A Mathematical Fan Breakdown of the K-1 World Grand Prix

You know the hype has reached a fever pitch when Japanese fans start formulating graphs and charts, using their career statistics to break down their strengths and how well they should fare in the K-1 World Grand Prix this year.

K-1 Fan, a blog on Japanese site Sportsnavi has done just that, and the results should not be surprising to K-1 followers. The results turned up the result that Semmy Schilt has the best chance of victory in the K-1 World Grand Prix this year, with a whopping 41 points. The next highest point total goes to the Goldenboy, Badr Hari with 38 points. Third place is last year's champion, Remy Bonjasky with 35, closely followed by Jerome Le Banner with 34.

Ruslan Karaev is the lowest point total with 30, Alistair Overeem and Ewerton Teixeira with 31 and Errol Zimmerman with 32. Now, of course there are some holes in this math and statistics in general. If you look at the individual match-ups the numbers do tell an interesting story.

Schilt (41) vs. Le Banner (34)
Hari (38) vs. Karaev (30)
Bonjasky (35) vs. Zimmerman (32)
Overeem (31) vs. Teixeira (31)

This puts things into an interesting perspective, with Schilt the clear favorite over Le Banner, Hari the clear favorite over Karaev, Bonjasky the favorite over Zimmerman and Overeem and Teixieira about even. The last fight would be the only one this statistic didn't exactly work out for, as Overeem should be considered a slight favorite going into this, but career-wise it is logical to have them rated the same.

SBN coverage of K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 Finals