(Poturak vs. Melvin Manhoef, 2/13/05.)

Alistair Overeem continues his large-gloved pursuits tonight when he takes on Dževad Poturak in the opening round of the 2010 K-1 World Grand Prix (watch a surprisingly depressing promo here) in Yokohama, Japan. Poturak is coming off two straight decision losses and he’s currently a 5-1 underdog in the fight. Basically, he’s supposed to be a side of beef for Overeem to beat on. Hopefully our massive Dutch friend can do that without getting himself hurt. There is that whole Strikeforce heavyweight title defense thing looming on the calendar, and if Overeem puts it off yet again, well, there’s no guarantee that Scott Coker won’t just totally snap and go on a killing spree in downtown San Jose. It’s always the quiet ones.

The fights air live on HDNet at 4 am ET Saturday morning, which means that you can stumble home and microwave some fish sticks just in time to watch Michael Schiavello freak out over some K-1 action. Trust us, you’ll still be hearing his voice in your nightmares long after you’ve passed out.

(Melvin Manhoef highlights just never get old, do they?)

Those of you who love K-1 kickboxing enough to either wake up in the middle of the night or else just stay up until 3:30 am EST probably already know this, but we thought we’d remind the rest of you that the 2009 K-1 World Grand Prix Final 16 goes down early Saturday morning on HDNet.  That means Melvin Manhoef vs. Remy Bonjasky and Alistair Overeem vs. Peter Aerts, plus a whole bunch of other fights.  So whether you stumble home late enough to catch it, or if you just can’t sleep because of crushing guilt, K-1 will be there for you.  Because K-1 knows you’d do the same for it…wouldn’t you?