Oliver, I agree with you on one thing....the system is not 100% fair on everyone. When you said McDonald and Crocop were the first choice, we seems to forget one 1 thing. Prior to that elimination, how on earth these guys came out and be at these elinimations? At least Mark won the Oceania twice. McDonald is a great fighter but where did he qualified for this tournament? OK Crocop was a finalist a couple of years back and I suppose he is a regular K-1 contracted fighter, but what about Adam Watts, supposed he beat Mark and went on to win the Grand Prix? Hey! I want to make one thing straight, this is not a personal attack on Watt, McDonald or any fighters, but yeah, there is a fault at the system.

Now.... I want you to picture this....A fighter who worked so hard to win the K-1 Oceania back to back in order to be in Japan for a big contract. He wasn't favourite during the 1st one, but amazingly most people thought it was luck and didn't pick him to win the 2nd one and never got the recognitioin he deserves. He went in there with a full knowledge that some of the other fighters took a shorter route to the K-1. He only went to Japan in there as a last minute call, only because Crocop was unable to make it, even though Mark knew he was the finalist with Hoost (same tournament which Crocop lost to McDonald). During the K-1 Oceania 2001, he knocked Briggs down twice (mandatory knock down rules which he was supposed to have won the fight when it happened. Did you see Mark complained to the ref?...NO!) The ref let it go, until Mark swept him down with a leg kick than someone reminded the ref after the 3rd time. He knocked Watt down twice with good punches in Japan, but the ref let it go until the 3rd time. Did you see him complain? No! Mark went in these fights with all these unbelievable odd stacks against him, and you dare to call him lucky and out of shape???. Hey! I know the system is not perfect, but Mark understand better than all of us. He didn't complain, he just did it. This is why I take my hat off for the guy and proud of him even more.