Predicting a Grand Prix (GP) winner is almost impossible. So many things can go right -- or wrong -- during a tournament. The champion must win three fights in a single night. That's tough on anyone. Including me and my predictions. So rather than getting a spitting headache thinking about all variables, I'll look at how each has performed recently, against common opponents where possible. I'll add a bit of gut feel. And I'll completely ignore just how much luck factors into who progresses to the all important title fight.

It seems many people are predicting reserve fighters to play a huge part in this year’s event. I would love to see at least three of the four members make it to the GP -- though not at the expense of someone being seriously injured,-- but the chance of it happening is extremely low. It seems after reserve fighter and team Ichigeki representative Glaube Feitosa almost made it all the way to the title last year, FEG had to rethink which fighters actually deserve to be in the GP the most. This has resulted in a major change.

This year, in the event the winner of a fight cannot continue, the loser of that fight will have the first chance to replace him in the next fight. If the loser lost his fight by KO, or he too is injured, the winner of the reserve fight is given the chance to advance into the GP. The logic here is that those that qualified for the GP deserve to be there more than those that didn’t make it. And, yes, I am now having a bad feeling that Hoost could lose to Chalid only to replace him and go on to win his fifth title. Anyway, even though this change offers new possibilities, I won’t discuss the possible reserve fights, but only look at the announced GP fights. Besides, it is very strongly rumored one or more of the reserve match ups may actually change before the event takes place.

Jerome LeBanner vs. Semmy Schilt

Of these two fighters Semmy had the first pick this year. He selected the first fight of the A block. Semmy said he chose the number one position because he wants to be number one, and made his intention of joining the ranks of other Dutch multiple K-1 winners clear. Jerome LeBanner, proving why he is a fan-favorite, never hesitated when picking Semmy for his opponent. He had many options for an opponent, but picked the 2005 GP champion.

First fight is a smart strategic chance. It translates to the winner getting the most recovery time between fights. This increases his chance of winning the GP. And, in Semmy’s case, being a strong Dutch fighter, it seems his God-given right to win the GP a number of times before he retires. So, Semmy picked the fight without an announced opponent. If he wins, he’ll get plenty of recovery time. LeBanner, having plenty of options, picked Semmy Schilt as his opponent. Whether he did so to get the hardest fight out of the way, fight "the man to beat" fresh, or thinks a well-placed knee could straighten his nose out is anyone’s guess. I don’t care about his reasoning. God bless him for giving the fans the fight we all wanted to see and starting the GP with a bang.

Whose choice is going to be the one to pay off here? For those of you that follow the sport closely, bare with me as this will be long. Semmy has just about the entire package to win this GP again, and again, and again. LeBanner, on the other hand, is several years overdue for a belt. His selection of the Dutch defending champion as his first fight may well signal he has possibly given up on strategizing how to best go all the way. His blasé attitude this year might just be what has been missing from previous years. He is far from retirement age, but is no spring chicken and has made comment after previous GPs that he won’t be fighting in them any more. This could be one of his final appearances as a contender.

Oddly enough, these two have fought 3 common opponents over the last calendar year: Peter Aerts, Remy Bonjasky, and Choi Hong-Man. A brief look at how each did can shed some light on the likely outcome of this fight. Aerts (3 time GP Champion), Bonjasky (2 time GP Champion), and Choi Hong-man (2 time Korean GP Champion and 2005 Best 8) is a trio of fighters few would like to battle over the period of a year. Even fewer would come out on top of all encounters, and, neither of our subjects did. But that was more due to creative judging and refereeing than actual fighting.

First, a very bloated LeBanner (124kg) took on Peter Aerts in the opening round of the 2005 GP and lost an extra round decision to the legend. LeBanner was vocally upset at the decision and stated he would no longer fight in the GP unless FEG was to apologize to him for it (video interview here). Whether they did, or whether his purse was increased to the point he couldn't say no, who’s to say. Something got him here. Semmy also lost a decision to Aerts at K-1 New Zealand. It was a fight during which I think the referee (Atsushi Onari) forgot he had a yellow card in his hand. He repeatedly raised it each time he yelled “break”. In doing so he rather blatantly gave Semmy his first loss since becoming champion.

Neither LeBanner nor Semmy can claim to have dominated Aerts. But Jerome proved his arm -- broken by Mark Hunt and shattered by Ernesto Hoost in the 2002 GP,-- is now strong enough to withstand one of the strongest kickers in the sport. Aerts was kicking at it with no mercy. Semmy's fight with Aerts was a rather messy affair. It was the first event the then new anti-clinching rule took effect and it seems the fighters and referees didn't quite know how to deal with it. Particularly when one fighter did his utmost to force the other into clinching.

I'd like to say their second common opponent was drama-free. But I'd be lying. Remy Bonjasky won the 2003 and 2004 GP's and was K-1's golden boy there for a short time. He won a rather uninspiring fight against fan-frustrating Alexey Ignashov. This qualified him for the GP, but the cracks started to show. His trainer and team was breaking up. So was his marriage. Both came to a head around GP time. His fight against Semmy was the last time we saw him fight with trainer André Mannaart. None of that background takes anything away from the beating Semmy gave him. He pretty much just walked over him in the first round dropping Remy twice. The second down was the end of the 2003-04 champion, despite the replay showing what appeared like the fight-ending knee landing on his arm rather than his damaged body. I cannot recall the destruction of a defending champion as thorough as was seen in the Tokyo Dome that night.

LeBanner’s fight against Remy in Holland early this year was an eye-opener, too, although I’m not sure if that was due to the fact it was very competitive or that the result was overturned some time later, starting what could amount to a rather disturbing trend. Most K-1 followers out there had seen Remy's human punching-bag impersonation at the GP. Then, saw him win a very dubious decision against Sylvester Terkey (The Predator) at Dynamite. And now, probably thought he was in for a brutal knockout by LeBanner. Remy's defense proved too tight for most of LeBanner’s punches to connect. And he fired enough low and mid kicks to get the decision in his hometown on the night. No fighter could claim to have broken any record for their number of attacks per round. It was a pretty eventless bout. And, the story here gets confusing as to who said or requested what, but the end result was the victory was later reversed and awarded to Jerome.

Finally, their last common opponent is the only man in Asia to legitimately rival Inoki for the "Longest Chin" award. The scary part is Choi's chin is pretty much proportional to the rest of his body. His head alone is the size of an average mans torso, and the attached jaw is stronger than almost everyone has given him credit for. After his "wins" in 2005, most fans were ecstatic to hear Semmy would be fighting Choi in Korea, and finally end "this fake’s" run at success. Choi won a hometown judges decision. But ignoring the outcome of this fight, and just watching the exchanges, we can see the weakness in Semmy’s game rarely able to be expolited. Choi had the champion on the backfoot a couple of times. Even had him covering up and turn his back on him at least once during the fight. The pressure Choi applied opened some cracks in Semmy’s game. Semmy managed to score some points with a bit of offense, but never scored serious damage to the former ssirum champion. In the 2006 Eliminations, a slimmed down LeBanner had some trouble with the giant. He probably deserved to squeak by on the judges card during regulation time, but I don’t think he won the extra round. He was awarded the win at the end though. Considering he literally stepped of a plane and came directly to the Osaka-Jo Areana, he performed well.

K-1 has done their best to drive Semmy into the ground. He has fought and beaten Bjorn Bregy in impressive fashion, breaking his orbital with a jab and ending the big Swiss fighters K-1 dreams in the first round of the Eliminations. Although both Semmy and his manager Bas Boon stated in last year’s "Champions" press conference that it would not happen again, FEG somehow managed to get Semmy back in the MMA ring fighting Olympic Judo Silver Medalist Kim Min Soo in HERO's. Yes, I know what you are thinking; 186cm Judoka vs. 212cm K-1 Champion is just an excuse for HERO's to get themselves a KO highlight while further exhausting their ever-improving though still not quite charismatic reining champion. What they got was rather bloody, but in the end their stand up champion put the judoka to sleep with a triangle choke in the first round. There was something like a fight in there somewhere against Musashi, too, but Musashi hugged himself to a loss making things easier on Semmy. Even a fight against the human rock Llyod Van Dams, in which Semmy had little trouble getting the nod from all judges.

Against each other, how will these fighters do? Well, we all have the memories of LeBanner knocking guys out all over the place. But he hasn’t knocked out anyone of quality for a very long time. In fact, nobody since his infamous arm injury. Schilt, however, has been both beaten and dropped by tall fighters in the past. Ignashov, Nortje, and Choi have decent or okay hands, and they have all knocked down Semmy. LeBanner is not as tall as some, but he’s taller than average. He’s heavier than most. And punches harder than the three mentioned above. Combine this with the fact our two fighters prefer to fight moving forward. Major difference is LeBanner rarely moves backwards, and, as Choi showed us, Semmy is not the best on the back-foot when being pressured with punches. Someone that’s going to do that to Semmy in a major way is LeBanner. However, Semmy is perhaps the quickest fighter to adapt to rule changes. His knees work well with the limited, and somewhat mysterious, clinching rule. After being put on the defense a few times this year I expect he and his team have been preparing for it.

The other factor in this fight is their preparation. Semmy is working his butt off at Golden Glory Zuid Laren with trainer Dave Jonkers as we speak. LeBanner has spent the best part of the last several months acting in movies. Semmy has a pair of horses’ lungs and has shown his ability to outlast almost any fighter. He is not the man a gas-prone fighter wants to come in under prepared for.

The excitement of this fight is that they both have the ability to drop the other with a single blow. A left from Jerome, a knee from Semmy; I can see both happening. What I expect to see though is two very beaten fighters standing in the center of the ring after the bell has rung for the last time, waiting for the judges to read their scores. In my opinion, I believe Jerome LeBanner will have his arm raised after keeping Semmy on defense for a large enough portion of the fight to take it.

Ernesto Hoost vs Chaild Arrab

This is the veteran versus newcomer fight of the 21st century. The 20th century fight was Musashi as an up and coming fighter challenging Andy Hug. Back then, Musashi was a mouthy young kid saying the “iron man” was getting rusty. I can’t see Chalid talking smack about fighters, let alone about the “4 time champion” -- a fact Hoost is quick to point out whenever given half a chance.

Chalid is on fire this year. Fast, good hands, and good lowkicks. Doesn’t mind really mixing it up. Exciting, technical fighter. The only mistake he made en route to the eliminations this year -- other than wanting Musashi’s godawful shoes -- is losing a decision to Carter Williams on way to an impressive Las Vegas Grand Prix victory. Earlier that night, Chalid ended Sean O’Haire’s tournament in 23 seconds with a knockout. Versus Carter Williams, Chalid dominated the latter parts of that fight, and if not for the ridiculously stupid Nevada rules, he would’ve earned a standing 8 count in the process of domination. Carter Williams wins, but drops out of the tournament, and Chalid gets the call back to replace him in the finals. He goes toe to toe with Gary Goodridge. Took some heavy shots, was down on points, but landed a counter that put Gary down and out to earn the title and trophy.

He won Vegas and gets to proceed to the Eliminations. His Eliminations opponent is announced as Musashi. Most people thought this was the end of Chalid for the year. Hometown decisions aside, Musashi is a very difficult opponent to beat to a judges decision. He continuously excels at avoiding getting tagged while mid kicking and throwing enough punches to earn his victory. In the pre-fight interview, even his fellow Golden Glory member and teammate Stephan Leko said "I believe Semmy will win his fight but I am a little worried about Chalid". Then out walks Chalid with his usual smile, fights a very technical fight scoring point after point, and he wins it. Not only beating Musashi at what amounts to his own game – and winning his shoes, -- but does so in Musashi's country, in his hometown, without a knockdown and perhaps most surprising after recent years: without an extra round being called!

In the same period of time, Hoost chalked up 1.5 wins. I say 1.5 because his first win in approximately 18 months came after the Sapp-drama in Holland. Sapp, scared for his life but sticking to his guns, escaped Holland and his scheduled fight against Hoost. This left Aerts as the man to step into the ring against Ernesto. Aerts had roughly 40 minutes notice and no preparatory training for the fight. Now, this is a fight we’d loved to see any other day. But what we ended up with was something resembling a respectful sparring session. Under the circumstances, a great performance put on by two legends of the game. Not really a "fight" though ... or so the boisterous crowd, and this viewer, thought.

Hoost’s next win came after receiving an invitation to the Eliminations and lucking into a fight with someone everyone but FujiTV believed was the easiest opponent: Fujimoto. Fujimoto has a heart tucked away in his chest bigger than Choi Hong-Man’s head. This fight, once again Fujimoto surprised everyone. Not only was he competitive in the fight, he had edged it out late in the final round when he suddenly went down to low kicks and couldn't get back to his feet. He wins the award for “poker-face of 2006” due to not showing any pain on his face at all until the final seconds. And Hoost earned his spot in the GP.

So, will this be the unofficial passing of the torch? Is the most decorated fighter in K-1 really retiring? Hoost has said that win or lose; he’s retiring at the end of the year. Maybe as the 5 time K-1 champion, with a record almost impossible to break? Over the past year, Chalid has grown immensely. People are taking notice of him. And with his motivation to be competitive devoid of any financial pressures, his drive must be through the roof. Hoost’s last fight where he truly looked impressive was way back in his debatable decision loss to Remy Bonjasky. Since then, and aside from those fights previously mentioned, he has only had one other fight. There, he was steamrolled by Semmy Schilt at Dynamite 2005.

If the Fujimoto fight acts as some sort of wake up call for Hoost, he has the skills and experience to pull off another win or two. Going all the way is never easy (well, other than in 2002) so I would not be inclined to bet my final dollar on us seeing a 5 time champion crowned. In fact, I have a feeling the younger faster Chalid is going get the nod from the judges at the end of three rounds.

Glaube Feitosa vs. Ruslan Kareav

The two stand-out fighters of 2005 (both topped several categories of the 2005 Kakutougi Awards here) finally battle it out. They were matched up earlier this year in a superfight, but it got canceled due to Glaube injuring himself in training. These fighters have had some sweet victories this year. However, I think one of them has improved more than the other.

If championship belts were given for likeability and effort alone, the young Russian would have earned his last year. If they were given out for fashion, though, it would sadly be a very different story. Seems the man stuck in the 80’s gets along with everyone -- other than Melvin Manoef and Badr Hari,-- and he constantly wants to fight the best of the best. He dominated an exciting fight against Leko a few months ago. He dropped the German a couple of times en route to a decision win. He then mistakenly asked Tanikawa for a rematch with Ray Sefo. And got his wish. He lasted longer this time, but the ending was the same. Or, I’d say, it was even more dangerous. After Ruslan got knocked out cold, his corner stayed sitting on their chairs while he was face down on the canvas. Sefo yelling at them from the ring did nothing. So Sefo’s own corner-man ran to Ruslan’s side. Thankfully, he was ok, but remembers very little of the fight.

Next, his fight in the Eliminations is possibly the most discussed fight of 2006 thus far. It divided fans down the middle. He fought Badr Hari. The fight really didn’t go long enough to see whether or not Ruslan had anything new up his sleeve. To be honest, Hari’s entrance lasted several minutes longer than he did once the opening bell rang, excluding his post-fight antics. 2-3 punches into the fight, Hari was on the mat. And either he got caught trying to milk what he thought was a foul – a kick thrown when Hari was falling, but not on the mat, so technically not a foul,-- or decided he didn’t want to get hit again. So, the very same man that a day earlier told Ruslan to bring a pillow cause he was going to sleep didn’t assume the fighting position when asked by the referee. Consequently, he lost by TKO.

The drama continued. Melvin Manhoef got in the ring, yelling and screaming at Ruslan. Hari joined the festivities a few seconds later. Also in the ring was Team Sefo, looking after a fighter they agreed to corner, since he arrived without a team. Ruslan got the last laugh at the post-fight press-conference, saying he should’ve brought the pillow as suggested because Hari could’ve used it. No official explanation was given why Ruslan turned up without his team, but a team that doesn’t care about their knocked out fighters is best left far behind. I expected to hear soon after this fight that Ruslan was training with Team Sefo. But with him and Glaube facing off, this was not an option. Ruslan is now training with Frankie Liles, also known as the man behind Musashi’s improvements. I just hope along with his boxing, he has been working on what looks like some questionable low kick defense.

At the last GP, Glaube made history by being the first reserve fighter ever to make it to the GP finals. He lost the final fight by devastating knockout. He was the people’s champion though, for being the first to knockout Musashi since Ray Sefo back in the opening round for the 2000 GP. With a flying knee, Glaube got some new material for his highlight reel. He later faced Musashi again. That time, he won a judges decision, by one point, after dominating the fight. Interesting part of the fight was that Feitosa out boxed Musashi. And had him in trouble on several occasions, and he had him flat on his back on the canvas once. Let me repeat that just once more as it seems to have been lost on some. The fighter with some of the most beautiful high kick knockouts on video outboxed and dropped Musashi with his hands. A feat no other fighter has managed (other than a flash knockdown by Remy in the 2003 GP finals) since Jerome LeBanner in 2002. It’s very impressive, and shows remarkable improvements in this fighter with a Kyokushin background. In his Eliminations fight, Glaube faced off against the Oceania GP Champion and brutal lowkicker Paul Slowinski. Paul put up a great fight, but he had no answer for Feitosa’s own kicking and smooth hand combinations. At the end of three rounds, the Brazilian fighter was awarded the unanimous decision.

At the finals draw, Glaube chose to fight Ruslan when there no one else even standing up yet. They ended up with balls one and two respectively. Glaube could have gone for one of the positions in the first fight and had some more time to relax and recover between fights, but he decided to fight in a much later fight against Karaev. He is obviously very confident. He prepared to fight him once and had to drop out injured. The team behind him (Jayson “Supercharge” Vemoa, Faii Falamoe and the rest of the boys behind Ichigeki and Team Sefo) is primarily the same team that helped prepare Ray Sefo in his two outings (that when added together still add up to less than one round) against the energetic and showy Russian. They will have a gameplan in place, and Glaube has all the tools to pull it off. On top of that, and despite Ruslan’s 14982-1-0 amateur fight record, Glaube has experience on his side. I expect Ruslan to have used up all his tricks in the first round, and once again leave his hands down in the second. He won’t last long once they drop. Glaube by knockout in the second round.

Remy Bonjasky vs. Stephan Leko

The final fight of the first round is something of a grudge match. Leko has been extremely vocal in his dislike of Remy. When fate matched them up -- neither selected the other, -- I was having flashes of déjà vu to 2004. Back then Hoost was insulting the “paper champion”. The four time champion then lost to him in the B block of the GP finals. Is Remy going to do the same to Leko?

For two names as big as these guys, both have had a rough patch. Leko looks like he’s finally recovered from his injuries and, more importantly, his confidence is back. For those who remember, his dramatic departure from K-1 was followed by disturbing losses in MMA, serious injuries, and a lot of people saying he’s done. It seems like nothing went right for him. Leko returned to K-1 and suffered a brutal knockout by Badr Hari, and a sound beating by Ruslan Karaev. Then, he shaped up, says he matured, and went on to win the Las Vegas August tournament in very impressive fashion with three stoppages. He earned his spot in the GP just scraping by a passive Ray Sefo on the judges cards after an extra round decision in Osaka.

As for Remy, after roaming gyms all over the Netherlands, he has finally settled into something that’s working for him. Ensuing recovery from the assault at the hands of Semmy, he won a dubious decision against aforementioned pro-wrestler Sylvester Terkey. It was the big man’s stand-up debut. And that against a K-1 champion. He did surprisingly well in what looked like little other than the end of Remy Bonjasky as we knew him. Remy was awarded the decision. And we call it dubious, at the very least.

Right when we all expected the total destruction of Remy once and for all at the hands of LeBanner, he actually came in prepared and won the fight. Well, on the night anyway. The decision was later overturned in favor of LeBanner following a protest from his team, or was it from Mr. Tanikawa? But, it looked like Remy had turned the tide. He went on to show the fight was indeed no fluke. He set the record straight against Mighty Mo a few months later, winning that fight on points. Then, he went up against Gary Goodridge in his eliminations fight and scored a knockout victory. His first real stoppage win in 2 years. So, it looks like the man is back. The fight against Gary was the first time we have seen Remy being aggressive in quite awhile, and it really paid off for him.

The fighters both have points to prove this time. Leko has to back up his mouth. Remy has to prove he’s not a “two time paper champion”. Remy’s weakness is Leko’s strength: his boxing. However, Remy has some of the tightest defense in the game. LeBanner and Goodridge have both had a field-day punching Remy’s midsection without him opening up his defense. Leko’s punches shouldn’t hurt Remy, or make him open up that defense. To Leko’s credit, he mixes it up very well when he fights, and he kicks hard. We could see that when Mark Hunt climbed out of the ring after their last grand prix fight, Leko’s low-kicks had caused him a lot of damage. I highly doubt the low-kick is the weapon of choice to stop Remy. However, they do score points.

In short, even though Leko’s confidence is as high as it has been in years. And even though he is training hard and has gotten rid of his unlucky hairstyle, I think Remy will be able to take this. Bonjasky may be the fighter most K-1 fans like to belittle, but it can’t be ignored he was beating some quality opponents while Leko was out of the game. I have no doubt Leko has the skills needed to win. But I have a feeling we may see the “Flying Gentleman” really flying around the ring for the first time since he faced Hoost. Remy wins by judges decision.

Jerome LeBanner vs. Chalid Arrab

The largest remaining fighter is pitted against the smallest in the field. This is round 2 of the A block. We’ve got two guys with a boxing background, and both like to punch, so we’re in for some exchanges where the smaller, quicker David maybe beats a bigger and more powerful Goliath.

The fighters are going to be worse for wear after their first bouts. However, Chalid most likely has the better conditioning of the two. Training is all he does right now, and LeBanner has had a busy year on the side of fighting. There shouldn’t be significant cuts or bruises on Chalid, but he will have picked up some leg-damage against Hoost. LeBanner, on the other hand, will have put absolutely everything he has into beating Schilt. Yoshihiro Takayama, the sexiest MMA fighter and professional wrestlier alive, is quoted on record as saying “Schilt’s punches look slow and awkward, but I’ve never been with anything so hard in my life.” And that man has been with a lot of things through his career. So, I would not expect LeBanner to dance his way to the ring.

I see this fight playing out one way. Chalid is an accomplished amateur boxer. Even though he becomes more of a target with less mobility after Hoost’s lowkicks, I don’t think a LeBanner throwing bombs worries him that much. He’ll be asleep if one lands, for sure, but I think he’s too smart for that. He’ll use the ring well enough to not get caught. And he’ll play a cautious game against a hurting -- and in the latter rounds possibly gassing -- Jerome. We’ll see Chalid scoring points with strikes to the body. And, in fact, the longer the fight goes, the lower Jerome’s chances of connecting a punch with Chalid’s chin are. And I strongly suspect Jerome won’t be in any state to pressure him for the entire length of the first round. That said, I do think at some stage think Chalid is going to be drawn in to trading with LeBanner. But if he can check his ego at the door and fight smartly, he might just pull off the upset of the year via decision.

Glaube Feitosa vs. Remy Bonjasky

The second fight of the night features two tall kickers. And a clash of two styles. Muay Thai fighter Remy Bonjasky meets a Karate fighter that’s able to knock his head off with high-kicks. Coming into the fight, I think both men will be tired, but not drastically hurt from previous fights.  Not so to the extent it’ll cramp their styles. At least, I hope not, because this is a great match-up.

Stylewise, I think Glaube is a nightmare for Remy right now. Remy has fought four power punchers in a row. And now he faces a kicker as skilled in that department as himself. And that kicker has the boxing to keep Remy covering up. It’s a very dangerous combination. Remy has to be careful with flashy moves the crowd loves so much. Glaube is experienced and skilled enough to land counters to almost any of those attacks.

In addition, Remy can’t afford to let Feitosa be the aggressor. When Faitosa is on the attack where he has control over the distancing, he’s going to wear down almost any human sized opponent. On the defense his hands are still effective and he manages to get both his kicks and knees in incredibly high while moving backwards.

In the past two years, the only man Feitosa has lost to is the current champion Semmy Schilt. This fight is one I see going down as a war with some of the flashiest moves we will have seen in years. And one in which Glaube will be the winner by a judges decision.

Glaube Feitosa vs. Chalid Arrab

In the finals, we have a nightmare for FEG. A fighter few people in Japan know against a Kyokushin fighter. They won’t have time to worry about it though as I believe this will be the quickest fight of the night.

The fighters have had three reasonably recent common opponents: Gary Goodridge, Musashi, and Carter Williams. First, Feitosa has fought Goodridge twice. He beat him once by decision, and once by knockout. Chalid has fought him once and beat him by knockout, but not without tasting the canvas himself. Both fighters have decision victories over Musashi. However, Feitosa steals the edge having knocked him down once in the decision victory, and knocked him completely out in their first fight. Against Carter Williams, Chalid lost, and was downed in this fight too, while Feitosa won by what looked like an effortless TKO. In all mentioned fights, it would not the slightest exaggeration to say Glaube performed the better of the two. A trend I expect to continue here.

Chalid will try to pressure with his boxing. He’s not going to be worried about standing in front of Glaube to throw down. It’s his bread and butter, and Glaube is still looked at as a kicker. Feitosa has a huge reach advantage, though. And, when it comes to trading punches, he spars with Ray Sefo. He’ll be used to guys faster than himself, and hitting him harder than Chalid. I think Chalid probably rates his own boxing a lot higher than Glaube’s, and I think that could be well his downfall in this fight. I expect Glaube will use his long reach to keep “Die Faust” at distance. He is flashiest when fighting men shorter than he is. When he has found his distance, the Brazilian high kick and knees will take over.

Ichigeki literally means “single blow” the nuance of which is “victory from a single clean blow”. It is the gym and team name Glaube fights for. And it is how I expect Glaube will win. Be it high kick or knee, he will end this fight within the distance to become the first ever Brazilian K-1 Champion.