Golden Glory is going to sue K-1 and try to force the Japanese company into bankruptcy at last, an executive of the Dutch martial arts organization claimed today. Bas Boon, a senior manager with Golden Glory, sent an email to Fighters Only detailing his outrage with K-1 and his plans to avenge what he sees as a litany of shady actions and bad-faith negotiations.
With K-1 and its parent company FEG having been in severe financial difficulties for some time, there have been prolonged negotiations between various parties trying to buy the trademark to continue the brand. These have broadly fallen into two camps - one headed by K-1 president Mr Tanigawa and backed by a Korean investor named ‘Mr Kim’ and the other headed by Golden Glory in association with K-1 founder Mr Ishii.
Golden Glory thought it was close to taking over the K-1 brand in late 2011 but Boon now claims that double-dealing and underhand tactics have put paid to that. Mr Tanigawa’s faction have retained control of the K-1 brand, but Boon contends that they are penniless and surely cannot meet the debts that K-1 has nor handle the operational costs to go forward.
Sources told Fighters Only at the time that Barbizon was actually a front company for organised crime entities - ie. a Yakuza faction - which FEG had been borrowing money from as its credit rating was too poor to access loans from legitimate lenders.
