TOKYO, Dec. 2 — It’s that time of the year again, and I’m not talking about Christmas. Rather, early December has come to by synonymous with eight of the top stand-up fighters in the world coming together to battle it out for the most coveted title in all of kickboxing: the K-1 World Grand Prix Final.
Three time K-1 Grand Prix Champion Peter Aerts (Pictures) went through both Musashi and Glaube Feitosa on his way to the final, where he met last year’s Grand Prix champion Semmy Schilt (Pictures), who bested Jerome LeBanner (Pictures) and Ernesto Hoost (Pictures) to make his return appearance for the title.
This had been a bad year for Schilt, who suffered two defeats since his absolutely dominating performance at the 2005 tournament finals — the first being a highly questionable decision to Aerts in the K-1 Oceania GP and the second a controversial decision against Korean giant Hong Man Choi in the K-1 Asia GP.
Both of these losses called into question Schilt’s mettle as a champion. No doubt the Dutch giant wanted to silence his critics and legitimize his dominance with a convincing victory over his fellow countryman.
Schilt’s most dangerous weapons are his knees. He is so tall that he is literally able to bring his knee strikes up and over the gloves of his guarding opponents, inflicting massive trauma to the recipient’s head. These are what he used to demolish everyone in last year’s tournament, and once again he brought them to the ring to batter his Aerts this time around.
Aerts started out strong in the night’s final bout, attacking the 2005 champion with charging punch combos and low kicks. But it wasn’t long before “The Lumberjack” found himself taking damage from Schilt on the inside, as well as getting tagged with tight overhand hooks and Schilt’s patented knees.
The Dutch giant turned it on in the second, putting Aerts to the canvas with strong knees at the ropes that forced a standing eight-count. Aerts continued to brawl on after the knockdown, but despite a valiant effort it was Schilt who scored the more damaging shots, both in close quarters and at a distance.
Schilt utilized his knee strikes to wear down the former three-time Grand Prix champion in the third period. Despite covering up, knees and tight hooks to the head and body took their toll on Aerts, who looked tired in the final minutes.
While both of men fought a hard, gutsy fight, it was Schilt who wasn’t to be denied. The fight went to the judges and it was “Hightower” who walked away with the unanimous victory.
Semifinals
At 41 years of age, K-1 legend Ernesto Hoost (Pictures) said this would be his final run at the title. With 98 wins coming into his semifinal bout against Schilt (number 98 being Chalid “Die Faust” in the quarterfinals) “Mr. Perfect” has enjoyed a long and storied career, being the only man to win the Grand Prix four times (‘97, ‘99, ‘00, ‘02).
Hoost employs excellent defense that usually sees him cover up and avoid punches, as well as a great ability to charge forward with hard-hitting combos to the head and body. The four-time champion used these skills early in his bout against Schilt, but before long he found himself at the receiving end of the Dutch giant’s powerful knees.
Schilt mostly controlled action in the second round, and by the third he was pushing Hoost around the ring, inflicting damage against the ropes and rocking the four-time champion several times. Schilt landed some nice body shot to further rattle Hoost, then finished out the round with a big flying knee. The fight went to the judges and Schilt was awarded unanimous victory.
Afterwards, Hoost said that he was quite emotional when leaving the ring, as he knew it was to be his last time.
“It made me even more sad to see the standing ovation,” the Dutch fighter stated.
When asked for a final message to the fans, the soft-spoken Hoost simply said thanks for the support and that he had a lot of good memories from his illustrious career. To the remaining fighters he wished good luck, but jokingly told them not to break his title.
At last year’s Grand Prix tournament, Brazilian Karate fighter Glaube Feitosa made history when, as a reserve, he made it all the way to the finals. This year the shoe was on the other foot as Feitosa, one of the eight slotted tournament competitors, faced off against reservist Peter Aerts (Pictures).
“The Lumberjack” was put into the mix when two-time GP champion Remy Bonjasky could not continue after his victory against Stefan Leko (Pictures) in the quarterfinals.
The two fighters traded kicks early in the first period, with Feitosa opening the scoring when he connected with a high kick that staggered the Dutchman. Aerts answered by putting together well-timed combinations to the head and body, often finishing up with low kicks.
The Dutch fighter continued to connect with low kicks in the second, eventually forcing Feitosa to the ropes. From here he opened up with a well-placed knee and finally put the Brazilian to the mat with a right cross followed by a left hook to the chin.
Feitosa stayed down to the count of nine, but when he rose to his feet the referee could see that he was still hurt and called an end to the bout.
Quarterfinals
Dutch fighter Remy Bonjasky was dealt some sour apples at this tournament, and he may walk a bit funny for the next few days.
Bonjasky dominated K-1 in 2003 and 2004, taking the Grand Prix title in convincing fashion twice. In 2005 “The Flying Gentleman” was derailed in the semifinals by the crushing knees of Semmy Schilt (Pictures). 2006 was to be the year that the Dutchman returned to the top of the Grand Prix heap.
Standing across from him was Stefan Leko (Pictures), who secured his spot in the tournament by winning the K-1 Las Vegas Grand Prix in August.
The bell rang and Bonjasky came out with his patented high kicks, but just 27 seconds into the action he suffered a kick to the groin. On the video replay, it looked as if the kick had caught Bonjasky low on the body.
Leko protested to the referee, but in fact the kick had caught Bonasky’s groin before sliding up to its final ending point. The former champion grimaced in pain as he hung over the ropes.
Five minutes later Bonjasky still could not start, so K-1 declared that the Sefo-Manhoef reserve fight would go ahead, then the Bonjasky-Leko fight would resume.
Upon the continuation of this bout, a kicking battle ensued and once again Bonjasky took a spinning back kick to the groin. This was no doubt a nightmare for K-1 as Bonjasky grimaced in pain. The lanky fighter was given some time to recover, and after a few minutes shook the worst of it off. But it was obvious that he had trouble moving around and was not at 100 percent.
When the fight finally restarted, Leko went after Bonjasky with punches, scoring uppercuts and hooks to the body. The now compromised Bonasky could only cover-up and throw a few low kicks to counter.
It wasn’t until the end of the second, after weathering several Leko punching combinations, did Bonjasky seem to recover. The Dutch fighter began to answer Leko’s barrages with combos of his own, and in the third he connected a clean right hand to the German’s jaw that dropped him to the mat for an eight-count. Both traded back-and-forth to the final bell, and in the end the decision went to Bonjasky.
This fight obviously took its toll. Even after his win, Bonjasky could barely walk to his corner, and upon a doctor’s check backstage it was ruled that he couldn’t continue.
As per the new K-1 tournament rules, it is the tournament competitors who get priority over the reserves if an advancing fighter can’t continue. But it was ruled that Leko couldn’t continue either. The German explained to the media that 10 days prior he had a bad stomach virus and was not feeling well enough to continue on in the tournament. Hence Aerts was sent to take Bonjasky’s place in the semis.
In their quarterfinal match-up, Feitosa made quick work of Ruslan Karaev. The speedy Russian fighter came charging out off the bell, throwing lightning fast hands and spinning techniques. But Feitosa seemed unfazed by the attacks, eventually getting Karaev to the ropes. From here the Brazilian absolutely opened up with punches, catching the Russian and sending him to the mat. Karaev beat the count, but the referee could see that he was too rocked to continue, calling end to the bout at the 1:11 mark of the first.
Ernesto Hoost (Pictures) did an excellent job of slipping punches and avoiding damage in his bout against Golden Glory’s Chalid “Die Faust.” The four-time champion picked away at his opponent with blistering low kick and intermittent charging combinations, but it wasn’t enough in the eyes of the judges and a fourth round was called for.
In this extra time, Hoost was all about low kicks, as he peppered his opponent’s legs and scored some knees in close. After this extra round, it was Hoost who walked away with the unanimous victory.
Jerome LeBanner (Pictures) did fairly well in his fight against the eventual champion Schilt up until about the middle of the second round. The French fighter had connected with some solid punches and decent low kicks, but then the always dangerous Schilt turned the tables, knocking LeBanner to the canvas with a perfectly-placed, strongly-executed left high kick.
LeBanner beat the count, but wasn’t the same afterwards — he looked slower and less active, while Schilt capitalized, scoring overhand hooks on the inside. The judges award the fight to Schilt after three rounds.
2003 and 2004 GP finalist Musashi didn’t make it into the tournament this year and was instead placed to fight in the first reserve match against Aerts.
The Dutch legend pretty much controlled this one throughout, landing low kicks and hording the real estate in the ring. Eventually Aerts backed the Japanese fighter to the ropes and unloaded punches that dropped his opponent to the mat.
Musashi beat the count, but Aerts could smell blood and went in for the kill, pouring it on as the fight was restarted. He finally put Musashi down for good with a right straight-left hook combo at the 2:53 mark of the first.
Ray Sefo (Pictures) made quick work of a much smaller looking Melvin Manhoef (Pictures), connecting with a right hand as the Dutch fighter attempted to slip underneath. Manhoef beat the count, but it was ruled he couldn’t continue.
At his post-fight interview, Sefo said that he was disappointed that his original opponent, Hong Man Choi, backed out of their scheduled No. 1 reserve match, thus knocking his bout to second status, almost guaranteeing that there would be no chance of him making it into the tournament as a reserve.
But the good natured Sefo said that it was probably just as well, since he doubted whether or not he could fight against his very good friend and training partner Glaube Feitosa.
Dutch fighter Badr Hari scored a unanimous decision against Paul Slowinski in a tight bout. This was Hari’s first bout back since his devastating loss to Peter Graham at the K-1 Oceania GP in Auckland, New Zealand, where he suffered a severely broken jaw. Hari connected with the better quality shots to edge out the victory.