Moosin: God of Martial Arts (5/21/2010)

A classic event. The version I'm watching is the Polsat Sport one with Polish commentary. The show is only two hours long. Round cage - borrowed from ProElite?

1) Lukasz Jurkowski vs. Kim Ho Jin: Light heavyweight contest.

FIGHT: Jukowski TKO Rnd 1. Not a lot to say about this fight. Both men were kinda sloppy going for throws in the clinch and Jin was a much smaller man. Jurkowski eventually nicked Jin with a knee that bothered him a little and followed it with a hard elbow to the head he didn't expect that dropped him. Some punches on the mat followed and ended it. (0)

2) Tara LaRosa vs. Roxanne Modafferi: LaRosa looks old now, jesus. Roxie looks like an ugly nerd.

FIGHT: Modafferi Split Decision. If this were a men's fight, this would be a five. Its the women though, and so I give it a (4).

Modafferi: Starting with the winner - she actually hurts LaRosa standing pretty badly in round one after the two had basically spent the round against the cage in an embrace. In rounds two and three though, its Modafferi getting stunned by punches. While she really doesn't do anything in round 2 to justify giving her the round, in round 3 though its a different story. She's dropped and LaRosa rushes into her guard. But when she gets there, Modafferi throws up a couple solid triangle attempts. While LaRosa escapes both and has a couple hammerfists of little value, the submission attempts are basically enough to get her a win on two cards.

LaRosa: Her age is catching up to her, as might be the cut down to 130. Why was she so easily caught in triangle attempts? Don't know. She did manage to escape but the close calls she endured in round 3 cost her the fight when she should have been able to keep it standing and manage the fight and decision on the feet.

3) Yves Edwards vs. Mike Campbell: Lightweight fight between the aging journeyman and a pseudo prospect who already bounced out of the WEC.

FIGHT: Campbell Unanimous Decision. Incredibly close fight. I'll be honest - I think Yves Edwards has some reason to be upset here. (3)

Campbell: Just a guy who is good at a few things - standard issue wrestleboxer with some level of athleticism. He rocks Edwards with some punches in the second round but actually spends a surprising amount of time on the back foot and on his back. Even gives up his back to Edwards a couple times. I'll be honest - I don't see how he won the fight. He got cut, he got thrown around with a couple impressive tosses (Edwards nearly gave him a cradle piledriver in the third) - did they consider the parts that Edwards wasn't dominating "control" on Campbell's part?

Edwards: He's still fun to watch and he still brought it - nearly laid out Campbell with a headkick in the first round as well as a knee that was oh-so-close in the first round, but did cut him with punches. He was pretty even with Campbell until he dropped his hands and took some punches in the second, elevating Campbell from a body lock on the backside to throw him down and be in side control. In the third he landed better (I thought) with Campbell occasionally coming forward and clinching or going for the legs only to get take hammerfists, get shrugged off, or get thrown. Oh well.

4) Rafael Natal vs. Travis Lutter: Natal was tearing up ROC for a little bit. Lutter has been taking a long fall in his MMA career. He just looks tired and worn out standing around the ring. Might not even care.

FIGHT: Natal TKO Rnd 1. Simply put, this is a case of a guy who looks like he aged all at once. He had zero for Natal standing, would constantly fail to get the takedown, and went down to a grazing left hand and got pounded out on the mat. Natal gets a UFC contract afterwards. (3)

5) Travis Wiuff vs. Josh Barnes: Wiuff has been reviewed stunningly few times for all the fights he's had. Barnes was a sort of a prospect who came in 1-3 for his last 4 coming into this.

FIGHT: Wiuff TKO Rnd 1. Barnes and Wiuff trade and Barnes isn't Mike Kyle or Tim Hague or whatever. Stuns Barnes with a left hook and then levels him with the followup. Fight is 34 seconds. (2)

6) Tim Sylvia vs. Mariusz Pudzianowski: Freakshow of epic proportions that people actually thought Pudz might win. No good reasoning behind it, just that Sylvia lost to Mercer and somehow, being muscular makes for being the same as a former top heavyweight boxing contender.

FIGHT: Sylvia TKO Rnd 2. Generally dominated by Sylvia who absorbs little actual punishment from the diesel Pudz. Mariusz just thunders forward with bad low kicks and punches, tries to clinch and get takedowns, and finds a resisting opponent is tougher to toss around than a 800lb stone ball. Sylvia hits him with kicks and punches while looking pretty chubs at the moment, and early in the second Mariusz basically flops and allows Sylvia to get on top of him and hit him until the ref stops it. Clearly Pudz can't fight more than 3 minutes and can't fight at a high level for the 3 minutes he can go. The bouts scores highly for being one of those Cro-Cop/Dos Caras Jr. style fights that simply can't be missed. (4)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Edwards/Campbell

KO OF THE NIGHT: Wiuff/Barnes

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7.5 out of 10. There's some good fights on this card - no wars or crazy FOTY candidates, but good fights with decent fighters. The women's fight could be considered one of the maybe 15-20 most important fights the weight class has ever seen. Heavyweight freaskshow fight is historically valuable to MMA in Poland and to an extend internationally.

D&R Rating: 53% (16/30)

Impact FC 2 (7/18/2010) (& 1 sorta)

From the failed Aussie promotion that shorted everyone involved, we have this almost instant classic MMA show. Andy Hammond and Elvis Sinosic are announcing this insanity that is headlined by Ken Shamrock/Pedro Rizzo. The show though is a complete mess, as interspersed with live fights are bouts that were taped during the first Impact FC event a week earlier. Since these are the only events the company ever held and they're already totally bankrupt, its unlikely we'll see a DVD release officially stateside or anywhere ever. So for those fights when relevant, the actual date is 7/10/2010. But the PPV counts as a PPV. OK? OK.

1) Murilo Bustamante vs. Jesse Taylor: This is the fight starting the card. I repeat - THE FIGHT STARTING THE SHOW.

FIGHT: Taylor TKO Rnd 2 (3)

Bustamante: Murilo comes out looking strong - he actually gets some near submissions in the fight in the first round and has dominant positions (sweeps Taylor and mounts him!). However, he starts looking gassed by the end of the first after failing to win. Taylor gets a takedown early in the second and just rides on Bustamante, landing small shots until there's a standup. When it happens, Murilo stands briefly, the waives his hand and quits, collapsing.

Taylor: Better job of defending submissions, as there were real dangerous attempts in this fight against him. He just kept grinding and eventually forced Bustamante to quit.

NEXT - A fight from the IMPACT FC fight collection. That means the other show.

2) Josh Barnett vs. Geronimo Dos Santos: Josh Barnett looks to make up for his lame performance against a fat and lazy Mighty Mo.

FIGHT: Barnett TKO Rnd 1. Not much of a fight. Dos Santos was actually able to pummel with Barnett without going down immediately but totally smothered his own offense jumping into Barnett's clinch. He got out from under Barnett's mount once when Barnett seemed to be looking to float into an armbar, but got taken down with a trip again later and was pounded out from mount in the first. (3)

3) Jeremy May vs. Murilo "Ninja" Rua: May was on Season 7 of TUF. Remember him? I don't. Ninja is Shogun's less successful brother. But he did really beat Rampage that one time.

FIGHT: Ninja Submission Rnd 1. You see a fight like this and you think, "Wow, how uncompetitive is that?" And then it turns out to be a short war. May just wings the wildest punches ever at Ninja and he lands because Ninja's reflexes are dulled by multiple bad KOs. He nearly finishes Ninja with a bulldog choke, but Rua gets up and fights it off, then takes down May with a double leg. May actually just flips out of that like its pro wrestling or something and takes Rua's back briefly before Rua gets out of it. Back on the feet May comes charging at Ninja again and ends up getting choked out with a guillotine. Ninja had some dominance on top briefly but the fact that he was nearly stopped by May was shocking and sad. Rua needs to retire, but he probably can't. (2)

4) Denis Kang vs. Paulo Filho: A dream fight for PRIDE's 183lb weight class in 2005. Since then, both men have encountered huge personal demons. Now here they are in Australia fighting in front of a mostly empty building. I even forgot this fight happened.

FIGHT: Draw. I am a guy who hates 10-10 rounds. I would have given round 3 as 10-10. And I would have had this fight 29-29. In a sense, this was a perfect example of a fight that was a draw. No man really went after it and was successful in imposing their will. Filho would get half guard and land some hammerfists but then have to fight off a kimura. Same in reverse. (3)

Kang: Kang came out and dominated the entire first round of the fight. I mean, he gets on top and just hits Filho a lot. It is clear at this point that it is Kang's fight to lose. So what happens? He abandons his superior striking game against Filho having dominated the position and ends up on the bottom for most of round 2 and much of 3. He didn't lose the fight because in round 3, he was able to get up and effectively do some work of his own, but he ended up not winning either. And that's as big a crime.

Filho: Slow, lethargic, solely capable of grappling. These are traits of the modern Paulo Filho, now the poor man's Ricardo Arona. Its hard to believe looking at Filho's record that he has tumbled clear out of the top ten in the middleweight division, in fact dropping all the way to being nearly out of the top 20. This in spite of never technically losing as a middleweight, and only dropping one fight. Hell, he has a win over the guy that is still consensus ranked top 5 at this moment post roid positive (Sonnen). But it is deserved. He has pissed away what talent he had and fallen into disrepair mentally. Watching him lay on his back most of the first round smiling as he does nothing but keep a closed guard is a stunning indictment of Filho as a top caliber fighter. He shows he can still grapple competently in this fight, but we knew that as he was forced to rely on it to beat Chael Sonnen and Joe Doerkson in US fights of yore.

I can't think of anyone in MMA that has had a similar career curve while not losing. Because he has only one loss still. He doesn't deserve to be elevated off of this performance either, because Kang is clearly not a guy who is competing at the elite level any more. It all feels a bit sad.

5) Carlos Newton vs. Brian Ebersole: What a strange fight. Ebersole's a journeyman from Australia and therefore is a legend there, while everywhere in the world, Newton is the legend. Well, a legend with a journeyman record. So perhaps this is really evenly matched? This was also from the Impact FC 1 show.

FIGHT: Ebersole Unanimous Decision (2)

Newton: The saddest performance of Newton's career. Carlos doesn't even shoot for a takedown in this fight and ends up just eating jabs and right hands pretty much the whole fight. He tries to counter punch a little and in terms of grappling, Ebersole actually is the one pushing to try and get takedowns.

Ebersole: Some strange hammerfists to the thigh is what is most notable here. Aside from that, he is very ordinary as a striker and even more ordinary as a wrestler trying to get a takedown.

6) Brad Morris vs. Soa Palelei: What a weird regional contest. Two heavyweights of some note who have competed with regularity in Australia.

FIGHT: Palelei Submission Rnd 1. Not much of a fight, to be honest. Morris goes push Palelei up against the cage like he's going to take him down, doesn't, they end up lying there for awhile with Palelei tapping him, then turning the tables and pushing Morris into the cage. He gets down Morris and quickly moves to a kimura that forces Morris to tap out. If only Palelei was willing to get under 265 and fight real fighters. And could beat them. Since he can't. (1)

7) Paul Daley vs. Daniel Acacio: Acacio was a big name when he was in PRIDE for three seconds. Daley had been cut two months prior for the attempted sucker punch with Josh Koscheck in the UFC.

FIGHT: Daley TKO Rnd 3 (3)

Daley: Its tough to fault a guy too much when he wins by KO. However, Daley shows why he was one of the most overrated guys in the sport the last 3-4 years. In rounds 1 and 2 Daley ends up on the bottom because he's overzealous in his offense, and he barely escapes a heel hook attempt in round number 1. He basically just pulls his leg free. That's great that he can do it with Acacio, who isn't physically strong. Try doing that with a much stronger man and see how well it goes. He lands some good leg kicks but gets taken down off one. He does show that as in the Shields fight, his submission defense is not bad at all these days.

Acacio: Quits when he is gashed open with an elbow on the bottom in the third round. Its hard to believe he was a middleweight when in this welterweight contest, he is clearly much smaller than Daley. His strange post-PRIDE career made him a journeyman, and as a welterweight he has a lot to offer in that regard. He showed he has a decent chin weathering the shots of Daley early on. His striking is still uncomfortable and robotic, but that's not uncommon in the sport. Really, there's a lot of worst P4P fighters in the UFC than him.

8) Pedro Rizzo vs. Ken Shamrock: What an incredible and incredibly sad fight.

FIGHT: Rizzo TKO Rnd 1. Was there any doubt how this would end? Pedro Rizzo rarely gets to use his patented leg kicks but they were on display for all the world to see here, as he lands a ton of them to Ken Shamrock. Ken doesn't bother to shoot in, instead trading leg kicks and the occasional jab with Rizzo. Eventually he's chopped down and Big John McCarthy lets Rizzo hit him a couple more times on the ground as Ken just covers up. A sad fight. Ken's nose looks worse than Jerome LeBanner's. Amazingly. Ken states he wants to fight big names except when he fights in small towns for fans. The crowd hopes for more Ken Shamrock. That is a thing. As long as the fans still want to see him, Ken admits jokingly (but really, this is for real) that he will keep getting beat up. (2)

This concludes the PPV broadcast, but here's an EXCLUSIVE BSHOWASSAULT REVIEW~. The points here won't count to the show above though. From Impact FC 1:

(thanks to the dude who posted this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPT_5EM0ckA)

BONUS)Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Joaquim Ferreria: Terrible quality from a point and shoot far away, but whatever. Soccerjew fell on hard times. Really hard times. Here he fights off TV against the man that defeated Junior Dos Santos, a brazilian midget top control grappler. Sounds familiar.

FIGHT: Sokoudjou TKO Rnd 1. Amazingly the whole thing is clearly visible. Sokoudjou comes out swinging with a low kick and punches and Ferreria does the expected. He clinches and tries to stop the onslaught. Problem though - Sokoudjou was a judoka and didn't suck at it. He throws Ferreria in a really cool fashion and begins to pound him out. Ferreria briefly gets this fight back up but basically is muscled back down and punished with punches to the dome till the stop is forced. All he ever did was look for a single. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Acacio/Daley

KO OF THE NIGHT: Rizzo/Shamrock (even if it was like hitting a heavy bag in terms of difficulty)

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Ninja/May

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 6 out of 10. The problem with shows packed with guys like this is matchmaking. Honestly, most promoters who do it make fights with no thought given as to the sorts of bouts they'll be making, instead hoping to generate revenue off the names of the guys in the ring. That's not to say that better matchmaking was gonna save Impact FC, because it wasn't. It couldn't. Nothing could have except if Impact FC were called something totally different and operated in a totally different manner.

What I'm getting at is that here you have a bunch of fights that are actually sorta relevant or interesting to hardcore fans - IE people like me. But in terms of matching guys in ways that produce exciting or even contests, man, they came up way short. Aside from Daley's perennial act as underachiever against Daniel Acacio (a name no one has uttered as a serious contender in half a decade), what on this card is really arguarably as both indispensable and entertaining viewing? What do you come away from seeing, saying, "Wow, that was great MMA"? Viewing the competitive draw between Filho and Kang, its clear that neither belongs at the top of the MMA ladder anymore. They don't have the heart. They don't have the will. They fight not to lose instead of fighting to win. Mentally both men are shot and their souls taken.

Is it a worthless fight in the MMA pantheon? Of course not. Filho still has more potential in his pinky than Court McGee and Ryan Jensen have in their whole bodies combined. And they're in the UFC. Court McGee won TUF. Same goes for Kang. And they'll likely beat fighters at that level in the near and distant future. Hell, they may beat Court McGee himself on whatever the 2013 version of Battlecade is. But I can see why Joe Silva doesn't want them, and why they'll be sorta hopelessly searching for a position in this sport.

D&R Rating: 47.5% (19/40)

ASTRA (4/25/2010)

This is the Yoshida Retirement Show. Is it wrong to call it a B-Show? I guess, in the same way Colosseum 2000 isn't a B-Show. Its a one-off show though, its not DREAM or Sengoku, and its filled with second rate talent. Yoshida fights Kazuhiro Nakamura in the main event, and we've got Ryo Chonan, Enson Inoue, Omigawa, and tons of other random names on the bill too. I do big Shooto shows for this, so why not ASTRA?

1) Baru Harn vs. Seigo Mizuguchi: A pair of heavyweights from DEEP who I have never seen before. Harn is from Mongolia, so he's probably a former sumo or something. Both men come out to Pokerface. Incredible.

FIGHT: Baru Harn Unanimous Decision. Terrible fight between a couple lousy asian heavyweights engaging in sloppy standup. (0)

At this point, the show actually starts with a big long movie about Yoshida, a live rock band, and the classic MMA introductions.

2) Akihiko Mouri vs. Tatsunao Nagakura: Mori has a very fancy outfit to enter with. Nagakura and his team yell a lot and then dance. This is at lightweight...I think.

FIGHT: Mouri TKO Rnd 1. Nagakura keeps jumping in with hooks and then sitting on the outside. Mouri catches him sleeping with a left hook from waaaay back, drops him, and lands hammerfists until the fight is stopped by the ref. (0)

3) Yuya Shirai vs. Che Mills: Che Mills looked on paper to walk through TUF 9. Then he got beat in the opening round by James Wilks in a shocker. Shirai is a middle of the road sorta welterweight from Japan.

FIGHT: Shirai Submission Rnd 1. Not enough in the fight to sit here and give much in terms of analysis of both men. This was more of a submission grappling bout, and with Che Mills giving up his advantage as a kickboxer, the end couldn't be in doubt. Even with his omaplata and taking the back of Shirai briefly, he never really had Shirai near a point where he might be finished. After getting thrown off the back of Shirai, Mills ended up on the feet, but in a clinch where Shirai had underhooks and the leverage advantage. Its a tired cliche on here to say that a guy is who he was thought to be, but in the case of Shirai, is there any growth here? (1)

4) Ganjo Tentsuku vs. Daisuke Nakamura: Nakamura is one of the great b-show characters of all time. He's a guy with Pancrase boots who is in great fights more often than not. Tentsuku is an oft inactive Shooto lightweight I lack familiarity with, to be honest.

FIGHT: Nakamura Unanimous Decision (2)

Nakamura: The usual things happen here as any Nakamura fight - there's flying armbars, there's hands being kept low and a pumping jab from below the sightline of the opponent, there's wild grappling, there's fun. Nakamura constantly works to finish, even if it is sometimes in his best interest not to. In spite of having a handspeed advantage on Tentsuku and strafing him with jabs, he has major issues not getting hit in the face. This is why he's 22-12 and not 34-2. Combined with not being able to finish with holds when he has them seemingly sunk (he comes ohsoclose to an armbar at the end of the second), and Nakamura is a guy who was good, but never good enough.

Tentsuku: Japanese fighter with heart! Well, OK, so lots of them have heart and are willing to take beatings. What makes Tentsuku different? He has adequate submission defense that allows him to see all 15 minute rounds. He has good cardio, which means that in round 3 he actually begins to make a rousing comeback striking. His striking is not that good though - he clearly works off timing and only begins to be successful when Nakamura slows to a point where he is not brutally outclassing Tentsuku anymore. Maybe its Nakamura getting lazy and throwing fewer jabs and I'm not seeing it that way? Regardless, Tentsuku either needs to be able to adjust faster or he can't compete against regional lightweights in Japan, much less the big boys.

Throughout the show, I should mention, there's a ton of well wishes given to Yoshida by various celebrities from Japan. Among them I notice race car driver Aguri Suzuki and MMA newb Ishii.

5) Naoyuki Kohtani vs. Jorge Masvidal: ZST's GOAT faces one of the great underachievers in MMA.

FIGHT: Masvidal Split Decision. (3)

Kohtani: It takes a special kind of fighter to force the worst bout in Masvidal's career out of him. Kohtani is that sort of fighter. Once pulled into PRIDE's 160lb Grand Prix at the height of Japanese MMA as ZST's representative, he responded by being knocked out cold in 11 seconds. He went 0-2 in the UFC. He's never beaten a relevant fighter before. Here, as was always the case, Kohtani proved ineffective in all capacities standing, and chose instead to pull guard in order to get the fight to the mat in an attempt to get a position he deserved. That he won on even one card was embarassing. He landed perhaps one meaningful jab and aside from a kimura attempt that led into nearly being KOed in round 1, had no periods of really effective offense.

Masvidal: Is Masvidal gunshy now after having lost as many times as he has? Was Kohtani just negating anything entertaining in both directions? Masvidal's next bout effectively answered this when fighting a welterweight striker. Its not his proudest win, but it counts.

6) Ryo Chonan vs. Jung Wah Cha: Uhh, okay. Chonan against bum. Great.

FIGHT: Cha TKO Rnd 2. (3)

Chonan: The fall is complete - from beating Anderson Silva to getting KOed off a superman punch from a guy who is an also ran in Spirit MC. Chonan was never fully in the fight, landing only some weak leg kicks through the 7:30 it went.

Cha: I mean, I dunno, he looked okayish. He is pretty lean and long, throws some solid kicks, and showed capability to keep distance against a guy who has trained to wrestle with real wrestlers. This was his first fight in almost 2 years though, and there's nothing booked now. What a strange career.

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More guests join the booth - Akiyama has been there in and out most of the night, but TK drops in as well. Odd that TK is such a hero even now after being shunted down as a second rate wrestler in RINGS by the bookers there only to rise up by force through legit shoots in the UFC.

We hit intermission as well: Fedor comes in and says something or other, there's replays of earlier fights, and we have random Asian ring girls walk around.

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8) Antz Hansen vs. Enson Inoue: Yes. BUDO LIVES. In this case, it fights a lousy MMA fighter converted from a New Zealand based thai kickboxer. Hey, Aussies do know how to kickbox. Its like where they all vacation and shit.

FIGHT: Inoue Submission Rnd 1. Hansen grazes Inoue early in the fight with a right hand, but that's pretty much it as far as offense goes. Inoue eventually gets this fight down, passes to mount, and then gets an armbar. Fun fight in theory and execution but it gets a (1) because its the least essential fight of Enson's to watch.

WANDERLEI SILVA~ talks about how Yoshida was a tough dude.

9) Michihiro Omigawa vs. Micah Miller: The resurrection of Omigawa after his poor run in the UFC has been impressive to some. Really, there is credit you must give there. He beat LC Davis and Hiroyuki Takaya legit. However - the decisions over both Sandro and Hioki were total garbage. And then he lost to Kanehara. So there are wins of value, don't get it twisted. But its not what people claim it may be. He's better at 145, but not THAT much better. Meanwhile, Micah Miller, brother of Cole - the loss out of the WEC to Maeda was ugly, and that he's picking wins over badly outmatched opposition doesn't really fix things.

FIGHT: Omigawa Unanimous Decision. (3)

Omigawa: If this was PRIDE judging, Omigawa would have still won the fight because he is Japanese. However, the criteria would have favored the American. Omigawa basically laid on Miller for the first two rounds and did next to nothing while dodging the occasional halfassed omoplata attempt. In round three Miller put some stuff together standing and was able to get on the mat in the top position. At the end of the fight Omigawa was deep in a triangle attempt. You see the usual issues with Omigawa - pushes punches, top control grappler utilizing his ne-waza skills to nullify, but not necessarily finish, opposition, likes trips and throws because his single or double are subpar.

Miller: Slow start leads to losing another decision over in Japan in a close fight. He is still entranced by his guard game, and until he learns that being off his back, he won't win and get to the next level, this is the kind of thing he can look forward to. More losses against top 25 level featherweights (ex top 100 lightweights) in boring fights where he's generally just grinded out. Hands are a little loose and sloppy too.

10) Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura: Judoka vs. Judoka. Teacher against student. The final match in Yoshida's illustrious but really not long MMA career. 8 years isn't really that long, ya know.

FIGHT: Nakamura Unanimous Decision. Expecting a grappling bout? Sorry. Mostly slow and sloppy standup fight that gets a little exciting in the second when Yoshida is dropped by Nakamura. From that point on Nakamura is totally in control. He drops Yoshida again in the third as they wildly exchange and Yoshida is nearly armbarred. This isn't a bad fight or anything, don't get me wrong. Its a fun fight. Yoshida removing his gi jacket in the 3rd and final round as he comes out to slug with Nakamura is a great final image for a legend of the sport. In the end though, he goes out like so many others - the loser. But don't cry for Yoshida. Few men made the fortunes he had in MMA nor brought the sort of attention he did to the sport for a nation.

Rating this fight is difficult. To be honest, it doesn't matter who wins from a rankings perspective. They are both unrankable and Yoshida was retiring anyhow. In the end, I give it a (3). It is of major value to hardcore MMA fans stateside, but is not essential or critical. It is a historical footnote and book end.

Post fight we have people on mics, and then SAKURABA APPEARS with a bottle of sake. And then a bunch of other people present him with things - Kawajiri, Minowaman, Fujita, Ishida, pretty much everyone from the card. His parents I think present him with flowers? Yoshida cries. There is a slient bell salute about something. Then he goes and exchanges his belt and gi, gives a speech at a podium by the entrance ramp surrounded by kids. When its over streamers are launched out and its a career.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Tentsuku/Nakamura

KO OF THE NIGHT: Chonan/Cha

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Shirai/Mills

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 6 out of 10. Surprisingly smooth going down though admittedly there is little taste. Kinda like drinking Miller Lite, my preferred megabrew. Yoshida had taken some beatings over the years and it was time for him to hustle on out of here about 2 years ago, so its good to see him leave now with most of his mental faculties. Argurable contender for the best Japanese card of 2010 given the dearth of good shows, ASTRA admittedly felt like a funeral watching. A very fun funeral at times, but still a burial of Japanese MMA's hey-day. Where will it be in 5 years? Who knows.

D&R Rating: 32% (16/50)

War On The Mainland (7/14/2010)

This is an all time classic B-show. An instant classic, no less! BENNY RICARDO with his ghericurl is play by play. Color? BAS RUTTEN. YES YES YES.

1) Rick Reeves vs. Gustavo Machado: A Machado to start this off. How awesome is this? Jason Herzog is the ref. Reeves is a former Lion's Den fighter. This is like the best show of the year and I'm 10 minutes in. Landless is a judge too! Unreal.

FIGHT: Machado Split Decision. Didn't expect a standup fight in this. (1) for the Machado name.

Machado: Machado easily wins this, in my opinion, though the judges disagreed. Lots of solid low kicks that forced Reeves to switch stances in round 3. He gets some solid body shots in, two leg lock attempts when it hits the mat; one of the body shots forced Reeves to drop his mouthpiece.

Reeves: Decent fighter but it didn't look like he turned over his fists at all when he punched. Kinda a tough thing to hurt someone when you don't do that. Kicks were light, and he started to transition to a different gameplan in a desperate attempt to change the pace of the fight in round 3 with takedowns. Instead, Machado started getting setups for leg locks. Just didn't have enough to win.

2) Diego Garijo vs. Jens Pulver: A low moment, but an important one nonetheless.

FIGHT: Garijo Submission Rnd 1. Pulver and Garijo trade - Garijo is a significantly larger man, and they're trading. Pulver just can't take the shots though these days - where as the olden days saw him going back and forth with Gomi, a single punch from Garijo drops him hard. He tries to scramble to a single, but gets choked out. (3)

3) Erin Beach vs. Joao Silva: Never heard of either.

FIGHT: Beach Unanimous Decision (0)

Beach: This guy is a lightweight fighting a featherweight. He's not terrible or anything - his takedown defense is at least OK and he's a decent striker. But lightweight is a jammed division. I don't see this guy fitting in.

Silva: Tough guy, takes a lot of punches and gets a hematoma on his face. His takedown attempts are all stuffed and he tries going to pull guard after awhile.

4) Thales Leites vs. Matt Horwich: Oh my god, what a great fight. Horwich is deeply underrated - maybe because he's inconsistent. Great wrestler, tough dude all around. I do worry about where he'll be in 10 years. Leites is, as we discover forever here, totally overrated. This is a FIVE ROUND FIGHT for some sort of title bauble.

FIGHT: Horwich Submission Rnd 4. Just a wild fight...but in slow motion. If I were watching live I'd have had a coronary. (4)

Leites: Leites is so much better technically and it shows for most of the first two rounds. And then after numerous failed submission attempts and getting pushed around by Horwich....he starts to gas with a minute left in the second. Horwich finishes strong. In round three, Leites picks back up a little bit, but again begins to fade at the end of the round, with Horwich proving capable of escaping a doombringing side choke. When the 4th opens, Leites is done.

Horwich: Bas says it best - Horwich makes good fighters look bad. And as this proves, sometimes he beats them. Attaining positional dominance over and over and over again, Leites couldn't finish Horwich. Instead, he ran himself empty over the distance, and Horwich made him pay. He slowly pressed forward with his strikes, ended up spinning around Leites, slamming him down, and then applying a RNC. Totally out of the blue, IMO. Horwich isn't any better than he was 3 years ago, and actually he looks slower on his feet. All those wars are a likely attributing factor to that. But he still has something left, even for fighters on the cusp of the top ten. Great show for Horwich.

5) Jason Lambert vs. Tony Lopez: These are the PWP titles. What? Yeah. This is for the 205 lb version - Originally this was gonna be Lambert/Allan Goes, but Goes fell down the stairs again or something.

FIGHT: Lopez TKO Rnd 2 (3)

Lopez: Lopez is getting pushed around the whole fight by Lambert who does NOTHING aside from try and clinch and hold, and then he lands a knee to the head and takes Lambert out instantly. A couple punches are landed as he slumps.

Lambert: He has lost his last 7 now. Lost to Horwich. Lost to V-Mat. Dude is so done, its not funny.

6) Terry Martin vs. Jorge Ortiz: Martin was a fight away from the middleweight title in the UFC once. Ortiz? Well, no, nothing similar. Best career win is Jason Guida. Martin is super cut up at 170 - Looks like a totally different person.

FIGHT: Martin Split Decision. (2)

Martin: Martin wins this fight effectively off of the first two rounds where he's able to acquire takedowns and have control on the mat. As a striker, he has changed little in his move down from heavyweight to welterweight - the punches are still totally wide and he throws fewer combinations than ever. Ortiz clips him with a punch in the second round that seriously rocks Martin's world too. Good body shots, I'll give him that.

Ortiz: Comes on strong in the third round, which makes me wish this was for a shitty belt and went 5. While he wasn't terribly exciting or effectively in rounds 1 and 2, he landed a nice counter that gave him confidence, and in the 3rd round he started to open up more with punches and low kicks. However, his hands and defense were still open enough that he got clipped with frightening regularity.

7) Tim Sylvia vs. Paul Buentello: MAIN EVENT. 285lb catchweight or something. Timmy looks really soft here. Flabby gut.

FIGHT: Sylvia TKO Rnd 2 (4) This is classic Tim Sylvia. At distance, its about the jab and low kicks to control distance. When Buentello gets to punching distance, Sylvia decides to push him into the corner and put weight on him. And then its so effective, he keeps doing it in the second. Buentello tires out and starts taking a beating in the clinch, and when they're separated by McCarthy late in the fight, low kicks start to fell Buentello. He freezes up in the corner, takes a uppercut to the head, and drops hard. Buentello is still the same man as before too - hands are OK speed wise, but he's no great wrestler, he's soft in the middle, etc etc etc. After the fight, Tim Sylvia and Pedro Rizzo discuss a potential future title fight for a belt that will likely never be defended.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Leites/Horwich

KO OF THE NIGHT: Lopez/Lambert

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Garijo/Pulver

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 8 out of 10. No really terrible fights. Even watching it knowing the majority of the results, I was riveted. I kid you not in saying that Horwich/Leites is one of my favorite fights in 2010 - legit skill, a melding of all things that make MMA great as a sport, plus an underdog story. The whole thing is a passion play. I mean some fights could have been better and the random jobber/prospect bouts were nothing special, but whatever. This is a great second tier show. One of the best I can think of in recent memory. The next event is slated for 2011 in Rio, so you can probably kiss them goodbye.

D&R Rating: 48% (17/35)

Vendetta Fighting Championships 1 (9/5/09)

Oh man. 8 man tournament? Check. Strange location (Renaissance Resort, Aruba)? Check. Bas Rutten announcing? Check. You'd think its 2001, but no! Its Vendetta Fighting Championship and 2009 for this show. Your 8 man tourney is at 205, and features guys like Carmelo Marrero, Aaron Stark, Rodney Wallace, and Antwan Britt. Shock and surprise, they never ran another show.

1) Aaron Stark vs. Angelo Arajuo: Two light heavyweights I've not hear of. Stark is a southpaw.

FIGHT: Stark Unanimous Decision. Bout is pretty seriously clipped. Bouts are apparently 2 rounds with a "Sudden Death" round. By what is shown, Stark controlled the first two rounds, but we end up with a 3rd round anyways where he once more controls the fight. (0)

Stark: Good wrestler. We see nothing in the clips of him defending submissions or working on his feet. Maybe he did not?

Arajuo: Can't tell much from highlights. Looks like he was able to defend a little on the mat and took down Stark briefly in the final round, but that's not enough to make a judgement call on the guy.

2) Gregory Milliard vs. Rodney Wallace: No idea who Millard is. Wallace has been in M-1 and recently in the UFC. Short for this weight class.

FIGHT: Wallace Unanimous Decision. Horrible fight to watch. All positioning on the mat with Wallace getting takedowns, a big edit, and then another takedown into side control. Repeat. No damage done. (0)

Wallace: Has takedowns. Can't tell if he can punch or kick worth shit.

Milliard: Did zero. Best attribute is physical strength.

3) Carmelo Marrero vs. Antwan Britt: Strange to see this as a early bout in the tourney. Both guys are decent at least.

FIGHT: Britt Decision. Another seriously cut 3 round "sudden death" fight. This time it was all standup, but it was obviously boring. (0)

Britt: Britt throws some decent jabs and right hands, then defends the takedown well while not being able to get Marrero down himself. He basically controls where the fight happens and wins as a result.

Marrero: As best I can tell, does nothing in particular in the fight. Punching is not very good. Takedowns are from too far outside to mean anything. Again, this is from a 15 minute fight clipped to about 3-4 minutes. One thing is for certain; he's cut by a punch in the opening round.

4) Richard Hale vs. Evan Nedd: Last fight of the tourney's opening round. Nedd is from Aruba.

FIGHT: Hale Unanimous Decision. This fight is clipped also, but less so since things actually happen during it. Nedd gets cut over the left eye and then rocked by subsequent punches he can't see. He is also gassed real early in the first round and can barely get up after the first is over. Nedd starts making a comeback as he's a decent boxer. Hale remembers this is MMA and then takes down and immediately mounts Nedd. Pounds him out before the round is over. (0)

Hale: Horrible game plan as he trades with a former amateur boxer with legitimate skills, only to remember he can grapple at the very end. Easily hit by Nedd, even after Nedd gasses.

Nedd: Has solid boxing and nothing else. I mean, no other tangible skills for MMA. And yet, he nearly wins.

5) Sarah Maloy vs. Rosa Colombo: Women's bout @ 125.

FIGHT: Maloy Submission Rnd 1. Ugly technically, followed by awful reffing. Colombo reaches up to try and pull the arm down and Maloy wins as the ref claims it is a tapout. Craptacular call. Crappy fight. (0)

6) Aaron Stark vs. Rodney Wallace: Semifinal bout.

FIGHT: Wallace Submission Rnd 2. Another super heavily clipped bout. Wallace and Stark are in what appears to be a boring grappling bout when Wallace, on the bottom, secures a kimura from his back in half guard. Nothing to add with what is said above for both. (0)

7) Antwain Britt vs. Richard Hale: The other semi.

FIGHT: Britt Decision. Boring fight. Again.

Hale: Hands way down in this fight, was getting tagged with jabs left and right. If Britt was a good, world class guy, he'd have won with a straight right hand in the first round. Again, heavily trimmed, so (0).

Britt: See above.

8) Derrick Noble vs. Shonie Carter: Carter is a legend. Noble is some guy who beat Thiago Alves before becoming a full blown journeyman.

FIGHT: Noble Unanimous Decision. Noble has no problem getting takedowns, and on the feet, his strikes hurt Carter and not vice versa. He almost stops Carter in round 1 with a punch standing. No entrance shown or anything.

Noble: Solid workman effort. Looks a little soft, but I doubt he cares. OK all the way around.

Carter: Was finished 3-4 years ago, definitely not any better now. Needs to reconsider his career. Reacted badly to Noble's punches and was thrown to the mat with relative ease.

9) Rodney Wallace vs. Antwain Britt: Here's how Wallace got his contract.

FIGHT: Wallace Submission Rnd 1. This is a fairly boring fight up until Britt slips and falls defending a takedown. Wallace jumps on him and lands a billion punches to the back of the head while Britt tries for a takedown. Wallace grabs an arm and rolls with Britt into an armbar and forces the tap. Only fight shown in its entirety. (3)

Wallace: Threw a punch standing, eliciting the response from Kenny Rice that it was his first such attempt in the tournament. Zero standup from this guy. Does have submissions he powers through, but obviously that didn't help at the UFC level.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Wallace/Britt

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Wallace/Britt

Overall for the Event: 1.5 out of 10. Another unwatchable crapfest that's clipped too. Rodney Wallace got a contract out of this. THIS. Did they even watch it?

D&R Rating: 7% (3/45)

World Combat Championship 1: 10/171995

The one and only show from WCC occured in North Carolina. Sherdog says Charlotte, I thought they said Raleigh Durham, in the end, does it matter? This is a phenomenal promotion as far as MMA goes: Boom Boom Mancini is their chairman, some dude named Christopher Peters is their figurehead president guy/money mark, none of the announcers are recognizable, and the fighters are quite the assortment. We've got Ben Spijkers, Renzo Gracie, Erik Paulson (w/long hair), James Warring, Bart Vale, Jerry Flynn, and so many more. There's these hilarious video intro pieces for everyone, which show Bart Vale punching bags and shit like that.

Also, we've got two sets of rules. Grapplers division features Renzo and Bart Vale, and they have a 22 minute single round with a 10 minute time limit on the mat. Strikers have a 2 minute ground limit and you cannot win by joint lock or choke.

1) BEN SPIJKERS vs. RENZO GRACIE: You might know this fight already. Spijkers is rocking a gi and is a judoka from the Netherlands. Gracie is Renzo.

Spijkers gets a gnarly slam early on and is inside the full guard of Gracie. Renzo sweeps him though and gets it standing. Gracie gets the takedown this time, and Spijkers tries to counter on the ground with a gi choke. Gracie pushes him into the cage and moves to side control. Spijkers tries to get up by flipping over onto his stomach and Gracie retaliates with some elbows to the base of the skull. Oh, the irony. Gracie then chokes him out, holds on a little long, and then in his celebration of getting the tap out, decides to cross the ring by stepping on the back of Spijkers neck. Renzo ended up coming across as a super nice guy years later on 60 Minutes. How times have changed. (2) for the outrageous finish.

2) SEAN MCCULLY vs. ERIK PAULSON: McCully is supposedly a boxer. Paulson is in the striker's division for some ungodly reason.

Clinch early, and McCully gets a takedown. Paulson is constantly trying for submissions but he can't do them without getting DQed, making this a bizarre bout of Paulson fighting his best instincts. McCully, on the other hand, is actually doing some decent GnP and cuts Paulson before the fight is stood up at the end of the 2 minute mark. They clinch again and Paulson lands some nice knees before taking down McCully. Paulson is in mount and just blasts McCully with punches until the ref stops it. (1)

3) MIKE BITONIO vs. BART VALE: Vale is everyone's favorite shootfighting redneck, even if he was rarely ever in shootfights. Bitonio is a teammate to John Matua.

Bitonio gets a takedown to start but is sweeped fast. Vale just headbutts the shit out of Bitonio, busting his face up. Vale is beating Bitonio silly and the announcers are wondering why the fight isn't being stopped. Vale tries for a kimura in the mount and Bitonio sweeps using the cage. Vale is on the bottom but gets a side choke from there and Bitonio is finally done. Brutal 7 minutes of Bitonio having brain damage inflicted on him. (1)

4) JAMES WARRING vs. JEROME TURCAN: Turcan was the favorite of the strikers division, being a well known muay thai and savate talent. Warring was himself a kickboxing champion in the late 80s/early 90s and also won the IBF Cruiserweight title.

All standup, kinda tenative given the distance and what not. Turcan threw a lot of kicks and Warring some weak punches. Suddenly, Warring lands a monster rabbit shot to the back of Turcan's skull. Turcan drops and Warring follows it with a stomp and several punches. Cecil Peoples was the ref, and like now, he ended it late. (1)

Bart Vale is apparently injured and unable to continue, so let's watch the alternate bout from earlier!

5) JERRY BELL vs. PHIL BENEDICT: Benedict is a big muscled up wrestler guy and Bell is a boxer who boxrec shows as having stopped fighting in 1998 with a 9-0(9KO) record.

Benedict charges straight at Bell, takes him down, but ends up with Bell on top by accident. Benedict knows to sweep and ends up winning early with a RNC. (0)

6) PHIL BENEDICT vs. RENZO GRACIE:

Benedict tries to keep the fight standing, recognizing that his strength is a benefit for throwing strikes. He is able to defend one takedown but fails with the second attempt and Gracie quickly attains mount. Lots of nasty elbows and punches and Benedict taps. (1)

7) ERIK PAULSON vs. JAMES WARRING: This is the only time a former world champion/titlist in boxing faced a champion (Paulson was a Shooto champ) in MMA history. The rules help out Warring a huge deal though.

This was a close contest almost entirely standing, mostly in the clinch against the cage. Warring realized about midway through that holding Paulson's long hair could be a key and used it to control Paulson's movement. Warring has a better gas tank than Paulson and uses his weight to push him around and tire him. Eventually, Warring lands an uppercut in the 17th minute and Paulson is dropped hard. Warring stomps him until the towel is thrown in. (2) for historical importance.

Another prelim fight!

8) JERRY FLYNN vs. FRED FLOYD: Floyd is a fat black man that was once decimated by Igor Vovchanchin after this in that Russian IFC event that the mob tried to take the tapes of. Flynn was a wrestler in WCW.

Flynn is dropped early with a right hand and Floyd gets on top. Flynn is semicompetent and sweeps him and is in side control, and tries to get a kimura. Flynn decides to give up the arm and goes for a leg and toe hold, but Floyd rolls him and tries to stand. Flynn goes for a heel trip and Floyd defends it, spins to north/south, and gets a front choke that forces a submission. (0)

9) RENZO GRACIE vs. JAMES WARRING: This is with grappler's rules.

Gracie with a single, goes to half guard, then mount. Gracie wins with a neck crank. Nothing special. (1)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT(S): McCully/Paulson

KO OF THE NIGHT(S): Warring/Paulson

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT(S): Renzo/Spijkers

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7 out of 10 - What a fun ass show. The rules were frustrating with the strikers, but it was a talent filled event. The only sad part is that there was a very real chance of Gracie having to fight Spijkers, Vale, and then Paulson in one night. That would have been the toughest overall draw of any one night tourney during the time frame.

D&R RATING: 11%(5/45)