Legacy: Rings King of Kings

Underground
1

It's pretty amazing to think, that 5 years after the two King of King Tourneys and the World League the legacy of the events are still with us.

Why is it that those who were champions in these events are champions now?

Was it because you had to show such a combination of skills in these events due to the lack of GNP in it?

Was it because they were 32 man Tournaments?

Was it because you would have to face fighters from all different weight classes and a lot of tough dark horse fighters?

Just a few of those who really made their names in the KOK events.

Fedor Emelianko: World Series HW Champion.

Dan Henderson: 1999 KOK Champion

Antonio 'Minotauro' Nogueira: 1999 Finalist. 2000 Champion!

Randy Couture: 2000 KOK Semi Finals.

Renato Sorbal: 1999 and 2000 Semi Finals.

Just was watching the 1999 KOK today and it reminds me of how great the KOK rule events are and how events like ZST are still carrying on the legacy.

2

Really, the fights were very techinical and exciting except for a few snoozers... Like Severn and Arona.

3

ttt

4

I hope one day the MMA gods will bless us with American versions of Rings DVD's.

5

dont forget fedor was good in rings too

6

I never saw it but I always heard that Hendo's dec over Mino was a bad one.

7

Dank Shamrock: It was a split decision with an extra round... Also many of the people complaining didn't understand the Rings KOK rules.

8

Too bad Tamura couldn't make the crossover to full mma

9

I think Tamura is a good full mma fighter.

10

maybe if he had cut to 185 and actually fought there

11

Hendo was like the size of Mino's leg in that fight. My god! He's an animal for surviving, even in the second fight. The guy has no fear.

I really miss the different types of MMA orgs that were BIG. ZST just doesn't seem that big and its hard to get tapes. Tournaments with "gentlemans agreement" type rules like old Pancrase and RINGS had some awesome fights.

I remember another show that had zero striking on the ground and everything standing...now that was bad ass.

12

-Didn't Fedor squeak out a controversial decision to Arona and then lose his next fight? Obviously he's now the Man, but I don't think that King of Kings was a great performance for him.

14

There was no 'Gentleman's agreement' in Rings, it was part of the rules that there were no headshots on the ground...

Dogmeat1 gets it. They didn't give points for positional dominance at all, it was about aggression, strikes thrown and submission attempts. After than they took size into account as well.

15

"So who's got the DVD or video so we can buy it!"

I found an Ebay guy who's got it and a bunch of good stuff. I don't know him.

http://stores.ebay.com/My-nhb-mma-store

16

"Henderson went through Yvel, Nogueira, & Babalu all in 1 day. That is just unreal. Babalu was bigger then, so he fought against 3 Heavyweights. Not too bad for a guy who could have made 185 lbs."

Unreal performance by Henderson, but was it in one day for sure? I saw the event (DVD) but can't remember. If in one day, then it has to be the most impressive feat in mma history.

17

Although they had a ton of quick stoppages everytime someone got tagged standing, it was great to watch, the year Minotauro won he gave one of the greatest BJJ performances i've ever seen, basicly tooling everyone on the ground

18

I didn't like the Henderson-Minotauro decision, but the 2 events were unreal. Great to watch.

19

"He "lost" to TK the same way Couture "lost" to Belfort in the 2nd fight."

Actually, Belfort beat Couture with a legal punch. TK beat Fedor with an ILLEGAL elbow. It was also a complete accident. TK threw a punch and missed. During his follow through, his elbow accidentally grazed Fedor's eyebrow and cut him open.

It was a sad day when Maeda announced RINGS would be finished. Oddly enough, RINGS was popular when it was open hand with rope escapes, and essentially pro wrestling. When they switched to KOK rules, brought in some of the best international fighters around, and became 100% shoot, their popularity declined steeply.

RINGS was the shit.

ZST was doing great at first, but the quality of their events has dropped off big time over the last year or so. They have had trouble developing new stars. They've tried, and failed.

20

Ryan: Yeah, it's really sad about ZST. They had a long break from putting on events, I barely hear about their events anymore.

I'm beginning to suspect that Rings was way ahead of their time. From what I understand, it seems that Prowresu's popularity is starting to wane quite a bit and more Japanese are getting into watching MMA.

Honestly, as much as I like less rules MMA, watching Rings and ZST made me realize that "the less rules the better" mentality is not at all the way it is. Rings and ZST have tons of rules and their fights are beyond exciting.