Romania May 4th 2007 K-1 Fighting Network Tournament plus Super Fights
After a 2 and half hour flight team Golden Glory arrived in Romania, the country which is famous for dark forest and vampires.
It was 3 o’clock at night before everybody was at their rooms at the Phoenicia Grand Hotel. The heat wave also struck Romania, none of the air condition machines really worked and no explanation needed to say that nobody got really a lot of sleep.
The next day there was a press conference at club bamboo, which was located at a beautiful leg (see picture Balrak and Boon). At the same night there was a boxing event and some of the celebrities from Golden Glory were invited to give the price to the winners of some of the boxing matches that night.
Many returned early to the hotel the second night was even more hot then the first.
The Italian restaurant was nice in the hotel and the spaghetti and pizza were very tasteful.
After a good meal we went with all the fighters in twelve taxis through the middle of the city of Bucharest (not a trip to recommend when you have to fight that night). The traffic was very slow and of course there was the heat. Some of the taxies did not have any air co and the window could not go up or down, oepsssssssss.
The good thing is that we moved so slowly some of us could actually take a pee and then run a few meters to get back in the taxi.
Finally we arrived at the stadium, good thing I went shopping the day before the event and bought banana’s. fresh Evian water, snickers, granola bars, bread and yogurt. This bag was soon empty at the half of the night.
Aswhin Balrak had the first fight and had to fight against a huge tall French guy with at least 25 kilo more on the scale.
Balrak started the fight with inside low kicks and punches but the French guy kept on clinching and he made smart use of his power. The first round was pretty even but you could see that Aswhin was not his normal self, he had problems with focussing, that also showed in the second round of the fight were the Frenchman did the same and scored a few times with some punches. Balrak countered with some low kicks and punches. The third we could see fatigue by the French fighter, but for the last round he keeps clinching. It is pretty close, should maybe have been an extra round but the fight is given to the tall French guy.
Wallis Brecht vs Doug Viney / NZDoug
Wallis Brecht is know to not only have a big hart (I believe that’s the expression) but also a very though and hard head. Dough who came fly all the way from New Zealand must have ask himself if he was hitting in to a Romanian wall of concrete. For some reason he was landing clean hard shots but Wallis Brecht just moved forward and kept attacking Dough.
In round two we see a little fatigue by Doug Viney, maybe the long trip, maybe the heat or maybe the dissolution by hitting your opponent full on and no sign of results. At the end of round two Dough Viney sticks his thong out, which is immediately replied with a left round house kick to the head by Brecht Wallis. Lights out for Doug Viney and the Romanian audience is on their feet, great fight to start the tournament.
Then Errol Zimmerman against Petar Majstorovic
Zimmerman came up flying over the ropes and he showed ready to fight.
In the first round we can see already why Zimmerman is the next big star, his power punching combinations with hard high kicks and jumping knees caused a lot of ooess and aaahhss in the audience. At the end of round one Peter gets an eight count.
He recovers well and as Errol gave a lot of fire power in the first round he is calmer in round two and three. However there are these moments of explosion were at any moment the ko can come and the Romanian public loves this young talent from Golden Glory. The judges however scored the fight a draw? So an extra round for Errol, who showed who was the boss in this extra round and wobbled his opponent several times in this fourth round.
Winner by decision Errol Zimmerman.
It’s a tournament so I went to the dressing room to see if there were any injuries. Errol’s knee showed a bump the size of a golf bal (his old injury from Brecht Wallis , who he fought three weeks before the Romanian event (Errol won the fight by decision). He used a lot of jumping knees against Peter and this resulted in the golf bal. Sure thing Errol would only box in his next fight, how would the outcome be for this rematch?
In the other bracket we can see the Romanian fighter Sebastiaan Chira from Romania
against Paulo Mataele also from New Zealand. The Romanian fighters starts brave with an offensive but is soon out of gas and gets hit with a hook. The Romanian fighter goes down in the first round and the fighter from New Zealand advances to the half finals.
Then the fight against Petr Vondrachek Czech Republik vs. Adnan Redzovic from Bosnia
Both are experienced K-1 fighters but they do not really want to bang in the first round, the ref has to warn them in round 1 and 2 to actually fight. Maybe this had to do that both fighters were managed by the same manager ?? Who knows? But the first two rounds were the most boring from the whole tournament Vondercheck tries but Radneck is the better of the two. At the end of the third round Radzovic wins so advances the semi finals.
Its time to rock and roll, the finals in the form of the half finals, any real fan of K-1 knew this was the finals, Brecht Wallis vs. Errol Zimmerman in the rematch only three weeks later.
Errol gets a little distracted as two Romanian girls escort him to the ring. Wallis enters the hall with the music of Ram stein Bang Bang and you can feel that everybody is wanting to see this fight.
Brecht Wallis moves forward but Errol is countering in the half of the first round Errol scores with an uppercut hook combination which rocks the head of Wallis and it wobbles him (eight count could have been given) however Brecht swallows and absorbs everything and just comes back for more. He scores with punches and kicks and were in the first encounter they had in Tilburg three weeks ago Errol scored with his feared jumping knees, he could now do nothing then box with this giant from Belgium.
The second round we can see Wallis attacking again were Errol has a few times the double defence. Just when you think he is tired he comes out with a great combination which rocks Wallis Brecht, the audience is on their chairs. End of round two. Round three Brecht moving forward scoring with straight punches and low kicks. Brecht starts kicking his corner knows Errol is injured as he only boxes. But Errols stays dangerous. The end of the fight one judge scores it a draw but two of them give the fight to Brecht, strange enough the first round. But nothing to take away from Wallis Brecht who showed great desire to fight and moving forward all the time. Brecht goes to the finals but it is Errol who gets a standing ovation leaving the arena, so far the two matches from the young golden glory fighters from Breda were the most spectacular, it’s a shame both fighters Errol and Brecht were in the same bracket.
Then Paola Mataele NZ fights Adnan Redzovic Bosnia
The fight starts of with Mataele landing nice boxing combinations which finally resulted in a ko victory in round 2. Mataele wins by ko.
The finals Brecht Wallis vs Paola Mataele
Mataele had an easy way to the finals, but Brecht was in top shape.
Round 1, Brecht moves forward and attacks the fighter from New Zealand with some straight punches and front kicks.
Round two the same strategy, Brecht is moving forward and then lands a huge bomb on the chin of Mataele, he disappears in the land of the sleeping. Winner and tournament winner K-1 Romania 2007 , Brecht Wallis from Siam Gym Belgium.
On the same night Nobu Hayashi fought Romanian fighter.
The Romanian fighter had a easy fight and won all three rounds, great for the hometown audience.
The the main event Stefan the blitz Leko vs. Romanian star Catalin Morosanu Romania
The Romanian fighter was born of the same day as Mike Tyson.
He must have seen him as a great example, as this fighter had a huge fighting hard, everything he did not have the hart made up for.
Already in the first round it is Leko who lands a huge knee on the nose of the Romanian fighter, the ref stops the fight but then continues after a little doctor check. The Romanian fighter keeps attacking but walks in many uppercuts of Stefan Leko. The face of the Romanian is bloody but he comes to fight and has nothing to loose.
In the second round play time is over and Leko lands his fierce back kick twice on the liver of the though Romanian fighter who receives two time an eight count in this round were Stefan also scores with a few spinning back fists.
In round three the Romanian fighter kept on clinching but stays dangerous till the last moment. All three rounds go to Stefan Leko, who proved to be in shape tonight and ready for the big work again. Winner Stefan Leko
Many thanks to promoter Eduardo. Who only had three weeks to promote the event. The heat and traffic was not his fault and he showed to be a great promoter in Romania.
It is now four o’clock in the morning and I just got room service (the cold piece of chicken). Goodnight!
Reserve fight:
Ashwin Balrak / Surinam (Holland)
Patrice Quarteron / France winner
Tournament:
Brecht Wallis / Belgium winner by ko round 2
Doug Viney / NZ
Errol Zimmerman / Surinam winner decision extra round
Petar Majstorovic / Switzerland
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Sebastian Chira / Roumania
Paola Mataele / NZ winner by ko round 1
Petr Vondracek / Czech Republic
Adnan Redzovic / Bosnia winner decision
Prestige Fights :
Daniel Ghita / Romania winner decision x Nobu Hayashi / Japan
Catalin Morosanu / Romania x Stefan Leko / Croatia winner decision
Wallis Brecht winner decision vs Errol Zimmerman
Wallis Brechtt winner ko in round 2 vs Paola Mataele
Story by Bas Boon pictures by Bas Boon
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