Jofeljoh!
13th June 2005, 02:20 PM
maybe a bit early, but I wanted to exchange some thoughts about the final eliminations later this year.
we all know how the system works in the finals, and that's pretty fair. The only influence K-1 can do, is the early tournaments and the matchups in the final eliminations. With that, they can plan the final 8 ahead. Well at least they can try to, an incidental surprise as we have seen with Ignashov, that can always happen.
So, first of all, we already know that the 8 finalists of last year join in, and until now we have the qualifiers from the Grand Prixs of this year: Choi, Schilt and Feitosa. One question, because I'm not sure? Is Bonjasky defending his title again, whatever the result may be in the final eliminations (with other words: will that be a sort of superfight again?).
Another question, who will K-1 select this year themselves. They can select two fighters. One of them will be Ignashov imo. It looks like he has unending credit with K-1, no matter how inconsistent he is. He just has a large bandwagon and marketing value, he's hard to ignore. Who will the other be? My guess is Le Banner personally, but I'm not sure. The spot can be given to a lot of other fighters, but I have no idea who it would be. Your thoughts please. Oh wait, when I'm typing, I just know it: it has to be Leko ofcourse!
At last, the million dollar questions. Who wants K-1 in the finals? And who they DON'T want in, for sure.
Some considerations: they definately want a japanese homeboy in. No need to explain here, I think. Musashi would be fed to an easier opponent. One he can beat anyway. Another one: Choi should be in the tournament, for the freak-reason, but also for commercial reasons. Korea is a major market and it looks logical that choi should have an opponent he could beat. On the other hand, if Choi is in for certain, that would cost another fighter his place, so my guess is they'll match him up with someone of the same caliber, and if Choi would lose, then K-1 will still have someone who can replace him with the same freak amount and marketability. Don't freak out, but I fear Bob Sapp has a decent chance to win the K-1 Japan and take a spot. Sapp vs Choi, another freakshow has born and whatever the result is, I'm pretty sure K-1 is happy with the outcome.
Then another important fact. Remy is in. Aerts is in. Hoost is in. Schilt is in. So those are 4 dutchmen. If we assume that no one of these men has any injury, they'll certainly try for one more year (aerts/hoost). Schilt is determined to advance to the finals and Hoost wants revenge. Aerts already said in an interview that he wants to try it once more if he feels oke.
We all know that the dutch domination in K-1 has been huge, already since the beginning. I can't imagine that they let it come so far that they'll have 4 dutchmen in the finals. That means, that one of them either get screwed, or, more likely, two of them would be paired up in the eliminations. My guess is that Schilt will be matched with Hoost (last time it was ended in a draw, so would be a pretty sweet matchup), OR, which doesn't seem impossible, a Hoost vs Aerts matchup!
Who doesn't want to see this! The two biggest legends in K-1, matched up against eachother! Personally I think it is a considerable thought, because both carreers are pretty much going to an end, and the possibility of fighting each other is getting slimmer with time going by. So it could be possible that K-1 is getting this last chance to match them. And they will still have a legend in the finals. And ofcourse, they have met eachother 4 times, and it stands 2-2 as far as I know. Could it get any better?
These are my most important things I've been thinking about, I haven't thought of any other matchup. So I'm pretty curious about your thoughts an curious about your comments on my statements here.
we all know how the system works in the finals, and that's pretty fair. The only influence K-1 can do, is the early tournaments and the matchups in the final eliminations. With that, they can plan the final 8 ahead. Well at least they can try to, an incidental surprise as we have seen with Ignashov, that can always happen.
So, first of all, we already know that the 8 finalists of last year join in, and until now we have the qualifiers from the Grand Prixs of this year: Choi, Schilt and Feitosa. One question, because I'm not sure? Is Bonjasky defending his title again, whatever the result may be in the final eliminations (with other words: will that be a sort of superfight again?).
Another question, who will K-1 select this year themselves. They can select two fighters. One of them will be Ignashov imo. It looks like he has unending credit with K-1, no matter how inconsistent he is. He just has a large bandwagon and marketing value, he's hard to ignore. Who will the other be? My guess is Le Banner personally, but I'm not sure. The spot can be given to a lot of other fighters, but I have no idea who it would be. Your thoughts please. Oh wait, when I'm typing, I just know it: it has to be Leko ofcourse!
At last, the million dollar questions. Who wants K-1 in the finals? And who they DON'T want in, for sure.
Some considerations: they definately want a japanese homeboy in. No need to explain here, I think. Musashi would be fed to an easier opponent. One he can beat anyway. Another one: Choi should be in the tournament, for the freak-reason, but also for commercial reasons. Korea is a major market and it looks logical that choi should have an opponent he could beat. On the other hand, if Choi is in for certain, that would cost another fighter his place, so my guess is they'll match him up with someone of the same caliber, and if Choi would lose, then K-1 will still have someone who can replace him with the same freak amount and marketability. Don't freak out, but I fear Bob Sapp has a decent chance to win the K-1 Japan and take a spot. Sapp vs Choi, another freakshow has born and whatever the result is, I'm pretty sure K-1 is happy with the outcome.
Then another important fact. Remy is in. Aerts is in. Hoost is in. Schilt is in. So those are 4 dutchmen. If we assume that no one of these men has any injury, they'll certainly try for one more year (aerts/hoost). Schilt is determined to advance to the finals and Hoost wants revenge. Aerts already said in an interview that he wants to try it once more if he feels oke.
We all know that the dutch domination in K-1 has been huge, already since the beginning. I can't imagine that they let it come so far that they'll have 4 dutchmen in the finals. That means, that one of them either get screwed, or, more likely, two of them would be paired up in the eliminations. My guess is that Schilt will be matched with Hoost (last time it was ended in a draw, so would be a pretty sweet matchup), OR, which doesn't seem impossible, a Hoost vs Aerts matchup!
Who doesn't want to see this! The two biggest legends in K-1, matched up against eachother! Personally I think it is a considerable thought, because both carreers are pretty much going to an end, and the possibility of fighting each other is getting slimmer with time going by. So it could be possible that K-1 is getting this last chance to match them. And they will still have a legend in the finals. And ofcourse, they have met eachother 4 times, and it stands 2-2 as far as I know. Could it get any better?
These are my most important things I've been thinking about, I haven't thought of any other matchup. So I'm pretty curious about your thoughts an curious about your comments on my statements here.