Monday, 20 May 2013 11:21

The latest in the last minute saga of the K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 is that the show is probably cancelled. News has been leaking out over the past few days of possible last minute deals, possible shake ups internally and the World Grand Prix Final 16 being cancelled. It's Showtime was providing a wealth of talent under the idea that FEG would pay It's Showtime the money they owe them as well as the fighters' salary before the event could happen. Simon Rutz extended the deadline numerous times and the money still never made its way to them.

On Monday in Amsterdam Rutz is set to make a statement about the K-1 situation but many are expecting it to be "bad" news. It's Showtime has been focused this week on their January 28th event in The Netherlands which will feature the retirement of Badr Hari. Tickets went on sale this weekend and according to It's Showtime moving quickly, with the VIP tables sold out and a good portion of the seating in the arena sold out as well. There are murmurs of It's Showtime assembling a tournament of their own at some point, as waiting for K-1 to put together the World Grand Prix was their only hindrance.

According to sources in the It's Showtime circle there will not be a World Grand Prix Final 16 event, it will not be postponed to a later date.

There is talk of a December 10th date in China still happening, possibly being the Final 8 of the World Grand Prix, or simply a collection of K-1 Super Fights.

It needs to be remembered that all of this talk of the event being cancelled involves It's Showtime pulling out from the World Grand Prix. If K-1 has no back-up plan the chances of there being a World Grand Prix are indeed slim to none, but there is still a chance that other parties they've been talking with over the last week could come to the rescue for them, but it is a longshot at best it appears.

UPDATE: Michael Schiavello reports on his Twitter that he too has heard that the event is off.

Monday, 20 May 2013 11:21

Yesterday, SuperKombat held their final installment of their qualifying World Grand Prix series in Piatra Neamt, Romania. All four shows in the series have been in different Romanian cities, setting up the final World Grand Prix event in Darmstadt, Germany. The winners of each tournament of the World Grand Prix series face off in a one night, four man tournament at the SuperKombat World Grand Prix Final.

The two main names in the tournament, Wendell Roche and Erhan Deniz had little trouble dispatchnig their semi final opponents and met in the final. In what at times was a bit of a stinker, Deniz managed to get a decision victory over Roche. His kicks probably won him the fight, as he'd throw body kicks in succession that really looked great for the judges.

Bogdan Stoica returned after his injury suffered against Hakan Aksoy in July. He faced Leon Miedema and was in control of most of the fight, landing the much more significant offense, getting him a unanimous decision. The fight was at 92kg which is pretty high for Stoica to be fighting at. It leads me to believe he put on a bit of weight while he was injured and although he didn't look out of shape at all, he looked a tad softer than usual. I'd expect Stoica's next fight to be somewhere between 85 and 90kgs.

In other fights, Catalin Morosanu picked up a unanimous decision over late replacement Ibrahim Aarab and Sebastian Ciobanu picked up a split decision over Ali Cenik. Check out the full results below:

Reserve Fight: Jantje Siersema def. Lucian Danilencu by Split Decision in an Extra Round.

Semi Final 1: Erhan Deniz def. Angelis Konstantinos by KO (Punches) in Round 2.

Semi Final 2: Wendell Roche def. Marian Baryla by TKO (Low Kicks) in Round 3.

Bogdan Stoica def. Leon Miedema by Unanimous Decision.

Diogo Neves def. Ionut Atodiresei by Unanimous Decision.

Sebastian Ciobanu def. Ali Cenik by Split Decision.

Ionut Iftimoaie def. Luca Panto by Unanimous Decision.

Catalin Morosanu def. Ibrahim Aarab by Unanimous Decision.

Alexandru Lungu def. Bob Sapp by KO (Left Hook) in Round 1.

Final: Erhan Deniz def. Wendell Roche by decision.

Monday, 20 May 2013 11:21

This week has been a rollercoaster for K-1 Final 16 news. It's Showtime's Simon Rutz set multiple deadlines for FEG to pay the money owed to It's Showtime and their fighters, with the final deadline set for Friday by end of business. LiverKick.com has been in close contact with It's Showtime officials regarding this news and as of this afternoon there was no word regarding payments. This of course was a worst case scenario for the K-1 Final 16, set to happen in just two weeks now, an event that had yet to secure any substantial sponsors and that fighters had yet to receive finalized contracts for.

There was another rumor this week about FEG offering a contract to fighters who were owed substantial sums of money that would ensure their future fighting for K-1 but would only pay 50% of the money that was owed to them, with the fighter effectively waiving the other 50% and FEG no longer liable for that.

The first word of the show "not happening" came from Anil Dubar, Daniel Ghita's coach by way of the Dutch blog of Daniel Dee. Dubar claims that the event has been cancelled, that October 29th is off.

Of course this is not final, as there has been no official word from K-1 on any of this, and there are reports coming from Japan that FEG is still in meetings with potential investors for K-1, but as the October 29th date draws closer and closer and It's Showtime possibly pulling out a majority of the promised fighters for the Final 16 things are beginning to look truly bleak.

Monday, 20 May 2013 11:21

Fight Code hosts their Dragons Series Final 8 card today and Liverkick.com will be here to keep you up to date with live results. The event starts at 4:15 PM EST/1:15 PM PST on www.livefightcode.tv. All you have to do is register and you'll be able to watch a great stream for free. We'll be discussing the event on Twitter at @Liverkickdotcom and @rianscalia.

Dragons Final 8

Norbert Balogh def. Bruno Franchi by DQ (Illegal Knee) in Round 2. Franchi hit Balogh with a knee right as the referee told them to break and Balogh couldn't continue. I thought the end result was a bit stupid and Franchi could've been awarded a TKO.

Sudsakorn Sor Klinmee def. Halim Issaoui by TKO (Referee Stoppage/Punches) in Round 3. Sudsakorn low kicked the shit out of Issaoui and at one point in Round 2during a referee count, Issaoui ran over and tried to strike Sudsakorn, almost resulting in things getting out of control. Sudsakorn finished Issaoui off in Round 3 with punches.

Yuri Bessmertny def. Armen Petrosyan by Split Decision.

Abdallah Mabel def. Xu Yan by Split Decision.

Super Fights

Chingiz Allazov def. Raouf Beliouz by TKO (Referee Stoppage). One sided ass kicking here.

Cedric Castagna def. Soufiane Derdaga by decision.

Monday, 20 May 2013 11:21

I've once again cemented my status as a regular on Steven "Warman" Wright's podcast, Warman's Kickfighting Show. In episode 56 we go ahead and preview this weekend's Fight Code event, which is shaping up to be a can't miss show. We also discuss some of the recent Muay Thai stadium shows and what the hell is going on with K-1. On top of that we take a rather frank look at the Muay Thai Premier Leagues latest event and how they are marketing the events and how there is some clarity needed on their rules after some decisions have upset fans across the world.

You can access the show from this blog, or just download it here directly (Note: Embedded Player might not always work. If not, go to the blog to download it).