My K-1 Scandinavia Experience/Impression

[Titan]

I´m back from a weekend of K-1 Scandinavia. There´s a few reflections I´ve got on the event as a whole. There´s some frustration and bitterness that I´m writing off first, so it´s a longer post. It´s the third K-1 Scandinavia I go to, and I think the event was well organized, and the promoter has done a good job. I did not go on Kakutougi press-pass. I went with my girlfriend on tickets I got privately, so I was just an ordinary visitor sitting ringside. They haven´t had it easy at all with all presumed injuries that fighters cancelled due to; especially with a "main event in the event" where Martin Lidberg was supposed to fight Gary Turner under mixed rules. In addition, this event came on right after the hockey world-championships, which also used the same arena. This always results in less people attending, because they choose between the one or other event. It looked like maybe half of the arena was full. I´ve not read any official numbers. The whole thing went at a high pace, and except for some speeches, there were back-to-back fights and very little time spent waiting.

[Titan]

That was the arrangement as a whole. The quality of the fights and fighters was so-so. I´m quite disappointed in a lot performances that night. Lots of fighters looks like, in lack of a better description, they´d been out partying all night together. Seems like a lot of bonding had happened between the fighters. I lived through the first three quarterfinals. I´ll highlight something I felt was unfair: the fight between Tapi Helin and Petar Majstorovic was not reffed correctly, in my opinion. Helin did little other than grab and hold Majstorovic until the ref had to break them up. The referee never cautioned Helin. I think he should´ve taken points away from him for all the holding. Instead, it went an extra round that Helin won. I hate to conspire, so I´ll leave it to you guys, but the referee is from the same country as Helin, and in the final fight, which had significantly much less holding, he told the fighters off from doing that. On the other hand, Majstorovic could´ve been smarter and secured the victory. Helin what what semeed to be a very damaged leg (from kicks) that buckled after a hit with a few minutes left of the fight, and a kick or two more there would´ve most likely resulted in at least a standing 8 count. Here, Majstorovic was a friend, and he fought stupid and never kicked the leg again, so that and the referee is what cost him the fight.

The fourth quarterfinal was the disappointment of the night. Michael McDonald in his probably worst performance ever. I paid good money to see him, and I´m sure the promoters paid him good money to come here. And I can´t remember him throwing even a combination. It´s like he didn´t come to fight, and I can´t respect that at all. I don´t think it´s professional. 3 years in a row, I´ve mediated between him and K-1 Scandinavia to get him here, and I feel quite bad about it this time, in hindsight of the performance. He´s a good person and a really nice guy outside the ring, but I don´t agree with what happened in the ring: nothing happened! It was disappointing. It was not display of a fighter wanting to win. And if his corner can´t speak up to get him to throw combinations after the 1st round, they shouldn´t be there. They should be fired. These professional fighters are business-men, too, and putting on a poor performance like this hurts themselves more than anything. Nobody will want to do business with them if they don´t do anything in the ring, not even trying to do something, and I sure as hell would like a refund on tickets after this poor performance. This was not fighting ... for the curious reader, Ignashov was in the Russian corner, and K-1 MAX "Black Mamba" in the Canadian.

Laursen against Skarbowsky came up when I was already in a sour mood after McDonald´s fight. Skarbowsky went and mostly picked on Laursen with a weak looking teep, and he never threw anything that looked really damaging. To make matters worse, he gassed so early, I really wondered if it´s the guy they call the best foreign thaiboxer in Thailand. Laursen that just went a fight few weeks ago, and another fight before that. He should´ve been the tired one, but looked much better conditioned and explosive. It was a boring fight for 3 rounds with neither one showing the desire to win. The judges thought the same and called them in for an extra round. Here, Laursen picked up a faster pace, and Skarbowsky got a standing count twice, I think. There´s 30 seconds or a minute left after the second standing count, and Skarbowsky is up against the ropes. Laursen could´ve gone in and finished him, but no ... I sit in the direction with Laursen´s face against me and Skarbowsky´s back, and saw in Laursen´s eyes that he gave Skarbowsky a friendly look and wasn´t looking to do that. Instead, he reached his hand out to Skarbowsky, like saying "I´m not gonna go for the finished", and they touched gloves, and Laursen killed time doing nothing before the bell rang. I can´t cheer for Laursen again after that. They´re there to fight 100% on the attack and 100% on the defense. If a guy can´t defend himself, he should´ve trained harder ... don´t hold back on finishing them. I´m not bloodthirsty, and I don´t want to see fighters injured, but there´s too much that looked like sparring this night.

[Titan]

Lindwall versus Maksutaj came to save the day. I know these guys are tough, and I know they both want to win. And, best of all, I know neither one will back down even an inch. It´s Lindwall´s farewell fight, so everyone was on their feet for him and cheering. He really brought down the biggest cheer from the crowd. Lindwall took the first round, but in the second, Maksutaj connects with the "superman punch" coming from his right hand. I swear, the thump from that punch landing was heard across the whole arena, and Lindwall just fell unconscious to the ground. My heart was with Lindwall, and it´s an unfortunate ending to a career, but good timing by Maksutaj, and a beautiful knockout. Great comeback on his part, and well deserved win for finding the mark. Lindwall´s fighting spirit is interesting to put in comparison with aforementioned fighters. When he woke up, the first thing he did was get to his knees and hit the canvas over and over in a reaction that´s best described as showing how much he really wanted to win this fight. He previously fought Maksutaj in K-1 Basel with a broken hand, that he broke 2 weeks before the event, and won -- and I wouldn´t be surprised if he broke it again against the canvas, -- but this time Maksutaj won, and Lindwall got up with tears in his eyes and went to congratulate the winner. I wish more fighters were like Lindwall and Maksutaj. Great display from both of them.



The surprise of the event was Gromark. An unknown Swedish fighter. He fought an equally surprising Errol Zimmerman. Being a 3 times Dutch champion and Team Golden Glory fighter nicknamed "Bonecrusher", I thought Zimmerman would destroy the skinny Swede. In fact, I thought this just by looking at the Swede, before "Bonecrusher" came in. He was skinny with a pencilneck, and was listed as having a background in Tae Kwon Do. Zimmerman, however, would prove to be quite unimpressive. He did not belong in the tournament this year at all, but he passed the same medical tests that wouldn´t clear Kruth last year, so he can´t have been sick. Don´t know, maybe he´s just not good, because the fight started, and Zimmerman got a lesson in every part of the game. Gromark controls and is winning the fight. Zimmerman was in trouble from everything, and especially the explosive punches thrown by the Swede. Don´t judge a book by its cover, Gromark could fight, and he had the heart and will of a fighter. I liked seeing that -- some fighters should take notice and fight with as much heart. His downside is he´s on the lighter side. He should get heavier to fight K-1, and his hands were a bit low down most of the time, like Tae Kwon Do guard. Both are quite easy things to adjust, though, and I think the guard won´t be a problem. You see, a panting exhausted and beaten up Zimmerman eventually managed to connect a right roundhouse kick that knocked Gromark out of the fight. It was more Gromark´s carelessness that got him out of the fight. Not Zimmerman´s set of skills. I look forward to seeing what it´ll be of Gromark. I know the promoters had a lot of good things to say about Vallentuna Boxing Camp´s (VBC´s) fighter Johan Mparmpagiannis, who was gonna fight this year, and Johan got injured when Gromark fell out of the ring and over him during sparring at VBC. Seems like VBC has got some good fighters coming up.



Rickard Nordstrand (also from VBC) advanced to the finals, and so did Magomedov. Nordstrand didn´t impress. I think he´s at the same level he was when I saw him in K-1 the first time. His development seems to have stopped. His punching isn´t getting better. It´s still wild and all over the place. I didn´t see him use kicks as much as before. I don´t know if it´s him or his corner to blame for that. In my opinion, he´s got a fighting style where he spends a lot of energy and gets very little out of it. He needs to change something in his training if he wants to get somewhere in K-1, I think. Magomedov ... not much to say about him. He´s got good technique and puts it together well, and shows some spectacular combinations at times. I remember some wheelkick followed by a spinning backfist, or something wicked like that. I think he looks a bit small and could use bulking up a little before moving on, but it´ll be interesting to see his continued career in K-1.



Final fight was Kruth (VBC) versus Botha. Here, Botha is a nice guy. All the fighters like him out of the ring, and he can joke with cornermen and audience in-between rounds. But, unlike Magomedov that had to touch gloves every 20 seconds to make sure his opponent wasn´t angry with him (or whatever), Botha throws down during the rounds. It´s all business there. He had a hard, hard time against Kruth. Kruth kicks very, very hard, and kept taking the power out of Botha´s arms to disable his punching. Mixed it up well with low-kicks to Bothas´s leg. All kicks were really fast, and his conditioning seemed as good as can be. Round 1 and 2 plays out that way, but in the 3rd, Botha managed to get Kruth to play his game by closing the distance and getting involved in some punching exchanges. It´s a good win for Kruth. But I think he needs to mix it up better and punch more and push forward harder in order to fight in K-1. He´s got the physical tools, so it´s more a question of being more explosive and aggressive. The strategy for beating Botha didn´t make for an entertaining fight, and since K-1´s head office didn´t want Gary Turner in the tournament because he´s boring, I think Kruth needs to inject a little something crazy to his fighting style if K-1 is his goal.



Some bits of this and that from the event. Ignashov was the most courted fighter for photographs, even though he was there just as a cornerman. He looked like his usual self as people were coming up to have pictures taken with him. At the beginning of the event, Martin Holm came and sat down a while two rows behind us a few seats away. Seemed fit and happy. Soccer-fans could care that Zlatan Ibrahimovic sat on the row in front of us, a few seats to the right. I first noticed after the event when everyone was going crazy to have their photo taken with him. He happily posed with some soccer-fans for mobile-phone photos. Chatted a bit with McDonald and asked what he was doing in the ring, and he said he didn´t know what was wrong today, that it was one of those days when he just didn´t trigger at all. Walking out late through the front exit, we ran into Botha of all people. I don´t think they´re meant to exit that way, but him and a team-mate were going out. He went in his fight-shorts and the shirt they got from the sponsor. Smelled like a lot of tigerbalm, had a little red thigh, but walked fine. :-) Nice guy, nice team. What else ... Bruce Buffer´s camera really liked the Frank Dandy clothing pyjama ladies. And I can´t figure out why he always announced "this is the last and final round" when "this is the third and final round" makes more sense.

[-=[DM]=-]

I was very dissapointed with McDonald's performance, he fought like he was there just to pick up the pay-check and leave.

And as for Hellin, you can't enter the ring to the predator theme and then spend the whole fight hugging your opponent.

Other than that I enjoyed all fights and I didn't think that Kruth vs Botha was that boring, sure neither fighter had the other in any real danger but the fight had energy.

Gromark vs Zimmerman was very entertaining, suprise of the night.

[Vinkelslipen]

and this being the last time, it wasnt as good as last year with bonjasky as the big number, eventough his fight was not good then. kruth vs botha was a good fight, even if kruth was a bit boring with the lowkicks. lindvalls last fight was a very nice fight aswell. 1 of the prefight was quite fun aswell, jamide vs feyli, the big bouncerfight, both of em worked as guards at clubs in stockholm.
i seem to have been sitting very close to u titan :)

[Jofeljoh!]

Hmm, I read on several forums that Zimmerman knocked his opponent down twice in the first round, and the ref should have stopped it so he could be fresh for his next fight. However, I can't find anything about that in your report Titan?

But he sounded disappointing from your point of view, I've seen him fight once against Henriques Zowa and that was quite spectacular... must have had a bad night or something.

[Titan]

Hmm, I read on several forums that Zimmerman knocked his opponent down twice in the first round, and the ref should have stopped it so he could be fresh for his next fight. However, I can't find anything about that in your report Titan?

But he sounded disappointing from your point of view, I've seen him fight once against Henriques Zowa and that was quite spectacular... must have had a bad night or something.
Take my report with a grain of salt. It´s always hard to remember what´s been happening. Maybe he knocked him down twice, but, honestly, when he fought, I just wanted the fights to be over with, so I didn´t pay full attention. :-)

[Titan]

and this being the last time, it wasnt as good as last year with bonjasky as the big number, eventough his fight was not good then. kruth vs botha was a good fight, even if kruth was a bit boring with the lowkicks. lindvalls last fight was a very nice fight aswell. 1 of the prefight was quite fun aswell, jamide vs feyli, the big bouncerfight, both of em worked as guards at clubs in stockholm.
i seem to have been sitting very close to u titan :)
I was in section A23, row 2, seats 35 and 36, I think. My girlfriend sat on the end there closest to the aisle, and I next to her. I wore a long-sleeved t-shirt with greenish stripes. Were you around there, too? :-)

[Jofeljoh!]

Take my report with a grain of salt. It´s always hard to remember what´s been happening. Maybe he knocked him down twice, but, honestly, when he fought, I just wanted the fights to be over with, so I didn´t pay full attention. :-)

LOL

I hear you, always hard to remember, but two knockdowns can't be overlooked that easy can it? ;)

For the rest great detailed report mate, thanks for the info

[seese]

I was in section A23, row 2, seats 35 and 36, I think. My girlfriend sat on the end there closest to the aisle, and I next to her. I wore a long-sleeved t-shirt with greenish stripes. Were you around there, too? :-)

I you had noticed me before the event I would have seen you, I sat at A7, row 7 or something but some of my friends were at A23 row 11 =D. Off topic?

P.s got a very positive reaction from the congressman whom I am writing the speech for in the chamber.

[Vinkelslipen]

i sat at a23, row 5, seat 28, did u sit on the left or right side? i sat close to the middle aisle of a23. *a sidenote* infront of me it sat a 70 year old woman, thrilled about the KO´s.
yes zimmerman did floor "windmill", however i cant really say it was cos of a good punch or so, more that windmill was a bit overexcited and maybe fell on his own foot. each time windmill went down, he was back up again even quicker. at the prematches, zimmerman sat 1st next to me, then when ppl came to get their seats, he moved to the row infront of me, if it wasnt for them having already wiring his hands, i wudnt really think he was a fighter.

[Titan]

LOL

I hear you, always hard to remember, but two knockdowns can't be overlooked that easy can it? ;)

For the rest great detailed report mate, thanks for the info
Vinkelslipen has a point: a knockdown that had his opponent struggling to get back up would´ve been noticed, but I can´t remember any of those.

Mind you, I´ve since long stopped taking that referee´s 8-counts seriously, so that could´ve played part in me not noticing. :-)

The day 8-counts in Scandinavia died for me was when McDonald fell last year and hit his throat on the bottom ringrope. He got up and couldn´t swallow, but other than that was fine. The referee looked at him for some time, but couldn´t figure out what was wrong with his throat ... instead of calling time out, he gave McDonald a standing 8-count to recover during. LOL.

[Titan]

I you had noticed me before the event I would have seen you, I sat at A7, row 7 or something but some of my friends were at A23 row 11 =D.
i sat at a23, row 5, seat 28, did u sit on the left or right side? i sat close to the middle aisle of a23. *a sidenote* infront of me it sat a 70 year old woman, thrilled about the KO´s.
On the right side, behind two guys that were quite anonymous. 2nd row was pretty full, but 3rd row behind us, I think there was only one guy seated. The right hand side was quite empty. With all the fellows at A23, we could have had a party! There´d been room for you, too, there, seese. Plenty of seats.

[Titan]

Off topic?

P.s got a very positive reaction from the congressman whom I am writing the speech for in the chamber.
This is good! For the people that weren´t aware, there´s lots of political agendas surrounding fighting in Sweden.

There were two speeches at K-1 Scandinavia. Unfortunately a bit long-winded and by speakers that with their performance didn´t really capture my attention, and unfortunately directed to an audience that in majority already probably was aware of the situation; finally, it´s unlikely that a long speech like those there would make it on the news in Sweden by airtime paid for by the news. The speeches needed to be shorter and more direct on point, or it´s too much information to take in.

On point is the speeches were directed towards politicians that want to ban "K-1" because they don´t like it that other people hit each other. The same politicians refused to go in person or send representatives to the event. They´ve never been to one, but they want to ban it. It´s like a personal agenda they´re having against fight sports. The responses given in speeches is good in theory, but I think that unfortunately nobody new to the problem was listening at this event. And, even if they did, there was too much information to take in.

[danvari]

The day 8-counts in Scandinavia died for me was when McDonald fell last year and hit his throat on the bottom ringrope. He got up and couldn´t swallow, but other than that was fine. The referee looked at him for some time, but couldn´t figure out what was wrong with his throat ... instead of calling time out, he gave McDonald a standing 8-count to recover during. LOL.

Actually he fell and landed on a microphone that's supposed to pick up the sounds from the ring, but I agree that that was one of the weirdest counts ever, I think the referee made sure that McDonald didn't lose any points from the count in that case though (if I remember it correctly).

[Titan]

Actually he fell and landed on a microphone that's supposed to pick up the sounds from the ring, but I agree that that was one of the weirdest counts ever, I think the referee made sure that McDonald didn't lose any points from the count in that case though (if I remember it correctly).
You´re right that he hit his head. I sat diagonally from it and always thought it was a camera, because I didn´t see what had happened, and he held his head afterwards. But, about the throat, he told me afterwards the problem was he hit his throat/neck on the rope and couldn´t swallow.

[MZN]

Zimmerman fought some impressive fights a year ago at 90 kilo's, him being 11 kilo's heavier a year later and looking the way he did apalled me quite a bit. I'm not sure wether he had proper time to train...

I'd like to see Magomedov more often. He's a bit light but is still not that heavy for his length so a couple of kilo's more and he had some nice combo's timed and countered great, spoke English well so overall he made a good impression on me.

[( o Y o )]

Sounds like a bit of a frustrating event all in all. It is a pitty considering so far most of the GP related shows have all been pretty exciting. I guess though in two weeks we will have the Asian GP to compare with this one, and this one will start to look a whole lot better then ;-)

Thanks for the report.

[www.k-1sport.de]

I totally disagree with your report about the Skarbowsky vs. Laursen. I was really curious to see this fight and in my eyes both fighters did a lot to win it. There was a lot of action going on and it first looked like Laursen is gassed and gets beaten by Skarbowsky. But in the third round he was the more active fighter and get back into the fight.

Both fighters were tired after three rounds because they had a hard fight and not because of a lack of stamina. It was absolutely ok to go to an extra round and then it was Laursen who had the better of it. Skarbowsky was clearly gassed now and took some hard shots to the head. He went down twice and therefore clearly lost. Laursen had not enough stamina left after three and a half hard rounds to get him down a third time.

Maybe a TKO was still possible but he was far away from hitting Skarbowsky hard enough to get a KO! Both knew who won the fight when they laughed at each other...so they fought the remaining seconds much softer. That was absolutely ok :)

[Titan]

I totally disagree with your report about the Skarbowsky vs. Laursen. I was really curious to see this fight and in my eyes both fighters did a lot to win it. There was a lot of action going on and it first looked like Laursen is gassed and gets beaten by Skarbowsky. But in the third round he was the more active fighter and get back into the fight.

Both fighters were tired after three rounds because they had a hard fight and not because of a lack of stamina. It was absolutely ok to go to an extra round and then it was Laursen who had the better of it. Skarbowsky was clearly gassed now and took some hard shots to the head. He went down twice and therefore clearly lost. Laursen had not enough stamina left after three and a half hard rounds to get him down a third time.

Maybe a TKO was still possible but he was far away from hitting Skarbowsky hard enough to get a KO! Both knew who won the fight when they laughed at each other...so they fought the remaining seconds much softer. That was absolutely ok :)I think the first three rounds was like two guys sparring. The extra round was called for good reason, and they began making an effort. I don´t need a KO/TKO at all. I never said that. What I wanted here was a strong finish from a professional fighter during the fight.

[Titan]

Sounds like a bit of a frustrating event all in all. It is a pitty considering so far most of the GP related shows have all been pretty exciting. I guess though in two weeks we will have the Asian GP to compare with this one, and this one will start to look a whole lot better then ;-)

Thanks for the report.
Of all the K-1 Scandinavia I´ve been to, this one had the most potential. Even with fighters canceling due to injury, we had good names on there, but it just left something to be desired ... and that was more fighters going to work like Gromark.

[Titan]

I'd like to see Magomedov more often. He's a bit light but is still not that heavy for his length so a couple of kilo's more and he had some nice combo's timed and countered great, spoke English well so overall he made a good impression on me.
Agreed, he made a good impression, and I´d like to see him one day against Ruslan Karaev.

[HolyRamenEmpire]

nice report. thx :)

[www.k-1sport.de]

Agreed, he made a good impression, and I´d like to see him one day against Ruslan Karaev.

Comparing these both (http://www.k-1sport.de/en/database/head2head.php?fighter1=1101&fighter2=276) shows, that Mago is even older than Ruslan. They both have nearly the same height and weight. Mago has great reflexes and is a technical fighter. He should make some weight and I'm pretty sure we could see another promising offspring :)

[maggotron]

Laursen vs Skarbovsky was a great fight and I am very happy that Ole finally got a big win again.

Kruth vs Botha was very nice. Most because of Botha has a lot of charisma. His entrance together with the legaendary Steve Kalakoda almost brought a tear to my eye.

Too bad it was Lindwalls last fight but what we saw from him was very good. Incredible punch by Makzutaj. I have never seen anybody being knocked out by a jumping punch.

Magomedov really was the big surprise of the evening. His fighting style was technical, fast and tricky. Him being the smaller guy I feared he was going to just do a hit and run routine. But he did the opposite, he was the one pushing the fights. He had some great tricky kicks, especially the brazilian karate kick. Good punch kick combos. Left liver punch and right leg kicks etc.
His defence reminded me a bit of Ignashov.
I my eyes he is going to be a k1 star. I was a bit drunk when I watched the fights so I may have praised him too much:)

Nordstrand and McDonald was the biggest let downs of the evening.