Volume 43 Continued....
Masaaki Satake vs. Ahmad Muhammad
This was just two minutes of Satake beating up some random dude that had no business being there. Muhammad seemed to barely be able to move his feet, which caused him to just be a stationary target for Satake.
ML: I realize Satake was “good” in these days, or rather the pet of promoter Ishii, but this slaughter seemed more due to Muhammad being past his prime. I don’t actually know anything about the guy, but his footwork stunk, and seemed to cost him the first knockdown. Satake then hurt him with a low kick for the second knockdown, resulting in Muhammad gimping around the rest of the bout. Satake kept the pressure on, and why not as he was hitting Muhammad at will.
Conclusion: Despite the bizarre and confusing rules this was a fun event. I wish it had more of the MMA feel that its predecessor did, but it was still a very worthwhile show, and it was a delight to see Hug in action.
ML: The fights were a bit all over the place with these weird rules that changed by the round, but there was a lot of talent of this show, with three all time greats in Cook, Gibson, and Andy all delivering typically fun matches. Especially given they weren’t even fighting in a ring, or under kickboxing rules, this event greatly exceeded my expectations.
*This entire rare event, along with tons of other priceless treasures can be found over at
www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad *
Also, thanks to our resident translator, John Krummel, we no longer have to wonder through life in a state of delirium, wondering what exactly the rules were to this event, or what some of the comments were that the fighters made. Here, in his own words, is a translation from Japanese to English of what was going on:
"Introduction Narrator: Douglas is a wrestler but has experienced some striking and is trying to form his own version of a complete fighting style. Nishi experienced Kyokushin karate and Daidojuku karate and is founder of Keishukai. Hug formerly from Kyokushinkai with his unbeatable axe kick; Yanagisawa of Seidokaikan has fought in many memorable bouts. Artamonov is full contact karate fighter from the ex-Soviet Union and is undefeated. Tagami from Seidokaikan, light weight figher, mainly in kickboxing. Gibson, is kickboxing world middle weight champion and the hawk weight champion in shoot boxing and has many other titles; Kin, a young hopeful fighter from Seidokaikan. Cook is UKF world middle weight champion, experienced in kickboxing but also in boxing with high KO rate. Atokawa from Seidokaikan, beat Satake in the karate world cup. Muhammad, former WKA super heavy wt. chamption; Satake of Seidokaikan, aiming for the top position on the martial arts road.
Ishii, Seidokaikan chairman’s opening speech: Thanks for coming, this is our 2nd Martial arts Olympics…We’re planning to continue doing these events every year over the next few years to make martial arts as popular as F1 [Formula 1 car racing… very popular in Japan at the time… inspiration for the term K1 he later comes up]… Please keep cheering and enjoy the show, thank you… Osu!
Karate Semi-contact Special Rule: Yoshinori Nishi vs. Greg Douglas 3R (3min rounds):
By “semi-contact” they mean Kyokushin/Seidokaikan type karate rules that is bare knuckle full strikes without punches/hand strikes to the head. Win by KO or referee/doctor stop or 3 downs in one round. Escaping out of the mat twice is considered one down. Grappling is allowed. No hand strikes to head and no striking on the ground.
Nishi’s post-fight comments: “I could only use my left leg today, I’m not too happy.”
Seido Karate Rule: Andy Hug vs. Toshiyuki Yanagisawa 5R (3 min rounds)
Narrator: Any Hug, after transitioning to a professional fighter, has been further perfecting his axe kick. Yanagisawa would like to showcase his talent that he had shown in Seidokaikan tournaments.
“Semi contact” karate rules (meaning no face punches, full-contact); after a down if the fighter is unable to make a fighting pose within 5 seconds, he would lose (by ippon = full point); if he can make a fighting pose, he loses half point. No throws, no face punches, and grabbing is allowed for one second. Kakuda is the referee. [I think this was Andy Hug’s first public fight in Japan after leaving the Kyokushinkai organization, and being picked up by Seidokaikan to fight professionally.]
Post fight interview with Atokawa: About his thoughts on Hug: “He’s strong… very strong.”
35:50
Karate Glove Rule: Yoshihisa Tagami vs. Andrei Artamonov 5R (3 mins rounds) 1:58.
Glove rules; Win by KO, TKO, or 3 downs in one round. No headbutts, groin attacks, throws, or strikes to downed opponent. Leg kicks are allowed but no elbows and knees to head.
Post fight comments of Tagami: “I did it! Alright!” When questioned about his opponent, he says, “After he punched me, I felt I could take his strikes, so while letting him hit me, I went on the offense.”
Karate Glove & Semi-contact Rule: Manson Gibson vs. Taiei Kin 4R (3 mins rounds).
Mixed rules alternating between rounds: the gloved rounds are in muaythai rules, allowing elbows and knees; During the karate rounds [Kyokushin/Seido type rules, bareknuckle with no face punches], you can wear gloves if you want to.
Kin’s post fight comments… His seconds tell him “you won” and Kin says “I got one down from him!”
Karate Glove & Semi-contact Rule: Dale “Apollo” Cook vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa 4R (3mins rounds).
Mixed rules like previous fight (knock down bareknuckle karate (“kyokushin/Seidokaikan” rules) + kickboxing (“gloved karate”). Gloved rules is muaythai rules allowing elbows and knees. For karate rules the fighter can wear gloves he wishes (which is what Cook chose to do).
After the fight, narrator’s comment: Cook asks Atokawa for forgiveness for accidentally hitting his face during the karate rounds and they show mutual respect… And among the cheering spectators in the audience, there was also the face of Akira Maeda. Cook wins by decision.
Post-fight interview with Atokawa: “It’s true that in the first round I got knocked down, but for the rest of the rounds in content, my low kicks were hurting him and I hit him with my knees. But unfortunately he had already gotten me with a decisive down earlier. But in any case, for myself, I’m pretty satisfied [with how the fight went].”
Karate Glove Rule: Masaaki Satake vs. Ahmad Muhammad 5 rounds (3 min rounds)
Narrator before the fight: the martial arts road in unfolding in 1992 with this man Satake as the leading player. He is now in the process of treading the path to the peak. However for Satake, who is still uncertain about fighting with gloves, this fight weighs heavy as an anticipation of his many to come future bouts with formidable opponents. He cannot lose.
Full contact karate rules: Win by KO, TKO, and 3 downs in one round counts as a KO. No headbuts, throws, groin attacks, attacks to downed opponents; no elbows and no knees to head/face.
Post fight narration: The former WKA superheavy weight champion was no match for Satake. The fighter who had conquered the world on this day was lacking as an opponent for Satake. Responding to the “Satake” chant, Satake was already looking past the horizon of Muhammad.
Postfight interview with Satake: “The Seidokaikan fighters today were doing so so, so I wanted to make a big bang to end today’s event, so it was good. With this I will continue to improve [“step up”] and I’ll continue training hard for my next fights. Plus the younger fighters [in Seidokaikan karate] are coming up too, so it will become interesting…”
*Kakutogi Rewind*
Now, to end this month with a bang, we decided to go way back into our vaults and pull out the oldest footage we have of Andy Hug, at a karate tournament from 1989! The event in question was the 4th All Europe Karate Championship, which featured several talents that would become notorious in later years, most notably Gerard Gordeau, Michael Thompson, and of course, Andy Hug. I should also note that while going over this video, it was a lot of fun to notice Kyokushin Karate founder, Mas Oyama, hold a press conference, because of the unbridled joy that could be seen on his face, when he was talking about karate to the press and public. Both Andy Hug and British karateka, Michael Thompson, made it to the finals of this event. Both Thompson and Hug have been here before, Hug won this event back in 1987, and Thompson took 3rd in 1982 and 2nd in 1987. This time frame was probably at the peak of Thompson’s karate powers, whereas Hug wasn’t quite into his absolute best version of himself. As the 90s continued, Thompson continued to compete in both Sediokaikan karate as well as K1 kickboxing, and did very well, but never quite got to the top echelon.
Even as far back as 89, we can see that Hug is already a very special talent. He starts the fight by bum-rushing Thompson with an attempted flurry of punches (which Thompson was able to quickly avoid), and when Thompson started to press his attack, he was almost decapitated by an effortless spinning roundhouse from Hug. Thompson then spent most of the match trying to keep his distance and utilize well-time his attacks, which worked some of the time, but also served to give Hug distance, and play the role of the counter-striker. What it really came down to in this fight was Hug’s variety. He was constantly shifting his attacks and his range. Sometimes, Hug would fight from a distance, and then just as quickly, rush in to fire some offense off from the clinch. Hug’s continuing variations seemed to take Thompson out of his game, although he did manage to sneak in some of his game in, especially a brutal punch to Hug’s midsection, and a surprise high-kick to his face. The match went to a decision, which was awarded to Hug. Nice fun fight.
ML: Hug was fighting at 176 pounds here, which is reasonable, if these days even small for a fighter under 6 foot. He was certainly not one of the bigger fighters in the weight class, although he is about the same size as Thompson, who was billed at 5’11". Hug just has so much diversity though, and the speed and flexibility to incorporate a lot of kicks that other people wouldn’t be all to pull off in a competitive situation. One of the highlights of the tournament was a beautiful spinning high kick knockdown that Hug scored in his 2nd round match against Dejan Zelesov. Thompson was more than a worthy adversary, a 3 time British Open winner here, who also won the title again in 1990, and later joined forces with Andy in Team Andy Hug. He did a good job of using punches to the liver, and that eventually opened up a high kick, but he certainly didn’t have as many weapons as Hug. This was definitely an interesting and competitive match, but in the form that it was shown in here, I wouldn’t want to be in charge of picking the winner.
*This very rare Kyokushin Karate tournament, featuring a young Andy Hug, can be found over at
www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad *
