Superbrawl IV (4/9/1997)

Its over ten years since this event occurred at the Blaisdell Center. This is a two DVD set for reasons I cannot ascertain other than that they don't want to tell you who won the tournament bouts. There is a heavyweight and middleweight tournament here, with the main event being Jay R. Palmer vs. Danny "Boy" Bennett in the second of their two classics. Egan Inoue is the color commentator, by the way.

1) PAT MATSUDA vs. LEONARD CARTER: Matsuda is making his debut and was a California state greco champ. He's RIPPED. Carter is a Matt Hume trained fighter. Middleweight is defined as 198 and below, by the way

Pretty wild and entertaining fight. Clinches early on are punctuated by the knees and punches of Carter. Matsuda is able to get the fight down on occasion but does markedly little with it. When he's standing at distance, Carter is landing enormously hard shots. Highlight moment as Matsuda goes for a takedown and gets DDTed. As the fight goes on, Matsuda begins to take a horrific beating. The damage just keeps piling up as Carter lands multiple head kicks. Matsuda has occasional periods of success (this fight goes a full 15 minutes, after all), but its clear that Carter is doing way more damage. There is some ridiculous system in place here, might I add to determine the obvious. Seriously, fuck people who hate the 10 point must system when compared to this crap. (1) because it was entertaining. Matsuda's only MMA bout.

2) MAURICE TRAVIS vs. JASON PILI: Travis is 37 and apparently a kick boxer. Pili looks ridiculous.

Travis hurts Pili with some strikes early and then gets the fight down. He locks the arms up of Pili a few times and seems to have the fight wrapped up with subs, but Pili fights through them. He never really does anything to come close to winning but absorbs a lot of punishment. Eventually he gets choked out cold and takes awhile to wake up. (0) Pili's only MMA bout.

3) JOHN MATUA vs. BOB GILSTRAP: Guess what weight class this is? Matua is billed at 351.

Matua actually does okay in the opening couple of minutes before gassing out while trying to stay on top of Gilstrap. From that point on, Gilstrap takes over and ends up locking an arm for the armbar. (0) Matua's KOTC career loomed.

4) LANCE GIBSON vs. PETER MAUTAUTIA: I have no idea who these guys are. Moment of silence for Arnold Fuji?

Mauritius sprawls and throws a couple knees. That's about all he can do. Gibson ends up taking his back and choking him with no hooks in. (0) Mauritania's only MMA bout.

5) MAURICE TRAVIS vs. LEONARD CARTER: Carter is waaaaaay smaller.

Travis and Carter are both kickboxers and so the expectation is that this will be a flashy standup war. It is not. Travis is dominant standing, but much of the fight is on the mat where Carter actually gets top position and spends several minutes landing blows from within the guard. All of this is overshadowed by the end of the fight, as Travis is unceremoniously thrown over the top rope by Carter in the midst of a clinch, and in the resulting fall, Travis cuts his leg and elbow. The fight is stopped and Travis wins by technical decision or someting. (1) for a horrible fight with a bizarre ending. Carter's career went far longer in spite of only having something like 7 pro bouts, even fighting a young Kalib Starnes.

6) LANCE GIBSON vs. BOB GILSTRAP: Heavyweight finals.

Gibson surprises me and just seems to be running over Gilstrap in the early going, grinding him down on the mat with strikes, but Gilstrap shocks everyone in the crowd and myself by actually rolling for a leg lock and using it to sweep and land a ton of strikes in side control on Gibson. Gibson gives up the back and gets choked out. (1) Bob got to the UFC and lost to a debuting Carlos Newton, along with losses to other guys like Barnett and Monson.  Gibson beat Jermaine Andre, Masanori Suda, and Akihiro Gono in his career.

7) DANNY BENNETT vs. JAY R. PALMER: An all time classic the first time around. Palmer started out "16-0" before being beaten. The record may have been inflated but he was well known coming into that KO loss at Superbrawl III.

Palmer is smart enough to take this one down ASAP and try and win with a submission. Failing that because he doesn't know what he is doing, he goes for punches. He gets rolled easily and Bennett is standing again. Palmer is giving him wide berth here, clearly more afraid of the standup this time than in the first bout. Bennett throws a kick that is caught by Palmer, and Bennett is actually more effective with offense while he is on one foot. Bennett defends anything on the mat and when they're standing, Palmer gets lit up with a left high kick. Fight over. (1)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Matsuda/Carter

KO OF THE NIGHT: Bennett/Palmer

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Gilstrap/Matua

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3.5 out of 10. You can't go saying it was a vital event in MMA history because, well, it wasn't. What was there was fun to watch, sure, but it clearly didn't matter in the grand or small scheme of things. The biggest international superstar was Jay R. Palmer. 

D&R Rating: 11% (4/35)

Superbrawl 39: Destiny (4/9/05)

Having finally wiped out the last few KOTCs in the boxed set that so troubled me, its onto the Hawaiians again. I've got a bunch of ROTR and Icon/Superbrawl shows to watch thanks to well timed trips to Big Lots, of all places. This event was one of the last ever promoted under the Superbrawl title before the switch to the ICON Sport name later in 2005. Like many of the Hawaiian shows, its from Blaisdell Arena in front of a 3/4 capacity crowd and has a lot of interesting names on the bill.

Added note: extra short descriptions because I watched this in December 2008 at the cottage and wrote my notes on a small memo pad. Just got around to typing it!

1) TYSON NAM vs. JUMAR DUMALAO: Kickboxing bout between dudes from the islands.

Nam wins by low kicks. Doesn't even count. 

2) REESE ANDY vs. KALA KOLOHE HOSE: Hose has had some bigger fights scheduled for himself that never came through, whereas Andy ended up in the IFL and eventually UFC.

The first round sees Hose doing something I didn't really expect: He hangs in there and is competitive. Mind you, this is not high level striking, but basically definitive robo-kickboxing, but whatever. Andy wins the round off a slam and guillotine attempt though. He gets another big takedown during the second and ends up spending the whole round on his back being punched in the face. Somehow, he comes out for the third and does no better. About the only thing you can give Hose for rounds 2 and 3 is that he didn't get german suplexed. Andy by a wide decision. (1)

3) ALBERT MANNERS vs. RYAN LEE: Who? Manners has a rash guard on.

Manners and Lee engage in a grappling bout for 3 rounds that is decently technical, but often resembles anything but a modern MMA match with the abject lack of striking. Manners wins the unanimous decision and, well, let's just say he's not UFC bound. (0)

4) KJ NOONS vs. MALIK WILLIAMS: Noons was the winner of PRIDE's talent search! Remember that? Oh, you don't. Okay.

Williams is overwhelmed early and ends up being KOed brutally with a series of right hands and stomps. What you expect. (3) 

5) HARVEY NAKAMURA vs. MARK OSHIRO: Oshiro's size makes it exceedingly likely he'll end up in the WEC at some point.

Dana White Special for three rounds. Oshiro is better at everything than Nakamura, landing more often with straighter, harder shots. Problem? At 135, neither has much pop. Oshiro wins 30-26 on two of the three cards. (2)

6) ALLAN ULIP vs. BRYSON KAMAKA: Kickboxing again.

Kamaka wins a UD with his abjectly better striking. A) This isn't MMA. B) Kamaka sucks in MMA. 

7) MARK MORENO vs. KEVIN BARBER: Welterweight fun! Both are from the outliers of the US, with Barber successful in the always popular Alaskan MMA circuit (seriously! There's almost monthly shows in Fairbanks) and Moreno a local to Hawaii.

Moreno outguns Barber standing: better technique, more powerful. He drops Barber with a two punch combination and makes sure there's no more fight to be fought when he kicks a downed Barber in the face. Oh, pre-commission Hawaii. (0)

8) TRISTON PREBIA vs. KAI "BOY" KAMAKA III: Children's MMA.

Absolutely beyond reviewable. Actually somewhat offensive. I didn't even bother to write down who won. (0)

9) JIM KIKUCHI vs. JUSTIN MERCADO: Hawaiian Superfight 145lb title! MMA has no problem with belts.

Kikuchi hurts his shoulder early on and so we get a boring fight of inactive standup and laying/clinching. I'm kinda glad I didn't record more about this show. (0)

10) KULTAR GILL vs. HARRIS SARMIENTO: Gill was an interesting name for, what, the better part of 5-6 minutes? Sarmiento is a career journeyman.

Gill has a big advantage in the standup, but fears Sarmiento's takedowns, so they circle with occasional leg kicks and shit. Horrid. Gill gets the fight down in the 3rd and Sarmiento basically rolls over and taps to a RNC. Gill has fought on big shows, but he's 1-5 in his last 6. Tough to reward that. (0)

11) FALANIKO VITALE vs. MASANORI SUDA: Suda was once Shooto's middleweight champ. With posted wins over Ryo Chonan, Yuki Sasaki, Ronald Jhun, Egan Inoue, and Ryuta Sakurai, Suda was certainly no push over. He was also in his 11th year as a full time pro MMA fighter. Vitale had lost once in 3 years, beating Yushin Okami, Dave Menne, Matt Lindland (by "reversing" a slam), and a bunch of nobodies over the same span. He had been successful in the UFC, but returned to Hawaii realizing that he might actually make more money there. 

Suda is hurt with a punch early in the fight and is judo thrown through the ropes of the ring. The ref obviously has to let this one continue, and Suda returns to his feet. He absorbs a superman punch to the dome, and with that, Vitale's highlight reel has its anchor. Practically everyone on the big island cheers, but Vitale's career took a pretty major turn after this bout. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Oshiro/Nakamura

KO OF THE NIGHT: Vitale/Suda

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Sarmiento/Gill

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3 out of 10. This would be higher, but watching young (I'm talking like 8) kids fight in the ring drops the event appreciably. Too many bad mismatches too. Who'd have thought the opening MMA bout would be the most competitive in retrospect?

D&R Rating: 18% (8/45)