The Glorious K-1 WGP Opening Round Card is Confirmed!!

4 men have been chosen as a result of the fan poll held on the K-1 Official Site.

The card itself is shown here for the first time:

1. Badr Hari vs. Zabit Samedov
2. Ruslan Karaev vs. KYOTARO
3. Semmy Schilt vs. Daniel Ghita
4. Ewerton Teixeira vs. Singh "Heart" Jaideep
5. Peter Aerts vs. Alistair Overeem
6. Remy Bonjasky vs. Melvin Manhoef
7. Errol Zimmerman vs. Glaube Feitosa
8. Jerome LeBanner vs. Musashi

That is the 8 fights that will make up the opening round of this years' World Grand Prix. The Best 8 fighters from last year, the Heavyweight (KYOTARO) and Super-heavyweight (Semmy)�@Champions, European GP winner (Zabit), Final 16 Qualifying GP ace (Ghita), Asian GP champion (Jaideep) come together to make up the first 13 participants. The remaining 3 were to be decided by fan vote, and sponsors suggestions, making up the 2009 Final 16.

Unfortunately, Best 8 fighter Gohkan Saki injured his leg during his fight against Pavel Zuravliov in Korea on August 2nd, and as he will not be able to recover in time it has become necessary to once again use the fan poll and sponsors suggestions to select a fourth fighter.

The fans number 1 choice was Alistair Overeem!

The result of the fan poll held on the K-1 Official Site is shown below:

1. Alistair Overeem - 14104
2. Melvin Manhoef - 9233
3. Mirko Crocop - 8153
4. Glaube Feitosa - 8102
5. Catalin Morosanu - 8093
6. Musashi - 8084
7. Mark Hunt - 3249
8. Tyrone Spong - 2069
9. Paul Slowinski - 2024
10. Stefan Leko - 1857
11. Pavel Zuravliov - 1835
12. Alexey Ignashov - 1383
13. Yosuke Nishijima - 1261
14. Ray Sefo - 1251
15. Gegard Mousasi - 1179
16. Might Mo - 1172
17. Taiei Kin - 1023
18. Freddy Kemayo - 809
19. Chalid "Die Faust" - 687
20. Hong-man Choi - 643
    Others: 115
    Total number of votes: 76,326

As K-1 Event Producer Sadaharu Tanikawa noted, K-1 would like to prioritize the fans' selection as closely as possible. Therefore the inclusion of their first and second choices, Alister and Melvin was a simple decision. However, as Mirko is now contracted to the UFC, he could not enter the event. Fan choice number 4, Glaube was then confirmed, rounding out the 3 fighters initially believed would make up the card. According to the fans vote, Catalin Morosanu was actually number 5 with 8093 votes and Musashi was 6th with 8084 votes. It really was very close between them. After discussing things with our sponsors and taking into considering everything Musashi has achieved in the past, and the fact that this will be his final opportunity before retiring, we decided to give him the chance he had begged for, despite the fact that some out there may disagree with this decision.

High expectations for the New Generation!

To point out some of the expected highlights briefly, Badr Hari, who just recently knocked out Semmy Schilt will be facing the deceptively strong Zabit Samedov. Zabit has only ever been the bride's maid in qualifying tournaments until now, and never quite made it to the WGP stage. This time, he will be more than motivated. Both fighters are very fast, so the expectations are high for an exciting match between two of the new generation fighters. Even Badr won't be able to underestimate his opponent.

The fight between Ruslan and KYOTARO is also a new generation bout. Ruslan has all the skills needed to be on par with Badr, and be his major rival; however KYOTARO's sharp counter punches may well play a major role in this fight. Now that Musashi has announced his retirement, KYOTARO will no doubt want to take the reins as Japan's representative in the WGP.

Schilt facing off against Ghita is one of those fights where it is absolutely impossible to predict what the outcome may be. It will be intriguing to see whether Semmy will be out looking for blood after being stopped by Badr, or whether the kicks that stopped all of Ghita's opponents in round 1 to carry him through to this fight will be enough to stop Semmy.

�gExperts are already discussing the possibility that Ghita might go all the way to the championship this year! It will be a fight that has everyone paying attention to see if Ghita's low kicks will be enough to break down Semmy,�h said Mr. Tanikawa.

Ewerton Teixeira vs. Singh "Heart" Jaideep is another of the new generation match-ups. The speed with which the World Kyokushin Champion attacks is enough to surprise anyone. After beating Jerome LeBanner, Teixeira will no doubt be hoping to build on the victory en route to becoming the first ever Kyokushin WGP Champion. Winner of the Asian GP, Jaideep, is the first Indian fighter ever in K-1. Currently he is training in Holland, so everything depends on just how much he can improve while there.

Aerts will show Alistair what true K-1 level backbone really is.

One of the main fights to pay attention to on this card is Peter Aerts vs. Alistair Overeem. The MMA fighter earned the fans respect and was voted number 1 by them. This result was no doubt influenced by the fact that he knocked out Badr Hari on New Years Eve last year, and also that that several other K-1 fighters have recently been defeated by MMA fighters. It must be humiliating for Aerts as the living representative of K-1 that so many of his fellow fighters have lost to outsiders recently.

Surely Aerts will take out his frustrations on Alister during this bout.

Remy Bonjasky vs. Melvin Manhoef will inevitably be an exciting fight. They fought in Holland last year and Remy won the fight scoring a total of five downs to win by knockout. However Melvin has said �gNext time we fight I will definitely win.�h It will be an aggressive �gkicker vs. puncher�h fight that you�fll not want to miss.

Errol Zimmerman vs. Glaube Feitosa is a new generation fighter versus a veteran. Glaube knocked out Junichi Sawayashi in March of this year to show he has completely found his old form. Errol Zimmerman performed with a fierce spirit last year, and he is still just 23 years of age. Without a doubt, he is an upcoming star from the new generation.

Finally, we have Jerome LeBanner vs. Musashi. This will be a fight that will not be based on technique alone, but on which of the fighter�fs spirit is stronger. As Musashi has announced his retirement, it will be interesting to see how far he can go against LeBanner. These two faced each other in the first round of the 2002 Grand Prix. That time Jerome completely dominated Musashi and won via knockout. This is a hard fight for Musashi, but if he fights with the tenacity learned over the past 14 years it will really be something to witness.

For the Super-fight, Taiei Kin and Catalin Morosanu have been paired up

Catalin, who was voted number 5 by the fans on the official poll, has been given the chance to really step up to the plate on an international level with this fight.

Taiei Kin fought to an almost equal level with the eventual winner of the Asian Grand Prix, Jaideep, and finished as the runner up.

Kin has talent the level of which no one can question. It will be interesting to see if the power Catalin used to knock out Junichi Sawayashiki with will be enough to keep Kin at bay, or even tip the balance in his favor.

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