OSAKA, October 11, 2003 -- In the main event on a card featuring seven do-or-die bouts, rising K-1 star Remy "The Panther" Bonjasky emerged victorious over heavily-favored American fighter Bob Sapp. It was a convincing win for Bonjasky, who was fleet of foot and explosive with his knees. The Dutch fighter joins the evening's six other victors in advancing to this years K-1 GP Final, set for December 6th at the Tokyo Dome.
Although it delivered plenty of exciting K-1 action, the World GP 2003 Final Elimination in Osaka was also, even before it began, beset with no small measure of ill fortune. Freak injuries forced the withdrawal of stars Jerome LeBanner and Ernesto Hoost in the week leading up to the tournament, and just days before the event, All Nippon Airlines Flight 7, a Boeing 777 carrying K-1 USA Champion Carter Williams and his entourage among its 164 Tokyo-bound passengers, collided with a United Airlines jet on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport. But even as fears of a fuel leak gripping the crew and passengers, the crippled airplane was able to taxi to safety, and no injuries were sustained.
It was this same Williams who, in the tournament's first bout, collided against Ray Sefo of New Zealand.
"I've been following K-1 since I was 15," said Williams at the pre-event press conference, " and it will be a great honor for me to step into the ring with Ray Sefo." Wisely, Williams left his personal respect for Sefo outside the ring, and this was a thrilling fight. Looking the bad boy, Williams came out fast and furious in the first round, with smart technical punch and kick combinations, while Sefo muscled his way inside to counter with tight hooks, just missing twice with potentially devastating uppercuts. Sefo's low kicks looked good and sounded hard, but Williams didn't seem bothered by these. Williams relentless in-and-out punch and kick attacks had Sefo's right eye puffed up something awful by the end of the round, and had the challenger up on one judge's card.
Again in the second the young American impressed, racking up the points and shutting down Sefo's counters. Really now it was looking like Williams' fight to lose -- which, sadly, he did. After landing a knee below the belt Williams was assessed a yellow card. Moments later, from the clinch, Williams threw a sloppy elbow up to Sefo's eye, and this brought him a red card and one point penalty.
Doctors had a look at Sefo's eye and decided he could not continue, and so under K-1 rules the fight went to the score cards. Sefo was up by a point on two cards, the third judge scored the fight a draw. As the narrowest possible margin of victory was announced, Sefo slowly shook his head back in forth, sympathizing with Williams' frustration. A very spirited contest, in which the inexperienced Carter Williams took too many penalties, and ended up beating himself.
Despite being a last minute substitute who had just couple of days to prepare for this fight, Australian K-1 legend Sam Greco looked good against K-1 Oceania Champion Peter Graham
The 36 year-old Greco is much admired in Japan (he has dispatched the likes of Sefo, Hoost, and Leko). "I guess I was semi-retired, I had come to Japan to watch the K-1, when on short notice I was offered a fight," remarked Greco at the pre-event press conference. "In the karate spirit, I accepted the challenge!"
This bout started out with plenty of movement, Greco wearing white karate dogi pants, recalling the early days of K-1. From the start Greco peppered Graham with powerful low kicks, getting some nice knees up, when the chance presented itself, letting loose with big haymakers. Graham was the more technical and cautious fighter, staying outside with one-two-three combinations, and while these were good, Greco kept his guard close and did not seem terribly bothered by them. Two judges had Greco up after one, and this was shaping up to be quite a contest until a Greco kick hit Graham in the lower leg, and Sam fell back, wincing in pain. The injury to the top of Greco's left foot brought the towel from his corner, and Peter Graham had the victory.
Alexy "The Scorpion" Ignashov won in convincing fashion in Paris this June, and was all smiles as he sashayed into the ring for his fight against South African boxer Mike Bernardo. Ignashov was merely amazing here, showing preternatural control and focus, looking one with the universe. The Belorussian's fancy footwork kept him out of harm's way (Ignashov has a nifty lateral motion which suggests, appropriately, a scorpion). In the early going Ignashov used low kicks, punishing Bernardo's front leg. By late in the first, Ignashov was also throwing some dandy jab-jab-right kick attacks, his long leg getting around and in on Bernardo's rear thigh.
In the second round, Ignashov was clearly in control, and it was a right straight punch followed quickly by low kick to Bernardo's softened-up left leg that put the South African down, highlight reel style. The victory raised Ignashov's 2003/2003 K-1 record to a stellar nine wins in ten bouts, making him a serious threat to win it all at Tokyo Dome.
The next fight saw Peter Aerts take on fellow Dutchman Jerrel Venetiaan, cleared to fight after winning his appeal against a doping disqualification at the May Andy Hug Memorial Tournament in Basel, Switzerland
Aerts was exceedingly cool here, his left fist confidently out far in front, controlling the space between the fighters. Early in the first, Venetiaan switch his southpaw stance to orthodox and began to work low kicks on Aerts' left leg. Aerts, however, was able to thread a couple of solid right straight punches through Venetiaan's loose guard, and these were to prove the difference in a close and well-fought bout. Late in the round, after one of these punches bounced Venetiaan back off the ropes, he fell forward grabbing onto Aerts' body, slipping down toward the canvas. This might have been called a down, certainly Aerts thought so, but Venetiaan got away with it. In the second, Venetiaan briefly switched back to his southpaw stance, throwing high kicks up, all of which sailed harmlessly over Aerts' head. Showing the experience of a three-time K-1 World GP Champion, Aerts found his chances, and got enough of those rights in to take a narrow but unanimous decision.
Fan favorite and all-round nice guy Francisco Filho of Brazil took on Stephan "Blitz" Leko of Croatia in the next bout. Leko, who seems to sport a new hairstyle for every fight, went with a zigzag blond mohawk here, set off by a new red and white Croatian flag mouthpiece for this fight.
If Leko was looking for a quick KO, and his blitzkrieg opening suggested that he was, he was denied, as Filho's low kicks proved too good defensively. In the early going the two were ying and yang, Leko leaning in with punches, Filho settled back throwing low kicks. But Leko has tough legs, and fast fists, and these turned the fight in his favor. Filho could not keep up the kicks, and was not as creative as he has been -- we saw his lethal twisting and rising kick but once in the match.
This was classic K-1, Filho striking back with his fists in the second. But Leko had the much harder punches, and owned Filho in the third. At the bell, after a barrage of Leko punches, the stumbling, closed-up Filho looked ready to go down. A convincing victory for Leko, who commented post-bout: "I could have fought three or four more rounds, no problem, it was normal that I won, because nobody can follow my tempo!"
Francois "The White Buffalo" Botha of South Africa was ahead on points before Mike Tyson KO'd him in Las Vegas in 1999, and, hungry for a rematch, has chased Iron Mike all the way to K-1. In his debut bout with the new fighting sport, the "White Buffalo" came up against one Cyril Abidi. Here is how this bout went: Botha (who, really, is about as pale a shade of white as one could imagine) charged in toward Abidi from the bell. A duck-and-cover Abidi slipped and fell, at which point Botha administered a totally vicious uppercut to the prone French kickboxer's head, which would have been the nice coup de grace were it not that, under K-1 rules, hitting an opponent when he is down is totally illegal. Now, Botha is a smart guy who attended the rule meeting, so he ought to have known what he did was wrong. Abidi certainly did, and so, his eye aching from the sucker punch, he elected not to continue, and was awarded the victory after Botha was disqualified.
All this happened in just 19 seconds, but the fighters would spend much longer than that analyzing afterward. Said Abidi at the post-bout interview space: "The punch hurt my eye, I felt dizzy, and didn't think I could continue with that disadvantage. Justice was done." Retorted Botha in his interview: "When I fight, my mind is focused on destroying my opponent. I was psyched up, maybe I hit him too late, but he stayed down because he was scared. I say, if you are scare of being hurt, then why be a fighter? You should do something else, like go play golf!"
Despite his killer instinct rationalizations, it is Botha who will be booking tee times while Abidi trains for the World GP Tokyo Dome Final.
The main event had the world sports media buzzing for weeks -- a showdown between big bully Bob "The Beast" Sapp of America, and sleek and fast Dutch Muay Thai fighter Remy "The Panther" Bonjasky. In a pre-bout poll, 11 of the 13 Japanese sportswriters said Sapp would beat Bonjasky. K-1 USA fans, presumably, were also in Sapp's corner, after all, this was the fighter who had twice defeated the great Ernesto Hoost, K-1 's only Four-time World GP Champion. On the other hand, most European K-1 fans were convinced Bonjasky would humiliate Sapp.
Well, the Europeans were right. Sapp's much-heralded new "secret techniques" amounted to deep breathing and some hard low kicks, but were no match for Bonjasky's run and gun offence. Try as he might to corral the Dutch fighter with his trademark haymakers, the sleek Panther repeatedly slipped out of the trap, responding with quick and effective low kicks on the counterstrike. Bonjasky also worked the knees, and, head down, sometimes simply pushed Sapp back when the big guy tried to get inside. Bonjasky also made a study of nimble backstepping, almost always able to scurry out of trouble. By midway through the first, Sapp was panting for breath, no longer able to march in, a sitting target that Bonjasky could strike at will.
Refreshed somewhat after the break, Sapp came out swinging in the second, throwing out a rally that included a couple of not bad kicks. But Bonjasky was always better, and scored a down with a high kick just 52 seconds in. When Bonjasky stumbled soon afterwards, Sap came in gracelessly with a late blow to the back o his head, and was assessed red card. The Dutch fighter, like Abidi before him, opted to collect the win rather than continue against an opponent who had given up on the rules.
"I am upset with the result," said Sapp in his post-bout interview, "I did get tired, then bounced back, but unfortunately got a little ahead of myself. I don't think I connected too hard with the late punch, but anyway, it's war out there. I will have to learn from my mistakes and focus on next year."
Bonjasky had this to say: "I think Bob knew he was finished, and that's why he gave me the late punch. I was of two minds afterward. One mind told me 'We're going to Tokyo Dome' and the other side said 'That's not how I wanted to win, I wanted to win by KO.' In the end, although I'm not happy about how I won, that wasn't my choice. And, anyway, we're going to Tokyo Dome!"
In a Superfight, VOS Gym's Bjorn Bregy used his 22cm height advantage to overpower K-1 veteran Michael McDonald. Seconds into the first round, Bregy scored a quick down with a smart right, and really McDonald, who has shown remarkable prowess against a lot of big and tall fighters in the last couple of years, was not able to recover this time around. Bregy kept up the pressure, launching straight punches and bringing the knees up. While McDonald did get a promising rally going with body blows, the quick Canuck simply could not hurt the big Swede. A number of knees, and McDonald went down again, barely beating the count this time. Toward the end of the round, with Bregy continuing the attacks from outside, McDonald appeared to be just barely holding on. It was more a push than a punch that put Mike down for the third time, ending the match.
The Osaka event also saw an appearance in the ring by Shannon Briggs, a 31 year-old Brooklyn-born heavyweight boxer who beat George Foreman in 1997 and lasted five rounds against Lennox Lewis in a challenge for the WBC Title back in 1998. "I love the K-1 production and the fans, there is nothing like this back home," said Briggs, who is in negotiations for a possible appearance with K-1 "Of course, it's like fresh water fish going to saltwater for most boxers coming to try K-1, but I have been training in Thai boxing for two years." Briggs is the latest in a growing line of heavyweight boxers vying for a spot on Bob Sapp's dance card.
The K-1 World Grand Prix 2003 Final Elimination drew a crowd of 31,700 to the Osaka Dome, and was same day broadcast on Fuji TV network in Japan, on ESPN Pay-Per-View in the United States, and on different regional sports television networks across Europe and Oceania. The seven winners at Osaka will join Japan GP 2003 Champion Musashi (an Osaka native, Musashi was in good spirits backstage) at the world's most prestigious fight sport event, the K-1 World GP 2003 Final, set for the Tokyo Dome this December 6th.
Although it delivered plenty of exciting K-1 action, the World GP 2003 Final Elimination in Osaka was also, even before it began, beset with no small measure of ill fortune. Freak injuries forced the withdrawal of stars Jerome LeBanner and Ernesto Hoost in the week leading up to the tournament, and just days before the event, All Nippon Airlines Flight 7, a Boeing 777 carrying K-1 USA Champion Carter Williams and his entourage among its 164 Tokyo-bound passengers, collided with a United Airlines jet on the tarmac at San Francisco International Airport. But even as fears of a fuel leak gripping the crew and passengers, the crippled airplane was able to taxi to safety, and no injuries were sustained.
It was this same Williams who, in the tournament's first bout, collided against Ray Sefo of New Zealand.
"I've been following K-1 since I was 15," said Williams at the pre-event press conference, " and it will be a great honor for me to step into the ring with Ray Sefo." Wisely, Williams left his personal respect for Sefo outside the ring, and this was a thrilling fight. Looking the bad boy, Williams came out fast and furious in the first round, with smart technical punch and kick combinations, while Sefo muscled his way inside to counter with tight hooks, just missing twice with potentially devastating uppercuts. Sefo's low kicks looked good and sounded hard, but Williams didn't seem bothered by these. Williams relentless in-and-out punch and kick attacks had Sefo's right eye puffed up something awful by the end of the round, and had the challenger up on one judge's card.
Again in the second the young American impressed, racking up the points and shutting down Sefo's counters. Really now it was looking like Williams' fight to lose -- which, sadly, he did. After landing a knee below the belt Williams was assessed a yellow card. Moments later, from the clinch, Williams threw a sloppy elbow up to Sefo's eye, and this brought him a red card and one point penalty.
Doctors had a look at Sefo's eye and decided he could not continue, and so under K-1 rules the fight went to the score cards. Sefo was up by a point on two cards, the third judge scored the fight a draw. As the narrowest possible margin of victory was announced, Sefo slowly shook his head back in forth, sympathizing with Williams' frustration. A very spirited contest, in which the inexperienced Carter Williams took too many penalties, and ended up beating himself.
Despite being a last minute substitute who had just couple of days to prepare for this fight, Australian K-1 legend Sam Greco looked good against K-1 Oceania Champion Peter Graham
The 36 year-old Greco is much admired in Japan (he has dispatched the likes of Sefo, Hoost, and Leko). "I guess I was semi-retired, I had come to Japan to watch the K-1, when on short notice I was offered a fight," remarked Greco at the pre-event press conference. "In the karate spirit, I accepted the challenge!"
This bout started out with plenty of movement, Greco wearing white karate dogi pants, recalling the early days of K-1. From the start Greco peppered Graham with powerful low kicks, getting some nice knees up, when the chance presented itself, letting loose with big haymakers. Graham was the more technical and cautious fighter, staying outside with one-two-three combinations, and while these were good, Greco kept his guard close and did not seem terribly bothered by them. Two judges had Greco up after one, and this was shaping up to be quite a contest until a Greco kick hit Graham in the lower leg, and Sam fell back, wincing in pain. The injury to the top of Greco's left foot brought the towel from his corner, and Peter Graham had the victory.
Alexy "The Scorpion" Ignashov won in convincing fashion in Paris this June, and was all smiles as he sashayed into the ring for his fight against South African boxer Mike Bernardo. Ignashov was merely amazing here, showing preternatural control and focus, looking one with the universe. The Belorussian's fancy footwork kept him out of harm's way (Ignashov has a nifty lateral motion which suggests, appropriately, a scorpion). In the early going Ignashov used low kicks, punishing Bernardo's front leg. By late in the first, Ignashov was also throwing some dandy jab-jab-right kick attacks, his long leg getting around and in on Bernardo's rear thigh.
In the second round, Ignashov was clearly in control, and it was a right straight punch followed quickly by low kick to Bernardo's softened-up left leg that put the South African down, highlight reel style. The victory raised Ignashov's 2003/2003 K-1 record to a stellar nine wins in ten bouts, making him a serious threat to win it all at Tokyo Dome.
The next fight saw Peter Aerts take on fellow Dutchman Jerrel Venetiaan, cleared to fight after winning his appeal against a doping disqualification at the May Andy Hug Memorial Tournament in Basel, Switzerland
Aerts was exceedingly cool here, his left fist confidently out far in front, controlling the space between the fighters. Early in the first, Venetiaan switch his southpaw stance to orthodox and began to work low kicks on Aerts' left leg. Aerts, however, was able to thread a couple of solid right straight punches through Venetiaan's loose guard, and these were to prove the difference in a close and well-fought bout. Late in the round, after one of these punches bounced Venetiaan back off the ropes, he fell forward grabbing onto Aerts' body, slipping down toward the canvas. This might have been called a down, certainly Aerts thought so, but Venetiaan got away with it. In the second, Venetiaan briefly switched back to his southpaw stance, throwing high kicks up, all of which sailed harmlessly over Aerts' head. Showing the experience of a three-time K-1 World GP Champion, Aerts found his chances, and got enough of those rights in to take a narrow but unanimous decision.
Fan favorite and all-round nice guy Francisco Filho of Brazil took on Stephan "Blitz" Leko of Croatia in the next bout. Leko, who seems to sport a new hairstyle for every fight, went with a zigzag blond mohawk here, set off by a new red and white Croatian flag mouthpiece for this fight.
If Leko was looking for a quick KO, and his blitzkrieg opening suggested that he was, he was denied, as Filho's low kicks proved too good defensively. In the early going the two were ying and yang, Leko leaning in with punches, Filho settled back throwing low kicks. But Leko has tough legs, and fast fists, and these turned the fight in his favor. Filho could not keep up the kicks, and was not as creative as he has been -- we saw his lethal twisting and rising kick but once in the match.
This was classic K-1, Filho striking back with his fists in the second. But Leko had the much harder punches, and owned Filho in the third. At the bell, after a barrage of Leko punches, the stumbling, closed-up Filho looked ready to go down. A convincing victory for Leko, who commented post-bout: "I could have fought three or four more rounds, no problem, it was normal that I won, because nobody can follow my tempo!"
Francois "The White Buffalo" Botha of South Africa was ahead on points before Mike Tyson KO'd him in Las Vegas in 1999, and, hungry for a rematch, has chased Iron Mike all the way to K-1. In his debut bout with the new fighting sport, the "White Buffalo" came up against one Cyril Abidi. Here is how this bout went: Botha (who, really, is about as pale a shade of white as one could imagine) charged in toward Abidi from the bell. A duck-and-cover Abidi slipped and fell, at which point Botha administered a totally vicious uppercut to the prone French kickboxer's head, which would have been the nice coup de grace were it not that, under K-1 rules, hitting an opponent when he is down is totally illegal. Now, Botha is a smart guy who attended the rule meeting, so he ought to have known what he did was wrong. Abidi certainly did, and so, his eye aching from the sucker punch, he elected not to continue, and was awarded the victory after Botha was disqualified.
All this happened in just 19 seconds, but the fighters would spend much longer than that analyzing afterward. Said Abidi at the post-bout interview space: "The punch hurt my eye, I felt dizzy, and didn't think I could continue with that disadvantage. Justice was done." Retorted Botha in his interview: "When I fight, my mind is focused on destroying my opponent. I was psyched up, maybe I hit him too late, but he stayed down because he was scared. I say, if you are scare of being hurt, then why be a fighter? You should do something else, like go play golf!"
Despite his killer instinct rationalizations, it is Botha who will be booking tee times while Abidi trains for the World GP Tokyo Dome Final.
The main event had the world sports media buzzing for weeks -- a showdown between big bully Bob "The Beast" Sapp of America, and sleek and fast Dutch Muay Thai fighter Remy "The Panther" Bonjasky. In a pre-bout poll, 11 of the 13 Japanese sportswriters said Sapp would beat Bonjasky. K-1 USA fans, presumably, were also in Sapp's corner, after all, this was the fighter who had twice defeated the great Ernesto Hoost, K-1 's only Four-time World GP Champion. On the other hand, most European K-1 fans were convinced Bonjasky would humiliate Sapp.
Well, the Europeans were right. Sapp's much-heralded new "secret techniques" amounted to deep breathing and some hard low kicks, but were no match for Bonjasky's run and gun offence. Try as he might to corral the Dutch fighter with his trademark haymakers, the sleek Panther repeatedly slipped out of the trap, responding with quick and effective low kicks on the counterstrike. Bonjasky also worked the knees, and, head down, sometimes simply pushed Sapp back when the big guy tried to get inside. Bonjasky also made a study of nimble backstepping, almost always able to scurry out of trouble. By midway through the first, Sapp was panting for breath, no longer able to march in, a sitting target that Bonjasky could strike at will.
Refreshed somewhat after the break, Sapp came out swinging in the second, throwing out a rally that included a couple of not bad kicks. But Bonjasky was always better, and scored a down with a high kick just 52 seconds in. When Bonjasky stumbled soon afterwards, Sap came in gracelessly with a late blow to the back o his head, and was assessed red card. The Dutch fighter, like Abidi before him, opted to collect the win rather than continue against an opponent who had given up on the rules.
"I am upset with the result," said Sapp in his post-bout interview, "I did get tired, then bounced back, but unfortunately got a little ahead of myself. I don't think I connected too hard with the late punch, but anyway, it's war out there. I will have to learn from my mistakes and focus on next year."
Bonjasky had this to say: "I think Bob knew he was finished, and that's why he gave me the late punch. I was of two minds afterward. One mind told me 'We're going to Tokyo Dome' and the other side said 'That's not how I wanted to win, I wanted to win by KO.' In the end, although I'm not happy about how I won, that wasn't my choice. And, anyway, we're going to Tokyo Dome!"
In a Superfight, VOS Gym's Bjorn Bregy used his 22cm height advantage to overpower K-1 veteran Michael McDonald. Seconds into the first round, Bregy scored a quick down with a smart right, and really McDonald, who has shown remarkable prowess against a lot of big and tall fighters in the last couple of years, was not able to recover this time around. Bregy kept up the pressure, launching straight punches and bringing the knees up. While McDonald did get a promising rally going with body blows, the quick Canuck simply could not hurt the big Swede. A number of knees, and McDonald went down again, barely beating the count this time. Toward the end of the round, with Bregy continuing the attacks from outside, McDonald appeared to be just barely holding on. It was more a push than a punch that put Mike down for the third time, ending the match.
The Osaka event also saw an appearance in the ring by Shannon Briggs, a 31 year-old Brooklyn-born heavyweight boxer who beat George Foreman in 1997 and lasted five rounds against Lennox Lewis in a challenge for the WBC Title back in 1998. "I love the K-1 production and the fans, there is nothing like this back home," said Briggs, who is in negotiations for a possible appearance with K-1 "Of course, it's like fresh water fish going to saltwater for most boxers coming to try K-1, but I have been training in Thai boxing for two years." Briggs is the latest in a growing line of heavyweight boxers vying for a spot on Bob Sapp's dance card.
The K-1 World Grand Prix 2003 Final Elimination drew a crowd of 31,700 to the Osaka Dome, and was same day broadcast on Fuji TV network in Japan, on ESPN Pay-Per-View in the United States, and on different regional sports television networks across Europe and Oceania. The seven winners at Osaka will join Japan GP 2003 Champion Musashi (an Osaka native, Musashi was in good spirits backstage) at the world's most prestigious fight sport event, the K-1 World GP 2003 Final, set for the Tokyo Dome this December 6th.
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