The first of the qualifying 8 to make his way to the stage was Ruslan. He was followed shortly by the most talked about K-1 fighter in recently history, Badr Hari.
Next to cause the stage to buckle under his weight was none other than the only Dutchman able to take the spotlight of controversy off Badr long enough to dance in its glow, Alistair Overeem. After taking to the stage, Teixeira, in a suave blue suit, simply said he doesn’t know what will happen until he gets in the ring with Alistair, so he was looking forward to tomorrow.

You could almost taste the tension in the room, yet the next announcement soon brought people back down with a thud. Jerome LeBanner was a no-show. And he would not even be arriving in Japan until 7:00pm today. To this, his opponent 3-time champion Semmy Schilt snickered, “It is his choice, and I guess he doesn’t want to be here at the press conference. I had good preparation. I am ready for it. You’ll see good fights from me tomorrow.”

Errol and Remy delivered. Ignoring the official request to strike the fighters pose for the photographers, these combatants locked in a stare down that the sun would have shied away from. With a line-up of fighters this skilled, and with them being out there to stop at all costs, the reserve fights may well play a major role in this event. After all, if the winner cannot continue and the loser of that fight lost via knockout, the winner of reserve fight number 1 advances in the tournament. In the case that this winner cannot fight, the winner of the second reserve fight will.

The first reserve fight is made up of an old generation leg kicker and a new generation leg kicker. “Mr. K-1” himself, Peter Aerts will face off against Gohkan Saki. To respectful cheers from the audience as Aerts took to the stage.

Low kick demon Daniel Ghita and MMA fighter Sergei Kharitonov make up the second of these reserve fights. Daniel simply said he is happy to be fighting on such a card, and his always excessively confident opponent stated, “Of course I am in good condition, and I will do my best. I am happy to be fighting on such a great card as the WGP and I will try to show the fans an exciting fight.”

In other fights on the card, current Heavyweight Champion Kyotaro will be battling against a Ernesto Hoost trained Tyrone Spong.

This event truly is not to be missed. Do yourself a favour and tune in to the Fields K-1 WORLD Grand Prix 2009, to be commentated by “The Voice” Michael Schiavello, K-1 veteran Ray Sefo, and Mike Kogan as it is broadcast LIVE in Korea, on FujiTV network in Japan, HDNet in U.S.A. and more. It is also it is shown with delay in 100 countries around the world.

Check your local listings to find out when it will be shown in your area.