[div class=”notice” class2=”icon”]The following is from an article on LiverKick.com, part of the MiddleEasy Network.[/div]
There were a lot of doubts leading into this Saturday’s K-1 World Grand Prix in Los Angeles show, and a lot of them seemed valid at the time. The arena selected was not only in a bad part of town in Los Angeles, but it was huge, seating 17,000 fans, which it seemed like there was no way they could hope to fill it. The fighters that were selected to fight on the card were either old and past their primes or young and incredibly unknown, to the extent where one of the main card fighters was making his debut against a seasoned veteran. All of this was compounded by the fact that K-1 Global had yet to put on a show of their own, with the May show being essentially an all It’s Showtime production crew.
Would anyone be there? Would anyone watch this? Would anyone care? Would the fights suck?
These questions were not only asked by fans, but you’d have to believe that they were coming up in the minds of those involved with K-1 as well over the past few months. Those months have been difficult ones, to say the least. In June, after their first show, their partner in It’s Showtime up and sold their company, along with management contracts of fighters, to rival promotion GLORY. This seemed like a death blow to them, with It’s Showtime’s Simon Rutz making a public statement calling K-1 Global’s Mr. Kim a liar and a thief, claiming that payment was never made to the fighters and promoters. It was bringing back the ghosts of K-1 past, where the big issue that brought them down was late payment to fighters and partners. In this case, the payments were made, albeit not within a certain timeframe, and it seemed like a big misunderstanding that turned into a war of words.
