K-1 Max Japan 2009

Ok enough with the recent MMA action lately. I'm starved for some K-1 action! On the 23rd Feb will be the K-1 Max Japan tournament. Check ut the poster and lineup below. Quite a few new names in addition to the more established names from Japan. Watch out for the new guys Hinata and Yuichiro Nagashima. Hinata is the first welterweight champion of a new Japanese kickboxing promotioon called R.I.S.E which ave been said to be like a feeder show to a K-1 career. Nagashima is the champion from another kickboxing organisation the New Japan Kickboxing Federation (NJKF).

Kido is the K-1 Max Japan 2008 champion who had a brilliant K-1 Max run before he was stopped in the quaterfinals last year. Hope he continues to improve and shine again this year. Kohiruimaki is back yet again. Note his given name is now Taishin instead of Takayuki. I don't know why the name change. Maybe he wants to give his career a new fresh start. I hate this guy. The way he carries himself is very tryhardish...watch the way he walks. I also disliked the way he carries himself in the ring, being quite unsportmanslike on a number of occasions, eg. against Buakaw he caught Buakaw's kicking leg and kicked Buakaw's supporting leg on the front around the knee area. As some of you would know that seemed to pissed Buakaw off and he promptly got manhandled to a humiliating defeat. He was originally a very Thai style fighter relying on kicks and clinching & knees. Ironically because of the arsekicking Buakaw gave him, the rules were changed to prohibit the clinch and knees which though were mainly to disadvantage Buakaw also greatly afected him. He has horrible punching skills and never seemed to be able to improve his hands resulting in a string of bad losses so far. The African fighter is Andy Ologun, who lives and work in Japan thus his inclusion in the tournament. He is quite a promising fighter but I think haven't shown his true potential yet.

If they show the opening matches, guys watch out for Garyu. This guy is a retard. He likes to pose in Japanese gangster stare down style when the referee callsthe fighter to the centre of the ring for the rules. Does he even train? His physique doesn't look like that of a trained pro fighter. I've seen him get smashed in three K-1 matches so far.

Hard to tell who'll take this year's Japan Max. I haven't seen the new faces fight yet. Based on what I know, Kido will take it. Hope he wasn't a one hit wonder.