akiyama tries to work his jab and gets another kick. Kang finally engages and hits a nice right and throws a good left. Akiyama throws a leg kick and Kang tries to go over the top with a right, but Akiyama avoids it. More circling. I'm surprised Akiyama hasn't clinched yet. Kang is trying to keep him at bay with front kicks and his jab and doing a pretty good job of it. Akiyama comes in with a good left and Kang is bleeding right on his nose. That could be bad. Kang is having problems with his eye- he's blinking constantly, he probably can't see. Akiyama continues to circle with him and Kang works his jab and lands a big leg kick. Akiyama pops him with a left and they exchange. Kang nearly hits a high kick but misses. Kang needs to engage here. Leg kick by Akiyama. Akiyama gets in closer and Kang gets him out with his jab. WHOA AKIYAMA JUST BLASTED HIM WITH AN UPPERCUT. That was some straight Sokoudjou shit right there. Kang is OUT. Welcome to the top 10 of the middleweight rankings, Greaseman! Doctors are looking at Kang's eye and it doesn't look good. I don't think he saw the punch coming. Replay shows Akiyama hit the uppercut, then a punch that made Kang's mouthpiece fly out, Alexander vs. Jardine style. Big win for Akiyama. Maybe Kazuo Misaki at Dynamite for him.

Other fights on the card:

Magomed Sultanakhmedov vs. Eun Su Lee - Sultanakhmedov, TKO (strikes), R1

Sultanakhmedov is the newest Volk Han protege, said to be similar to Sergei Kharitonov.

Daisuke Nakamura vs. A Sol Kwon - Nakamura, submission (armbar), R3

Kwon had a good showing against a man who was much more skilled than him, but eventually got caught.

Heo Min Seok vs. Katsuyori Shibata - Seok, TKO (strikes), R2

A slugfest with two relatively untalented guys, Shibata got more tired and thus KOed. Shibata needs to return to wrestling full-time, because as Tito Ortiz would say, MMA is not his sport.

Shungo Oyama vs. Carlos Newton - Oyama, submission (strikes), R3

Newton came in on very little notice and seemed unprepared, Oyama ate him alive after he got tired. {plug}