K-1 HEROS INTERNATIONAL: HEROS KOREA 2005 and HEROS LITHUANIA 2005

HEROS in Seoul 2005

Olympic Gymnastics Arena, Seoul, South Korea

11/5/2005 7,460 in Attendance

HEROS Lithuania 2005

Siemens Arena, Vilnius, Lithuania

11/26/2005 ??? in Attendance

HEROS HAS GONE INTERNATIONAL! Akira Maeda's concept of the fighting network has been resurrected, and K-1's parent company FEG has decided to organize events globally by utilizing local talent and promoters. Before we end the year with a bang at DYNAMITE, lets take a well deserved holiday in South Korea and Lithuania!

Our event in South Korea sees us at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul. Constructed between 1984 and 1986 for the 88 Olympics, this self-supporting cable dome (the first of its kind!) arena can fit 15,000. These days it is mostly used for large concerts and sporting events like this one.

AHH its already starting! Un Sik Song (9-3) is making his MMA debut here against Michihisa Asano (6-4-2), a member of KID Yamamoto's Killer Bee team who is here on his second ever fight. This one opens with a dick kick (damn) but its quickly restarted. Song is throwing some cool kicks but none really connect, and Asano responds by a little boxing and then taking Song down. After getting up, Song tries for a sikk throw but Asano reverses it. Song almost hooks the heel as he throws himself back, getting stuck in up down position till the ref raises them. Asano slams Song but Song now is working on a triangle choke or arm bar from the bottom, flips Asano, and just dislocates his wholeeeee shoulder for a Sik win (get it?). Holy hell that was a good start to this first international HEROS Fighting Network event!

We get a fight parade on the massive HEROS stage and ramp! K-1 sparred no expense here with their production values from the arena dressings and the dope mid-2000s licensed music.

UP NEXT is a fight between our biker dude friend Hiroyuki Takaya and Do Hyung Kim (20-8), a veteran of the early Korean MMA company NEO FIGHT and was coming into this with a 9 and 1 record.

sikk shirts

This fight was good for the blood thirsty as Takaya absolutely nuked Hyung's face. Takaya busts up Hyung badly and prevents Hyung from landing any takedown till the second round. Lots of ground and pound combined with sick clinch knees left blood everywhere and you see in the replays before the second round that Takaya definitely landed a (possibly inadvertent) headbutt. I actually totally forgot about this match until I was watching it again which means it wasn't particularly memorable but it was ok! It is funny to me that Uno vs Yamamoto was stopped because of a cut that wasn't that big of a deal since it was on prime time tv at HEROS 3, but here its no-mans land still. The crowd eats it up and it goes both rounds as Hiroyuki Takaya scores an easy win.

Atsushi Yamamoto (19-12-3), another member of KID's Killer Bee team and a vet from Pancrase and Shooto, is fighting “SPECIAL FORCE” Jong Man Kim (23-11) who has an absolutely incredible intro promo video before the fight. All the Korean fighters get these intros I just cannot do justice in describing. His features Alien Ant Farm's Smooth Criminal yet somehow these events have yet to be removed from youtube (please pray that they continue to not be removed!).

Jong is quickly taken down by Yamamoto after landing a series of punches. Jong is getting ground down here and has to defend against multiple submissions while the entire time eating some stiff ground and pound from every angle possible. I am a bit surprised the fight wasn't called when Yamamoto had Jong's back and was just eating so many punches! Really too many! But the ref has decided “Yea, this is totally ok!” Jong somehow lives to see the second round despite eating all the punches possible while also having to defend from his back for more than half the round.

Jong is not pleased with how this first round is going

Before the start of the second round, Jong doesn't look as bad as I expected despite spending 2 and a half minutes getting hit while defending that neck AT ALL COSTS. The Korean is super stoked for this round (and I am too because I both just noticed both fighters are wearing all white which is very aesthetically pleasing against the light blue ring!). Jong, after a timid start from both fighters, flurries with punches forcing a takedown attempt by Yamamoto that ends up being caught in a guillotine. Jong is trying soooooo hard but Yamamoto is able to slip out (guillotines seem to work not out that often or maybe these MMA geeks just have poor technique). Yamamoto is starting to land some more ground and pound until Jong sweeps and the crowd gets so excited. OMG THE HEFT OF THESE STANDING GUARD PUNCHES JESUS. THE REF DOES NOT STOP THIS FOR SO LONG. Jong punches Yamamoto so hard he looks at the ref for the stop but he says FIGHT so Jong obliges until its very definitely over instead of being just over. The Korean crowd loves this and I did too despite the barbaric striking. Jong Man Kim celebrates this victory as Blink 182 bellows across this grand arena!

he punched him........ so hard

IT'S SHUNGO OYAMA TIME!!!! The return of the silver vale tudo shorts and wow his entrance theme is goooood stuff let me tell you! He is fighting Yoon Seob Kwak (7-15) who mostly fought in the Korean NEO FIGHT and Gimme 5 mma companies. He lost his one and only Pancrase fight before this event so this bodes well for Oyama.

OYAMA WINS WITH A BELLY TO BELLY WHICH LED TO AN ACHILLES LOCK! WOW! Oyama again wins in stunning fashion. This arena is silenced by the brutal loss and gives our silvery friend a polite clap.

NEXT UP is former Pancrase champ at middleweight and welterweight Kiuma Kunioku (34-25-9) fighting Jung Hwan Cho (13-6) in his MMA debut. This seems like a severe mismatch!

Kunioku chocked him out in like 2 minutes lmao! This went as expected as Kiuma Kunioku landed a stiff shot or two, brought Jung Hwan Cho down, and then choked for a quick and easy win.

“The Phenix” Kristof Midoux (6-10) is about to fight “The Korean Bear” Jun Soo Lim (12-10)! I don't know anything about either of these guys!

Midoux knees the bear Soo Lim to an early grave at the 50 second mark! Whatever!

The legend Yushin Okami (34-11) (he is still fighting to this day!) is going to be fighting this guy named Myeon Ju Lee who I literally cannot find any info on and that again bodes poorly for his performance here.

LMAO Okami just gets the mount and beats on Lee for an eternity and forces the corner to throw in the towel. An ugly display!

ITS JUDO TIME! Min Soo Kim is facing off against pro-wrestler turned MMA fighter Sean O'Haire (4-2) who is coming off from a win over Shungo Oyama a year earlier. Oh, a cool thing, O'Haire was training at BJ Penn's MMA school. O'Haire sadly passed away in 2014 after committing suicide after suffering from a years long addiction to alcohol. This is quite sad as I always enjoyed his work as a pro-wrestler and that horrid company WWE fucked him around so many times and honestly ruined his career and spirit (like so many before and after him).

THIS ONE STARTS AND THEY ARE SWINGING. LOL the technique here is impeccable. Min is able to get O'Haire in a very tight Guillotine but he is able to slip out and now is in guard in the top position. He starts landing some nice ground and pound but Min has newaza on his side! LOL O'Haire's punches from the top are missing by so much and its like... man... how are you messing this up so bad when BJ PENN is training you. He even gets Min's back and doesn't manage to do like anything of worth and Min is able to like stand right back up. Oh damn O'Haire is busted way up (I really can't tell you how that even occurred)! He is trying to hit Min with knees in the clinch but they are way slow. OH YEA The judo player Min Soo Kim wins with a standing guillotine!

YES! It's our old friend Hiromitsu Kanehara (19-26-5) from our much beloved KINGDOM Pro-Wrestling!! Kanehara is sadly coming to HEROS after a brutal losing streak in PRIDE where he was fed to the top talent, and this will also sadly be his last HEROS fight. He is facing the German kickboxer Chalid Arrab (7-3 in MMA), and interestingly this is also his last fight in HEROS and is also his final fight in MMA!

Kanehara is kickboxing a bit but its all aimed at getting a chance to shoot. He isn't a chump on the stand up but Arrab is mainly a kickboxer, so Kanehara is looking for a shoot. Kanehara is able to bring Arrab down but Arrab graps the rope and gets the advantage. The ref breaks it up and chastises him for the rule break! Back up, Arrab floors Kanehara with a punch, but it just stalls in the up/down position so its brought back up. Kanehara shoots in and gets an ankle but loses it. On a second attempt, he scores and is able to wrestle the kickboxer down. Now that he has control, Kanehara is putting the pressure on with strikes, position changes, and simply superior wrestling. OH WOW Kanehara locks on a mean, fully extended armbar that Arrab is SOMEHOW able to live through before rolling out of! He gets some shots in and a knee to Kanehara right before the bell rings.

Round 2 begins and no serious contact occurs for almost two minutes. There is some prodding strikes and a shoot attempt by Kanehara. After almost two minutes, Kanehara gets another loowwwwww single leg and drags Arrab down and begins to smother him once more, but Arrab manages a big sweep and this is back up. Kanehara is able to score ANOTHER takedown at the 3 minute mark and lands some ground and pound from the open guard, but Arrab sweeps again and scores with some strong strikes. Kanehara's patented “im getting wrecked oH NO” flailing kicks in and they get tangled in the ropes so they are reset in the middle. Arrab starts striking before his supposed to, waylaying Kanehara, so the ref just starts it again anyways! So Kanehara eats a few more shots before the bell rings and this one is gonna go to decision! Chalid Arrab gets the majority decision victory, mostly because of the flurry at the end. In my mind, this was a fairly even affair and should been a draw (I am biased though because KINGDOM is superior to all so Kanehara is the winner in my heart).

Bob Sapp kills a guy but I think its a work because those strikes looked fake as heck ahahahahaahah

LOLOLOLOL its The Predator (a crappy bruiser brody gimmick who was ALL over Zero-1 and HUSTLE shows of this era) aka Sylzester Terkay from WWE's failed ECW reboot. This thing is pretty bad! Lots of pushing into the corner and swinging, but not the good version of that! This goes both rounds (of course!).

ITS THE MAIN EVENT! Another great Judo dude Yoshihiro Akiyama is about to face Masakatsu Okuda (8-5)! Okuda won a tournament to score his first 4 wins and then fought in Korea's NEO FIGHT and Japan's Pancrase before this event. Akiyama, as we all expected, has an amazing entrance!

FIGHTING NETWORK 

Akiyama is the first to land a strike and then quickly tangles up to bring this down with a short trip. He's hustled to a strong side control already, controlling Okuda's shoulders. Okuda is able to manage an armbar attempt as Akiyama is throwing punches down so Akiyama just picks him up and slams him right onto the side of his head knocking him unconscious. Yoshihiro Akiyama peppers a few more shots to finish this fight against Masakatsu Okuda! (MAEDA SIGHTING!)

This event was full of quick and dominant finishes. The Koreans did not fair well, so hopefully when we return they won't be as out matched (or wrongly booked). WE REALLY DONT HAVE TIME TO LINGER as we have to catch our flight to LITHUANIA!

HEROS Korea represented the fighting network model in the modern MMA scene but let me tell you, HEROS Lithuania is a pure throwback to the RINGS days. The way this is filmed, the warmth and quality of the film itself, the rowdy European crowd, the announcer, everything feels like one of the old RINGS HOLLAND events. BUT THERE IS A CHANGE! Instead of the diabolical tiny ring of RINGS HOLLAND, the promoters of HEROS Lithuania have somehow found the largest ring east of Germany for this event and let me tell you it pays dividends as it allowed the Lithuanian dudes to do some wild stuff in this big blue ring (it is very very blue). RINGS Japan may have died in 2002 but the network remained (networks have no central node ya know)! Promoters in Russia, Lithuania, and Holland kept promoting under the RINGS name, and this HEROS event marks the reunification of Akira Maeda with the RINGS network.

This opening fight is between Erikas Petraitis (20-10-2) who mostly fought in Shooto Europe and sporadically in Fighting Network ZST (another successor to RINGS who seems to have lent a lot of talent to HEROS and many Lithuanians in the company), and Takayuki Ohkouchi (7-14-3) who fought in SHOOTO and even one of the RINGS Lithuania shows in 2002 before this. Ohkouchi comes out to the mortal kombat theme (a classic choice) and Petraitis comes out to some nice jungle house wearing a RINGS LITHUANIA BUSHIDO kit that is absolutely CHOICE ring wear. I also have to make note of the eurotrash ring girls before the start of every fight and the use of very ominous music during these breaks before the action. The production of this event is so sikkkkkkkk.

Story of this one is that Petraitis uses his RINGS BUSHIDO, specifically the RINGS BUSHIDO of the great Baltic region (they have many nice castles), to smother and smash Ohkouchi. He stops nearly every takedown attempt. Petraitis out works him in the clinch, and is able to lay the smackdown on in both rounds. There is also a dick shot to knee combo in the first round (rip). Erikas Petraitis wins this one by unanimous decision! Another victory for the very aggro bushido of European RINGS!

Match two of the night features “The Hebrew Hammer” Ido Pariente (13-6) going up against Mindaugas Smirnovas (9-9-4) who mostly fought in Fighting Network RINGS Lithuania and ZST before this (he was coming off 3 loses and 3 draws here).

Smirnovas tries to pick up Pariente for the slam but he maintains his balance and center while mid-pickup so Smirnovas trips him down. Oh shit Pariente is trying for armlocks immediately by utilizing his legs and is putting lots of pressure on from the bottom. Smirnovas is landing some ground and pound but is continually having to fight off strong submission attempts from the bottom. OH SHIT Pariente has decided that it is rolling kneebar time. How is Smirnovas not tapping! YIKES. Ok either he tapped or the ref called the the fight due to technical submission out of sympathy for that knee.

RINGS Blog guy, if you are reading this, this will make you cringe!

Our third match of the night features the Russian fighter “Punisher” Konstantin Uriadov (4-5-1) against Valdas Pocevicius (34-33-4), a veteran of Shooto Europe and the Lithuania branch of the RINGS network. Uriadov is repping the RINGS Russia team (and comes out to a very kickin' track) while Pocevicius is coming out to some folk metal (incredibly good choice imo).

Pocevicius immediately takes Uriadov down and starts landing some heavy punches and explodes into full mount. Uriadov is able to roll to his back and buck, gaining top control in the guard and pushing Pocevicius into the corner. Oh Pocevisius seems to have an armbar on from the bottom and omg just totally broke the fuck out of Uriadov's arm (you can see it snap in the replays by how his body moves)! The ring doc is just spraying his elbow with Salonpas and uhhhh nothing else. He is left to roll around in pain as his team complains to the ref for the late stoppage. HEROS Lithuania is a brutal place!

There is a K-1 Rules kickboxing fight here and I honestly am not very interested in it! Maybe you will like it! I will stick to watching Lethwei which is better in almost every way :)

Let us move on from that poor man's serious injury as we have another fight on our hands! Evert Fyeet (8-19-2) is on a 3 fight losing streak coming into this match with Tadeushas Cholodinskis (12-5-1) who has a 4 fight win streak and comes from RINGS Lithuania and Shooto Europe (which had many of its events in Lithuania).

Cholodinskis opens this by flooring Fyeet with a heavy right jab and jumps on, grabbing Fyeet's ankle for control before leaping forward for some ground and pound. He is trying for a heel hold but Fyeet is able to kick out of it. After controlling the round for some time then scoring with a throw, Cholodinskis gets side control with a headlock and transitions into a kimura and even uses his legs for it but it slips out and Fyeet gets control. The ref breaks them up and brings it back up as it began to stall. YOOOO Cholodinskis gets on a standing guillotine and then rolls while keeping Fyeet in the hold. He stands back up and Fyeet begins to jump to relieve pressure as Cholodinskis continues to pull up. They roll once more and Fyeet is able to break free right before the bell. This fight rocks hard.

Fyeet hits Cholodinskis harddddd with an uppercut (the sweat came off him!) and gets the Lithuanian down with a nice throw but Cholodinskis is able to take control and roll into side position. Cholodinskis is attempting another Kimura so Fyeet rolls into top position as Cholodinskis maintains the hold, getting caught up in the ropes and forcing a break. Fyeet leaps for a knee but gets punched midair and splats on the ground! Cholodinskis leaps on and quickly gets into full mount, and Fyeet grips tight around him to avoid the potential punishment. After a period of not much occurring, the ref brings it back up and after eating a knee, Fyeet clinches and hits a very nice kosoto gake and his whole weight just slams onto Cholodinskis (splat!). It's broken up since they were tangled in the ropes (Fyeet is displeased!) and its started on their feet. Fyeet hits a very slick side throw but gets caught in a guillotine on his way down. The fight ends before Fyeet could get out but it seems if this had went another round he may have had the advantage. Tadeushas Cholodinskis gets the unanimous decision victory, but I think a split decision or even a draw would have been more fair to Evert Fyeet (he never won another fight after this loss sadly). This is the best match overall on the card I think, it never was boring and since it didn't end in the first round like most fights at this event the fight was able to develop into something really special.

It's the next fight on this absolutely great show (I hope you are enjoying as much as I did, this show was such a breath of fresh air for some reason). Jair “Sorriso” Goncalves (10-5) is going to face Egidijus Valavicius (29-12). Valavicius has been fighting since 2000 in RINGS Russia, Japan, Lithuania, and in Shooto Europe so he is thoroughly a European RINGS-man. From his promo vid he seems to be the type of guy to continue fighting after the ref calls it off which I enjoy in a worked environment but not really in MMA if that makes sense? Let's give him a chance though as any RINGS-man comes with what we would call in 2018 “hella klout.” (His entrance track is so sikk too, these Lithuanians sure know how to pick 'em!)

Valavicius tries to slug it out but Gonclaves is having none of it and uses a mean driving double leg to bring this down. Jair Gonclaves just absolutely overwhelms Egidijus Valavicius (who usually does this to his opponents) and works his way to the back for a rear naked choke win! Gonclaves is so excited to win this and stomps and yells around! Fun times in Lithuanian!

ITS HEAVYWEIGHT TIME! Keigo Takamori (6-6), a certified big boy from Pancrase, is fighting “The Lithuanian Bear” Tadas Rimkevicius (20-11) who at this point held an undefeated record of 9 wins in Shooto Europe. ITS BIG BOY HOURS! Lol Rimkevicius comes out to a remix of a Linkin Park song.

The big boys do what big boys do. Tadas Rimkevicius gets knocked down but he almost gets a leglock on from the up/down position so Takamori backs off and the fight is brought back up. The Bear chases Keigo Takamori down and just beats the fuck out of him for the win!

The next fight is between Hiromitsu Miura (12-7), who would go on to have a pretty good run in WEC before returning home to Pancrase, is clashing with Kestutis Smirnovas (24-8-2) who is a judoka who had been fighting in no holds barred stuff since 2001 in places like RINGS Lithuania, Russia, and in Shooto Europe racking up an impressive record.

Miura is looking to strike but has not landed anything yet, and both fighters are well-matched and can't get much of anything to stick. Smirnovas defends well against Miura's attempt at a trip from the clinch. Afterwards, Smirnovas is able to catch one of Miura's kicks and is able to finally get this one to the ground but Miura wraps his legs around Smirnovas' left leg and wants to set in a lock realllllly badly. Miura can't quite get it on and pulls Smirnovas down, but this is the end for him as Kestutis Smirnovas is able to get back mount and pounds Hiromitsu Miura for the ref stoppage. A bit of a slow start but the scramble after the caught kick was good! LOL Smirnovas tries to do a backflip to celebrate but almost misses it and looks like a huge dork.

UP NEXT is a fight between the Ukranian Jurij “Playboy” Kiseliov (6-6) and Valentinas Golubovskis (4-1) who is from the Bushido Rings camp! As you might expect for someone with the nickname playboy, Kiseliov comes out with models in tight tight jeans as a hard tech song with sex noises blares over the speakers. Not a fan of this guy tbh!

WELL, Golubovskis missed with the spinkick so he just kept spinning with the fist and sent Playboy to hell. Oh, he also sneaked in a little soccer kick! It's the RINGS way after all.

LOL so after that morality tale we just witnessed, we have our second to last fight! Mikhail Iliyukhin (30-11-1) is a RINGS guy through and through. Whether it was in the fully worked days, the mixed years, or the twilight of the full MMA RINGS Japan; Iliyukhin was there doing his sambo thing. He is about to face Jordanas Poskaitis (11-1) who is a VERY karate dude (he's doing so much karate in his intro video) who has spent almost all of his fighting career since 2001 in RINGS Lithuania. He lights some flame paper as he comes out to the ring. Nothing says MMA like a little magic beforehand!

Holy shit Iliyukhin is so old man jacked in this its scary. Poskaitis is not fazed by this as he just keeps spin kicking Iliyukhin to keep him as far away as possible because he does not want this on the ground. He is even able to defend a takedown attempt by Iliyukhin, and scrambles wildly to his feet. The second takedown attempt works for Iliyukhin however as he gets a single leg, but the ref stopped it for some reason (I am not sure exactly) but Iliyukhin goes fuckin' nuts and throws the ref while attacking his opponent further. A huge group of refs have to run in and stop this very angry and jacked old sambo man, and the fight is paused while Iliyukhin receives a double yellow card for his actions. Poskaitis gets a card as well because I guess he hit Iliyukhin after the ref had stopped them? I guess? Poskaitis lands more kicks as Iliyukhin moves in closer until one is caught but he is only brought down for a brief moment. Iliyukhin inches closer and closer, blocking a big knee and moving closerrrrr. He finally shoots and drives Poskaitis into the corner as Poskaitis locks on a deep guillotine from the bottom, but Iliyukhin is able to POP his head out. This first round ends as Iliyukhin can't manage to pass Poskaitis' guard.

Round 2 opens and Iliyukhin has already closed the gap on Poskaitis. OH SHIT ILIYUKHIN CATCHES A KICK, KICKS OUT POSKAITIS' OTHER LEG, and falls back into a sickening leglock that goes through several stages of kneebar and half crab. The ref has to shove Mikhail Iliyukhin off as Jordanas Poskaitis is left hobbling around. This was Mikhail Iliyukin's last pro fight and that's probably a good thing because oh dear this dude had it (with what I do not know)!

IT IS OUR MAIN EVENT! The Georgian Jokharidze Ramazi (0-2) up against HEROS favorite Lithuanian Remigijus Morkevicius! PLEASE WATCH Morkevicius' entrance here because it is an absolute joy and the crowd just eats it up. He's got these Lithuanians absolutely hootin' and hollerin' over it.

LEFT HIGH KICK (god you can hear the thud it makes!) TO END THIS IN 7 SECONDS! LITHUANIA WINS (mostly) TONIGHT! Big Maeda comes out for a nice picture with the shoot crew at the end and let me tell you, this brings back those RINGS Holland memories instantly.

Hey! So that was a long post (much longer than I expected) but I just had to include these HEROS International events in our exploration of K-1 HEROS. HEROS Korea exemplified what FEG had planned for their global expansion into MMA promoting, but HEROS Lithuania was a throwback. It was an event that celebrated RINGS, both its glorious past and what it had grown into independently of Maeda while he was disconnected from the rest of the fighting network. Korea marked the way forward for MMA promotions, but Lithuania was a playful expression of the days of old. Fighting Network HEROS is truly born during these two shows, and we will see the culmination of this first year in our next stop at K-1 DYNAMITE 2005!