K-1 Final 8 Tournament Draw
The final 8 combatates for the FieLDS K-1 WORLD GP 2009 FINAL were decided last night at the Olympic Gymnasium, Seoul Korea. Today, at the Olympic Parktel hotel Ruslan Karaev, Remy Bonjasky, Jerome Le Banner, Errol Zimmerman, Semmy Schilt, Ewerton Teixeira, Alistair Overeem, and Badr Hari have gathered to determine just who, who and in what order they will meet each other again in the Final to be held December 5 at the Yokohama Arena.
The tried and true method to decide who faces who and when is a cleaver mixture of both choice and luck. Each of the fighters blindly selects a numbered ball from within a box, and then picks their position in the tournament bracket in order of those numbers. They can select any of the 8 positions when their turn comes. So they can choose to either fight, or avoid a particular fighter as well as decide whether to fight in bracket 1 (A vs. B and C vs. D) or bracket 2 (E vs. F and G vs. H).
This year the lucky man to select ball number 1 was none other than the feisty Russia, Ruslan Karaev. He wasted no time at all in making his way to position A, meaning he will be fighting in the first fight of the night and it ensures he will have the longest rest period between fights, if he actually wins.
Bad boy Badr Hari couldn’t erase the smile from his face when he reviled he was holding ball number 2. He walked directly to Ruslan, hugged the man, and assumed the position beside him. Our first fight had already been set, and what a fight it is. These two have fought twice before, and each has managed to stop the other. Ruslan wants his revenge for being knocked out last year, and Badr wants to prove the first fight should never have ended as it did.
Hari explained his choice saying “I think we always have a good fight. Our styles work well together. It will be an epic fight the fans will enjoy,” and personally, I couldn’t agree more with him.
The cocky young Golden Glory fighter Errol Zimmermann held up ball 3 and made his way to position G, perhaps putting maximum distance between him and stable-mate Ruslan.
The Flying Gentleman strutted up the stage with the 4th ball, and told Michael Schiavello that it was hard to prepare a pick in advance, as there was no way to know who would be there before you. While he was explaining this, Errol was calling him on. It seems like the challenge was too hard for Remy to resist, and the reigning Champion obliged him by stepping into position H.
Remy said “He called me, so I had to accept his challenge,” and Errol explained that he made the challenge because he wants to fight the current Champion to see exactly where he really stands.
Ball 5 was held up by Jerome LeBanner, and he walked straight to position E. Semmy then made his way to his feet with ball 6, and stood beside Jerome. He told the crowd he had a dream the night before that he would be in the second bracket, so took spot F.
This choice decided the outcome of the final match-up too. Ball 7 was Ewerton’s and he made the tough decision to take position D over position C. Overeem wondered up and stood beside him. After the thrashing the Dutchman gave Peter Aerts just hours earlier, one would expect the fighters to want to avoid him early in the tournament. Ewerton and his team had said the night before, that if the choice was theirs to take; Alistair was who they would pick. Couple this with Overeem’s announcement that he had actually had a dream that he would fight the Brazilian and it leaves me thinking we might have quite a fight on our hands here.
There was less banter between the fighters this year, far few jokes than usual, and it was the first time ever that the fights themselves were decided in the order the fighters took the stage. This may well be a sign of just how tough this Grand Prix appears to be. As Hari himself said, “We have one hell of a tournament here.” Make sure to get your tickets early, or check your local listings as this in one World Grand Prix not to be missed.
By Stuart Tonkin
Photos Courtesy of FEG
1 October 2009
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