MMA Analytics 09.17.07: K-1 HERO's Olympia Preview

Posted by Leland Roling on 09.17.2007

An in-depth preview of the K-1 HERO's Olympia card on September 17th in Kanagawa, Japan featuring the semifinal bouts in the HERO's middleweight tournament, Calvancanti vs. "Shaolin" Ribeiro and Dida vs. Uno. Also on the card, Sergey Kharitonov in a much anticipated rematch against Alistair Overeem, the return of "Kid" Yamamoto to MMA, "Gracie Hunter" Sakuraba, Melvin Manhoef, and the always entertaining showman, Minowaman. Complete breakdowns and analysis of each matchup and fighter inside!

K-1 hits the MMA world with a very strong fight card as part of the K-1 Hero's MMA series of events. Olympia Hero's 2007 from Yokohama Arena in Kanagawa, Japan will feature two fights in the Middleweight World Championship Tournament, multiple super fights, one featuring a rematch between two PRIDE veterans, and the return of "Kid" Yamamoto to the MMA world after his recent stint to join the Japanese Olympic team.

For clarification, Heroes is a MMA promotion under the K-1 umbrella. K-1 is primarily a kickboxing fight promotion, but has branched out to MMA as of late. Heroes has been in the media recently for their acquisition of Denis Kang, powerful PRIDE middleweight who has an extensive record against many top middleweight fighters. Fedor Emelianenko, PRIDE Heavyweight Champion, was also in negotiations with K-1 to fight for their organization under the Heroes moniker, but the deal has since been rumored to have fallen through as the UFC takes the reigns in the negotiating.

As big as the UFC is, K-1 has proven to be the top MMA organization in the Asian market. K-1's kickboxing promotion regularly fills 40,000 – 50,000 person arenas, and Heroes is reportedly pulling in 10,000 – 15,000 per event, matching that of the UFC in the States. Heroes also has an Asian market TV deal that broadcasts the events to millions of Japanese fans. K-1 is significantly larger in Japan as far as a cultural impact goes than the UFC has ever been. K-1's star power has been used for various advertising ventures in Japan and the fighters are some of the most well known sports icons in the Japanese market.

With that said, K-1 is looking to make a big splash in the MMA market with one of the best MMA cards in the Asian market late this year. Sergey Kharitonov will face Alistair Overeem in a rematch of their PRIDE 31: Dreamers fight in which Overeem stopped Kharitonov in the first round. Melvin Manhoef will have his hands full with Chute Box fighter Fabio Silva. Manhoef is coming off a huge knockout win over Bernard Ackah at the K-1 Heroes Middleweight Tournament Opening Round in August. A great Middleweight battle between Gesias Calvancanti and Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro will take place on this card as well as a matchup between Caol Uno and Andre Dida. "Kid" Yamamoto makes his return after his Olympic run failed due to an arm breakage during training. Yamamoto will take on newcomer Bibiano Fernandes. Other notable fighters include Kazushi Sakuraba and the always flamboyant Minowaman. Let's take an in-depth look at this event.

The Breakdown: Sergey Kharitonov vs. Alistair Overeem

Sergey Kharitonov is a product of Russian Top Team in Russia. He is well versed in Sambo and is easily one of the better boxers coming out of Russia in MMA. He began training Sambo very late, but has the ability to pound opponents on the ground and is versed in multiple takedown techniques. Kharitonov has also added skills to his arsenal such as Muay Thai and Karate. His boxing abilities are his main staple in his MMA skillset. He has placed in multiple tournaments including the Russian Championships. He was also slated to compete for a spot on the Olympic squad, but was injured both times, one for the Russian Olympic team and another for the Tajikistan Olympic team.

Sergey comes into this bout with an 8-3 record with his last win over Michael Russow at PRIDE 33: Second Coming in which he showed some Sambo prowess by submitting him via armbar in the first round. Before his last bout, he took two devastating losses to Aleksander Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem. Sergey was out struck in both bouts in the first round and suffered brutal knockouts to both fighters. Kharitonov has been on the cusp of breaking into the top elite in the MMA heavyweights. He has defeated many notable fighters such as Murilo Rua, Pedro Rizzo, Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Semmy Schilt. Sergey has suffered some setbacks in his career though. His main crutch is his inability to stay healthy. He has had frequent injuries with his back and shoulders that have caused him to miss ample opportunities to continue in tournaments. He was injured in both the Fabricio Werdum and Alistair Overeem fights, luckily still beating Werdum but paying the price against Overeem.

Alistair "Demolition Man" Overeem fights out of Golden Glory in Holland, which is somewhat odd because Sergey Kharitonov recently had some workouts with Golden Glory as well. Overeem is a Muay Thai fighter with some decent submission grappling skills; however, he is more apt to strike that anything else. He comes into this bout holding a 25-10 record, 10 by knockout and 14 by submission. Overeem has devastating knee strikes along with a decent submission game that revolves around the guillotine choke mainly. He has some prowess in the arm submission game, but has used it much less than the simple choke submission style. His last win was over Michael Knaap via guillotine choke in the first round at the K-1 Grand Prix in Amsterdam under MMA rules.

Fight Breakdown

Alistair Overeem comes into this fight with a victory over Kharitonov at PRIDE 31. In that bout, Overeem was able to control Kharitonov on the ground early in side control. Kharitonov basically rode out the storm while Overeem landed some undamaging elbows and knees. After about three to four minutes on the ground, Overeem began landing hammer fists and elbows to Kharitonov's face and damaging the Russian on the ground. Kharitonov was visibly becoming tired and punished from Overeem's side control. Overeem was able to mount Kharitonov and pound him until Kharitonov gave up his back. Kharitonov took multiple knee strikes to the head and the fight was stopped by TKO.

Overall, Kharitonov looked horrible in their previous fight. He was taken down with relative ease and continued to wait out the storm. The fight was never stood back up, and Kharitonov did not work to reverse his position or control the body of Overeem. It was revealed after the fight that at some point early, Kharitonov's shoulder was badly injured. Whether or not this was a deciding factor, Overeem was still dominant on the ground.

With that said, Overeem will be looking to do the same against Kharitonov in their second matchup. Overeem has some punishing standup to supplement his ground game however. He loves to use combinations of punches with leg kicks to set up opponents for takedowns or knees. He also likes to use the Muay Thai clinch and throw knees much like "Shogun" Rua or Wanderlei Silva. Overeem's style is aggressive. He likes to come out the gate and use his tall size and long legs to induce the clinch and hurt you with knees. In almost every one of his fights, his knees have been the catalyst that has sprung his offense into aggressive destruction.

Kharitonov's huge strength coming into this bout will be his boxing. He has beaten bigger and stronger competitors with his strong standup skills. Kharitonov's Sambo should be enough to counter Overeem's ground and pound game, but in their first fight, that was not the case. If this fight stays in standup mode, look for Kharitonov's boxing to connect more times than not. If Overeem decides to come out the gate and try to take down Kharitonov much like the last fight, we may see a repeat of the last fight these two had.

Sizing it up

Overeem's size is a bit plus in this bout. He has longer reach with both his legs and arms, and he also has a much more aggressive style than Kharitonov. Kharitonov loves to pick his shots and pick his opponent apart, but he tends to never revert to his ground game when he is in trouble. He has a lackluster ground defense as well. If Kharitonov can keep this fight on its feet, look for his superior boxing skills to win this for him. I believe Kharitonov's ground game is better than Overeem's simple ground and pound tactics as well, but Kharitonov will have to show us some type of improvement in that department. In this highly anticipated rematch, I think Sergey will be able to handle Overeem's aggressiveness early and counter.

The Breakdown: Gesias Calvancanti vs. Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro

A true toss-up pick fight. This is one of the best middleweight bouts of the year on paper. Whether or not it pans out to be one of the best, we will see.

Gesias "JZ" Calvancanti is a Brazilian ju-jitsu fighter with an added kickboxing standup game. He trains with American Top Team, and was the 2006 K-1 Hero's Middleweight Tournament Champion. Gesias has a very impressive record of 12-1-1, with 4 knockouts, 6 submissions, and 2 wins via decision. He has notable wins over Rani Yahya, Caol Uno, Nam Phan, Hiroyuki Takaya, and Bart Palaszewski. His lone loss was against another powerful middleweight in Joachim Hansen via majority decision.

Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro is a black belt Brazilian ju-jitsu specialist who has won the Brazilian Ju-Jitsu Championships four times. He held the Shooto welterweight title and the Cage Rage World lightweight title in previous years. He holds an MMA record of 19-1, with a far less impressive record than Calvancanti. Vitor's most notable wins are over Joachim Hansen, Tetsuji Kato, Jean Silva, and Abdul Mohamed. This battle could be his toughest to date since Calvancanti has fought much tougher opponents over his last few fights.

Fight Breakdown

Calvancanti has shown a great ground and pound game during many of his fights. Nam Phan felt the wrath in their bout as Calvancanti worked in a good takedown and then was able to unleash a standing ground and pound flurry of punches to take Phan out :26 seconds into the bout. Again in the Monma fight, Calvancanti showed big ground and pound with an ankle lock or kneebar attempt mixed into the action. He has some big power on top and is able to power out of holds fairly easily and transition to a striking game. He showed in his bout with Rani Yahya that he is capable of submitting world class ju-jitsu fighters as he sunk in a powerful guillotine choke early to win. Calvancanti's combination of tenacious striking, power, and overall good grappling skills definitely make him a tough competitor to control in any situation in the ring.

Ribeiro is visibly less powerful than Calvancanti, but has a very good submission game that supplement his decent standup boxing. His most coveted submission is the arm triangle choke, which he has sunk in seven times in his career, and in his last two bouts. Against Miyata, he traded punches for much of the first round and fought off multiple takedown attempts by Miyata. He was also able to reverse the attempts and keep the fight standing. He has very good takedown defense due to his ju-jitsu tactics, but his standup game is lacking. He was outboxed by Miyata in the first round of their bout, but he did manage to push the pace for most of the round. In the second round, Ribeiro quickly realized he was being outmatched in the standup game and took down Miyata, but Miyata bounced back up to his feet. "Shaolin" was able to regain a takedown and then fairly easily submitted Miyata with the arm triangle.

"Shaolin" also had the same result against Ryuki Ueyama at K-1 Hero's 8 except the armbar was sunk in by Ribeiro at 1:48 of the 1st round. In this battle, Ribeiro didn't try to box with Ueyama and really aimed for the finish quickly unlike his bout with Miyata. This is the type of bout Ribeiro will have to have in order to win against a guy with superior standup in Calvancanti.

Sizing it up

This is a great battle of conflicting styles and conflicting games. Calvancanti is the power fighter with more strength and aggressiveness than Ribeiro. Ribeiro, on the other hand, is the superior ground fighter that pushes the pace, but more slowly than Calvancanti will want to. I see this fight going two ways, either Calvancanti's power is too much for Ribeiro and he pounds him on the ground or catches him with a huge shot standing before Ribeiro can take him down or Ribeiro shoots the takedown instantly and is able to work his ground game quickly. It's a real toss up fight, but I want to go with Calvancanti based on his knowledge of the ground game. I think he will be able to escape Ribeiro's ground tactics since he has some knowledge of the ju-jitsu game, but he also has unbelievably more power than a lot of Ribeiro's previous opponents. If this fight goes to the ground quick and Ribeiro can actually keep Calvancanti down, I give this fight to Ribeiro, but if Calvancanti can keep it standing for a bit, push the pace, and ultimately control Ribeiro when the takedown occurs, Calvancanti may land some huge standing strikes to a downed Ribeiro for the win.

The Breakdown: Caol Uno vs. Andre "Dida" Amade

The other bout in the Middleweight Championship tournament, Caol Uno will face Andre Dida in what has been deemed a very easy matchup for Caol Uno.

Uno has a very impressive MMA career with 24 wins and 9 losses. Primarily known for his great grappling skills, Uno also had a decent standup game. He was runner-up at the Abu Dhabi (ADCC) championships in his respective weight class, only losing to Jean Machado in the finals. He is most renowned for his choking submission style. Uno has notable wins over Din Thomas, Yves Edwards, and had a controversial draw against BJ Penn back in UFC 41 in 2003. Recently, he has beaten Katsuhiko Nagata, Ali Ibrahim, Ivan Menjivari, and Rich Clementi in K-1 Heroes promotion. He has notable losses to "Kid" Yamamoto, Joachim Hansen, and Gesias Calvancanti.

Andre "Dida" Amade is a Chute Box fighter with a 5-1 professional MMA record. He comes off of an opening round win over Artur Oumakhanov in August at the K-1 Middleweight Tournament Heroes event.

Not a whole lot of data on "Dida" is available, but I imagine he has a Muay Thai striking base with Brazilian ju-jitsu on the ground if he is coming out of Chute Box.

Fight Breakdown

Let's start off with the lesser known Andre "Dida" Amade. He looks to have some fairly decent Muay Thai striking ability and loves to throw in some flying knees with quick jabs. He's fairly quick on his feet and throws the huge haymaker when he can. In his bout with Artur Oumakhanov, he was able to throw a big haymaker after some knee and jab combinations to rock Artur. Andre basically pushed the pace and threw uppercuts while Artur tried to regain composure, but Andre continued his barrage and ended the bout.

Dida also has some decent size as far as height goes and good range with his reach. He loves to set up strikes with the leg kicks, but in most of his fights, throws the big right hand after the kicks. Dida seems to love to brawl in the standup as well which was very evident in the Takaya fight early. Dida makes it clear that he is a fairly straight forward striker with some great power and ferocious strikes. Takaya was able to rock him in their bout, and Dida showed a glimmer of a takedown game, but brought it back to the feet. He was able to later mount Takaya and nearly end the battle in a chokeout, but Takaya escaped. Dida's boxing was far superior to Takaya's striking game throughout the fight. He was dodging attacks and countering with ease by the end of the Takaya fight. Look for this style to follow him when he takes on Uno.

Caol Uno is more of a submission type fighter, and hasn't displayed any knockout power in recent fights. In his matchup against Ali Ibrahim, he really faced a fighter that has the potential to mimic what Dida's fighting style may be coming into this bout. Uno is very quick on his feet and is able to avoid punishment fairly easily on the feet. He was clearly outpowered by Ibrahim, but Uno's ground game was far superior. He was able to avoid Ibrahim's ground and pound and control his hands at times in the guard. Uno was able to transition to an armbar while Ibrahim tried to pound him and easily won a battle that looked as if Uno was being beaten.

With that said, this is a classic battle of standup vs. ground. Dida's standup has been impressive, but Caol Uno is known as a great grappler and has neutralized strikers in the past.

Sizing it up

Without spending too much time analyzing this fight, Uno should be able to neutralize Dida's wild standup. He has some great power, but tends to brawl at times. Uno could easily take advantage of this and take down Dida or allow Dida to take him down and sink in some sort of appendage submission, more than likely the armbar. Uno has decent enough standup to avoid Dida's bombs along with throwing back some leather himself, but look for this fight to either go to the ground or go the distance. Dida does have a good chance at knocking Uno out if he can keep it on the feet. I'm picking Uno based on experience and grappling ability.

The Breakdown: Melvin Manhoef vs. Fabio Silva

Melvin "No Mercy" Manhoef is a kickboxer fighting out of Holland. He's has an unbelievably reckless, aggressive fighting style that is supplemented with his Muay Thai and kickboxing skillset. He was a Cage Rage Light Heavyweight Champion back in '04 and was a 2006 Hero's Light Heavyweight Finalist. He enters this contest sporting a 17-4-1 MMA record with 16 wins by knockout. He also holds a professional kickboxing record of 38-3 with 25 knockouts.

Fabio Silva is the run-of-the-mill Chute Box Academy fighter with a 9-2 record. His primary skillset consists of Brazilian ju-jitsu and Muay Thai boxing. His 9-2 record is fairly unimpressive since he has gone to decision against some fairly new fighters to the MMA game. Whether or not these fighters were actually fighting regularly or not in Brazil, Silva had problems finishing them. Silva is mainly a knockout power fighter and more than likely has some very good ground skills that have yet to be showcased.

Fight Breakdown

Fabio's normal fight game consists of looking Wanderlei Silva-esque and paying attention to every detail to embody Wanderlei. He has the staredown down pat, the standup stance, and the overall body type. Yeah, yeah, I'm making jokes, but he does look very similar to the great Wanderlei Silva. Fabio likes to work the leg kicks and standup during his bouts. He is definitely susceptible to the takedown, however, Melvin Manhoef will provide zero takedown attempts and most likely try to knock his block off. In Fabio's fight against Claudio Godoi, he was literally mounted in the first round, but was able to roll out of it and mount Godoi. He didn't produce any real offense and Godoi took the round. In the second round, Fabio came out with a great strike and set it up with a knee strike, just like Wanderlei Silva would do. He is a very predictable standup fighter with easy combinations to pick apart, but he does have some great power and a strong physique that looks like it could definitely be hard to push around the ring.

Manhoef… what can I say to really get across the kind of power he has other than the fact that 16 of his 17 wins are via knockout. Manhoef is a gigantic beast of a man with huge knockout power in both his arms and legs. He is primarily a standup fighter, but his insane power translates into him being easily able to throw opponents to the ground and pound them out. In his bout with Ruslan Karaev, he landed a huge left hook that absolutely clobbered Karaev and knocked him out unconscious. His power allows him to throw very quick hooks that even when blocked, deal a lot of damage. In K-1 Heroes 8, Manhoef fought Yoshiki Takahashi and showed some very promising skills. He was able to scramble out of takedowns and use his power to move his opponent off of him. His punch-kick combo completely caught Takahashi off guard and ended the fight after he rolled on the ground trying to avoid Manhoef's assault.

Melvin's big weakness is his punching. Although very powerful, he lacks the straight jabs to stop counters. He uses huge looping punches that provide huge power, but take too long to land. Takahashi was actually able to land a few straight jabs in their bout before Manhoef could counter. His takedown defense is rather bad, but he has power to supplement his escape routines. He has a very good punch-kick combination game to set up his inside uppercuts and punches. At his best, I think Melvin's big advantage is that he was unbelievably powerful inside and in the clinch.

Sizing it up

Both fighters are primarily standup fighters right now. I don't see Manhoef ever really heading down the path of being a straight ground and pound fighter as he loves to keep the range and use kicks to setup big punches. Fabio Silva, on the other hand, loves to standup and strike as well, but has the skills to turn a fight into a ground battle. Look for this fight to end in a brutal knockout by Manhoef if it stays on the feet. Manhoef's combinations along with his ridiculous power are really too much for Fabio to overcome. Fabio's gameplan should be to showcase some type of ground attack against such a powerful striker in Melvin Manhoef. I'm going to go with the casual American MMA fan's dream of a destructive knockout win by Manhoef.

Other notable matchups

Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto vs. Bibiano Fernandes

This could possibly deserve a bigger analysis since Bibiano is only 1-1, but Bibiano holds a black belt in ju-jitsu and won the 2005 Black Belt mundials in Brazil at 61kg. He did fight Urijah Faber and loss via TKO in the 1st round. Yamamoto is just going to be way too powerful in this fight for Bibiano. For those of you new to MMA, "Kid" Yamamoto is one of the most fierce 145 lbs. strikers in the MMA world today. He has stunning knockout power, and has won via knockout in 7 straight bouts. He holds a 15-1 record. "Kid" has also beaten world renowned grapplers before, notably Caol Uno and Royler Gracie. He also holds a :04 second win over Miyata via Flying Knee. Yamamoto has world class wrestling ability to counter Bibiano's ju-jitsu. Look for Yamamoto to win via devastating highlight reel knockout.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Sakuraba is known as the "Gracie Hunter" after beating 4 of them over his career. He is currently toward the end of his illustrious career with a 21-10 record. He is mainly a submission wrestler with fantastic kicking skills. He likes to work leg kicks to set up takedowns, but has been known to strike and knee opponents for the win. Many have said Sakuraba is getting too old for the sport and that he may be getting in over his head in this fight. Shibata just isn't on the level that Sakuraba is on, even at his old age. Shibata comes in with a 2-1 record, losing to Ralek Gracie in the opening round of the Middleweight tournament in August. Look for Sakuraba to work some leg kicks and takedown Shibata for the submission fairly easily.

Dong Sik Yoon vs. Zelg "Benkei" Galesic

Dong Sik Yoon holds a 1-4 record and is primarily a judo fighter. He has had a tough schedule in that he had fought Sakuraba in his first professional fight, then Quinton Jackson, and Murilo Bustamante, not exactly a great lineup to be going against if you are new to MMA. He was able to beat Melvin Manhoef via submission armbar at K-1 Heroes Dynamite in June. Galesic isn't a huge name either, only sporting a 6-2 record. He is a knockout fighter from Croatia with a Muay Thai boxing background. He loves to strike, but has yet to be proven against a very good ground fighter. Makoto Takimoto was able to submit him in his last bout at PRIDE 34. This fight is a toss up, but really isn't on the radar in the MMA world. Yoon has yet to prove his submission skills enough to swing it in his favor and Galesic hasn't proven much on his end either. I'll go with Galesic due to his knockout power and decent takedown game.

Minowaman vs. Kevin Casey

Some people really believe this is a toss up because Minowaman has only really beaten guys on the ground that haven't had much skill at all. Fact is, Kevin Casey hasn't fought one MMA fight to date, only trained at Rickson Gracie Ju-Jitsu. Casey is a brown belt in ju-jitsu, but we have no idea if he has any type of striking or not. I think Minowa's experience is going to trump Casey's greenness in MMA.

Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Harvey Harra

Looks like K-1 dug someone up for Miyata to beat in Harvey Harra. Harra is 3-2 in his MMA career, and hasn't fought since 11/12/2006. He seems to have some submission defense problems, but so does Miyata. Miyata is 4-5, but has had some tough fights against "Shaolin" Ribeiro, "Kid" Yamamoto, Genki Sudo, and Royler Gracie. It seems like Miyata has been fed to the lions a bit early in his career. Look for Miyata to bounce back against Harra.

Enjoy the fights!

This should be a fairly good card with some of the top middleweights in the world going at it, and some potentially brutal knockout battles. Also, the Overeem-Kharitonov rematch is rather interesting because of the rule changes in this bout. Overeem won't be able to use knees on the ground in Hero's and that could be a distinct disadvantage to him.

The festivities for this event begin Kanagawa, Japan at 4PM. I don't believe there is a U.S. PPV deal, so we will be in the dark, but definitely dig these fights up on the Internet as they come online.

Leland Roling is editor-in-chief of MMA-analyst.com, and writer for 411mania.com column, "MMA Analytics".