In 2006, Sem Schilt collected his second Grand Prix title, his 6^th win (bouts) in a row and put the K-1 promotional company in a very difficult matchmaking dilemma.

The 212cm giant has defeated every fighter to have successfully won the Grand Prix or to have made it to the final of the GP who isn’t inactive, retired or deceased: Hoost, Aerts, Bonjasky, LeBanner, Sefo, Mori and Feitosa. It is unlikely Hunt, Mirko, Filho, Bernardo, Satake or Branko would or could present much of a challenge.

Heavyweight boxing faced a similar dilemma in the 1930s with Joe Louis. The Brown Bomber beat everyone worth mentioning before he even took the title. His reign of 25 title defenses was thus called the Bum of the Month Tour. Schilt looks so unstoppable (Both Aerts and LeBanner receive counts against him.) that 2007 may well be Schilt’s Bum of the Month Tour.

The K-1 has two options. The first is to embrace it and build Schilt’s image as the unstoppable juggernaut. They did the same with Aerts in 1999 and the shock of Aerts’ 1:10 KO loss in that Grand Prix created the Hyper Battle Cyborg character, Jerome LeBanner. The second option is to recruit all the tall fighters to properly prepare Schilt’s competition. If Aerts, Bonjasky, Sefo and LeBanner had 2 or 3 fights against M. Silva, Nortje, Orlov, Bregy, etc they would be able to adjust for the eventual rematch with Schilt himself.

Schilt undoubtedly has his own objectives. Becoming the first to win 3 Grand Prix titles in a row would solidify his place in history as would extending his tournament undefeated record from 6-0 to 9-0.

Two fights I would like to see him take would be against Ignashov and Nakasako. Ignashov is the only fighter to knock Schilt out. It is doubtful he could repeat the feat, but I’d like to see him try just the same. Nakasako is the only fighter to lose by KO to every K-1 Grand Prix champion except Branko. Aerts, Hug, Hoost, Hunt and Remy have all knocked out Nakasako. I'd hate to see Schilt excluded from the tradition.