Here is one of the marquee matches from this past weekend's K-1 Scandinavia Rumble of the Kings show - Catalin Morosanu v. Gary Goodridge. 

This was an important fight for Morosanu, as his last year has not been fantastic in-ring.  A year ago, he was poised to be K-1's main Eastern European representative.  But after an unnecessary DQ loss to Taiei Kin, and a bad showing against Errol Zimmerman where Morosanu looked terribly unprepared, the Romanian fighter has seen his K-1 status fade, as he's been replaced by both Daniel Ghita and Raul Catinas.  This is his first big fight since that Zimmerman loss, though he did score a win in Sarajevo in October.

Goodridge is of course an MMA legend and one of the pioneers of both UFC and Pride.  He once had a respectable K-1 career with wins over Mike Bernardo and Cyril Abidi, but those days are long behind him, as Goodridge has not won a pro fight, either MMA or kickboxing, in almost 4 years.  He's currently on a combined 0-17-1 streak.  But he's still a fighter who grabs my attention, and so, despite myself, I was looking forward to this one.

I had heard bad things about this fight and Goodridge's showing, but I thought he looked in pretty decent shape.  It wasn't until the missed high kick near the end of round 1 that Goodridge falls apart, as he seems to hurt his leg on that kick.  From there, he's done, though you have to appreciate how much he keeps coming forward and trying to push the action.

Morosanu looked good in some ways and bad in others.  He definitely has a high volume output here, using a lot of punches to hurt Goodridge.  But if he wants to move up, he really needs to tighten those shots up - that big looping right in particular is so wide that any striker with quicker hands should be able to counter it. 

And am I alone in thinking that Morosanu pulled a bit of a jerk move with the fake glove touch and quick kick after Goodridge comes up favoring his leg in the 1st?   Is that kind of thing really needed?

We'll have more of the Rumble of the Kings fights in the coming days.

From this past weekend's Local Kombat show, here is K-1 Final 16 participant Raul Catinas in action.  Catinas has had some big fights this year, defeating Carter Williams in Bucharest, and losing to Mighty Mo at the final 16.  He's definitely looking to make a name for himself at the K-1 level, and has made some good strides this year. 

His opponent is Imani Lee, most recently known as being one of Minowaman's Super Hulk style opponents at Dream.14.  Minowaman choked the 300+ pounder out under MMA rules there, but Lee also has an OK kickboxing career.  He was a regular in the K-1 Las Vegas GPs from 2005-2007, going 1-3 there with his K-1 highlight being a win over Jan Nortje. 

This fight is from Local Kombat Sibiu, the 10th anniversary event for Local Kombat, held this past Friday, November 19.  One quick note - in the video, the round they show after the 1st round is identified as "Round 3".  This is just a typo, as the round is indeed round 2, and this does contain the complete fight.

I've been watching Catinas closely since his strong showing at the K-1 European GP in 2009, and this is another example of his good progress.  He does a good job here of keeping the pressure up on Lee, eventually scoring the definitive knockdown in the 3rd.  Catinas has also taken a page from the Dzevad Poturak handbook of clowning during a fight, and as long as that clowning doesn't cause him to lose fights, I've got no complaints.

Also on this card - K-1 2010 East Europe GP runner-up Sebastian Ciobanu defeated Petar Valkov via decision; Catalin Slave TKO'd Alexandru Popescu in the 2nd in the main event, and Local Kombat's go-to MMA sideshow fighter Alexandru Lungu improved to 7-2 with a round 1 KO of Albert Sarkozi.  Catalin Morosanu did not compete on this event, as we previously reported.  Our sincere apologies for the confusion.  Complete results are in the full entry.

Special thanks to reader man'10 for pointing out this video in the FanPosts section.  In that post he asks a good question - does Raul Catinas have what it takes to make it into the top 10 in K-1?  I have my own take, but am interested to hear your thoughts.  What do you think about Catinas's future?

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From this past Saturday, November 13 in Australia, here is the main event of Knees of Fury 31 - K-1 veteran Paul Slowinski v. Andre "The Giant" Meunier.  Slowinski has not had an extremely high profile year on an international level, although he has remained highly active in Australia, going 5-3 so far this year, with all but 2 of those fights taking place in Australia.  Meunier is a popular Austrlian fighter with pro boxing experience. 

This is a perfect example of what happens when you pair an intelligent veteran with a fighter still developing his technique.  Meunier is obviously rattled by Slowinski's heavy low kicks at the start, and over commits himself to avoiding taking more damage to his legs, making two major mistakes in the process.  First, he repeatedly drops his hands in an effort to block Slowinski's kicks.  This not only leaves his head exposed, it also is a good way to sustain an arm injury.  Second, when moving away from Slowinski's attack, he only focuses on moving his legs out of range, causing him to jump back with his legs, but leaving his head and upper body forward.  At the same time that he jumps back, he drops his hands.  Both of these defensive moves leave Meunier with his hands down, his head exposed. 

Slowinski reads this perfectly.  He throws a punch to get Meunier moving (the punch is hard to see from this angle as the referee partially blocks it), and steps forward with a kick.  Meunier anticipates another leg kick, drops his hands, and Slowinski drills him with a clean, unprotected shot to the head, knocking the big man out cold.  Beautiful use of reading an opponent's defenses there.

Here's one of the big fights from this past weekend's kickboxing action.  From the main event at Sarajevo Fight Night 2, this is #25 Dzevad Poturak v. Wendell Roche.  Poturak was coming in off his K-1 victory over Chalid Die Faust and was fighting in his hometown, while Roche had just beaten Stefan Leko 2 weeks earlier.

Immediately after the results were known, some questions were raised.  Take a look, and see what you think.

Watching this, I can definitely see where some people disagree with the result.  Personally, I have it as a draw 29-29, with Poturak taking round 1, Roche easily taking 2, and 3 going to a draw.  It's the kind of super close fight where I can't get too worked up about the result, but at the same time I would be interested to know how the judges scored it for Poturak.  Did they give him round 3?  Or did they call round 2 a draw? 

Result aside, this was a fun, if somewhat sloppy fight.  Poturak always brings the drama and theatrics, and I'm always entertained. 

Up next for Roche is a United Glory semi-final fight with Gokhan Saki, while Poturak has nothing currently scheduled.

Thanks to reader Mahir Polovina for the link.

This is one of the fights I've been looking forward to seeing ever since it was announced, and now it's finally available online.  From Krush.10 on September 20, here is the main event - K-1's first ever 63kg champion Tetsuya Yamato v. Koya Urabe.

A lot of people favored Urabe here, but I think you have to be surprised at how much he utterly dominated Yamato.  Some are not as high on Yamato, but his run through the Grand Prix was very impressive, with wins over many of the toughest competitors in the tournament.  He showed a lot in that run, and here, Urabe just shuts him down, using a combination of strong movement and good defense to avoid Yamato's offense, while scoring repeatedly with his own shots to earn the definitive win.  Great performance from the young fighter - the big question now is where does Urabe go next?

After making an unsuccessful K-1 debut in 2001, Alistair Overeem focused his energies squarely on the world of Mixed Martial Arts.  At the time of the Errol Parris fight, Overeem had a modest 5-3 MMA record, and had yet to make any sort of name for himself.  When he finally returned to K-1 in 2004, he was on the rise.  Since the loss to Parris, Overeem had gone on a 12-1 run in MMA, with his only loss coming to Chuck Liddell.  He had made his Pride debut, and greatly increased his profile.  As a result, Overeem's 2nd ever K-1 fight was definitely a bigger event.

On May 30, 2004, Overeem stepped into a K-1 ring for the second time, and his first in Japan.  His opponent was Glaube Feitosa, a decorated kyokushin fighter who had faced a brutally tough string of fighters since making his K-1 debut including Peter Aerts, Mike Bernardo, Mirko Cro Cop, and Andy Hug.  The Overeem v. Feitosa fight was the semi main event (under Remy Bonjasky v. Francisco Filho) of an event called Kyokushin vs K-1 2004 All Out Battle.  Overeem, despite sporting a 0-1 K-1 record, represented the K-1 fighting style against kyokushin stylist Feitosa.

One of the criticisms leveled at Overeem is that he has a suspect chin, and those who support this idea often use this fight as evidence.  It's true that Overeem does get dropped here, and that it's not a brutal KO shot that takes him down.  But watching this fight, it's also clear that Overeem is overmatched.  In particular, his defense is problematic as he leaves a lot of openings and responds poorly to being hit.  More than a chin problem, it's this lack of strong defensive skills that Feitosa exploits to take the Demolition Man down.

With a 0-2 K-1 record at this point and a thriving MMA career, it would be another 4 1/2 years before The Reem tried his hand at K-1 again.  And when he did, things would turn out to be very different.

The UFC can have Brocktober.  Here at HeadKickLegend, we're declaring this month Octobereem.  That's right, we're trading in highly polarizing, muscled up heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar for highly polarizing, muscled up heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem.  Join us as we break down the career of our favorite brick wall of a kickboxer and celebrate all things Reem.

To start, let's look back at one of Overeem's few pre- Badr Hari kickboxing matches and his first fight under the K-1 banner.  From the K-1 Holland GP 2001, this is Alistair Overeem v. Errol Parris in the opening round of this GP qualifying tournament. 

Ugly fight here, but an interesting one to watch for Overeem's development.  The biggest thing that jumps out here is that, even back then, Overeem was using many of the same tactics he brought to the table in 2009.  He has a heavy reliance on knees, and uses the clinch to make the fight more of a sloppy brawl than a technical fight.  He would later use this same strategy against Remy Bonjasky.  But here, it's not very effective for a few reasons.  First, Overeem lacks the strength to really bully his opponent, and he is left doing a lot of clinching that results in little more than stalling.  Second, there's no setup for the knees here - he just leaps in and throws them, never taking the time to make sure he can land the shot. 

But Overeem's greatest undoing here is definitely his cardio.  By midway through round 2 he is spent, and it's not a shock that he can not answer the bell for round 3.  Surprising that the leaner, Light Heavyweight Overeem we see here has significant conditioning issues, while the modern day Megareem has gone 3 rounds with Bonjasky and Aerts with little stamina issues. 

Overall, it's not the prettiest fight, and few probably would have walked away predicting Alistair Overeem would be one of the K-1 elite in 2010, but it is definitely a historical piece to revisit, and a good way to kick off Octobereem.

Quick side note: this show also marked the K-1 debut of Remy Bonjasky, who was in a quarter final opposite Overeem.  Like Alistair, Bonjasky's debut was dissapointing, as he dropped a split decision to Jerrel Venetiaan, denying us the chance of seeing Overeem v. Bonjasky 8 years before their 2009 showdown.

This is a fight I've been waiting to see since it happened, and it's finally online.  This is Andy Souwer v. Hinata in Shootboxing from September 18.  With Souwer sadly out of the MAX Grand Prix this year (because he was already booked in this fight), and spending part of the year recovering from injury, this is only the 2nd fight from the former K-1 champ in 2010.  This was Souwer's return from a nearly 8 month absence, and was Hinata's first fight since his huge upset of Artur Kyshenko in July.

Really, there's not a ton to say here.  Souwer looked dominant, using his experience with the Shootboxing rules to easily defeat his less experienced opponent. 

Up next for Souwer is the Shootboxing S-Cup later this year, while Hinata has nothing currently booked.