There have been a lot of questions from fans over the past few weeks as for what will be in store for K-1 after the tremendous September 14th event in Mallorca, Spain. To the public, things have been quiet on the K-1 Global front, but there has been a lot of movement behind the scenes, with plans being laid out for the next year. I spoke with K-1 Global’s Director of Events & Fighter Acquisition Ned Kuruc about the future of K-1 and it seems like the gears are fully in motion in pushing K-1 into the future.

The first topic was on making the message extremely clear to fans; K-1 is going to change how their shows are run, shifting the emphasis from tournaments to crowning champions across weight divisions and having them defend these belts. “We’re gonna open up our weight divisions, we want to have a clear cut champion in each division,” he stated. “He’ll go on to defend that championship and we’ll get to see who is really the best in each weight class. We’ll have a top ten ranking in every division and fighters will move up the ranks and try to fight the champion.

“We definitely wanted to open up all of the weight classes,” he continued. “For too long K-1 was just two weight classes and this is the solution that we had to help to establish all of these weight classes.”

For many fans, the idea of losing the tournament format will be a loss, as K-1 was established on this idea of annual tournaments to decide the best in the world, but Kuruc assures us that K-1 isn’t done with tournaments. “Is K-1 done with the tournament format? Absolutely not. We want to establish these weight divisions and crown champions, but we still want to run tournaments, just not as often. Maybe they are every two or four years, just not every year like we are all used to.”

Kuruc also cites that the marketplace has completely changed over the past ten years, which was a factor in this decision. “It’s a completely different marketplace than it was when K-1 first started and companies need to adjust,” he explains. “We feel that this is the right adjustment. The fans want to know who the 63kg champion is, who the 70kg champion is and by doing it this way fans will be able to follow their favorite athlete’s career. The current format crowns a new champion every year, but they are just the champion of this year, then for the next tournament they have to start all over again.

“It’s also a matter of making the fights that fans want to see. Take for example Artur Kyshenko, he had competed in K-1 for how many years and somehow never fought against Buakaw? They would fight on the same shows but they never fought each other. People want to see that fight, but in a tournament format you can’t deliver this fight outside of a stroke of fight. With us having the ability to control who fights who, K-1’ believes that this will be able to give fans the best possible fights that they want to see.”

As for when to expect these changes to come into play, Kuruc says that it will be the near future, by the beginning of the year. “It’ll start in early 2014, probably as soon as January. We’ll shortly be coming out with the first half of the 2014 schedule. I’m currently developing shows in quite a number of countries. K-1 will still be a global organization, with shows on different continents and different countries.

“We are really looking for young and exciting fighters right now. I’m spending a lot of time right now watching a lot of footage. Our personnel will be attending a lot of amateur championships around the world. It’s not that we are rebuilding it is just that we feel like there is a wealth of great fighters from the ages of 18 – 23 and we want to be the ones who expose them to the world. They have new styles that they fight in and it’s really exciting to think about creating new stars within K-1.”

Of course, the question still looms about what is going on with the 2013 K-1 World MAX Championships, as the Final 16 was held in September and fans were promised resolution on this. It turns out, they will get their resolution, it will just take on a slightly different form.

“We’re not gonna do the Final 8 fights in one night, instead we’re gonna build up to a Final,” he said, showing the difference between previous years. “On the first two shows we’ll have four of the winners, on another show we’ll have the other two winners. So the first two rounds of the Final 8 will be spread out over those shows, then Finalists will compete on a separate show for the Championship. The winner of that will not only be the year’s MAX Champion, but our 70kg Champion as well.

“This gives fighters a chance to rest, heal up and train for each opponent,” he added. “These guys are top athletes and it only seems fair to give them a real chance to prepare for their opponents. So 70kg will be the first division that we open up, followed by the top ten rankings after we find our Champion. The next divisions that we’ll open up will be 63kg and 85kg, while I’m also looking for a few good, exciting Heavyweights, as Heavyweight is on the agenda as well.

“We plan on running these events in January and February, which means that we’ll be crowning our 70kg Champion by the end of February or early March.”

These aren’t the only big plans for K-1, as they plan on running 12 big events throughout 2014, but these are some of the big changes that are happening. K-1 Global seems confident in this new format and that it will not only be best for the fans, but also benefit the careers and longevity of the fighters involved as well.

Few things are more exciting than a fighter that throws caution to the wind. One that’s willing to lay it all on the line to entertain the fans and make sure everyone in attendance sees a good show. As fight fans, we cheer most intensely for those that have one goal in mind: to show no quarter and destroy or be destroyed. It’s a recipe for success in gaining fans and there are those that have parlayed that style into a legendary career. But what about those that don’t walk that thin line between success and failure? The fighters that place winning above entertainment.

With 40 knockout wins to his credit, your first thought would be that Remy Bonjasky is not a boring fighter. Training with the legendary Ivan Hippolyte at Vos Gym has given The Flying Gentleman the tools to record some of the most memorable knockout wins in K-1 history. His flying headkick KO of Vernon White at the 2003 Las Vegas Grand Prix being just one of them. But the overall consensus among fans is that Remy is a safe fighter that will cover up with a double forearm guard, not engage, strike when he has to, and ride out a decision win. A very calculated strategy but not one that will win him legions of fans. By and large, fans place higher emphasis on fireworks than they do a sound path to victory. While some astute students of the fight game can enjoy the mechanics of a style like Remy’s, all fans can enjoy two fighters standing in the center of the ring and throwing punches and kicks till one falls. To borrow a phrase from the great Jim Ross, people love a slobberknocker.

It’s hard to argue with his record, though. The Surinamese native has achieved a huge amount of success in the K-1 ring by not deviating from his strategy. Fighters often grow visibly tired of Remy’s refusal to engage in a slug-fest as evidenced by them throwing up their arms in disgust while openly taunting Bonjasky. Ever vigilant in his approach, he has used this method to win three K-1 World Grand Prix titles. Back to back in 2003 and 2004, then again in 2008. Proving the validity of his style, Remy won two of those titles by decision and one by default when Badr Hari was disqualified after stomping Remy in the head while he was down. By sticking to his guns and never letting fan or fighter approval sway him from concentrating on his goal, Remy has attained legendary status.

Which begs the question, is it better to be successful or well liked? Going against the grain means often walking alone. Such legendary fighters as Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost have won multiple WGP titles and acquired a large fan base at the same time. Why is that? It’s hard to nail down one reason but let’s look at the roads to victory for Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost.

Peter Aerts defeated Masaaki Satake by unanimous decision to win his first K-1 WGP title in ’94. He would go on to win the next two by defeating Jerome Le Banner with a body shot in ’95 and knocking out Andy Hug with his trademark high kick in ’98.

Ernesto Hoost defeated Andy Hug by decision to win his first WGP title in ’97. He then used a body shot to defeat Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic in ’99, a decision victory over Ray Sefo in ’00, and a kick to shatter Jerome Le Banner’s left arm in ’02.

Both Peter and Ernesto recorded decision wins over their opponents but they also had decisive KO wins that left nothing to doubt. Something lacking in Remy’s World Grand Prix run. What athletes do and how they do it, on the biggest stage, is what often defines their career.

This scenario isn’t limited to the kickboxing world as mixed martial arts fighters often fall under the same scrutiny. Georges St. Pierre, John Fitch and Rashad Evans are all fighters that have achieved success and are often criticized for utilizing a system that is based around wrestling and not striking. Again, a style that is technically sound but not exciting to the casual fan.

One fighter that certainly bucks that trend is Wanderlei ‘The Axe Murderer’ Silva. His willingness to put entertaining the fans above all else has earned him arguably the largest fan base in combat sports. The Brazil native is known worlwide for his brawling style that often finds him standing toe-to-toe with his opponent and throwing punches until he knocks out his opponent or he is knocked out. Living by the sword and dying by the sword is nothing new for Wanderlei as he has knocked out opponents to win multiple titles and also fell victim to highlight reel KO’s. He often speaks of his desire to entertain the fans that show up looking for a good fight and how he’ll do anything to give it to them. The fans respect that a great deal and will always tune in to see him do battle.

In the end, Remy is a three time World Grand Prix champion and will go down as one of the best to ever lace up the gloves. That’s undeniable. Could he have developed a larger group of fans by being a fighter that was more exciting and avoided winning by decision if possible? I believe so but that would cause him to fight out of his comfort zone and who knows how successful that would have been. He might not have one title to his record today if he acquiesced to what those around him wanted. Remy has done what few fighters have had the good fortune to and when the sun sets on his career, I believe that’s what matters to him most.