It's Showtime Establishes It's Showtime Japan +Giorgio Petrosyan vs Hinata July 18

K-1's relative silence continues, although there is a rumor of K-1 MAX happening in June or July, we've seen nothing definitive yet. The recent success of the Stand Up Japan event featuring Masato and KID Yamamoto has spawned a lot of positive press and apparently another charity event coming up in July. The Japanese press is all over the main event for the event as it will be a clash between Europe and Japan.

Japanese press have dubbed it "It's Showtime Japan vs. REBELS" with the main event being Giorgio Petrosyan vs. HINATA. Both men are at the top of the heap in the 70kg weight class. Petrosyan is currently the man to beat at 70kg, looking utterly unstoppable with two K-1 World MAX Championships in his possession. At the It's Showtime Lyon press conference Petrosyan mentioned that K-1 has still yet to pay him for his backpay, so there is a slim chance outside of K-1 making it up to Petrosyan, and if they actually have an event, that we'll see him competiing for them again.

So this should be considered a rare appearance in Japan for Petrosyan, against the top Japanese 70kg fighter outside of Yoshihiro Sato. There is talk of European Fighting Network and It's Showtime being more involved with the event, so stay tuned for more news regarding this event.

As I alluded to earlier, It's Showtime and REBELS are set to work together on July 18th in an event promoted by Stand Up Japan! The main event is set to be Giorgio Petrosyan vs. HINATA, which is one of the biggest non-K-1 MAX or Shootboxing fights Japan has seen in quite a while. There was talk of It's Showtime and the European Fighting Network establishing "It's Showtime Japan" in Japan, along with REBELS and a few other big names in Japan, but I didn't want to talk about it until I was sure (my Japanese only goes so far).

Nightmare of Battle did the honors of translating it, and it looks like It's Showtime Japan is a venture between It's Showtime's partners (It's Showtime and European Fighting Network), Japanese Martial Arts Directors (JMD) and REBELS. Together they have incorporated It's Showtime Japan, which will run it's first show next Spring. It will be a public company with Japanese kickboxer Toshio Fujiwara as the representative director.

It's Showtime Japan will establish eight weight classes, which will all have their set of rankings and help broaden the talent pool for It's Showtime's World Championships. Those weight classes are 61kg, 65kg, 70kg, 73kg, 77kg, 85kg, 95kg and Heavyweight.

The July show, main-evented by Petrosyan and HINATA will be "It's Showtime Japan Countdown-1" -- promoted by Stand Up Japan! and It's Showtime Japan, it will not be an It's Showtime event proper, instead part of a charity event and the first in a series of "countdown" shows leading into the debut of It's Showtime in Japan. Needless to say, It's Showtime has declared war on K-1 by moving into their home turf and working with one of the only kickboxing organizations that they aren't actively involved with, we'll see how this plays out.

Hollywood Dang wrote:I'm sure FEG won't like that.

Donowaman wrote:

Hollywood Dang wrote:I'm sure FEG won't like that.

What are their poor asses going to do?

bfnick wrote:k-1 might have the fighters,the balls and the money but they luck the
atmosphere,vibe and production of K-1

Nycto Da 6'0 wrote:I know 70kg, and smaller weight classes (than 100) have talent all over, but is there some place where the Big guys hide? Like are their full-thai rules guys that weigh 260 pounds who don't fight in the K-1 WGP?

Donowaman wrote:

Hollywood Dang wrote:I'm sure FEG won't like that.

What are their poor asses going to do?

Soy Chingon wrote:Yeah that's the thing. K-1 basically being the face of kickboxing and only having two weight classes left a whole lot of great fighters as unknowns or not as good as they could be because they had to move up and fight way bigger guys or drain themselves down to 70kg to get the big money.

If it weren't for K-1 only having two weight classes, I wonder if Spong would've ever moved up to heavyweight

StillWill wrote:THere is always an official its showtime stream... costs 10 $ but it is great quality