K1 Dynamite!! 2008 results, recap and final thoughts.

Dynamite!! 2008 took place last night over in Japan, I woke up at 4AM to watch a live feed of it (which was posted here on this site), and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  We had some great fights and some big upsets.  I won’t spoil anything here, but after the jump you’ll find some quick results as well as my thoughts on a select number of fights.

Gegard Mousasi vs. Musashi:

There’s a one-sided beatdown and further reinforcement that Gegard Mousasi is one of the best middleweights in the world.  He dominated a K1 veteran from the opening bell and seriously dished out one of the worst beatings I’ve seen in a K1 bout (until the Overeem/Hari fight).  Gegard is the definition of “well rounded”.  Hell, he’s better than well rounded, he’s exceptionally rounded.  I can’t wait to see more from him in 2009, can’t wait to see what he does with that DREAM middleweight title, and hopefully someday we can see him branching out more to the American fans by signing with a major MMA organization.

Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kozo Takeda:

I thought it was a good K1 fight, Kawajiri pretty much mandhandled Kozo from the opening bell, but he did his best to hang in there and showed some heart.  Kawajiri threw a beautiful flying knee right down the middle which connected, dropping Kozo and giving him his 2nd, 10 count. Moments later Kawajiri caught him with a punch and dropped him again, ref stepped in and called the fight.  Kawajiri needed the win, he was coming off that TKO loss to Eddie Alvarez and wanted to erase that from his mind, which I think he did.  I think he made the fans/spectators realize that he’s got a lot more power than he sometimes shows, and I think he’ll use this win to get him some big fights in 2009.

Badr Hari vs. Alistair Overeem:

Well, what’s to say about this one aside from it was a one-sided asskicking with Badr on the receiving end.  I said a while back that nothing would please me more to see Badr get completely wrecked by an “MMA fighter”, and Overeem made that wish come true.  He completely powered through everything Badr had, dropped him once, then did it again and sealed the deal.  I can’t wait to see where both guys will go from here, Overeem’s certainly erased his questionable past while he fought at 205lbs, and has really looked to solidify himself as one of the elite heavyweight fighters.  Badr, who knows?  This has got to hurt his confidence, he’s now 0-2 in his last two showings, both by pretty horrible endings.  I wonder if he’ll still fight Overeem under MMA rules?  Somehow I doubt it.

Bob Sapp vs. Anime Character:

Freak show fight #1….wasn’t impressed.  Never been impressed with Sapp, but the guy’s a mammoth fighter.  I was really hoping Mr. Anime guy would KO the hell outta “The Beast” just for laughs, but Sapp came through after getting planted on his back a couple of times to win via TKO, which he achieved by bum-rushing the cartoon-man against the ropes and throwing his trademark bombs.  No big shock in all truth.  Neither fighter has anything to gain from this, and realistically Sapp probably lost more credibility that he did when Jan Nortje beat the shit out of him.  Either way, it’s a freak show and it’s all for entertainment, learn to take them with a grain of salt.

Cro Cop vs. Hong Man Choi:

This was a must win for Cro Cop, he’s been fighting an uphill battle since his horrid run in the UFC, and a loss to Choi would have more or less made everyone jump off the bandwagon and hope for his departure from combat sports.  Fortunately for a guy like me, a huge supporter of Cro Cop, I was very happy to see him walk away with the win.  Some might say this fight was boring, but you have to consider the significant height and reach disadvantage Cro Cop had, naturally that’s going to make for an awkward fight considering he’s not a grappler and doesn’t look to engage in a clinch war.  He used a smart gameplan which consisted of sharp inside legs kicks and fast footwork to avoid Choi’s bombs.  In the end, a solid shot to Choi’s left knee caused the Korean to drop and the ref to step in.  I was happy to see Mirko get the win, no doubt it’ll give his confidence a giant boost for his next fights.  Tough loss for Choi, I’m sure he’ll be back soon though pending the injury diagnosis.

Mark Hunt vs. Melvin Manhoef:

Who in the F*^! saw that coming!?!?!? I know I didn’t….Mark Hunt was supposed to be the iron-jawwed-can’t-get-KO’d-by-anyone type of guy.  Man, not tonight, .18 seconds in, Melvin throws a combo and BOOM! Lights mother flippin’ out for the Samoan.

Shinya Aoki vs. Eddie Alvarez (for WAMMA lightweight title):

Definitely the most anticipated fight of the night for me,  these two were originally supposed to meet in the final round of the DREAM lightweight grand prix, but an injury Eddie sustained in his victory over Tatsuya Kawajiri prevented that from happening.  Tonight, not only was it a fight that should’ve happened a while back, but it was for the offical WAMMA lightweight title (which doesn’t mean much right now, but hey, it’s a belt!).  I was a little shocked when Eddie threw the kick that ultimately set up the clinch, which set up Aoki’s ability to get it to the grond, which set up Aoki’s chance for a heek hook, which he locked in and forced Eddie to tap.  Eddie was disapointed, you could see it in his eyes, and Aoki reinforced that he can submit anyone in MMA.  I’d love to see Aoki and BJ Penn fight, hopefully it’ll happen sometime soon.  Eddie will be back, he’s still deserving of a chance to fight Joachim Hansen for the DREAM lightweight title.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura:

Sakuraba came out riding a little kid’s bike, it was pretty hilarious.  How can you not love that guy, always classy, always humble, and such a legend in the sport.  I was very excited to see him fight again, and I felt his opponent was a great challenge for “The Gracie Hunter”.  Tamura proved that he still had what it took too, he soundly defeated Saku via a unanimous decision and further reinforced the thought that Kazushi may need to call it quits.  It was a good fight though, both guys showed a lot of skills and Tamura showed that he’s still capable to dishing out a lot of punishment.  I thought it was a good fight for the main event.

Like I said above, I thought it was a great event, and I can’t wait to see what 2009 brings in the for these guys.  Hunt and Hari suffered huge losses, and I don’t know if either one will be back and/or be better than they were before.  Personally, I’d like to see Overeem leave the Japanese circuit and come to the US again, and sign with the UFC.  He’s legit as they get, and he could add a lot to the UFC heavyweight division.

Same goes for Gegard Mousasi and Shinya Aoki.  Both are extremely talented but I don’t think that they’re getting the fights people of their stature should be getting.  I’d like to see where both fit in to the UFC middleweight and lightweight divisions, I’d love to see Aoki fight BJ Penn and/or Kenny Florian; who are both extremely talented grapplers and could give him a big problem.  Gegard, man I’d love to see he and Dan Henderson or Michael Bisping throw down.  No doubt in my mind, I think he could be the guy to beat Anderson Silva, and I’ve thought that for a long time.

Quick Results:

OFFICIAL MMA RESULTS

• Kiyoshi Tamura def. Kazushi Sakuraba via unanimous decision
• Shinya Aoki def. Eddie Alvarez via submission (heel hook) — Round 1, 1:32 (for WAMMA lightweight title)
• Melvin Manhoef def. Mark Hunt via KO (punches) — Round 1, 0:18
• Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic def. Hong Man Choi via TKO (leg injury) — Round 1, 6:32
• Hayato “Mach” Sakurai def. Katsuyori Shibata via TKO (punches) — Round 1, 7:01
• Semmy Schilt def. Siala “Mighty Mo’ Siliga via submission (trinagle choke) — Round 1, 5:31
• Bob Sapp def. Akihito “Kinniku Mantaro” Tanaka via TKO (punches) — Round 1, 5:22
• Andy Ologun def. Yukio Sakaguchi via TKO (punches) — Round 1, 3:52
• Daisuke Nakamura def. Hideo Tokoro via technical submission (arm bar) — Round 1, 2:23
• Ikuhisa Minowa def. Errol Zimmerman via submission (toe hold) — Round 1, 1:01

K-1 KICKBOXING RULES RESULTS

• Gegard Mousasi def. Musashi via TKO — Round 1, 2:32
• Alistair Overeem def. Bahr Hari via KO — Round 1, 2:07
• Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Kozo Takeda via TKO — Round 1, 2:37
• Hiroya def. Koya Urabe via unanimous decision (overtime: 10-9, 10-9, 10-9)*
• Artur Kyshenko def. Yoshihiro Sato via majority decision (30-29, 29-28 and 29-29)
• Hiroya def. Shota Shimada via unanimous decision (30-39, 30-29, 30-29)^
• Koya Urabe def. Ryuya Kusakabe via TKO (doctor’s stoppage) — Round 3, 2:21^

*-K-1 Koshien (under-18) tournament final
^-K-1 Koshien (under-18) tournament semifinal