Will it be Mike Zambidis v. Chahid? Photo via www.fansofk1.com

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We don't have a date set just yet, but we know that the remaining 5 fights in the MAX Final 16 should be coming soon.  And now, according to rumors, we may have 2 of those 5 fights set.

First up, mixfight.nl is reporting that it will be Artur Kyshenko v. Mootje Khamal.  Their source is Khamal's management.  Obviously this is a rumor, and even if that's the current plan it could change, but mixfight is typically pretty trustworthy.  Even though Kyshenko has a pair of recent upsets on his record, he would have to be seen as the heavy favorite here.  Kyshenko has the edge in experience, and will enjoy a significant size advantage over Khamal, who moved up from 60-65kg to take part in MAX.  Kyshenko has used his size well in the past, and Hinata taking away that size advantage was definitely a factor in that win.  Against a smaller, considerably less experienced opponent, I favor Kyshenko, but Khamal is a tough fighter who could push him.

Next, Mike Zambidis's website is reporting that it will be Zambidis v. Chahid Oulad El Hadj.  This report also lists a date of October 3 in Seoul for the Final 16.  This actually could make for a really excellent fight, as both men are cut from a similar all action, heavy striking mold.  What's interesting is that they both have had some hard times in recent years.  Chahid started 2009 as one of the can't miss prospects, but after losing his MAX debut, he fell into a rough spiral, going 1-5 in his next 6.  He's since come back and won his last 3, making his way back up the ranks.  Zambidis has had a number of high profile losses in the past 2 years including against Albert Kraus, John Wayne Parr, and Hinata.  But he too is on a comeback, having won his last 2 against Dzhabar Askerov and Warren Stevelmans.  With this fight, one of these two will score a big win to help reestablish themselves, while the other will fall back into their losing ways.  It's a tough call between these two, as Zambidis has the punching power and a big experience advantage, but Chahid is a determined, powerful striker.  Chahid also possesses good leg kicks, which have always been a real kryptonite to Zambidis.  I'll pick Chahid, but it's razor thin.

This is how we feel right now, like we won $60,000 USD via www.k-1.co.jp

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It looks like the sun is peeking through the clouds when it comes to K-1 MAX, finally. Like we told you the other day, there was no date set for the K-1 MAX Final 16 and the schedule was loose, to say the least. On top of that, we went into why putting together the K-1 World MAX 2010 tournament was going to be kind of tough, with some of the biggest names having booked other fights due to inaction from FEG. A part of me would like to feel like we've forced someone's hand, but I know better than that. I know we did enough to piss people in high places off, though.

K-1 broke their silence on their official site today, giving us two K-1 MAX dates as well as showing what we already knew in regards to the K-1 World Grand Prix. October 2 in Seoul, South Korea we have the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16, then on December 11 in Tokyo we have the K-1 World Grand Prix. Our lives would not be complete without the World Grand Prix, and K-1 knows that, so they never with held. On the other hand, K-1 MAX has been foggy with a veil of secrecy surrounding it. As of Wednesday there was no K-1 MAX Final 16 scheduled, with FEG USA unable to confirm there being any K-1 MAX dates.

K-1 has thrown us a proverbial bone, so to speak now, as we have one solid date for the finals and one big "hey, we are working on it, shut up already" about the Final 16. The Finals are slated for November 8th at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, also known as the Sumo Hall, the 13,000 seat arena. This is fantastic news, but of course, Gago Drago, Chahid and Giorgio Petrosyan are fighting for It's Showtime in November. We'll have to see how that unfolds. Where it is still hazy is the Final 16, which K-1 simply lists as "late September or early October" and says venue is TBD.

Now, here is a rumor that I heard from a rather decent source yesterday, that apparently Michal Glogowski signed on for a fight on October 9th in Seoul, South Korea. We have not been able to confirm this, but keep that in the back of your head, as Glogowski is in the Final 16 and that date sounds about right. The plot thickens, so keep checking Head Kick Legend for more updates on the K-1 MAX tournament.

Can someone please pay Andy Souwer and get the show on the road already?

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I'm writing this on August 25th of this year, and to date there has been one big, official K-1 MAX show, a few fights cobbled onto the -63kgs Tournament, and two European primary tournaments which are no longer appearing on K-1's site as official parts of the K-1 MAX 2010 tournament. The only hints we have at there being more to come are on the K-1 MAX -63kgs Tournament results page, which still says in September we'll have at least five more K-1 MAX fights to round out the Final 16 (Nagashima, Kraus and Sato qualified for the Final 8 at the -63kgs show).

The problem is, after this show, we have heard nothing about the upcoming tournament or anything else K-1 MAX related. Also from what we've heard, neither of the finalists, Andy Souwer or Giorgio Petrosyan have been compensated for their most recent bouts with K-1, leaving a little bit of a stale feeling in the air when it comes to the future of K-1 MAX for this year. We confirmed with FEG USA's Mike Kogan last week that FEG's next shows are the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 and DREAM.16, but there was no word of K-1 MAX. Seeing as though the Final 16 is in October, a September K-1 MAX show seems nearly impossible to plan, promote and book.

In the wake of the complete lack of news, Final 16 fighters have their names appearing on other cards through the rest of the year, making the planning stages for K-1 MAX even more difficult. Let's look at who is going where;

It's Showtime 9.12
Mo Khamal vs. Rachid Belani
Gago Drago vs. Mohammed Medhar

Shoot Boxing 9.18
Andy Souwer vs. HINATA

It's Showtime November MAX Tournament
Giorgio Petrosyan
Gago Drago
Chahid Oulad El Hadj

Are you seeing how there are going to be some issues? The biggest hurdle appears to be the fact that both Andy Souwer and Giorgio Petrosyan  are tied up at different times, and the It's Showtime tournament having three of the possible Final 16 competitors (K-1 said Drago or Chahid orignially, but you never know). Heres hoping this gets sorted out and soon.

Yoshihiro Sato earned a Final 8 spot with his decision victory over Yuya Yamamoto.

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For K-1's newly formed 63kg division (which is now sorely in need of a catchy "MAX"-style name), Monday's Grand Prix event couldn't have gone better.  The show was packed with highlights, from a fight of the year finale, to Yamato's KO-heavy championship run, to Saiga's upset win, to action packed reserve fights, the whole tournament absolutely delivered.

Unfortunately, the 63kg GP only made up a portion of the card.  Filling out the event was the start of the MAX Final 16.  Overshadowed by their lighter counterparts, the MAX fighters turned in three unremarkable fights which are already easy to forget just one day later.  This kind of cautious action is not uncommon in the Final 16, as fighters look to play it safe and guarantee their bid into the later rounds, but as MAX looks for a bit of a post-Masato boost, Monday's action certainly did not help.

Kicking off MAX action was the newest Japanese superstar, the #9 ranked Yuichiro Nagashima, as he took on Andre Dida.  For the second year in a row, Dida was brought in out of left field as a Final 16 participant, and for the second year in a row, Dida almost spoiled the party before falling in defeat.  While his showing here was not as dramatic as his near victory over Buakaw at the 2009 Final 16, Dida did give Nagashima a run for his money, no doubt terrifying the FEG heads looking at Nagashima's future.  In the end, it was the improved technical boxing of Jienotsu that once again came through, scoring him a Majority Decision victory (2-0). 

#5 Albert Kraus also was victorious, defeating #11 Hiroki Nakajima, again via decision (3-0).  Unlike Nagashima, Kraus left nothing open for interpretation, scoring an early knockdown to gain an advantage and never allowing his young opponent back in the game.  It was a solid showing from Kraus, although not quite up to his recent KO-laden performances.  Nakajima unfortunately looked completely out of his element here.  He's young, and has a lot of time to grow, but needs to head back to the drawing board before taking another step up in competition like this.

The best MAX bout of the evening featured #8 Yoshihiro Sato v. #13 Yuya Yamamoto.  These two met outside of K-1 years ago, with Sato scoring the win, and this meeting proved to be little different.  Sato easily picked apart the aggressive Yamamoto, never allowing the younger fighter to bait him into a brawl.  It was a very technical, well executed performance from Sato, though again, not the most exciting showing.  Sato took the majority decision 2-0.

With these fights in the books, we have three men now qualified for the Final 8 this fall: Yoshihiro Sato, Albert Kraus, and Yuichiro Nagashima.  We know Yamamoto, Dida, and Nakajima will not be joining them (no big surprises there), and the remaining five slots will be filled at a Final 16 event to be held in Europe in September. 

Of the 10 men taking part in those Final 16 fights, seven are confirmed by K-1: Giorgio Petrosyan, Andy Souwer, Artur Kyshenko, Su Hwan Lee, Mo Khamal, Vitaly Horkou, and Michal Glogowski.  Either Chahid or Drago will take slot #8, with either Buakaw or Pajonsuk in slot #9, and slot #10 TBA.  I would be surprised to see the popular Drago left off in favor of Chahid, though both could feasibly end up entered.  As for Buakaw/Pajonsuk - I think at this point we have to accept that Buakaw likely will not be involved.  He's been distancing himself from K-1, taking lots of fights outside the organization, and apparently has not been in much communication with them.  While it will be exciting to see Pajonsuk get a shot, the loss of Buakaw is obviously a letdown.

With that next event not scheduled until September, it could still be some time before we hear more news on the MAX Grand Prix.  Let's hope the next news rekindles some of that much needed excitement.

Yamato knocked out everybody in his path to becoming K-1's first -63kgs Champion, including a gutsy Yuta Kubo

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K-1 has finally gotten exactly what they wanted, and that is a Japanese hero for them to raise up and proclaim the best. The -63kgs tournament was an experiment by K-1, a chance for them to get some fresh talent into the mix and dip into the thriving lightweight Japanese scene that they had previously been missing out on. Japanese fighters tend to thrive at lighter weight classes, as seen in MMA, and with Masato's departure from the Middleweight/MAX division, they thought fast and this is what they came up with. Their new champion is a twenty two year old painter named Tetsuya Yamato and he just knocked out everybody that stood in front of him.

The quarterfinals saw a lot of action, and a lot of long, hard bouts for the competitors. Matsumoto was able to score a third round knockout over Uematsu, but very deep into the third round, nearly going the distance. The young dynamo Yuta Kubo was unable to put Keiji Ozaki down, taking a unanimous decision victory over him. The one with the supermodel looks, Kizaemon Saiga did the same, fighting his way to a unanimous decision over Naoki Ishikawa. Then Yamato stepped into the ring against Yuki, and he absolutely flattened him in the first round with a big right hook. This was a taste of things to come. 

In the semi-finals, the pairings were Kubo and Matsumoto and Saiga and Yamato. Kubo fired back after the long quarterfinal bout by taking it to Matsumoto, landing an absolutely beautiful left high kick in just over a minute and sending himself on to the finals. Saiga provided a bit more of a challenge for Yamato, as they fought for nearly two rounds before Yamato was able to capitalize and land a left hook to the jaw that floored the pretty boy and putted Yamato into the finals against Kubo. 

The stage was set and both young men entered the finals looking to become the first K-1 -63kgs champion and they absolutely went to war. Schiavello is still blown away by the fight hours later and all the live reports I've seen have said nothing but the same; these two just went at it. Plenty of tense moments until finally Yamato put Kubo down in the third round and was crowned the first -63kgs lightweight champion of K-1. 

The other notable bouts of the evening were in the reserve fight, Watanabe fell to Kazuyuki Miyata via decision, proving that being entertaining might land you a spot on a K-1 card, but not a victory. In 70kgs Final 16 action Albert Kraus secured himself a spot in the Final 8 with a decision win over Hiroki Nakajima. Yuya Yamamoto's hard luck continues as Yoshihiro Sato bounces back, taking a decision win over him to move on to the Final 8. Of course, Yuichiro Nagashima isn't to be forgotten, as he battled Andre Dida to a 2-0 decision victory, moving him forward as well. Full results here.

SBN coverage of K-1 MAX -63kgs Final/70kgs Final 16

Is this the next Masato?

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The first half of the calendar year is always a bit slow in the world of K-1.  Because of their Grand Prix schedule, K-1 shows are very heavy in the back half of the year, with these earlier months typically providing little more than a nice setting of the table.  This year, that sense of waiting is particularly true for K-1 MAX. 

As we head into this weekend, we are looking towards the start of the K-1 MAX Grand Prix 2010.  But what should be a major event is instead upstaged by the finals of the new 63kg Grand Prix.  The end result: very little discussion of MAX and a real sense that this weekend is still just place setting.

There's a lot of factors you could point to for this switch - an increased focus on the new division, the desire to expand into Europe by splitting the Final 16, uncertainty over the participation of top names - but really, there's one factor that stands above them all, and that factor can be summed up in two words:

No Masato.

Now, certainly it's not that simple.  Obviously these other factors do play a part.  But you can't help but notice that the first year without K-1 MAX's figurehead has seen a definite decline in promotion.  Of course, Masato wasn't directly involved in last year's GP, but the story of his pending retirement loomed large throughout the year, as did the promise of the GP champion earning the privilege of being Masato's final opponent.  Now Masato is out, and with MAX's 2010 season focused around Japanese fighters, the big question being asked today is "Who is the next Masato?" 

That question could be the subtitle of this Monday's show.  Already much of the pre-show hype revolves around this idea of "the next Masato" with a number of fighters stepping up to the challenge, both from the 63 and 70kg divisions.  Focusing on the 70kg GP for now, there are two men on Monday's card who will surely look to fill those shoes.

The first is an unlikely candidate - Yuichiro Nagashima.  This cosplaying cross-dresser came onto the K-1 scene last year, making a big splash more for his antics and his entrances than his actual fighting.  After a pair of brutal loses in 2009 to Albert Kraus and Xu Yan, most everyone wrote Nagashima off as a gimmick fighter.  Wrong.  He came back strong (after training with Masato's gym) at the 2010 Japan GP.  At that event, Nagashima showed superb boxing, scoring 3 straight stoppage victories en route to a tournament crown.  Now vastly improved over last year, Nagashima seems to have found a good comfort zone between his antics and his fighting.  And K-1 looks to reward that, as this year Nagashima gets a Final 16 opponent almost tailor made for him.  Last year, Nagashima was thrown into the deep waters, facing the stronger, more experienced, better all around fighter Albert Kraus.  This year, he draws Andre Dida in a fight that Nagashima should win.  Like Nagashima, Dida keeps his focus on his hands more than an all around game.  Expect this to be more of a traditional boxing match, and in that setting, the technical skill of Nagashima should trump the brawling of Dida.

The other "next Masato" in the MAX GP is the man hand picked by Masato himself - Hiroki Nakajima.  The Krush veteran entered K-1 earlier this year behind a mountain of hype, largely generated by Masato picking Nakajima as the tournament winner and his heir apparent.  It didn't quite play out like that, as Nakajima looked strong in the early rounds (especially in a dominant KO of Hinata in the semi-finals), before being KO'd by Nagashima in the finals.  To take the next step on his K-1 path, he'll have to get through the resurgent Albert Kraus.  Not nearly enough has been made of Kraus's return to the upper echelon of 70kg fighters.  A former MAX GP champion, Kraus looked like he might be at the end of the line 2 years ago.  But he's since bounced back with an incredible 11-1 run and is coming in off a nasty KO victory.  Like last year, Kraus looks to squash the hopes of the up and coming Japanese fighter, and like last year, I expect he will succeed.

The final MAX fight on Monday should serve as a cautionary tale for both Nagashima and Nakajima, as it features two men who were once in the running to replace Masato.  No one in K-1 better embodies the danger of lofty expectations than Yoshihiro Sato.  In 2008, Sato knocked out Buakaw, earning himself acclaim as the next great Japanese fighter.  He lost his next two fights, but they were to tough opponents (Kyshenko and Masato) so there was no great concern.  The real worry came at this time last year, when he was defeated by Gago Drago.  People began having serious doubts about Sato.  He's scored wins since then, but is again coming in off a loss, this time to Thai fighter Pajonsuk.  There's no denying the skill Sato has, but his spotty performance history in the past year has led many to believe the tag of Next Masato is beyond his reach.  Sato's opponent is another former winner looking to bounce back.  Yuya Yamamoto was an unlikely success in 2009, making it to the Final 4 behind some very exciting wins.  Again, he followed that high point up with back to back loses, first to Giorgio Petrosyan, then to Hinata.  He's bounced back with an awesome KO of Scott Shaffer in Krush, but the Hinata loss seemed to expose the fundamental weaknesses in Yamamoto's game and his inability to adjust his gameplan.  Both Yamamoto and Sato have felt the pressure of expectation, and this fight will be telling for both.

So with K-1 eyes on these men, and with Masato watching ringside, the pressure will be on.  Can one of these men capture the attention of the Japanese fans the same way Masato himself once did?  And can any of them rekindle interest in MAX?  These are the big questions to watch for on Monday.

Nagashima kicks for the press, via www.gbring.com

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World Cup fever is in full effect the world over right now, so of course it is impossible for it not to bleed over into combat sports a bit. Yuichiro Nagashima held an open workout for the press today where he appealed to himself be a goalkeeper for Japan after their failure in the World Cup, joining with other super power nations who have fallen in the World Cup.

This just instilled a greater sense of urgency for Nagashima, who now wants to help regain the honor of Japan by picking up on Masato's legacy and claiming victory for Japan in this year's World MAX Grand Prix. He mentioned Andre Dida, a Brazilian and the "Miracle in Miami" from 1996 where Brazil defeated Japan in the first round of the World Cup and how this year he would defeat the Brazilian representative in the opening of the Final 16 and then move on to win the whole tournament.

Now, of course, what it comes down to is heart and skill, which Nagashima is heavy on both. Nagashima had problems getting everything together and clicking last year, but this year went on a tear at the World MAX Japan tournament and it will be hard to bet against him. He came out aggressive and showed great defense as well as offense.

SBN coverage of K-1 MAX -63kgs Final/70kgs Final 16

Another fantastic K-1 produced hype video for the upcoming K-1 MAX event on 7.5

SBN coverage of K-1 MAX -63kgs Final/70kgs Final 16