What Exactly Is Going on With K-1? Fight for Japan and K-1 Tournament Updates

Last Updated on Monday, 25 April 2011 15:04 Saturday, 16 April 2011 18:24

Written by Dave Walsh

I feel like I get asked this question a few times a day now, and I'm not sure that it is unwarranted. Over the past few months we have all but stopped talking about K-1, and for good reason. K-1 has been anything but active, outside of Tanikawa putting pictures of cats on Twitter and telling people there will be a "press conference soon" and nothing happening. That has been the state of FEG over the course of 2011.

There have been enough rumors to choke a boa constrictor, but most of that is simply not worth getting worked up over or "reporting."

A few days ago, whatever is left of FEG held a press conference to make a big announcement. Many were excited, many spoke of secret meetings and last minute ideas, we yawned. When it comes to information coming out of Japan, you need to treat it as such; show me the money or it doesn't exist.

What was announced is that K-1, DREAM, DEEP, ZST, Pancrase, Jewels, Sustain (they promote Shooto), New Japan Kickboxing Federation, RISE, J-Network and KRUSH have decided to support the upcoming DREAM show to be held on May 29th under the guise of "Fight for Japan." That does not mean that it will be a giant co-promotional card, as you'll note a lot of those promotions are kickboxing-specific and DREAM is MMA. DREAM will hold the "DREAM Japan GP - 2011 Bantamweight Japan Tournament" on May 29th in the Saitama Super Hall Arena (the 7,000 seat hall behind the actual arena), more details on possible bouts from Nightmare of Battle.

The first week of May is when to expect a K-1 announcement, but right now it is expected there will be a June event, and that it'll either be MAX or -63kg, most likely -63kg Japan tournament. There should be "World" tournaments for MAX and -63kg and they plan to run events in China and Europe. It was confirmed that K-1 has no TV deal as of right now and they'll begin looking for one after they run events again.

Basically, don't expect too much from them, and until something is officially announced and we have a card, wait and see. [source]

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