Remy Bonjasky took a three round unanimous decision with a third round knockdown to defeat MMA star Alistair Overeem in the main event super fight at the annual K-1 event in Yokohama last night. The Yokohama event usually sees the first action from the major Heavyweight stars since the previous years Grand Prix and this years event didn’t dissapoint with six of last years quarter finalists in action. Overeem seemed the busier fighter for the majority of the fight but was unable to clearly dominate Bonjasky to score a lead on the scorecards. Both judges scored the opening two rounds 10-10 (I gave Overeem the 2nd round) and he was in firm control of the first two minutes of the third round. With roughly 30 seconds remaining, Bonjasky landed a knee to Overeem’s chin followed by an overhand right that dropped the former PRIDE star to the canvas. Overeem beat the count but the 10-8 round was enough to give Bonjasky a unanimous decision win over three rounds.
A lot of MMA fans don’t get the K-1 scoring system. Basically, you have to win the round clearly to get a 10-9 round. K-1 scores a lot of 10-10 rounds for the reason that it’s a three round stand-up battle so in order for the fighter to get a win he needs to show dominance with either a knockdown or a sustained beating to win on points in that time which leads to more action. The extra rounds makes up for this and while some fights end up with dodgey decisions, a lot more fights are decided by the fighters rather then the judges. I thought Bonjasky fought like shit compared to his performance in the last Grand Prix. He didn’t look comfortable under fire leading me to believe he didn’t train as hard as he normally does and I thought without the knockdown that Overeem would have surely won a decision. However, the only real dominating part of the fight was the knockdown which was a clean knockdown in which Overeem was hurt so the right man got the decision (although I wouldn’t have minded seeing a 4th round).
The co feature of this event saw a four man tournament for the vacant K-1 Heavyweight belt which was stripped from Badr Hari after his disgraceful showing in the K-1 WGP Final last year. With Gokhan Saki, Tyrone Spong and Melvin Manhoef making up three of the four, it was last years runner-up at Fukuoka Keijiro Maeda who upset both Manhoef and Saki to win the title. Maeda shocked the heavily favoured Manhoef in the first fight with a short right hand that left Manhoef unable to beat the count in the very first round. The 22 year old who lost his chance at competing in the Grand Prix last year against Ewerton Teixera, frustrated Manhoef with movement and leg kicks before countering a wild attack with a right hand that ended Manhoefs night early.
In the other semi final, nothing could seperate Gokhan Saki and Tyrone Spong for the first three rounds of their fight as they traded evenly with neither getting even the slightest edge. The fight was scored 30-30 and an overtime round decided the fight. In what was another close round, Saki left no doubt as he polaxed Spong with a right hand. The knockout was sudden and completely unexpected. Saki and Maeda battled out another close battle in the final, but Maeda was simply too sharp for last years Grand Prix semi finalist and took the title after an extra round. Whether this means that Maeda gets Hari’s spot in the Final 16 or not I don’t know, but it seems to be the best way to sort that situation out.
Also on the card, three time K-1 champion Peter Aerts made his comeback from his knockout loss to Badr Hari a successful one with a unanimous decision after an extra round against 2008 semi finalist Errol Zimmerman. Aerts successfully attacked the body throughout the fight, landing two and three punch combinations to the body as well as hard body kicks. Zimmerman was game though and answered with some heavy leg kicks and fast punching combinations that looked to have ‘the Dutch Lumberjack’ in trouble briefly in the 2nd round. After three rounds in which Aerts appeared to win comfortably, the judges scored a draw. Aerts again took control with his body attacks and grinded out a four round unanimous decision. Aerts looked much sharper in this fight then against Hari although the Hari that fought in December was a completely different animal to Zimmerman.
In other action, Ewerton Teixera upset Jerome Le Banner with a five round split decision victory. Le Banner fought in spurts and it hurt him on the judges cards in the end. After a slow first two rounds in which Teixera was doing all the work (although not landing with much), Le Banner seemed to outwork him in the 3rd round and then in the first extra round (one judge scored the extra round to Le Banner). In the fifth, Le Banner again fought in spurts and it was enough for Teixera to edge him out. Le Banner seems to think that if the other guy can’t hurt him, then he shouldn’t beat him and often fights to his opponents level. Had he turned the heat on Teixera from the start he would have won that fight easily. Also both Semmy Schilt and Glaube Feitosa scored easy wins over Hesdy Gerges and Junichi Sawayashiki respectively. Schilt controlled ever second of his fight, but despite a 2nd round knockdown couldn’t finish his game opponent. Feitosa repeatedly bounced Sawayashiki off the canvas before the referee intervened in the 2nd round.
