I previously mentioned Daniel Ghita and his leg kick. Here he is again in the K1 World GP 2010 Seoul.

Very good fight on Ghita’s part. He uses his reach to keep Zimmerman at bay and punishes him hard with leg kicks. Errol is no slouch and isn’t afraid to duke it out with bigger guys but you can see he’s in pain when Ghita’s leg kick lands. To boot, Daniel mixes it up with a couple left middle kicks that also do damage while keeping Zimmerman guessing as to what’s coming next.

In the second round, Zimmerman knows he has to close in to avoid taking more damage to the legs. So he has to take risks in crossing that distance fast enough to get past Ghita’s kicks. The flying knee isn’t a bad choice for that but I think Ghita was ready for it as Errol used it round one a few times too.  And the knockout follows almost naturally.

The thing I like most about Ghita’s leg kick is how he times it exceedingly well. He doesn’t throw and hope. He sets it up perfectly so Zimmerman is usually not in a position where he can block it. In this fight, his leg kick forces his opponent to come to him and Daniel was waiting for just that opening.

Great fight. I look forward to seeing more from both fighters.