K-1 World GP 2009 Final pre-fight press conference: The war has been declared!!

The Galaxy Room of the luxurious ANA Intercontinental Hotel played host to the pre-fight press conference of the K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 Final.

With a large number of non-Japanese media personnel and the teammates and cornermen of the fighters in attendance, the press conference turned out to be a highly spirited affair.

The finalists in the WGP engaged in a heated verbal feud that escalated the tension to a boiling point and sent the crowd into frenzy.

Leading the charge in the war of words was none other than Alistair Overeem. Empowered by his victory over "Mr. K-1," Peter Aerts and considered the second favorite to take the tournament trophy, Overeem took the mic after his quarterfinal opponent, Ewerton Teixeira delivered a brief statement to the media.
 
Overeem opened fire on the mic: "I challenge any of these fighters to step into the octagon or MMA ring with me, and I promise I will finish them in two to three minutes. As you may or may not know, my friend Badr here already declined a MMA fight with me, so I am waiting for someone else to step up."

The K-1 golden boy and firebrand, Badr Hari, stepped onto the podium next and easily deflected Overeem’s barbs: "I had a fight with Alistair Overeem. He won that fight. It is strange for us as kick boxers that this guy beats two guys in K-1. He did a good job, and it is a good thing for him. But, if he gets through Teixeira, then I promise he won’t make it two to three minutes in the kickboxing ring with me this time."

Next came the deflating announcement that Jermoe LeBanner was a no-show due to late arrival in Japan. Strangely enough, LeBanner, who will face Semmy Schilt in the quarterfinal, would not arrive in Japan until 7:00 pm on that day.

The reigning and three-time K-1 World Champion, Remy Bonjasky, and Errol Zimmerman stepped up to the front of the room to lock eyes in an intense stare-down. Sensing the ill will between the two, the K-1 officials dragged them apart.

Bonjasky had little to say about Zimmerman and instead threw down the gauntlet to Overeem: "To honor the fighters of K-1, I want to make clear that it is not only up to me. Alistair is just fighting K-1 like a part-time job. I want to say to all the fighters here that it will be embarrassing to have Alistair take the crown back to MMA, so guys, please, beat Alistair Overeem."

Not one to back down, Overeem delivered his sharp-tongued retort to Bonjasky: "I am not disrespecting K-1 fighters. I am a K-1 fighter myself right now, and I started as a stand up fighter. I think there are some gentlemen up here that are a little bit scared of me. Remy wouldn’t be desperately asking to the others to beat me if he wasn’t, so I guess he is afraid of me."

Bonjasky quickly returned fire with a solid comeback: "Since you have been in K-1, I am the one that beat you. You went down against me!! So, bring it on!"

With a stacked line-up from top to bottom, the Fields K-1 WORLD Grand Prix 2009 airs live from Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan on Saturday, Dec. 5. In North America, the event airs on HDNet at 3:00 am ET on Friday night/Saturday morning. The team of commentators consisting of "The Voice" Michael Schiavello, K-1 veteran Ray Sefo, and Mike Kogan delivers the live report from Yokohama Arena on HDNet.

The full line-up is as follows:

Opening fights: K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R

Keiichi Samukawa vs. Ryuji Kajiwara
Jan Soukup vs. Tsutomu Takahagi
Singh Jaideep vs. Makoto Uehara

Reserve fights: K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ext. 1R

Peter Aerts vs. Gokhan Saki
Daniel Ghita vs. Sergei Kharitonov

K-1 World Grand Prix 2009 Quarter finals: K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ext. 2R

Ruslan Karaev vs. Badr Hari
Alistair Overeem vs. Ewerton Texeira
Jerome Le Banner vs. Semmy Schilt
Errol Zimmerman vs. Remy Bonjasky

Super fight: K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R

Tyrone Spong vs. Keijiro Maeda

For the videos from the Dec. 4 press conference, head over to our FanShots by clicking here.