Kickboxing to the ratings rescue? Notable quote:

At the press conference K-1 Event Producer Sadaharu Tanikawa stated, "Because of the 'Grand Coalition' for the first time in many years, MMA and K-1 can amalgamate and battle, therefore, this year, its daring but I am going to do K-1 vs. DREAM match-ups. There are K-1 fighters who want to challenge in the DREAM rules as well." Basically he revealed that one of the main pillars of this year's Dynamite!! is going to be fighters crossing the borders between K-1 and DREAM.

 The first two MMA fighters that are challenging in the K-1 rules bouts are Tatsuya Kawajiri and Gegard Mousasi. Kawajiri will face very popular and hardcore Kozo Takeda, and this year's DREAM middleweight GP champion is taking on Japanese heavyweight star Musashi.

 
Both Takeda and Kawajiri attended a press conference and Takeda spoke first, "Finally again in K-1, so I am pumped up. The New Year's Eve show is where the world's top fighters gather so I want to put my life on the line. It doesn't matter who the opponent is I am just fighting hard. I am not planning to cut corners in this fight as well."

Then Kawajiri followed, "This is going to be my first K-1 rules bout, furthermore, the opponent is Takeda so right now I am only feeling fear. It may be too audacious but I am taking one step forward. With 'The Power of the Courage' I want to challenge Takeda" using this show's tag line to express his motivation for this challenge.

Takeda's fights here. Background (and his is very interesting for his success in Thai boxing) here. I don't know about you, but I am far less curious to see how the kickboxers perform in MMA than I am to see what the ratings for this event look like. First Mousasi vs. Musashi, now this. What's on the docket for the next event: Buakaw Por Pramuk vs. Hayato Sakurai?