Published on various sites, December 2010
The Greatest Striker on the Planet.
That is a title that the winner of the K-1 World Grand Prix can lay claim to. Yes, purists would say that the Muay Thai champions in Bangkok’s Lumpini stadium are the best strikers. But they aren’t heavyweights. Yes, some would claim that K-1 isn’t pure Muay Thai, and as such the title is false because its competitiors don’t have to deal with elbows. K-1 fans themselves would remind us that Remy Bonjasky and Badr Hari are not competing in this years tournament. But lets be real; these eight men are at the top of the food chain, along with a handful of others, and the winner of the World Grand Prix will – in my honest opinion – have a legitimate claim to being the #1 striker on the planet, until they lose.
One thing the Lumpini champions don’t have going for them is size. The likes of Semmy Schilt and Alistair Overeem are great thai-boxers, but happen to bring fast and powerful 6’11 290lbs and 6’5 250lbs body frames with which to use that skill, respectively. Even the “smaller” men in this tournament such as Gokhan Saki are huge.
In short, the World Grand Prix fits some of the fastest, most technically skilled and most powerful stand up fighters on the planet against each other, and they’re all of monstrous size as well!
A short profile of the combatants:
*Semmy Schilt: the favourite. An inch shy of seven feet tall, and with that range he brings a mean teep and of course his patented “deathjab” to the ring. Opponents find it hard to get within range to strike him without being jabbed and push-kicked – literally – to defeat.
*Peter Aerts: legend. The old campaigner brings a wealth of experience to this tournament – given that he won it three times in the 90′s – but sadly, his prime arguably ended at least twelve years ago. Still dangerous, he is coming off a non-tournament loss to Kyotaro for the regular title, and was handled with ease by Overeem in last years tournament. He will not win, but it’s always great to see “Mr K-1″.
*Gokhan Saki: dark horse. The Golden Glory fighter has campaigned for a few years now, with varying success. If you have money to burn, perhaps an outsider’s tip on him may bring you fortunes? My thoughts are he is too small, but in the tasty quarter-final with Ghita, he will at the least probably give us a Fight of the Night, if nothing else.
*Daniel Ghita: tipped by many to win. While this is probably wistful purists who wish Sem Schilt nothing but the worst (i.e. the crowd that spend their time slagging Semmy off on the message boards for being “boring”) they still have a point- Ghita is dangerous. More on him soon.
*Alistair Overeem: monster. Can he become the first man to be a Heavyweight Champion in both K-1 and in MMA? He holds a major title in MMA, and a top 10 rank, despite his recent relative inactivity in the sport. If he becomes the premier striker on the planet, it will cement him as a fightsport legend.
*Mighty Mo: the beast! Can he unleash the beast! Mo is a joke to the elitists, but I’ve loved the guy long time. And not in the style of a Vietnamese whore either; I just cant get enough of watching him blast people (in fights). He has the most devastating haymaker ever seen in fightsports, and if it lands, he wins.
*Tyrone Spong: skilled. Sadly, you drew Reem in the quarters! While I don’t feel he has the size nor the tenacity to topple Reem, he could certainly make the tournament interesting if he manages to draw the Reem into the trenches. Early night warfare never serves fighters well in the later rounds; Sem wrote the blueprint on how to win when he blasted through all three opponents in a combined five and a half minutes.
*Kyotaro: the hometown hero. The Japanese love this guy, and it’s not hard to see why. He became the second ever K-1 heavyweight champ (the regular belt they created due to Schilt’s Grand Prix dominance. They bunged off a Super-HW belt on him) and he represents the brightest homegrown star in a Japanese promotion for the viewing public. Sadly, he draws Sem in the first.
The draw:
Mighty Mo vs Peter Aerts
Wiles and ring craft versus brute power. This fight basically hinges on whether or not Mo can draw the veteran into a war. As much as I want to see it, chances are it will not happen; Aerts is too good, too skilled, and knows this year could be his last chance. Soon it will be a full two decades since Aerts won his first World Grand Prix, and he doesn’t have long left. My guess is that the Dutch Lumberjack will jab and move, cut Mo down with leg kicks, and finish in the third round. Mo will go down bravely.
Gokhan Saki vs Daniel Ghita
Surprisingly, the two most in-form fighters outside of Sem. This is easily… EASILY the fight of the night, the draw of the quarters, the flash and sizzle of the K-1 WGP Final 8 broth. I’ve struggled to think of the ways this fight could go, and I have a controversial view; Saki could win. As aforementioned, Ghita is an outside favourite to win the whole tourney, while Gokhan The Rebel is supposedly “too small” and lacks the firepower to smash the big boys. But given that Golden Glory’s Saki has excellent hands, I analysed Ghita. One characteristic of his fight with Sergei – in which he chopped the Russian MMA fighter down with leg kicks – is that while Ghita’s kicks are devastating, he was outboxed. He has been outboxed before, and will be again. If his kicks do not cut away the legs of the capable Saki, then I do not think it is unlikely that Saki could forseeably hurt him with punches, and win a decision in a wild fight and possibly an all-time classic.
Semmy Schilt vs Kyotaro
Kyotaro is underrated. He is a warrior; he takes punishment, which some have claimed is false after several displays of “hit and run”, the jab and dash style which has been unfairly attributed to him. I think the Jerome Le Banner fight is more like it; the French veteran lulled him into a throwdown, which he later backed out of after an extra round was declared to be necessary. Kyotaro is tougher than some feel, and is a skilled fighter. That being said, he’s going down to the deathjabs; Schilt will finish him inside of two rounds, if he arrives in the form he was in during last year’s Grand Prix when he tore through the likes of Remy Bonjasky and Badr Hari like they were nothing.
Alistair Overeem vs Tyrone Spong
I was once called “a biased MMA fan” for giving Reem endless plaudits over his K-1 competition, and claiming he would tear through the massive, durable but limited powerhouse Ben Edwards. I am not, and I was not wrong. Reem is not the chinny middleweight he once was in MMA, eight years ago when he was a kid. He is 6’5, 250lbs of pure power and technique, and worst of all – for his opponents – he is fast too! Spong is worthy of his place in this tournament, and is capable; but the man who lost to what is now basically the shell of Jerome LeBanner, who qualified due to dropouts, has nothing for 2010 era Reem. Alistair smashed Badr Hari, was robbed against Bonjasky and has blitzed through other top 15 ranked, dangerous foes. Spong will be no different, and methinks we shall be treated to the barnburner that will be Reem vs the winner of Saki and Ghita.
If I were a betting man (it’s a sin, kids. Read your bibles you amoral scumbags) then I would splash money down on the obvious; Semm-ee-a Schilto… the man who has claimed four of the last five World Grand Prix’s. The other is Reem – not due to MMA bias – he is on a tear, his one-hitter-quitter power shots are a newfound tool, added to a toolbox that already included great left hooks, decent defence, good footwork, explosivity and absolutely murderous knees; knees that have dispatched foes in both K-1 and MMA.
But who can discount the likes of Gokhan Saki, the undersized but speedy and powerful “other GG representative”? That is a disservice in itself. Saki’s opponent is a beast – Daniel Ghita murdered Saki, Reem and Schilt’s GG teammate Errol Zimmerman in a way that made the excitable Schiavello preface Ghita’s surname with the word “freaking”. Then again, he labelled Saki a “crazy bastard”, so in the Schiavello man-love stakes I’d say Saki narrowly won out in the pre-fight competition.
With the legendary Aerts, current K-1 Heavyweight titleholder Kyotaro and the ever entertaining Might Mo, this Grand Prix is an absolute melting pot, and there are a lot of unanswered questions leading into it. The stylistics of each match are intriguing, and I have a great chance of having egg on my face given that I was bold enough to offer predictions along with a preview.
One thing is for sure, and it saddens the MMA fan in me; I look forwards to this event more than I do Dynamite. In previous years, that was certainly NOT the case.
How times change… a shame for the nostalgics.
Tune into this chaotic tournament, and watch the world’s best heavyweight stand up fighters wage war on each other. I personally guarantee, you will not be disappointed. Unless your stream cuts out – you illegal bastards.
Fletch
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