How K-1 should have organized their events this upcoming year if FIKA weren't established...

Long before FIKA was formally announced, the groundwork for a K-1 revival still existed. Would it have been downgraded for the time being? Absolutely. But that couldn't or shouldn't have stopped them from completely ridding themselves of broadening their events even further than they did in the previous years. Focus should have been placed on a handful of things: Establishing new stars, focusing on the domestic scene when appropriate, while also reaching new audiences across Asia which they planned on doing before their untimely end. Here is what my plan would have been.

Three 16 participant grand prix that traversed mutiple Japanese spots and even as far as mainland Asia. First off, an all-Japan 70kg tournament very similar to their Japanese World Grand Prix, except the fact that all competitors must be of Asian descent and must fight for a Japanese promotion such as Shootboxing, KRUSH, R.I.S.E., J-Network, and Shin-Nihon. An excellent way to make up for the fact that most of your stars have moved on to the European circuit for not only convenience, but a more stable combat sports scene. A perfect opportunity to further build your domestic talent and put them out in the public eye.

The second weight class would be the newly established -63kg division, but this time around, the first World Grand Prix shall be organized. The easiest weight class to grab world dominance in, in my opinion, since most kickboxers at this time would probably either much rather move into a different combat sport or fight in Europe. In this division, Japan already has a foothold on most of the talent, therefore giving reason for foreigners to want to try their hand and duke it out with some of the best that they're normally unable to combat.

Lastly, the all important HW division. This would be the weight class that would be put under the most change. K-1 would definitely need to establish new stars here and maybe only bring back a select few of the familiar names you have seen over the past three-four years. So that means no more Hari, Saki, Spong, Schilt, Aerts, and LeBanner. Of course, i'd expect It's Showtime to share a few fighters, as with the -63kg division, which would GREATLY help.

Without further ado, here are my imagined fields for how I expected all of this to work (for some of the participants, I had some move up in weight for all intensive purposes):

K-1 All-Japan 70kg Grand Prix Final 16 @ Ariake Colosseum/Final 8 @ Yokohama Arena:

Yuichiro "Jienotsu" Nagashima x Xu Yan
Yoshihiro Sato x Bovy Sor Udomson or Chi Bin Lim
Kenta x Yuya Yamato
HINATA x Masato Otake
Yuya Yamamoto x Yukihiro Komiya
Yuji Nashiro x Hiroki Shishido
HIROYA x Yutaro Yamauchi
Takafumi Morita x Takaaki Umeno

Reserves: Kido, Nakajima

K-1 -63kg World Grand Prix Final 16 @ Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium/Final 8 @ Nippon Budokan:

Saenchai x Karim Bennoui
Yuta Kubo x Katsuki Ishida
Masaaki Noiri x Hiroki Akimoto
Koya Urabe x Keigo Ishida
Tetsuya Yamato x Shoei Haruyama
Sergio Wielzen x Son Hyun Lee
Javier Hernandez x Kizaemon Saiga
Liam Harrison x Ryuji Kajiwara

Reserves: Kusakabe, Takiya

K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 @ Shanghai or Nanjing or Hong Kong/Final 8 @ Saitama Super Arena

Daniel Ghita x Xhavit Bajrami
Hesdy Gerges x Mourad Bouzidi
Nathan Corbett x Singh Jaideep
Errol Zimmerman x Anderson "Braddock" Silva
Kyotaro x Rico Verhoeven
Danyo Ilunga x Catalin Morosanu
Ewerton Teixeira x Ismael Londt
Ruslan Karaev x Alexey Ignashov or Melvin Manhoef


Reserves: Edwards, Catinas, Laschenko, Montanha Silva