Thailand’s Buakaw Por Pramuk is leaving Thailand for Japan where he will fight Dutch Andy Souwer in the K-1 tournament’s semifinal on October 26.

Buakaw, who became an international muaythai star after winning the K-1 tournament in 2004 and 2006, is currently one of the four semifinalists of the 2009 K-1 Max tournament who will be pitted against each other on the last tournament day on October 26 in Japan. Buakaw is scheduled to leave Thailand in the night of October 22 to fly to Japan.

If Buakaw is able to beat Dutch Andy Souwer in the semifinal, he would face the other eventual finalist, either Italy’s Giorgio Petrosyan or Japan's Yuya Yamamota, in just one hour after the semifinal bout. The winner will earn prize money of 20 million Yen, or about 6.7 million Baht.