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K-1 held their “Dynamite†PPV last night from the LA Memorial Coliseum, here are a few notes from the event.
Brock Lesnar was successful in his MMA debut last night (Saturday) easily dismantling Min Soo Kim, who was the last minute replacement for Hong Man Choi. Hong Man Choi was in attendance and while I still think the outcome would have been the same, it would have been great to see Lesnar in there with Choi who stands 7 feet 2 inches.
Min Soo Kim and Lesnar did the forehead – to – forehead touch during the Ref’s instructions. Kim looked confident, while Lesnar looked pasty. Clearly ALL of Brock’s training has been indoors or in the middle of the night. We get the bell, they circle, throw a few punches and Brock shoots in. A little text book grappling and Lesnar secures the dominant top position. Then in a move that showed Kim is smarter then he looks. Min Soo Kim actually taps out because of punches to the head. He was not knocked out, the ref didn’t stop it, he was still defending himself intelligently. In fact the MOST intelligent thing he did to defend himself WAS to tap out!
This was quick and Lesnar made it look easy. In his Post-Fight interview Brock said he still wishes he could have fought – “The Big Headed Guyâ€ÂÂÂÂ. But he wanted to come out and make statement in his debut and he feels he did that. He also mentioned that he was open to negotiate with any promoter who wanted to throw down some cash.
A few interesting notes;
Bill Goldberg who has had ownership in a Maui Tai Gym in
Speaking of Quentin, the NEW UFC Light Heavyweight champion was in attendance, with his belt and a big black fur coat. Which in the summer heat of LA would look out of place on anyone BUT “Rampageâ€ÂÂÂÂ. Oh and Nicolas Cage and Tracey Ullman were there too. You might remember Tracey Ullman as the lady who gave the “Simpsons†their big break back in 1987 – no kidding – 20 years ago!
Lesnar and Goldberg were not the only ex-professional wrestlers in attendance. Dennis Rodman was on hand, He opened the PPV by carrying out an Olympic “type†torch, which was handed off 5 or 6 times across the coliseum and eventually used to light the Olympic Cauldron used in the 1984 Summer Olympics. There was a mention that Brock was only seven when those games played in LA, while Goldberg was 17.
Goldberg touched on the fact that he and Brock “wrestled†at Wrestlemania XX against each other. He claimed to be Brocks last match (he didn’t say in WWE just in general, obviously that is incorrect unless New Japan doesn’t count in Goldberg’s mind), he also mentioned that it was his own last match. Funny he didn’t mention how bad it was or how “brutal†the fans were for it.
Bill also made mention of the fact that Brock was just an amazing athlete all around, and that he tried out for the NFL Vikings without playing any Collegiate Football. Bill said even though they cut him before he could ever play, they did try to get him to go to NFL Europe to get some of the fundamentals they felt he was lacking, and had Brock been patient enough he may very well be in the NFL today.
In a Pre-recorded fight interview Brock Lesnar was asked what the difference was between Professional Wrestling and MMA. A cocky and some what annoyed Lesnar responded: “What is the difference… Well MMA is real and wrestling is fake. If you don’t know that, then you must be living in a cave.â€ÂÂÂÂ
When announcing the fighters in the ring, Brock Lesnar was announced as the former NCAA championship wrestler AND the former 3-time WWE Heavyweight champion of the world. As a life long “wrestling†fan and a fairly new fan of MMA (last 3 years or so) – I was embarrassed by this.
A friend of mine who is not a “wrestling†fan, made this observation; “Wrestling is a very backward sport, when you are an “amateur†you compete for real and no money. When you are a professional, you pretend to compete and for lots of money.†I quickly corrected him letting him know 10% were making “lots†of money, most made closer to “Amateur wrestling†money. I also noted that very few “amateur†wrestlers go “Proâ€ÂÂÂÂ, but that we get our share of Body builders, football players and Punjabi police officers. We switched over from the K-1 PPV to Saturdays Nights Main Event and I was able to show him what I was talking about in the first 15 minutes of the show.
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