Filed under: K1Fighting for the first time since having open-heart surgery five years ago, Mark Miller returned to the ring and won in stunning fashion on Saturday in Moscow, knocking out his opponent, Russia’s Nikolaj Falin, in just three seconds.
Fighting for the first time since having open-heart surgery five years ago, Mark Miller returned to the ring and won in stunning fashion on Saturday in Moscow, knocking out his opponent, Russia’s Nikolaj Falin, in just three seconds.
The Miller-Falin kickboxing match, part of the Glory World Series event, wasn’t much of a fight at all. But for Miller, the victory represents a stunning comeback from a time when he wasn’t sure if he would survive, let alone continue to fight professionally.
Miller, who learned of his heart condition when he took a physical exam to get cleared for a fight in Florida in 2006, is believed to be the first fighter anywhere, ever, to win a fight after having open-heart surgery.
“The first prognosis was my cardiac output was like 20 percent. Regular people, it’s usually around 65 percent,” Miller said. “It was so low that I could’ve been walking down the street, training, whatever – and I could just fall over and die. … It was to the point where any stress on the heart probably could’ve caused a real problem at that point.”
But now Miller is not just healthy, he’s winning fights again.
Other results on the Glory World Series card included Strikeforce heavyweight Sergei Kharitonov knocking out Mighty Mo in a kickboxing match, and former UFC fighter Denis Stojnic submitting Mladen Kujundzic with a rear-naked choke in an MMA fight.
The war between the two largest kickboxing promotions in the business, It’s Showtime and K-1, continues to escalate.
In a statement posted to It’s Showtime’s website, the European-based promoter has claimed that the Japan-based K-1 owes It’s Showtime contracted fighters more than $400,000 and that K-1 president Sadaharu Tanikawa has made threatening phone calls to fighters planning to fight outside of K-1 and as a result of this, It’s Showtime will be taking legal action.
Among those who are owed money are Giorgio Petrosyan, Tyrone Spong, Hesdy Gerges, Daniel Ghita and Melvin Manhoef and It’s Showtime president Simon Rutz claims there are more waiting for money.
The statement from Rutz comes as no surprise given his clear intent to take over the Japanese kickboxing scene. It’s Showtime recently announced a partnership with Japanese promotion REBELS to create an event to be promoted under the “It’s Showtime Japan” banner. The full statement from Rutz is after the break.
“After years of being loyal to K-1 (FEG) regarding the late payment, or no payment at all, to our fighters, we would like to release the following statement.
For more than half a year K-1 owes us more than 400.000 US dollars in total because several fighters which we represent have not been paid. Every time we were asked to have more patience because a potential investor would be interested to take over K-1.
Until now, we have never contacted a lawyer to claim our credits because we granted K-1 the time they need to financially recover. However, we were very surprised to hear that DREAM and K-1 want to organize a number of smaller events. In our opinion that isn’t possible before K-1 first pays its debts to fighters which already have fought. Therefore, now is the time for us to hire a lawyer.
Also, fighters are even receiving phone calls from Mr. Tanikawa with a threat to not fight for IT’S SHOWTIME JAPAN. If fighters would fight for IT’S SHOWTIME JAPAN, they can wave their money goodbye. Mr. Tanikawa is not in the position to act this way, and subservience would fit him a lot better. Mr. Tanikawa doesn’t understand that K-1 has to pay their debts because the fighters have already delivered their service to K-1.
We can only describe the way K-1 has been managed the last years as amateurish and almost as deceit. If we hadn’t put a huge amount of pressure on K-1 just before the K-1 World Grand Prix Final of last year, some fighters would have been even more financially struck.
Even if an investor for K-1 will appear, we really hope that Mr. Tanikawa will take a management course first, otherwise the invested money will disappear like snow in the sun.
The next fighters still have to receive big amounts of money from K-1: Giorgio Petrosyan, Tyrone Spong, Hesdy Gerges, Daniel Ghita, Melvin Manhoef, Pajonsuk Superpro Samui, Chahid Oulad el Hadj, Gago Drago and Dzevad Poturak.
These are only the fighters which are represented by us. However, also a lot of fighters are still patiently waiting for their money. We would like to emphasize that it’s incorrect that K-1 even organizes events without paying their debts to these fighters.”
Simon Rutz
IT’S SHOWTIME
It’s Showtime have been co-promoting events with K-1 for many years now but as the Japanese giant falls, It’s Showtime is clearly ready to swoop in and take over the title of the world’s leading kickboxing event. It’s Showtime-contracted fighters coming forward and complaining about late payment led to K-1 president Sadaharu Tanikawa declaring that “Simon Rutz killed K-1,” and the July 18 “It’s Showtime Japan” event already has it’s headliner in 155-pound K-1 ace Giorgio Petrosyan taking on HINATA. Although Petrosyan is an It’s Showtime-contracted fighter, until this point he has only fought for K-1 in Japan.
As the UFC is synonymous with MMA, K-1 has been synonymous with kickboxing since the beginning of the K-1 World GP in 1993. However, since the end of the Japanese martial arts “boom” in around 2005, the promotion has fallen on hard times due to rapidly falling popularity and questionable decisions from management.
Filed under: K1, News, JapanTOKYO, Japan — Not to be outdone by sister promotion DREAM, K-1 is finally set to return after a 6-month hiatus. Promotional president Sadaharu Tanikawa on Thursday announced the K-1 WORLD MAX 2011 63 kg Japan Tournament to…
TOKYO, Japan — Not to be outdone by sister promotion DREAM, K-1 is finally set to return after a 6-month hiatus. Promotional president Sadaharu Tanikawa on Thursday announced the K-1 WORLD MAX 2011 63 kg Japan Tournament to be held at the Yoyogi Stadium 2nd in Tokyo on June 25, and similar to DREAM, it will be a “Fight For Japan” charity event.
Remarkably, the event is set to stream via the internet with no TV deal of any kind in place, locally or abroad. The full card and details of K-1’s first event of 2011 after the break.
In the eight-man one-night tournament, 2010 K-1 63 kg Japan GP champ Tetsuya Yamato will attempt to defend his title against former K-1 Koshien star HIROYA, 2011 Krush 63 kg Tournament runner-up Koya Urabe will take on former R.I.S.E ace Yuki, 2010 K-1 63 kg Japan GP runner-up Yuta Kubo faces karate pretty boy Kizaemon Saiga and K-1 Koshien 2009 champ Masaaki Noiri takes on 2011 Krush 63 kg Tournament champ Ryuji Kajiwara.
Also announced was a 70 kg super-fight featuring 2010 70 kg World GP runner-up Yoshihiro Sato versus 2002 K-1 70 kg World GP champ Albert Kraus. The K-1 veterans have met in the ring on two prior occasions with Kraus taking decisions in both cases.
K-1 WORLD MAX 2011 63 kg Japan Tournament – Fight For Japan
Saturday, June 25 2011 at Yoyogi Stadium 2nd, Tokyo, Japan
63 kg Grand Prix Quarterfinals:
Tetsuya Yamato vs. HIROYA
Koya Urabe vs. Yuki
Yuta Kubo vs. Kizaemon Saiga
Masaaki Noiri vs. Ryuji Kajiwara
70 kg Super Fight:
Yoshihiro Sato vs. Albert Kraus
Badr Hari, the bad boy of kickboxing who hadn’t fought in a year, finally returned to the ring on Saturday and easily beat an overmatched and uninterested opponent, the French boxer Gregory Tony at an It’s Showtime event in France.
Badr Hari, the bad boy of kickboxing who hadn’t fought in a year, finally returned to the ring on Saturday and easily beat an overmatched and uninterested opponent, the French boxer Gregory Tony at an It’s Showtime event in France.
Hari won by first-round TKO, knocking Tony down three times without ever really hitting him all that hard. Tony looked like he didn’t really want to be in the ring with Hari, and the matchup of Hari and Tony seemed like a generally bad idea: Tony isn’t in Hari’s class as a kickboxer, and Tony was also fighting just a week after he had two boxing matches on the same day, winning one and losing the other. A fight like this wouldn’t get sanctioned by an American state athletic commission.
K-1 Event Producer and FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa released a statement of support and encouragement to all of the victims of the recent tragedy to strike Japan on the K-1 website.
Tanikawa also acknowledged that there would be tough times ahead for Japanese mixed martial arts as rival promotion SRC (Sengoku Raiden Championship) may fold, and […]
K-1 Event Producer and FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa released a statement of support and encouragement to all of the victims of the recent tragedy to strike Japan on the K-1 website.
Tanikawa also acknowledged that there would be tough times ahead for Japanese mixed martial arts as rival promotion SRC (Sengoku Raiden Championship) may fold, and the purchase of Strikeforce by Zuffa could create further problems for the sport.
Japanese MMA will certainly see some hard times as they rely heavily on sponsorship support for their events. One of the big supporters of the sport in Japan, Don Quijote, has pulled it’s financial backing from SRC which, at this time appears to be the final nail in the coffin for them. As well, it’s almost certain that many of the smaller promotions will see their sponsorship money dry up as companies focus on funneling their finances to aid and rebuilding efforts.
Here is the full Tanakawa statement:
First of all, I would like to express my condolences to the victims of the disaster. The victims and their families must be going through hell now. Please, stay strong and overcome this tragedy. I hope you will be able to return to normal life soon.
As we can all see, this disaster has caused massive damage to Japan. All we can do right now is to encourage people by harnessing the collective power of fight sports fans. Another major local organization SRC has stated the possibility of withdrawal from the scene. Additionally the organization we work closely with, Strikeforce, has been purchased by Zuffa/UFC recently. We have to say, fight sports in Japan is currently going through the hardest time that we’ve ever experienced before. However, we are not giving up! We know we have to keep moving forward. We will do our best to make it. So please stick by us, and support us.
We have received many messages from fighters, promoters and fans since the tragedy. It really shows their love for Japan and the Japanese fight sports scene. Now we are determined to fight for them! We will keep on updating these special messages from fighters to our official website, Twitter and Facebook. We hope these messages will go some way to cheering up the people of Japan. Let’s unite and overcome this adversity!
Filed under: DREAM, K1, JapanIn response to the crisis in Japan following the March 11 Sendai earthquake, FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa released a statement on Tuesday via the K-1 website, encouraging victims to stay strong.
In response to the crisis in Japan following the March 11 Sendai earthquake, FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa released a statement on Tuesday via the K-1 website, encouraging victims to stay strong.
Mixed martial arts is the last thing that most people in Japan are thinking about at this time but Tanikawa also addressed the health of Japan fight sports, admitting that following the disaster and the Zuffa purchase of Strikeforce, this is the hardest time that Japanese fight sports have ever experienced.
The war between the two largest kickboxing promotions in the business, It’s Showtime and K-1, continues to escalate. 
TOKYO, Japan — Not to be outdone by sister promotion DREAM, K-1 is finally set to return after a 6-month hiatus. Promotional president Sadaharu Tanikawa on Thursday announced the K-1 WORLD MAX 2011 63 kg Japan Tournament to be held at the Yoyogi Stadium 2nd in Tokyo on June 25, and similar to DREAM, it will be a “Fight For Japan” charity event.
In response to the crisis in Japan following the March 11 Sendai earthquake, FEG President