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Slay or be Slain - The Heavyweight Champion
Slay Or Be Slain - The Heavyweight Champion
Tuesday, 09. Mar. 2010
By Stuart Tonkin
Since 2007 the first locally held K-1 event of the year has traditionally been held in Yokohama Arena. Thankfully, this year there will be no changes to what has somehow become a simple, yet magical formula to events a level of which is rarely seen.
Many of the jaw-dropping bouts of the past 4 years have taken place at this event. In 2007, among several other surprises, Mighty Mo did the unthinkable when he landed his "M-over hand"-right to ruin Hong-man Choi's night. And fan-favorite Ray Sefo dropped reining Champion Semmy Schilt for the first time ever in K-1, only to then be stopped by Hightower, also for the first time in K-1.
In 2008 Mark Hunt's long awaited return hit its' first bump when Semmy planted a spinning back kick into the Samoan's ample gut. Badr Hari came out with fire in his eyes and defeated Sefo inside of 1 round. And the Kyokushin star, Ewerton Teixeira made his successful debut.
Last year we saw Tyrone Spong's first appearance in a Japanese K-1 event, albeit an unsuccessful one. Ichigeki stable-mates Glaube Feitosa and Ewerton defeated their respective opponents. Peter Aerts beat young gun Errol Zimmermann. And, Remy Bonjasky defended the honor of K-1 fighters around the world by beating Alistair Overeem; dropping him in the process.
The common theme is that these Yokohama events rival even the WGP for the level of excitement, and there has been a wicked upset or two on each and every card thus far. What is more surprising is that there is just a single team responsible for each and every one of the upset-of-the-night fights.
Enter the Dragons
Team Dragon fighter, Junichi Sawayashiki burst onto the scene with a shocking victory over hard-hitting veteran Jerome LeBanner, in which he managed to drop the Frenchman more than once. This was the first time ever for Junichi to fight on a main card. And it was the first of these events to be held in Yokohama Arena.
At the time, everyone looked at Sawayashiki as little more than fodder to add to LeBanner's knockout highlight reel, and I suspect even a few in his gym suspected he would wind up in the same situation as many of Jerome's other victims. His counter strikes and movement was something a little different though, and proved difficult for LeBanner to deal with.
A younger teammate of Sawayashiki's shared in the celebrations for this astonishing victory back in 2007. Once the celebrations were over this 20-year old began preparations for his own debut in the K-1 ring. Keijiro Maeda was to take part in K-1 TRYOUT, Survivor, an event set to develop some decent local talent.
As part of this event there was a 4 man "K-1 YOUNG JAPAN GP" which Keijiro took part in. He managed to win his first bout and found himself facing Ichigeki up-and-comer Takumi Sato, who had just defeated one of Keijiro's friends. The fight was a grueling one, and as the final round was coming to a close, Takumi landed a bomb that scrambled Maeda's brain. Sato emptied not only his tank, but burnt all the fumes he had left trying to drop Keijiro. Showing heart and outstanding determination the now 21-year old managed to stay on his feet, only until the bell rang signaling the end of the round. The fight was announced as a draw. Most in attendance believed it wouldn't take more than a well-placed jab to end the bout due to the damage Keijiro had taken, however Takumi was done. He barely had the energy left to keep his guard up, and the judges gave the extra round to Keijiro.
While it was great experience, I am sure Team Dragon wanted to make a bit more of a splash, like they had with Junichi. Nevertheless the victory did earn Keijiro a fight against the 200cm Korean, Kyoung Suk Kim. In this fight he managed to show some decent combinations, and quite a bit of potential. He stopped Kyoung within 2 rounds. Then, outside of K-1 he did the same with the far more experienced, yet perennial gatekeeper, Tsuyoshi Nakasako. Nakasako may not have the best record in the world, but a Japanese fighter in K-1 has never stopped him. He has shared the ring with every WGP Champion other than Semmy Schilt and Branko Cikatic. Stopping him seems to have been the trigger that caused Keijiro to be thrown in the deep end to see if he would sink or swim
I have to admit that when I first heard of the match-up, I thought it might just be the end of Keijiro's fighting career, even though it was just his second main card fight. He was set to face off against Mighty Mo. This was exactly a year after Sawayashiki defeated LeBanner in Yokohama, and at the same event. Brutally, Mo had stopped 6 of the 10 fighters he had faced in 2007, and he was chomping at the bit to destroy this Japanese kid so he could get back to America and be with his own ever-growing family. The powerful slugger had no idea what he was in for.
Keijiro used every square centimeter of that ring. He ran, dodged, slipped, ducked, jumped, but most importantly, countered. He spent 4 rounds doing everything possible to avoid being tagged by Mo's right hand. And, he landed enough of his own counters as Mo began to slow to earn himself a well-deserved extra round decision.
Within 5 months of shocking the world, Keijiro had added three more victories to his name. One of those being Musashi; the man that had proudly held the torch for Japanese heavyweights in K-1 for the past several years.
The year 2008 came to a close with the Heavyweight Champion title vacant, and the powers that be decided that the 2009 Yokohama event would be the perfect venue to stage a mini GP to crown a new Champion. Four -100kg fighters were chosen for this event. The low-kicking terror, Gohkan Saki, the infamous Tyrone Spong, the fearsome Melvin Manhoef and finally,....Keijiro Maeda.
Without a doubt, Keijiro was the odd man out. The forums were full of discussion about which of the remaining 3 would be most likely crowned. I don't think a single person predicted Keijiro would win, and when it was announced his first round opponent would be mini-Mike Tyson himself (Melvin Manhoef), his chances dwindled further. Melvin was coming in off the brutal beat down of Paul Slowinski which he ended in the first, and after having just become the first man alive to have stopped Mark Hunt. He required just 18 seconds to do so as well.
The fight began with Keijiro, understandably, keeping his distance. It looked like it might become another marathon. Then, just a touch before the 2-minute mark lightening struck. Melvin over-committed and left his guard down just low enough for Keijiro to land his counter. Melvin face-planted, and, struggle as he did, couldn't reconnect his body to his brain in time to beat the count. It was so fast that many people didn't even see the blow land. We all saw Melvin's tears of frustration when he finally realized what had happened though.
In the other bout Saki and Spong went at it hard and fast for the full three rounds, yet the judges still couldn't call a difference between them and it went into overtime. In the extension round it looked like the flow was starting to go Spong's way just as Saki landed a counter right-hook that dropped his heavily tattooed opponent to the mat. Spong valiantly made it to his feet before the count ended, however his inability to stop fish-dancing caused the referee to stop the bout there.
I don't think it would be entirely wrong to say that when Saki defeated Spong, Turkish fans around the world already began celebrating. Clearly their hometown fighter would walk through the virtually unknown Keijiro, and take the belt. They didn't take into account the fight was being held in Team Dragon's lair, Yokohama Arena.
Keijiro really showed what he can do with his boxing skills in this fight. The two mixed it up well, and for the second time that night, Saki saw even scores after 3 rounds. In the extension round, Keijiro's evasive moves started to make Saki look a little sloppy. His right counter was being timed perfectly as well, and while he didn't actually rock Saki the judges deemed it to be enough to give him the edge in what was another close round.
Post-fight the Heavyweight Champion said, "I fought more aggressively than usual and it paid off! Until now I've been scared to let my hands go, but I went for it tonight. I had to be careful all night with distancing and just countered when I was hit. In the second fight, Gokhan's punches didn't really scare me, so I decided to fight a fight that I would be satisfied with! I a masochist type, so I want to slowly change to become a little more sadistic if I can!"
666 - More Sadistic?
On April 3 we will be blessed with the fourth Yokohama Arena event. Late last year, the star of the previous 2 events, Keijiro Maeda changed his ring-name to his birth name in respect to his mother. Now fighting as Kyotaro, the Heavyweight Champion will be defending his title on this card. The challenger? The only fighter in K-1 history sadistic enough to have 666 embroidered on his trunks and other fight gear, Mr. K-1 himself.
When Sawayashiki was riding high after his win over Jerome LeBanner back in 2007, it was Peter Aerts that brought him back to earth. It was a very painful landing. In fact, it was such a violet 90 seconds, that the Team Dragon fighter has not won a single fight since. Indeed, it seems as though Aerts has made something of a hobby out of knocking out Japanese opponents. He has done so to 77% of those he has faced thus far.
To say that comparing these two fighters is like comparing apples and oranges would be to do a disservice to fruit in general. Actually, the 1994, 1995, and 1998 WGP Champion and 2006, 2007 WGP Runner up will be fighting for the 100th win of his stand-up career. Peter Aerts made his debut a year before Kyotaro was even born. He has qualified for the WGP exactly double the number of times that Kyotaro has won his fights. In fact, he has only one less title to his name than Kyotaro has fights. He was not given the nickname "Mr. K-1" lightly.
Many people look at Aerts as an aging veteran. Which he is. If you really take a close look at his record though, he is a remarkable individual. Aside from last years' WGP finalists, he has bean beaten by just 1 fighter since 2003. More accurately he does have a loss to Francois Botha, where he tore a ligament in his shin while kicking the "White Buffalo", and he also has a loss to Ernesto Hoost in 2006. That loss is on his record only because he valiantly stepped in the ring (after borrowing Semmy Schilts' trunks) to face Hoost after Bob Sapp (Hoost's original opponent) did a runner. Aerts was in attendance as a commentator, but he didn't want to leave the fans with a cancelled headline fight, so he took to the ring. Even then, on one of the 3 judges' cards he earned a draw.
That one loss was to Alistair Overeem. Frankly, Alistair had his way with Aerts for most of the 3 rounds, though couldn't put him away. Not one to make excuses, Aerts simply said that he had no energy in the ring, and that Overeem was the better man on the night. It came to light sometime later that Aerts had several ribs broken in the opening minute, somewhat explaining his lack of aggression.
Since reuniting with Thom Harinck, that aggression and his rejuvenation have been topics of conversation. Against Zimmermann, Nishijima and Saki he fought like a man possessed, and earned several knockdowns in the process. And for each of the four fights he had last year, he came to the arena in the best shape of his life. People look at Randy Couture and his lengthy career as something to aspire to, as well they should. While Aerts is still relatively young compared to Randy (he turns 40 this year), he had already fought 50+ times before Randy's debut. This will be Aerts' 70th fight since then too, compared to Randy's 28 until now. Randy is a hero to many, for very good reasons. I include myself as one of his many fans. I think a few more people should paying Aerts a little more respect as well though.
Coming of age, or coming to be slain?
When making a prediction for a fight like this it is very easy to simply look at the respective achievements and flippantly come to the conclusion that Aerts can't lose. While this goes back further than many fans have been following the sport, I didn't think Peter would lose to Mike Bernardo on their second occasion, to Cyril Abidi, twice, or be knocked out by Stefan Leko. Additionally, I didn't pick Kyotaro over Mo, Melvin or Saki. And, he has added wins over Musashi as I mentioned, and Jan Soukup since then as well.
Aerts has approximately 10cm in height over Kyotaro, and it would appear that his reach is far superior as well. Having said that, this fight will be at under 100kg, and Aerts weighed in for his fight against Saki, completely shredded, at 102.3kg. His stamina doesn't seem to be where it was while he was bigger, so how he will perform with a further cut is anyone's guess. Kyotaro will obviously weigh in at around the same weight as Aerts, but with the self-professed biggest ass in fighting sports, a lot of his weight is in the lower half of his body.
Though hurt and tired, Aerts stepped up to Overeem for the entire 3 rounds in Korea. He then faced Saki in the very same arena as this fight and put on what I thought was his best performance in the last couple of years. His New Generation-opponent's speed didn't seem to give him too many problems, and he managed to score a heavy knockdown as well. Kyotaro hasn't done as well. He lost a rather awkward fight against Ruslan in Korea where he just couldn't find a way to stop Ruslan from advancing, followed by a similar, if somewhat more aggressive fight against Spong. Losing 3 in a row, all to contender-weight fighters, simply is not an option for him. Losing any fight ever is a thought that Aerts just does not entertain.
The beautiful thing about K-1 is its' simplicity. One of these men will walk away from this event as the Heavyweight Champion. The only questions are whether Kyotaro's astonishing footwork will help him evade the bullying style Aerts successfully used against Saki, can Aerts land yet another beautiful high-kick to end his opponents rein, or, will he run into a counter trying. And, as seems to be a running theme every time Aerts fights recently, will immense experience give him the advantage over youthful energy? I for one am leaning in The Lumberjack's direction; however I refuse to be surprised if lightening actually does strike for the fourth time at Yokohama Arena for Kyotaro.
And the most exciting part? This event will have several other high-caliber fights on the card! If even half of the expected participants are actually on this card it will be as, if not more exciting than it has been the last few years.
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