I seem to recall it was the bobber with those comments, wasn’t it?
Todd Christensen I think?
i knew it was bob or todd. I haven’t watched that since the ppv. It may have been todd bringing it up and the bobber confirming
Hold on,Ill find out because Im curious now.
I’m surprised no one picked boom boom up for commentary after that show, you would think being a former boxing world champion and clearly having some experience with bjj, he’d have been in demand
It was Todd.
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I’m surprised no-one picked todd up after that one also
I know that he was good with American Gladiators.I liked Todd,but then again I`m a Raider fan.
Yeah the WCC had a good broadcasting team for the time.
For those who are enjoying what we have been up to over at Kakutogi HQ. We are getting ready to drop the first part of our Magnum Opus. We are going through and examining the entirety of the UWF from 1984-1990, and this has been our most ambitious work, yet. The first part (Best of 1984) is set to drop in a few days, so stay tuned!
Don’t Miss it!
Footfighting fans rejoice! Over at www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad we have recently put up a look into the life and career of Toshio Fujiwara, a legendary Japanese kickboxer who was the first non-Thai to win a stadium title in Thailand. It’s a great examination of his legacy, and there is rare bonus footage as well!
![[IMG]](https://i.ibb.co/yRGCcVC/unnamed.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
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Coolio julio, Toshio was from kenji kurosaki’s meijiro gym. Kurosaki was the only kyokushin kai guy that lost in the infamous kyokushin vs muay thai matches in 64’. He studied muay thai after the loss and started a gym in meijiro training “kickboxers”. Kurosaki also was jon blumings instructor. All Dutch kickboxing traces back to bluming and kurosaki
Indeed! For those interested we cover a lot of what de_braco just mentioned. In my research there was a point where Fujiwara’s camp was pushing hard for a match with Benny Urquidez, but Benny’s management wanted nothing to do with it. I wouldn’t be surprised as Tosiho was one tough hombre and would have been a very tough fight for Benny.
Kakutogi Road Presents: Sayama’s Corner “The Story of Shooto Vol.6”
![[IMG]](https://i.ibb.co/QCnLC0W/tigermask6.png "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
- Note: This is a continuation of where we left off, as we continue to rappel the depths of all shoot-mysteries. In this case, as we forge ahead with our translation of “Shooting: The Technical Shooting Fight” from 1986. *
![[IMG]](https://i.ibb.co/fD9kJZf/tigermask7.png "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
Previous Page (partially) Translated
The sudden trip to Mexico:
With the start of 1978, he was met with a different kind of trial. Suddenly talk of a trip to Mexico came up.
He had just bought a punching bag and [p. 16] held his wish to progress in his pursuit of a real combat sport. But for a pro wrestler, orders from above were to be obeyed absolutely.
Even the man who lives by his convictions could do nothing about this. He had to put aside his ideal for the time being. The trajectory he had in mind was significantly off.
The Mexican mat world was a world infinitely far from his ideal. The shows were for the entertainment of the poor citizens. The matches were primarily filled with aerial techniques centered on leaping and jumping.
Lucha libre (what prowrestling is called in Mexico) that without hesitation does what is the most utterly distinct from his own ideal was the worst situation for Sayama.
Nevertheless Sayama travelled to Mexico in June 1978. He never imagined, even in his dreams, that in only three years he would step on Japanese soil again as Tiger Mask. In fact, no one had imagined this [at the time].
Sayama was clever enough to clearly distinguish his Mexico trip as for the sake of making a living. So in regard to prowrestling itself, he didn’t care so much.
For the rest he focused on finding his own time so he could gain more striking skills. In the afternoons when he was free he would visit an acquaintance who manages a karate dojo or go watch boxing matches in order to control himself to direct his consciousness towards striking techniques.
There is an aspect among Mexican citizens that takes as its creed that one should live by taking it easy without working. When a Japanese person enters into this milieu, he takes one of the two paths of either becoming thoroughly lazy or rejecting Mexico.
Sayama took the latter path. Sayama did not want to lose to Mexican society that would shred to pieces any ambition. He bought a punching bag and kicked it as much as he could. As a result he tore it into two.
During the second year of his stay in Mexico, he defeated Ringo Mendoza, the local hero from Indio, to become the NWA world middle weight champion.
This was a great achievement for Satoru Sayama as a prowrestler, but he didn’t feel any deep impression or joy over it. For Sayama was instead earnestly immersed in his study of striking techniques.
Objectively viewed, to become a champion in another country shows that Sayama had the gift of satisfying his audience. Needless to say, significantly, this had to be supported by techniques, but Sayama possessed both talents.
One was the talent of a popular wrestler who brings prosperity to shows, and the other was talent in the pursuit of martial arts [combat sports].
Becoming the NWA world middle weight champion, Sayama suddenly became a big star. He thus exhibited to the world the foundation [preliminary] and premonition to his [future] transformation as Tiger Mask. But the more Sayama got out into the world, the further away shooting remained.
The fateful encounter with Karl Gotch:
The one who saved Sayama, when he became sick in Mexico and was cornered up against his limits, both physically and mentally, was Karl Gotch.
When he met Gotch, they got along well, and when Gotch invited him by saying, “Why don’t you come over to my place to train?,” without a thought he bowed his head and answered, “Thank you.”
The three months he spent at Gotch’s gym in Tampa, Florida, passed in no time. But what Sayama learned from Gotch during this period was the first step for Sayama as a fighter.
He listened to Gotch’s words as carefully as he could without missing a word or phrase. If there was something he didn’t understand he asked him until he could understand. Gotch’s soft way of explaining was full of charm.
This included basic training methods necessary for combat sports and the structure of the human body, the scientific explanation of joint submissions, his theory of techniques based on experience, and even the future of combat sports.
His technique of joint submission progressed quickly, and with the combination of a mild climate with delicious meals, Sayama’s body rapidly recovered and became built up in comparison to when he was in Mexico.
One day as the day of his [Sayama’s] departure approached, Gotch unexpectedly uncorked a bottle of red wine. He was in a cheerful mood, but suddenly with a serious look on his face, he started to speak: “Prowrestling today has degenerated. You, young fellows, can change prowrestling for the better!”
Sayama was in a state of shock. He had no words for some time as he felt Gotch’s words sink into his heart.
“Should I change prowrestling? Or should I make it anew?” That was the choice that he held as a question when he traveled to Mexico to begin with.
Even after this, the anxiety concerning this question held Sayama for a long time and wouldn’t let him go. It continued until he renounced prowrestling.
It was not until he reached his present situation when he could devote everything to shooting, cutting his ties with the prowrestling world, that he was able to find words to respond to Gotch’s wish:
“Pro wrestling continues to exist as pro wrestling. And there are many fans who support pro wrestling as such. It would be impossible for me to change pro wrestling with my own power and I think it would be meaningless to to do so. In pursuit of a new possibility, I decided to create a new combat sport, shooting.
The rising storm of Sammy Lee in England:
As he left Gotch’s gym, he traveled to England. This was through Gotch’s introduction. For Sayama, who had been devoting himself to combat sports since he can remember [p. 17], being a prowrestler was the most convenient occupation to make a living.
Strictly speaking his lifework was to create a real combat sport [martial art] but the path was extremely difficult. Sayama succeeded in England as well. It was an even bigger success than when he was in Mexico. He did prowrestling with the ring name of Sammy Lee.
The audience was happy when he used showy moves and flying techniques and his earnings increased to an unbelievable degree.
Yet again he had demonstrated his talent in the occupation of prowrestling. For Sayama, prowrestling was a way to make a living. To wrestlers who specialized in hooking [joint submissions], he thoroughly responded with hooks [submissions] in the match, provoking promoters to view him with a peculiar eye.
Or before matches he would hang a punching bag in the arena and make loud noises, “bang!, bang!,” hitting it. Or he would put on gloves and shadow box, throwing straights and hooks.
He was viewed as a strange wrestler since he would passionately practice moves that he would never use in matches. So it’s understandable that he was treated as a weird fellow.
The two-sidedness of his making a living to eat and his lifework—this heterogeneity confused his fans and fellow wrestlers. To Sayama who had a solid lifework [in mind], to become a popular wrestler was not necessarily the better path.
In the ring he was Sammy Lee but when he returned to his own room, he became one martial artist. This is enough to make Satoru Sayama a fascinating human being.
Tiger Mask and Satoru Sayama:
But the pro wrestling world, playing with fate one after another, ordered Sayama, who had been living gracefully in England, to return to Japan. This was in April 1981.
Moreover he was to return as a masked wrestler called Tiger Mask. This time around he sent a reply of refusal to return. For the first time Sayama asserted himself against New Japan Pro wrestling to which he belongs.
He believed that for someone who aims for a real martial art [combat sport], masks or special characters [gimmicks] were unnecessary.
In order to persuade Sayama who was stubborn, New Japan Pro wrestling used a clincher: “The match is scheduled for April 23rd(1981). If you do not return to Japan, you will annoy a lot of people. Return to Japan immediately…”
Moreover the international phone call also asked him to “…think of Mr. Inoki’s position.” With this he had no choice but to withdraw his own assertion.
As long as he is making a living in the world of pro wrestling, he had to follow its rules. While dragging his heavy heart, Sayama boarded the plane. He arrived in Japan two days before his debut as Tiger Mask.
Sayama transformed into Tiger Mask and achieved the success that people would envy. And yet the more he became famous, the more he was troubled by the gap between the ideal and reality.
For by that time Sayama had already abandoned/renounced living as a pro wrestler. This was the beginning of Sayama’s inner conflict.
To Be Continued…
![[IMG]](https://i.ibb.co/TThvb65/tigermask8.png "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
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Don’t miss Volume 7: Only at www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad
In that Volume, Sayama becomes the infamous, “Tiger Mask,” but can’t stand it, despite the wealth and fame that it brings. He eventually gives it all away so he can continue to pursue “Shooting” (or MMA). Also, we begin the SHOOTING SYSTEM part of the manual and get the introductry details of this great new combat sport/system.
![[IMG]](https://i.ibb.co/j8C8Qh5/tigermask9.png "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
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Awesome.
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the idiot who scanned that should be beaten relentlessly with a pool noodle soaked in sour milk and eau de parfum skunk for leaving that yellow blotch on there.
Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol.36 "Manifest Destiny"
*Editors Note: Mike Lorefice (of MMA/Puroresu mega-center quebrada.net) will have his comments be preceded by his initials. *
Manifest destiny was a contested, yet widely held, belief in 19th -century American politics that American settlers were destined to settle North America, and reform the wild west into a landscape with superior social values based around agrarianism, and the nobility of the farmer. People that subscribed to this philosophy believed that an irresistible destiny drove these actions, and they were simply parts of a greater mechanism, thus their collective success would be inevitable. In a way, one can see parallels with this and where we are now in mid-1992, as the Japanese shoot-revolution is now officially a year old, and on an unstoppable trajectory that will forever change how martial arts are perceived. While each of the different figureheads of these four major promotions that we’ve been covering in these columns (RINGS, UWF-I, PWFG, and Shooto, respectively) had different motives and opinions of what the true essence of “shooting” was/is, all could agree that with the birth of the original UWF in 1984 there was a void in traditional pro wrestling that could not be filled by continuing with the typical flashy nonsense.
ML: In actuality, manifest destiny was simply more propaganda calculated to justify stealing the land from the original inhabitants, their displacement and internment leading to the eventual genocide of the natives who actually understood how to live off the earth without destroying it in the process. Martial arts certainly has more than it’s share of gangster & Yakuza involvement, but it would thankfully be near impossible for even their shady tactics to reach that level of grand scale dubiousness.
It has now been roughly a year since the inaugural RINGS event, and almost a 1 ½ years since the implosion of the 2nd incarnation of the UWF at the end of 1990. Even in this short period, we have seen a lot of collective movements from the three shoot-style promotions, where each in their own way have been making contributions that will help move everything closer to what would later be known as MMA. This phenomenon may suggest that there is an unstoppable force moving the destiny of combat sports by turning the conventions of pro-wrestling on its head.
It has now been roughly a year since the inaugural RINGS event, and almost a 1 ½ years since the implosion of the 2nd incarnation of the UWF at the end of 1990. Even in this short period, we have seen a lot of collective movements from the three shoot-style promotions, where each in their own way have been making contributions that will help move everything closer to what would later be known as MMA. This phenomenon may suggest that there is an unstoppable force moving the destiny of combat sports by turning the conventions of pro-wrestling on its head.
The date is 5-16-92, exactly one day ahead of our last column, where the rival PWFG promotion had an event in Osaka, with a reported attendance of 4,520. So far, RINGS has embodied the “Go big, or go home!” maxim, as they have almost tripled the attendance from that show, with an impressive gate of 10,369. This will not only be the “1st Anniversary” event for RINGS. but will also mark the 4th MEGA-BATTLE event that we will witness. We are instantly greeted by a hilarious montage that wouldn’t have been out of place on an episode of Highway to Heaven , where our hero, Akira Maeda, presumably reflects on the last year of RINGSness showing various clips interspersed with an ocean backdrop. Michael Landon would be proud.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto and Masayuki Naruse will be the debut of both men. Yamamoto (not to be confused with the Stanford physics professor of the same name) is only 20 years of age here, and his only notable experience going into this was being a judoka in high school. He would later go on to receive what was one of the most undeserved mega-pushes from the shoot-style years when Maeda rewarded him for going not only one, but TWO rounds at the VTJ’95 tournament, where he ingloriously clung to the ropes for dear life, until Rickson was able to eventually get him to the center of the ring for a rear-naked choke victory. Maeda’s love eventually cooled off when Yamamoto got absolutely squashed in a vale tudo fight against Ricardo Morais, and instead transferred his affections to Kiyoshi Tamura, whom he had recently acquired. Naruse, on the other hand, is only 18 here, and had a background in Shotokan karate. He would later transition into more and more shoots as his Rings career progressed and was probably a better fighter than his record would indicate. Like many other Japanese fighters from his era, he was constantly thrown to the wolves and forced to oftentimes fight fighters that far outweighed him.
The fight starts with Yamamoto putting his reach and height to good use with his first notable attack being an exceptionally smooth double-underhook suplex, which he quickly converted into a side-headlock. Naruse is showing good speed, but lacks the size to really stand and trade shots with Yamamoto, he does however show some nice waza of his own, with a slick kata-guruma (fireman’s carry). The rest of this match had a good blend of judo and striking, but the two main issues were the length and intensity. Nothing they did looked cheesy, but it always had the feel of being way too polite, with only occasional flashes of intensity in some of the striking portions. Also, this was a 15min draw, which was about 8 mins longer than it needed to be. It accomplished its goal of introducing two new fighters, who both look like they could be promising prospects with some time, and at least it was half the time of yesterday’s 30min showing between Berto and Ishikawa. **
ML: I wouldn’t say Yamamoto’s push was undeserved in any way. Arguably the biggest problem with RINGS is that Akira Maeda perpetually held the other natives back to the point the promotion had no real chance of surviving long term without him. While they were able to utilize the myth of Rickson Gracie to make more out of Yamamoto’s performance in the Vale Tudo Japan match than it was actually worth, it was finally the nudge that got Maeda to actually sort of promote in Japanese fighter other than himself. Though the argument could be made that Tsuyoshi Kosaka or Mitsuya Nagai were more worthy of being the number two native at that point, but Yamamoto had some size and was a good worker and decent shooter. He was able to give good showings in worked matches, at least, that justified his push over the next few years, becoming a fighter who you would more or less expect to have a classic when he was matched with Volk Han, Kiyoshi Tamura, or Tsuyoshi Kosaka. As far as their debut went, I mostly liked what I saw. They had the framework for a good match, and the grappling was pretty good, all that was really missing was some impact on their strikes. It is much much easier to learn how to get away we have hitting harder than it is to learn how to move fluidly or transition, so I’d say these guys were off to a good start. They obviously weren’t great, but they felt professional, and amazingly weren’t running out of steam despite the length. Actually, Naruse was a much better in the second half, picking up the intensity and the impact on his strikes, though that did result in him accidentally fingering Yamamoto in the eye.
Next up is Georgian freestyle wrestling legend, Zaza “Grom” Tkeshelashvili vs Volk Han. It has been a completely bizarre experience witnessing Volk Han oscillate between the main event (he defeated Akira Maeda at last month’s show) and jerking the curtain, but it should be entertaining all the same. Grom Zaza was a man of a considerable wrestling pedigree, and would even wind up competing in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA. He had a respectable run in real MMA fights as well, with notable wins over Ricardo Morias, Volk Han, and Travis Fulton.
Zaza doesn’t waste any time before giving us the 2nd fireman’s carry of the evening, in which he tried to use it as a way to set up an entry into an ude-hishigi-juji-gatame (or back-lying perpendicular armbar for the uncultured among us). This doesn’t work as Han’s sambo-honed ‘spidey sense’ is triggered, and wisely runs for the hills. After fleeing for his life, Han returns to show some interesting footwork, parrying strikes as a way to sneak inside and eventually attempt a back suplex, only to be countered by a kneebar-gone-toehold by Zaza. So far, this match is hardly realistic, but top-shelf entertainment nonetheless. Han draws first blood with some kind of weird variation of the STF, deducting a rope escape from Grom. Han then follows up with a step-over armbar that morphed into a triangle choke attempt, but Zaza wasn’t having anything to do with it. This match continued in its winning ways until Han went back to his bag of tricks and finished Zaza with what I can only describe as an inverted STF combined with a bully choke. While this isn’t exactly the first tape you would grab if you wanted to show your buddies how realistic the 90s shoot-style was, it had to seem revolutionary in the context of 1992. Han carries himself like a man that knows counters to submissions that haven’t even been invented yet, and with that in mind, the entertainment value of this cannot be denied. Also, a special mention has to be made for one of the coolest moves we’ve seen so far, when Han feinted his way to set up a beautiful spinning-back-slap. Great fun! ****
ML: Unlike Han’s previous opponents, Zaza has the speed, quickness, and footwork to hang with him in standup. Han couldn’t simply slap Zaza then move out of range, no matter who led, it was basically a strike for a strike. Thus, as the match progressed, the best thing you could do was throw combinations, with Zaza making this adjustment first, and soon dropping Han with a right front kick right palm combo. Han began showing his standup diversity, and came back with the next two knockdowns. Oddly, in a match with submission master Han against future Olympic freestyle wrestling competitor Zaza, there actually wasn’t that much wrestling or many transitions on the mat. Zaza had a few throws, and his submission game was much better than I expected, but they weren’t really going back and forth on the mat that much, and Han wasn’t doing anything too flashy or crazy. I liked this match, but I was also expecting it to reach a level it never hit before they went home. This was the best match Han has had so far from a technical standpoint, but the last match against Akira Maeda was ultimately slightly more entertaining. ***1/2
Now we are in for another treat with a shoot pre-K1 meeting between Peter Aerts and Adam Watt. Watt looked very game to me in his last showing where he fought Rob Kaman at the 3-26-92 co-promoted Sediokaikan/RINGS event. He was winning that fight right up to the point that he got knocked out, but his constant aggression from multiple angles was impressive. Here he will be facing someone with a similar physique, so he won’t enjoy the same reach advantages that he has had for his last two outings.
Round 1 starts with Aerts going right for a nice high/low combination, but Watt nicely counters the low kick with a straight right down the pipe. This seems to shake up Aerts, who quickly sought the safety of the clinch, but isn’t allowed to hang out there for long. Other than a few big kicks that missed, Watt’s timing looks great, and he really had Aerts on the defensive for the entire round.
The real Aerts shows up at the beginning of Round 2, and he presses Watt hard for about a min and ½ which even prompts Adam’s corner to shout, “Adam, watch out!!” After the initial assault, Watt started to regain his composure, and began to turn the tide with some nice counters, which allowed him to start shifting the fight back into his favor. The final sequence was hard to see, but after replaying the video several times it looks like Aerts gave a short/hard shot to Watt’s chin with his elbow, which I believe was illegal under these rules. (I could be wrong, but it seemed like the ref was warning the fighters in the first round about using elbows). If that’s the case then this was a disappointing ending to what was, up to this point a great fight. Aerts probably would have won anyway, but that was by no means a forgone conclusion. Watt deserves a lot of credit, however, as he is still a young rookie, and he has already been giving the best in Kaman and Aerts some serious competition. Before starting this project, I didn’t realize how promising of a fighter he was, having only seen some of his fights from the late 90s, I looked at him as a decent, if middling figure. Seeing him in 1992 has shown me the error of my ways and makes me wonder if personal problems robbed him, and us, of a much better career.
ML: Peter Aerts was the WMTA World Heavyweight Muay Thai champion at this point, and while I didn’t see any rules listed, the way they were working out of the clinch with knees and throws/trips, it was clearly a muay thai bout. Aerts talked about winning with the elbow in his post a match interview, so clearly he wasn’t trying to get away with anything. As far as the fight went, Aerts seemed to have watched the Watt vs. Kaman fight, and use a similar strategy of allowing Watt to be overaggressive until he made a mistake. Aerts is also a self proclaimed slow starter. Watt won the first round, but I didn’t think he stunned or hurt Aerts at any point.
Back in 2018, there was a high school janitor named Dick Peck, who was arrested for threatening to kill students, presumably for their incessant mocking of both his name and profession. I can only wonder if the same fate could have easily befallen our resident hero, Dick Fly, that is if he didn’t look like an 80s video game boss. Yes, our favorite Dutch henchman has returned for another AIR BOUT, this time against neon knight, Mitsuya Nagai. For a bizarre reason only known, perhaps, to Maeda, this will be a shoot, which is almost a crime considering the size disparity between the two.
In the early 90s, the flying jump-kick was always the weapon of choice in Beat’em’up side scrollers, and knowing this, Nagai opens the fight up with such a foray of deep wisdom. He doesn’t stop there, however, as he continues to stick & move, quickly putting his sharp shootboxing skills to work on the much bigger Fly. His momentum quickly comes to an end, though, as he was stopped dead in his tracks by a thunderous dick kick, courtesy of Dick. This should have led to a DQ win for Nagai, but after a couple of mins of excruciating pain, Nagai musters all the strength he can from the spirits of his ancestors and gets back up, looking pissed. Nagai charges in, with a lot more spirit to his slaps, but is quickly negated in the clinch from the much stronger Dutchman. Nagai continues to give his all but is constantly swatted, kicked, and punched back down to the canvas, racking up 5 knockdowns, before this perverseness is put to an end. This equated to a shoot-style version of a black comedy, and was thus super entertaining, albeit for the wrong reasons. *** ½
ML: Dick finally lived up to his moniker, especially with a savage kick to the pecker that Betz insists he should have been disqualified for. Vrij gave his best performance so far here, fighting with much greater urgency and having so much more impact on its strikes because it was a shoot. That being said, because he for some reason insisted on throwing his leg kicks through the upper thighs, and the rules forced him to strike with open palms, it was actually much more difficult for him to land a big shot than expected. Most of his damage came when Nagai was caught in a prone position, against the ropes or sitting because he so desperately needed to get it to the ground. Nagai had no takedown game, so despite putting himself in bad positions trying to get it to the mat where he would have had the advantage, holding on what you should have been getting back to his feet, and even just falling into Vrij’s trip, Nagai could never get the opportunity to get his submission game going. Nagai was giving up what they claimed to be 15 kg, although probably at least another 5kg, so he tried to be super aggressive, using wild, low percentage flying kicks because he knew he couldn’t beat his much stronger opponent in a conventional kickboxing match. Vrij was finally really badass here, and I suppose pretty Fly (for a Dutch guy), just mauling Nagai with powerful strikes. I enjoyed this match for what it was, but it was very short, and completely one-sided.
Now it’s time for a THUNDER BOUT between Willy Williams and Ameran Bitsadze. Bitsadze is the brother of the (unfortunately) more infamous Tariel Bitsadze, who would later haunt Rings for most of its duration. This appears to be under RINGS rules, only broken into rounds. You would have thought this was just a jacketless karate match until Williams somehow got Ameran in a primitive version of a D’arce choke.
The rest of the fight continued to play out like a karate fight that would occasionally break out into odd things like palm strikes to the face, or grappling exchanges by two men that didn’t know how to grapple. I don’t really know what to make of it, other than it felt kind of pointless, but at least the action stayed moving. * ½
ML: Bitsadze also has a full contact karate background, so this match didn’t look too different from what they normally do, other than being half contact. Thankfully, this Bitsadze is at least in shape, and capable of moving. Still, except by comparison to his brother, he was pretty bad, either striking slowly and softly or trying weird flashy strikes with no setup such as a spinning wheel kick and a sort of climb up enzuigiri . There was a funny spot where Ameran grazed with an axe kick, but Williams caught his leg and charged forward, dumping him over the top a rope. Williams was hardly had his best and the most intense here. He didn’t have much to work with, and just seemed kind of bored. Easily the worst match so far.
It’s a sad reality indeed when the universe is centered around Masaaki Satake, but here we are with a UNIVERSE BOUT between him and the ever polite, Bert Kops, Jr. This appears to once again be broken down into a rounds format. Kops starts things off with an ever-pleasant takedown, followed by an armbar attempt, but is too close to the ropes. Kops goes for another takedown, but Satake shows some surprisingly decent sprawling technique, which would later serve him well in his short stint in PRIDE. Kops was able to sneak in a straight ankle lock just before the round ended.
Round 2 sees Satake win via KO just past the 2min mark. I’m surprised at how decent Satake is looking in the worked-shoot format. His striking looked good, which isn’t a surprise, but he also showed some fine grappling, especially in the realms of takedown defense. Kops, on the other hand, was simply serviceable, as he lacks the intensity that’s needed to excel in this format. Also, his strikes weren’t horrible compared to some of the guys we’ve witnessed, but looked silly when juxtaposed against Satake’s. Decent, but would have been a lot better with someone besides Kops. ** ½
ML: A boring and predictable fight. In the first round, Kops would just fall on Satake’s ankle, and get the take down, but fail to really progress on the ground, except for coming close to an armbar when Satake was an inch from the ropes. Kops finally got a barely threatening leglock off the takedown to start the second round, but after that, he just mysteriously started standing around and eating Satake’s shots. Satake then quickly dropped him twice for the win. Satake did seem interested, and showed some potential.
Now for the main event, an ASTRAL BOUT between Akira Maeda and Hank Newman. I know next to nothing about Newman, other than he is Dutch, had a sporadic run in RINGS and won a bronze medal at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow. The match starts and right away two things are clear, the first is that Akira Maeda wants you to know about his bad knee, and the 2nd is that Newman appears to know how to fight for real, but not how to really fake a fight. His movements and rhythm are very awkward, as he forces Maeda into the corner, but is thankfully taken down quickly. Newman may know something about the vertical plane of fighting, but he looked completely lost once things went horizontal. There are a lot of pitiful armbars to be found in the shoot-style, but this had to be one of the worst, not to mention the slowest, entries ever attempted.
Thankfully, this farce ended quickly afterward, as the fight stood back up and Maeda just wailed away at Newman’s thighs with some slow-motion kicks that Hank hilariously sold for like he was Ricky Morton. This was bad, but ended quickly, and shows that Maeda needs a much stronger vetting system in place before just letting any rando jump into his main events. * ¼
ML: Newman represented the Netherlands in sambo at 95kg in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. His ground work may have been good, but we barely got to see any of it. Instead, we saw a lot of clueless pro wrestling overselling of Maeda’s strikes, where Newman did an odd wobble or completely fell virtually every time he took a kick, leading to a quick knockout. This was truly dreadful, and serve no purpose beyond Maeda being able to say he defeated another Olympian.
Conclusion: While far from being particularly important from a historical perspective, this may be the most entertaining RINGS event, so far. Even its lesser moments were over quickly, and while the first match was overlong, it was interesting and credible. This didn’t do anything to move the needle in an MMA sense, but it was a marked improvement for their overall watchability. Not something I would go out of my way to recommend, but a much better way to spend two hours than any Jan de Bont film.
ML: This show started decently, but ended terribly. Had Volk Han’s match been near the end of the card where it belonged, the show might have felt a little less unfulfilling, but even if we want to try to look past the fact that the last three bouts out and out sucked, they were really thin and insignificant. The additions of Yoshihisa Yamamoto & Masayuki Naruse were good, and Grom Zaza & Dick Vrij are potentially improving, but RINGS doesn’t seem like a promotion that is going to have a card with a handful of quality matches, much less an interesting top to bottom show, any year soon.
*This entire event, along with many other treasured rarities, can be found over at www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad
*In other news*
David Carmona, a gang member who killed Sonny Rodriguez, the son of famous kickboxer William “Blinky” Rodriguez, was recently sentenced to 37 years in prison by a San Fernando, CA, court. Sonny was sitting in his car on 3-3-90, where he was learning to drive a stick shift when he was mistaken for a rival gang member by Carmona, and was shot to death as a result.
This story at least had a touching ending as William (who is an outspoken Christian) forgave his son’s killer at the courtroom. When he arrived at the courtroom, he was met by several of the killers’ friends and associates. Here is a quote from him, regarding this event: “I was beat up in regard to the way my son got killed. Then we get to the courthouse and 30 guys are there supporting them. They were looking at my wife and I like WE did something wrong, like we were a piece of garbage. This hatred was trying to consume me. It was choking me. I tried to not feed it. I tried to not do war. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. We came into an agreement to forgive.”
Blinky was also allowed to stand up and address the Pacoima gang member who shot and killed his 16-year-old son where he told him, “David, we forgive you, man. You may have taken Sonny’s life, but you didn’t take his soul. You deal with God now.”
This ordeal prompted Blinky to start working with several groups that are devoted to keeping kids out of gangs.
A company out of Garden Grove, CA has started production of a new style of book to appeal to martial arts fans. The name of the company is Fantasy Mountain Publishers and will be putting out a book, entitled, Target Six . This book will be personalized to each customer that buys it and will de facto make the owner of the novel the protagonist of the story. Similar concepts in literature have been marketed towards kids in the 1980s, but so far no one has tried to appeal to an adult market. The book is set to be in a hardcover format and will retail for $85.
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Just in case there was any doubt about how far ahead of the curve Shooto (and Satrou Sayama) was, here is a Shooto event from March of 1990. We have lot’s of rare footage over at Kakutogi HQ that will probably never be released publicly, but I want to share this with my fellow UG-MEN, so any silly notions of cross training only being a more recent phenomenon can be dispelled, once and for all. Outside of the video quality that dates the footage, this could have easily passed for an American event in the late 90s early 00s (if they fought in a ring instead of a cage) and no one is gassing out. There were even different MMA gyms/teams in those days. Although they weren’t going by that terminology.
Here it is:
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Coolio julio, i’ve got the box for that somewhere that has the fight card on the back cover