How good is Yoshiro Maeda? His record looks amazing. What is his background? Strengths?
Also, with Umeki- has he always fought so strangely? It looks like he won an amateur Pancrase Tourney before, so he must he real skills, huh?
I would love to see either of them fight.
TTT for some answers!
I don't know Maeda's background, but he has amazing instincts. While his strikes have power, what's even more impressive is his accuracy and even more so his timing. His flying knee KO over Soca was unreal. He was chasing Soca while throwing punches. The split second Soca changed levels to go for a takedown, Maeda (mid-stride...remember, he was chasing after Soca) leaps in the air and connects with the knee, crushing Soca's face. This is just one example.
And for being such a pinpoint accurate striker, he's a pretty wild fighter. He does some bizarre shit, such as a flying somersault kick with his opponent in the butt scoot. He's almost gone flying over the ropes from a flying knee attempt. Stuff like that. Extremely exciting.
Umeki has always fought weird. He tried that backflipping kneebar thing against Maeda a couple times in their Pancrase fight. His amateur win in Pancrase was pretty cool. He hit a weird kimura-jump-to-guard from standing. He tried it again in his pro debut, and his opponent just stood there.
Maeda is fighting Imanari in DEEP in February. A good test for both guys. Imanari heel hooked Maeda in a tag team grappling match about a year ago, so it's sort of a rematch.
Umeki is retired. :( I heard he's concentrating on graduating from college.
Thanks a million!
One more question- if you have the time of course. Can you please tell me more about Ryota Matsune? I am trying to get some videos of his fights too.
Matsune is usually pretty boring. Lay and pray specialist. Basically the only times he's exciting are when A) he completely outclasses his opponent, or B) his opponent is a good enough wrestler to make it difficult for Matsune to get the takedown. He is, however, the undisputed #1 bantamweight (featherweight under Shooto's weight limits) in the world. He avenged his only loss not once, but twice, over (the much more exciting and charismatic) Kentaro Imaizumi. The rubber match was a split decision for the title last month, but I have no idea what happened in the fight. Imaizumi losing that fight was one of my biggest MMA disappointments of the year. :(
Matsune has extremely wild standup and is one of the best wrestlers at that weight. He also seems to have power behind his strikes, but he's too wild, so they don't land all that often. He's probably good at submissions, but he never uses them (except for once in his third fight, with a sweet rolling toe hold from standing).
Thanks again- you are great!
Don't waste your time getting Ryota Matsune fights.Unless it's his 2nd fight against Kentaro Imaizumi.