Ikuhisa Minowa

Underground
1

I love this guy. To me, he defines the MMA superstar. Charismatic, exciting, (besides the Baroni and Ueyama fights)tough and with a very unique personality.

I think the fact that he is only half sane has a lot to do with his appeal. His "themes" for each fight (My personal favorite is the confusing "GO TO SUMMER" theme he had before the Baroni fight) that make almost no sense are absolutely hilarious.

I hope everyone here has seen some of his training footage on the Japanese versions of Pride. Bushido 8 showed him training on a beach. He did pro wrestling style sparring with Namekawa, yelled at the sky and raced a plane as part of his training. It really is something that every MMA fan should see.

What do you guys think of him? I really admire the fact that he travels the world to train at different gyms in order to get better. He has travelled to Brazil to train with BTT (even got his blue belt from Bustamante, IMO he is the world's best blue belt lol) travelled to Korea to train with Choi Mu Bae's gym, Thailand, (won a thai boxing match by high kick KO as well!)and to the US to train at Alex Steibling's gym. Oh also Canada to train with Denis Kang and crew.

His record isn't a top one, but the guy has fought Vanderlei Silva, Quinton Jackson, Yuki Kondo, Chris Lytle, Gilbert Yvel, Sem Schilt, Paulo Filho, Ricardo Almeida and other top guys. All while being 5 foot 9 and having a ntural body weight of 170-185. If he ever decides to compete at 170 or even at 155 (if he decides to lose all that bulk) he would be a top 5 fighter IMO.

I can't wait to see him compete on New Year's eve.

2

ttt

Minowa is great! He was a very nice and humble guy when he trained up here with Team Kang. I wish he still had the mullet.... he was the only guy I met that could pull it off

3

Everyone that trains with him mentions how nice and humble he is.

4

I love the guy.
His crazy themes.
His oi, oi, oi chants.
His globe trotting.
His psyching up before fightts.

Cool Dude!

5

I trained with him at Choi Mu Bae's gym, the guy is awesome. He looks like Musashi and acts like him to ^_^

6

I liked him until his second fight with Baroni.

He was just a blanket on Phil.

7

Yves Jockstrap: I agree, thats something that the American Pride broadcast should show is more behind the scenes training footage. I thought Minowa racing the airplane was hilarious as well as him doing cartwheels in puddles.

I believe the Pride website says that he is fighting Sakuraba next. WOW! What a fight that'll be!

8

i thought sak refused to ever fight japanese fighters?

9

No the pride site just announced that both Sakuraba and Minowa will be fighting on the 12/31 Card. However they are not fighting each other.

10

I agree with Baroni v Minowa 2. If that was the other way around, we would have had several standups...

11

Yes, Pulsar, Pride Nationalism Marches On, hoo-ha, hoo-ha.

In Minowa's defense in that fight, though, I think we can all agree that fighters also earn reputations for things in the ring. If a ref sees someone who has a reputable chin in trouble, he may give more lea way or if someone is known for subs and lots of sub attempts.

Im not saying Minowa was thunder and lighting in that match but its also overlooked that standups usu. come in the full guard/LNP position, not when you are in sidemount, mount or have an arm locked for an attempt.

Was Minowa given some lea way there? Sure he was.

But did he simply simply LNP in Phil's full guard all night? Hardly.

And not to play this up, he won so it dont matter but people were also saying Minowa was sick and by the look of his face during the fight and before the decision was announced, he def. looked ill to me so I do believe that probably had something to do with his more conservative approach.

We're talking about one of the most risk taking fighters that normally does stupid shit just to make things exciting for the crowd, he gets sick once, still goes for numerous sub attempts while sick against a dangerous opponent that KOed him a fight back.

Doesnt he get the benefit of the doubt here?

"I wish he still had the mullet."

Me too.

12

It was worthy of mention Wasa-B.

Chill, Bill.

13

Baroni would have been stood up if he had mount or a kimura locked?

Curious, George.

14

That doesn't rhyme dude.

Baroni would have been stood up for minutes on end of inactivity. Sure.

Do you have stern or amused look on your face Wasa-B? I'm trying to figure this one out.

15

Minowa is crazy because he uses acid all the time.

16

lol @ Curious, George!

That was actually pretty clever. (wasa-b was referring to the monkey)

I wasn't impressed with Minowa very much in the rematch with Phil but what most American fans don't know is that Minowa was extremely sick just a few days before the event, even considering pulling out due to altitude sickness that he got while training on Mt. Fuji.

Sakuraba wants a fight with Tamura very badly so he definitely does not refuse to fight Japanese fighters.

17

i hope his training w/ kang makes him better, because until now, i think he's kinda sloppy and boring imo. aloha

18

FCTV-

Have you seen his fights with Gilbert Yvel, his first fight with Baroni, his fight with Quinton, or his fight with Kikuta?

Go to sherdog and download the clip where he beat Yuki Sasaki with a toehold. Beautiful submission

19

yj,
i admit that he has the heart of a warrior, but i just think he looks flat and wins by footholds are cool, but i don't think that they're that spectacular imo. i remember being at (i think) bushido 3 where he fought ryan. ryan looked bad, but still beat him. that fight almost put me to sleep. sorry man, fctv

20

ps. most of the pancrase guys are footlock crazy, so i don't blame him (minowa). barret yoshida always jokes about guys that are footlock crazy and calls them, the "kings of pancrase" and that has sorta stuck in my head too. sorry for the bias. aloha