I always cringe a little whenever a pure boxer decides to enter a K-1 ring. This isn’t to say that I think boxing is a lesser form of combat than kickboxing. Far from it, I love boxing and have total respect for what practitioners of that sport have to go through. But boxing and kickboxing are two very different creatures, as former Japan super welterweight champion Akira Ohigashi found out when he faced off against 2002 K-1 World Max champion Albert “The Hurricane” Kraus.
To my surprise, the former Japanese boxing champion came out flying at the start, charging at his opponent and rocking him with combos to the head and body. But sure enough, Kraus started in on Ohigashi’s weakness-his legs. Kraus scored several low kicks, both to the inside and outside of his opponent’s leg, knocking him badly off balance and slowing him down greatly.
The low kicks that Kraus laid on Ohigashi were accumulative: after nailing him a few hard ones, each kick after that took less and less effort on Kraus’ part to achieve the same effect. Towards the end every little touch made the Japanese fighter reel back in pain.
Kraus scored three knockdowns off of low kicks in the second and the fight was stopped at the 1:31 mark, giving the Dutch fighter the knockout victory.
Another former Japanese boxing champion, Satoru Suzuki, took on the hard punching Mike Zambidis. Suzuki had a big reach advantage in this one.
The fight started with both fighters circling cautiously. Suzuki often had his hands low. Visions of Zambidis’ big knockout over “Kid” Yamamoto began to dance around my head.
Zambidis went for a big hook to the head then threw bombs to the body mixed with several flying knee attempts. Suzuki used his reach advantage well to set up some hand combinations on the Greek fighter, but began to fall victim to Zambidis’ low kicks, throwing him off balance.
Zambidis’ low kicks continued to take affect and in the second round he landed a right leg to the outside of Suzuki’s thigh that put the Japanese fighter down for a standing eight count. The Greek fighter could see that the end was near, following up with yet another low kick as the fight resumed. Suzuki went down and this time could not get back up. Zambidis was awarded the KO victory at the 1:17 mark.
Remigijus Morkevicius laid a beating on Seido Kaikan fighter Kazuya Yasuhiro. As per his trademark style, Remy came out charging at the start, pouring on the punch combos, kicks and knees and never looked back throughout the entire match-up.
Aside from a brief period in the third where Yasuhiro was able to slow Remy down a bit with punches, he just couldn’t establish any sort of a rhythm against the charging Lithuanian, but rather only react and defend. Morkevicius knocked Yasuhiro down twice per round and had his opponent out on his feet toward the end.
Yasuhiro survived, but Remy walked away with the unanimous decision.
Muay Thai stylist John Wayne Parr was all about combinations in his match-up against Japanese fighter Kinami. Parr mixed up the punches in his combos to the head and the body, often finishing up with a kick or a knee.
In a particularly skilled and brutal exchange in the third, Parr landed three unanswered right-handed uppercuts, followed by knees. Kinami tried to employ front kicks to keep the Australian at bay, and even attempted a few spinning back-fists, but in the end Parr was just too much and walked away with the unanimous decision.
Gibson’s Pankration fighter Kultar Gill (Pictures) had K-1 USA champion Mike McDonald in his corner for his match-up against 2004 U.F.K world super welterweight champion Hayato.
Both were light on their feet, moving around the ring at the start of this one. After a series of exchanges Gill scored a knockdown off a left hand, with Hayato getting a standing eight count. In the clinch, Gill landed some strong knees.
After some brief exchanges in the second, Hayato scored a knockdown on the Canadian fighter with a surprise spinning right back-fist. The Japanese fighter could see that the end was near and followed up with a right-left combo to put the “Black Mamba” to the canvas for good at the 40-second mark.
In his post-fight interview, Gill, who impressed the K-1 brass at the open tryouts in Las Vegas last August, stated that he went to the tryouts for MMA, but the K-1 asked him to do kickboxing instead. He further stated that he had no hard feelings afterwards and hoped he could face Hayato again sometime in the future.
Australian fighter Ian Schaffa totally dominated the first round of his match-up against Akeomi Nitta, keeping the fight in close and smothering the Japanese fighter with head-body combinations, scoring two knockdowns.
Nitta couldn’t employ his renowned kicks against his constantly charging opponent and was lucky to have survived the onslaught he faced in the first.
To his credit, the Japanese fighter was able to come back in the second, controlling the distance better and slowing Schaffa down with low kicks, but the Australian was able to maintain his punches and walked away with the decision.
Judo Champion Akiyama Yoshihiro seemed willing to trade with American boxer Michael Lerma at the start of their bout. However, the two fighters eventually got into a clinch. From here the judoka picked up his American opponent, slammed him to the mat, quickly took mount and rained down punches.
Lerma tried to fend off the strikes as best he could, but instead of trying to bridge from out the bottom he opted to twist, dangerously exposing his arm to the submission expert. Akiyama choose not to capitalize on the mistake, but rather proceeded to pound his way to victory from the mount. The fight was stopped at the 2:47 mark of the first round.
Working-class hero Hideo Tokoro (Pictures) made quick work of Gabriel Lemley. The Japanese fighter scored two takedowns, took side-control and finally caught his opponent in a triangle for the tapout victory.