K-1 Grand Prix 2 December 2006 Tokyo Japan

If there was ever a tournament with drama , great fighters a rocky scenario for a final it must have been the K-1 GP 2006.
Golden Glory had three fighters in the final and the best chances of winning the tournament.
However the drawing with le Banner vs Semmy Schilt left a lot of question marks with the fans, Le Banner was even favourite in the betting odds.
First fight of the night is with peter Aerts and Mushashi. Aerts and Mushashi seemed to start slowly, but 1 minute into the fight Aerts landed a beautiful uppercut and follows with a hard punching combination. Mushashi is down and does not get up. First reserve fight of the night winner Peter Aerts by ko in the first round

Beginning of the Tournament.
Semmy Schilt Holland vs Jerome Le Banner France
Schilt came out with the Golden Glory theme song and looked focussed. Le Banner is a fighter and lucky for the audience he came to fight, which made this fight a great fight. The first round is for Semmy but both fighters landed some good shots. The front kicks from Semmy are landing and the French men is feeling great pressure and pain inflicted by the tall Dutchmen in round 1.
In round two Semmy lands a hard high kick and Le Banner receives and eight count. However he fights himself back into the fight but a great round for Schilt.
Round three Schilt still dominating the fight with good front kicks and boxing combinations, the “ left jab from hell” is doing its damage and le Banner’s face is swollen.
Aerts wins the fight by decision, but a great fight for the opening from the tournament.

Chalid “Die Faust” Germany vs Ernesto Hoost Holland
Chalid impressed everybody in his last performance against Mushashi by winning a decision in Japan. Hoost won by ko in round three against Fujimoto and both qualified for the finals.
Chalid started well but the really aggressive Chalid became unlucky by breaking his hand in the first minute of the fight. For all three rounds he is looking for a solution and even gets and extra round for the fight. By that time the hand was so swollen, that he could not punch with his best weapon anymore, winner by decision Ernesto Hoost


Ruslan Karaev Russia vs Glaube Feitosa Brasil
Rusland starts agrresive what is his trade mark, however he did not learn from his two previous encounters with Ray Sefu and Glaube’s fierce high kick , knocks out Ruslan in round one, great spectacle.

Stefan “ The Blitz” Leko vs Remy Bonjansky Holland
Sometimes life is full of surprises and nobody would expect what would happen in this fight. In the first attack from Stefan Leko he lands a solid kick to the liver. However Bonjasky is first going down with a painfull face because of the liver kick but then grabs his balls. More then 7 minutes rest are given to Bonjasky to recover and then is decided to fight the fight again? More strange it is when Leko is in the ring again to fight a fight he already won. It took another 15 minutes of waiting till finally Bonjansky arrived. Murphey’s law is applied here, however as the other fight it is pretty entertaining. Both fighters producing flying knees and Leko lands a back kick while Remy is also kicking. Remy gets hit in his balls (this time for real) . In pain Remy gets another 5 minutes rest and Stefan receives a yellow card. Then a good fight begins with Stefan pressing the fight and attacking Bonjasky with great combo’s and Bonjansky countering with kicks.
In round two a great spinning back fist lands by Leko and an uppercut makes the underlip of Bonjasky grow three times the size. Leko is missing punching power as he became sick one week before the tournament, stomache fever and lost 5 kg. He weight in at only 92 kg and in the last round Leko had nothing left and Murphy’s law popped up again he receives and eight count in round three by Remy who landed a left hook on the jaw of Leko.
Finally the fight goes to Remy and wins by decision.
However Remy can not continue and Leko would go through. Then the surprise of the night, Leko has nothing left and with 90kg and injuries he is just not fit enough to continue.
So Peter Aerts takes his place as he was winner of the first reserve fight.

Now the tournament gets really interesting
Next fight is 4 x K-1 GP winner Ernesto Hoost against Semmy Schilt in the half finals.
Schilt looks on a mission again as the first round he completely dominates Ernesto. Also in round two the low kicks from Ernesto are blocked and countered with high kicks and punch combinations by Sem Schilt.
Schilt is a fighting machine with no stopping and resting during all three rounds he moves forward and Hoost even gets a warning for holding. Still an interesting fight to see and a clear victory after three rounds by Schilt. Semmy is in the finals again but who will he meet, fellow Dutchman peter Aerts or Glaube Feitosa from last years finals?

Peter Aerts vs Glaube Feitosa
The first round is very interesting as both fighters attacking each other with vicious combo’s. Low kicks, blocks,counters, attacks from both fighters, the fight has it all.
Even Peter Aerts is in problems after receiving a high kick from Glaube, but he recovers quickly and fights himself back in the fight, end of round 1. Round two has just started as Aerts lands some hard shots and Glaube goes down. He is ko and Aerts advances to the finals.

Well an all out Dutch finals , just when SBS 6 decides to broadcast K-1 finally on the same day. Semmy Schilt use to be a mail delivery man like von Barneveld (the dart player) can Schilt do it again and winning th GP. As earlier that year both fighters fought in new Zealand and Peter Aerts won a controversial win because of two yellow cards were handed out to Schilt in round three. Schilt had a score to settle and Aerts had nothing to loose as he did not plan to fight in this tournament.
As for the first time Dutch TV was broadcasting this event you could not think of a better scenario. The finals is like a rocky script. A good old fashion Dutch fighting match with both fighters not wanting to give away an inch. The first round peter Aerts is trying to attack and Schilt countering with hard front kicks and high kicks. Both fighters land some shots and the first round is nice to see, Schilt was winning this round but it was close. In round two we see a war, both fighters go for the kill but in the second minute of the fight Aerts receives an 8 count by a punch combination and a knee from Schilt.
Round three Aerts know that he has to force a ko or eight count and he sometimes lands some hard shots and lowkicks. The head of Semmy is snapped backwards a few time and the public goes wild, it is a great final. But Schilt has experience now in the K-1 game and is not letting this go. At the end of the round Schilt is declared winner and so he beats Le Banner in the first fight, Hoost 4 x k- GP champion in the second fight and 3x K-1 GP champion Peter Aerts in the finals all in one night.
This must have been one of the strongest tournaments so far without Hong Men Choi and Bop Sapp we have watched some great fights and ko’s.
Semmy Schilt proved to be the strongest and has improved a lot, with more fights and gaining experience he is going to be hard to beat for the coming years. Great win by Golden Glory fighter Semmy Schilt who was in this tournament with Stefan the Blitz Leko and Chalid Die Faust, three fighters from one gym by the last eight best fighters of the world is pretty unique and had never happened before in the history of K-1. Semmy did a great job and were Chalid and Leko were a little unlucky, Semmy kept the crown by a master performance beating the three top fighters from K-1 all in one night!
The event was broadcasted in over 156 countries and for the first time in the Netherlands to, with two Dutch fighters fighting the finals there is a great opportunity for the Dutch fighters, to finally get the recognition what the sport deserves. Sponsors from major multinationals who have a perfect way in getting their brand marketed in 156 countries. Schilt would be perfect for an energy drink or health food, car business etc with 212 cm and looking like movie star Dolph Lundgren he has all the potential.

At the same night Badr Hari from Holland wins his fight against Paul Slowinsky from Australia
And Melvin Manhoef looses his fight by ko in round 1 against Ray Sefu from new Zealand

For more information about golden glory fighters and history of golden glory
www.goldenglory.com

Crazy and cool pics Dirk. Congrats to all of Golden Glory yet again.

Rumours after the K-1 in Tokyo

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Dec 4, 2006

some info from (oYo) over at kakutoug. All cred to him.

Apparently Chalid broke his hand on Hoost head during the first round. He didnt exaclty fight his best after that.

Remy got stopped by the doctor after the fight because he was constantly vomiting.

Leko had stomac flue since a week before the event, and was in no shape to fight any more..

Glaube had a plan for all the regular fighters, but had not counted on _both_ Bonjasky and Leko getting injured, letting Aerts take their place. It was a unpleasant surprise when it was Aerts who walken into the ring.

Aerts got the news that he had to put on his gloves again just 2 minutes before walking into the arena again.

Sefo said he was glad Choi had dropped out, since if he had not, their fight would have been the #1 reserve fight and Sefo would have had to fight Glaube in the Semi. Something he didnt want to do since they are close friends nowday.

Sato apparently impressed.

more at:
http://forum.kakutougi.info/showthread.php?t=895#post112895