2h2h holland?

[RedHawk]

I heard that cyborg and Alistair were out due to injury/illness. Does anyone have a revised outlook of the fight card?

[seese]

Ill quote Jofeljoh:

"Yvel vs Overeem is off now, since Overeem has an elbow-injury. Since Cyborg has a virus (how ironic das that sound lol), Yvel and Faverus both were 'opponentless', so now they will fight eachother lol.

Looking forward to this event, especially Mes vs Spong should turn into an instant classic."

[MZN]

Yvel vs. Faverus could have been huge a couple of years ago. Right now it is kinda diffucult with Faverus down at lhw and even mw and some poor choices heading back to MT and Yvel stumbling off the international stage with his losses against Zentsov and Minowa.

Still though it could be a great fight. If only 'The hurricane' fights the man who soundly beat Manhoef a couple of years ago....

[Jofeljoh!]

The complete fightcard should look someting like this:

Undercard:

1 Milco Voorn vs Jessie Gibs
2 Anil Dubar vs TBA
3 Thiago Tavares vs Ulas Aslan

Main card (in no particular order);

1.Germaine de Randamie vs Joanna Generowicz
2.Michael Knaap vs Murad Chunkaiev
3 Alviar Lima vs Marco Pique
4 Samir Bennazouz vs Ashwin Balrak
5 Dave Dalgliesh vs lukasz Jurkowski
6.Barrington Patterson vs Henk Kuipers
7. Tyrone spong vs Joerie Mes
8. John Olav Einemo vs James Thompson
9. Ray Staring vs Murat Direkci
10. Ali Gunyar vs Faldir Chahbari
11. Alexander Emeilanenko vs Fabricio Werdum
12. Gilbert Yvel vs Rodney Faverus
13. Brian Lo-an-joe vs Oktay Karatas

[Cracked_Knuckle]

Hope Alex destroys Werdum.

[seese]

I hope (brain, not heart) Werdum submits him in the second round.

[Kamatari]

3 Alviar Lima vs Marco Pique
7. Tyrone spong vs Joerie Mes
9. Ray Staring vs Murat Direkci
10. Ali Gunyar vs Faldir Chahbari
Nice.

I like Pique's style a hell of a lot more than Lima's but I think Lima is going to suffocate him with his style as he'll stay on him constantly. If Spong can't finish it early I think he'll have a hard time in there. Staring's not the most powerful or even most technical fighter out there but when he overwhelms you you're toast.

At what weight is Gunyar/Chahbari? 70 kg? Gunyar looked better against Nitta than he did against Kraus.

[Jofeljoh!]

70KGs yes.

About Staring I'll have to disagree; I think he's a quite technical fighter, and also has a tactical good gameplan. He fights very smart, and he adapts very well to his opponents. He can fight aggressively against cautious fighters, but also can fight backwards (best example against Drago). He just scores his points and outmanoevres his opponents.

Piques style is indeed a little more 'refined' than Lima's, Lima has a more 'in your face' kind of fightingstyle. But to be honost, Pique never did really impress me in the fights I've seen from him. Oke he did quite well against Buakaw seen the circumstances, but I would rate him under all bigger names like the MAX guys, but also Main, Staring, Chabahri, etcetera.

[Kamatari]

Thanks for the answer.

Well I specifically stated that he's not the "most technical fighter" (on the planet LOL), I always thought the best thing about him is indeed the fact that he racks up points and keeps moving. That is technical in itself of course. I think the strong wording might have given out the wrong impression.

As you can read from most of my posts on Lima on here and elsewhere I can't seem to get any enjoyment out of his fights. Except his war with Najim Ettouhlali which was excellent. I don't think Pique is on that level either and he tends to gas faster from what I can see and that sure won't aid him against Lima but that won't stop me from rooting for him in this fight.

On that note, I really want to see Chahbari and Staring in MAX.

[Jofeljoh!]

Yeah those are two names who really deserve it to be in there, but I don't think they have much chance at this very moment with all the other dutchmen in there (with Drago already fighting under the Armenian flag). On top of that I know that Joerie Mes will be fighting -70KG in the near future to compete in MAX (and we know that Mes is under contract with It's Showtime... I don't think I have to explain what influence Simon Rutz has if you look at the contracts with his fighters and K-1.).

Maybe Chahbari can fight under the Maroccan flag, who knows. I don't know if Chahbari style will please the Japanese public. He is somewhat more of a pointfighter, but I really enjoy his fast-paced technical game, and also his amazing tight defense and megafast reflexes (wow I want to see his fight against Diender again in the last MAX Holland!). An advantage for Chahbari maybe can be that one eye is blind. What I mean with that, the Japanese people like fighters who have something special, extraordinary. I know that Takinawa and his colleagues were heavily impressed with his fights knowing he was partially blind.

For Staring it will be very very hard to earn a place.

I think Main will have more chance to get there, his fighting style is also 'in your face', is so strong, fights exciting, has a huge knockout rate, never bores you. And he's a total different fighter than the MAX field we have now, he has a kinda 'bad boy gangsta' style if you like, coming up with gangsta rap, his nickname being 'Murder', '187'. I really like him to see him in MAX, I know the people there love him.

[Kamatari]

Maybe Chahbari can fight under the Maroccan flag, who knows. I don't know if Chahbari style will please the Japanese public. He is somewhat more of a pointfighter, but I really enjoy his fast-paced technical game, and also his amazing tight defense and megafast reflexes.
I'm pretty certain that he would indeed fight under the Moroccan flag and talk Dutch in his promos like Gunyar did even when he's supposed to represent Turkey, haha. But yeah I think Kraus has been fighting uninspired and looking (for a lack of a better word) weak recently and yes I'm including his win over Sato. Even someone as technical as Chahbari would be more of a crowdpleaser in comparison at this point.

But you're absolutely right, I think they're close to exceeding the wanted number of Dutch fighters. And I think there should be more focus on the Japanese scene.

Unlike The Netherlands Japan lacks a strong domestic scene at welterweight and above, sure there are the absolute top talents but they're too strong for the rest of the fighters. That's because there's not much of a focus on those divisions and historically bantamweight and lightweight are the strongest divisions. Not that many fighters to match up with and a general lack of acknowledgment of foreign training regimes doesn't help either.

Now that MAX has become more or less a reflection of the European kickboxing circuit fighters have to accomodate themselves to it. There needs to be more focus on combinations and higher volume of strikes thrown per round. Samukawa actually looked good against Drago but in my prediction I pointed out that he lacked the power, but he can grow. And even HAYAT0 showed that he UNDERSTANDS the concept of fighting in K-1 and he's saved the Japanese side on two occassions now on the year end shows.

The Shootboxers can also succeed, Ogata is a bit old but he can go out with a bang I'm sure of it and he's only had 2 fights in MAX over a four year span. Shishido also showed he can hang with a recent victory over Jordan Tai and there was close to no clinching in the S-Cup. Plus he holds victories over Marfio Canoletti, Chi Bin Lim and Ole Laursen.

One of the best prospects in Japan is AJKF welterweight champion and 8th ranked Rajadamnern fighter Daiki. He's got strong kicks and knows how to punch as well. I'm glad he gets time to mature and on Sunday he will meet the third ranked Thai fighter in the division that he's ranked in. It'll show where he's currently at. But again that shows the focus on Muay Thai instead of K-1's vision of kickboxing. Even though a lot of events now sport different rule sets that match those of K-1.

In Korea there's a very promising fighter walking around by the name of Su Hwan Lee, I heard awhile ago that there's a lot of interest in him. But with the signing of Yong Soo Choi (the former boxing world champion) I kinda have the feeling that he'll be an afterthought which is why I'm glad there's such a thing as the Khan events. Although full MT would be preferred naturally. It's funny cause he got spanked by Jeong Woong Moon in MT but beat him in MAX.

Also got the South Korean based Thai fighter Thopadak or Shinbi Taewoong who has his sights set on MAX.

Speaking of Thai fighters they seem to have have a limit of 2 maximum on them. Yodseanklai, Buakaw and Oomsin isn't too much to ask for when Japan and Holland have 3 or more fighters represented every year.

[/rant]

Long I know and might even be heading on to a different topic altogether, but this forum is one of the few that allows me to express my opinion on kickboxing and MT in the English language as everything else seems to be sloooow.

But I'm hoping that Gunyar and Chahbari can impress and I'm sure they will. Along with Spejbl and Staring they're actually some of my favourite fighters in that weight range. Although Spejbl is a titan compared to them.