What Does the Future of K-1 Hold? Is There a Future for K-1?

Like many Japanese fight promotions over the past few years, K-1 has struggled to regain a foothold among the once sizable crowds that used to flock to the promotion’s events. In it’s heyday, K-1 could draw tens of thousands of fans to Japan’s largest arenas. It drew incredible TV ratings.
But those days are no more. The promotion now is reportedly on its last legs, trying to find a way out of the mire.
Current reports are that there are a few suitors that may opt to save K-1 from extinction, but there is still no clear path to resurrection.
Simon Rutz of the It’s Showtime promotion, which has worked closely with K-1, offered the following post on his company’s website on Monday detailing K-1′s current status:
Because there is no information regarding the new start of K-1 coming from Japan, I will clarify the situation for everyone.
FEG, the parent company of the former K-1 brand, is technically bankrupt. The name K-1 lays now at the Japanese company Barbizon. There are 2 serious parties now, which try to pull the K-1 brand name towards themselves and place this in a new company.
The first one to find an investor is FEG’s president, Mr. Tanikawa. He has found a Korean investor who has big plans with the K-1 label. This investor claims to have a verbal agreement with Mr. Ishii and Barbizon regarding the takeover of the K-1 label. Details were already discussed and agreed upon, but the only missing thing is the necessary signature of Mr. Ishii.
The second one to find a potential investor is Bas Boon. He has found an American company which also has big opportunities to bring the K-1 brand to high levels. However, also this company needs the signature of Mr. Ishii.
In the meanwhile, even a third potential investor has reported itself to take over the K-1 label, but this investor has presented itself only a couple of days ago.
All three companies have big plans to bring the K-1 label back to the place where it belongs and therefore make sure that the brand of K-1 has a healthy future.
All investors understand that a good cooperation with IT’S SHOWTIME is essential to prevent future conflicts of interest and to make sure that in the future all world elite fighters will participate to the tournaments; that means the fighters of both IT’S SHOWTIME as the ones of Golden Glory. We from IT’S SHOWTIME support the plans to make the K-1 label a strong brand again, because this is in the best interest of the sport, the fighters and the millions of fans around the world.
This year there will be no K-1 Final Elimination and K-1 World Grand Prix Final for the following reasons:
- It’s currently unknown which investor gets Mr. Ishii’s signature
- There’s not enough time left to organize such a big event
- The visas for the fighters to travel to China haven’t been arranged and these are essential to be able to fight there
The decision to not rush into crazy things is a wise one, because severe mistakes that could cause more unnecessary damage to the K-1 label are being prevented.
From next year there will be a new and healthy company that will work on the worldwide brand of K-1.
For the fighters who were already preparing to fight on October 29 in China this will be a hard pill to swallow, but on the other hand, these developments offer enough perspective to positively look ahead to the future.
I hope I have answered the many questions and to have clarified these matters.
Best regards,
Simon Rutz
IT’S SHOWTIME

This is a tribute to Andy Hug!!

K-1 Sold to Japanese Real Estate Firm Barbizon

K-1, the largest and most prestigious kickboxing promotion in the world, is no longer owned by Fighting and Entertainment Group and has been sold to Japanese real estate firm Barbizon Co,. Ltd.

Promotional group FEG and president Sadaharu Tanikawa have operated K-1 since September 2003 but the promotion has fallen upon hard times recently due to the rapid decline in the the sport's popularity in Japan and the questionable entertainment-centric direction that Tanikawa has steered K-1.

The sale comes as no surprise as Tanikawa admitted back in January that FEG would "die" due to major financial issues. The sale to Barbizon does come as a surprise to many though as it was heavily rumored that a prominent Dutch promotional and management company was set to take the reins of K-1.

Full details from this historic deal after the break.

Barbizon Co,. Ltd now owns the following trademarks:

K-1
K-1 Grand Prix
K-1 Fighting Network
K-1 World GP
K-1 International Association
K-1 World Association
Federation Internationale de K-1 Association
K-1 Exercise
Dynamite!
K-1 Premium Dynamite!

Barbizon does not own K-1 Koshien, K-1 MAX or DREAM.

K-1 Koshien is a yearly nation-wide tournament for highschool students. The K-1 Koshien trademark remains the property of gambling conglomerate Fields.

K-1 MAX (standing for Middleweight Artistic eXtreme) includes the 70 kg and 63 kg weight divisions. It is unclear as to who owns the MAX trademark. MAX has been tied to broadcaster TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) in the past but FEG recently promoted a 63 kg MAX Japan tournament without TBS and have also announced plans for a 70 kg MAX tournament, again most likely without TBS.

DREAM, FEG's MMA promotion, remains under the control of FEG and Real Entertainment.

It is not yet clear what role current K-1 staff will play in the running of future operations. Given the astounding level of public criticism that FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa has received recently, it seems unlikely that he will be involved with the running of K-1 going forward. K-1 creator Kazuyoshi Ishii is likely to be part of the new K-1 however as he has been hinting at this transfer for some time.

Ishii recently revealed that the new K-1 will hold a Heavyweight World GP every two years rather than the annual tournament that has been running since 1993. There will also be more of a focus on making this new K-1 appeal to a global audience. Until now, Japan has hosted every K-1 World GP Final.

Barbizon Co,.Ltd was formed in 1967, currently employs 35 employees and has 484,000,000 Japanese yen (approximately 6.2 million dollars) in capital. The company specializes in real estate and owns a number of hotels and apartment complexes in Southeast Asia and Japan.

It appears that the takeover actually took place approximately one month ago however the deal was not made public until Thursday afternoon. A press conference to announce details of the takeover has not yet been scheduled, and FEG officials have not yet commented on the sale.

K-1 was formed in 1992 by karate practitioner and Seidokan Karate creator Kazuyoshi Ishii. Since 1993, the promotion has staged the sport's most prestigious annual kickboxing tournament, the K-1 World GP.

In December 2002, Ishii was jailed for tax evasion and so he passed the promotion over to former pro wrestling journalist Sadaharu Tanikawa. FEG was formed in September of 2003 in an attempt to distance the K-1 brand from the shamed Ishii. Tanikawa took a more pro wrestling and entertainment-based approach to the promotion. The Japanese fight sport industry went through a boom in popularity peaking on Dec. 31, 2003, but Tanikawa's new angle has not been proven popular with fans or fighters as K-1 has been on the decline ever since.

A seemingly endless list of fighters and managers have spoken out against FEG and Tanikawa in recent times due to unpaid fight purses and the objections to the direction that Tanikawa has chosen to take K-1.