On August 13, 2005 Ruslan Karaev entered the K-1 tournament, "Mayhem in
Mirage" in Las Vegas a virtual unknown. In quarter finals Karaev quickly
established his presence when he faced Freddy Kemayo of France and won the
bout with 1 round KO by a spinning back kick what caught Kemayo in the
midsection.
The semifinal round of the event Karaev faced muay thai stylist Azem
Maksutaj in what was later acknowledged as one of the greatest battles in
the history of K-1. He topped his performance of the night by a decision
win over American Scott Lighty and was crowned the tournament champion.
On September 23, 2005 at the K-1 World GP Final Eliminations in Osaka
Dome, Japan he faced Rickard Nordstrand from Sweden the replacement
fighter of 4 time World Champion Ernesto Hoost who had to pull out due to
a leg injury. Ruslan won the fight by unanimous decision and earned his
first appearance at the K-1 World Grand Prix 2005 Finals.
Ruslan finished up his rookie year in K-1 on November 19, 2005 at the
Tokyo Dome, Karaev's quarterfinal opponent was Musashi. Ruslan lost the
fight by a controversial extra round split decision.
In 2006 he came back to Las Vegas to fight this time in a
Superfight vs other Vegas Tournament Champion and K-1 veteran Stefan
Leko, beating him on points. Later he would visit this city again to
win a local fighter Dewey Cooper.
He accessed to the World Grand Prix 2006 Finals again winning Badr
Hari in the Eliminations, but lost in the quarterfinals lost vs a
great fighter as Glaube Feitosa is.
In 2007 he hasnīt had very good luck and have lost his 2
fights till the moment, versus two great top dutchmen as Badr Hari
and Melvin Manhoef. But we know that he will recover from these
losts and will have good results in his next fights!
With only 24 years old.. there are a lot of success coming in the
near future for this champion.
K-1
BIOGRAPHY