K-1 World MAX 2004 Final
Tokoyo, Japan July 7 2004
Tournament Quarter Finals:
Mike Zambidis vs Takayuki Kohiruimaki
Buakaw Por. Pramuk vs John Wayne Parr
Masato vs Jadamba Narantungalag
Albert Kraus vs Shamil Gaidarbekov
Super Fight K-1 Special Mixed Rules:
"Kid" Yamamoto vs Yasuhiro Kazuya
Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto vs Yasuhiro Kazuya - Super Fight
This is one of my favorite K-1 Max events as it served to introduce Buakaw to the world. Buakaw was so dominant that K-1 eventually changed the clinch rules almost entirely due to him to level the playing field. Buakaw was, and still is an absolute monster.
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Dogmeat 1 -Good post Dogmeatnhbguy - This is one of my favorite K-1 Max events as it served to introduce Buakaw to the world. Buakaw was so dominant that K-1 eventually changed the clinch rules almost entirely due to him to level the playing field. Buakaw was, and still is an absolute monster.
While Buakaw may have been an influence it is actually far more likely that the rules were changed due to the increasing dominance of tall conservative Dutch heavyweights, primarily Semmy Schilt but to a much lesser extent Hoost and Bonjasky.
While Hoost was in general a popular champion K-1's he was always known as a somewhat boring fighter and his final title reign coincided with the beginning of K-1's money issues and waning popularity. Bojanski too, despite occasional flashes of brilliance, was prone to having boring fights and wasn't proving to be a big draw.
So when Schilt came onto the scene and quickly started to dominate other top fighters with his conservative combination of jabs, front kicks and knees from the clinch the rules were changed pretty quickly. The fact that an MMA fighter who only had moderate success could change over to K-1 and be so dominant was a further blow to them.
There is no doubt the MAX division was created to try to build a legit Japanese champion and that Buakaw was ruining K-1's plans. However considering Buakaw had already lost 2 k-1 fights prior to the rule change (admittedly both split decisions), Schilt, who was already 13-0-1 and had beaten K-1's best, was more likely the catalyst for the change.
The rule change was probably influenced a little by all the fighters mentioned above, but I'm sure Semmy
had the biggest
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I just got a chance to look at this whole event again, man I hope K-1 is able to get back to it's former glory, or at least It's Showtime! is able to pick up the ball and run with it.
^ Me too,
In K-1s heyday late 90s to early mid 2000s their shows along with the Pride events were some of the most anticipated and exciting martial arts shows ever imo
Thanks for posting!
Ttt for k1