K1 Global Heat England vs Japan

England's finest heavyweights took on the best from Japan.

This was the second K1 UK event this year in front of a packed out crowd at the Aston Villa Leisure Centre, Birmingham. The show was the K1-UK Global Heat England vs Japan bill promoted by Paul Hennessey of Showsport. The show had a heavyweight undercard and some demos as part of what was one of the best run events I have ever been to. The show flowed superbly without any lond delays or hitches of any kind.

The show started with a Japanese drumming team building up the atmosphere to get the crowd going.

This was followed by a short empty hand forms demo by Hayashi team member and world forms champion Chloe Bruce. Chloe demonstrated astounding flexibility and coordination including showing 360 degree turns on one leg.

We were then swiftly on the way with the first fight of the undercard. All of the following fights were K1 rules over 3 rounds of 3 minutes with 1 mins rest.







Tyrone Herod vs Gary Turner

Tyrone Herod - ISKA British Champion (Stoke-On-Trent), VS Gary Turner - WAKO European Champion (Farnbourough)

Rnd 1 : The fight started with Gary initially preferring to box whereas Tyrone was constantly looking to close and knee. Towards the end of the round Tyrone managed to close in and land a strong knee. This caused Gary to pull backwards but he then came back in with some strong boxing.


Rnd 2 : tyrone started the round coming in with a number of left body and low kicks. Gary still preferred to mainly box with 1,2 straight punches, following one up with a nice right hook that landed well but Tyrone didn't look bothered by it. Gary started to catch Tyrone's kicks well, dropping him to the canvas, both fighters looked very tired by this point. The round ended with a nice hack by Gary in the clinch that dropped Tyrone.

Rnd 3 : Early on in this round both fighters fell out of the ring with what can only be described as a running hug attack from Gary. Gary was starting to look more tired as his guard was lower, however it was him that kept landing big right hands. The bell went for the end of the fight and the result on the judges scorecards were:
28-30, 28-29, 28-29, unanimous decision to Gary Turner!




Barrington Patterson vs Shaun Johnson

Barrington Patterson - WAKO-Pro Inter-Continental Champion (Coventry) VS Shaun Johnson WKA World Champion (Trojan, Wigan)
Rnd 1 : Barringtpon entered the ring with a bit of a strut in his stride in front of many supporters from his hometown in the crowd but Shaun didn't look fazed. The round kicked off with Shaun landing a nice strong right low kick followed by some left inside low kicks. Feeling confident Shawn attempted a left hook kick which missed but Barrington didn't close down quickly to take advantage. Barrington preferred to box landing a nice 3 body hook combination towards the end of the round.

Rnd 2 : This round started with a bang with Barrington catching Shawn with a big right hook. Shawn went on the defensive shutting down the space and grappling. Barrington landed a couple more nice hooks but Shawn replied well with a nice left hook right low kick combo.





Rnd 3: This round started with some nice boxing from Barrington, who even attempted a spinning punch that missed wildly, both men were clearly very tired now and preferred mainly to box out the remainder of the round.













Nobu Hayashi(JAPAN) vs John Wyatt (ENGLAND)

Nobu Hayashi - K1 finalist in Japans with 8 wins 3 losses in K1 VS John Wyatt - 21 wins 2 losses 1 draw

John Wyatt looked very psyched up for this one despite being obviously lighter but lither, it was going ot be an interesting fight.


Rnd 1: Hayashi started strong with some hard right roundhouse kicks that looked to have John worried, especially when Hayashi caught him with a high one. This set John off and there was some excellent high paced boxing between the two fighters towards the end of the round. When the bell went for the end of the round and John returned to his corner his leg was very bruised around the knee. Interestingly Hayashi preferred to stand between the rounds rather than sit on a stool.







Rnd 2: John landed a nice left inside low kick, whilst Hayashi tried to keep his distance attempting to set John up with his left jab. John closed to grapple in this round with many of his front knees initially being blocked. He did however land a hard left side knee. Hayashi attempted a spinning punch on John with John coming back at him with some nice boxing. The round ended with Hayashi coming in with a left high kick that John blocked well. At the end of this round his leg was very very bruised.






Rnd 3: This round started with Hayashi landing an early right low kick. John again shut down the space and attempted to knee Hayashi. The pace really picked up this round with John shrugging off a hard right cross from Hayashi . The round ended with Hayashi scoring another string right low kick. The bell then went and it was nice to see John take what must have been his daughter into the ring with him for the decision: 29-29, 28-29, 29-29 a DRAW and an excellent fight.
We heard later that John's knee was possibly damaged and may even be broken.





There then followed an interval. After the interview the Japanese drummers got the crowd going for Chloe Bruce to enter the ring to perform an excellent staff weapon form. It obviously got our photographer excited as he took 14 photos of this alone. We were then shown a short shoot fighting vale tudo exhibition "bout" by Dexster Casey (British Vale Tudo Champion) and Lee Hasdell (European Shooting Champion, K1-UK fighter). Then the next main fight of the evening got underway.








Masashi Suzuki (JAPAN) vs Mark Russell (ENGLAND)

Masashi Suzuiki - 17 fights 17 wins (Karate), 7 fights, 5 wins 2 losses (K1) VS Mark Russell, WKA WKO World Champion , K1-UK finalist.

Rnd 1 : This fight got going right from the start! Suzuki came in with a strong body kick with Mark replying hard and fast with 3 well-timed hard left low kicks. These off-balanced Suzuki but he came flying back with a big right cross that knocked Mark backwards. Mark came back in furiously and a big right hook dropped Suzuki for an eight count. Soon after Mark landed a left high kick and then knocked Suzuki down for another count.






Mark was keen to keep up the pressure. He got Suzuki up against the ropes and boxed the hell out of him, the referee had no choice but to stop the fight after 1 min 52 secs of the first round.
An excellent win for Mark Russell













Yusuke Fujimoto (JAPAN) vs Ricky "the tank" Nicholson (ENGLAND).

Yusuke Fujimoto - From Osaka, Japan 21 wins in Karate and 2 x Japanese Champion, 4 K1 fights 4 wins VS Ricky Nicholson - WKA world champion, K1-UK fighter (Heavyhitters Gym).

Rnd 1. : Ricky stepped in early landing a good right cross. This sent Yusuke what can only be described as berserk. He attacked Ricky with a barrage of punches followed by a knee to Ricky's face which gave him a count. Ricky got straight back in there after, but his confidence looked damage as he missed with a wild right hook. However the second hook connected well followed by a strong right low kick. Fujimoto replied with a right kick of his own. Ricky stepped in with a spinning backfist at the same time that Fujimoto connected with a low kick that shook both fighters. Ricky then connected with a nice spinning punch at the end of the round that left Fujimoto a little worried. This was one of the most exciting rounds of the night.






Rnd 2. : This round lasted literally seconds!! Fujimoto stepped in with a low kick that Ricky blocked comfortably and then sent his right hand flying to connect with Fujimoto's face knocking him down and out instantly.!
KO by Ricky Nicholson.


































































All in all it was an excellent well planned night, with excellent commentary and refereeing throughout. The next K1 promotion in England will be the K1-UK Battle Of Britain 2 around April next year.