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historical perspective
While I admit that the direction that the K-1 is going is not what a bunch of thaiboxers would like it to be, but if we look at the history of K-1 from the early '90s, we see quite a large number of trumped up, missed matched, and poorly judged fights, with a fair number of freakish fighters thrown in as well. Remember that Satake fought Kimo way back then. Anyway, after it turned out that Satake was not going to be the Seido Kaikan's image boy (since he wasn't winning), they turned to Andy Hug and made him champion in '96. If you watch the fights, it is questionable whether he won the decision over Ernesto Hoost. He then advanced to the finals and KO'd Bernardo with a cheesy spinning back heel kick to the thigh. After that, Andy, as the upright, best of Japanese Bushido fighter, positive image guy, came to represent K-1 in the Japanese media, even though he never won another championship. After he died, the Seido Kaikan was out a front man, and really they haven't found a new one until Sapp. While the Bob Sapp "revolution" was going on, Ishii Kancho got sapped (pun intended) for tax evasion. So, at the time when K-1 needed an image boost, Bob gave them one. Now Bob goes to Seido Kaikan gasshuku and training camps and the like, and has become the symbol and frontman for K-1 in Japan, and he is trying to beef up his image in the US, but still has a way to go, (maybe Americans have a lower tolerance for BS, or maybe Bob Sapps are a dime a dozen since we watch the NFL, but not so in Japan). At any rate, the long and the short of it is that the Bobified version of the K-1 is not what we want to see--that is, two skilled kickboxers, fighting a toe to toe, or chess-like match using impressive skills, timing and ring-generalship--the historical, long-term perspective may not be as rosey as we might think it actually is. But, that doesn't mean that shitty matches are not shitty matches--they are--and we should continue to talk about them in a critical light.
Alex
While I admit that the direction that the K-1 is going is not what a bunch of thaiboxers would like it to be, but if we look at the history of K-1 from the early '90s, we see quite a large number of trumped up, missed matched, and poorly judged fights, with a fair number of freakish fighters thrown in as well. Remember that Satake fought Kimo way back then. Anyway, after it turned out that Satake was not going to be the Seido Kaikan's image boy (since he wasn't winning), they turned to Andy Hug and made him champion in '96. If you watch the fights, it is questionable whether he won the decision over Ernesto Hoost. He then advanced to the finals and KO'd Bernardo with a cheesy spinning back heel kick to the thigh. After that, Andy, as the upright, best of Japanese Bushido fighter, positive image guy, came to represent K-1 in the Japanese media, even though he never won another championship. After he died, the Seido Kaikan was out a front man, and really they haven't found a new one until Sapp. While the Bob Sapp "revolution" was going on, Ishii Kancho got sapped (pun intended) for tax evasion. So, at the time when K-1 needed an image boost, Bob gave them one. Now Bob goes to Seido Kaikan gasshuku and training camps and the like, and has become the symbol and frontman for K-1 in Japan, and he is trying to beef up his image in the US, but still has a way to go, (maybe Americans have a lower tolerance for BS, or maybe Bob Sapps are a dime a dozen since we watch the NFL, but not so in Japan). At any rate, the long and the short of it is that the Bobified version of the K-1 is not what we want to see--that is, two skilled kickboxers, fighting a toe to toe, or chess-like match using impressive skills, timing and ring-generalship--the historical, long-term perspective may not be as rosey as we might think it actually is. But, that doesn't mean that shitty matches are not shitty matches--they are--and we should continue to talk about them in a critical light.
Alex
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