First, unlike many of the fights, the two that stirred up discussion went to judges decisions. That's why we'll start with a couple of words about the judges on location. There are three judges sitting ringside scoring points during the fight. The judges in K-1 World Max Scandinavia all have a background in fighting. Ronny Lindqvist has trained and competed for over 15 years. He became amateur world champion in Muay Thai in 2000. Riku Immonen has trained and judged fights over 15 years. He's held amateur and professional world titles in Muay Thai. Marco Nieminen has scored over 2500 Muay Thai fights and is by that criteria the most merited judge in Europe. Michel Vincent has judged fights for over 10 years. He holds a license issued by the Thailand Boxing Authority. All four judges were handpicked for their knowledge and being completely objective. However, mistakes can happen. And, for that reason, there is a supervisor.

K-1 World Max Scandinavia has a supervisor. The supervisor has authority over the judges. He can overturn and change any decision he thinks is wrong, so that Sweden maintains its reputation as a fair country to fight in. The supervisor has looked at the tournament fight between Elias Daniel and Jaime Contreras. And he looked at the superfight and rematch between Rickard Nordstrand and Magomed Magomedov. We've gotten the official comments from the supervisor and the K-1 Scandinavia organization on these two fights.

So, in the third quarterfinal of the night. the judges has Elias Daniel winning a judges decision. The audience was upset about their "hometown"-fighter winning instead of the guest from Spain. The supervisor is quick and to the point on this fight. He feels the judges decision was correct. And, he continues: "the fourth criteria in K-1's point-scoring system benefits ... an active boxer that fights all the time." Under Muay Thai rules, Jaime would have won. There, you can score points by backpedaling to counterattack with single techniques. But if he wants to fight in K-1, he'll have to change his fighting-style to become more aggressive. According to the supervisor, Jaime won the first round, but lost the following rounds by being the more passive fighter. Elias Daniel wins over Jaime Contreras. That is the final decision.

In the fifth superfight of the night, we had a rematch. Rickard Nordstrand fought Magomed Magomedov. This is a fight people were looking forward to. But ended up very disappointed in. The fight was scored a draw. It led to an extra round. Also scored a draw. The judge that had every single round a draw said it the best when asked about the fight. He said "neither fighter showed signs of wanting to try and win this fight", "they were sparring more than showing some fighting spirit", and "they didn't appear to take this seriously". That is a perfect description. There were no winners. And the supervisor concluded that a draw is correct. Nordstrand versus Magomedov is a draw.

K-1 Scandinavia is not satisfied with Nordstrand and Magomedov. They point out that "when a fighter signs a contract, he guarantees to do his best, to fight, and to try to win." They continue "this is the reason people buy tickets. Ticket sales result in the fighters purses." Neither fighter performed at their best. And instead of trying to fight and win, they were acting silly in the ring. It was ridiculous and embarassing. They should be fighting. K-1 Scandinavia makes the comment that "in Thailand, when a fight becomes an exhibition where two fighters are passive and being silly more than anything, the ring referee has the authority to stop the fight and warn both fighters." It's the same in K-1, and the organization thinks that the ring-referee should have warned both fighters for being passive, and urged them to press the action. Furthermore, they say that "in Thailand, a warning can be followed by a point-deduction, or even disqualification and no purse. All according to contract." But this is not Thailand, and K-1 Scandinavia points out they are not taking any such action. However, the comment goes to show their disappointment in both the fighters performance and unprofessional in-the-ring behavior. No fighter was dominant or trying to win the fight more than the other. And K-1 Scandinavia's official closing comment on the case is "after four rounds, we simply think neither gentleman in the ring performed to the degree of deserving the honor being called a winner and take home the winner's trophy."

At Kakutougi, we'd like to say Nordstrand against Magomedov didn't put a damper on this event. It started out with a bang when Errol Zimmerman knocked out Johan Mparmpagiannis cold in the first round in the first fight. We got to see the former K-1 MAX champion Albert Kraus dispose of Osvaldo Palma at 2:25 of the first round. And while Osvaldo took his standing 8 counts, everyone frowned at Albert Kraus tuning out of the fight to casually wave, smile, and gesticulate at someone from neutral corner. Turns out his son was up in the stands, and the little guy went crazy everytime Albert scored a knockdown. The superfight of superfights was Laursen versus Buakaw. And Ole Laursen came out aggressively against Buakaw. This turned into a fight with some good exchanges in an even first round. In the second round, though, Buakaw found Laursen's weakness and won by technical knockout after landing a couple of good punches that downed Laursen. Buakaw came out to a standing ovation and left the ring after dancing for the audience to House of Pain's "Jump Around". Good showing by Buakaw. And by Laursen. We hope the first round of this fight gave us a glimpse of what's to come from Laursen. Moreover, we got to see the female WMC Muay Thai world title go to the Swedish Pernilla Johansson. And her countryman Kruth knocked out the tough Azem Maksutaj with a knee to the chin at 1:40 of the first round. There was really no shortage of performing fighters this night. Last but not least, we congratulate Nicky Holzken on capturing the K-1 World Max Scandinavia title. It was definitely the strongest fighter in the tournament that became the K-1 World Max Scandinavia champion. We wish him good luck at K-1 MAX in Japan, April 2007.