YOKOHAMA, July 20, 2005 — Under the scorching heat of a Tokyo summer, K-1 held the World Max Championship tournament at the Yokohama arena. Eight of the best 154-pound fighters from around the world gathered to find out who would be this year’s king.
Truly awesome.
After an evening of exciting, hard fought matches, the finals came down to Dutch Shootboxer Andy Souwer taking on last year’s king of the K-1 Max, Buakaw Por.Pramuk.
The match started out fairly cautiously, with both fighters feeling each other out. After a couple of exchanges, Buakaw scored a nice, albeit glancing, kick to Souwers head. Souwer really demonstrated his boxing prowess throughout the course of this fight, throwing nice uppercuts and great combos to the head and body to counter the Thai’s barrage of kicks.
Throughout the majority of the fight, most Buakaw combinations started with a kick off his left leg. Souwer blocked these and would counter with punches, often ending up in a clinch. Both fighters threw a lot of knees from here, but the Thai showed his dominance in this position, often breaking his opponent’s balance, putting him to the mat.
After three rounds of strong boxing from Souwer and hard kicking from Buakaw, the fight judged a draw. Two overtime rounds followed, with both fighters sticking to the same tactics that they had used throughout the match. The battles in the clinch continued as well. At the end of the fifth round the fight went to the judges again, with Souwer being awarded a split-decision victory.
Backstage during his interview, Souwer said that his plan going into the final was to focus on boxing and go for a knockout. He further stated that Buakaw clinched a lot, because he felt the Thai was afraid of his punches.
In the semifinals, Buakaw took on 2002 K-1 Max champion Albert Kraus. The last time these two met, it was Kraus that came out the victor. Revenge was no doubt on Buakaw’s mind for this fight. Kraus came out to the “Rocky” theme song “Eye Of The Tiger.”
Throughout the match, the Dutchman focused on his formidable boxing skills. Kraus threw some excellent flurries, mixing his shots up between the head and body. The guy just seems to have a knack for finding openings on his opponents and landing excellent shots. However, it was the Thai who was really able to control the pace of this match with his lightening fast kicks and brutal knees from the clinch.
Buakaw pushed his opponent around the ring for most of this fight and Kraus spent a lot of time defending, especially in the third. Kraus did have his moments during the match, but in the end it wasn’t enough and Buakaw got his revenge with a unanimous victory.
The injury wildcard reared its ugly head throughout the course of the evening, but strangely enough, fate smiled on Souwer in both of these cases. Masato was supposed to take on Souwer in the other semifinal match, however the crowd was told that the extremely popular Japanese kickboxer had injured his left leg in the quarterfinals and could not continue.
The announcement was greeted by a uniformed expression of shock from the crowd. Masato limped out to the ring to address his adoring fans, and basically told them that he was sorry. Backstage, there were rumors that he had broken a bone, most likely in a foot or ankle.
This now meant that Souwer would take on the winner of the reserve fighter match-up, Kazuya Yasuhiro. But once again, fate shone on Souwer because Yasuhiro had sustained a fairly bad cut close to the outside corner of his right eye in the quarterfinals. His corner must have fixed him up enough backstage for K-1 to decide that he was fit to fight.
The first round started with Yasuhiro coming out with a flurry of punches. Souwer blocked these and answered with some of his own. Very shortly thereafter the referee stopped the action to get the doctor to check the cut, which had re-opened on the Japanese Seido Kaikan fighter.
The match started again, with both fighters making some exchanges. But soon the referee stopped the action for a second doctor check on the bleeding Yasuhiro. This time the cut was ruled too serious and the fight was stopped to the displeasure of the crowd. Souwer came out of this very short fight with zero damage.