K-1 is fucked because this random company called CSI Sports bought the international stream rights in 2012 when K1 Global died. CSI sued K1 last year. That's why they stopped doing interational streams. They reached a settlement but K1 is forcec to use CSI's broadcasting only. CSI Sports can't do prreal ppv. They do this weird tape delay thing. And can only show in like a few countries anyways.
Agree CSI is the problem and now they have the power. K-1 thought they had the international rights but most were sold to CSI. Looks like CSI has finally agreed to join K-1 but only on their networks. A quick timeline goes like this.
*2010 Many K-1 fighters coming out saying they have not been paid.
*2011 FEG & K-1 goes bankrupt (Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) “old” K-1 as fans knew it died in 2011).
*2011 Barbizon Co Ltd. acquires the K-1 trademark
*2012 K-1 GHL (K-1 Global Holdings Ltd) a EMCOM Entertainment Inc. Hong Kong-based company acquired K-1’s trademarks from Barbizon, Changed name to K-1 Global Holdings, Ltd. and its principal owner, Mike Kim, who managed the K-1 license on a global basis also acquired those trademarks on 28 July 2011 from what remained of K-1’s former parent company. KIF (K-1 International Federation), is a related entity that was launched by K-1 Global Holdings to handle the global trademark of K-1. *This is when CSI Sports were sold broadcasting rights (exclusive in some countries) for K-1 even though new events were not happening as K-1 GHL kept getting into scandals.... when they tried to relaunch K-1 most of their fighters that were not getting paid and had moved to the promotion "It's Showtime" using their contracts most were forced to come back to K-1, It's Showtime and Glory Sports International, got sold and merged into a new promotion GLORY.
*2014, M-1 Sports Media acquired the license to use those K-1 trademarks exclusively in Japan; launching the present-day incarnation of K-1 (K-1 World GP, or “New” K-1).
*2023, M-1 Sports Media thought they had acquired the worldwide rights to the K-1 brand from K-1 Global Holdings Ltd. M-1 would later outright acquire the global trademarks from K-1 GHL in 2023. "ReBOOT～K-1 ReBIRTH～, part of the ReBOOT" event co-promoted with Quintet on 9 September 2023, was supposed to be streamed globally on DAZN. Instead, without prior warning, the stream was moved to FITE TV (now TrillerTV) in certain territories before disappearing off the face of the internet, as CSI Entertainment, or CSI Sports, the owners of Fight Sports; a news and distribution company specializing in martial arts. (U-NEXT distributes FIGHT SPORTS in Japan) had filed a lawsuit over K-1’s broadcasting rights this lawsuit directed at Mike Kim & K-1 GHL not M-1 Sports Media.
*2024 on 8 August 2024, a new agreement between CSI and M-1 was announced. A settlement has been reached between the two parties. For K-1, says it is going back to its roots and going global, this was thought to be a major resolution in the dispute. But the next two K-1 events didn’t air outside Japan. Nor the K-1 WORLD GP 2024 in TOKYO ~FINAL~ event. The parties of CSI & M-1 did not work well together.
*2025 Again agreed to try again the FIGHT SPORTS era would begin and with that, the K-1’s “ReBirth”. K-1 did not having any English broadcast at all. All because of CSI Entertainment / CSI Sports / Fight Sports’ shenanigans, K-1’s global reputation (or lack thereof) has been dragged through the mud for almost 2 years. CSI has zapped away all momentum from K-1’s global relaunch just so they can have this moment. To finally get what they were owed in 2012: becoming the exclusive home of K-1’s comeback.
*2025 also conflict with the team-up of Glory & RISE: RISE World Series 2025 Yokohama, as well as this year’s RISE ELDORADO, both had English PPV broadcasts via Abema Live / Abema-Global. If you were still following RISE on TrillerTV, you’d never had known this. It’s a bittersweet treat for overseas RISE fans who got screwed over by Glory Kickboxing yet again. Since the very first event they’ve co-promoted in 2022, the Glory-produced telecasts of their RISE co-promotions have cut out every single match preceding that of Glory’s portion of the show. On the other hand, while the global Abema PPV version featured the full fight card, it was only available for a limited time viewing.
Any corrections on this timeline appreciated .
K-1's international trademark returns to Japan. "I Want to Run the Event as a Global Event"
beyondkick.com
https://mixfight.com/cgblog/18443/K-1-the-soap-continues
