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Sunday, March 16, 2003
Taneo: K-1 is okay
By Paul J. Taneo
Free-for-all
Solar TV is intent on making itself the mecca of fight tournaments. It has the Ultimate Fighting Championship and that violent soap opera called professional wrestling of the WWE variety of Vince McMahon. Last Sunday it added boxing with kicks – K-1 – a kickboxing competition. It too has a western boxing show – Thunderbox – no kicks allowed. Solar promised to feature Pride soon.
Pride, which pays fighters more than UFC does, attracts higher quality fighters. Solar has also been teasing viewers that it will show a mixed martial art tournament held in Manila last year.
The K-1 debut last week was a slambang of an affair. The 1999 finals had knockouts galore by heavy bombers.
Ernesto “Mr. Perfect” Hoost comes to the ring for the K-1 championship fight at the Tokyo Dome with what seems to be Brazilian chant music. The other finalist, Mirko Filipovic, walks to the ring with Duran Duran’s “Wild Boys” in the stadium speakers while 60,000 voices roar in anticipation.
Hoost of Holland is a skinny looking 6-feet-5 and 97.8 kilograms entering the finals with a 1997 K-1 championship to boast. Filipovic of Croatia at 6-2 and 102kg is a former IKF full-contact champ. Mirko once quit in a fight against Hoost.
In the first round, Hoost concentrates on low kicks. He gets into an awkward position and is chased by Filipovic with punches sending him to the ropes. He gets back his composure but is blooded in the nose and eye.
In the second round, Hoosts is still going for Mirko’s thigh with leg kicks. Mirko rocks Hoost with couple of punches.
The third round has Hoost finding a hole in Filipovic’s defense and lands a right straight punch to Mirko’s abdomen. The Croatian falls down, is counted but beats the count. Hoost takes his time finishing Mirko off. He lets go with a left hook to the body and this time Mirko falls and is counted out.
K-1 has a comfortable niche all its own but its official website is far from being sporty. It even takes a jab at the UFC, Pride and other NHB MMA tournaments.
“Honor and respect rule in the K-1 arena, there is no grappling or wrestling and there are none of the cheap shots that mar many so-called `open’ or `no-rules’ fighting competitions. Instead, K-1 combatants draw on their finely-honed skills to deliver the clean punches and kicks that make this the most sophisticated and advanced fighting sport in the world today. K-1 is where you will find the finest stand-up fighters vying for the distinction of being crowned the best of the best.”
Kickboxing, like western boxing, does look cleaner with the attacks limited to hitting, but it is not even by a long stretch of the imagination “the most sophisticated and advanced fighting sport in the world today.” Pride and UFC fighters will bet everything against F-1 heavy hitters to disprove them of that notion.
(sports@sunstar.com.ph)
(March 16, 2003 issue)
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