1) ISAMU OOSUGI vs. RUMINA SATO: Oosugi has thai shorts with an American Flag motif. Sato is awesome.
Oosugi catches a low kick and Sato goes for the leglock. As Oosugi attempts to defend, Sato goes for an inverted triangle. Oosugi stands and slams down Sato to try and escape, but Sato holds the triangle and sweeps over Oosugi. For the next minute or so he punches a lot to the body, even flexing his biceps, before Oosugi finally taps to the lock. Fantastic. (3)
2) KENDO NAGASAKI vs. ZANE FRAZIER: Oh dear. Old pro wrestler against bad kickboxer/MMA fighter.
Frazier starts throwing punches early and often, and Nagasaki doesn't like it. By "doesn't like it", I mean that he falls down. 6 count by the ref and they start again. It lasts maybe 2 seconds until a straight right pulverizes Nagasaki and he is down hard and not moving. Ref counts to 10 for no good reason; Nagasaki's back of his head hit the mat and bounced. He doesn't get up afterwards, needing to be stretchered out. Ugly. (1) for name value and viciousness.
3) LEONID ZASLAVASKY vs. KAZUHIRO SAKAMOTO: Zaslavasky didn't do that well last time I watched him fight. Here? Probably no better. Sakamoto is now a promoter in Japan, and this was his last bout.
Zaslavsky is shooting for takedowns even though he is landing the left hook. No idea why. The reasoning goes wrong early: Sakamoto sprawls to defend and spins to the back of Zaslavsky, puts in his hooks and a choke. (0)
4) YASUNORI OKUDA vs. ERIK PAULSON: Okuda I've never heard of, but he beat a young Akihiro Gono in 1994. Really!
Paulson slams him down from the clinch, goes to side control, works for a kimura, and Okuda taps. (3)
5) KUNIAKI KOBAYASHI vs. SATORU SAYAMA: Worked shoot time! I think. Well, they trade submissions harmlessly, and give up legs and stuff. Sayama forces a tapout by Kobayashi, and scores a point or something. Then he kicks Kobayashi in the face and he drops. And he's unconscious. And everyone is really surprised and Tiger Mask is almost crying. Yikes. Second stretcher of the night! No score.
6) YUKI NAKAI vs. JEAN JACQUES MACHADO: A BJJ match. Machado wins with an armbar. Who cares? Not me. No score.
7) ANTHONY LANGE vs. NOBORU ASAHI: Asahi is featherweight champ and Lange is the challenger, I think. He's another guy making a pro debut. 8 min rounds and 3 of them.
Asahi shoots for the takedown and its a "positioning battle" of dudes laying on each other. Lange reverses and gets caught in a triangle he has to slam out of. Asahi later goes for a guillotine, transitions to a triangle and then to a straight armbar to force Lange to tap. Impressive. (4) for being another title fight in the weight class.
-Afterwards, a backstage interview with Asahi, who wears dorky glasses and has a leopard print towel around his shoulders.
BUT WAIT! I didn't know this was a two-fer. Onward to Korakuen Hall and the future of November 1995.
8) ISAMU OOSUGI vs. TOMOAKI "SYNONAN" HAYAMA: No idea who they are. 3X3, 75KG limit.
Hayama keeps trying to pull guard and Oosugi won't let him. That is the story of round one and two. Eventually Oosugi can't fend them off anymore by holding up Hayama and has to tap. The end. (0)
9) KIMIHITO NONAKA vs. MASAHIRO "JACKAL" DOISHI: Who? The best part is that I saw Doishi fight in the K-1 Hero's 2007 Lithuania show and remember nothing.
Interesting grappling battle in the first and second, with Nonaka going for inverted triangle and armbars from all sorts of odd places as he's just trying to keep Doishi close to him and on the mat. He's generally open to pulling guard too. A turnbuckle breaks late in the first round. The highlight of the fight is a wild suplex Doishi pulls off from having overhooks in the clinch. I tried scoring it, but forgot Shooto has some insane 30 point system. Fight ends as a draw. (0)
10) TORU KOGA vs. KYUHEI UENO: Another Ueno appearance, this in a five rounder.
Insane head and arm suplex/tazplex by Koga, but like most pro wrestling moves, useless in MMA. Ueno keeps getting kicks caught and Koga is taking advantage. He might have a dorky bowl cut, but that was cool in '95. Maybe. And he's not a bad fighter. By the second round, Ueno has him figured out and should have gotten credit for two knockdowns. However, Koga dropped and looked like he was headed for a leg when he got hurt by the punches, letting him off the hook by the judges. Final round sees Koga and Ueno almost go out of the ring after some wild punching and clinch, but a body shot to Koga drops him. Ref calls it as a shot: Ueno takes the back and proceeds to beat him into giving up the RNC. Not too terrible, but not special either. (0)
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(s): Doishi/Nonaka
KO OF THE NIGHT(s): Nagasaki/Frazier
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(s): Sato/Oosugi
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT (s): 5 out of 10. Totally down the middle average with a couple great performances by the best names on the show.
D&R Rating: 24% (11/45)
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