K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 Results

I thoroughly enjoyed this event. This was my first live taste of K-1 and I thought it was fucking fantastic. There might have only been the one stoppage (well there was two but only one was proper) but the fights were mostly entertaining and the fact that they were all heading towards something made each fight more interesting. The build-up to the Aerts-Schilt fourth fight made that fight in particular highly anticipated.

Ruslan Karaev KO2 Chalid ‘Die Faust’
Fight of the night by far! This was an absolute slugfest with the better skilled fighter Karaev dominating most of the fight but the hard punching ‘Die Faust’ equalising the fight with his murderous power. Karaev dominated the first half of the round before he got decked by a right hand. He then came back to drop ‘Die Faust’ three times in the second round to win the fight by stoppage. Karaev’s chin seems to be his downfall and I think he has a chance of making the semi finals but I’ll be surprised if he is one of the two finalists.

Jerome Le Banner UD3 Junichi Sawayashiki
Le Banner is an imposing figure in the ring and Sawayashiki didn’t have the firepower to deal with him. Unlike a few of the other fights that went three rounds, this one didn’t need an extra round. Le Banner pushed the action from start to finish and was the clear winner of every round. My main problem with Le Banner is that he’s so mechanical; almost like a K-1 version of Vitali Klitschko. Against the smoother technicians I think he will struggle. Still, I think Le Banner has a strong chance at taking his first K-1 title this year.

Gokhan Saki UD (Ex. 1) Ray Sefo
I did think Sefo was up after the first three rounds but the fight was very close and the fact that Sefo was in such bad shape after three rounds shows that he wasn’t going to be in contention for the Final 8. Saki let Sefo fight his fight a bit too much and should have tried to use his speed a bit more, but even though I thought Sefo was in front after three rounds, Saki was in much better shape and the right guy went through to the finals. Saki, like Karaev (infact thats who he’s fighting, but I’ll get to that shortly) might make the semis, but I doubt he goes further.

Errol Zimmerman UD3 Glaube Feitosa
Zimmerman lived up to expectations and handed Feitosa a beating in the first two rounds. Zimmerman’s speed is incredible and he puts together a great variety of combinations with power. A few things that I think Zimmerman needs to work on is 1) not getting so right hand happy; he probably could have put Feitosa away if he didn’t throw his money punch time after time and instead used other shots to set it up and 2) his stamina; Feitosa came back and won the 3rd round after Zimmerman gassed. Lets say this was a semi final of the final 8. Had Zimmerman fought once already that night he likely would have lost that fight due to his fatigue (thats assuming Feitosa could have stayed standing after his first fight of course). I think Zimmerman has a good chance at making the final, but it’ll definately depend on his stamina. Either way, I think Zimmerman will win his first K-1 World Grand Prix within five years.

Remy Bonjasky UD3 Paul Slowinski
I underrated Slowinski a lot in this fight, he really made a good fight of it and I thought that it should have gone another round. I honestly thought the fight wasn’t as one sided as the commentators made out and that it could have gone either way after the three rounds. Slowinski was landing more shots, Bonjasky was landing harder shots. I hope Slowinski is brought back to fight in an alternate fight as he was one of the better fighters who lost on Saturday night. Bonjasky looked a little rusty, but I’m sure he’ll be fine come finals time and he has a very good shot to claim his third crown.
PS- Bonjasky’s walk-out music was ficking ace! For those of you who don’t know, he walked out to Charles Bronson’s characters theme music from ‘One Upon a Time in the West’

Ewerton Teixera UD3 Musashi
Honestly, get rid of both of them and let the loser of the Aerts-Schilt fight take the eigth place. I’d be happy to never see either of these guys fight again. To be fair on Teixera, it was mroe Musashi who wasn’t there to win and should retire. I can’t see Teixera getting past the first round in the finals.

Badr Hari TKO (Ex. 1) Hong Man Choi
The fight was ruled a draw and Hong Man Choi’s trainer threw in the towel before the first overtime round. Hari controlled 8 mins 55 secs of the 9 mins and then got dropped. Even with the knockdown I still had him up 29-28. The judge that scored for Hong Man Choi should be shot. Hari looked as good as you can when you fight someone that much bigger then you. When he fights someone a mroe suitable height he’ll look a lot better and should he make it past his quarter final fight I think he could win the lot.

Peter Aerts UD3 Semmy Schilt
Thats right, the three time defending champion won’t be in the main bracket at the finals. I assume Schilt will come in as an alternate, but someone will have to pull out for him to get a chance to defend his title. Aerts did what he had to, he got inside and he outworked Schilt. I had Aerts up 29-28 (I gave Schilt the first round) and, even though I do think it should have gone an extra round or two, I’m glad it didn’t as I wanted to see Aerts win. Depending on how his body holds up over three rounds, I think Aerts is a good chance to win his fourth crown and tie Ernesto Hoost’s record.

The Final Match-ups
The match-ups were selected after the fights. After Karaev (3rd), Bonjasky (4th) and Zimmerman (2nd) chose where they wanted to fight instead of who, Gokhan Saki selected Ruslan Karaev as his opponent. Next up Teixera chose Zimmerman as his opponent. Aerts had the option of fighting either Bonjasky or letting Le Banner choose between him and Bonjasky and he decided to be the first fight of the finals and let Le Banner take his choice. Le Banner left Badr Hari to face Aerts and chose to face Bonjasky for the second time.
The way the draw stands, the winner of Aerts-Hari will face the winner of Zimmerman-Teixera and the winner of Bonjasky-Le Banner will fight the winner of Karaev-Saki. Going off this, I expect Peter Aerts to face Remy Bonjasky in the Final match. I think Zimmerman will breeze through Teixera, but other then that anything could happen. I think either Aerts or Hari will be too experienced for Zimmerman, but if they have a hard fight it might gift Zimmerman a finals spot. I also think the same with Bonjasky and Le Banner in that they should handle either of Karaev or Saki easily (I honestly don’t have any idea who will win that fight) but depending on how they handle each other it could be difficult. It could very well end up being two of the regional titlists facing each other in the final after the experienced guys beat each other up. Either way I can’t wait for December 6th and not because of De La Hoya vs Pacquiao!

PS- Did I mention that I got 7/8 in my first go at picking K-1?