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TUESDAY, April 29th 2003, AT 2:00 PM, PT
K-1
USA RETURNS TO LAS VEGAS NEVADA
This Friday
Night, May 2nd, 2003!
Last
year the pre event headline on the May K-1 USA 2002 read
"K-1
North America..... Is It McDonalds To Win... Or Lose..?"
In
the end, with a little help from an injury to Rick Roufus, Michael
McDonald (Right) won it all!
However this year the crop of talent is different. Although Mcdonald (Nicknamed the Black Sniper!) may still have the odds according to the Las Vegas books, the competition is sure to be hungry and ready for him.
The competition to him may be a surprise in some potential match-ups, especially in his opening bout at the Mirage in Las Vegas this weekend where he will face off against a young and explosive fighter Carter Williams (Right) of Modesto, California, USA.
At last years event
McDonald and IKF Pro IR World
Champion Rick Roufus (Both Pictured at Left)
made it to the final round for a
rematch of their January 22nd, 1994 bout at Caesars Tahoe Nevada. In the 1994
bout, Rick fought and defeated a much smaller
McDonald to win the IKF Full
Contact Rules Light Heavyweight World Title. In that bout Rick weighed
in at 179 lbs. to McDonalds 178. It was over quickly as Roufus
knocked McDonald out "COLD" at only 43 seconds of the first
round. It was a rematch the now number 1 IKF Ranked Heavyweight McDonald was
looking forward to, especially with leg kicks this time...
However "According to sources", Roufus had slipped on the ring canvas in his second bout of the night and actually tore his ACL. Against McDonald he fought cautious due to the injury because he didn't want to risk hurting it more. In the end, he felt like he had done enough to win. However after 3 explosive rounds of action, the scores were Judge #1: 29.5 to 28.5 Roufus, Judge #2: 29.5 to 29 Roufus and Judge #3: 29.5 to 29 McDonald (Source Nevada Boxing Commission). Although it should have been a "Majority Decision Win" for Roufus, instead, it was a draw due to K-1 rules requiring you to win a tournament by 2 full points. Because of his injury, Roufus withdraw from the bout by choosing not to fight the extra 4th round, giving McDonald the win. Unfortunately Roufus lost to the rules not McDonald.
This year McDonald would like to meet Roufus again to prove to everyone that he could beat Roufus straight up. But he will need to make it through his side of the bracket first and hope Roufus does the same before such a meeting would take place. Here's how the 8 man bracket stands as of today;
The surprise here is the 2 fighters from outside North America. Yusuke Fujimoto from Japan and Eduardo Maiorino from Brazil. This tournament is suppose to feature fighters from only North America however K-1 matchmaker Javiar Mendez has probably been pulling his hair out as one has said due to bad scheduling of some of the previously matched contenders.
The featured fighter,
Bob Sapp was to be the big draw for everyone at this years event.
However someone in the K-1 Headquarters screwed up and matched Sapp on
another K-1 event inside 45 days prior to this one. The result, a matchmakers
nightmare!
At 6' 7" tall and 374 lbs, very few thought Sapp could be put down but the big hype for K-1 was stopped BIG! At the K-1 show in Omiya at Saitama Super Arena, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic had little trouble in defeating Sapp at 1 minute, 26 seconds of round 1 when he clocked Sapp in the eye and dropped him, breaking Sapp's eye socket. (See story "Minus One BEAST At K-1 USA... And a TANK!" By clicking HERE)
The Japanese media billed Mirko's win over Sapp
as if a normal human being had defeated Godzilla. As of March 24th, the K-1 USA
tournament consisted of; 
Sapp,
Michael McDonald, Rick Roufus, Dewey Cooper, Giuseppe DeNatale, Chad Bannon,
Jefferson Silvia and Carter Williams. However, at the same event
Sapp got KO'ed, Ernesto Hoost KO'ed Silva. A week later,
Chad Bannon's performance was so poor at another event that K-1
matchmakers pulled him off the May card. This left K-1 USA matchmaker Javiar
Mendez (Right) and the K-1 Headquarters with 3 spots to fill and in
their opinion, there was no one else in North America to fill them. At least no
one else that K-1 Japan wanted to see on the card.
Mendez had experience with this kind of pressure before because at last years May 2002 K-1 they lost 4 of their originally booked fighters, Maurice Smith, Duke Roufus, Thomasz Kucharzewski and Basem Balbaki. Although Balbaki and Kucharzewski were no media loss, Smith and Duke were. But Mendez made the loss a gain when he booked Duke's brother Rick Roufus for the event.
So Mendez
and K-1 Japan went to work to fix the 2003 May event. Again, as before, the loss
was turned into a gain as they booked K-1 veteran Maurice Smith (Left)
of Seattle, Washington, USA who had said a year ago he was done with K-1. At 41
years old Smith will certainly be the elder (no offense Maurice)
senior in the mix. However Smith is no stranger to winning. Smith
won this very same event 2 years ago on May 5th,
2001.
Although some questioned his win and still do. After 3 rounds in the Championship Bout, It was a Majority Draw... So in a "Do or Die" extra round judges Jon Shirley of California & Jeff Mullens of Tennessee gave the round to Smith 10 to 9.5 while judge Moretti had it 10-9.5 McDonald. Few in the house saw a Smith win but the judges words stood and Smith walked out of the ring with a split decision victory.
It was the the 3rd K-1
USA Promoted by World Class Promoter Scott Coker (Right) of San
Jose, CA, USA. Smith will be familiar with the surroundings because that
event was also at the Mirage.
But K-1 isn't the only venue Smith has walked out of the ring a Champion. To his credit he has won kickboxing titles with the WKC (1983), WKA (1983 to 1997) ISKA (1996) and Mixed Martial Arts (NHB) Titles from BATTLECADES, EXTREME Fighting Champion III, IV and UFC XIV, XV. Over his career he has to his credit well over 60 wins and over 50 wins by KO.TKO! With that being said his first round opponent, Giuseppe DeNatale of Canada should have his hands full for a second year in a row.
The surprises came when Yusuke Fujimoto from Japan and
Eduardo Maiorino from Brazil 
were
placed in the mix. This event is suppose to feature fighters from only North
America so how did they make it onto the card? Well we don't know it all but the
talk on the street is they needed a Japanese fighter, Fujimoto, since
the event was to be aired live in Japan. Sources say that K-1's new TV deal
requested a Japanese fighter so they could boost their TV ratings. Ok, so where
does Maiorino fit in? Well, we can't seem to find out so it will just be
a mystery to us all for now. REGARDLESS, K-1 USA has brought 8 fighters
together to via for the May Crown!
As for the other talent, Dewey Cooper (Right) of Las Vegas, Nevada, USA is on the card once again in the tournament bracket. Last May Cooper defeated Jean Claude Leuyer by unanimous decision but lost in round 2 to Rick Roufus by unanimous decision. Cooper will be matched up against Yusuke Fujimoto from Japan in round one. If he makes it past Fujimoto he will face either Williams or McDonald.
As we noted earlier, McDonald will face off against a
young and explosive fighter named Carter Williams
of Modesto, California, USA trained by
Gene Fields (Left). Williams was the 2001
IKF USA National Amateur Super Heavyweight
Champion. However, that won't impress McDonald much.
Although Williams impressed the K-1 Team on the undercard last May, McDonald probably knows little about him since he was in the locker room preparing for his next bout. At the 2002 K-1-USA May event, Williams defeated former IKF Amateur West Coast USA Champion Manuel Quesada by TKO at 1:36 of round 2. Since then Williams has been winning every time he steps into the ring in Pro Kickboxing, Boxing and MMA.
Winning is all Williams knows now. He's the youngest of all the tournament fighters at 22 years old. Over the last year he has defeated such noted fighters as Jeff Ford and Dan Lucas. In fact, since Sapp and his "Beast" nickname was dropped from the tournament the fan noise now is that there is a new "BEAST" in the house and his name is Carter Williams! It will be interesting to see how much of the "BEAST" comes to the ring Friday night.
Last year Giuseppe DeNatale (Right) got a
taste of his own luck when he was defeated by McDonald by Referee
stoppage due to the 2 knockdown rule. This rule was the same rule that got him
past 
Carter Williams last year
at the K-1 USA Qualifier event in Milwaukee
Wisconsin. What's that saying, "Live by the sword, die by the
sword."
Whatever that means, DeNatale is back again this year and better prepared. His experience of McDonald has stayed with the 29 year old and he will probably remember it for some time. "That was the worst beating I ever took in a fight. Nobody ever threw stuff at me like he did," said DeNatale.
After taking a beating from McDonald the referee stopped it with only 10 seconds remaining in the bout. The loss might not have been so bad if he was marked down for a decision loss instead of a TKO but blame that K-1, 2 knockdown rule for that. The same rule that got DeNatale past Williams in Milwaukee was the end for him last year in Vegas. Hopefully no rules will keep him out of the winners bracket this Friday night. In addition, he will need to keep a composed head and not get caught up in the awe of the crowd like he did last year and more so, his opponent this year. That's because he will face off in round one against one of the greatest fighters of all times, Maurice Smith.
DeNatale is also a former IKF Amateur Champion. He won his IKF Amateur Canadian Heavyweight Title on February 10th, 2000, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada by TKO at 1:33 of the 3rd round over Ryan Graham when he landed a head kick on Graham that dropped him. He voluntarily retired the title in 2000 to turn Pro. For more on DeNatale click HERE!
UNDERCARD BOUTS
As of this press time we did not have a full undercard list. However we do know that one of the undercard bouts will be one of the most exciting of the night because, CUNG LE IS BACK!
Yes, current IKF Pro San Shou Champion Cung Le (Right)
will make his long awaited return to K-1. Le will be fighting a 4 round
non title bout against an opponent he's already fought before. "It's
great to have the opportunity to fight again on a K-1 card," said Le
who was last seen on a K-1 event in May 2000 when he defeated 3 time Shidokan
Karate champion Laimon Mohamed Keita in a Superfight.
His opponent this time will be a rematch with Scott Sheeley. Four years ago, Le defeated Sheeley after successfully executing a throw that broke Sheeley's cheek bone. In our opinion, Sheeley may be not be the worst of Le's worries. The two will have a referee in the ring that knows very little about San Shou scoring and may very well make costly mistakes. With that being said, both Le and Sheeley may be fighting the referee Friday night more than each other. It will be an interesting match to watch, especially how the referee scores the throws. Expect mistakes because we can assure you, "They will Happen!" To read more about Le click HERE!
And if all these fights are not enough, you can look forward to a special feature bout with 23-year old former Playboy model La Tasha Marzolla (Right). Marzolla will make her K-1 USA debut at the 2003 event. But can she fight?
Well according to sources, on February 7th of this year the 5'6",
118-pound 
Marzolla scored two
knockdowns on female kickboxer Nina Magsamin over the course of three,
two-minute rounds before being awarded a unanimous decision victory at The
Stardust Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas during an all-women's kickboxing fight
card.
"I was a little nervous because it was my first fight," admitted Marzolla. "I think my adrenaline got in the way a bit, but it turned out really good anyway. I'll be more prepared for this fight mentally because I know what's gonna happen in the ring. So, it's gonna be easier for me to knock her out."
Her bout this Friday will be a rematch with Magsamin during the event's preliminary card. To read more about her see Michael Afromowitz full article by clicking HERE!
Tickets are now on sale at
www.k-1usa.net
Ticket prices are $30, $50, $100, $150, and $250 and can be purchased either online at the K-1 USA website (www.k-1usa.net) store or by calling The Mirage box office at (702) 791-7236.
The winner of the event will meet semi finalists from seven different countries in Las Vegas in August for the K-1 World Semi Finals and a chance to go onto the 2002 K-1 World Grand Prix at the Tokyo Dome.
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IKF K-1 USA PAGE,
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IKF NEWS PAGE,
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