Congratulations go out to Holland's Remy Bonjasky for winning the K-1 WORLD GP 2008 Title for the third time in his illustrious, yet rocky career filled with hardships, trials and tribulations. Unfortunately for the Flying Gentleman, his third reign as K-1 WORLD GP Champion did not come without its share of controversies which overshadowed his triumphant victory.
Held at the Yokohama Arena in front of a sell-out crowd of 17,823 fans, the tournament started with another Holland representative, three-time K-1 WORLD GP Champion in 1994, 1995 and 1998 Peter Aerts, taking on the reigning K-1 WORLD GP Heavyweight Champion, Morocco's Badr Hari. The match started out with an aggressive Hari attacking Aerts relentless, dropping him down in the first round, then dropping Aerts again in the second round before putting him away with a TKO victory due to referee stoppage after the referee found that Aerts was not fit to continue. Next up was a match between two excellent, formidable young fighters, Suriname's Errol Zimmerman, who took home the K-1 WORLD GP 2008 IN AMSTERDAM Tournament and Brazil's Ewerton Teixeira, the winner of the K-1 WORLD GP 2008 IN FUKUOKA Tournament. Both young fighters tore the house down with an excellent bout which saw a huge, drastic improvement from Teixeira in his boxing as like most Kyokushin Kaikan karate fighters, Teixeira relies heavily on his kicks, but his boxing that night was second to none. Zimmerman however was the better fighter, using his immense, vicious power to good use, knocking Teixeira down later in the match, then taking the win via 2-0 judges' decision.
The second half of the tournament started out with Turkey's Gokhan Saki, the winner of the K-1 WORLD GP 2008 IN HAWAII Tournament taking on Russia's Ruslan Karaev, who won the K-1 WORLD GP 2008 IN TAIPEI Tournament. This was another excellent bout which saw Karaev trying to put the tough-as-nails Turk down with his unpredictible fighting style, but Saki was the aggressor of the match and it showed, knocking Karaev down in their fight and scoring a 3-0 judges' decision victory to move on into the semi-finals. Then came the next bout featuring the then two-time K-1 WORLD GP Champion in 2003 and 2004, Holland's Remy Bonjasky going up against France's Jerome LeBanner, the K-1 WORLD GP 2002 Finalist, in a rematch from their controversial 2006 fight in Amsterdam. The match started out pretty slow at first, but picked up the pace with Bonjasky surprisingly being the stronger of the two. The match came to a halt sometime in the third round as vicious kicks from Bonjasky to LeBanner's surgerically repaired left arm resulted in the French powerhouse taking a standing count before the referee called for a time stop to check on LeBanner's left arm, which has been reinjured badly as there was a huge lump near his left elbow as a result. After ring doctors checked on LeBanner's arm, they deemed LeBanner unable to continue, thus giving Bonjasky the win via TKO and a trip to the semi-finals.
Two reserve bouts took place before the semi-finals, which would determine who would continue on as a substitute in case any of the four fighters left in the tournament are unable to continue. The first pitted Ray Sefo of New Zealand, who was the Finalist in the K-1 WORLD GP in 2000 and South Korea's 7'3" giant, Hong Man Choi, the Winner of the K-1 WORLD GP 2005 IN SEOUL Tournament. The match started out slow for both men, with both men being cautious but later on in the match, Sefo started getting cocky as his confidence started to build up slowly, allowing him to put on one of his best performances in a very long time. Choi was able to mount some offense of his own, but inactivity throughout the year due to his compulsary military service and injuries to his ribs as a result of his last fight against Badr Hari hindered his performance strongly. After controlling the fight for three rounds, Sefo was finally able to break his six-loss streak with a huge win over the Techno-Goliath himself. The second bout pitted Polish-Australian Paul Slowinski, the Winner of the K-1 WORLD GP 2007 IN AMSTERDAM Tournament and the current disciple of the retired four-time K-1 WORLD GP Champion Ernesto Hoost against Holland's Melvin Manhoef, who was the Finalist of the 2006 HERO'S Light Heavyweight Tournament. Manhoef, who is known for his punishing strikes, aggression and explosiveness, started out quick, knocking Slowinski to the ground early on in the fight. The fight ended very quickly as Manhoef pummeled Slowinski in the corner before catching him with a devastating right hook, knocking the Polish-Australian out for good and taking the win.
The semi-finals began with Badr Hari taking on Errol Zimmerman in what was truly the best fight of the night. It seemed like Hari came out very strong in the first round as he controlled the early parts of the fight very well, but Zimmerman came out with guns blazing in the second round, knocking the egotistical K-1 WORLD GP Heavyweight Champion down! Hari would then respond with a knockdown of his own to Zimmerman towards the end of the second round, turning the tide of the match in his favor! In the third round, a powerful left straight jab by Hari knocked Zimmerman, as the Bonecrusher was unable to answer the referee's count, giving Hari the win via KO and earning himself his first trip to the finals! The second semi-final pitted Gokhan Saki up against Remy Bonjasky. It seemed as if Saki was putting on a very strong showing against Bonjasky, but in the end, a flying knee kick to the left rib of Saki was able to put the Turk down and allow Bonjasky to head on to the finals without suffering any injuries whatsoever!
This set up the final which drew strong interest from the fans. Both Badr Hari and Remy Bonjasky have shared a major disdain towards each other and it was at last year's tournament in the quarter-finals where Bonjasky picked up what some may have considered an undeserving win against Hari via judges' decision. The story of this match seemed perfect for a main event. Badr Hari was the rising young star, the man many tipped to lead the new generation of K-1 WORLD GP fighters and the man, whom like Barack Obama brought change to America, could bring change to the K-1 WORLD GP. Remy Bonjasky had gone through very rough times, including a painful divorce in 2006, the passing of his mother in 2007 and his split from Mejiro Gym where he honed his skills. Now trained under the legendary Ivan Hippolyte and with a new girlfriend, the sky is the limit for Bonjasky to pick up his third K-1 WORLD GP Title.
Both men started out slow in the first round as they try to get a feel of each other and also see who makes the first move. Bonjasky was able to drop Hari down with a couple of punches, but unlike how he has done in his previous fights, was unable to quickly rebound and score a knockdown of his own. It got ugly in the second round as both men entered into a heated slugfest and as they got to center ring, Hari tripped Bonjasky down, then started going MMA on Bonjasky by grounding and pounding the Dutchman! As senior official and K-1 Rules Director Nobuaki Kakuda tried to restrain Hari, the Golden Boy added more insult to injury by stomping on a downed Bonjasky! Furious over the incident, Kakuda immediately called for a time stop and brought the ring doctors into the ring to check on Bonjasky while he shoved Hari to the neutral corner. As Hari continued to taunt Bonjasky while the crowd watched in stunned silence, Kakuda came up to Hari, scolded the Morroccan fighter for his foul play and unsportsmanship conduct, then proceeded to give him a yellow card, deducting one point from the judges' scorecards and a portion of Hari's fight purse! Kakuda went over to a seated Bonjasky, who complained about suffering from double vision as a result of the stomp and discussed with the doctors in regards to Bonjasky's well-being, all while Hari went over to Bonjasky's corner and taunted Bonjasky's trainer, Ivan Hippolyte! This prompted an even angrier Kakuda to shove Hari to his corner, before announcing that as a result of the injury he sustained due to the ground and pound and stomp, Bonjasky was recommended by doctors to not continue on in the match. However, due to Hari's unsportsmanship conduct and the foul he had caused, Kakuda had no other alternative, but to award the controversial Morroccan fighter with a red card, giving him an automatic disqualification, be fined his entire fight purse for the event and shockingly enough, resulted in the 2008 K-1 WORLD GP Championship going to Bonjasky!
It was a tournament that got off to a great start, but was marred by disaster as a result of the controversial ending in the second round. Bonjasky was in tears as he did not want to win the tournament the way he did in that match, but noted later on during the post-fight press conference that he doesn't have anything to say to Hari. "I was in tears because I trained very hard for this, and put many things aside to be able to train so much. I didn't want it to end like it did," Bonjasky said. Among many things, K-1 Event Producer Sadaharu Tanikawa noted that with the 2008 K-1 WORLD GP Tournament being broacasted to 150 countries, it would not be right to simply let Hari go off due to his actions as serious discussions will be held to determine the punishment Hari will receive. "As a Grand Prix, it was an extremely interesting event, however the ending wasn't good," Tanikawa said.
The win coincided with Masato's championship win at the K-1 WORLD MAX 2008 FINAL held this past October, as both Masato and Bonjasky both won their first respective titles in 2003, with Masato winning his second title this year and Bonjasky winning his third. A similar result was shared between fellow Dutch fighters, Andy Souwer and Semmy Schilt. Souwer won his first K-1 WORLD MAX Title in 2005, the same year Schilt won his first K-1 WORLD GP Title and both men picked up their second and third titles respectively in 2007.
Source: K-1 Official Website
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