K-1 Brazil Ready To Make History In Sao Paulo!
 K-1 Brazil Ready to Make History in Sao Paulo!  Everything is ready and set for the first ever official K-1 event in Brazil, and now it’s only a matter of opening up the gates and have the fighters on the middle of the ring for the action to begin, and Brazilians have the chance to have their first ever taste of the biggest stand up fighting competition in the world. Today, February 23rd at 5:00 pm Brazilian time, at the absolutely astonishing Maksud Plaza Hotel in Sao Paulo 8 fighters from different disciplines and all with a respectable resume will be battling to be crowned K-1 Brazil champions, and earn the chance to compete at K-1 USA in Las Vegas at May 2nd. Promoter Sergio Batarelli worked hard over the course of the years to establish a good relationship with the K-1 organization and have their permission to hold an official K-1 event in Brazil, as he explained to FCF "My goal was always to become a K-1 promoter, ever since I learned about K-1. In fact this Sunday I’ll be achieving a huge dream"
In the process of achieving his dream, Batarelli had to fulfill several requests from K-1 considering the organization of the event, since the Japanese want guarantee the quality of the event that carries such a prestigious name "With K-1 I have some guidelines to follow from Japan. Everything must be according to the K-1 pattern, from the press conference, to my outfit, the backstage facilities, everything. I have a list to follow, so I need the right structure, like we have here" With all the details worked and a perfect venue to hold the event, nothing else was in the way of K-1 Brazil to become a reality and this Saturday, February 22nd, the press conference, weigh-ins and rules meeting took place in Sao Paulo, at the Maksud Plaza Hotel as well, kicking off the Brazilian K-1 experience. Everything went well, and since it is a heavyweight tournament there were no problems regarding the weigh-ins. There was a friendly atmosphere among the fighters, and during the rules meeting all the questions about the judging criteria and specific rules were cleared.
The winner of the alternate fight will replace a fighter in case someone can’t continue on the tournament after a win, however only if it’s an win by KO or TKO, because according to the K-1 rules if the fighter who can’t continue won his fight by points, the loser of the fight will replace him if needed instead of the alternate fighter. The rules for all the fights are the exact same rules of K-1, since it’s an official K-1 event, and the WKN title fight will have five rounds of three minutes each. The tournament fights will be three rounds of three minutes each, with a fourth and fifth rounds of overtime in case it’s needed.
Another NHB veteran who is participating in the K-1 Brazil tournament is MECA veteran and two times winner Carlinhos.
Carlinhos comes from the Brazilian Impacto team, from Curitiba, and he will start his tourney participation against a Muay Thai fighter who already won a fight at STORM called Vitor Miranda. In his last NHB showing Carlinhos defeated Alex Gaze at MECA 7, but in an 80 kg division! This time he will be fighting heavyweights and he didn’t feel scared by the task "I reached 98 kg during my preparation, but as the preparation continued I started losing weight, due to the hard training and the improvement on my cardio condition. As I was improving my cardio I started to lose more weight, and now I’m weighing 91kg. I don’t think any weigh differences will matter, cause when someone really likes to fight he needs to face anyone. I fight NHB however my strongest point is stand up fighting, so I’m very excited with this chance". Also in the tournament brackets will be Eduardo Maiorino, who is a student of IVC veteran Artur Mariano, facing Laerte Junior who is also a boxer and a former Champion of the state of Sao Paulo. Completing the field of eight men will be Jefferson Tank, a Pan American Kickboxing champion fighting Lucio Aurelio who is a Tae Kwon Do champion. Coming from Tae Kwon Do Lucio may not be used to the boxing part of the game, however he feels he is ready for the show "This event will be the most important of my career, and I have been training a lot for it at our state of Espirito Santo. Even considering that we don’t have a lot of athletes there, we have been training hard and this gives me confidence to fight in any event"  Here are the brackets that will determine the K-1 Brazil champion, who will fight in Las Vegas at May 2nd, alongside with one wild card fighter:
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