K-1 MAX Japan 2010 Tournament Announced
by Dave Walsh on Feb 19, 2010 5:14 AM EST
in K-1 MAX News
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Finally, K-1 speaks with a card announcement and they speak loud and clear with the annual K-1 MAX Japan tournament which will take place on March 27th in Japan. The highlight of the event is 3-time MAX Japan champion Taishin Kohiruimaki facing off against the ever-colorful, cross-dressing Yuichiro Nagashima. The other tournament favorite has to be last year's cindarella story in Yuya Yamamoto, who made it to the finals of the 2009 MAX Japan tournament before losing a decision to Kohi, then earning his spot in the finals by racking up impressive victories in the Final 16 and Final 8 while Kohi sat on the sidelines with an injury. Yamamoto takes on HINATA, who might never be a pushover, but if a determined Yamamoto comes to fight, HINATA might not stand much of a chance.
To round out the tournament, TATSUJI will take on the undefeated 2009 KRUSH 70kg (Middleweight/MAX) tournament champion, Hiroki Nakajima while Yasuhiro Kido will take on another KRUSH fighter, RYUJI.
The big news does not revolve around the tournament this year, instead the Superfights, as World MAX 2009 Champion Giorgio Petrosyan returns to action against Yoshihiro Sato. Petrosyan shows no signs of slowing down, as this will come just weeks after his planned bout with Kem Sitsongpeenong (the artist formerly known as Khem Fairtex). The other big news is the possibility of MAX adding another weight class to the mix on a permanent basis. There have been rumblings of a 63kg weight class (MAX is 70kg), and this press conference has claimed to look for a tournament to declare a champion within the next year in this weight class. The 63kg bouts on this card will feature some exciting fighters, with former Osaka Pro wrestling star and somewhat of a mixed bag in the world of martial arts fighter Takehiro Murahama (for some reason being billed as TAKE HERO by K-1) against Kosuke Komiyama. The big fight at 63kgs will be crazy brawler Kazuhisa Watanabe against Daiki Hata, better known to DREAM and DEEP fans as DJ. Taiki.
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This is a pretty stacked tournament. Depending on how they come in, I could easily see any of Kohi, Kido, or Yamamoto walking away with this. I love HINATA, and wish I could go with him, but there are just too many heavy hitters here for him to compete. And I greatly look forward to seeing what Nakajima has to offer in MAX. Great news to start the year!
HeadKickLegend.com
Good news
What a fight! Petrosyan vs Sato.
and a better news new weight division ! it’s excellent now K-1 just need another weight division – under 85 kg – to be greatest fighting organization in the world for ever (really K-1 needs it).
“with former Osaka Pro wrestling star and somewhat of a mixed bag in the world of martial arts fighter Takehiro Murahama (for some reason being billed as TAKE HERO by K-1) "
He changed his name because he promised his parents that he was retiring. He says he’s just going to claim that the guy on the ring is a different person.
Don’t know why you would call Murahama a MMA fighter or even a wrestling star. He is a legend in kickboxing. Been fighting in K-1 since ’97. He was the first K-1 featherweight champ, having tooled Maeda Kensaku. Gave Masato one hell of a fight despite being out of his prime and weightclass too.
I think most people know him from MMA and Wrestling at this point..
He does have a K-1 history, but I think calling him a legend is a bit much as he was never really that great. Being 5-5 in K-1 isn’t much to write home about.
Head Kick Legend
Twitter @HeadKickLegend
Murahama was a great kickboxer in his prime. He made his name in Shootboxing and was one of Japan’s best fighters in the lower weight classes. His downfall was blowing up in weight, getting into wrestling and competing in K-1 MAX where he still did okay for himself.
There’s some SB fights of his up on YouTube.
Him moving up did destroy him
I understand why, but his K-1 career was less than stellar. I really do blame the pro wrestling for a lot of it.. It gave him less time to train and had him keep on the extra body weight.
Head Kick Legend
Twitter @HeadKickLegend
K-1 really missed the boat when they didn’t create lower weightclasses in the late nineties. I’m able to differentiate between the Murahama that was tearing it up on the SB circuit and the bloated whale that competed in K-1 MAX and clowned it up in Osaka Pro though as I know what he’s capable of.
I take offense to him “never being that great” – ignorance is not a proper excuse. ;) You don’t beat Thai rankers and put up semi-competitive fights against Chamuakpet Chorchamuang if you’re not a great fighter.
Still, he wasted a near decade of his career for nothing. SMH
See, the thing is..
I can’t disagree about his former success, but he pissed it away. Not since ’97 has he looked formidable in competition, like you said, a wasted decade in a promising career is a lot. That would be like if Anderson Silva all of a sudden moved up to heavyweight and went 5-5 for the next 10 years; would people still talk about the brilliant striker, possible best p4p in MMA?
Hell no.
Head Kick Legend
Twitter @HeadKickLegend
He was still competing in Shootboxing up to 1999 though. ;) He was a six year pro by that time. His overall record in kickboxing is 25-10-0 with five of those losses outside of his weightclass.
As for the Silva analogy, yes they should. But I suppose I can’t blame fools for being fickle. I mean people playful jab to the chin are clowning on KID pretty hard nowadays, but don’t seem to realize what he did in his career was pretty amazing for a make-shift featherweight (read: bantamweight).
ooooof
I enjoy being harsh on KID; anybody who gets that much hype and pressure on him in such a public way is gonna be an open and easy target.
Head Kick Legend
Twitter @HeadKickLegend
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