Saki: “I will show you real kickboxing”

Gokhan Saki (79-16, 56 KO’s) doesn’t know how his fight with Nathan ‘Carnage’ Corbett (57-4, 45 KO’s) will finish on Saturday night - but he is sure it will finish.

"I don’t know how I am going to win," he says. "It could be the left hook, it could be something else. If I don’t win with the left hook, it will be a high kick. If it isn’t the high kick, it will be low kicks.

"I can fight different styles. So if I see he is closed off to the left hook, he will go down with the right hook maybe, we will see."

Saki and Corbett are facing off in the semi-final stage of the GLORY 15 ISTANBUL tournament, which takes place this Saturday April 12 and airs in the US on SPIKE TV.

Corbett has an incredible record in Muay Thai, where he is a multi-time world champion, but he suffered a knockout loss when he made his GLORY debut last year against Tyrone Spong (90-5, 60 KO’s). They are now 1-1 against each other.

"His best weapon is elbows and he can’t use them under GLORY rules because this is not Muay Thai, so I guess that could be tough for him," muses Saki.

"Often he wins his fights by making big cuts on the face [with the elbow] so the referee stops the fight. But now he needs to fight. Now he has fought under GLORY rules I think he might be better, he wont train with the elbows now, he will be more focused on boxing and kickboxing."

Corbett is known as one of the faster fighters in the light-heavyweight category but his reputation has nothing on Saki’s.

Blistering speed was Saki’s trademark throughout his heavyweight career, but now he is down at light-heavyweight the question is, will he lose that advantage?

"Who says the light-heavyweights are fast?" scowls Saki. "Who says my speed will only be average? I don’t think so. I used to be 104 kilos, now I am down to 95kg, I am faster than I used to be.

"And I am facing guys who are the same size and the same weight as me, its not like at heavyweight where I was having to give up ten or twenty kilos weight to fight someone. So I think it is only an advantage for me - I am faster, but I don’t have as much weight disadvantage."

A referee’s error played a crucial part in Saki losing to Rico Verhoeven during their GLORY 11 CHICAGO fight, which formed one semi-final of the evening’s heavyweight tournament.

Saki doesn’t like talking about that loss - "It is the past, now we look to the future" - but he does believe he will be able to show more of his skills in this weekend’s tournament.

"At light-heavyweight I can show real kickboxing, real Thai boxing. At heavyweight with my height and my weight… when I go in, I go in, but you think twice before you go in because there is ten or twenty kilos difference," he says.

"Of course at light-heavyweight I also need to take care, because if you take a good punch there is a good chance you will be knocked out.

"But now with my opponents being the same height and weight, I think I can show a higher tempo of fighting and more range of techniques. I’m sure [the fans] will see new moves that they will never forget."

Assuming Saki gets past Corbett, the bookmakers believe that it is Tyrone Spong he will be facing in the final. Spong has Saulo Cavalari (28-2, 18 KO’s) in the semi-final stages and while Cavalari has frightening KO power, Spong is by far the favorite to take the win.

Saki and Spong fought once before, a 2009 encounter which went to an extra fourth round. In a classic finish Spong came forward with an overhand right only to find Saki had anticipated the blow and thrown a counter-shot at lightning speed. The counter-right KO’d Spong.

“We are different fighters now, both of us, so it will be interesting if we do meet in the final,” says Saki.

“Both of us dropped down from heavyweight to light-heavyweight but we are not similar really, we have very different styles.

“But I do like Spong as a fighter. He is one of the best kickboxers at the moment - after me of course - and I like his style. I liked his fight against Corbett, he made it [look] easy, he was very confident. He did only what he needed to do, he was [efficient].”

However, the kind words for Spong do not extend to reports that Spong is unhappy with this tournament taking place in Istanbul, Saki’s spiritual home city and the place his parents come from.

“I didn’t like having to do the heavyweight tournament in America but I didn’t complain about it. Nobody wants to hear it. So I don’t want to hear it from Spong either,” he says. “Fighters fight anywhere.”

The media attention was intense when Saki headlined GLORY 6 ISTANBUL last year, and the fan support even more so. This time around Saki is more used to it and says neither bring any added pressure.

Saki is a fighter who likes a challenge. Indeed his entire legend is built on facing any and all challenges, being scared of nothing and nobody. Sometimes that translates into a certain restlessness. Saki doesn’t like to get too comfortable, in his training or his personal life.

So one miserable September day last year, the Dutch-Turkish prizefighter shielded his eyes against the falling rain, looked up at the gray Amsterdam sky and decided enough was enough.

Having turned 30 years of age, he had started to grow tired of living in the kind of constant drizzle, which characterizes the weather of north-west Europe. He had an offer on the table to relocate to Dubai and he decided to take it.

He made the switch in October and hasn’t looked back since.

"The weather is amazing in Dubai, the best weather I ever had," he says. "It makes a big difference. There was too much bad weather in Holland and… I don’t know, I had a feeling like I needed to do something different in my life.”

The move did come as a surprise though. It was only at the start of 2013 that Saki had made another big move. His long time trainer Cor Hemmers retired from coaching and Saki looked for a new camp to join.

He settled on Mike’s Gym in Amsterdam, headed by the larger-than-life Mike Passenier, and credit’s the switch with giving him a new energy.

"Moving to Mike’s Gym was what I needed, it was a good move. I had been with my previous trainer for ten years and I think I learned everything I could learn," he says.

"It gave me new energy and motivation. Actually I had been thinking to make a move into MMA or boxing, but Mike persuaded me to keep my future in kickboxing.”

But the move to Dubai takes him out of regular training with Passenier, so has Saki not accidentally hamstrung himself in the process of livening up his personal life?

“Mike came out here in January to start my camp and set training plans in place,” he says. “I don’t know… Dubai was a test, a new challenge.

“My friends and family are back in the Netherlands but life in Dubai is good. I have the weather and I have good training. I have the best of both worlds.”

GLORY 15 ISTANBUL takes place this Saturday night in Istanbul, Turkey. The event airs on SPIKE TV at 8pm ET and in over 150 territories worldwide.

In the headline slot, Robin Van Roosmalen will face off with the hotly-tipped young prospect Marat Grigorian as both seek to establish their claim to be included in the lightweight title contender conversation.