Other / Richard Douglas / 24 May 2009 /

'Battling beefcake' sums up the mixed martial arts sport of K-1 for Richard Douglas.

The fight for credibility will the biggest scrap in the sport of K-1 for the foreseeable future.

The organisation was formed in 1993 by Kazuyoshi Ishii and within a decade had become one of the many mixed martial arts events trying to usurp boxing from its position as the world's No 1 combat sport.

K-1 combines muay thai, karate, taekwondo, savate, san shai, kickboxing and conventional boxing. It is a heady mix, however a layman, like yours truly, may see it somewhat more simplistically. A little YouTubery came back with what appeared to be agile boxers combining a variety of kicks - low sweepers to flying lunges - with pure Marquis of Queensberry fare.

However there is one crucial difference - the absence of clinching. This is the bane of modern boxing, where the beauty of the sport can be literally smothered. K-1 does not allow fighters to buy time or take breathers in this way. As a result, bouts generally take place over three three-minute rounds - though extensions are possible if a winner cannot be determined - and there is a very high knockout ratio in comparison to boxing.

So far, so good, you would think. However, if you want to discuss integrity then bringing in Butterbean, a novelty fighter, is hardly going to help your cause. A number of boxers have got involved in K-1 in the past but few have gone the other way with much success. Even Matt Skelton, who won the European heavyweight title this year, is considered a boxer with relatively crude fists.

That said, most of the K-1 exponents appeared to have been chiselled from granite rather than born. Fit, brave men enter with bravado and often leave with medical supervision.

Obviously there are weight categories and the super-middleweight division is called K-1 MAX, which stands for Middleweight Artistic Xtreme. This year's final eight are set to meet on July 13 in Tokyo. The format is like Prizefighter, eight combatants battling out over one night.

In the top half of the draw, Gago Drago is rightly [1.33] to beat Yuya Yamamoto [3.2]. The Armenian is more experienced having won the World GP in Seoul back in 2004. He lost to eventual winner Masato in the second round of last year's MAX competition.

The well-travelled Albert Kraus looks to have value at [2.04] against Giorgio Petrosyan ([1.01]). The Dutchman was the first K1-MAX champion in 2002 but, in Petrosyan, he faces the current WMC Intercontinental Middleweight Muay Thai champion. Fighters from that discipline tend to do well in K-1 MAX.

In the other half of the draw there is Buakaw Por Pramuk who was the K-1 MAX champion in 2006 and 2004 plus a losing finalist in 2005. He suffered the first knockout of his career when losing to Yoshihiro Sato in the second round last year and is considered to be a enigmatic fighter. He should have too much for Nieky Holzken ([2.52]).

In the last quarter-final, another muay thai specialist, Artur Kyshenko ([1.75]) takes on Andy Souwer ([1.71]) in a repeat of last year's Semi-Final. It would be no surprise to see the overall winner come from this bout. Souwer was the winner in 2007 and 2005 while Kyshenko lost the final last year.

However for me Pramuk ([3.2]) has the stand-out price to take the top prize, though if Petrosyan ([2.54]) gets past Kraus ([4.6]) he will be in the mix. As I said, Kyshenko ([3.75]) and Souwer ([3.5]) are worthy of serious consideration. Drago ([8]), Yamamoto and Holzken ([7.0]) would appear to be also-rans. There is also the intriguing prospect of "any other of the Reserves" ([2.02]). This would happen if a victorious fighter injured himself to such an extent that he could not carry on. The sight of a fresh competitor being jettisoned into the fray would surely scramble the odds.

If battling beefcake is your thing then K-1 may be up your street, though you may have to tune in to the likes of Eurosport to get it. And thereby hangs a tale of course.

The credibility battle will go on for sometime yet.

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