TOKYO, Nov. 19 — When I hear the words “Tokyo Dome” I immediately think cold beer, crappy food and K-1. This huge venue in the center of Tokyo has become synonymous with kickboxing since the K-1 promotion first started running their Grand Prix shows there in 1997.
The championship pitted Dutch giant Semmy Schilt (Pictures) against Brazilian karate fighter Glaube Feitosa. This match which wasn’t suppose to happen, of course, already did happen just last September when these two faced each other in a Grand Prix qualifying event in Osaka, Japan. Feitosa came out on the bottom of that affair, hence knocking him out of the running for a place amongst the final eight.
However, luck was on the Brazilian’s side this night, who as the winner of his reserve match-up with Gary Goodridge (Pictures), was put back into the tournament when K-1 veteran Peter “The Lumberjack” Aerts couldn’t continue due to injury.
Schilt started by pushing the Brazilian to the corner and mauling him with short punches from the clinch. After being separated by the referee, the Dutchman grabbed behind his opponent’s neck, securing a Thai clinch. From here Schilt fired an ungodly left knee that connected with the right side of Feitosa’s head.
The impact knocked the Brazilian cold, as he could not even raise his hands to break his fall into the ropes. The fight lasted only 48 seconds.
Knee strikes were the weapon of choice for the Dutchman, who used them to decimate all who stood before him. Schilt’s knees were dangerous in two ways — not only did they have a ton of power behind them, but he also had such a height advantage that he was able to arch his knees over his opponent’s hands, thus making the strikes very difficult to defend against.
In the semifinals, Schilt faced off against two-time K-1 Grand Prix champion Remy “The Flying Gentleman” Bonjasky. Schilt’s main weapons in this “Battle of Holland” were knees — each strike took its toll as Remy covered to defend against them.
Schilt scored a front kick to the mid-section, forcing Remy to go down to one knee, wincing in pain as the referee counted to eight. The champion rose to his feet, only to be pushed around the ring once again.
Schilt pushed Bonjasky into a corner, got a clinch, fired a right knee to the body, skipped and then followed with a left to the other side of the body. This final shot took the wind out of Bonjasky’s sails, knocking the champion down for the count at 2:08 of the first round.
Feitosa faced K-1 veteran Musashi in the other semifinal. The Japanese fighter looked fairly relaxed in the first round, moving around the ring and getting out of the way of the punches. But he couldn’t avoid the strikes forever — Feitosa landed a hard straight right to the head in the closing moments of the round that knocked Musashi down, despite his protest to the contrary.
After a few brief exchanges in the second, Feitosa put together one of the most hellacious combos I have ever seen, as the Brazilian drove his opponent back from the ropes at one side of the ring all the way to the other with two straight punches, followed by two mid-level kicks off his left leg, then into a monstrous flying knee that connected with Musashi’s face.
This was a nasty knee. Watching it connect in slow motion looked like a high-speed locomotive crashing into a Volkswagen stalled out on the train tracks. A brilliant finish to a huge charge.
Musashi may have doomed himself by moving straight backwards when Feitosa charged, rather than moving off to the side to avoid his opponent’s head of steam. Upon impact of the knee, the Japanese fighter went down and did not get back up. Standing in the ring with the other fighters at the end of the event, Musashi had a big split in his badly swollen lips. He did not come to the post-fight interview area due to the fact that he could barely talk.