Details on K-1 Asia MAX 2013 in Korea, Feb. 2

Well no one really knows exactly when or where the K-1 WGP Final will be, but K-1 does have another event coming up on February 2 in Seoul, Korea and the news has been floating around for around a few weeks now, though with no "official" announcement on it from K-1.

The event is called K-1 Asia MAX 2013 and will feature a one night, eight man tournament at 70kg, with the winner qualifying for the next K-1 MAX Final 16. Two tournament participants have been confirmed, and they're Woo Young Choi and Seong Hyun Lee (Sun Hyun Lee as he's often referred to as). There will be a total of four Koreans in the tournament, with the other two Korean participants coming from two tryouts that are essentially qualifying tournaments that MKF held/will be holding on December 15 and 22 in Korea. The other four participants will come from around Asia, with China, Japan and Mongolia being mentioned.

Also on the card will be a heavyweight super fight and a women's super fight. The heavyweight fight sees K-1 veteran Yang Rae Yoo fighting a to be announced opponent, while the women's fight sees Ekaterina Vandaryeva fighting a to be announced Korean fighter.

The thing about this is that it will actually be two events in one day, with the K-1 card just being one of them. The events are being put on by Yang Myung Kyu, who did the K-1 KHAN events back in the day. The other event is KHAN vs. Wu Lin Feng. Wu Lin Feng is the biggest kickboxing promotion in China and K-1 will enter a partnership with Wu Lin Feng where two annual events are held, with this KHAN vs. Wu Lin Feng being the first one. The second one will be held in China. Among names are slated for this event are Chang Hyun Lee, and the card will feature eight Korea vs. China match-ups.

Full details are outlined with English subtitles in the video above.

http://www.liverkick.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2141:details-on-k-1-asia-max-2013-in-korea-feb-2&catid=36:k-1

This is exactly the kind of the thing that K-1 needs to be doing. I think the regional qualifiers have been sorely missed and I hope to see more of them in the new year.

When K-1 was fresh off of their monetary problems, I had an idea very similar to this on Team Takeover, but instead of a World MAX tournament, they'd have an Asian MAX tournament in an effort to find a new star, a diamond in the rough, etc. Very cost efficient and an excellent way to start building towards the future.

Things I picked up from this announcement though:
I thought Son Hyun Lee was a 63kg fighter? Unless it's mistakenly Hwan Lee, who I also believe is 63kg as well.

Needs more Seo Hee Ham.

Ekaterina Vandaryeva is FUCKING FINE.

Yeah this seems like K-1 going in the right direction.