Korea Fighting!! - South Korean MMA

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

K-1 World Grand-Prix in Seoul 2009 - Final 16 Preview

On September 26th, K-1 is returning to Seoul for it's World GP Final 16. This is going to bring the tourney down to 8 finalists, then eventually to the final four to determine the 2009 K-1 Heavyweight Grand Prix Champ. I know that none of my friends really follow fighting as closely as I do (probably an understatement) so I'm writing this up to fill everyone in so hopefully everyone will get as excited as me. So what does this mean for us? It means we get to see the absolute best kickboxers in the world slugging it out live in Seoul. I went to four fights last year and this is by far gonna be the best one I'll get to see live during my time in Seoul.

First up, here's the promo website for this event. Promo Website . Pretty cool site, check it out if you care enough. Little tidbits about the fighters and some weird facts.

Here is the fight card, but it's not in the fight order just yet.

[FINAL16] Peter Aerts vs. Alistair Overeem

[FINAL16] Remy Bonjasky vs. Melvin Manhoef

[FINAL16] Semmy Schilt vs. Daniel Ghita

[FINAL16] Badr Hari vs. Zabit Samedov
[FINAL16] Ruslan Karaev vs. KYOTARO
[FINAL16] Ewerton Teixeira vs. Singh "Heart" Jaideep
[FINAL16] Errol Zimmerman vs. Glaube Feitosa
[FINAL16] Jerome LeBanner vs. Musashi
[Super Fight] Taiei Kin vs Catalin Morosanu
[Special Fight] Su Jeong Lim vs Tahir Menxhiqi
[Special Fight] Chi Bin Lim vs Chen Qing

We get to see 11 fights that night, It's gonna be nuts.

I'm gonna start the breakdown with the match I'm most excited for, Alistair Overeem vs. Peter Aerts.

Alistair Overeem is a Mixed Martial Arts fighter (think UFC) that has dabbled in kickboxing in the past, gaining recent notoriety in K-1. Overeem used to be a middling Light-Heavyweight fighter that showed flashes of brilliance but remained extremely inconsistent. He'd be a man on fire for the first few minutes and then gas out and get murdered. Recently, Overeem has undergone a renaissance of sorts, moving up in weight to Heavyweight with much success.

And by renaissance I mean roided the fuck up.

So after eating a bowl of horse steroids (and likely the horse as well) every morning for three years, he's at his current MASSIVE size. The guy is absolutely huge. But whatever he's still a pretty cool dude and I like watching him fight, but the blatant steroid bulk up makes me laugh.

Anyways, why is this guy a big deal? Well last New Year's Eve, he participated in an event that pitted MMA guys vs. K-1 fighters in K-1 rules. The MMA guys all absolutely slaughtered their opponents which was hilarious, but the biggest shock was Overeem starching the K-1 Heavyweight champ at the time, Badr Hari.

Hari got flattened. K-1 wasn't too thrilled with some guy coming from out of their sport and thumping the champ, so in the next match they put him against Remy Bonjasky, 3 time GP champ. Overeem barely lost the fight (click) , and taking someone as good as Bonjasky to a close decision is nothing to be ashamed of. Overeem is the real deal and I'm excited to see him fight another great fighter, Peter Aerts.

Peter Aerts is a K-1 Legend, boasting a massive 95-27 record and at 38 years old it's pretty amazing that he's still as good as he is. Also apparently a notorious lumberjack. He's fought pretty much everyone ever in K-1 multiple times. Here's a few fights and such.

Awesome KO

This Fight is funny, Peter Aerts vs. Ernesto Hoost. Why is it funny? It was never supposed to happen. It was supposed to be Bob Sapp vs. Ernesto Hoost, but Sapp bolted. Aerts was actually announcing that night but he stepped out of the booth, borrowed a pair of shorts and stepped into the ring. And this was after a night of heavy drinking. How badass is that?

And finally a highlight with silly music.

Next up, Melvin Manhoef vs. Remy Bonjasky.

Melvin Manhoef is pretty much amazing. He's a natural middleweight, frequently fighting at 185 lbs and he's out there fighting men that outweigh him by 50 lbs or more. He wins, too. He's fast and hits probably harder than anyone on the planet. He's a wild fighter, almost too unrestrained sometimes and he tends to get caught or gas too quickly. His last fight he looked a bit more disciplined, but no matter what he's always exciting as hell. Also, he looks like Balrog from Street Fighter 2 and that's awesome. Manhoef has a kickboxing record of 37 wins with TWENTY SEVEN of them by way of KO. In MMA he's 23-7 with TWENTY TWO KOs. With Manhoef you're pretty much guaranteed a big KO. It's really a shame that there isn't a weightclass for him because he's an awesome fighter, and it's really unfair that he has to constantly fight guys that are so much bigger than him.

Highlight

One of my favorite Manhoef KOs here, Melvin Manhoef vs. Paul Slowinski

Melvin Manhoef vs. Ruslan Karaev , maybe this one is my favorite. I can't choose, they're all so great.

One last highlight. Can you tell i'm a huge fan?

Remy Bonjasky, nicknamed "The Flying Gentleman" for his flying knees and kicks. Also cause he helps old ladies across the street and holds doors open for people I guess. Bonjasky is a fantastic fighter, and a three time Grand Prix Champ.

If you can ignore the horrible music, here's a decent collection of his KOs. You can get a good idea where he gets his name from. The video is here.

Also, here's Remy Bonjasky vs. Vernon White. White isn't a great fighter by any means, but this sure is a sweet KO.

Anyways, I'm 2 fights in and this is takin forever so Im gonna post this and continue later. gonna post some youtube vids for my own benefit later

Badr Hari
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7nk44_k1-wgp-2008-final-badr-hari-vs-erro_sport
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/rusa/video/x38o0y_k1-badr-hari-vs-ruslan-karaev-2007_extreme

Jerome le Banner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io07WcVxR_k
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3gdzf_jerome-lebanner-vs-ernesto-hoost-19_extreme

Monday, April 27, 2009

hahahahahahaha

hahahahahahahahaha

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Choi Mu Bae KO'd by cornerman

This is a little old, but I still laugh every time I see it.

Sengoku: Mu Bae Choi vs. Dave Herman
Uploaded by mmajunky

Choi Mu-bae TKOs Dave Herman, and in his excitement, his cornerman pounces on him. Start at 9:10 of the video. I didn't notice this the first time I saw the fight, but reviewing it again, the cornerman's tackle KOs CHOI MU-BAE. Hilarious.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

K-1 MAX 2009 Final 16 - Lim Chi-bin vs. Yamamoto Yuya

Lim Chi-bin vs. Yamamoto Yuya

Let's see if Lim can fare any better than Lee Su-hwan. Both Kido and now Yuya came out to some whack-ass japanese (???) reggae, wonder if that's a sign of things to come. By the way, I'm doing this pretty much stream of consciousness so bear with me. Like six people clapped for Lim (including one dude in his corner who clapped AS HARD AS HE FUCKING COULD). They are talking about Cro Cop and Fedor in Korean I hope they aren't comparing them to Lim. Alright, let's see what the K-1 Max Korea champ has got.

Round 1 -

Early clinch, then lots of leg kicks so far. Lim is using the clinch well early on. He needs to check these leg kicks if he wants this to go differently than Lee's fight. Woops Lim slipped on a high kick haha. Gets up and trips Yuya. Low kick battle so far, damn man. Yuya is scoring with the leg kicks, but Lim has been more effective so far this round. Another leg catch -> trip. Ten seconds left, more leg kicks and clinch work. Now we look into Sato's locker room for...some reason.

Round 2 -

Both come out with a nice body kick. Lim showing good hand combos, Yuya's nose just got busted open. Giving him a minute to get cleaned up by his corner. Back to the fight, they both come out with more kicks, Lim lands a good straight. Spinning back fist out of no where floors Lim. Lim is back up. Yuya ccomes out with a flying knee but misses. Lim needs to step it up because that knockdown is gonna put him down in this round. The korean announcers are calling it a "flashidown" haha. Lim is getting warned for holding in the clinch. Lim teeing off on yuya's face, Yuya returning. Spinning back fist attempt by Lim, not much tho. Now they're just brawling to finish out round 2. Lim was winning hte first half but that knockdown won it for Yuya.

Round 3 -

Lim keeps getting warned for over clinch use (which is a dumb rule in the first place) Lim missed HUGE with a giant spinning Taekowndo kick hahahaha that was embarassing. I'm gonna find a gif of that. Yuya does some spinning kick shit of his own. They're kinda getting silly now in the third. Cool clinch knee by Lim. Both are working in close, Lim just got busted open above the eye. Corner is taking a second to clean him up. Oh shit, looks like it was an accidental headbutt that cut him open. Both comin out pretty fierce, little over a minute left. Haha holy shit, Yuya does some flipping rolling thunder shit that barely misses. More spinning kicks that miss. Lim pounding on Yuya, almost overcommits to the clinch again. This is a war man, neither fighter is backing down. Good fight, gonna go to the cards. Hahaha Lim does another Taekwondo flying spin kick shit at the bell in desperation.

Close fight, probably going to go for Yamamoto because of the knockdown in round 2.

result: Close fight, the knockdown in round 2 definitely won it for Yuya. This fight was rad as hell, they both threw some wacky ass kicks out there.

K-1 MAX 2009 Final 16 - Lee Su-hwan vs. Kido Yasuhiro

Lee Su-hwan vs. Kido Yasuhiro

Two early spinning back fists busted Lee up in the first round. Since then he just got punished with low kicks to the left leg, greatly impairing Lee's best weapon (in my estimation anyways), his left kicks. He's got some powerful kicks but he kept getting busted in the legs and it slowed him and took some of the power away. Round 2 ended with a pretty demoralizing front kick that knocked Lee on his ass. He hung tough, never backing down but his legs were getting roughed up. Good strategy employed by Kido. Nice body shots by Lee in the third round, mounting some good offense backed with a front kick and more body shots. Body shot fell a bit low when Kido lifted his leg for a knee and Lee punched Kido in the nuts hahahaha.

Lee is doing a lot better in the third but unfortunately it's too little too late. They haven't announced it yet but I'd easily give Kido the decision, despite Lee mounting a good late offense in the third.

Yep, got leg kicked into oblivion and Kido wins the decision. Bummer Lee! I'll still root for ya.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Upcoming fights

K-1 Max Final 16 - April 21, 2009

Lim Chi-bin vs. Yamamoto Yuya

Lee Su-hwan vs. Kido Yasuhiro

Sengoku - Eighth Battle - May 2, 2009

Jung Chan-sung vs. Masanori Kanehara

UFC 100 - July 11, 2009

Chu Sung-hoon vs. Alan Belcher

Kim Dong-hyun vs. Jonathan Goulet

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Fighter Mania Championship (FMA) - New South Korea MMA organization

Huge, huge news broken over at http://nightmareofbattle.wordpress.com/, it looks like there is talk of a new MMA organization in South Korea. The currently defunct Spirit MC left a hole in the South Korean MMA scene, leaving a lot of fighters to go abroad to find fights.

Fighter Mania Championship (FMA), an appropriately Konglish-ey name for the new organization, hopes to begin September, and a press conference will be held in July. Aleksander Emelianenko, Choi Mu Bae are both verbally linked to the project, and there is word that Jerome Le Banner and Mark Hunt may be as well (ha not likely). There is also talk with Fedor Emelianenko (believe it when I see it), and a third Emelianenko brother that I was not aware was even a fighter (???)

Expect to see a lot of co-promotion with M-1 Global, we're going to see a lot of South Korea vs. Russia fights like we do in other M-1 shows. Some of the bigger Korean names not already tied up should make appearances, wouldn't be surprised if we see Choi Mu-bae, Choi Hong-man or even Yoon Dong-sik headline events to help out the budding organization to help out their home country. Unfortunately with Chu Sung-hoon, Kim Dong-hyun and Denis Kang tied up in exclusive UFC contracts, don't expect to see them any time soon.

Honestly this is fantastic news for me. When I arrived Spirit MC had just recently died, and there is no MMA scene here right now. We had one K-1 fight last month, but other than that it's been pretty dry. Can't wait to hear more about this.

Chu Sung-hoon (추성훈) in UFC press photo

Rockin' the black UFC gloves

Denis Kang wins at UFC 97

Denis Kang was victorious over UFC newcomer Xavier "Professor X" Foupa-Pokam. Kang improves his UFC record to 1-1 and stays afloat, after his disappointing loss to Alan Belcher in his debut. Kang used a very takedown/GNP oriented strategy to best the acclaimed striker in Foupa. Kang took the fight to the scorecards and won easily scored a 30-27 unanimous decision over Professor X.

KangPoka 97
Uploaded by creedinfo

Kang really needed this win, for his UFC career and for himself. As of late, the UFC has been employing an unofficial 2-3 strikes and your out policy in the UFC. They have been recently expanding into South Korea lately, and also desire a lot of star power to headline shows in Canada which would normally give Kang a little leeway. However with Chu Sung-hoon's upcoming debut, Kang might not be as necessary to keep the Korean fans tuned in. Good solid win, hopefully Kang can use this momentum to find further success in the UFC

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

4/14 UPDATE!

First update! Added fighter profiles to the blog, with pictures with more. Still need to reformat the pictures in a number of them and add pictures in the rest. To come later:

- More extensive profiles (some of my profiles are literally just sherdog fightfinder links haha)
- More pictures
- videos, highlights, fights, etc
- upcoming events featuring S Korean fighters
- links to useful MMA or K-1 websites
- blog picture
- then I'll find more features and streamline this shit. I'm excited!

and here's a rad picture for you