K-1 Grand PrixK-1 is a combat sport that combines stand up techniques from Muay Thai, Karate, Savate, San shou, Kickboxing and traditional Boxing to determine the single best stand-up fighter in the world (the "1").
So with the fall of PRIDE, many of PRIDE's talented fighters are seceding and going on to other organizations. with all these transfers, why hasn't K-1 gotten any of the good fighters?
Why has everyone gone to Bodog, WEC, or EliteXC? judging from history, Japanese orgs have generally paid fairly well, DYNAMITE US paid very good in fact.
They have signed some guys like Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro and Marcelo Garcia lately. I'm sure as the UFC/PRIDE aquisition unfolds and UFC picks up the contracts that they want, you'll see K-1 sign more talent. It's a kind of wait and see situation.
They are throwing a GP soon. It's gonna have some great LW fighters in it. Here's a new article on the GP:
Monday, June 11, 2007
by Stephen Martinez (smartinez@sherdog.com)
Kicking off the annual mixed martial arts extravaganza of shows put together by most Japanese promoters this time of year and coming hot on their heals of the promotion's first attempt to "invade" the American market, Japan's largest fight promoter, Fight Entertainment Group, announced a partial list of names for the upcoming HERO'S 154-pound tournament to be held at Yokohama Arena on July 16.
While not sporting the same caliber of fighters as the now inactive PRIDE lightweight division, HERO'S, under the guidance of ex-RINGS head-honcho Akira Maeda (Pictures), has really come around in the last three years by building an interesting division that mixes good local talent with international names well known in the MMA community.
Joining current HERO'S welterweight champion Gesias Calvancanti (Pictures), some of the names officially announced by FEG include Caol Uno (Pictures), Vitor Ribeiro (Pictures), Hideo Tokoro (Pictures), Katsuhiko Nagata, Kazuyuki Miyata (Pictures), Kultar Gil, Shuichiro Katsumura (Pictures) and Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures).
While FEG didn't announce any official matches or brackets, it's expected that the upcoming HERO'S show will mark the opening round of the welterweight tournament, taking course through the rest of the year until the finals at K-1 Dynamite New Year's Eve show.
It's interesting to notice that some regular names from HERO'S welterweight division like Norifumi Yamamoto (Pictures) and Genki Sudo (Pictures) were not announced like in previous years.
Yamamoto is focused on pursuing a spot in the Japanese Wrestling Olympic team leading to next year's Olympic games to be held in Beijing, China, while Genki Sudo (Pictures) is currently retired from MMA activity due to a non-official but chronic back injury. He has found a new career in Japan: entertainment.
Also, current 76-kilogram ADCC champion Marcelo Garcia (Pictures) stated he's not interested in cutting weight down to 70-kg for his anticipated MMA debut, ruling him out of any participation in the 155-pound tournament for the time being. The decision also leaves him with no other choice but to participate in the almost non-existent 76-kilo division.
Other fighters on the card but not taking part of the middleweight tournament are Melvin Manhoef (Pictures), Taiei Kin (Pictures), Katsuyori Shibata, Bernard Ackah (Pictures), and the always-entertainment Akebono.
Japanese fighters need a home, and there are some damn good ones that will flock to HERO'S. Saku will stay there, Gomi/Sakurai/Chonan are free agents as far as I know.
It's going to be game on, and HERO'S has all the cash in the world. Plus, everybody knows the Yakuza are running it, and they don't care (unlike those assholes at Fuji TV).
UFC has their heads turned away for now. That might prove to be a big-ass mistake.
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"...They're not coming out here swinging, and brawling, and just going to spend their wad."
Japanese fighters need a home, and there are some damn good ones that will flock to HERO'S. Saku will stay there, Gomi/Sakurai/Chonan are free agents as far as I know.
It's going to be game on, and HERO'S has all the cash in the world. Plus, everybody knows the Yakuza are running it, and they don't care (unlike those assholes at Fuji TV).
UFC has their heads turned away for now. That might prove to be a big-ass mistake.
Rumor is Sakurai is fighting at WW against Diego Sanchez at UFC 74. I could definitely see Chonan staying in Japan, since he is a Champion for the DEEP organization and has alot of popularity over there. But you never know, UFC may make a push for him as well since he was the last person to beat Anderson Silva (not counting DQ loss to Okami).
so then why doesnt HERO's just quickly buy out some good fighters and quickly take over the void left by PRIDE?
It's a process man. Some guys contracts are still in limbo as they are being transfered over from DSE to PRIDE Worldwide LLC. or terminated. Like Sokoudjou who recently signed with EliteXC, but it may be on hold because of his old DSE contract.
K-1 HERO'S did just sign Alistair Overeem earlier this week. He is gonna give HW a full time try. I think he's a pretty solid signing, and we'll probably see more in the near future.
yeah Gomi has apparently signed with Heros and I have heard rumors that they are trying for Fedor. If they make this signing, they need to continue to promote events with EliteXC or Showtime so they can get on PPV more often. That's the only way they will grow.
HERO's needs to step up!
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