2008 K-1 GRAND PRIX
FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM
Gohkan Saki, left, landed a head kick to Randy Kim to knock Kim to the canvas in the second round of Saturday night's K-1 Grand Prix championship bout. Saki won by knockout.
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Saki fills in nicely
A lack of preparation wasn't a problem for Gokhan Saki.
Some 48 hours after finding out he'd be a part of the eight-man tournament, the 24-year-old Turkish kickboxer won three fights, including a second-round knockout of Korea's Randy Kim in the final, to claim the 2008 K-1 Grand Prix in Hawaii on Saturday night.
"It was nice having the crowd get behind me as I progressed through the tournament."
Gohkan Saki / After winning the K-I Grand Prix title Saturday night in the first mixed martial arts fight card at the Stan Sheriff Center
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A boisterous crowd of about 5,000 witnessed the first fight card ever held at the Stan Sheriff Center.
"I knew it could happen if I fight the other fight that I could get into the tournament," Saki said. "I trained very hard for this. I'm very happy to win this tournament."
It wasn't the first time Saki was a late entry into K-1's prized one-night tournament.
In his first K-1 appearance in '06, he won a reserve bout in Amsterdam. An injury to another fighter thrust Saki into semifinal action and he reached the final before being knocked out in the first round by Bjorn Bregy.
"The same thing happened to me two years ago in Amsterdam, when I went from the reserve to the final," Saki said. "So my conditioning was good, but I was still a little nervous in the first fight."
With just five K-1 fights on his resume, Saki nearly doubled his win total with powerful leg kicks that chopped his opponents down one-by-one.
First-round opponent Deutsch Pu'u had no answer for the kicks, crumpling to the mat twice in the first round to lose in 2 minutes, 15 seconds.
Saki did the same to American Rich Cheek in the semifinals, putting him on the mat for the first time with more thunderous leg strikes that echoed throughout the arena.
Cheek tried to counter the kicks by checking them, but with all his attention focused on his feet, Saki leveled him with a right hook to the body that ended Cheek's night.
In the final, Kim, who got into the tournament after an injury kept Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga from competing in the semifinals, gave Saki his toughest test. He took the eventual champion into the second round for the first time all night, but was knocked down twice by powerful left hands that ended the night's festivities.
"It was nice having the crowd get behind me as I progressed through the tournament," Saki said. "I feel like my team and I are the new Hawaiians."
Hilo's Wesley "Cabbage" Correira advanced to the semifinals of the tournament after knocking out good friend Eric "Butterbean" Esch with a left high kick early in the second round.
Both fighters traded punches the entire first round, laughing at each other after the other would pop them with a good shot. Cabbage ended the fun in the second round with a high kick to the temple that sent the 433-pounder crashing to the mat for a 10-count.
Correira took on Kim in the semifinals and lost by TKO in the second round after injuring his knee.
"That first low leg kick caught me right on the knee," Correira said. "I didn't want to put any weight down, but I kept on pushing it."
K-1 heavyweight champion Badr Hari threw exactly one punch, a left jab, that knocked out Croatia's Domagoj Ostojic in 19 seconds in one of three super fights on the card. Hari, who became K-1's first heavyweight champion when he knocked out Japan's Yusuke Fujimoto in Hawaii last year, took a left hook to the chin as he threw his jab, and fell back into the ropes as his opponent laid flat on his back.
"He caught me, but you can't dodge everything in fighting," Hari said. "I stepped in the ring and opened with a jab and it was over. Normally I knock out people with my right, now I knock out people with my left."
In the other two super fights, Kailua's Scott Junk, in his first fight since ACL surgery, lost a decision to Korea's Min Soo Kim, who won a silver medal in judo in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Australia's Paul Slowinski overcame two knockdowns to beat Aziz Jahjah by TKO in the third round in the best fight of the night.