He won't be disappointed again.

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Hot on the heels of getting word of the first bout for the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 there are some strong rumorscirculating about some of the other Final 16 bouts for October 2nd in Seoul, South Korea. Ben Edwards vs. Alistair Overeem is the bout we have heard through somewhat official channels and is quite the blockbuster of a fight, and in that vein so are the other fights that are rumored. 

Badr Hari vs. Hesdy Gerges
Kyotaro vs. Gokhan Saki
Peter Aerts vs. Ewerton Teixeira
Errol Zimmerman vs. Jerome Le Banner

The other rumored participants (some not exactly rumored but confirmed) are Sem Schilt, Ruslan Karaev, Freddy Kemayo, Singh Jaideep and the other two fighters have yet to be chosen.

Also rumored is that the remainder of the K-1 MAX Final 16 will take place in Seoul, with the rumored matches for this event laying out as follows;

Vitaly Hurkou vs. Giorgio Petrosyan
Mootje Khamal vs. Arthur Kyshenko
Mike Zambidis vs. Chahid Oulad El Hadj

Also featured will be Gago Drago, Su Hwan Lee and two others (possibly Buakaw Por. Pramuk).

There are some absolutely huge fights here, including a Gokhan Saki vs. Kyotaro rematch, Errol Zimmerman vs. Jerome Le Banner, the Badr Hari vs. Hesdy Gerges rematch and the inclusion of Peter Aerts into this year's World Grand Prix against Ewerton Teixeira.

Of course nothing is final in these regards until we hear from official sources, but if this is indeed how the Final 16 is shaping up it should be an incredible show.

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Imagine your first K-1 Grand Prix, your first time on the big stage where you can prove your mettle to the world. Then, imagine winning it, never mind that, imagine dominating that, and then to top it off, you make a new K-1 record for quickest Grand Prix victory. That is the life of Ben Edwards. Ben Edwards on October 2nd steps into his first K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 and according to Edwards, his first challenge on the world stage is a huge one; Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem.

Overeem made the tough decision to continue on with his K-1 career while Strikeforce's next challenger, Fabricio Werdum is still on the shelf after having surgery on his elbow. Overeem put his foot down on defending his championship against another fighter coming off of a loss, Fedor Emelianenko, much like his last fight of Brett Rogers. The speculation as to who Overeem would face was running wild as always, and with Edwards announcing this fight the rumors can (once again) be put to rest.

This fight will be nothing short of an offensive war, with neither man known for letting a fight go the distance and leaving a trail of carnage behind them. Edwards is an aggressive brawler who has never seemed overly concerned with defending when he can be attacking, while Overeem likes to bully his opponents with muay thai sweeps and frustrate them into dropping their defenses for his brutal knees and precise hands.

The odds will be high as the winner goes on to the K-1 World Grand Prix Finals in December and gets their chance to be the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix champion.

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Sometimes for the full truth to come out you have to poke and prod, stir the pot and put it all out there, and that has been how the financial situation with FEG has been in the past few months. Last week we reported (and were much maligned and misquoted for sensationalism's sake) that DREAM.16 was it for the DREAM series "for now" and that there was still nothing solid for K-1 MAX this year, with the clock ticking. Many took this to mean that DREAM.17, which was never formally announced, but only hinted at in a January 2010 "DREAM road map" by FEG, was canceled. Much like any other site who values sources, we did our best to deliver the information at hand and give our commentary on it. Much like things work, the commentary was misquoted as fact and the internet went wild with speculation, again.

This all comes when a giant, such as FEG, decides to sleep during a time of distress. Fighters are coming forward to discuss FEG's financial problems, and with just how quiet FEG has been, the speculation has ran rampant without a single hose to put out the fire. After having their hand forced to comment, at least in the states, FEG's Mike Kogan elaborated on what he told us last week to MMAJunkie. Instead of satiating the demand to know that everything will be aright with everyone's favorite Japanese promotion, the outlook Kogan gave was brutally honest, which we've come to know and respectfully expect from him. Mike Kogan told MMAJunkie that essentially what is happening is PUJI is auditing FEG's operations right now, to see if the business is viable.

I'm not trying to push a sole HKL agenda right now, but instead shed light that this is how investment banks work, and while many sighed a sigh of relief when the PUJI deal was announced, us who have been around the block with Japanese promotions and followed them, as well as understand some of the finer details on investment banking saw this for what it was;

My best guess is that after a year PUJI sees if FEG has a true future to make money for them, and if not they will continue on a scaled back course for the remainder of their promise and then dump FEG into the dust.     

Mike Kogan, who is no fool speaks along the same lines in this interview, and speaks that they very badly need this investment money from PUJI to continue on into 2011.

"Are you asking me if we're going to be in business after Dynamite? I don't know," he said. "It's very difficult. Obviously, we're short on revenues, and we need to - besides restructuring - we need to be able to find new sources of revenue.

"You need money to make money, so to speak. I don't sit in on the financial meetings. But it's very challenging.

"We need investment money. That's the bottom line."

Kogan remains optimistic, but realistic for the future of FEG, which to me seems realistic. If you are a fan of Japanese MMA you might need to begin brushing up on your DEEP, SRC and SHOOTO soon, because the fight landscape in Japan seems like it could change at any moment. Maybe instead of worrying we should just enjoy what we can get for now?

Get out there and vote, maybe you can prevent Sem Schilt from winning again.

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Sure, you might not be an avid voter in the real world, you might not want to wade through the key differences between your local Republicans or Democrats, and you aren't quite sure what this whole Tea Party thing going on in the US is right now. That's okay, you can fulfill your civic duty as a combat sports fan without pesky registration forms and having to roll in to an elementary school parking lot and feel like a bit of a creep for once. 

K-1 has finally opened up their fan poll on their site for who should be awarded Wild Card spots to this year's World Grand Prix Final 16. Before you scoff at this and say that it is just a poll on a website and K-1 won't live up to their word, I'll remind you that last year Alistair Overeem lead the pack on this poll and it earned him his Wild Card spot. 

Do you really want a World Grand Prix without Peter Aerts? Alexey Ignashov was kicked out of the GP due to an injury, maybe he should get another shot at redemption? Tyrone Spong might be small, but he has a win over the Heavyweight Champion. Hesdy Gerges put on a gutsy performance against Badr Hari and now holds a win over him. Gokhan Saki qualified last year but had to sit out due to injury. Melvin Manhoef can knock anybody out just as easily as he can be knocked out. Hell, Andrei Arlovski is on this poll, and we know that he has had extensive talks with FEG in the past to participate in DREAM, so why not K-1? 

Go vote. You'll thank me.

At last we have the details - the Grand Prix finals will return! Photo c. HKL/Dan Herbertson.

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After a rocky few weeks of some bad stories coming out of K-1, today we finally get some unequivocally good news from the company.  Through their official website, K-1 has announced (almost) all the details on the remainder of the 2010 season for Koshien, MAX, and of course the Grand Prix.  It's a lot of info, so let's jump right in:

GRAND PRIX

The Final 16 is set for October 2 in Seoul, with the GP finals to be held December 11 in a venue yet to be determined.  There will be no further qualifying GP's between now and the final 16.  Tanigawa confirmed that 7 of last year's final 8 would indeed take part in the GP.  Badr Hari will take part, despite his on-going legal troubles, and Alistiar Overeem has officially given up on landing the Fedor fight this fall, choosing to return to K-1. Not taking part: Remy Bonjasky, who needs 6 weeks to recover from eye surgery before resuming training.

The complete line-up so far includes: Hari, Overeem, Semmy Schilt, Jerome Le Banner, Ruslan Karaev, Ewerton Teixiera, Errol Zimmerman, Ben Edwards, Kyotaro, and Freddy Kemayo.  That leaves 6 vacant slots to be filled by fan vote and K-1's own whims.  If I had to guess, I would say both Peter Aerts and Gokhan Saki are a lock for two of those slots.  Other front runners would be Ray Sefo, Alexey Ignashov, and Daniel Ghita.  Other names I could potentially see involved are Hesdy Gerges, Singh Jaideep, Tyrone Spong, and Melvin Manhoef.

MAX GRAND PRIX

Thankfully, the MAX Grand Prix IS indeed happening, though the news isn't as thoroughly positive as the GP news. 

First up, they will continue the Final 16, although a date and venue remain TBD.  After that Final 16, the MAX finals will be a one night, 8 man tournament on November 8 in Tokyo.  That card will also include action in the 63kg division, featuring champ Tetsuya Yamato, Yuta Kubo, and Hiroya among others.

For that Final 16 show, they released a list of 8 participants: Giorgio Petrosyan, Drago, Artur Kyshenko, Chahid, Mike Zambidis, Mohamed Khamal, Vitaly Hurkou, and Su Hwan Lee.  Remember, Kraus, Nagashima, and Sato have already qualified for the Final 8, so there are 5 slots remaining, which means we still have 2 fighters yet to be announced for the Final 16. 

This list is a case of good news/bad news.  Good news: the return of defending champion Giorgio Petrosyan, who was potentially holding out due to a financial dispute.  Excellent to see him back and defending his crown.  Bad news: no Buakaw, no Souwer.  Buakaw I was prepared for, as signs have pointed all year to him not taking part.  Souwer on the other hand, is a shock, and a blow.  If he indeed does not take part, it would be very unfortunate, and would really lower the overall level of competition in this tournament.  Because Souwer has signed a fight for Sept. 18, it's possible he simply can not fit in the Final 16 event, which would mean K-1's slow scheduling here has really hurt them.  We'll see what happens and who fill those final 2 slots.

KOSHIEN

The Final 16 will be held November 20 in Tokyo.  They did not confirm this, but the earlier plan was to have the Koshien finals take place on one night and be separated from Dynamite, so this may be a one night, 16 man tournament.  Only big news here is that defending Koshien champion Masaaki Noiri, who has been on a roll since winning the title, will indeed be back to defend.  Other participants include Tsukasa Fuji, Keisuke Miyamoto, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Hiroki Akimoto, Ryuya Kusakabe, Shoei Hareyama, Ryosuke Sasaki, Koki Takeuchi, and Minoru Kimura.

Overall, this is very welcome news that helps ease some of the fears over K-1's immediate future.  Now, instead of gloom and doom, we can start getting excited for the months to come.

Let's do this again, Reem.

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When it rains it pours, especially when it comes to news concerning FEG recently. Hot on the heels of discussing how FEG has no plans for a DREAM show in October there have been lots of murmurs as to who Alistair Overeem's next opponent will be. M-1 Global recently called out Alistair Overeem on behalf of Fedor Emelianenko, causing a big stir in the MMA community. The long-standing rumor for Overeem was that his next fight was against Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva, while the man himself commented numerous times that he was looking to rematch Fabricio Werdum, the man who dethroned Fedor Emelianenko this summer and shocked the world. He made it pretty clear; it was Werdum or it was K-1. Well, it looks like he made his decision today, and that decision is to participate in the K-1 World Grand Prix. Alistair does some MMAmath to justify his decision;

Number two is clearly Werdum because of his win over Fedor and Antonio Silva. Fedor losing means he's number 3 and Antonio Silva, who came back from a loss against Werdum by defeating Arlovski is clearly the number 4. So in that case, Fedor should fight Antonio Silva and the winner of that fight should fight against the winner of a bout between myself and Werdum. It's just that simple -- it's not rocket science.

The thing is, Overeem is completely correct. Strikeforce always seems to just be grasping at whatever fights they can book and throw logic out the window. Josh Gross on his Twitter today commented on the negotiations for the possible fight;

Overeem-Fedor talk will be interesting. M-1 is asking for Olympic style drug testing. Overeem's camp says no, athletic comm. testing enough.

This wouldn't be the first time that M-1 has raised concerns over Alistair Overeem and the possible substances moving through his system. We talked to Alistair Overeem's manager, Bas Boon today to see where he stands on this, and of course, he had an answer. In regards to GG and Overeem "ducking" the Olympic Style drug testing, "all bullsh*t" was Boon's response. They will submit to drug tests like every other fighter on the card, which means they also are against certain fighters having certain treatment.

According to Boon, M-1 Global has no intentions of putting together an Alistair Overeem vs. Fedor Emelianenko bout according to their timeline of "late November or early December." M-1 Global is currently putting together a fight against Josh Barnett at Dynamite!! 2010 at the end of December, according to Boon, and this seems like a desperation move by M-1 Global management now that their negotiation tactics of the past (stalling, demanding more money, threatening lawsuits, etc.) have been exposed and cannot hold up. So it seems that calling out Overeem for a fight in Strikeforce was a negotiation tactic to help grease the wheels on the possible Barnett fight.

Boon also points out that he made it clear that Alistair was available to fight in the US in April through late September, and finds it funny that Fedor's management wouldn't accept a fight with him until after those dates have passed. Peculiar indeed. A point that needs to be made is that M-1 has demands for Overeem, but what about Barnett who is currently without a license to fight in the US due to PED issues?

Mike Kogan gives us the low down on DREAM.16 and the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16

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Sometimes you might wonder how Japan keeps up its mysticism, other times it is abundantly clear; through a series of smoke and mirrors as well as being as vague as possible. FEG follows this plan as exactly as they possibly can, with both Sasahara and Tanikawa only addressing the rather bleak rumors about the future of FEG shows DREAM and K-1 with "hold on, we'll tell you more later." The only problem here is that, when you don't squash a rumor and simply choose to not comment on it, you make it grow. Then you end up with the editor-in-chief of Kamipro talking about how bad off your company is and how bleak the situation is. Bad, bad move, guys.

So instead of relying on them, Head Kick Legend went ahead and spoke with FEG USA's Mike Kogan about the situation, specifically the upcoming FEG events of DREAM.16 and the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 tournament. There has been speculation that due to FEG's financial situation and the way the PUJI deal went down that they wouldn't have the funding to pull off either show or would have to make concessions. Mike Kogan was able to confirm for us that the next DREAM is indeed DREAM.16 on September 25th and that the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 will indeed happen on October 3rd.

Nothing yet for anything past that, but with one of K-1's flagship events planned to go off without a hitch and the next DREAM solidly in place I think it is safe to say that the "PUJI money" has indeed started to work its charms for FEG. Now can we get some of these guys paid already?

Will Remy fly again in K-1 action? He hopes so.

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The K-1 home page is somewhat notorious for posting fluff interviews with fighters and really, most of it should be taken a face value as promotional work alone. In an email to the K-1 staff in regards to the retirement rumors, Remy basically gave a nonanswer; he wasn't retiring yet but had to wait and see how his recovery comes along in the coming weeks.

"Since the last World Grand Prix I've done some training. Not a lot, but some. Since I've known that I'll be having an operation, I've been training less. I am scheduled to have it in the 3rd week of August. A lot of fans don't know that this is actually the fourth time that I am going to have an operation on my right eye," explained the father of 2.

Remy stated that a comeback would depend on how things went with the surgery, and it would require some consideration. He assured all that if he did, it would be with nothing less than the intention of winning yet another title. "I hope my fans will support me when I have my operation by sending letters and cards. They can see the address on my website www.remybonjasky.com. They have supported me for all these years, and I hope, with their support, I will fully recover and take myself back to the ring where I can thank them for their support and love," he said.

Hopefully Bonjasky makes a full recovery and is able to participate in the Final 16 come October.