The K-1 World Grand Prix Final 2009 is the biggest event in kickboxing, and it will be broadcast live in the United States on HDNet in the early hours of Saturday morning, December 5. The Grand Prix final is a great event, but it’s an event most American sports fans don’t know about. So if you’re one of those fans, take a moment to get some details from K-1 announcer Michael Schiavello.
K-1 Grand Prix: Running the Numbers
If you’re a self-professed fight sports geek like myself then your boffin’s brain will calculate stats and facts like Rainman counting cards at black jack table. Here’s some of the numbers through all 16 K-1 Grand Prix tournaments since 1993.
The K-1 Grand Prix first took place on April 3, 1993 at the Yoyogi Dai-Ichi Stadium in Tokyo. A sell-out 10,000 fans saw Croatian legend Branko Cikatic (trained by Thom Harinck) knockout Ernesto Hoost in the final to win the crown and become the first ever K-1 Grand Prix Champion. Aged 38/208, Cikatic to this day remains the oldest K-1 Grand Prix champion in history.
The following year the polar opposite statistic would be made when “The Lumberjack” Peter Aerts (also trained by Thom Harinck) became the youngest ever K-1 Grand Prix Champion when he beat Rob Van Esdonk, Patrick Smith and Masaaki Satake to win the crown at age 23/217. In 1995, Aerts became the first ever back-to-back and two-time K-1 Grand Prix Champion when he won the title with a knockout of Jerome LeBanner in just 1:37 of the first round. In doing so Aerts also became the second-youngest GP Champion aged 24/226.
In 1998, aged 28/71, Aerts wrote his name into the record books again as both the first ever three-time K-1 GP champion and the fastest ever tournament winner. It took Aerts just 6:43 to knockout all three opponents and win the crown in the most devastating combat sports tournament victory. He stopped Masaaki Satake in 2:40; knocked down Mike Bernardo twice in 2:53; and then KO’d Andy Hug with a head kick in just 1:10 in the final.
Aerts’s 6:43 record is likely to never be beaten. The closest any other GP Champion has come was Semmy Schilt’s 11:56 win in 2005 and then Branko Cikatic’s 12:09 win in 1993. In GP history, 11 of the 16 wins have broken the sub-20 minute mark. They are: Aerts 1998 6:43; Schilt 2005 11:56; Cikatic 1993 12:09; Bonjasky 2003 13:44; Aerts 1995 14:39; Bonjasky 2008 15:42; Schilt 2007 15:51; Aerts 1994 17:13; Hoost 1997 19:15; Hoost 1999 19:35; Hug 1996 19:58.
The slowest GP victory on record was Remy Bonjasky’s 2004 victory which took him a total of 36:00. The only other fighter to break the 30 minute mark was Ernesto Hoost in 2000 who took 30:00 exactly. Though he is famed for his knockout prowess, it still took Mark Hunt 26:32 to win the 2001 GP (and become the only non-European to win the title). Semmy Schilt’s 2006 win took 27:00 exactly.
A handful of fighters have put together truly extraordinary winning records in the K-1 Grand Prix. None moreso than triple K-1 GP Champion Semmy Schilt who …
