Saturday, 25 May 2013 02:36

You'll remember last week It's Showtime sent out an announcement that they would be possibly taking legal action against K-1 for a total of $400,000+ that is owed to It's Showtime fighters. This all came after It's Showtime announced It's Showtime Japan would begin gearing up over the summer and K-1 is finally running their first show. Tanikawa made it clear he was unhappy and wished to block any fighters from fighting for It's Showtime if they wanted to fight for K-1 again.

Well, Rutz has released a new statement this morning.

It is good to see that some common ground has been met, but we aren't out of the woods yet.

Saturday, 25 May 2013 02:36

This week our question revolved around this weekend's Glory World Series event. We asked you what bout you were looking forward to the most, and the results fell right in line with what we predicted. So let's go to the results.

Which Glory World Series Fight Are You Looking Forward to?

32.4% - Gokhan Saki vs. Brice Guidon

24.5% - Nieky Holzken vs. Artur Kyshenko

20.6% - Sergei Kharitonov vs. Mighty Mo

11.8% - Mark Miller vs. Nikolaj Falin

5.9% - Errol Zimmerman vs. Mourad Bouzidi

4.9% - Other

This week's poll is; Favorite Knockout From the Glory World Series?

Mark Miller

Sergei Kharitonov

Jason Jones

Siyar Bahadurzada

Dion Staring

Saturday, 25 May 2013 02:36

You may be familiar with K-1's format. They hold two World Grand Prix tournaments a year, a heavyweight one and a 70kg one (K-1 MAX). Recently they've started a -63kg tournament as well. With K-1 being the pinnacle of the sport in past years up until this year, every fighter had a goal to compete in K-1 and win a world grand prix. The problem? With only 2 weight classes and the -63kg tournament pretty much being all Japanese, where does everyone else in between fit in? Where do the fighters in between get exposure from? We'll go over just how K-1 has influenced fighters and how the recent lull in action from them has created a new outlook on weight classes.

With K-1's recent lull in action, many other promotions are stepping up to the plate and putting on big cards. Many fighters that fight in K-1 are appearing on these big cards. With K-1 not paying fighters and with no one having a clue if they'll do any heavyweight or -70kg MAX GP this year, fighters have to find a way to make money. The great thing about the rising promotions like It's Showtime and Ultimate Glory is that more weight classes are being utilized. K-1 only uses two 2 weight classes and everyone in between those two are a bit stuck.

We've seen many fighters fighting way above or way below their natural weight class because of K-1's format. Melvin Manhoef has been fighting Super Heavyweights when his optimal weight class is -85kg. Manhoef did fight in It's Showtime's 85MAX division and won the title. The thing is, the big money and most exposure was in K-1. Despite winning the 85MAX Title in It's Showtime, Manhoef never defended it and continued to fight in K-1. You have to wonder, if K-1 was not around or it used more weight classes, just how different would Melvin Manhoef's career be? For giving up so much weight, Manhoef was quite successful. It would be interesting if he would've had all his fights at 85MAX instead of fighting Super Heavyweights.

Read more after the break..

Saturday, 25 May 2013 02:36

You want to watch this. If you weren't afraid of what Badr Hari was capable before, you probably will be after this. Part two begins with his very candid retelling of a 2005 incident where his neighbors called the police to complain about the noise coming form Badr Hari's home and he went over and beat them. He talks about his self control -- or lack thereof and there is so much more in this. Wow.

Saturday, 25 May 2013 02:36

When I heard about this "profile" show, I made sure to speak to one of the producers, and was sad to find out it would not be found anywhere anytime soon with english subtitles. Thankfully, someone out there (YouTube user Undubately) decided to do the dirty work and go through subtitling the interview. This is just part one of three, but the other parts will soon follow! This is really top notch stuff, so watch it already. [source]