1) Ed Wedding vs. Yoshiyuki Takayama: These dudes were small. Like 61 KGs and change it said? 3 3 minute rounds. Wedding's bio says he did filipino stickfighting. Awesome. He also wears shootboxing pants. And he trained with Fernando Vasconcelos! Oh man. That is a blast from the past.
FIGHT: Takayama Unanimous Decision. Highlights shown of round one and two: mostly Wedding getting caugh in a heel hook and rolling out of it. Round three is shown in complete, and it consists of Takayama basically closing the distance, clinching, getting the fight down, and then operating inside the guard while Wedding is effectively helpless at this primordial stage. (0)
2) Hiroyuki Kojima vs. Yuji Fujita: Slightly bigger dudes - 72.2KG for Jojima, 70.4 for Fujita. Fujita has no idea how to stand. Moarrrrr shootboxing trunks for Kojima. More 3 minute rounds.
FIGHT: Kojima Unanimous Decision. Highlights of one and two again, and its of Kojima with takedowns immediately and control. Round three starts and that happens again, with Kojima going to mount and trying to get a GNP win. Fujita bucks him and ends up on top for awhile, and even attempts a leg lock as the bell rings. Nowhere near enough. (0)
RESTART @ 33:00
3) Hisao Ikeda vs. Jin Akimoto: More little guys. 3x3 min rounds, Maybe a 61KG limit? Both are under it by a decent amount.
FIGHT: Akimoto Unanimous Decision. Pretty simple fight to understand, even being highlights only for 1 & 2 - Ikeda can't stop takedowns (as proven in the Uchuu Tatsumi fight) and Akimoto does that over and over. When Ikeda tries to scramble or improve position, he either gets swept (as in the third round when he somehow ends up on top for about 5 seconds early on) or nearly gets guillotined. (0)
4) Tomoaki "Syohnan" Hayama vs. Ron Balicki: Balicki is the smaller man by about 3 pounds or so and is wearing shootboxing trunks. 3X3.
FIGHT:Balicki Unanimous Decision. Full fight shown. Last MMA fight for Balicki. (0)
Hayama: How do you lose the fight when you're in the dominant grappling position most of the fight? Easy. Shooto scoring. To be honest, it may have been fair here. In round one he has the mount for 2 minutes and accomplishes nothing because he's fending a guillotine off. In round 2, Bailicki actually has to control for a good amount of the round, and in round three, where Hayama is again on top, he also has to contend with another arm in guillotine attempt that limits his actual offense from inside the guard to maybe 20 seconds.
Balicki: Loves the guillotine. Loves it loves it loves it. Seems to almost be a karate based kickboxer the way he stands and throws; research says that's probable given his roots in Inosanto's school. Today, Balicki is a martial arts instructor with a slick website that features a picture of the arm-in guillotine from round 3 prominently on his site.
5) Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. Takuya Kuwabara: A young 21 year old Sakurai competes here.
FIGHT: Draw. Highlights are shown as is a full third round, but Sakurai clearly seems to be overwhelming Kuwabara most of the fight with activity and positioning. Sakurai's corner laughs at the call. (3)
6) Kenji Kawaguchi vs. Naoki Sakurada: This is a big deal. That is made certain by the video pieces introing it. Sakurada enters to the Superman theme song. I think this is for the 82KG title? I have no idea.
FIGHT: Uh, no decision. Not really a fight? Looks to be a 3 minutes exhibition with Kawaguchi getting repeated takedowns. Sakurada is apparently retiring and this is some sort of retirement bout with flowers handed to him, and a bell ceremony and a trophy and shit. (NA)
7) Masato Fujiwara vs. Akihiro Gono: Oh man.
FIGHT: Gono Unanimous Decision. Again, only the 3rd if shown in full. In the final round, Gono "knocks down" Fujiwara by catching a kick and then punching him. Should have been called a sweep, but hey, those are the breaks. Fujiwara was looking for nothing but takedowns the whole fight and really didn't seem to have much for Gono other than the rush to clinch/shooting for a double. (3)
8) Uchu Tatsumi vs. Mamoru Okochi: Not the Mamoru.
FIGHT: Tatsumi Unanimous Decision. Rounds 3-5 were shown in full. Tatsumi is still first and foremost a top control wrestler. He shoots for takedowns, generally gets them, and doesn't really work to finish. Its enough to justify a decision though. Okochi has a nice sweep in the 4th as Tatsumi tried to get to mount, but that was basically the most exciting thing seen in the highlights of two rounds and three full ones. (1)
9) Stuart Harrison vs. Erik Paulson: Yay! Erik Paulson! He looks a little soft here
FIGHT: Paulson Submission Rnd 2. Just runs a clinic on Harrison - takedown early in the first, is in side control, tries to show off by getting a triangle choke from side control. Time runs out though. In the second, he gets another takedown, mounts, and then gets the armbar. Purely academic. (3)
10) Rumina Sato vs. Ricky Botelho: YESSSSSS
FIGHT: Sato Submission Rnd 3. Fight is shown in full. Sato actually has some trouble on the mat in the first, which would probably go to Botelho. However, Sato comes out strong in round 2 and lands some strikes that hurt Botelho (punctuated with a headkick). In round three, the fight goes to the mat as Sato rolls for a heel hook. Botelho tries to escape under the ropes away from the hold, but is forced to tap out. (3)
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT & SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Sato/Botelho
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4 out of 10. Lots of clipped fights unfortunately, only one really good one. Lots of names though.
D&R Rating: 29% (13/45, Kawaguchi/Sakurada not counted)
No comments:
Post a Comment