K-1 Confirms October Date in Japan

Monday, 23 July 2012 09:48

Written by Dave Walsh

After rumors began circulating about K-1 running October 14th in Japan, Doug Kaplan went on our friend Steven Wright's podcast show and more or less confirmed it, and now K-1 has released an official press release stating that they will, indeed, be running an event on October 14th in Japan. They will be booking the legendary Ryogoku Kokugikan -- lovingly known to the rest of the world simply as "Sumo Hall" because of its main purpose of hosting Sumo events.

Sumo Hall seats around 13,000 fans, and is probably a very good selection for a venue in Japan, as Japan is an incredibly tough market for the kakutougi world right now. It should not be lost on the reader that both K-1 and GLORY announced on the same day their intent to run events in Japan. For GLORY it will be difficult as a new, unestablished brand, even with big name fighters, and for K-1 it will be difficult following newspapers a few months ago boldly proclaiming "K-1 Bankrupt!"

The event for K-1 will be the Heavyweight World Grand Prix Final 16, which has traditionally over the last few years taken place in Korea, with the finals in Japan, but with the finals happening in the USA, the Final 16 in Japan makes perfect sense.

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