this is an 70kg good tournament of course,but i kinda feel it could be better(as long as it dont need to be,they are wanting to create some familiar faces with Dahlbeck and Watson in japan to grow up the interest on the K-1 japanese 70kg again)
the japanese side,the guys representing japan are all the right choices,some veterans like Kido who had appearances in the gold days K-1 Max and had opportunities against some big sharks back in the day like Sato,Kyshenko,Kraus...He is prime passed now but the guy still amazing and he is like a meme in japan,funny weird ass guy,i like him,but no way he haves chances on winning it
Kido has already fought against some names of the bracket like Dahlbeck who KOed him,he defeated Hirono Yu in 2012 Big Bang event,Holds a win over Hiroki on Krush and a loss to Hinata on Max Japan 09,so a lot of rematches can come for him if he passes watson,witch i dont believe that is going to happen
Watson and Dahlbeck are good choices,they could had found another strong guy like Allazov to put into it,but Watson and Dahlbeck already have a storyline between than and both are the nice guys and amazing people,they are always receiving positive reactions on the promotions that they fight,and now with both having more kickboxing experience,why not?
Hirono Yu(current krush champ if im not mistaken) is one of the best japanese 70kg guys of the Krush-Bigbang era,he is like more than 30s now,but he is not a bad choice for sure,i think they could have placed Yuya Yamamoto in there,he used to be one of the main nippon guys on the late K-1 Max days with his fuck off fight style and charisma,but he is also old and his career is in a big downfall,he had faced Kido and Hinata before so he could be considered if he wasnt in such a horrible loss streak...
Hiroki Nakjima is also an good point,he was one of the young guys who were supposed to be the next masato back in the days,as long as he had a good career,it obviously never materialized...He haves a cool fight style,he has also faced some names on the tournament like Dahlbeck,Kido and Hinata,witch makes everything better,i fucking love rematches,and he is also in a good moment of his career,he still 28 also.
Pikeur was expected for sure,their finalist on 2015 K-1 "max" where Marat won beating everyone down,Pikeur is the Mikes gym guy who had knocked out a lot of people on national japanese promotions and he is krush champ if im not mistaken(or at least he was some months before),he messed up Dahlbeck on the semi finals of 2015 and he will be facing in the quarter finals nothing more nothing less than...
Hinata Watanabe!!!
Hinata is the Japan big deal here IMO,he was one of the best japanese 70kg guys of the last era who never won a K-1 Max Japan tournament,hinata is a hell of a skilled southpaw kickboxer coming to this with good victories over prime passed former max champions Souwer and Kraus,and has only lost twice since his second KO loss to Ristie in 2012,to Petje and to the new big thing on 70kg Mohammed Mezouari,Hinata has fought against a lot of the elite kickboxers over the years,victories over Kido,Zambidis,Yuya yamamoto and Kyshenko just prove it,he also had fought against Petro and had a KO loss to Hiroki Nakajima by KO on the max japan 2010 semi finals,it is his opportunity to be fighting on the spotlight again.
and the favorite to win it:
Chingiz Allazov - a top 7 LW at the time but could easily grow to top 5 catching bigger fights,has only lost to two monsters of his division on his career:the boss Sitthichai and the badass Grigorian,he is skilled as fuck,is on a good win streak over some good names like Haida,Kehl brothers,Millet,Baya and some others,he is a big name on the right place to get more notoriety of the kickboxing world.
my picks:
favorite to win it:
Allazov>>>>>>>>>Hinata>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Watson