Las Vegas, NV; July 22, 2007….Hard-hitting K-1 superstar and four-time world kickboxing champion, Ray “Sugarfoot” Sefo (61-15-1 (49 KO’s), will take on 2006 K-1 Amsterdam tournament champion, Bjorn Bregy (14-7 (7 KO’s), in a classic K-1 Superfight matchup at Las Vegas, Nevada’s Bellagio on Saturday, August 11th.
Sefo’s start on the “K-1 World Grand Prix 2007 in Las Vegas” mega-fight card is slated to be the 36-year-old New Zealand native’s toughest challenge to date in Las Vegas K-1 action. At 6 feet 8 inches tall and weighing in at approximately 275 pounds, Bregy, a 32-year-old Karate stylist from Switzerland, brings to the table a tremendous size advantage over his opponent, who stands an even 6 feet tall and weighs around 235 pounds.
Last August, Sefo, in his second career appearance in Sin City, faced another Swiss fighter, Azem Maksutaj, in a featured Superfight. From start to finish, Sefo controlled the tempo of the bout, flooring the tenacious Muay Thai stylist a total of five times over the course of three rounds. The fifth knockdown, produced by a sharp Sefo spinning back kick, prompted the referee to stop the bout, giving Sefo the victory by way of technical knockout at the 2:02 mark of the third stanza.
Sefo, a distinguished K-1 competitor for over a decade, reaffirmed his elite status last year by defeating two of the organization’s hottest prospects. In Seoul, Korea last June, it took him less than two minutes to put the lightning quick Ruslan Karaev down for the 10 count with a stunning right hook. During K-1’s annual December finale at Japan’s Tokyo Dome, Sefo schooled the highly-touted Melvin Manhoef, stopping the Dutch heavyweight with a pair of right hands only 40 seconds into their meeting.
A K-1 competitor since 2000, Bregy initiated the best performance of his career by using his hands and long knees to stop Frenchman Freddy Kemayo in the quarterfinal tournament round of the single-elimination affair in Amsterdam on May 13th of last year. In a semifinal round matchup with another French combatant, Naoufal “Iron Leg,” the Swiss fighter did likewise, putting his opponent down for the 10 count with a hard knee strike to the midsection in the second round of battle. Bregy brought the tournament’s championship bout to a close in even more abrupt fashion by putting Holland’s Gokhan Saki flat on the canvas with a left hook to the jaw at the 1:44 mark of the fight’s first round.
Bregy’s conquest of the Amsterdam affair came in the midst of his spectacular seven-fight win streak that spanned from May 20, 2005 through July 30th of last year when, in front of 8,300 fans, he obliterated Japanese contender and fellow Karate player, Tsuyoshi Nakasako, in the opening stanza of a meeting in Sapporo Hokkaido, Japan.
In a second “K-1 World Grand Prix 2007 in Las Vegas” Superfight matchup, two-time K-1 tournament champion and fearsome knockout artist, “Mighty Mo” Siligia (32-5 (26 KO’s), will square off with last April’s K-1 North America tournament victor, Chalid “Die Faust” Arrab (16-6 (3 KO’s).
The “K-1 World Grand Prix 2007 in Las Vegas” card will be headlined by K-1’s customary, single-elimination tournament. Representing The United States in the eight-man draw will be undefeated four-time kickboxing champion and former Airforce and Armed Services heavyweight boxing champion, “Savage” Rick Cheek (19-0 (17 KO’s) (1 No Contest), as well as Muay Thai specialists Patrick Barry (14-3-1 (8 KO’s) and Esh’Chadar “The Dispossessor” Brown Ton (6-1 (3 KO’s).
Barry is slated to face Sweden’s Rickard Nordstrand (16-6 (3 KO’s) in the tournament’s quarterfinal round while, in the same bracket of the draw, Brown Ton is scheduled to square off with 23-year-old speed demon, Zabit Samedov (50-5 (26 KO’s), of Belarus.
Cheek’s quarterfinal round opponent has yet to be named. The other quarterfinal round matchup in Cheek’s bracket will see Russia’s Alexandre Pitchkounov (6-1-1 (3 KO’s) take on Japanese Karate stylist, Tsuyoshi Nakasako (18-24-1 (5 KO’s).
Tickets for “K-1 World Grand Prix 2007 in Las Vegas,” priced at $300, $200, $100, and $50, are on sale at Bellagio’s box office (888-488-7111) and on www.k-1usa.net, the official website of K-1 North America.
Bellagio Ballroom doors will open for “K-1 World Grand Prix 2007 in Las Vegas” at 5 PM Pacific Standard Time on Saturday, August 11th and the card’s first preliminary bout will begin at 5:30 PM. The eight-man tournament will commence at 7 PM.
K-1 is a martial arts fighting sport that derives its name from its inclusion of a wide array of combat disciplines including Karate, Kung-Fu and Kickboxing (“K”), with an intent to determine one champion in one ring (“1”). After being staged for the first time in Japan in 1993 under the direction of founder Master Kazuyoshi Ishii, K-1 has evolved into the country’s most popular sport and has achieved popular culture status as its athletes are larger-than-life celebrities.