Update: Read a review of the K1 World Max from September 4, 2006.

K1 World Max is the middleweight and not so prestigious as the heavy weights. This year in Yokohama I must say that the fighting was not bad at all. Some of these middleweight fighters definitively have enough character and fighting skills to get as famous as the heavy weight bunch.

As always the show starts outside. I arrived early to watch the people gather. You would think that an event likes this caters mainly to a macho crowd, but that is not true in Japan. More than half of the ticketholders are women in their twenties. Fame gets you a long way here and the fighters are like rockstars to the girls.

Fights always attracts other fighters coming to watch. This is a sumo wrestler dressed in a traditional yukata. When a wrestler is in training he never wears civilian clothes when going out. Right photo shows girls posing for a picture outside the arena.

One good thing about Japan is that they always manage to keep a very relaxed atmosphere even at a big event. Seventeen thousand people filled the Yokohama Arena to the last seat for this event and they do not even check your bag coming in. I am not saying that security is lax, just that the Japanese are very good at keeping it in the background. I mean, where else in the civilized world are you allowed to bring your own beer from outside to drink in your seat? Anyway I did not, but the 500 yen beer they served inside was still ok. I sat pretty good rather high up with a girl behind me screeming her lungs out cheering her favorite fighter. Most of it right into my ear. Luckily he was out after the first fight.

These gentlemen were waiting for their boss who arrived shortly in a black mercedes. Dressed in a panama hat, all white, with black and white leather shoes he was escorted in by his men. It is the same all over the world. The mobsters never miss a good fight. Other photos show members of the K1 fan club getting to take their picture with a fighter

Thai fighter Buakaw Por Pramuk won the whole thing. The thai fighters do not always win but you can always count on them performing excellent fights. I am not sure that it is the muay thai in itself that is superior, but rather the background of the fighters. Imagine a country full of poor people with only one chance to make it, and that being winning every single fight. The check for twenty million yen will support this guys family for a while. In his thank you speech Buakaw said he would use it for his sisters education. In the ring he never seemed to get tired. It is like he is able to tap into some other source of energy during his matches. Something not available to his opponents. When the opponent can barely stand in the third round Buakaw just keeps pounding away. The kicks keep coming as fast as in the first round. If the opponent makes it that far. Buakaw knocked out Andy Souwer in the second round.

Buakaw vs Souwer Buakaw vs Drago

Dutch Andy Souwer did good. He is very well trained in fast lowkicks. This with both legs. His specialty is using his front leg to kick the inside of the opponents left knee. An efficient way of wearing him out. Only it did not work against the thai fighter Buakaw. Still Souwer sported a nasty cut on his face from the match against South African Virgil Kalakoda.

Kalakoda vs Souwer Drago vs Kraus Masato vs Souwer

Dutch boxer Albert Kraus sure belongs here. He is a very solid fighter, but lost to Armenian muay thai fighter Drago. Armenian fighters are known to be wild and Drago is no exception. He is really the perfect K1 fighter because he makes sure that your ticket was worth buying. Gets you bang for the buck. His esoteric style looks like a street fighter in a circus disciplined by muay thai training. You never know if he is going to attack with a flying knee, a backspin kick or take a wild chance with a knock out blow.

Anyway, K1 is a big circus. The format of three round matches and the new rules against clinching is of course good, but there is a lot of fluff too. I don’t mind a magic show with lights and effects, but here it is a lot of it. I guess that is what people like. They are definitively doing something right to get 17 000 people, mostly girls, to come and watch a couple of guys knock each other out.

Fight videos here.

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Training martial arts in Japan How to get started doing martial arts in Japan.