Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol 1

[mbetz1981]

Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol.56 "Swords to Plowshares"

*Special Thanks to our wonderful translator, John Krummel, for his invaluable translations. *

**Comments made by Mike Lorefice (proprietor of the excellent puroresu/mma emporium quebrada.net) will be preceded by his initials) **

“He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:4

Swords to plowshares. An infamous saying that originated from the Book of Isaiah to talk about a future where warfare ceases to exist, but in modern nomenclature is oftentimes used to denote a transition from using implements of war, away from their intended purpose, into more pacifistic means. This concept will surely come to be a strange epiphany to anyone fortunate enough to receive its mandate. Imagine training all of your life on how to kill quickly, efficiently, without remorse or pity, but then at a moment’s notice having to learn how to reimagine all of your skills into forging ahead within a peaceful lifestyle. There is no way that on 12-5-92 that Yoshiaki Fujiwara could have known that this was, in a sense, to be his story, as he is about to embark on his last foray into a relevant battlefield. If New Japan Pro Wrestling was basic training, the original incarnation of the UWF had to be his seasoning in the ways of being a commissioned officer, and then the 2nd reboot of the UWF was his promotion to that of a General in the pro wrestling wars. By the time that the PWFG rolled around in early 1991, Fujiwara was no longer a young buck with something to prove but served a role as an elder commander in what would shape to be a war for the imagination of the combat-sport thirsty public in Japan. Along the way, he found two rough diamonds that served to be both a means of great purpose for the older Fujiwara, but sadly, was perhaps his professional undoing. Of course, we are referring to his top students, Masakatsu Funaki, and Minoru Suzuki.

Both Suzuki and Funaki were troubled kids whose upbringings could have led to disaster had it not been for their passion for professional wrestling. Funaki was the son of a movie theater owner, which instilled a great love for martial arts films, especially those starring Bruce Lee, Sammo Hung, and Sonny Chiba. Sadly, Funaki’s dad would later abandon his family, leaving him without a father figure. This traumatic experience was the catalyst for Fuanki to overachieve in everything that he did. Funaki enrolled as a student at a secondary school division within the National Medical University before deciding to quit in the 9th grade to attempt a career at NJPW. Suzuki, on the other hand, turned his wayward youthful rebellious energies into a far more negative direction, getting involved in gang activity at a young age. He has been quoted as saying, “Every time I got on a commuter train, I could not stand facing the door because there were members of rival gang groups everywhere looking for an opportunity to sucker-mob-lynch me." Suzuki’s life could have easily ended in ruin had it not been for an early admiration for Antonio Inoki and a natural aptitude for wrestling. Suzuki turned to amateur wrestling in school, in part to compensate for his lack of physical stature but also to emulate the professional wrestlers that he admired.

Gotch Giving His Pupil Some Instructions…

The converging stories of both Funaki and Suzuki landing within New Japan within three years of each other would have still possibly ended in a whimper had it not been for Fujiwara taking a keen interest in both of them. Fujiwara, more than most, understood the importance of having a mentor since Karl Gotch took him under his wing when he was directionless and became both a teacher and a father figure to him. Both Funaki and Suzuki, albeit for slightly different reasons, were likely doomed from ever getting the kind of main-event push that their talents were worthy of. New Japan debuted Funaki in 1985, where he spent the next few years toiling away in lower-card Junior matches. These bouts were exciting but a career dead-end because Antonio Inoki had chosen to keep the main emphasis of the company on their heavyweights. Suzuki, on the other hand, was someone that had a lot of talent and charisma, but with that also came a bad attitude and a lack of patience for a lot of the politics that comes when one is trying to move up the ranks in the pro wrestling world. Thankfully for both, Fujiwara took a liking to them, and Fujiwara was the only person in Suzuki’s like that he respected enough to allow himself to be mentored by him. It was also a godsend that Fujiwara’s Gotch trained style was a far better fit for what Suzuki and Funaki were aiming for, so when Akira Maeda opened a door for them, by offering to buy out all of their contracts, so he could have them relocate to his relaunching of the UWF in 1988, they all jumped at the chance to do so. This relocating gave a much larger platform for Suzuki and Funaki to be recognized, their fighting skills and athletic prowess being undeniable to all that witnessed them. Still, they were never going to be at the top of the food chain as long as guys like Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada were around, so it wasn’t until the fracturing of the Newborn UWF into three separate promotions that they were given a format that they could headline. By this point, Fujiwara was content to take on a lesser role, only headlining the main events of his promotion sporadically. This caused the focus to be on Funaki, Suzuki, and American Ken “Wayne” Shamrock. Fujiwara was still the boss, but unlike Takada, and to a lesser extent Maeda, he didn’t seem to have an oversized ego that wouldn’t allow him to step away from the spotlight. All of these factors created a perfect storm that would lead to not only the birth of one of the most important MMA promotions in history but would help facilitate and cultivate the very existence of MMA even being in North America. Shooto had been around several years earlier, but it’s sphere of influence was never going to break out of a small subset of Japanese fans, whereas Pancrase, and especially Ken Shamrock, helped to add the dynamic to the early years of the UFC, and arguably prevented it from being a quick informercial for the Rorion Gracie’s brand of jiu-jitsu.

ML: Funaki’s future in New Japan surely lay in the heavyweight division, but whether or not he would have been a bigger star than some of the other juniors that were promoted in that era such as Hiroshi Hase & Shiro Koshinaka, I’d say yes, or some of the other heavyweights that were coming up around that time such as Masahiro Chono & Kensuke Sasaki, much more debatable, we’ll never know. Certainly, by leaving New Japan, he both came into prominence, and became a headliner much sooner than he would have in the much more stacked and established promotion.

By jumping headfirst into Gotch-flavored submission wrestling, and living/training day-to-day as real fighters, men like Suzuki and Funaki were sure to develop the same longing to prove themselves as any other fighter would naturally do. However, professional wrestling was simply too constricting and was never going to provide a true outlet for that longing for personal growth to be satisfied. Still, the reality of making a living, especially a lucrative one, may have been enough to stay the course in the more established waters of pre-determined finishes. The final straw that gave Funaki the impetus to follow his passion for true fighting presented itself when towards the end of 1992, the main financial backer for the PWFG (along with several other Japanese wrestling promotions at the time) Megane Super decided that they no longer wanted to be associated with pro wrestling and were pulling their financial support. The PWFG was only a marginally profitable venture, even with the influx of investor capital, so it is no surprise that their future was looking grim. Funaki probably didn’t feel like he had anything to lose when he decided to jump out into the unknown, taking the majority of the PWFG roster with him. In a way, those same swords and the training of how to use them is what forever removed Fujiwara’s relevancy in the sphere of MMA once Pancrase formed. Yes, he remained a respected figure, and Battlarts was birthed out of the ashes of the PWFG, which would go on to have a tangential relationship with MMA in the late 90s, but Fujiwara never again had any major influence on MMA. One could say that he was forced to trade in the weapons of armbars, chokes, and leglocks, for the more agrarian fare of working with luchadors and American pro wrestlers past their prime. No longer a general on the forefront of the shoot revolution, he eventually had to go as low as to co-promote with other wrestling promotions just to stay afloat and got so bad that a mid-90s PWFG event looked more like an amateur-hour variety event than a serious facsimile of martial arts. Gone was the serious soldier of the UWF, a nasty submission machine that would just as likely break your rotator cuff than look at you, and in its place was a comedic jokester, an old man now content to till the peaceful fields of standard professional wrestling.

So, let us consider this the last hurrah of the PWFG, a landmark group that had an untold impact on the birth and development of MMA, especially on the American side of the equation. That can never be taken away from them.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Mark Ashford-Smith

Here we get to see the debut of English wrestler Mark Ashford-Smith, who would be better known as Mark Starr for the majority of his career. Smith was a journeyman throughout most of his career, working for several promotions as a solid hand, but never achieved any notable popularity with a broader American wrestling audience. He started wrestling for the Tennessee-based CWA, before heading to Florida’s PWF (which is where he likely made connections with the Malenko’s, Bart Vale, and Masami Soronaka), and from there wound up working for the next seven years in Japan. He is coming into this bout, having recently left the Japanese FMW promotion, having won the AWA’s World Light-Heavyweight Championship there. The bout starts, and immediately we can see that Ishikawa is in way over his head. Not only does Smith dwarf his foe, but he enjoyed a significant reach advantage over him as well. Knowing this, Ishikawa tries to blast Smith down with a power-double, but he even looked pathetic doing that when Smith easily stuffed the takedown with a nice sprawl. While a little dry, I was mostly impressed with this, as it was a nice example of a more realistic entry in the shoot-style spectrum. We even got several examples of striking on the ground, as both men utilized this option to try and force either a submission or their opponent to move. Smith, to my surprise, struck me as someone with a lot of potential to be a competent fighter, despite his striking being a bit on the slow side. Had ground-and-pound been an option, he would have easily killed Ishikawa here, so there was little doubt how this would play out if it were a true shoot, but despite its long-running time at 21mins, I thought it was good for what it was. *** ¼

ML: Starr & Chris Kanyon were Men at Work who didn’t come from a land down under, but given he had about a 50 pound weight advantage, Ishikawa better run, he better take cover. Or maybe not because this match was more of a low intensity amateur wrestling exhibition where there was simply too much cooperation. The match had it’s moments, almost always in standup, where they picked up the pace and at least looked like they were trying to get their strikes in, using some movement and generally being quick, even if they weren’t hitting each other very hard. Smith wasn’t bad, but he just needed more urgency. Probably if he was more comfortable with the style, they both would have put up more resistance. This was watchable, but certainly no better, which also means very skippable.

Bart Vale vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa

One of the cooler revelations of 1992’s PWFG was the sheer potential of Yanagisawa. His sharp kickboxing skills, coupled with very fast takedown abilities, already put him ahead of the curve going into 1993, even if he could never quite reach the top of the Pancrase mountain in later years. Here, his last outing with Fujiwara will be against a man that would have done well in MMA had it existed in the early 1980s, “Mr. America” Bart Vale. Sadly, I must report that Yanagisawa’s final moment in this company was a complete farce of a kickboxing exhibition. This disaster was one of Vale’s more bizarre performances, sometimes kicking Ryushi too hard, which would be followed by several pillow-light strikes that wouldn’t hurt a toddler. Yanagisawa would quickly dance around Vale but wouldn’t actually commit to properly laying into him, and Vale, while he looked like he could bludgeon Ryushi if he so chose to, moved so slow that it just added to the awful surrealness of it all. This was bad, but at least Yanagisawa would never have to embarrass himself again, as he spent the rest of his career being a very game MMA fighter. Despite the ridiculousness of it all, and Yanagisawa’s awful selling, this was fast-paced, so I suppose it merits **.

ML: This was totally one-sided, which was a shame because Yanagisawa is very capable. Vale was more watchable than usual here, as Yanagisawa is also a kickboxer but wasn’t allowed to put any real pressure on Vale, or seemingly actually make contact, so Vale was basically free to do his forms. There were moments when they went pretty hard, as Yanagisawa was willing to just charge in or miss wildly. Vale was actually pretty stiff at times, although he was pretty pillowy at other times. I think this would have been interesting as a shoot because Yanagisawa has enough size to stand up to Vale, and has a lot more speed, obviously, to get in and get out before Vale throws his through slow shots, but with Yanagisawa being so handicapped, it was hard to maintain interest even with close to half the match being edited out.

Kazuo Takahashi vs. Alexsey Medvedev

We got to see Medvedev and his awesome singlet fashion sensibilities last month, albeit in a very digested showing. That footage was too short to get a proper reading, but it seems that Medvedev is a worthy addition to the shoot-realms and is now tasked with having to go the distance with Kazuo Takahashi. To my shock, this appears to be a shoot, with Takahashi slapping Medvedev with an intensity that cannot be faked. This was far more interesting as a shoot than it would have been as a work, because of the nice contrast between the superior wrestling and size/weight/strength advantages belonging to Medvedev, while the striking/submission experience went to Takahashi. The reality of this was just as back-and-forth as it appeared to be on paper, with Takahashi having to use his knowledge and experience to overcome his opponents’ physical attributes. First blood was drawn when Takahashi was able to secure a nasty guillotine choke on Medvedev but was too close to the ropes, which allowed for a rope escape. This fight wound up being a 30-min draw, which is a perfectly logical conclusion to a shoot between these two skill sets. Takahashi didn’t have quite the toolbox to vanquish such a strong wrestler that dwarfed him, but Medvedev was too green to put the scrappy Kazuo away. While this may seem archaic to a modern audience, I felt that it was an interesting shoot, considering the context of the time.

ML: Medvedev had a huge wrestling advantage in this shoot, but that alone doesn’t end a fight, so even though he dominated, Takahashi was actually the one that came closer to winning. Medvedev had enough striking to open up his takedown, but Takahashi absolutely knew what was coming, and did a good job of not getting pinned to the canvas even if Medvedev was often controlling on the ground. Takahashi making Medvedev work to maintain that control opened up a submissions or two, mainly an ankle lock when Medvedev stuck with a takedown that was stuffed, dumping Takahashi over the top rather than just disengaging and starting over. There was one point where Medvedev probably could have finished when he countered Takahashi’s leg trip by coming down on top, but he didn’t understand the arm triangle. This was definitely only competitive because Medvedev is green, and doesn’t have any finishers, but that made for a fairly interesting matchup. Definitely the best match so far.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Jerry Flynn

I can only hope that Suzuki is in another one of his shooting moods as Flynn has been treading the path of mediocrity for most of the year. While we won’t be getting two shoots in a row, Suzuki is showing some very impressive footwork here, moving in and out of the pocket with ease. Still, Flynn is a giant of a man, and Suzuki can’t hope to trade strikes with him for long. Suzuki wisely gets a quick takedown-to-mount, but for some inexplicable reason, gave up his mount for some kind of half-baked guard pull. Thankfully, Flynn was too slow to take advantage of this blunder, and it wasn’t long before Suzuki was back in an advantageous position. The good news is that Suzuki kept constant quick pressure on Flynn, which prohibited him from meandering through this match, however, the downside was that there was no way that Flynn could go full-bore with his strikes against Suzuki without decapitating him. Since Flynn had to keep his offense pulled, it took away any competitive tools that he would have had in giving Suzuki a competitive match. Still, this was a great performance from Suzuki, it was just too one-sided to be a strong recommendation. ** ¾

ML: This is one of those matches where playing a work out like a shoot didn’t really provide any benefit. Suzuki reasonably wanted nothing to do with striking with the much longer stand-up specialist, so he kept it on the mat. Flynn was defending well though, so Suzuki wasn’t really able to get him in too much trouble. Flynn wasn’t able to turn defense into offense though, so he really never got going. In the end, most of the match was spent waiting for some offense to happen. It felt like it was neither good nor bad, just dry.

Wayne Shamrock vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Unlike Funaki, Suzuki, Takahashi, Fuke, and Yanagisawa, Ken Shamrock didn’t bail on Fujiwara right away. Perhaps he was torn since it was Fujiwara that gave him a huge opportunity by allowing him to be one of the top stars of this promotion, but whatever the reason, it took Ken a few months before he would decide to fully throw himself into Funaki’s new venture. After this event, Shamrock was in two other PWFG shows, one in Japan on 1-16-93 and the other in the PWFG’s 2nd appearance on American soil, which took place on 2-19-93. Footage for both of these events has been so far impossible to come by, but we at Kakutogi HQ will never give up the search for this footage. Even Bart Vale doesn’t have a copy of them! In a way, this was a fitting end for Fujiwara, before he drifted off into the simple pleasures of agricultural delights, as Shamrock would soon represent the new face of martial arts by being one of the key stars of the UFC, whereas Fujiwara was the bridge to the old world that came before it. What happened between these two wasn’t exactly convincing from an MMA standpoint, but it was a decent bit of shoot-style flavored grappling. The main problem here, and what would have continued to have been a major issue had this outfit stayed intact, was that Fujiwara looks absolutely decrepit standing next to a physical specimen the caliber of Shamrock. This would have been a tough sell for Fujiwara even back in 1984, let alone 8-years later. This isn’t a good matching on paper since Shamrock can’t exactly do much for fear of making Fujiwara look silly, so it was probably as good as an outing as we were going to get out of them. It was a lot of trading of submissions, but the pacing was good, and Fujiwara kept his clown antics away for a nice change of pace. Surprisingly, Ken got the win. Perhaps Fujiwara knew that Ken was on the fence about staying, or maybe he felt bad for jobbing him out to Vale earlier in the year. Either way, Fujiwara gave him a big W here. ** ½

ML: This was basically as good of a match as they could have had at this point in time. Fujiwara took the match seriously, and went all out. The match perhaps wasn’t really that much different than Suzuki vs. Flynn, but my expectations were lower going in, and because Fujiwara finally did the best he could, it wound up being better. This match also had more going on. It was a much more competitive and back and forth contest, with both threatening each other. They largely kept it to a grappling match because that’s the area where Fujiwara can still reasonably hang with, if not theoretically even exceed, Shamrock. The problem for Fujiwara came after Shamrock used a rope escape to break the wakigatame. Shamrock was perhaps a little unsettled from Fujiwara coming close, and decided that it was finally time to assert his advantage in stand up, using kicks to keep Fujiwara away, then tricking him by seeming to finally acquiesce to locking up, only to throw a wild high kick then hurt Fujiwara with a series of clinch knees. Shamrock kept kicking when Fujiwara got up from the clinch knee knockdown, and while Fujiwara nearly got it back to the mat by catching a kick, Shamrock instead finished him with an enzuigiri, which obviously wasn’t the most credible finish, but at least was a nice caught him off guard’s type of surprise where Fujiwara lost, but it didn’t kill him because it seemed a bit unlucky/flukish.

Masakatsu Funaki vs. David Gobejishvili

At the end of T.S. Elliot’s 1925 poem “The Hollow Men,” we are told that the end of the world happens not with a bang but with a whimper. Such is the state of the end of the PWFG in its original, I.E., true incarnation. Funaki is headlining against the man that almost put an end to Minoru Suzuki last month in a spirited shoot. Gobejishvili probably would have succeeded in his quest to vanquish the much smaller Minoru had he had a greater command of submission arts, and it’s fair to assume that one month is not enough time to acquire that knowledge, at least to the point of having a chance to beat Masakatsu Funaki. The fight starts, and we once again witness the supreme intellect of Funaki’s masterful fight IQ. Funaki is keeping as much distance as possible, swiftly running towards the mammoth wrestler, kicking him, and then fleeing for safety just as quickly. Gobejishvilli is a behemoth of a man, but luckily for Funaki, he has no clue how to throw a kick or block one, for that matter. It was inevitable that Gobejishvilli would take Funaki down, but he couldn’t figure out what to do with him once he got there. This sluggish outing would have been much better as a shoot, but it was a boring work that was hindered by both the inexperience of Gobejishvilli as well as Funaki looking like he would rather be home watching an episode of Tekkaman Blade. When it comes to Funaki launching Pancrase, we were all winners because his output in professional wrestling was just too inconsistent. He had all the talent but oftentimes didn’t bother to try and find a way to make his opponent look good, which is the duty of a professional. Now that he will go on to put his formidable skills to the test in legit competition, we are all the better for it. This lackluster main event somehow managed to be the worst fight on the card, which shouldn’t happen when you have a talent like Funaki in the driver’s seat. Funaki gets the win via a particularly nasty toehold. * ½

ML: This was largely the fight I’ve been wanting to see from Funaki, using his movement, working his kicks. I think it went down about the way it would have it if it were shoot, which is what Funaki tries to do, for better and for worse. It felt like an actual early MMA striker vs. wrestler specialist match. The problem for Gobejishvili is, like most of the early amateur wrestlers, he didn’t have much beyond the takedown, and Funaki is an exceptional grappler, actually better than he is as a striker, so he wasn’t a lame duck once his back hit the canvas like basically all the early kickboxers until Maurice Smith figured out how to get back to his feet. Funaki was doing big damage with each low kick, buckling Gobejishvili. Gobejishvili could take Funaki down if he got a hold of him, but rather than hope to turn defense into offense on the ground, Funaki was simply not staying on the mat if he had a choice, and we saw this right away with Funaki frustrating Gobejishvili by springing right back up and landing another leg kick. Gobejishvili was momentary hobbled, but his determination didn’t waver. This time he hit a single leg and was able to keep Funaki down for a while, until he took advantage of Funaki trying to get back to his feet, hitting a released German suplex, but then not being quick enough to regain ground control. Gobejishvili eventually had to mix it up by trying to establish his own kicks in order to be less predictable with the takedown, but Funaki’s game was also evolving, and once Gobejishvili was focused on defending his legs, Funaki brought the kick up for the big high kick knockdown. Gobejishvili was just taking too much damage from the leg kicks, and knew he could only take a few more, so he had to take a chance on the ground because he wasn’t going to win this simply by riding Funaki, especially with Funaki having so much success getting back to his feet. Gobejishvili finally gambled on a submission, dropping into an Achilles’ tendon hold, but Funaki immediately countered it with an ankle lock for the win. This match was on the short side, which probably wasn’t a bad thing, and it was a certainly a back and forth match with good intensity. I’d hesitate to call it good, especially with Gobejishvili having no real offense once the fight hit the canvas, but I thought it overachieved for sure, and was clearly the most interesting bout on the card. I was quite happy with Funaki’s performance, and, while obviously very green, Gobejishvili definitely showed potential.

Conclusion: Taken in a vacuum, this show was a little better than last month and is slightly trending in an upwards direction. Mostly, this is due to some new faces arriving that are forcing some different matchups. However, when examined from a distance, it’s clear that if the PWFG was going to continue in the shoot-style battles, it was going to have to reroute in order to remain. The only direction that it could have logically gone in was to become what Pancrase ultimately did, which is (more or less) a full-shoot organization with a pro wrestling aesthetic. I don’t know how feasible that could have been, as it’s hard to say how willing Fujiwara would have been to that kind of change. Not only would he have to convince investors that shooting was viable (which was a very difficult sell before the UFC’s success), but he himself would have to step away from the limelight, as there was no way that Fujiwara could move forward in real shoots. He may have been able to reposition himself as a figurehead or brand ambassador, but that was not a likely option when you’re used to being something of a celebrated and revered figure in the world of kakutogi-sport. Also, Funaki may have not wanted to see his vision executed under Fujiwara’s banner. Perhaps, it was inevitable that he would strike out on his own, for better or for worse. Whatever the reasons behind his decision, it almost didn’t happen. Funaki and Suzuki both had to go deeply into debt to finance Pancrase, and they put themselves into a position where they had to succeed. I honestly think that Funaki had every intention of only putting on true 100% shoots within their specific ruleset, but after seeing how the first Pancrase event ended with less than 13mins of actual fight time, the unpredictability of real fights probably freaked him out. This is probably what led to some decisions on Funaki’s part to allow some of the fights to be padded out, and the occasional early work. Of course, we will get into a lot more detail on all of these things in 6-months when Pancrase officially debuts, but for now, we will bow our heads in memorial for Fujiwara’s slice of combat sports history. May he enjoy his new peaceful journey.

ML: PWFG could surely have had another pretty good year or two simply by finally booking a few Funaki vs. Suzuki matches. They had some promising young natives, so if someone from the Kazuo Takahashi, Yuki Ishikawa, Ryushi Yanagisawa, or Yusuke Fuke (who sadly has been out injured for half a year) could have broken out of the pack by then, that could have provided a series of much needed interesting new matchups. Obviously, they were a bit thin on talent, but they were probably doing a better job of scouring the globe now that they could no longer just rely on the Florida connection, and we’ve seen some fine highly credentialed wrestlers from the USSR in recent months. Their big problem obviously was they didn’t have a Maeda or Takada to sell the show while the other guys continued to develop, but for a promotion featuring an aging New Japan midcarder, two New Japan young boy juniors, and a one tour All Japan rookie who had two fights in UWF, they certainly did a remarkable job making it work, including getting 40,000 into the Tokyo Dome two months earlier. Even though we are lucky that the promotion fractured, as we wound up with Pancrase, we should certainly celebrate the unlikely success story that was the initial run of PWFG.

[mbetz1981]

Volume 56 Continued…

Here are the translations for this event, thanks to the amazing powers of John Krummel:

Pre-show interview with Minoru Suzuki: Q: Looking back on this year, how was the year for you? A: Yeah, in the beginning, I was depressed and growing facial hair, but then I began to find my own way and I think I was digesting a lot, especially that was the case at the Tokyo Dome.”

Pre-show interview with Masakatsu Funaki: Q: Looking back on this year, how was the year for you? A: It was a great year with a lot of fruit, I got to fight in big arenas in the Spring and the Fall against big opponents, and I was able to make good results, and I think I was able to learn a lot on the ring. In that sense, I think it was a good year. In any case, if I don’t lose today, I would be without any losses for the year. In that sense, I’ll absolutely not lose.

Announcement from Wayne Shamrock in English

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Mark Ashford-Smith (Mark Starr) 21:49 (30mins 1 fall)

Yuki Yanagisawa’s pre-fight interview: Q: How are you feeling for your fight tonight? A: I’m feeling relaxed, but having seen his [Vale’s] previous fight, he does seem pretty strong. When you see his fights against Funaki or Suzuki, he looks like a weak foreigner, but with a younger guy like me, he’s probably of a higher level. So I’ll just try to be aggressive and do my best.

Bart Vale vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa 13:59 (30mins 1 fall)

Kazuo Takahashi vs. Alexsey Medvedev 30:00 (30mins 1 fall)

Takahashi’s prefight interview: Q: What are your plans for the fight? A: I wrestled him several times in the Soviet Union in amature wrestling, so I know his strengths and I am a little uncertain whether my tackles/take-downs will work on him. But in return I have more experience in the professional ring, being relaxed and so on, so I have an advantage there and would like to score a take-down on him.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Jerry Flynn 9:18 (30mins 1 fall)

Suzuki’s prefight interview: Q: Are you thinking of any tactics or strategy for the fight? A: I haven’t thought of any specific strategy per se, but today I want to try out techniques I know but have never used in matches. There are 2 or 3 techniques/moves like that that I want to try and it would be great if one of them leads to a submission.

Wayne Shamrock vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 12:31 (30mins 1 fall)

Shamrock’s prefight interview: in English.

[Shamrock KOs the boss!]

Masakatsu Funaki vs. David Gobejishvili 7:10 (30mins 1 fall)

Funaki’s prefight interview: Q: You will be fighting against an arm-wrestling champion so how do you want to fight him? A: In any case he is twice as big as me and to that extent he will have a lot strength. Other than that, his standup wrestling is complete and good. I also heard that he’s a young junior champion over there [in his country]. So I’m thinking I’d like to attack him with kicks and then to have that lead to a win.

*This event along with almost 3,000 hours of various MMA/Kickboxing/Wrestling/etc/ can be found over at www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad Join the shoot-revolution!

*In Other News*

It hasn’t been all good news for the United States’ 1992 Olympic ambitions. While the U.S.A. did have the 2nd highest total of medals in Barcelona, their martial artists that competed did poorly, for the most part. This was perhaps most painful in the world of judo, where four-time Olympic team member Mike Swain failed to even reach the medal round. The only highlight was Jason Morris taking a silver medal in judo, having lost only to the fierce competitor that was Japan’s very own, Hidehiko Yoshida. This victory would prove to be bittersweet as Morris lost his father the following day, as he passed away in a Barcelona hotel room. In the women’s judo division, Kate Donahoo of Colorado Springs, Colorado, almost won a bronze medal, losing her match to Cuba’s Driulis Gonzalez by only a point.

[de_braco]

I always picture the above in relation to japanese interviews

[mbetz1981]

I suppose that this would be a good time to continue our tracking of all Pre-UFC Shoots. This latest PWFG event added one more shoot to the total with it’s Takahashi match.

Here is the latest list:

Freek Hamakers vs. Charlie Lieveld (A Free-Fight that took place on 11-20-88 at a Dutch kickboxing event)

Gerard Gordeau vs. Dick Veldhuis (A Free-Fight that took place on 2-19-89 at a Dutch kickboxing event)

Yusuke Fuke vs. Lawi Napataya (PWFG 7-26-91)

Minoru Suzuki vs Lawi Napataya (PWFG 8-23-91)

Ken Shamrock vs Kazuo Takahashi (PWFG 11-3-91)

Nobuaki Kakuda vs Herman Renting (RINGS 12-7-91)

Gerard Gordeau vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS 12-7-91)

Minoru Suzuki vs Takaku Fuke (PWFG 1-15-92) This was a shoot, but there were no strikes. It was similar to a ADCC match.

Billy Scott vs James Warring (UWFI 12-22-92)

Nobuhiko Takada vs Trevor Brebick (UWFI 12-22-92)

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Koichiro Kimura (RINGS 1-25-92)

Nobuaki Kakuda vs Rob Kaman (Rings 1-25-92)

Masaaki Satake vs Gerard Gordeau (Rings 1-25-92)

Adam Watt vs. Hans Nyman (RINGS 3-5-92)

Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Rudy Ewoldt (RINGS 3-5-92)

Masaaki Satake vs. Fred Oosterom (RINGS 3-5-92)

Gus Garcia va Richard Carle (PWFG 3-20-92)

Ozzie Alvarez vs Pedro Goderich (PWFG 3-20-92)

John Lana vs Herman Cicedo (PWFG 3-20-92)

Pieter Smit vs. Mikoki Ichihara (Sediokaikan/RINGS 3-26-92)

Herman Renting vs. Yoshinori Nishi (Sediokaikan/RINGS 3-26-92)

Naoyuki Taira vs. Eric Edlenbos, (Sediokaikan/RINGS 3-26-92)

Maurice Smith vs. Masaaki Satake (Sediokaikan/RINGS 3-26-92)

Yoshinori Nishi vs Willie Peeters (RINGS 4-3-92)

Kazuo Takahashi vs Yuki Ishikawa (PWFG 4-19-92)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs Mathew Saad Mohammed (UWF-I 5-8-92)

Minoru Suzuki vs Yuki Ishikawa (PWFG 6-25-92)

Yoshinori Nishi vs Peter Dijkman (RINGS 6-25-92)

Mitsuya Nagai vs Nobuaki Kakuda (RINGS 6-25-92)

Naoyuki Taira vs Eric van der Hoeven (RINGS 6-25-92)

Masaaki Satake vs Willie Peeters (RINGS 6-25-92)

Nobuaki Kikuta vs. Yukihiro Takenam (RINGS 7-16-92)

Chris Dolman vs Buzariashibili Ramaji (Rings 7-16-92)

Masaaki Satake vs Peter Oele (RINGS 7-16-92)

Yoshinori Nishi vs. Greg Douglas (Sediokaikan-Kakutogi-Olympic-II 7-30-92)

Koichiro Kimura vs. Masayuki Naruse (RINGS 8-24-92)

Nobuaki Kakuda vs Dick Vrij (RINGS 10-29-92)

Maasaki Satake vs Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS 10-29-92)

Kazuo Takahashi vs. Alexsey Medvedev (PWFG 12-5-92)

[William_C]

After interviewing Takahashi, I did come away with the impression that the Medvedev match was legit (educated guess, as he was doing the kayfabe stuff for the interview).

[mbetz1981]

Upon watching it, it was pretty obvious that it was a shoot. There are some fights that are hard to call on way or another in terms of their realness, but most are pretty easy to assess. The Takahashi fight was totally legit.

We just did an entire column on the final PWFG show before their fracturing into Pancrase and you have no comments? Hey now!

[William_C]

lol I’ve been so busy with moving, new job, new apartment- unfortunately any free time is still super limited. Havent had a chance to read it fully yet, things are crazy

[mbetz1981]

Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol.57 "The World Is Not Enough III 'The Amsterdam Connection’

*Comments made by Mike Lorefice (proprietor of the excellent puroresu/mma emporium quebrada.net) will be preceded by his initials) *
** Also, special thanks to the De Braco Archives and Institute of Advanced Martial Aesthetics for their invaluable assistance to this article. **

They say that politics make for strange bedfellows, and that axiom has never been proven to be more accurate than when looking at the long and storied history of combat sports. However, in the case of early MMA history, it’s not just the bizarre alliances that shaped due to political/financial necessities, but how the same informational zeitgeist swelled in different pockets of the world before converging into one another via Japan’s nascent MMA scene. During our many columns here at the Kakutogi Road, we have spent a lot of time discussing the early history of MMA starting from the vantage point of early 90’s Japan, but like anything else in life, there is an interconnectivity with many other moving parts and influences that allowed that to take shape.

Bluming with Kyokushin founder Mas Oyama

As we are about to dive into the third round of FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS’ inaugural MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT, let’s first take a moment to look at the only other country (Holland) that was making serious efforts to advance the science of modern MMA, and the main men who started it, Jon Bluming & Chis Dolman. Bluming was one of the very few people in the world to have climbed to the highest echelons of both judo and karate. He took up judo around the age of 23, and in only a year, he received the 3rd-degree dan from Tokio Hirano by beating 75 judokas in 26 minutes, one of which was another 3rd dan. This incredible feat put him on a fast track to be a top judo trainer, teaching around the world while founding a school in Nova Scotia, Canada. However, in 1959 Bluming grew restless with his abilities when he found himself struggling to beat another top-ranked American judoka who was also a 3rd dan. This reevaluation prompted him to move to Japan and join the Kodokan Institute, where he began refining his skills in earnest. Bluming found that his throwing abilities were very strong, but that his ne-waza (groundwork) needed to be improved, so he enlisted the help of legendary ground specialist and first known user of what’s now referred to as a triangle choke, Yaichihyoe Kanemitsu. During his time in Japan, he started taking interest in other forms of martial arts, especially karate, and in the subsequent years he started shifting more and more of his attention to it. Eventually, he earned a 6th degree black belt in Kyokushin Karate from none other than master/founder, Mas Oyama. By this stage of his life, he was a legend within both the small worlds of judo and karate and was highly sought after for his expertise.

Around four years after receiving high accolades from Mas Oyama, Bluming began to take issue with some of the internal politics within Kyokushin and opted to start his own karate dojo. It wasn’t long afterward that a young collegiate athlete named Chris Dolman crossed paths with Bluming and became his star pupil. Like his sensei before him, Dolman instantly took to judo and karate, becoming a fierce competitor in his own right. However, unlike Bluming, Dolman also took an interest in Sambo after being introduced to the sport by entering an international competition in Moscow in 1970, despite not having any experience in the art. Dolman continued his winning ways for the next several years, but little did he know that in 1976, an opportunity would come along that would not only change his life but drastically alter the trajectory of martial arts for years to come. In 1976, another one of Bluming’s renowned judokas, Willem Ruska, was scheduled to have a pro wrestling match against Antonio Inoki. Dolman tagged along, and his experience as Ruska’s cornerman unlocked his imagination to the possibilities within mixed fighting. Up to this point, Bluming had proven that a man could excel in both grappling and striking disciplines, but no one in the modern era had ever attempted to systematically synthesize the two for sports applications. While being thrust into the world of Japanese pro wrestling, a platform for merging the two worlds started to make sense to Dolman. This fascination grew to the point whereby when 1981 rolled around, Dolman wanted to throw a party in which a full-scale pankration tournament would take place at a local music venue. This experiment could loosely be considered the first MMA event to take place in modern recorded history, although the concept was still in a very primitive stage.

Flyer for what was arguably the first ever MMA event.

While Dolman’s brief stint inside the world of New Japan Pro Wrestling planted the seed of what could be possible in the realm of free-fighting, Dolman still did not have many outlets available to him that would warrant full-blown cross-training. Most of his time outside of his own training was spent training young street kids,and trying to put them to work via kickboxing, bouncing, or as added muscle to sleazy Dutch crime lords. Thankfully, Akira Maeda had different plans for him, and when he was in the process of starting up the NEWBORN UWF promotion, he sought out Dolman and requested that he help teach some of his wrestlers, as well as possibly send in some of his talents. By the time Maeda spoke to Dolman about a possible business arrangement, the movement towards what would be known as MMA was in full swing thanks to Satoru Sayama and the accomplishments of the original incarnation of the UWF. The framework for a pro wrestling company based around realism had been laid, and now Dolman had finally acquired the means to put all of his knowledge to good use. Dolman sent Gerard Gordeau to headline the 3rd UWF show against Maeda on 8/13/88, but Maeda had a lot of key native players already in place for the 2nd UWF run, and Dolman’s assistance was only required sporadically.

Fate would intervene, however, when a massive clash of egos splintered the Newborn UWF and forced their three primary personalities to start their own vanity projects. Strangely, this hurt Maeda the most, as despite being the biggest draw of anyone in the UWF, he had a horrible reputation amongst the core UWF crew, and none of that roster wanted to work with him any longer. If Maeda was going to have any hope of rising above the bridges he burned and launch a successful company, he needed more than just an occasional worker sent over or some sporadic training. No, this time he had to start from scratch, but this would seem impossible because all of the people trained in this niche style were already slated to work elsewhere. Necessity is the mother of invention, and Maeda quickly remembered Dolman, and the possibility of using his network of various martial artists seemed like a no-brainer. Granted, almost none of them had any pro-wrestling experience, but thanks to the world that Dolman had created, they were usually at least somewhat knowledgeable of all ranges of fighting, even if their skills were usually rudimentary in a particular dimension. Thanks to Maeda and Dolman’s fortuitous relationship, MMA was able to spawn and evolve throughout parts of Europe, and in many ways, it helped to keep Japanese MMA afloat by continuing to provide many of the warm bodies that were needed for its boom period of the 90s. Over the years, Dolman’s influence in the worlds of Dutch kickboxing/MMA would only grow, as it got to the point where anyone that trained in or around Holland from the late 80s to the late 00’s probably had dealings with Dolman at one point or another. Bas Rutten, both Overeem brothers, Gilbert Yvel, along with many others can be included in the long list of fighters that trained with him and his various associates.

Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto

Fast-forward to our present hour, and we are about to partake in either the greatest moment of Chris Dolman’s career or the most shameful, depending on your perspective. Yes, the 1992 MEGA-BATTLE Semi-Finals are upon us, and thankfully only the last two bouts will be part of the tournament. Kakuda was in a shoot two months ago, a brutal affair that saw him gallantly die upon his shield as Dick Vrij wailed upon him with the cruelest of mercies. Hopefully, he’ll be fighting for real once more, which is what will be needed to awaken Yamamoto from autopilot mode.

Round 1 sees Yamamoto continually keep Kakuda on the mat, and while we are unfortunately in worked territory, Kakuda brings a great intensity keeps you engaged. However, you can still tell that he graduated from the prestigious Ric Flair School of Exaggerated Facial Expressions whenever he’s in a submission. The following rounds saw Kakuda get a lot stiffer in those brief moments that he could stay erect, whereas Yamamoto, on the other hand, kept trying to put silly submissions like the STF or half crab on a mostly resistant Kakukda. This made for interesting viewing as we have probably all wondered at one point how possible it would be to try and slap a figure-four on a non-compliant foe, and the answer is, not likely. The real magic happened at the end of round 5 when it looked like it was supposed to go to a draw, but neither Yamamoto, nor Kakuda, could accept such a nebulous fate and demanded an extra round! Round 6 starts and 14 seconds is all it takes for Kakuda to kick Yamamoto into oblivion. This was a very cleverly worked bout that was very entertaining. Yamamoto is cleverer than I gave him credit for as he didn’t have to rely on cooperation to work a match with Kakuda as much as simply rely on low percentage submission attempts, or if he wasn’t doing that, taking a page out of 1984 Fujiwara and simply wait until your opponent is close to the ropes before applying pressure with your submission. Lots of great energy makes this a nice opener and easily *** ¼

ML: This was just the fifth match of rookie Yoshihisa Yamamoto’s career, the other four being against fellow rookie Masayuki Naruse. Here he found himself in a heated shoot against 31-year-old karate champion Kakuda. This seemed kind of unfair given their experience level, but Yamamoto does have a huge reach advantage, and actually has some understanding of mat wrestling, rather than just being a pure striker like Kakuda, who is struggling to learn a new sport. It was ultimately pretty even, and quite good, probably the most interesting long shoot we have seen so far. Though this started off with a belly to belly suplex by Yamamoto, and had a lot of odd leg twisting by him early on, with him trying everything short of the STF, there was too much impact on the strikes for this to have not been legitimate. I mean, Kakuda was hitting much harder than in anything we’ve seen from him outside of Seido Kaikan, and these guys were really going at it hard, beating each other’s legs and bodies up big time. I would explain some odd mat techniques by Yamamoto by saying that Yamamoto, and mostly everyone else, didn’t exactly have a great grasp of real submissions yet, nor did Kakuda have more than the most rudimentary knowledge of defense. While Yamamoto certainly dominated on the mat, he probably could have won if he would have stuck to more conventional leg locks or worked for a rear naked choke when he had the back instead of doing weird things he saw in the UWF or something lamer, but these were the days when I was trying to finish off my friends in play wrestling with the sharpshooter or Hercules Hernandez torture rack. Kakuda landed several very effective inside leg kicks when he was actually on his feet, but Yamamoto simply had too much leverage for him, and wound up getting him down virtually every time they locked up. Yamamoto had an ankle lock at the end of the second round that Kakuda should have tapped on, but he screwed up his knee gutting it out to secure the rope escape, and was hobbling around for the next three plus rounds. Kakuda wasn’t willing to just survive, he somehow found a way to start strong in each subsequent round. He immediately scored an inside leg kick knockdown to start the third round. Yamamoto was still able to get the fight to the ground by overhooking Kakuda when he came forward and tried to strike inside, which is his specialty in karate. Yamamoto forced a rope escape with an armbar, and had a rear naked choke, so he likely would have won his third round in a row, if they were scoring that way. The match became much more interesting with Kakuda closing the distance with more aggression and ferocity in the 4th, hurting Yamamoto early with body punches. This was a much better round for Kakuda, who also finished by nearly ending the fight with an inside leg kick knockdown because Yamamoto’s leg was starting to betray him. Yamamoto decided to start the fifth round with an inside leg kick of his own, but while this certainly did damage, it mostly just seemed too piss Kakuda off, and he went into boss mode, hurting Yamamoto with yet another inside leg kick, then finally unleashing his ferocious body punches now that Yamamoto wasn’t moving or overhooking as he was earlier in the fight because he was tired and beat up. Yamamoto had to will himself to circle, but this was still a bad round for him, and he was knocked down again from another inside leg kick. Kakuda used a rope escape near the end of the round to get off his back, and then hobbled his way in and dropped Yamamoto with a clinch knee, but after much deliberation, it was eventually properly ruled a low blow. This sent them to the extra rounds, where Kakuda came out on fire again, this time finishing off Yamamoto with a storm of 5 or 6 kicks to the bad leg in between a few body punches. A great comeback for Kakuda, and an excellent start to the night. Very good match.

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Sergei Sousserov

This match marks the debut of “Russia’s Secret Weapon,” Sergei Sousserov. If Sousserov is any indication, then it’s no surprise that the Motherland lost the cold war, as Sergei’s only notable win came in the form of Tsuyoshi Kosaka in 1995, of which I am unable to confirm or deny the shootiness of at this time. When we last saw Nagai, he was getting pummeled by the mighty palms of Masaaki Satake, one of the few times that he enjoyed squashing another opponent with such ease. Sousserov is out to impress, with plenty of kicks, feints, and throws, for everyone at the super echoey Ariake Coliseum. None of which looked particularly realistic, but was entertaining enough. Everything here was light, fluffy, and showy, which wouldn’t have been a bad thing if it wasn’t coming off the really stiff output of the first match. All of this was a bit too silly to be a strong recommendation, but it did show that Sousserov has a nice skillset, with fine judo, sambo, and even kicking while screaming like a banshee. If he can learn to come across more credibly, then he will be a fine hand. Eventually, Nagai wins with the high-kick KO. ** ¼

ML: Sousserov may have been Russia’s Secret Weapon, but it was quickly no secret what he was going to do. He would throw a couple strikes to get inside, use a belly to belly suplex to take Nagai down, and then go into either an armbar or a leg lock. Sousserov, another sambo specialist, was entertaining enough, but his repetitiveness combined with Nagai never being allowed to do anything kept his match from being nearly as good as the sum of its individual parts. Nagai did come on some in the second half, but the match went on for so long, he had to eventually do something, I suppose. I was pretty shocked when Nagai suddenly knocked Sousserov out with a high kick. This was definitely 10 minutes longer than it needed to be, even if we aren’t considering that it was Sousserov’s debut, and he has a limited move set. This couldn’t follow the intense opener, but overall was a nice start for Sousserov, in that he is a pretty good athlete who executes well and has a decent mix of standup and submission skills. He’s definitely someone who could become a good worker with some experience and fine tuning.

Georgi Kandelaki vs. Rudy Ewoldt

This matchup intrigues me as the last time we saw Ewoldt, he was shooting for his life against Nobuaki Kakuda. Kandelaki, on the other hand, showed a lot of promise in his debut when he shadowboxed Hans Nijman. This slice of weirdness was another maybe-it’s-a-shoot-maybe-it-isn’t, as nothing they did seemed fake, but Kandelaki wasn’t putting a lot behind his punches, either. It is listed as a shoot on a few different websites, so maybe this was just treated as a moderate sparring session. Round 2 saw Kandelaki show a moderate increase in stiffness, which adds a little more weight that this might be a proper shoot, so, perhaps, Kandelaki was pacing himself in the first round. Kandelaki clipped Ewoldt in the jaw early in the round, this winning by KO. I was excited about the prospect of a Judo vs. Boxing shoot, but this lacked any fire that could have made it worthwhile.

ML: Ewoldt looks like he could be a cousin of Chris Dolman, and unfortunately wasn’t much more exciting. This was your classic grappler versus striker match, except Ewoldt couldn’t control the fight on the ground when he did get Kandelaki down. Ewoldt seemed to have a chance after losing the first when he upending Kandelaki with a low kick early in the 2nd, but again couldn’t maintain the advantage, and Kandelaki knocked him out midway through the round after they were restarted for being in the ropes. This was short enough to not be a terrible work, but it’s definitely one to skip.

Volk Han vs. Sotir Gotchev

Bulgaria, yet again, gets another chance at redemption with the 2nd outing of Sotir Gotchev, despite their 0% success rate in giving us a worthy fighter up to this point. The great thing about having Volk Han involved is you already know that the match is going to be composed of copious amounts of win. The question will now be, how much win are we going to get. The bell doesn’t even ring before Gotchev attempts to get a Ric Flair-style cheap shot while shaking Volk’s hand. However, the referee hilariously does not permit this shenanigan, and restarts the two properly. As a side tangent, I remember one time Joe “Big Daddy” Stevenson did his usual sportsmanlike extending of the fist to start a fight, and some clown used it as a way to cheap shot him. Such cowardice should not be tolerated, and all MMA fighters doing so should be barred from polite society. With that rant out of the way, the action is underway, and it seems that Gotchev went to the Scott Steiner dojo of hoist and toss, ugly but effective. Han eschews any pretense of realism with an insanely entertaining hybrid of an inverted omoplata/toehold combination that didn’t work, but is in the stratosphere for creative holds. Gotchev simply has no answers for Han, as his next offensive attempt was none other than a shoot-style version of the airplane spin. The rest of this was all the Volk Han show, with Gotchev not having anything constructive to offer. This lack of skill was offset, to some extent, by Han’s boundless ingenuity but fell short of a typical Han bout. Han eventually wins with one of the most ridiculous submissions that I’ve ever seen which was a cross between a Vulcan neck pinch and a Fujiwara/straight armbar, which should award him either an award or a reprimand. I wanted to rate this higher, but Gotchev drug this down to a ** ½.

ML: I had high hopes for Volk Han vs. Balkan, especially after Gotchev’s good debut against #2 sambo specialist, Andrei Kopylov, in the first round of the tournament on 10/29/92. While it’s nearly impossible for anything from Han to fail, this was a good match that never seemed to be firing on all cylinders. While not a total one man show from Han, it felt more like Gotchev could do some slammy things, and Han figured out how to work around what Gotchev could do, rather than Gotchev really being able to work with Han. Gotchev wasn’t bad by any means, but at this point he had offense rather than understanding how to work, and that hampered the match. Gotchev did a really nice job of scooping Han up and throwing him around like a rag doll, if you don’t mind a bit of Mike Rotunda in your worked shoots, so Han had to focus on using his wrist manipulations when they locked up to prevent that, or just take control with his pretzeling submission attacks once they hit the canvas. At one point, Gotchev had a reverse body lock, but Han turned into it and bent down, lifting Gotchev by his knees and dropping him on his head, then going into a rear naked choke. Han used a handful of new moves here including the standing armlock that he won with, but overall, this was somewhat disappointing in that the Gotchev/Kopylov match seemed better as a whole even though Han was super impressive here, as always. ***

MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT '92 Semifinal: Dick Vrij vs. Herman Renting

Now, we are officially into the MEGA-BATTLE Semi-Final territory, with our first bout consisting of a round format between Vrij and Renting. I suspect that the goodness of this will all come down to how stiff they are willing to be, as Renting probably isn’t capable of pulling a well-worked match out of Vrij. Unfortunately, the pillow-light impacts of Renting’s kicks leave me little hope that we are going to get the slugfest that we all need and deserve. Renting was much better on the mat, where he gave both a spirited and realistic performance. It was also nice to see all of the various judo trips that Renting would use to keep depositing Vrij to the canvas. The rest of this fight followed much the same pattern, and while it wasn’t bad, it never got great, either, and just served to cap off the night with disappointment as we all know that Dolman will not give us the main event we’re looking for. ** ¾

ML: Renting didn’t want to engage in a kickboxing match with Vrij, so he tried to tie him up and take him down. This worked pretty well early on despite the fact that Renting was predictably not very aggressive, and wasn’t really coming forward all that much. The intensity was pretty low in these early rounds, but was at least increasing as the match progressed. Vrij, in particular, was kind of coasting early, but started getting serious in the second half of the fight, and Renting was folding under his pressure. Renting was all too happy to retreat to the ropes or the corner, which he hoped would allow him to grab Vrij when he closed the distance, but as long as Vrij was smart and just stayed in kicking range, he could punish him with little to no counterfire. Renting’s legs were getting pretty beat up, and Vrij was looking to go high for the big blow. Vrij ultimately didn’t need the coup de grace though because Renting’s knee was finished from the low kicks just before the end of the 5th. This didn’t suck, but it was pretty middling.

MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT '92 Semifinal: Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman

Now for what may be the ultimate payoff for Dolman’s services, we are going to witness either the apex of his illustrious career or the nadir. To this day, Dolman will swear to anyone outside of his close circle that all of his RINGS output was on the up-and-up, which is both sad and hilarious. On paper, this makes sense, however, as Maeda was more indebted to Dolman’s network and roster than any other person and would have never even gotten off the ground without him. Granted, Sediokaikan’s founder, Kazuyoshi Ishii, helped immensely, but his players were never going to be anything more than temporary loans and certainly not something you could base your company around. In a way, it is unfortunate that Dolman was so far past his physical peak by the time he got to be able to perform in Japan, as his skills were truly the stuff of legend, and even in his injured/dilapidated state, the Gracie’s wanted nothing to do with him, ignoring his many challenges.

Maeda walks to the ring, and the Tokyo crowd goes bananas, knowing that a grievous upset may be in store for their hero. While Maeda is looking pudgy, he is moving well and putting some genuine intensity into what he’s doing. Dolman is attempting to give his best, also, but can’t help but move like a golem coming out of suspended animation. Dolman attempts to nullify Maeda’s standing assault by clinching up with him, but Maeda is crafty and throws a series of body blows to continue his onslaught. Thankfully, both are overcoming their physical limitations by being stiff, and it helps that Maeda’s wrapped leg gives him an excuse as to why he isn’t in top shape. Eventually, Maeda throws one kick too many and is tripped to the mat via some crisp judo. From here, Maeda quickly goes for a Kimura, and despite his total lack of speed, Dolman does seem to possess plenty of the mysterious old-man strength that we all hope to achieve in our golden years. Knowing he can’t pry Dolman’s wrists loose, Maeda switches to a straight armbar which successfully gets him a point. Eventually, Dolman catches Maeda in a Hiza-Hishigi (knee lock), and the crowd completely loses its marbles. This main event was a lot better than I expected It to be, which isn’t saying much but was probably the best match you could ask from these two in their current state. In fact, this match pretty much sums up the essence of the entire event, which is that of “Ok, but not great.”

ML: Dolman’s workrate is only slightly higher than C.M. Punk’s, and his body doesn’t seem to move in a manner conducive to throwing a proper kick. This was mostly a tepid molasses paced kickboxing match, which greatly favored Maeda, who even being out of shape working on a knee that was overdo for surgery practically seemed to be moving like Mighty Mouse Johnson by comparison to Dullman. Just when Maeda seemed to take over and was finally showing some fire and aggression with a big flurry of strikes, Dolman was able to counter by catching a knee, and trip him up into a kneebar on the heavily taped bad knee for the upset. This meant that two Netherlands fighters were meeting in the final, which didn’t make much sense, but that could be said for the booking of this tournament, in general. The semifinals arguably being the two worst matches on the show wasn’t exactly a sterling endorsement for the tournament either.

Conclusion: While this is a slight step forward from their event from last month, this wasn’t nearly as good as it should have been. Had they mined any of the other Eastern Bloc countries outside of Bulgaria, then they may have found a suitable opponent for Volk Han. Also, swapping out Renting for Willie Peeters would have probably elevated this to a solid card. However, I suspect that things will be back to proper form next month, as the MEGA-BATTLE will be limited to only the final match.

ML: One of the primary issues with being indebted to Dullman is it really waters down the potential of the cards to deliver anything consistently interesting. The good here involved two Japanese fighters and two Eastern European fighters, and while Willie Peeters is always interesting, and Renting has had moments where he appears to be a solid hand, as a whole the Netherlands portion of the RINGS cards has been most apt to be lacking.

This entire event, along with over 4000 hours of MMA/Kickboxing/Wrestling/Instuctionals/Etc. can be found over at Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA is creating Blogs, Historical Articles, Interviews, Podcasts | Patreon

[mbetz1981]

Volume 57 Continued…

Krummel’s Korner

Now, here are the notes from our most excellent translator, John Krummel:

RINGS 12-19-92

[Japanese in opening scene:] Rings decides who is the strongest man in the world. Fighting Network Rings, Mega-Battle Tournament ’92 Semi-Final

Opening ceremony: Greetings from Akira Maeda, representing all participants: “Thanks for coming today. UWF… sorry, I mean Rings will be holding trial events at Korakuen Hall with the lighter weights with fighters from different fighting disciplines, on the basis of the ideal of returning to the roots of combat sports. The point is to get all these fighters from different combat disciplines/martial disciplines fight under a single format. Rings will continue to do its best. Please continue cheering for us.” [The fans all laughed when Maeda said “UWF” instead of “Rings” by mistake… and afterwards, you can see Maeda laughing too.]

Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (5 rounds of 3 min. rounds)

Yamamoto: Rings Japan; Born July 4th, 1970, in Yamaguchi prefecture. Practiced judo in high school and in May 1991 joined Maeda Dojo.

Yamamoto’s prefight interview: “This will be my first big fight. And the opponent is a striking expert, so instead of exchanging strikes with him I’ll take him to the ground and submit him with combat sambo submissions.” Q: “This is the last fight of the year, how was the year?” A: “Well after debuting in May, it’s been a year and a half, which went by quickly. And since this is the last fight of the year, I’ll do my best.”

Kakuda: Seidokaikan; Born April 11, 1961, in Osaka. Seidokaikan Kobe branch head, 2nd dan, and 13-year career in Seidokai karate; Won the 1988 and ’91 Points & KO All Japan karate champtionship; an emotional fighter…

Kakuda’s prefight interview: “This is a very memorable place for me since this arena is where I made a life-changing decision some years ago, and this year—even though I’m here just blabbering about myself—after beginning with a good start, I’ve fought 4 big names in Kaman, Willie, Andy Hug, and Dick Vrij; and I quit my full-time job and I became a father, so this year was a quite turbulent year for me. So as the last closing fight of the year at a memorable arena, I’d like to have a good match tonight.” Q: “Please have a good fight!” A: “Yes, thank you, osu!”

[my thoughts; this was a good fight… even if it was a work it looked like they were competing to see who can shine despite the ending… and then the extra round they added to determine the winner after a draw, looked like a shoot. I wonder if that extra round was indeed a shoot after a worked draw since Kakuda really started banging hard then. Those inside leg kicks right behind or inside of the knee looked really painful… I was thinking that since both of my knees have been bad for the last 10 years since I injured them.]

Yamamoto’s post-fight interview: “The low kicks really hurt. At the start despite his strikes, I was doing well so I thought this is fine… but then his low kicks were hitting me and they hurt. Next time, I’ll have to make sure to check the low kicks”

Kakuda’s post-fight interview: “That was hard… I was stubborn enough to roll with him on the ground. People will say that unless you can grapple on the ground you have no right to fight in Rings. So I decided that if it goes to the ground, I’ll accept that and roll with him. You learn by getting knocked down, and it’s the same with this,… when he got me in a sleeper hold, I learned from it. With his strikes he [Yamamoto] was like a young inexperienced fighter type in karate who doesn’t think about his defense but just goes forward aggressively.”

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Sergei Sousserov (30mins 1 fall)

Sousserov: Rings Russia; Born April 14th, 1973, 19 years old. Began training in sambo at the age of 10; won the 1989, ’90, and ’91 Soviet Union Sambo Championships, the 1989 World Sambo championships in the 95 kg class. Nicknamed the “secret weapon of Russia.” This is his first time to fight in Rings.

Sousserov’s prefight interview: Q: “What are your aspirations for your first appearance here?” A: “With a calm spirit I want to show case my skill that I’ve been training in every day.” Q: “What is your experience in martial arts/combat sports?” A: “I’ve been training in both sambo and combat sambo for over 10 years.” Q: “What is your strategy in dealing with Nagai’s strikes?” A: “I’m really not bothered by whatever kind of fighting style or techniques my opponent will use.”

Nagai: Rings Japan; Born November 10, 1968. Began training in shooting at the age of 17, then joined shootboxing in 1986 and gained a record in professional shootboxing of 5 wins and 2 losses (2KOs). In the tournament he’s been expected to move to the top ranks.

Nagai’s prefight interview: “Since there really is no information about the opponent, in the beginning I’ll take my distance and throw some kicks and palm strikes. But, if possible, I don’t want to always rely on my strikes; and since the other day Kopylov taught me some moves so I’d like to test or try some of these [submission] moves I’ve been learning. The last event of last year was at this arena [Ariake] and since it’s been exactly an year, I’m wondering what the audience will think of my progress over the year. But in general, this year has been very fruitful for me as a fighter.” Q: “I wish you success” A: “Thank you, I’ll do my best.”

Nagai’s post-fight comments in locker room: Kakuda says, “you knocked him down! Congratulations!” Nagai: “When I kicked him his elbow hit my shin… he was really strong. He would be formidable once he gets used to this [Rings rules]… I wasn’t sure about Ariake [the arena] [seems like he’s had bad luck here (?)], but since I won if I can start having good matches now starting next year that would be good… Thank you, please root for me next year as well.”

[My thoughts: Sousserov’s shadow boxing for the camera in the locker room right after he got knocked down… was not inappropriate. What was he thinking? If it was a shoot, he wouldn’t be doing that obviously. And even in a work, he is supposed to at least pretend or act like he’s hurt in front of the camera… He probably did that without thinking because it was his first fight, and he was excited. The way Ewolt looked, walking to his locker room, looking depressed, after losing to Kandrakki even though that was not a believable way to get knocked out, at least, was more appropriate.

Georgi Kandrakki vs. Rudy Ewolt (5 3min rounds)

Kandrakki: Rings Georgia; Born April 10th, 1974, only 18 years old. He’s won the 1991 Soviet Union Boxing Championships and also trains in kickboxing. He is expected to continue improving in the future.

Ewolt: Rings Holland [Netherlands]: Born in Amsterdam, 1957; Won the 1985 Netherlands Judo championships 86 kilo weight class; took 2nd place in the European Judo championships. After training in sambo and karate, he started training Dutch mixed martial arts.

Volk Han vs. Sotir Kochiev (30mins 1 fall)

Kochiev: Rings Bulgaria: Born April 24th, 1968; Won 3 times in a row 1986~88 Bulgarian Wrestling Championships and took 3rd place in the 1988 European tournament in wrestling, 100 kilo class.

Kochiev’s prefight interview: Q: “Having experienced one match in Rings, how do you feel about fighting in Rings?” A: “I think it’s a wonderful format. In the world of combat sports [martial arts] there are all kinds of genres, karate, judo, boxing, sambo, etc., and there are differences in techniques. But there can only be one champion for each and the effectiveness of the combat sport [martial art] that that champion represents/comes from is demonstrated inside of Rings. So this is worth participating in. And it’s also valuable to experience the techniques of other martial arts [combat sports]. Q: “Your tactics that centers on suplexes is appreciated in Rings.” A: “The suplex is a technique I learned when I first started training in sports and it’s my favorite move. I would like to use this technique to win against Han as well and to demonstrate the strength of freestyle wrestling.”

Han: Rings Russia; Born April 19th, 1961, in the Northern Caucasus, Soviet Union; Trains military and police as an expert in combat sambo; Took 2nd place in the 1984 Soviet Union Sambo championships, and won the 1985 Soviet Union Championships in the heavy wt. division; He’s also entered competitions in wrestling, judo, karate, and boxing; possess a variety of metaphormosing techniques.

Han’s prefight interview: Q: “It’s been a year since you joined Rings.” A: “It’s been an year and I’ve been happy that I’ve been able to fight against top level fighting experts of the world. Regardless of win or loss, I would like to continue having great fights in the future and to show it to the fans.” Q: “What do you think of Kochiev?” A: “I saw the video of the match between Kochiev and Kopylov. I think he has splendid intelligence as a fighter. I will fight him with everything I have with faith in my own strength.”

[My thoughts: OMG the beginning prowrestling cheap trick angle Kochiev pulled on Han was a little lame and Han wasn’t playing along with it with his “WTF?” gesture… It was a little laughable and the audience was laughing… I don’t know what Kochiev was thinking. Maybe he was imitating what he saw on other Japanese prowrestling shows on TV (?). The weird submission Han used in the end to beat Kochiev was interesting, but would that really work in a shoot? In any case I love watching Han with all of his bizarre submission holds and locks he comes up with. This match was suplexes vs weird submissions]

MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT '92 Junkessho [semifinal]

Dick Vrij vs. Herman Renting MegaBattle tournament semifinal

Renting: Rings Holland; Won 1990 Netherlands Kickboxing 82 kilo division; the left low kick and left straight punch are his favorite techniques; He’s been on a losing streak against big names like Vrij, Satake, Han, and Dolman, but he is participating in the tournament due to his experience in Rings rules fights.

Renting’s prefight interview: Q: “How do you feel before the big match which is the semifinal in the tournament?” A: [In English]; Q: “How do you feel about Vrij who is a power fighter?” A: [In English]

Vrij: Rings Holland; Born May 2nd, 1965, in Notterdam, Netherlands; Began bodybuilding at the age of 16 and kickboxing at the age of 19; and trains in kickboxing and sambo-wrestling at the Kops Gym. For this tournament he is considered the ace among the Dutch fighters.

Vrij’s prefight interview: Q: “This will be a semifinal among Dutch fighters…” A: [In English] Q: “What do you think of Renting?” A: [In English]

Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman MegaBattle tournament semifinal

Dolman: Rings Holland: Born 1945 in Amsterdam; Won the 1966 European Judo Championships and also won the 1971 Netherlands Judo Championships, 1984 and ’85 Sambo World Championships. He has a splendid record as a judoka and sambist representing the Netherlands.

Dolman’s prefight interview: Q: “The match you have long desired will be realized tonight.” A: [In English]; Q: “What do you think of Maeda in the present?” A: [In English]

Maeda: Rings Japan; Born January 24th, 1959, in Osaka city; Established Rings in 1991 as a professional combat sport network on a global scale. He asserted that he will “aim to win the tournament as a participant.” He is putting his stakes on the tournament by postponing his left knee surgery.

Maeda’s prefight interview: “When I see Dolman’s fight’s recently, it seems like he is lacking stamina these days. So I’ll take him to the ground and go for his legs, and if I keep attacking him aggressively, I don’t think he’ll be that dangerous an opponent. As for the tournament I have a feeling I’m going to end up facing Vrij so my head has been filled with how to deal with Vrij. So, I’ve gotta watch Vrij’s match tonight. I don’t mean to insult Dolman, but I just don’t feel like I would lose to Dolman. Dolman today lacks stamina. But when I saw his fight with Kopylov, for example, even though he doesn’t have stamina, he somehow was able to pull his opponent into submissions. So I just need to be careful about that. As far as pulling strength or power to draw his opponent towards himself, out of all the fighters I’ve faced in Rings, he is the strongest. He has pure natural power.”

[my thoughts: Wow Dolman won… maybe so Maeda can take a break with his knee surgery (?)… Will they have a few events without him as he recovers from his surgery. And so perhaps they needed let someone else shine like Dolman?.. So, the finals will be among the Dutch: Dolman and Vrij it seems]

[also my thought: Who was that Japanese old lady clapping like mad in Dolman’s dressing room?]

Dolman’s postfight interview: [In English]

Maeda’s postfight interview: [silent]

Kakutogi Supplemental

Since we have been on the subject of Chris Dolman and his importance to early MMA history, I thought that it would be nice to include some quotes from one of his right-hand men, and founder of Amsterdam’s legendary Chakuriki Gym, Thom Harnick.

PANKRATION IN PARADISO (17 MAY 1981)

Chris Dolman wanted to organize an event with no-holds barred fighting that mirrored the ancient Pankration of Ancient Greece. It was held in Amsterdam’s pop temple Paradiso. Chris organized it together with a journalist whose name was Ton van Dijk. Chris asked me if I had some participants, and of course I had. I came with four guys and one girl.

The girl was Saskia van Rijswijk. She didn’t have to fight because her opponent didn’t show up. The guys included Coban and Muzaffer Yamali. All my boys won their matches by way of knockout. There were wrestlers, participants from a kyokushinkai gym and an individual entry who totally got his butt kicked.

The event was very crowded, and Paradiso was completely full, but there were still between 300 and 400 people standing outside and they had to be sent home. This crowd of people were milling around in front of the building and even preventing the trams from passing. Me and Chris Dolman refereed the matches. They also did some strong man stuff like tearing up telephone books. The fighting matches were a bit like MMA nowadays but in a very raw form. Head butts and biting were prohibited. Knees and elbows were our best weapons. They didn’t fight on time, there was no time limit. You fought until there was a winner.

Most of the fights ended very quickly though. There were no skirmishes in the hall fortunately, and all the fights took place in the ring. Later there were problems with the police who were not amused. This was the first and only event of its kind ever to be held in Paradiso.

THE FIRST MIXED FIGHT (20 NOVEMBER 1988)

On 20 October 1988 the first “mixed fight” was held in The Netherlands in which a wrestler would fight a kickboxer. The fight was between Chris Dolman’s student Freek Hamaker and my student Charly Lieveld during a kickboxing event in the Jaap Edenhal. Lieveld was 20 kilos lighter than his opponent. It was a very hard match. Lieveld was more of a showman, a great physique, good looks and a hit with the ladies. He wasn’t really a star as far as kickboxing was concerned, but he had a happy-go-lucky attitude and a fighter’s heart. The fight started out relatively calmly with both fighters exploring their options. At one-point Freek Hamaker jumped onto Charly Lieveld and made a choke from which Lieveld barely escaped. Lieveld tried to fight back with low kicks but was grabbed by Hamaker when he attempted this. In the second round it was decided that elbows were allowed and Hamaker, who later said he hadn’t been told about this rule, had to take a couple. Then Hamaker grabbed Lieveld in a clinch situation, threw him to the ground and applied a head lock that spelled the end of the confrontation. So it was 1-0 for the wrestlers.

There was a lot of talk about a second confrontation between the two fighters, but it never came to be. Hamaker would later fight in the second edition of the UFC in 1994, while Lieveld had one more fight with a wrestler called Willie Peeters that resulted in a draw.

THE FIRST FREE-FIGHT EVENT IN The Netherlands (19 FEBRUARY 1995)

Starting in the early 1990s, a group of Dutch fighters successfully competed in RINGS competitions in Japan. RINGS was a Japanese MMA organisation especially active from 1995 to 2002.

In 1995, Chris Dolman and Milco Lambrecht thought it was time to let the Dutch public get acquainted with this form of combat. The first event was held on 19 February in Sporthallen Zuid in Amsterdam. Fighters like Dick Vrij, Hans Nijman and Herman Renting all faced Japanese opponents. Chris Dolman would fight his very last match at the venerable age of fifty against Akira Maeda; a match he won by submission in a leglock in the second round. The rules were the same as the ones used by RINGS Japan: all judo and wrestling techniques permitted, all kicks permitted, punching to the body and blows with the palm of the hand to the head were permitted.

I participated with one student, Piet Bernzen, originally from Germany. He fought about 20 matches and won almost all of them. Piet was matched against Ronny Rivano, multiple Dutch and European karate champion who was slowly branching out into the full-contact arena. Another fighter from my gym that would later fight free-fight matches was Michael Tielrooy.

Pictures of the face of Ruud Ewoldt-whose face was so swollen after his fight against Japan’s Yamamoto that his mother could hardly recognize him-were on the front pages of the newspapers. After this event I was asked to take part in a radio talk show. Erica Terpstra, Minister of Sports at the time, was furious and initiated a commission to see if the sport could be banned. She spoke about “that cage fighting”. I said: “Madam, these fights were not held in a cage, you’re misinformed.” Every time I said something, she interrupted me. So, at one point I said to her: “Madam, if you have any decency, you should let me speak.” Suddenly there was a silence.

There had been an inquiry by Maarten van Bottenburg about the possible prohibition of free-fight as a sport. The inquiry concluded that free fight, taught and organized in a responsible way, was acceptable. RINGS Holland was very successful in the 1990s, with Sporthallen Zuid in Amsterdam as their base, they organized many an event that sold out.”

Credit:Thom Harinck: Godfather of Muay Thai Kickboxing in the West by Thom Harinck, Julio Punch

[mbetz1981]

After reexamining the Kakuda/Yamamoto fight, I believe that we can now add one more shoot to our infamous list of Pre-UFC shoots.

Here is the latest list:

Freek Hamakers vs. Charlie Lieveld (A Free-Fight that took place on 11-20-88 at a Dutch kickboxing event)

Gerard Gordeau vs. Dick Veldhuis (A Free-Fight that took place on 2-19-89 at a Dutch kickboxing event)

Yusuke Fuke vs. Lawi Napataya (PWFG 7-26-91)

Minoru Suzuki vs Lawi Napataya (PWFG 8-23-91)

Ken Shamrock vs Kazuo Takahashi (PWFG 11-3-91)

Nobuaki Kakuda vs Herman Renting (RINGS 12-7-91)

Gerard Gordeau vs. Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS 12-7-91)

Minoru Suzuki vs Takaku Fuke (PWFG 1-15-92) This was a shoot, but there were no strikes. It was similar to a ADCC match.

Billy Scott vs James Warring (UWFI 12-22-92)

Nobuhiko Takada vs Trevor Brebick (UWFI 12-22-92)

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Koichiro Kimura (RINGS 1-25-92)

Nobuaki Kakuda vs Rob Kaman (Rings 1-25-92)

Masaaki Satake vs Gerard Gordeau (Rings 1-25-92)

Adam Watt vs. Hans Nyman (RINGS 3-5-92)

Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Rudy Ewoldt (RINGS 3-5-92)

Masaaki Satake vs. Fred Oosterom (RINGS 3-5-92)

Gus Garcia va Richard Carle (PWFG 3-20-92)

Ozzie Alvarez vs Pedro Goderich (PWFG 3-20-92)

John Lana vs Herman Cicedo (PWFG 3-20-92)

Pieter Smit vs. Mikoki Ichihara (Sediokaikan/RINGS 3-26-92)

Herman Renting vs. Yoshinori Nishi (Sediokaikan/RINGS 3-26-92)

Naoyuki Taira vs. Eric Edlenbos, (Sediokaikan/RINGS 3-26-92)

Maurice Smith vs. Masaaki Satake (Sediokaikan/RINGS 3-26-92)

Yoshinori Nishi vs Willie Peeters (RINGS 4-3-92)

Kazuo Takahashi vs Yuki Ishikawa (PWFG 4-19-92)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs Mathew Saad Mohammed (UWF-I 5-8-92)

Minoru Suzuki vs Yuki Ishikawa (PWFG 6-25-92)

Yoshinori Nishi vs Peter Dijkman (RINGS 6-25-92)

Mitsuya Nagai vs Nobuaki Kakuda (RINGS 6-25-92)

Naoyuki Taira vs Eric van der Hoeven (RINGS 6-25-92)

Masaaki Satake vs Willie Peeters (RINGS 6-25-92)

Nobuaki Kikuta vs. Yukihiro Takenam (RINGS 7-16-92)

Chris Dolman vs Buzariashibili Ramaji (Rings 7-16-92)

Masaaki Satake vs Peter Oele (RINGS 7-16-92)

Yoshinori Nishi vs. Greg Douglas (Sediokaikan-Kakutogi-Olympic-II 7-30-92)

Koichiro Kimura vs. Masayuki Naruse (RINGS 8-24-92)

Nobuaki Kakuda vs Dick Vrij (RINGS 10-29-92)

Maasaki Satake vs Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS 10-29-92)

Kazuo Takahashi vs. Alexsey Medvedev (PWFG 12-5-92)

Nobuaki Kakuda vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS 12-19-92)

[flemingo]

I too am of the opinion that Kakuda Yamamoto was a shoot but I am an immense mark

[de_braco]

one time a kenpo goon told me that Bluming was a fraud and his tenth dan came from some random japanese guy. I, of course, said “put up your hands, you sonofabitch!”, then explained the situation while i rained down blows about his head and neck. Kurosaki, the founder of meijiro gym, gave bluming a 10th dan, in return bluming granted him one right back from his association. There aren’t two people in the last century that were more deserving of the 10th dan than bluming and kurosaki, and further more, wild bill chow claimed to be a 15th dan if ed parker was claiming to be an 8th dan, and using the kenpo conversion equation, then it would make bluming and kurosaki 90th dans.

[William_C]

I don’t want to impress anyone but I was a green belt in Tracy’s Kenpo (the system Bart is from)

[flemingo]

Do you have an american flag and/or checkerboard gi?

[de_braco]

of all the kenpo crazies, the tracy branch are my favorite. I can remember back in the 70’s, al tracy was sayig he was making 50k a year profit with every studio. This struck me as nonsense then, and still does

[de_braco]

a vince “mr wrestling” Torelli music video from 1990. The original mr wrestling, tim woods, passed the name on to ken. Woods(real name woodin) was a notorious shooter and former NCAA champion. Steve Nelson’s dad, gordon used the mr wrestling gimmick for a while also. Uploaded by Armstrong Alley

SAPW TV October 6th 1990

[mbetz1981]

Kakutogi Road Presents: Sayama’s Corner "The Story of Shooto Vol.26"

*Special Thanks to our resident translator John Krummel for his invaluable assistance! *

Previous Page Translated

The corkscrew kick that is unique to shooting differs from the image of the traditional roundhouse kick (hitting horizontally) and is a powerful kick that strikes from the least distance.

To kick from the least distance means that it is necessary to hit the opponent “more quickly” and “with greater power.”

To kick “more quickly” and “with greater power” is also the basis of kicking.

Let me first explain the technique of the “switch” and the “turn” that is the basic “mechanism of kicking.”

The foot movements in the switch

Why is the switch necessary?:

If one throws a right kick when both fighters are posturing in the low-center-of-gravity upright style with the left foot forward, it will hit the opponent’s center back but we cannot call it an effective kick. But if one throws a left kick, one can severely damage the opponent by hitting him from the front.

The switch is the run-up for [approach to] throwing an effective left kick when standing with the right foot as the pivot foot. Therefore do not forget that, from the very point in time of the switch, this is a kick.

[Sidebar:]

Point: “Kicks that ordinary people throw when they kick as hard as they can, for shooting are simply pushes. By the effect of the turning of the waist and points in the knees, we transform kicks that otherwise would be nothing but pushes into something high in ballistic power.”

Previous Page Translated

Knee Kick:

1. Position yourself in the low-center-of gravity upright style. Notice how the upperbody line in photos 1~4 are uniform.

2. Switch [your feet] and with the left foot’s step, the entire body advances forward

3. [Next Page] Position in which with the switch the knee naturally comes forward. Kick with the thought that your leg begins from the pit of the stomach while fixing the direction of your head.

4. Thrust your knee forward with the power of your waist [hips] and by tightening your crotch. Thrust your knee in a diagonal direction towards the opponent.
   

   

Real fight pattern I:

Pierce the opponent with the knee kick while controlling the opponent by placing your left hand on the area from the opponent’s neck to the back of his head (photo 2).

In the side knee kick often used in real fights, unbalance the opponent down to the side and kick from the side like a roundhouse kick.

Noteworthy points:

The knee is one of the hardest parts of the human body so you can produce sufficient damage just by hitting the opponent with it. However, the aim here is to acquire an even more effective knee kick by training yourself to hit with the entire body.

Often when trying to hit with the knee the hips [or waist] sink down. Instead it is better to thrust the hip [waist] forward and kick by thinking of the area from the pit of the stomach to the knee as a single pole.

Previous Page Translated

The knee kick displays its power in close combat transitioning from striking to grappling. While the knee kick is its own independent technique, it also constitutes the turning axis of the waist that becomes the starting movement of the corkscrew kick.

With knee kicks, the faster the speed, the stronger the kick. In short, it is the basis for acquiring the techniques of the middle kick, high kick, and low kick.

Real fight pattern II:

The moment of transition from striking to grappling becomes the ideal chance for landing a knee kick.

Hold the opponent’s back of the head or neck and drag him down forward to kick his face. When doing this, the drag and the knee kick must be simultaneous (photo 1).

And since it would be disadvantageous to be placed in a state of muai [no separation] by being clinched by the opponent, there is also the technique of kicking him while destabilizing his upper body by widely shaking him left and right (photo 2).

[Side bar:]

Point: “In the Knee kick in shooting, one thrusts the hips [waist] forward to kick rather than bending the body to kick. The body bends because one thrusts the whole body forward with the hips [waist] while drawing in the chin and without moving the head.”

To Be Continued…

[mbetz1981]

Also, Flamingo can correct me if I’m lying, but our video archives now contain around 4000 hours of MMA/Kickboxing/Wrestling/Etc. footage, with more being constantly added.

[flemingo]

Its a fuckload of video, well worth it especially if you like seeing karate dudes get their teeth kicked out

[William_C]

No sir, no flag or checkerboard gi. I think the gi was black.