Denis Kang pre thoughts over 11/05 Bushido under 83kgs GP
Photo Courtesy of www.DenisKang.comAmerican Top Team fighter, Denis Kang takes a little breath of his intense trainings to share a few words with us. Denis will have a huge challenge in the most important stage of his career, when he takes on Akihiro Gono in one of the semifinals of Bushido. The interesting issue of a fighter who’s going to fight a tournament is the trainings, and Denis explained a bit for us: “Probably a little more conditioning this time. Mainly because it’s two fights in one night.” Fans and insiders pick Denis and the BTT representative Paulo Filho to square off in the finals, they have beat their Japanese opponents first, but people still think they will shine in semifinals and fight each other in finals. So how to work over this excess of favoritism? It may be me and Filho but it’s not for sure. If it is well that’s just the way it goes, the both of us will fight like professionals and the fans will have one of the greatest fights ever. I try to prepare for everybody. I have a special plan for anybody that I may fight that night. My advantage is that I change my fighting style, I can attack them on the ground or on the feet. After Denis’ words about how to work over the professionalism’s stuff, he comments about his opponent, Grabaka’s Akihiro Gono: “Gono’s main strength in my opinion is his patience and experience. He starts very slow and lets the guy come on strong so that he may come back when he is tired after. This will not happen with me. Hiskickboxing is fast and technical but not overly powerful, and his ground is also decent but not extraordinary.” As mentioned above, the Japanese Samurais, Gono and Filho’s opponents (Kazuo Misaki) are in the semifinals too. However two points are important to be made. They are from the same team and they have in their fist the Japanese’s hopes of having Land of the Rising-Sun Bushido champion, so Kang comments: I think everybody has their own personal motives for winning this. Gono wants to win it for Japan but also for himself like everyone else.’ The Paulo Filho x Kazuo Misaki is the question now, so I asked Denis what he thought about it? “I think it will be a touch match for both of them, Mizaki never goes down easy and is a rough opponent, just look at what he did to Henderson. However I think in the end Filho will be too much for Mizaki.’ Of course the MMA is a sport and all possibilities can happen inside a ring. But to finish off this pre thoughts over Bushido with Denis Kang we asked him: In your opinion what’s the primordial key to shine in a two fights per night tournament?
Everything will come into factor at one point, athleticism, ground skill, standing skill, mental toughness, but in tournaments there is a lot of luck involved. Anybody can get injured.’