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K-1 Dynamite New Year’s Eve - Press Conference
by Hody Jae Huh, Team IronLife.com Staff Writer & Mod @ www.IronLife.com
K-1 had become one of, if not ‘the’ premier MMA organization in the world. They’ve come a long way since 1993 when they held their first Grand Prix single-elimination tournament at the Yoyogi Dai-Ichi Stadium in Tokyo. In recognition of the times and stiff competition for ratings, they’ve expanded their domain in to the world of MMA.
New Year’s Eye in Japan is like a late Christmas for hard core MMA fans -- with K-1 and Pride going head to head, both trying to out due the other. The only difference this year is the fact that I was able to attend the K-1 New Year’s Eve show live.
By the time you read this article, the results of the fights will be in; most likely you’ve had the chance to see the fights yourself. Instead of giving detailed descriptions of the fights, I’ll concentrate more on what I saw and experienced at the event.
For those of you that have applied for a press pass with other organizations, you might understand how frustrating the process can be. However, the application process with K-1 was easy, professional, and fast. They answered all of my questions and kept in constant contact with me VIA E-mail. I give them top marks.
As part of my experience, I was allowed to attend an open media press conference, held the day before the event. Words cannot describe how exciting it was! I’m a hard core MMA fan – hell, I even moved to Japan so I could train MMA full-time. For me, attending this press conference was like attending the Oscars. I was in a room surrounded by the stars of MMA and K-1, not only the guys fighting tomorrow night, but other fighters in attendance as well….more on that later.
The press conference was held in a big conference room in a very nice and expensive hotel. My crew and I arrived early and hung out in the lobby until it was time to check in. While waiting, we saw many of the fighters and their crews slowly heading up to the conference room. During this time I was surprised to see the UFC’s own Big John McCarthy. I was shocked at how BIG John really is – he could have easily passed as one of the fighters.
UFC’s Big John and his lovely wife
Big John was nice enough to answer a few questions for me. I really didn’t want to bother him too much, since he was with his wife. So the “interview” was really short. One thing that really impressed me was the fact he was very friendly and gave me as much time as I wanted.
- Hody Jae Huh/IronLife.com: What do you think about this event?
Big John: It’s got a lot of interesting events; it’ll be a good show.
- How long have you been in Japan?
Only 2 days.
- You came here to this event as a spectator or are you involved in any way?
I’ll be working the show.*
- Anything new in your life?
Just enjoying things as they come…having a good time
- How about the next UFC? What do you predict?
There should be some really good fights. There’s a couple that I really look forward to seeing. I think Baroni and Lawler will be a great fight. One of them will go down, somewhere. That should be good. I think the Tanner and Terrell fight should be interesting, Tito and Victor should be a good fight, and Sylvia and Arlovski should be a really good fight too. There’s quite a lot of them, so it should be really interesting.
* I’m not sure what Big John meant by this. Like I said, I didn’t want to take too much of his time, since he was with his wife.
When we finally entered the press conference room we found a table close to the front. I was happy to discover that there were no assigned seats, only the first rows were reserved, everything else was up for grabs. We secured a table three rows from the fighters.
For some reason, I was expecting some form of chaos and confusion once the fighters were introduced. Perhaps it’s the culture (Japanese) or simply professionalism, but things started very calmly and without any hassles.
Most of the speeches the fighters made didn’t really make an impression with me -- typical pre-fight stuff. However, there were a few that I would like to share. Below are the pics that I took and above the pics are the comments that made an impression on me. The comments were made either directly by the fighters or the K-1 translator.
Kristof Midoux: This is my 2nd Dynamite fight as well. I’m very pleased to be a part of this event. I would like to show you the best match tomorrow, which is not a made up match, it’s a true match. Fighter against fighter. Please look forward to this match.
The Predator vs. Kristof Midoux
Bobby Ologun: I know my opponent is very strong but I am also very strong. For the 10 months I have been training very hard. Tomorrow I would like to show you what I
have been training for.
Let me give you some background information on Bobby Ologun. This is his first real MMA fight. He had an exhibition with Royce Gracie on a popular JPN TV show. Royce was really nice and didn’t try to hurt Bobby. You could tell he was just playing around. However, the host and other JPN celebrity guests were impressed with Bobby and encouraged him to pursue a career in MMA. Prior to this, Bobby was a minor celebrity on JPN variety shows because he is from Nigeria and speaks fluent Japanese. Despite his fluency, he often exaggerates his pronunciation and intonation, making his speech and actions quite comical.
Sanae Kikuta was chosen to train Bobby for his exhibition match against Royce. During training, Kikuta did a low outside roundhouse to Bobby’s leg. The kick wasn’t that fast or even powerful – but it was the first time Bobby experienced it. He immediately fell down screaming in pain. Part of it was over reaction, since he’s rather funny, but you could still tell the other part was real pain. I just hope Bobby has progressed in his training. He’s gonna need it. I believe he will be fighting 3R X 3 minutes under K-1 MMA rules. Did I mention that he had no previous martial arts training before Kikuta? But Bobby has been training more seriously and with more intensity. He even got his black belt in Judo, while at the same time training with Kikuta.
Chandet Sorpantrey: I’m very happy to be a part of K-1 tomorrow. I’d like to show you the very best of Muay Thai tomorrow on the ring. As a result, I would like to be the winner.
Don Frye: I’m very happy to be back here again. We’ve been putting in a hard solid 5 days of training. I hope to hurry up and get this event over with so I can get home and finish my laundry. My wife’s angry at me because I haven’t vacuumed the floor and just left a mess at the house. I need to get home to finish dressing Barbie’s and Polly Pockets. I know that my opponent is very difficult and BIG. I’m looking for a tough fight for him.
Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Nakao
Gary Goodridge: Mushi mushi. Konichi wa mina san. Gary desu. (Hello, good afternoon everyone. My name is Gary.) I got a lot to say, so we’re gonna be here a while. So if anyone needs to go get a pillow or blanket, go ahead. First of all, thank you very much for the respect that Ray gave me. As he said, we both know each other very well, and we’ve trained together. I guess he knows me better than I know him. But anyways…we’re gonna try real hard to steal the show. It’s always my intention to have the best show. I’m sure by the time we’re up here on stage, it’ll be very hard to do but we’ll do it. We’re going to try very hard to land some nuclear explosions on each other.
Hopefully it will be pretty as usual. My fights usually end in the1st round. Down or up. Ray’s a great fighter, I love the guy. But as he knows, as well as I do. When the bell goes, its war, we’re on. And I’ll be the first one to take him to the hospital. Or maybe he can take me.
Anyways, I’m really looking forward to this event. I wanted to tell all my Japanese fans in advance aki mashite omenito. (Happy New Year)
Sean O’ Haire: My name is Sean O’ Haire and this is my 2nd sponsored K-1 fight. I thank K-1 for having me. I’m fighting Musashi tomorrow who is a fantastic fighter and I have a lot of respect for but I look for 2 things and you should expect 2 things during this fight -- Viciousness and Entertainment. That’s all I can offer you and that’s all I’m going to give you. Thank you very much.
Masato: I would just like to say to Kid, tomorrow you will be shown a real kick boxers punch and kicks, so beware and be ready for that.
Kid Yamamoto: My opponent is the #1, the strongest in his rank, weight class. It is my pleasure to fight against him. This will be an opportunity whereby I can test my own strength. I hope you will enjoy this fight. I can promise you this will be a very interesting fight.
Karam Ibrahim: Konichiwa (Good afternoon). He begins to say something but due to his accent, I couldn’t quite understand what he said, despite replaying it several times. I believe in (I couldn’t catch this part.) It says trust yourself; believe in self confidence for fight and God will give you the strength to carry on. Tomorrow’s eve, how is the fight? I just wanna win because I hate to lose. Domo arigato (Thank you very much)
Fujita vs. Karam Ibrahim
Bob Sapp: I look forward to fight Jerome LeBanner tomorrow. I look forward to submitting him in the 1st round because I believe the first round will be MMA.
**This will be held under a mix of K-1 and MMA rules. Rounds 1 and 3, 3 minutes under MMA rules. Rounds 2 and 4, 5 minutes under K-1 rules. No details were given regarding the gloves used. They will alternate between K-1 gloves and K-1 MMA gloves for each respective rounds.**
Akebono: I’m very happy to be a part of Dynamite for the 2nd time. I want to thank TS, K-1, and all the others who have helped make this event possible. I have been training hard as I possibly imagine this fight will be. My opponent of course is a fighter who has his name in history. I’m very happy to be his opponent. As to what kind of fight will take place tomorrow – I’m not sure. But I will show you my very best.
I’m really hungry now; does anyone wanna order some Domino’s? Just kidding, he really didn’t say that…but I bet he was probably thinking it.
Royce: Many people told me that this is an easy fight. I don’t believe this fight. (I think he meant that he didn’t believe this would be an easy fight.) People said “you can take him”. Ah…I don’t know. I guess we gonna answer that after the fight.
Now, my opponent, to me, has a lot of heart. He achieved the top, high ranking, in his sport. Now he’s coming to our…our game, our sport. So to me, like a professional athlete, we need challenges. For him it's a challenge and to me it’s a challenge. I’ve got a big challenge in front of me. It’s gonna be a good fight, no matter who wins. It’s gonna be a good fight.
Bob Sapp throws down the symbolic glove. Both Bob and Jerome carried one glove each during the introductions. Bob the MMA glove, which he put down on the table and Jerome the K-1 glove.
During the open question period it was revealed that K-1, possibly the day of this conference, officially declared the special rules for Sapp V. LeBanner. Even the fighters were unaware until today, which rules they would be fighting under.
Inoki making a speech.
This explains why Inoki did not put on his event this year. He has partnered with K-1.
The end of the press conference.
Choi Hong-mahn is expected to make some big waves in K-1. As such, K-1 is paying him nicely. Here’s some more info on him. http://english.donga.com/srv/servic...d=2004121442758
Royce and Choi Hong-mahn playing Patty Cake.
I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s event. Pride and K-1 will be going head to head in the ratings war. In all honesty, I usually watch Pride live and then watch K-1 later. However, this year, I really like the fights K-1 has lined up. Even without the press pass, this year I would watch K-1 live and catch Pride later. If K-1 continues to fork out the dough to get quality fighters at their events, I might change my allegiance to K-1.
Look for the second part of my article in this same edition. I’ll cover the day and night of the event.K-1 Dynamite - Fight Night Link
Hody Jae Huh
*Translation by Toshiko Masago
*Photos by David Moskowitz and Hody Jae Huh
Other articles and interviews written by Hody Jae Huh. Please click on the below underlined hyperlinks to read the full article.
Interviews
Nakao, Jutaro Interview
Nakakura, Takahashi Interview
Mishima, Dokonjonosuke Interview
Ryan Bow Interview
Bas Rutten Interview
MA Question of the Month (Guest Writer)
Training
Training MMA in Japan (Part 1)
Training MMA in Japan (Part 2)
Training MMA in Japan (Part 3)
Inside Look: PRIDE Audio Broadcast Team
* Article by Hody Jae Huh, Team IronLife.com Staff Writer & Mod @ www.IronLife.com.
* Back to This Issue's Frontpage
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