Ray Sefo story, includes the future of K-1 Oceania

[( o Y o )]

For those that have kept their ears to the ground this wont be news, but tomorrow everyone will know.

A friend of mine at the Sunday News (paper in New Zealand) has tipped me off to the fact that they are running a story on Ray and the current state of K-1 in NZ in tomorrow's edition. Ray apparently dishes the dirt on why he split with long time manager, Dixon McIver along with why Dixon has lost the rights to stage K-1 events in Oceania. I have received permission to post the story on the news section of our website (www.brawla.net) once the paper is out so international readers can access it. It should hit in about 12 hours.

[Dado]

Finally were going to see the reason that K-1 pulled out of Oceania, so sad :(

[( o Y o )]

Well, it seems as though K-1 didn`t pull out as much as they don`t feel they have a promoter there they can use/trust/whatever.

[Dado]

Thats strange considering Dixon managed one of their most popular fighters aswell as exposing the Oceania region with some great events.

[( o Y o )]

I'm not saying a thing....wait and see what is in tomorrows paper mate. It could be rather eye-opening.

[K1power]

I can't wait to learn more...

[matman]

I just posted the story. Hope you find it interesting. One thing that it doesn't say is that K-1 have offered the Oceania rights to Ray but he is still considering what he wants to do.

[K1power]

Wow. I've read the story and it was pretty shocking, because I didn't expect something like this being the reason for the split...

[Lawrence Tierney]

Im not that familiar with the Oceania scene but would Tarik Solak be a possibility
to promote K-1 shows again?

[( o Y o )]

Hope you find it interesting. One thing that it doesn't say is that K-1 have offered the Oceania rights to Ray but he is still considering what he wants to do.

Looks like Ray went pretty easy on him in the article.

Dixon always struck me as a truly stand up guy, so I was VERY shocked.

[( o Y o )]

Im not that familiar with the Oceania scene but would Tarik Solak be a possibility
to promote K-1 shows again?

K-1 and Tarik don`t get along too well at all, so if they were to give them to him I`d be more shocked that I was that all this drama happened around Dixon.

[CentralKickboxing.Org]

That article made me physically ill.

Ray is one of the best friends Dixon has ever had. His actions have cost him big.

[matman]

Im not that familiar with the Oceania scene but would Tarik Solak be a possibility
to promote K-1 shows again?

I think that Tarik has pretty much burned his bridges with K-1. Ray Matsumura in Queensland would be another option but I think that he has some bad history with them as well.

As I said in my previous post, they apparently asked Ray to take it over himself but he was still considering his options when I spoke to him

[Dado]

What a shock. Dixon has really tarnished his reputation if these alligations are true. However I doubt Sefo would say these things if he wasnt 100% sure that he was right. I just hope that he does find the missing money.

Once a promoter for the region is found (maybe Sefo?) will this mean that the events will be under the K-1 brand? I hope that one promoters actions wont put back the progress here for everyone else.

[( o Y o )]

Most of this story is a rip off of matmans exclusive, but here are some more points

"Some info that came to our knowledge concerning Dixon McIver:

- The landlord from “Planet Health” gym in Auckland, New Zealand is taking Mr. McIver to the
Court, because of NZ$ 60,000 debt for rent.

- A Travel Agent in Auckland is owed NZ$ 90,000 dollars and is insisting to be paid by Mr. McIver.

- Tax Department in New Zealand is looking to collect NZ$ 200,000 of debts from Mr. McIver

- A Grant that was paying for the Gym is owed NZ$ 10,000 demands to be paid.

- Some Fighters, who are not willing to disclose their real identity, to keep a chance to be paid for past performances claiming to be owed money.

- Ray Sefo going public about deception of trust on behalf of his ex-manager.
Mismanaging and misusing Sefo's bank accounts with money missing.

- F.E.G. company from Japan (K-1 brand owner) demands to collect a debt of NZ$ 146.000 from Mr. McIver for the last "K-1 Oceania World Grand Prix" in March 2006.

-F.E.G. is also unhappy for the usage of "K-1 New Zealand presents" on the April 14th Kings of Oceania poster, considering that Mr. McIver is creating a confusion, as the event has nothing to do with K-1 and saying the consequences could be preventing participant fighters from entering K-1 circuit. "

http://www.mat-magazine.com/mat/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2864&Itemid=2

[miscmisc]

Good God, that's a terrible list. It seems safe to say he is done with K-1.

Do you think he is someone who really deserves all of that shit?

[( o Y o )]

Good God, that's a terrible list. It seems safe to say he is done with K-1.

I think bridges have been burnt, but I believe he is attempting to approach them from another angle now.


Do you think he is someone who really deserves all of that shit?

You know I've known him casually since 2003ish, and I've tipped some back with him, shared some meals, and partied with him. I always thought he was a great bloke, despite hearing the odd thing here and there. I've heard close to the complete story on this though, and I was totally shocked despite not being a victim in any way. It seems this is a case where he made the bed,......

[Dado]

-F.E.G. is also unhappy for the usage of "K-1 New Zealand presents" on the April 14th Kings of Oceania poster, considering that Mr. McIver is creating a confusion, as the event has nothing to do with K-1 and saying the consequences could be preventing participant fighters from entering K-1 circuit. "

I wonder what they mean by this? Will participants be ignored from participating in K-1 events if they fight on any of Dixon's cards?

[( o Y o )]

I wonder what they mean by this? Will participants be ignored from participating in K-1 events if they fight on any of Dixon's cards?

I don't know for sure but there have been a lot of drop outs from his latest event right?

[matman]

I don't know for sure but there have been a lot of drop outs from his latest event right?

It's a really hard one for the local boys. On one hand they all want to make it onto the K-1 circuit but on the other hand, until K-1 emerges with a plan for the Oceania region, Dixon is the only show in town as far as bigger sized promotions go.

Also even when Dixon had K-1, there was never really a clear path to the big show. Peter Graham, Jason Suttie, and Ron Sefo have all been pretty much shafted at different times over the years by FEG. So the boys have to weigh up the opportunity to get a guaranteed fight and payday (whatever you can say about Dixon, he does pay his fighters...eventually) and get some local notoriety by appearing on NZ tv, against the definitely more lucrative but much longer shot of getting invited onto the circuit.

Its also a chicken and egg situation at the moment because the boys will never be invited to the circuit unless they get noticed by the powers that be at FEG, however if there's no K-1 events in the region how will they ever get noticed?

You long time FEG watchers would know better than I but if the next Mark Hunt (though admittedly it could be argued that Mark's making it to the big time was more by 'accident' than FEG design) turned up on a Kings of Oceania show, would FEG really ignore them just because they had fought on one of Dixon's shows? Most of the fighters are only contracted to Dixon for each single fight so there's no reason why K-1 couldn't snap them up.

[Lord Gaul]

I hope they figure things out, because I think that Oceania is one of the places were the crowds would sellout. They love stand up fighting in Oceania so I want them to keep having events there.

[( o Y o )]

Yeah, this really does suck not only for thse directly involved, but for all the local talent around there as well as the fanbase already established. I hope Ray takes the rights and gets FEG to really put some effort into making sure things work there.

[( o Y o )]

...

[Dado]

I wonder how that got out?

[( o Y o )]

I'm quite sure I know, but I am not going to name anyone or they'll be in shit. lol

[CentralKickboxing.Org]

Tanikawa's kanji is pretty poorly written. I'm not expecting caligraphy but this is a country where penmanship is still taught on TV. Interesting that there is no hanko either.

[Cracked_Knuckle]

man, looks like he pushed K-1 as far as they are gonna let him push, and now they playin hardball.

Succks now thou coz it looks like he fucked all of oceania.

[miscmisc]

Tanikawa's kanji is pretty poorly written.

Actually, I thought I wrote that because it looks very similar to my handwriting. It's not THAT poorly-written for someone whose age is under 50.

I'm not expecting caligraphy but this is a country where penmanship is still taught on TV.

And most people don't really care, especially these days.

Interesting that there is no hanko either.

We usually don't use hanko for international documents. In case you are suspecting that it is a fake for those reasons (probably not, but just in case), there is nothing to really suggest that.