K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 In Hawaii
Friday, July 29, 2005
Aloha Stadium
Honolulu, Hawaii

By Stephen Quadros, “The Fight Professor”

The Gracie name is chiseled into the history books for that Brazilian family’s massive contribution and furthering of the evolution of the martial arts. They have opened the eyes of the world to the importance of ground fighting. Renzo, the cousin of UFC legend Royce Gracie, is a very popular and personable family member. In the World Combat Championship (October 1995) he ran through everyone and emerged with the tournament title. Then he KO’d Oleg Taktarov in 1996 and submitted Gracie provocateur Maurice Smith in 1999. But the new decade has not been kind to Mr. Gracie, as he has lost 5 of his last 6 fights. But these things happen when you step up to fight top caliber opponents. Therefore losing to the likes of Dan Henderson or Kazushi Sakuraba is not reason for criticism or cause for dishonor.

BJ Penn on the other hand has been on a roll. After losing a decision to Jens Pulver for the UFC Lightweight title in 2002, Penn was relegated to fighting ‘contenders’ in that show. Soon the man known as “The Prodigy” was getting bored. So what did he do to jumpstart his career? He decided to step in against Japan’s best fighter since Sakuraba, Takanori Gomi in front of a hometown crowd at Rumble On The Rock 4 (October 2003). Penn brutalized Gomi, finally choking him out. Then in his return to the UFC he had to move up in weight from 155 to 170 to face the seemingly unstoppable Matt Hughes. The result: Penn captured the UFC Welterweight championship by choking Hughes out! Then he accepted an offer to fight in Japan for K-1 (under MMA rules) and quickly submitted K-1 USA champ Duane Ludwig. New challenges loomed. Deep in his mind he wanted to push himself further. Why not step up another weight division to 185? And why not take on undefeated Rodrigo Gracie in the process? Penn dominated Rodrigo Gracie on his way to a unanimous decision. Then in a move that caused many to question his sanity, BJ stepped up to heavyweight and challenged Ryoto Machida, the only man to ever defeat UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin (by KO). So in March 2005 BJ went toe-to-toe with Machida and lost the decision. Penn said he learned from the experience.

So now we have Penn again dipping into the Gracie war chest. They will most likely fight at 185 pounds so some will say that Renzo theoretically has an advantage in the power department. But to some degree, and in this match specifically, size isn’t everything. Gracie really needs to step up his game and be assertive to take this one. He needs to throw truckloads of low kicks and be aggressive while standing. His key to victory is get Penn moving backwards. And as crazy at it sounds, Renzo should avoid the ground here, because as good as the Brazilian is in that area, Penn’s MMA style jiu-jitsu is not of this Earth. But the damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t syndrome that Gracie faces is that Penn will probably be more effective in the standing portion as well.

I cannot envision Penn losing this match. He is too focused, too unpredictable, too otherworldly. And he seems omnipotent when fighting at home. I predict BJ Penn will defeat Renzo Gracie by unanimous decision. Then I would be very curious to see if he steps back down to 170 or further campaigns at 185. Personally I feel he will be more consistent at the lower weight.

K-1 World Grand Prix - Hawaii

In 1988 Tom Hanks starred in a movie titled “Big”. The remainder of this card can act as a spin-off to that film because the average weight of the competitors in the super fight and the 8-man tournament is somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 pounds.

For instance: Hawaiian native and Sumo Grand Champion Akebono (a.k.a. Chad Rowan) who at 6’ 8” (and a whopping 480 pounds) will be a shrimp (in height anyway) next to his super fight opponent, Korean sensation and Asian K-1 Grand Prix champion Hong-Man Choi, who is 7’ 2” and ONLY weighs 350 pounds. The Godzilla/Rodan references would be just too easy... This is actually a rematch (Choi won their first meeting by first round TKO in March 2005). Choi should be able to repeat his victory here, again inside the distance, sending Akebono’s K-1 record to 1 win and 7 losses (Akebono also lost to Bob Sapp under K-1 MMA rules).

The Hawaiian K-1 Grand Prix tournament features a plethora of hulking newcomers and veterans alike. Many people will pick Carter Williams as the favorite here. And why shouldn’t they: he won the Las Vegas K-1 tournament in May 2003 with a decision over always tough Michael McDonald and a TKO over K-1 USA champion Rick “The Jet” Roufus. And most of the other fighters tonight either lack KO power or are ploddingly slow compared to Williams. The things that will give the other less experienced competitors hope however is the fact that Carter has been stopped four times since his hailing moment in Vegas two years ago. My outside pick to win the tournament, providing his cardio is in order, is a 6’ 1”, 325-pound powerhouse named Scott Junk. Junk gave former UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez a lot harder fight than most expected in the last Rumble On The Rock in May. They competed under MMA rules then and frankly big Scott impressed me. To win here he must be aggressive. The other threat will be the winner of Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge’s clash with Wesley “Cabbage” Correira. One thing is for certain, there won’t be a lot of decisions on this open-air evening in Hawaii.