Gokhan Saki Makes Bold Claim For 2018 UFC Run

Ex-Glory kickboxing champ Gokhan Saki made his presence felt in the UFC with a vicious first round knockout debut win over Henrique da Silva at UFC Fight Night 117 in Japan this past Friday (Sept. 22, 2017). Saki showed off a tremendous striking ability, that even after just one fight rivals the likes of the most […]

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Ex-Glory kickboxing champ Gokhan Saki made his presence felt in the UFC with a vicious first round knockout debut win over Henrique da Silva at UFC Fight Night 117 in Japan this past Friday (Sept. 22, 2017).

Saki showed off a tremendous striking ability, that even after just one fight rivals the likes of the most elite the UFC has to offer in any weight class. In a thin upper tier at light heavyweight Saki could possibly see a quick shot at the 205-pound throne with a couple more impressive performances, and “The Turkish Tyson” knows it.

During an appearance on The MMA Hour earlier today (Mon. September 25, 2017) Saki made quite the bold prediction by vowing that by this time next year he will be a UFC champion (quotes via MMA Mania):

“I will be moving to the US to start training there for a while and I hope to fight this year one more time,” said Gokhan. “Next year this time, I am fighting for the title and I am the champion. I will be fighting for the title and I will take the title. Give me that time, and it will be exciting, I promise you,” he added.

“100-percent. That is in my mind and I have proved to myself that if I want something, I will make it happen. This is something that I always see in my career. At this moment This is my point. I want the title and I will take it no matter what.”

Although he may be a tad undersized for the light heavyweight division, Saki expressed no interest in moving down to middleweight to try his hand there. While the elite wrestlers at the top of the division may pose a huge threat to his title aspirations (such as current division king and former olympic wrestler Daniel Cormier), it should be interesting to see how the UFC matches Saki up moving forward in his tenure with the mixed martial arts (MMA) promotional powerhouse.

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UFC Fight Night 117 Bonuses: Main Card Stars Bank Cash

UFC Fight Night 117 emanated tonight (Friday, September 22, 2017) from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The main event saw a weird, late-notice pairing between 205-pound Ovince St. Preux and former middleweight title challenger but recent welterweight Yushin Okami. OSP would garner himself one of the two $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus […]

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UFC Fight Night 117 emanated tonight (Friday, September 22, 2017) from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The main event saw a weird, late-notice pairing between 205-pound Ovince St. Preux and former middleweight title challenger but recent welterweight Yushin Okami.

OSP would garner himself one of the two $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus checks for somehow hitting his signature move, the Von Flue shoulder choke, on the experienced Okami in the first round. OSP now has two more Von Flue chokes than Jason Von Flue, perhaps solidifying it as the “Von Preux choke” from now on.

The other $50k Performance of the Night bonus went to Gokhan Saki, whose highly anticipated debut delivered the violence and highlight-reel finish blood-thirsty fight fans sought. His victim, Henrique “Frankenstein” da Silva, lived up to his nickname, eating insane amounts of punishment and refusing to go away. The Brazilian finally seemed to be turning the momentum in his favor with a flurry of knees, elbows, and punches on the fence when a counter left hook ended it in a flash.

The Fight of the Night and its matching $50,000 bonus checks went to the strawweights in the bloody co-main event clash. Claudia Gadelha and Jessica Andrade tore into each other for three rounds, with Andrade gradually taking over in a more and more one-sided affair. Brutal power hooks on the fence, jaw-dropping slam takedowns, and merciless ground and pound highlighted Andrade’s upset and statement-making victory over a fellow former title challenger.

Keep it locked to LowKickMMA for all your UFC Japan post-fight news and analysis.

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Gokhan Saki on UFC Debut: “It Will Not Take Long”

As the buzz continues to rise for K1 and Glory kickboxing legend Gokhan Saki, the debutant maintains a cool confidence Saki is so confident in delivering the goods in Japan that he has warned fans not to expect the fight to go on too long. The Turk’s opponent will be Henrique da Silva and naturally, […]

As the buzz continues to rise for K1 and Glory kickboxing legend Gokhan Saki, the debutant maintains a cool confidence Saki is so confident in delivering the goods in Japan that he has warned fans not to expect the fight to go on too long. The Turk’s opponent will be Henrique da Silva and naturally, […]

Gokhan Saki: ‘This Time Next Year I’m Fighting For The UFC Title’

Gokhan Saki has gold in his sights for 2018. Saki is a former Glory Kickboxing light heavyweight title holder. He was stripped of the title due to inactivity. Now, he is on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) roster and looking to make his mark in mixed martial arts (MMA). During a recent appearance on MMAFighting.com’s […]

Gokhan Saki has gold in his sights for 2018. Saki is a former Glory Kickboxing light heavyweight title holder. He was stripped of the title due to inactivity. Now, he is on the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) roster and looking to make his mark in mixed martial arts (MMA). During a recent appearance on MMAFighting.com’s […]

UFC Signs Kickboxing Star Gokhan Saki

The UFC has made quite a high profile signing. According to a report from UFC.com, the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion has come to terms on a deal with 33-year-old kickboxing star Gokhan Saki. His debut is not currently sit, but he appears to be interested in competing at a UFC Fight Night event […]

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The UFC has made quite a high profile signing.

According to a report from UFC.com, the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion has come to terms on a deal with 33-year-old kickboxing star Gokhan Saki. His debut is not currently sit, but he appears to be interested in competing at a UFC Fight Night event in Rotterdam on September 2, 2017.

Holding an impressive 83-12-1 kickboxing record, Saki is clearly a world class striker and his resume speaks for itself. He’s only competed in MMA once, losing to James Zikic in 2004.

Despite his lack of experience in MMA specifically, Saki feels as if the UFC mad a blockbuster investment in him:

“I’m glad I finally can announce that I have signed an exclusive long term contact with the UFC,” Saki posted on his Facebook page. “The best investment the UFC has made since Conor McGregor. Soon I will show everybody what Turkey and U.A.E. bring to the table.”

Check out Saki’s full statement on why he left Glory below:

I DID LEAVE GLORY KICKBOXING

I stopped my contract at Glory Kickboxing and have signed my Retirement Contract. (Turkish translation )

I’m STOPPING with GLORY. For my fans hereby the explanation the facts about Glory and Rico Verhoeven.

3 May 2017 (see my next post, picture for proof)

I left Glory Kickboxing on 3 May. All the owners/co-owners etc of Glory have discussed this and they signed my Retirement Contract and I received it back on 3 MAY.

After 5 months being kept on a line, for me it was done, i had a lot of other deals but i kept waiting to fight Rico or for Glory. The waiting is over, tired of it. Glory Kickboxing is playing politics to keep their ‘champion’ Rico Verhoeven safe for his renewal contract that had to take place end May or begin June. If he would lose against me, his position towards Glory would have been weakened. Rico Verhoeven and his team and also Glory did not want to expose their Champ to such risks.

Saturday 20 May

Cor Hemmers from Glory announced in an interview on 20 May that i have a retirement contract from Glory and i stopped fighting for Glory.

Saturday 20 May Night (Rico Fight)

Rico Verhoeven was bragging in TV-Shows after the Badr fight in GERMANY, that he doesn’t need famous opponents, he sells out tickets on his own, worldwide he would fill arena’s.

Now the Rico Verhoeven fight takes place in his own country in his own city and there were than 1500 empty seats. On twitter I said congratz Rico but what happened with those empty seats you said you would sell out all tickets?

Rico Verhoeven as usual (like the 5 months) did not respond but this time SCOTT RUDMAN vice chairman and co-founder of GLORY starts to tweet back and tried to rescue this poor kid Rico. Like a daddy Scott was trying to answer for the little kid that cant answer or talk for himself. Now Scott knows I left his organization for 3 weeks at this point. Scott said on twitter: ‘’Den Bosch is not Amsterdam, Glory is still a buzz, GET IN!’’

So at this point everbody in Glory and Rico Verhoeven and his management KNOW that I left GLORY. And now he is still trying to lie on social media. He knows at this point it is impossible for me to fight and I have other obligations at this point. Cheap and sleazy way of GLORY and SCOTT RUDMAN.

I answered his tweet with ‘’the last fight wasn’t even in Amsterdam, it wasn’t even in Holland but in GERMANY. And I am from Rotterdam. But if the fight was in Amsterdam, I would sell out all tickets on my own, I have proven it before!’’

As goes for you now Scott, instead of tweeting you should be concerned about making Glory big after all these years, money and opportunities you wasted you smuck.

So at this point in also some other people from Glory start tweeting me, again knowing that i left Glory and can not respond. So pathetic and cowardly. One even said I should accept Rico his challenge..Which challenge? He never challenged me at this point? He was silent for months.

AGAIN LIES.

I tweeted back and said its too late now!

Again at this point Glory, Rico Verhoeven and his team know for 3 weeks that i left Glory and have other obligations and its impossible to make this fight happen. NOW at this point when Rico knows there can not be a fight, after 5 months he opens his mouth and says: ‘’ Saki if you want to fight pick up the phone’’

Like what kind of bitch action is that Bro? Are you that scared, are you that much of a coward? Glory starts reposting all his stuff calling me out, while they know that I left Glory. When I was at Glory and I was calling Rico out, they never put effort in reposting my stuff out. Again this shows how amateuristic and pathetic organization this is, politics and protecting their pet Rico. Carefully choosing their opponents and their kind of media censorship.

I said the truth that he didnt want to fight me from January or in short term because he wanted a rest. He said that i lie and i dont want to fight. This week he said in a tv show ‘’yeah i didnt want to fight saki at januari i needed rest because I fought Badr’’

Like this guys story changes every day, not consistent.

When i fought K1, i fought 8 till 10 matches a year, against real men. At this point you fought badr 1,5 round and you need a year break before you fight me?? I havent even fought for 2 years and still you need time that much time to prepare for me? You just wanted the fight after your renewal contract in MAY.

Then Glory said to me in January, if i first could fight someone else, this would be Remy Bonjasky fight. I said i want Rico but if he doesn’t want it, i fight Bonjasky first, BUT ONLY IF GLORY GARANTEES THAT RICO WILL FIGHT ME THAN. I would have fought Bonjasky in March or May. Rico again sabotaged this with stretching time on accepting my challenge, hemessed up the whole fight between Bonjasky and me. Remy stood up and accepted my fight and he was down to do it! So I salute you for this, a guy who comes back at retirement at such short notice, and Rico says Bonjasky needs to much time to prepare, the guy is 41 years old and didn’t fight for years, Rico only wants unprepared fighters, more chance to win!

Meanwhile these last months, i have other offers but still i am calling rico online out, but still no balls.. All these months he was silent and said not oneeee thing after i repeadetly called him out. And know that he knows that i left the building, he opens his big mouth. Your fans should be ashamed of you and your lying ass. Just running your mouth like a puppet with those studied lines from your managment: “i only eat whats on the menucards, fighters come with only smoke no fire etc etc”

PS: you called me a mutherf*cker in an interview, real men dont bring in family or wife and kids, thats what cheap bums do. Guess fits you well

What do you make of this signing by the UFC?

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UFC Announces Signing of Former Glory Champion Gokhan Saki

In a surprising move, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has signed Gokhan Saki. Saki is known in the combat sports world for being an elite kickboxer. “The Rebel” is a former Glory light heavyweight champion. He was stripped of the gold in July 2015 for inactivity. As it turns out, Saki wants to get his […]

In a surprising move, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has signed Gokhan Saki. Saki is known in the combat sports world for being an elite kickboxer. “The Rebel” is a former Glory light heavyweight champion. He was stripped of the gold in July 2015 for inactivity. As it turns out, Saki wants to get his […]