Mike Zambidis conquers the 3rd place at K-1 MAX
Iron Mike strikes again with amazing fights in Japan, conquering the 3rd place at K-1 MAX, on his name day!
Zambidis started very aggressively his first fight for the Final 8, against the Japanese Nagashima, with many hits on the head and ribs of his opponent, giving a clear lead to the Greek Champion for the victory!
On the 2nd round, the Japanese fighter tried to react without any effect since Zambidis maintained the correct defense and made great counter attacks. Just 20'' after the beginning of the 3rd round, Iron Mike managed to knock down Nagashima with a massive hit on the head. That was it! Zambidis applied several great hits with a lot of speed and power to his opponent and the referee had not other option than to stop the fight after 53'' in this round, declaring Iron Mike the winner with a KO!
On the semi-finals, Mike's opponent was Petrosyan, winner of K-1 MAX 2009. After a balanced first round, with a slight edge of the Italian, Iron Mike started an impressive attack with consecutive hits that made Petrosyan quiver. One of them, on the head, threw him to the ground, but the referee for undefined reasons considered it as a "slip" and not as a knock down, something that would have changed the result of the fight! During the final round, the Greek Champion continued his attack with the same pace, forcing the referee to give Petrosyan, who was trying to cut Mike's rhythm, an official warning for clinching. The end of the fight gave the audience the impression that the winner would be declared through an extra round. But that was not the case, since the judges decided in favor of Petrosyan, a result that was characterized as controversial. It is worth mentioning that Zambidis is the only fighter that managed to bring Petrosyan in such a hard position, forcing him to play so defensively.
For the record, Giorgio Petrosyan, faced Sato at the finals and was crowned K-1 MAX Champion for a second time in a row.
After the end of the event, Zambidis stated: At the first fight, Nagashima performed very decently and stood well, expressing a good fighting spirit and earning my respect. At the semi-finals, I had a really good fight and did not feel any damage from Giorgio's hits. The referee had to call the knock down, which would probably change the results. As many experts said, I should have got the extra round, if not the win. It was a semi-final for K-1, there were not many clean points from neither of us, since most hits were blocked. Anyway... we now move forward!
Mike Zambidis and his team, that was constituted by Babis Papadopoulos (George Mallios' assistant trainer), Alexandros Papadionisiou (gymnast), Vaggelis Stamou (doctor), Tonia Fouseki (manager) and his friend and supporter Sotiris Tsafoulias, will return to Greece on Thursday, with the 3rd place trophy in their luggage.
Now, on an official poll that K-1 MAX runs through their website regarding the MVP of the event, Iron Mike has taken the lead with 44% while Petrosyan comes second with 22%. Their fight is considered as the best of the night by 51% of the audience! The poll is still on HERE.
You can see photos from the fights HERE.
Also, video form the fights are available here:
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Zambidis vs Nagashima |
Zambidis vs Petrosyan |
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