In a press conference yesterday, K-1 and Quintet announced a joint show on September 10th at the Yokohama Arena called ReBOOT. The announcement also detailed that K-1 would focus on more international expansion, as well as the announcement of a heavyweight grand prix with foreign competitors.
The grappling promotion Quintet also announced its return having not run an event since July 2021.
K-1 and Quintet Announce Joint Event for September 10th
K-1 announced a new emphasis on heavyweight kickboxing and kicking off with an 8-man tournament. The names announced so far are KOK champion Michał Turyński (42-15, 12 KO), Romania’s Valentin Bordianu (17-7, 7 KO), former Glory fighter Ariel Machado (52-12, 36 KO), 2023 Chinese National Kickboxing champion Liu Ce (5-1, 3 KO), and 2022 K-1 World GP Japan Openweight Tournament Winner Mahmoud Sattatri (20-1, 12 KO) are announced.
“Our task is to promote appeal of K-1 not only to customers but to fighters. To discover and to develop strong fighters. And to create high level fighting arena for striking,” said new K-1 producer Carlos Kikuta.
Also announced for the kickboxing portion of the show is a super bantamweight championship match. The rubber match between champion Akihiro Kaneko (18-2, 11 KO) and challenger Masashi Kumura (22-5, 11 KO) is a long-awaited match for kickboxing fans given the two are 1-1.
Quintet Returns to Operations Since July 2021 Hault
Also announced was the return of the Team Quintet grappling tournament. Quintet will follow the K-1 portion of the show. The format of the matches consists of two teams of five facing each other in a “winner stays on” elimination format. Matches can be won by submission, disqualification, or referee stoppage. In the case no winner is declared, both participants from the tea are eliminated. The teams announced are currently:
A super fight was also announced between Kazushi Sakuraba’s son Taisei, and disgraced Olympic gold medalist judo athlete Masato Uchishiba. Uchshiba was sentenced in 2013 to 5 years after being convicted of rape.
K-1 has been notoriously difficult to access outside Japan live with many of the shows being geo-blocked. Quintet used to be on UFC Fight Pass. International distribution will be announced sometime in the future.
To see the full press conference, check out the video below which is English friendly
