Weekly Fight newspaper talked about K-1 aiming their focus at
acquiring the services of either Kosei Inoue or Keiji Suzuki (Judokas) for
their 12/31 Osaka Dome show. In addition, K-1 is in the process of
negotiations with Antonio Inoki/New Japan for Shinsuke Nakamura and
Kazuyuki Fujita for New Year's Eve. Also, K-1 management has not
thrown out the possibility of Bob Sapp vs. Akebono in an MMA fight.
Trial balloons are being floated around for K-1 booking a match
between BJ Penn and Rodrigo Gracie on 12/31 at the Osaka Dome. The
promotion is interested in seeing what kind of respond/demand there
would be for such a fight.
( source Purerosu power.com)
i give them a 0% chance to get suzuki or inoe into that anytime soon. both are so young and just starting to really develop one of the best rivalries of all time in judo...
not ot mention that inoue didnt even medal in athens and that is going to burn his ass for at least 4 more years.
if either one of these 2 signed to do something like this they would be booted from the all-japan-judo-federation before the nickle hit the floor and their popularity and incomes (which are far more substantial than you know) would die along with it.
the only judokas who are doing this are either retired from major competition and no longer care or are giving up on ever making an olympic team for whatever reason. Inoue and Suzuki are neither of these things.
adam..
you really dont get it. they are both very well-off right now. they both work for a company judo team that pays them very nice, full-time wages to do nothing but judo. they both collect huge purses each time they win (or medal) in big tournaments and they both have some endorsement deals already...
lets see here.. they can either continue doing as well as they are and continue becoming 2 of the best the world has ever known and the best rivalry since Yamshita v Saito in the world's most popular individual sport..
or.
they can take a fight and get paid a relatively small chuck of cash for doing it and a bit more if they win. they will certainly have the AJJF turn their backs on them and be outcast and possibly even banned from the National Team.. they will lose any chance to reach most of the goals they have set in judo and before you know it they will be the laughing stocks that yosh and ogawa have become.
yea, you are right.. a bit of money is worth all of that, especially when they are still really young and still have at least 1 more olympics in them. NOT
Even knowing the little I do about Judo, I'd think it's even less likely than RJJ retiring from boxing to compete in K1.
Penn vs. Gracie would be very interesting. Can't see BJ pulling a sub off on Rodrigo and vice versa. And Rodrigo is quite a bit bigger (although against BJ, that apparently doesn't matter). Could be a great fight.
I'd love to see Inoue in there. He's very talented. Nakamura I couldn't care less about. And its always great to see Fujita mix it up. Sapp vs. Akebono is a waste of time. They both suck.
ttt 4 penn vs gracie
I think Inoue could be a strong MMA competitor. He seems like an all around tough guy. I'd love to see him fight.