Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA *Mega-Thread*

[Mbetz1981]

*Vol.13 Continued*

Next up is Bob Backland vs Nobuhiko Takada, and while I don’t have high hopes for this being good, in any nominal sense of the word, I am quite intrigued, and wondering if this is in fact, some shrewd booking. When I last saw Backland in the Shoot-Sphere, he had two matches in the Newborn UWF, with Takada and Funaki respectfully, and while he gave me the impression that he would have been good in this style, had he came up in it, and was more familiar with it, he still had too many goofy mannerisms that needed to be shed from his American style. Still, he absolutely electrified the atmosphere when he fought Takada the last time, so that may be all that is needed here tonight.


We are now greeted to an interview with Backland, in which he tells us that he can’t guarantee a win, but that he does promise to give it his absolute best, and that he loves the Japanese fans. This came across as surprisingly heartfelt and grounded, and after Takadas interview segment, we are underway. Unfortunately, when the time came to start this match, Backland seriousness is nowhere to be found, and he is back to his old WWF tricks, of constantly making overexaggerated facial expressions for anything that happens, which somewhat robs him of the credibility that he does bring to the table.


The Face of America….

The match starts with both men feeling each other out, and trading strikes. Backland takes a stiff leg to the thigh, and responds by backing Takada up in the corner, and firing off some stiff forearm strikes, which leads to Takada backing off to the center of the ring, and getting suplexed. The match restarts and Backland tries to land some very weak knees to Takada, and Takada responds with his own knee to the midsection, which starts a ten-count, that Backland doesn’t recover from, and the match is over at 1:15.


Ok, I’m flummoxed by this. This was terrible, and I’m not sure what purpose this served. Takada is already over, so there isn’t any need to try and have a squash match, and Backland didn’t come off credibly at all. I have no doubt that had he put some effort to really study and train in this style, that he could pull off a good match, but his cornball antics (which compared to his contemporaries like the Ultimate Warrior and Paul Bearer look totally straight) only serve for him to look like completely out of place. What’s worse is that this entire show only clocks in at a little under 1 ½ hours, so there isn’t any purpose for rushing through some of these matches.


Final Thoughts. If we can overlook the terrible ending, this was entertaining and enjoyable. Yamazaki shined, Ohe delivered once again, and Tamura could wrestle the Taiku Center’s janitor and still get a good match, so that outweighs the botched opportunity that was the main event.

Here is the event in full:

And here is a video of the original confrontation between Takada and Backland:

 

[Mbetz1981]

*Vol.13 Continued*

Let's check in with "Mighty" Mike Lorefice, and see what he has to say about all of this.


Makato Ohe vs Rafael Aguilar:
Aguilar was an 80's style American kickboxer going against a Muay Thai fighter who was out to exploit the rules differences at every turn. Aguilar could land one shot from the outside, but then Ohe would take the Thai clinch & work him over on the inside where Aguilar wasn't used to having to fight. Aguilar adjusted in the 2nd half, working body punches on the inside. Ohe hurt Aguilar in the 3rd, dodging a right & countering with a clean left, but otherwise this was mostly a grind.


Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tatsuyo Nakano:
Nakano is probably the second worst of the UWF-I natives on the mat, leading only Takada, and his lack of speed & flexibility is part of it, but mostly it's that he works really slowly on the mat & relies upon a lot of fake pro wrestling positions & holds that should be getting removed from his arsenal by now. I love that when Nakano went into that should be side mount, but instead I just lie across you sideways not bothering to actually control the trunk or lower body, Tamura immediately just squirms free to avoid humiliation. I wish there was more of this, as Tamura lets Nakano get away with a lot of lazy positioning, and Nakano really doesn't seem to want to do anything. This never really feels like a Tamura match, it seems like Tamura is waiting for Nakano to make a move when he has the advantage, but Nakano just lays there, so Tamura never has the opportunity to use his fast reaction oriented style to make something cool happen. Even though Tamura slows & tones things down considerably for Nakano, when something does happen, Nakano's cooperation is definitely more obvious than the others. As the bout progresses, Tamura seems to get frustrated with the lack of activity, and decides to force Nakano to counter by giving him gaping holes that he simply can't ignore. Nakano is, not surprisingly, more into the standup, and there's a great spot Tamura tries for a single, but Nakano drops him countering with a knee. There's not really a lot of striking though, apart from a flurry at the end where Nakano no sells a suisha otoshi & winds up dropping Tamura with a high kick while Tamura is still getting back up. It's clear that Tamura was actually supposed to catch the kick & counter into the ankle lock for the win, and after some indecision, Nakano throws kicks until Tamura catches one & forces him to tap. This was by far the worst Tamura singles match so far, I'd go so far as to suggest that Nakano is pissed that he has to put over the young stud, and just sabotaged the match in protest. In any case, it at least clarifies that Miyato can go when he wants to, especially if there's someone to carry him, and Nakano is the one who is holding their matches back & keeping them in a holding pattern.


Gary Albright vs Yuko Miyato:
Welcome to UWF-I Superstars of Wrestling. This wasn't even a match, just a bodyslam in between two suplexes. Todd Pettengill might claim it was the greatest match of all time though, until the next match...


Kazuo Yamazaki vs Yoji Anjo:
Both an attempt at a more realistic bout in between two cartoon jobber matches & a story match. Though Yamazaki is normally one of the better strikers, here Anjo shows his superiority early, and Yamazaki shifts to being strategic, gambling that the risks Anjo is taking with his big strikes will eventually outweigh the rewards. Despite Anjo throwing some bombs, this isn't a particularly flashy match, as it's more about Yamazaki's patience & craftiness trying to see his strategy through. It's not nearly as reductive as I may be making it sound, with Anjo still being able to do things on the ground & Yamazaki still scoring in standup, but the general thrust is Anjo wants to make something happen & is thus willing to take chances, while Yamazaki wants to grab him, and ultimately that usually means taking a few shots. Even then, it doesn't always work, for instance Anjo pulls ahead when Yamazaki catches a middle kick, but goes down on delay before he can capitalize. They work with this idea of whether Yamazaki can seize the opportunity to take the offensive once he sacrifices himself to get the catch, but the match ends rather abruptly just when it's finally beginning to take off. Considering it's sandwiched in between two matches whose combined time is less than 4 minutes, you'd think they could have given these guys 15 minutes to work with. Had the kickboxing shoot not gone the distance, this show wouldn't even have lasted an hour. ***


Nobuhiko Takada vs Bob Backlund:
I don't get this at all. I mean, granted this isn't the sort of match you want to go long, but Backlund certainly doesn't look any better by losing immediately to some random fake injury, he looks like an old broken guy who couldn't hold up at all & should have just stayed retired. Now, I can't see there isn't a part of me who doesn't enjoy seeing one of the longest reigning kings of comedy wrestling simply made a fool of, but from a business perspective, this booking not only makes the rematch less viable in my opinion, but takes away most of the desired sting from Takada's shocking quick win. Albright winning quickly, sure, he just ran through the poor bantamweight, but this loss is more Backlund not being up to snuff than Takada being too amazing, as the one thing Takada did, whatever it exactly even was, certainly wasn't impressive looking if we see beyond the official story. As far as the match itself went, Backlund overexaggerated everything, still acting like it was WWF theater. He sort of landed a lame elbow & some super fake knees on the inside, one missing by a country mile, before taking this kick that took him out. The injury was really unclear as well because Backlund's selling was terrible to the point I was hoping for a fake explanation of what supposedly happened to him (the camera angle wasn't good to begin with). At first, I thought he was trying to convince Tirantes to come out & DQ Takada for a low blow, then I thought he might have a broken hand. It would have worked better if his body shut down from a liver kick, but the kick was too central for that. The whole thing was just a disgrace.


This show was okay, but we're starting to see the many flaws in Miyato's bad booking, mainly that Takada & Albright just destroy everybody, leaving the rest of the promotion to via for the scraps, which basically consist of having good undercard matches to work their way up to putting these guys over in the main event.

 

[Mbetz1981]

*Vol. 13 Continued*

*Kakutogi Supplemental*


We at Kakutogi headquarters were recently able to dig deep inside the catacombs underneath our offices, and unearth a buried treasure, a long-forgotten relic, languishing away under shadows and dust. It is a glorious artifact that brings me great honor to talk about today, in what is probably the very earliest piece of taped Shooto history (and an incredible document in the scope of MMA history). It was a tape that Satoru Sayama put forth in 1988, and it’s simply called “Satoru Sayama: The Shooting” and was presumably released in an effort to share with the world what his new sport would be, and to attract attention to his Super Tiger Gym.


Super Tiger Gym, had already been involved in what would be considered MMA training by at least 1985 when they had famous Japanese kickboxer Toshio Fujiwara (who had instructed at the Mejiro Kickboxing Academy in the Netherlands) as the resident Muay Thai coach, in addition to all the Catch-Wrestling, and submission training that Sayama was providing his students, and as we will later see in later early 90s Shooto events, this cross training paid off, as your average Shooto guy was probably 10-15 years ahead of the curve, skill wise, then his American counterpart, in the early-mid 90s.


Like encountering hieroglyphics for the first time, that is what we must imagine the UWF landscape of the late 84 season to have been like. As people like Sayama, Akira Maeda, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara, were learning that there was more to this strange language of combat sports, than what they could have possibly perceived when they first started breaking into Professional Wrestling. One has to wonder what it had to be like, to have so many concepts, and ideas ready to burst forth, but no canvas or medium in which to express them.


Surely that is where Sayama must have been at in late 85, after his falling out with Maeda, and departure from the original UWF promotion. His desire, and quest, to capture the true essence of real fighting (or “Shooting” in Pro Wrestling parlance), with a sport that fully utilized all aspects of the fight realm. This concept is perhaps best summed up with an early promotional tagline that Shooto used, “Punch, Kick, Throw, Submission.” Simple, but like chess, underneath the simplicity of the premise, is a vast and unsearchable galaxy of possibilities and variations, therein.


Sayama was determined to see his vision through, even if his vision hadn’t completely coalesced by this point, and like any trailblazer he simply took a leap into the unknown and started promoting what he had.


And here we are… Things start off with Sayama demonstrating some neat moves, like flying armbars, and rolling kneebars (all the more crazy considering this is 1988) before we are taken to the lush Japanese countryside where Sayama is refreshing his mind, and nurturing his spirit underneath a serene waterfall. He then takes his students for a brisk jog, before conducting sprint drills, and we could only wish that American Pro Wrestling schools were half has cool as this.


After this pleasant warm up, we are taken to a monastery that wouldn’t have been out of place in a 70s era Shaw Brothers Film, where they begin to do what any reasonable group of aspiring warriors would… they proceed to frog jump up a giant stone staircase, but only Sayama is hardcore enough to forgo shoes.

Your MMA class isn’t half as cool

After mastering the stairs, the students are then taken to a different part of the monastery and given various kickboxing pad drills, with personal correction and instruction from Sayama. An interesting observation Is that all the way back in 1988, MMA style gloves are being used here, although the padding covers more of the fingers than a modern pair would.


After this, we go inside one of the buildings to cover takedowns, throws, and submission entries. This is absolutely fascinating as this entire approach is very comprehensive, and light years ahead of its time. The only missing ingredient from a more modern approach is the positional sensibilities that BJJ brought to the fore. There is no real concern about finding and keeping positional dominance, but rather the mentality seems to always seek the submission, and what to do if your caught in a compromising situation.

From the Monastery to the Big City

After going over several submission entries we are brought to the infamous Korakuen Hall, where Sayama brings out his students, and this scribe is able to see future Shooto star and grappling wizard Noburu Asahi within the group. Sayama then talks to the crowd about his new sport and goes over the rules and judging. My understanding of Japanese is woefully meager, but from what I can glean, it would seem that all Shooto fights will be judges with standard amateur wrestling takedowns being given a much lower score than successful judo throws, and near submissions being given a high score as well. Just like modern MMA a fight is won either by submission or ko, though there is a standing 10 count in place for knockdowns. It’s scare how in the 80s Sayama came up with a better idea than this our current 10 point must system.


Sayama then talks about the rules, and it would seem that most strikes are legal while standing, sans elbows, and that you are allowed to punch, kick, knee, etc, a grounded opponent below the face, if they are on the ground, but soccer kicks to the face are not legal. Punches to the face of a grounded opponent do not appear to be legal either. Later on we will see a fighter kick another fighter in the face while they were both on the ground, so I’m not sure if that’s a loophole, or if it just wasn’t noticed.


Sport of the future….

Even in our current ultra-polarized world, there are a few things that we can all come into agreement on, and that is that the 80s gave us perhaps the finest subgenre of film in the Post-Apocalyptic genre (of which I am partial to 2020 Texas Gladiators, and Sayama realized this, so to honor this, he forced his amateur fighters to wear headgear that celebrated this, which is only meet and right. Yes, one glace at these amazing contraptions, and we see that we are indeed headed to new, and unforeseen vistas in the world of Martial Arts.


The tournament goes off without a hitch, and I am amazed at the pure essence of it all. No point fighting, no gaming the rules, lay and pray, wall and stall, etc. Every fighter is constantly pushing forward with kickboxing, throws, takedowns, and diving for submissions. Not that it would be against the rules to try and work a closed guard, or stall with a takedown, but that doesn’t even seem to be a concept with these fighters, and this is also encouraged with rules that reward submissions, and action. There was guard work on display here, but anytime someone was using their guard it was in an aggressive fashion, going for submission attempts.


All the fights here are fast paced, and entertaining, even though it’s hard to distinguish who’s who, with the elite headgear, and we are all able to witness that Sayama has something very special on his hands here.


Sadly, like most innovators throughout history, Sayama didn’t get much credit for his trailblazing, and like people such as Tesla, Antonio Meucci, and Alfred Russel Wallace, the little credit that they do get is only after their inventions become part of the common lexicon of the populace. To add insult to injury, just aproximentaly 8 years after this demonstration Sayama would have a falling out with the Shooto board of directors, and he wound up leaving his creation.


Perhaps, much like Icuras, he flew too high to the Sun, playing with forces he did not understand. Using pro-wrestling jargon like “Shooting” when trying to promote a new sport, probably didn’t help matters either, as it served to both confuse anyone not familiar with the term, and the few people in America that knew who he was from his Tiger Mask days, probably didn’t know what to make of actual MMA, or a video catolog that had “Sayama’s Shooting Vol 12.”


Still, no one probably came first to having the pure essence of Modern MMA, more than Sayama. While a case can certainly be made for the Brazilian Vale Tudo Challenge matches throughout the years that preceded this, that was never really the same, both in intent, nor in execution. Usually such things were just an excuse for a Jiu-Jitsu practitioner to show the superiority of his style against an inferior opponent that had little chance of succeeding. Even the early UFC events were set up to be infomercials for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and were never intended to be a test that they knew they wouldn’t be able to pass.


Also, what constituted for pre-UFC MMA was usually people in two distinct styles, with very little overlap, or cross training. Here we see the first fighting system/sport that is truly geared on being as complete as possible, covering in depth all the aspects of fighting (within what Sayama understood at the time). You had an emphasis on conditioning, good striking, submissions, throws, takedowns, etc, with the only real missing component being the BJJ positional hierarchy that came to Japan later on. You also had the first MMA teams in Shooto as different dojos would train up their best prospects and send them to prove themselves and announce their name/affiliation right before the start of the fight. Similar things were not really seen in American MMA until Ken Shamrock’s Lions Den.


Semantical arguments aside, there is no question that Sayama is a pioneer that we here at Kakutogi HQ, wish to thank, and shed some light on, for introducing such a great sport to us all.


Here it is: Very rarely seen until now:

 

[Mbetz1981]

*Archives of this series can be found at https://www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad *

Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol.14 "Forward the Foundation"

We are back again, this time at everyone’s favorite bowling alley, the Fukuoka Hakata Starlanes, only this time with the PWFG crew in tow, ready to continue the road that can only lead to innumerable Kakutogi glories. It’s 9-28-91, and we are welcomed to a montage of the PWFG clan training and warming up, when one quickly realizes that all pro wrestlers are really bodybuilders at heart, for between the various sleeveless neon muscle shirts, and Minoru Suzuki’s hot pink Zubaz, we aren’t sure if we are about to witness a wrestling event, or a Flex Magazine photo-shoot.


Suzuki....looking forward to his next Mega Mass 4000 shake.

Hope is quickly recovered when we find an ever-aging Fujiwara, who seems to be immune to the pastel charms of this wayward generation, wandering around before the show’s start, overlooking the merchandise table, before giving us an interview. We then jump right into the evening’s proceedings, as Lato Kiraware is set to face Kazuo Takahashi. When we last saw these two, Takahashi had a very respectable showing against Greco-Roman specialist Duane Koslowski, while Kiraware was forced to completely embarrass himself, as Fujiwara’s personal punching bag.


Kiraware comes out swinging against Takahashi, putting forth some reasonably stiff palm strikes, which Takahashi is only able to cover up and deflect a portion of them. After taking some stiff shots, Takahashi wisely shoots in with a deep single and takes Kiraware to the mat. Surprisingly, the strikes don’t stop once the fight hits the canvas, as Takahashi throws some punches to both the face, and midsection of Kiraware, looking to try and create an opening, but Kiraware was too close to being underneath the rope, so the ref orders a restart.


This was a gift for Lato as he wastes no time in firing off some more palm strikes, landing an especially epic one, flush into Takahashi’s face around 3 ½ mins into the match. A dazed Takahashi starts to counterattack from the clinch, even delivering a headbutt to Lato (which apparently are legal in PWFG) but is taken down to the mat and forced to start defending from his guard. They both continue to deliver stiff slaps to each other while on the ground, before Takahashi starts to wiggle out from underneath, and attempts to stand up, which causes Lato to deliver a vicious suplex, which leads to Lato scoring a knockdown.


The rest of the fight is basically Kiraware slapping the daylights out of Takahashi and is ended when Takahashi is caught in a guillotine, after attempting another single leg takedown.


I cannot believe I’m saying this, but this was a good match. No, it didn’t have any impressive positional changes ,or grappling wizardry on display, but out of all the worked PWFG matches so far, this probably felt the closest to an actual MMA fight, minus the flashy suplex, and Kiraware not completely following up his attacks when Takahashi was dazed. In fact, outside of those with a trained eye (and especially to the audience that witnessed it) this would totally pass for real, and that is really the magic behind this style. To be able to feature pro wrestling in a stripped down, no nonsense fashion, and still be entertaining, is a tough balancing act, and we have to give Takahashi a lot of credit, as his willingness to take some stiff shots, really pushed what would could have been a mediocre entry, into the realm of greatness.

Next up is Takaku Fuke vs Wellington Wilkins Jr, and right away we are forced to notice Fuke’s attempt at an 80s Tarzan motif. Gene Lebel was famous for sporting a pink gi, and would claim that it helped distract his opponents, but he did not have anything on Fuke’s trunks, which are a result of what would happen if you crossed leopard print with an Oreo cookie.


Right away this is off to a blistering pace, as Wilkins fires off a high kick, only to be taken down with a lighting fast single leg, which Fuke transitioned out of into a modified straight armbar attempt, prompting a rope escape from Wilkins. After a leg-lock duel, Wilkins switches gears and knees Fuke several times in the chest, but one knee went low, and wound up being an unintentional groin strike.


The rest of the match saw a plethora of takedowns, positions changes, submission attempts, etc, before Fuke ends the bout by securing an armbar just shy of the 11min mark. This was reasonably entertaining but moved too fast to really build any tension or feel like more than the perfunctory outing that is was. However, it was interesting to see it right after the first match, as we can see the contrast of ways to work a match within this style. This was not over the top by any means but needed more space to really breathe.


Now we have the most excellent Naoki Sano vs Master Soronaka’s number 1 pupil, Bart Vale. It’s a shame that we only get a few more matches from Sano after this, as he was a real asset here, and it would have been interesting to see him as one of the early Pancrase guys, as opposed to staying on the pro wrestling trajectory that he was on. As it was, he was basically being loaned out by the SWS promotion, who had a working relationship with Fujiwara and the PWFG at this time, so it was probably never intended for him to be more of a helping hand, but it was great to see him here while it lasted.


Vale wastes no time in throwing the high kicks but is stopped cold with an excellent Ippon-seoi-nage (One Arm Shoulder Throw) from Sano. Grappling exchanges ensued, with Vale attempting a couple of kimura attempts, to no avail, and Sano getting a short-lived mount position. Vale would continue his foot attacks, but as always, he is quite slow, but Sano makes him pay for his sluggish execution and catches the leg off a slow kick, and immediately turns it into a takedown.


Vale acquits himself better on the ground, as the speed disparity between the two isn’t as noticeable, and he is better able to utilize his height advantage. We are soon led to our first groan worthy exchange as Vale spins around and plops down to the mat off of a thigh kick from Sano, only for Sano to grunt and summon all the power of his forebearers to execute a single-leg Boston Crab, in a most dramatic fashion. This leads to a rope escape of course, and from here, Vale starts loosening up a bit and begins to throw some palm strikes, along with some kicks, which leads to another sequence where, after missing a roundhouse, Sano gets a takedown and pulls out the double-leg variation of Boston’s favorite submission. Vale had this scouted though, as he was able to reverse it by doing a push up and forcing Sano to fall on his head.


The rest of the fight more or less alternates between Vale seeking a TKO via kicks to the midsection, and Sano fishing for toe holds, but the end came when once again Sano pulled deep into the well, and slapped on another crab from Boston, to which the crowd went nuts over, and submitted Vale a little after the 15min mark.

This was…ok. It was entertaining, as Sano always is, but after watching the first two matches, which while different from one another, were both in the more modern take on this style, while this wound up feeling kind of hokey. This would have played a lot better if it had been on a NEWBORN UWF, or NJPW card a couple of years prior, but things are already starting to quickly evolve, and the holes in the old ways are becoming too obvious. This probably was partly due to Sano not being as experienced in this style as others on the roster, and Vale’s slow delivery didn’t help in creating the illusion that this needed either, but still, an enjoyable match.

Next is Masakatsu Funaki vs Mark Rush, and hopefully this will be a great showcase for Funaki, as the only opportunity he’s really been giving to shine here so far, was against Ken Shamrock at the prior months outing. Rush did a respectable job last time, against Takahashi, but is still an unknown, as he had no prior experience before or after the PWFG, so this should be interesting.


Right away Funaki is floating around Rush, and peppering him with leg kicks, and even though Rush managed to catch a kick and get Funaki on the mat, it didn’t matter as Funaki is able to easily get out, and reverse his bad position. We can quickly see that Funaki is on a whole another level than Rush, or really anyone for that matter, and Rush is only going to get away with what Funaki lets him.


One great sequence is when Funaki follows up a thigh kick with an uppercut from the clinch, and from there executes a nice standing kimura throw (a variation of the Sumi Gaeshi)


Funaki toys with Rush throughout, and Rush’s only notable offense was attempting a standing reverse Kimura a la Sakuraba, that he took to the ground and attempted to follow through on for several mins, otherwise this was all Funaki. Funaki wins via an armbar transitioned off a head leg-scissor hold.


It’s always nice to see Fuanki, and certainly interesting to see what a skill disparity between him, and someone that probably had a background in amateur wrestling, but it’s still a mystery why they keep sticking Fuanki in these pointless matches. Had they switched him and Vale, then everyone probably would have been the better for it. Vale tended to look decent against lower-tier performers, and would have probably mixed well with rush, and Sano/Funaki was a proven formula as they already had two good matches over in the SWS promotion, but perhaps that’s why they avoided this approach, in an effort to not go to the well too many times.

 

[Mbetz1981]

*Vol.14 Continued*

Now we have, what we are all looking forward to, Minrou Suzuki vs Ken Shamrock. When we last saw Suzuki, he gallantly defended the honor of pro wrestlers everywhere by defeating the human oil slick, Lawi Napataya, in a shoot. Shamrock on the other hand had his reputation cemented as the top foreign talent in his prior bout with Fuanki. This is the 2nd time these two have met, as they both had an excellent 30min draw against each other at the inaugural PWFG event.


Things start off with an intense stare down and we are off. Right away I’m impressed with Suzuki’s footwork, very springy, and always feinting in a way that leads you to think he could shoot in at any moment. Shamrock fires off a high kick followed by a palm strike right away, and he is completely jacked here, just dwarfing Suzuki.


Suzuki gambles on shooting in with a deep single leg from a mile away but is stuffed by Shamrock. However, Ken gives up his superior positioning by diving for some kind of toe-hold attack, giving his back to Suzuki. Suzuki uses this reversal of fortune to work for a crab, but Shamrock shows us the secret that we have all been looking for, that one simply needs to slap the next person in the face that tries to get you in this Boston contraption.


From here, Suzuki falls back for a straight ankle lock, much like Shamrock tried against his first confrontation against Royce Gracie, and just like Gracie, Ken went with his opponent’s momentum to wind up in top position. After both fighters tried various unsuccessful leg attacks, they went back to their feet, and kept jockeying from the clinch. One nice sequence showed Ken give Suzuki a stiff knee to the midsection, which gave Suzuki an opportunity to hook Ken’s free leg and attempt a kneebar from the takedown.


Suzuki couldn’t quite extend the leg far enough, so he used a kimura grip to put the added threat of a toe-hold into the equation, and was able to put enough torque on that maneuver to force Ken to take a rope escape. Next we see a beautiful takedown set-up from Suzuki, as he does a very subtle short stomp to Ken’s thigh, and immediately dives in to go for a clinch, followed up by a standing switch, while Ken is momentarily distracted.


It didn’t wind up working, as Ken did a switch of his own, which caused Suzuki to turtle up, and Shamrock showed us a technique to deal with a turtled opponent that I had never thought of, which was to grab his opponents foot and dive over the opposite shoulder, as to wind up repositioned in a place where you have enough leverage to finish a toe-hold. While some would look back into this hazy shroud that is early 90s catch-inspiried grappling, and only see rudimentary ideas, if we dig a little deeper, we can see some interesting truths made manifest. Namely that wristlocks, toe holds, and other leg attacks, put the entire BJJ orthodoxy on shaky ground as they are techniques that are able to be hit from all sorts of angles, including what would otherwise be terrible positions.


Shamrock succeeded in getting a rope escape from his unusual foot attack, and they both returned to clinch warfare soon afterwards. The rest of the match saw various armbar, and leg attacks from both mem, punctuated by Ken’s need to slap the stuffing out of Suzuki in between the ground exchanges, but the match ends, when Suzuki hits a standing Kimura on Ken, only to be reversed into a dragon suplex, which gave Ken a knockout victory.


This was excellent, and a great way to end the show. While it wasn’t able to build as much drama as their first fight, due to being about 14 mins shorter, it didn’t have any of the dead spots of that bout either, and was non-stop from the opening bell. If I had to pick between the two, I would still give their first match the edge, in terms of quality, but make no mistake, this was very good, and an excellent showcase of the new possibilities that are emerging. It’s strange that real fighting is being advanced by a group of people that are pretending to fight for real, as if they were in a real fight.


Final conclusion: Even with some of the weaker matches, this is still hands down the best wrestling org on the planet at this stage of the game. The UWFI arguably has the potential to claim that throne, but mediocre booking, and Takada’s antics will surely prevent that from happening. As it stands, there is nothing better going on right now, and I’m really impressed at how far ahead of the time this outfit really was.


The look that only victory brings...

Here is the event in full:

 

[Mbetz1981]

*Vol.14 Continued*

Let's see what Mike Lorefice has to say about this:

Kazuo Takahashi vs Lato Kiraware: Takahashi is clearly positioned as the better wrestler while Kiraware has the better hands as well as a massive size advantage. Takahashi, as always during these days, mainly tries for the takedown, but beyond the difficulty of taking down the killer whale anywhere, usually when he does, Lato conveniently manages to fall right into the ropes to force the restart in standup. Kiraware does a lot of that action figure, turn at the waste kind of striking, using some solid open hand slaps but never mixing it up in any way. He has one big suplex, but is basically just trying to hold Takahashi off until he figures out a way to win, which comes in the form of countering a takedown with a guillotine. This match was believable enough to be a solid restrained undercard bout in this style, but also kind of bland & repetitive without much skill on display.


Takaku Fuke vs Wellington Wilkins Jr: An active, lively contest, more in the UWF-I style complete with PWFG's new variation on their hokey scoring system. Fuke is improving considerably with each fight, and seems on the verge of a breakout match when pitted with a stronger opponent than Wilkins, who if a fine follower here, but doesn't offer a lot beyond low blows that kill the momentum. While not as believable as the opener, Fuke has enough skill to make me take notice.


Naoki Sano vs Bart Vale: Vale would wade in with a movie kick until Sano took him down into a submission. Vale always seemed to have the upper hand in this match because he could get a reversal & attack with his own submissions, while, for the longest time, Sano oddly wasn't really trying to do anything on his feet but counter into a takedown or throw. Sano did well with the inside leg kick when he finally became willing to throw, and the match turned from there, with Sano doing damage & even scoring two knockdowns on his feet, the later leading to his 1/2 crab victory. This was okay, but it was more a 1988 UWF match, and it lacked the believability and intensity to really make you buy into all the near finishes. Sano has been excellent so far, but he isn't experienced enough in this style to be asked to carry Vale, who Funaki could do nothing with. This was a good win for Sano, but I'm not sure what purpose it really served given his limited availability, probably just payback for PWFG running over everyone in SWS.


Masakatsu Funaki vs Mark Rush: A better performance from Funaki, who was more willing to make this a one-man show. Funaki opened up more here, both in standup where he showed his speed & footwork evading the wrestler so he could land his strikes, and on the mat where he transitioned more quickly & explosively. It was a more entertaining performance because he was less in lockdown mode on the mat, and was making things happen rather than waiting around to make his move. Rush was again decent, while he didn't do anything amazing, he was at least a willing and capable foil. The problem with many of these shoot style matches is the weak link brings the match down to his level, usually through inexperience and lack of training, but Funaki was able to maneuver around Rush in a manner that made Funaki look several steps ahead of anyone else on this card. The main reason not to recommend this is it was a squash, but I still think it was the best match on the card so far.


Minoru Suzuki vs Ken Shamrock: A major step up for Shamrock, who really puts it all together here after the somewhat disappointing match with Funaki & gives his best performance to date by a wide margin. Shamrock is just fighting a lot more aggressively & assertively, getting solid strikes in even though it's not really a striking match, and then making decisive moves on the mat even though he's experimenting with different positions & leg locks that are more the game of his crafty opponent.


In addition to being two of the best shoot style workers, Suzuki & Shamrock also stand out for being able to tell little pro wrestling stories without having to stop the match or be corny & unrealistic to do so. This wasn't the best match we've seen so far, but it was probably the richest in terms of having a lot of little things going on, and somthing of a running storyline that didn't feel forced. Shamrock quickly established his standup advantage, putting Suzuki in the familiar grappler against striker role, and when Suzuki kept manipulating Shamrock's ankle until the lock was tight, only to have the ref immediately make him break because Shamrock was in the ropes, he pounded the canvas in disgust and then grinned at Shamrock, kinda taunting him that he should be better than to have to dive for the ropes at the same time he's content to point out that he's already got one up on Shamrock.


Shamrock soon answered with his own ankle lock, and while Suzuki is less anxious, he does take a rope escape and then begin doing the good sort of pro wrestling selling where he shows he's hampered - has difficulty putting weight on that ankle - without having to stop the match & make the ref look like an idiot for allowing a match where someone doesn't respond for a minute to continue simply because pro wrestling never actually modernizes. Sticking in the pro wrestling mode, these two are able to show they don't like each other, but again in the good sort of way where Shamrock immediately kicks Suzuki in the ankle because his rival has made the mistake of revealing it as a weak point. They soon proceed to a spot where the ref breaks them as both are in the ropes working for the same ankle submission.


The ground continues to more or less be a stalemate as Suzuki answers Shamrock's Achilles' tendon hold with one of his own, but later Suzuki gains an advantage instead answering with a heel hold, which forces Ken into a rope escape. Though the argument could be made that Shamrock has the advantage because he's handily winning the brief standup exchanges, Suzuki is doing a better job of getting the quick lock up, and is coming closer to getting the submission once it hits the ground. He forces another rope break with an Achilles' tendon hold, and is able to get armbar position twice, though Ken fights it off before he can extend the arm.


Shamrock also defends a wakigatame attempt & is able to take Suzuki's back while they are standing back up. Suzuki avoided a suplex earlier, and now uses a Kimura grip to spin out into a standing wrist lock, but this leaves him exposed, and Shamrock just takes his back & hoists him for a huge Dragon suplex. Shamrock bridges to go for the corny pinfall, but after the ref counts 1, he releases & instead has the ref count Suzuki out when he can't answer the 10 count, which again is a ridiculous carry over from pro wrestling that needs to go in order for the ref to have a shred of credibility. Anyway, I think they were on the right track with this finish, but Shamrock should have done a released Dragon right into an immediate ref stop KO.


Though the match never felt great, it was a rich, well themed & focused match where both were on the top of their game. We haven't really seen this sort of match so far, and they were also doing some different things with the ankle & joint manipulation. I think they really found a nice balance of being a pro wrestling match with some of the storytelling & acting at the same time they were a proto shoot match with the sort of footsies we'd see in early Pancrase where the best defense was often to just attack whatever limb they left exposed with your own submission. If you like quantity then their 3/4/91 match is certainly better given it's almost twice as long, but this match is a lot tighter & shows they've grown and improved considerably during the past 6 months. ****


Final Conclusion: The prelims may not have been great, but without the hamfisted headbutting antics of Fujiwara, every match at least felt like a serious & legitimate attempt at a martial arts match. Beyond the promotion running smoother without the diversion, the show was important for seeming to properly settle the top gaijin spot, with Shamrock surprisingly successfully following up his upset win over Funaki, while Bad Bart was gunned down on the undercard.

 

[Mbetz1981]

*Vol.14 Continued*

*In other news*


The Sediokaikan organization out of Japan, is continuing to make strides to become the premier choice in the Karate/Stand-Up fighting sphere. They recently had their Karate World Cup event on 10-10-91, showcasing a lot of great talent within the Sediokaikan Karate style along with competitors representing their respective disciplines in Kickboxing, Savate, Muay Thai, and Tae Kwon Do.


Some highlights include a stunning upset as Dutch Savate fighter Gerard Gordeau defeated Masaaki Satake in a thrilling bout. This Sediokaikan event has a format in which the first round is contested with both men wearing a gi, under Knockdown Karate rules (punches only from the torso down, and kicks legal to all parts of the body, minus the groin or knee). If there isn’t a winner after the first round, then both competitors take off their gi top and fight another round, and if there still isn’t a winner then both fighters put on gloves and have up to two rounds of kickboxing. After all that, if there still isn’t a knockdown or judges’ decision, then the fight is decided by a brick breaking competition.


In this case, the fight was every fluid and even throughout, with the judges being unable to decide a winner, even after 4 rounds, so they went to the tie-breaking brick round, and Gerard Gordeau was able to break about 2-3 more bricks than Satake. This is especially shocking, as Satakae has been a three-time Sedikaikan champion, and also had a winning kickboxing record going into this fight, so he was the odds on favorite to win this competition.


Gordeau completely dominated his next opponent, but was taken out in the quarterfinals by an Australian kickboxer, Adam Watt, who went on to face Toshiyuki Atokawa in the finals. Atokawa is a small, but ferocious competitor, who wound up winning the tournament, when his continued leg assaults on Watt were eventually too much to handle, and Watt was unable to stand up on two feet.

Here is the event in full:

Interesting things are developing between Sediokaikan and the fledging RINGS promotion headed up by superstar Akira Maeda. The head of Sediokaikan, Kazuyoshi Ishii, recently made an appearance at the 9-14-91 RINGS event, along with his top student, Masaaki Satake, and Maeda returned the favor by joining Ishii for commentary duties at the Karate World Cup event on 10-10-91. Furthermore, it looks like Ishii will be loaning out Satake, and Nobuaki Kakuda (another top Seidokaikan star) for Maeda’s next event. This is great news for Maeda, as the lack of a deep roster has been very apparent in the three events that he has had so far and is in dire need of a talent boost.


It is being reported that the UWFI has rebooked Bob Backlund for a rematch with its main star Nobuhiko Takada. Hopefully this next meeting will be better than the last, as Takada quickly dispensed with Backlund in a little over a minute, in what was a very disappointing finish for a main event with a foreign star with the name value of Backlund.

 

[Mbetz1981]

10/10 on the thread bro... Absolutely excellent, I'm bookmarking it for later.

Been a while since there were some really good old school info threads... @Buffmeister and @WaylonMercy5150 do some great ones from time to time too.

Apart from buying my merch, this is about as good a time as you can spend on sherdog.

Spoiler

My Merch:

View attachment 785020

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PM Me for details.

Thanks for the kind words! More to come.

 

[Mbetz1981]

Chapter 15 is now up for early access, then in the fullness of time, I'll post it here!

 

[Mbetz1981]

*Archives of this series can be found at https://www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad *
*Editors Note: Mike Lorefice's comments will be prefaced by his intials.*

Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol.15 "Heir Today...Gone Tomorrow"

Welcome back to the wonderful world of Kakutogi. Join us, as we continue to seek out this halcyon dreamscape, often heralded, but rarely understood, as we are unable to refuse its beck and call, yet again.

We are now heading into the Shoot-Realms of the Union of Wrestling Force International’s (UWFI) 10-6-91 event, and right away we can see what we are up against, as we are immediately treated to a montage of perennially misused Kazuo Yamazaki, and golden boy Nobukiko Takada, gearing up for what appears to be tonight’s main event, as the powers that be are prepared to take us back to a familiar creative wellspring.

At least it is a refreshing source, as these two have always had good chemistry with each other, and this should be no different. Of course, they need a hit tonight, as when we last witnessed this group, we had to endure the embarrassingly awful 2min squash match, where Bob Backlund was quickly dispatched by Takada, after faking an injury, in comically awful fashion.

Looking back at the trajectory of how we got here is interesting, as surely everyone had high hopes for Yamazaki. Here was Sayama's esteemed padawan, and his heir apparent, but his huge push to superstardom was not to be, and this scribe can't help but speculate that this turn of destiny may have been partly to blame due to Sayama leaving on bad terms after the Maeda fiasco, and subsequently exposing the business with his autobiography entitled, “Kayfabe.”

We will have time later on, for more musing of this dysfunctional family duo, but first let’s see what is in store for us in the present moment…

We are back in the cozy confines of the Korakuen Hall, and no matter how big or extravagant other arenas may be, nothing feels more appropriate for combat sports then this quaint 2,000 capacity venue. After a raucous crowd ovation for the usual preliminaries, we are greeted to our first match, a bout between resident footfighting master, Makato Ohe, this time facing an unknown Sakuchai Sakuwitaya. The last few opponents that they have fed Ohe, were decent in their own right, but inexperienced in the ways of international Kickboxing, so hopefully this will be different.

Right away we can see two things, the first is that Sakuwitaya does appear to have some genuine kickboxing experience, but that he is not in Ohe’s league. He appears to be someone that has some rudimentary skills, but nowhere near the seasoning needed to face the experience of a former Shootboxing champion.

The first moments show Sakuwitaya taking some stiff leg kicks, but he is managing to hang in there, while attempting to find his distance, when out of nowhere he attempts a flying jump kick (similar to the one that Machida took Couture out with, albeit with a different angle). A commendable attempt to be sure, but sadly does not land flush in the jaw, but rather hit the chest of Ohe, to which he responded by shoving Sakuwitaya down to the ground.

That was about the only moment that he got anywhere to glory though, as for the short duration of this fight Ohe has been patient, and only throwing a kick or punch if there was some hurricane force power behind it, and as soon as Sakuwitaya got back up it was over. Ohe feinted with his lead leg, patiently waiting for an opening and landed a punch to Sakuwitaya’s chin with an impact that reverberated throughout the building. For a moment it seemed like he was going to be fine, but it was a delayed reaction, because after taking the blow, and dancing around for a moment, Sakuwitaya completely collapsed, and was out cold. Great showing from Ohe, but they seriously need to find him an opponent that is somewhere in his league.



Going out in a blaze of glory…

ML: Ohe seemed to have all the advantages in this shoot that was almost certainly designed to be an easy win. You could see that he was calm as could be, not fearing Sakuwitaya in the least. Ohe is the longer fighter, and just backed Sakuwitaya with some straights & a middle kick. Even Ohe was probably surprised by the delayed KO where Sakuwitaya just gave out a second or two after a rather routine left straight. This was pretty sad to be honest, I mean, if you can't withstand a few standard shots designed simply to control distance then you really don't belong in the ring with any sort of professional champion.



Next up is a tag-match Kiyoshi Tamura/Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano/Tom Burton. I still have no idea what is hoped to be accomplished with these tag matches that the UWFI insists on putting together. It would be one thing if they had a giant roster, and ran the risk of putting on 3hr shows if they didn’t consolidate their talent, but they have barely been able to go over an hour with these events, and that’s with all the walkouts, ceremonial introduction, etc. The actual time of people wrestling is considerably less than that. To make matters more bizarre is that there are no belts, or really any stakes involved, just another mishmash of who they want to throw together this month. In this case it is the small/lithe gentleman vs the brazen monsters, so we will now experience size vs skill, speed vs raw power, and slick holds vs steroids.

The contest itself was entertaining and fast paced, and somewhat surprisingly, everyone looked good here. Even Tom Burton was looking looser, and more fluid this time. Of course, Tamura is still the rock star, and is really bringing the new generation of tech to the shoot-game. Cartwheeling out of bad positions, rapid transitions, and creative grappling entries, show that he was really something special. To make it even more impressive is to think that he was a very high caliber contender in real shoots too, which isn’t something too many fighters can lay claim to, the ability to excel in both the real and worked ends of the spectrum.

Tamura wins by finally figuring out the counter to the Boston crab, which is to apparently is to turn a quasi ankle-pick into a toehold. Well played, sir.

ML: It's hard for a Tamura match to overachieve, but given the tag match format, I think it's fair to say this one did. Though the format may be hokey, this is a great example of a doubles match that worked, keeping a higher pace than they could have in a singles match of this length (18:48) without losing the intensity and keeping guys who don't have amazing stamina or huge move sets effective by breaking their portions up. The key to the match was Miyato, who gave his best performance so far. Beyond being an entertaining and fiery presence who pulled the fight out of the opponents, he also really upped his technical game in all areas.

Miyato was making an attempt to move more like Tamura, turning and spinning out, even using the go behind. There was a nice sequence where he hit a backdrop into a half crab then spun into a facelock. Miyato set a good tone for the match, showing some good use of distance & footwork in standup to get his low kicks in, and doing a good job of taking advantage of the opponents inability to actually do anything to control him once they got him to the mat, just exploding rather than honoring the imaginary forcefield that normally keeps UWF-I fighters other than Tamura down.

This is really what I've been wanting to see from him, things that make him relevant & dangerous despite being undersized. The story of the fight was that the larger team of Nakano & Burton would start out ahead on the mat, getting the judo throw or takedown, but then their more skilled opponents would start moving & countering before they got anywhere with their submission holds. Miyato wasn't showing a path to victory so much as wearing the bigger guys out by making them keep working at a higher pace than they would like because he was feisty & annoying, and if they didn't get him down again, he was just going to make it harder by continuing to beat up their legs.

Tamura was able to get a takedown on Nakano, and his counters were often into his own submissions, rather than simply scrambling back to his feet & forcing the opposition to start over. Tensions were escalating as Nakano dropped into an Achilles' tendon hold, but Tamura countered with a heel hook only to have Nakano keep kicking him in the face until he released, which allowed Nakano to take his back.

Miyato got back to his feet enough that Burton began to slow down, and was caught off guard when Miyato finally threw his hands, stunning Burton and allowing Miyato to get the spinning heel kick in for a knockdown. I was surprised at how much ring time Miyato was logging, Tamura was really getting the star treatment here, coming in for brief sequences where he looked good, but letting Miyato carry the load. There was one crazy Tamura spot where Burton had his back & started to go for a cravate, but Tamura handspringed & took a front facelock. Nakano got a couple near finishes on Tamura including a snap suplex into a high kick when Tamura was getting back up, and as usual, Tamura was way down on points. I liked the finish where Tamura losing the battle of pulling himself halfway across the ring to get to the ropes before Burton could turn him over into the Boston crab him allowed him to use Burton's momentum against him (Burton was busy dragging him back), tripping him up into an ankle lock for the win. I'm not saying much about Nakano or Burton here, largely because they were instruments who were very well played by maestros. ***3/4



Next up is Yoji Anjo vs Billy Scott. The last time we saw Scott in a singles match was a surprisingly awesome affair with Kazuo Yamazaki, and out of all the imported Tennessee talent, he has showed the most promise, by far. Here he must face his sophomore test against everyone’s loveable zebra-warrior in Anjo, and they don’t waste any time.

Immediately after the bell, Anjo rushes in with a slap to try and set up an o-goshi throw, but Scott just shoves him off, and gives him a stiff kick in the back for his trouble. This causes our zebra to wisely rush back to the safety of his savannah, backing off to regroup before charging in again. He attempts another hip-toss, but Scott is wise to these judo shenanigans, and responds with a couple of ultra-low single-leg takedowns, a la Sakuraba, succeeding with his second attempt, which he converted into a slam.

They both then proceeded to get into a slap fest until Anjo pulls out a sweet Kani Basami out of his bag of tricks, which shows that maybe there is something to be said for these judo parlor tricks, after all. What followed next was a barrage of strikes, takedowns, reversals, until Anjo scored the first rope escape against Scott, in what could be loosely interpreted as a kimura from an open guard. Anjo quickly followed this up with a head kick knockdown, furthering his score against Scott.

This upswing didn’t last long though, as shortly afterwards, Scott got a takedown and finished the match in what is one of the most bizarre submissions I’ve ever seen, which resembled something between a “twister” and a neck-crank.

Bizarre finish aside, this was a great match, and although they could have let it breathe more in spots, the fast pace kept it highly entertaining. Scott is continuing to show that he has a bright future, as he adds a credible gravitas with his look, and athleticism.

The Twister/Neck-Crank Hybrid…

ML: Scott took a big step forward here, partially because he's a tough & proud guy who isn't going to allow Anjo to take advantage of him. These guys really stepped up the level of defense & intensity, not only refusing to go along with the opponent, but making each other pay with a swift foot to the face. While this wasn't a shoot by any means, of all the works we've seen so far, it's probably the match that felt most like it both in terms of the fighters moving quickly & desperately to avoid what the other fighter was trying & getting a bit out of control and even nailing each other when they had the chance. They really put a lot of energy into the takedowns, throws, and scrambles, and both fighters inserted their share of cheap shots. They took some brief rests on the mat, where Scott isn't the most fluid to begin with once he gets you there, but made up for it by seeming to legitimately piss each other off in standup, leading to some strikes that were arguably too mean & some scrambles where the loser normally would have given up much easier. 11:29 was a good length for this, as it started great, and maintained the intensity throughout, but the holes were becoming more and more apparent the longer it continued. I was surprised that Scott got the upset here, although Anjo is one of their better fighters, I wasn't opposed to it because Scott did a nice job of standing up for himself & hanging with the veteran. With this being Scott's 3rd match, it's hard to argue against this overachieving. ***1/2

 

[Mbetz1981]

Vol. 15 Continued...

And now…. The main event, and a sad realization sweeps over me, as I am now realizing that this is, and forever will be, Yamazaki's destiny. To forever be confined as a 2nd banana to Takada. Maybe the writing was always on the wall though, as this picture taken from the 1985 Shooting Bible , tells the entire story. Here we have Takada rolling around in his brand-new fancy sports car, while Yamazaki is reduced to getting by day-to-day in a beat-up Toyota Corolla. This snapshot perfectly sums up how Yamazaki was treated throughout his career. Instead of a Clubber Lang tale of one's meteoric rise to the top, climbing up out of the poverty of your surroundings, and overcoming your circumstances, instead it was a hard luck tale, that told us all that sometimes you will always be kept down by the man born with a golden spoon in his mouth. Though these two have fought countless times, especially as young lions in New Japan where Takada was 11-0 in 1982 & 20-0 in 1983, Yamazaki only has 4 wins over Takada, 12/5/84 in the Original UWF in one of Dave Meltzer's early 5-star rated matches, 1/6/86 in New Japan's UWF League, and 8/13/88 & 5/4/89 in Newborn UWF.

Politics aside, these two always had good chemistry with one another, and while the booking here was lacking any build up, at least it's a well-tested formula, so hopefully they put in another classic tonight. After a bit of a feeling out process, we have Yamazaki nailing a back suplex off a missed kick from Takada, and immediately Takada grabs the ropes to garner an escape. There is some more jockeying for position from the two of them, until Yamazaki is able to fight for, and finally obtain, a heel hook, scoring more points against Takada. Takada tries to initiate a tie-up, in which Yamazaki responds by feinting with his hand, as if he was going to accept, only set that up as a way to kick Takada in the gut. Herein lies the greatness of Yamazaki's craftmanship, while someone like a Tamura was a lot of flash, speed, and soundnfury, Yamazaki had a more calculated, methodical approach, that I wish more of Pro Wrestling was patterned after.

They battle both over position, and who was going to be able to secure a kimura. This led to an interesting grappling sequence, when Yamazaki was unable to secure a kimura, he started grating his elbow, and the blade of his forearm against Takada's face, causing him to shift enough that he was able to slap on a side headlock. From there, we get a sequence that wouldn't be unsimilar to watching two high-level white belts roll at your local BJJ academy. Yamazaki stacks Takada, getting out of a sloppy triangle attempt, and counters with a clever kneebar entry, which sadly doesn't work. Things continue to unfold with Takada scoring an ankle lock of his own, and Yamazaki scoring a knockdown with a series of knees in the corner of the ring, and while I'm cheering for Yamazaki, I get the sinking feeling that there couldn't possibly be any way that they will allow him to win. After this wave of despair flows through me, I comfort myself with thoughts, that perhaps, Yamazaki will have the courage to do what Yuki Kondo did years later, and simply kick Takada out of the ring and into the front row.

Sadly, this did not happen…. What did happen, was Takada hulked up, and got several knockdowns against Yamazaki before finally finishing with a Dragon suplex followed by an armbar. This started off decent, but was really hampered by Takada's laziness. In the original UWF days, Takada was way more apt to put some real work into a match, where he now seems content to just coast. This was basically a US Hulk Hogan main event where the hero got beat up for the first three-quarters, only to make a miraculous comeback in the end. Yamazaki did what he could with it, but this was sorely lacking compared to some of their great matches from times past.



ML: If Yuko Miyato were a decent booker, UWF-I might still exist today. The league has kind of been on autopilot for the first series of small Korakuen Hall shows, with the problem that no one has been given the opportunity to appear to be any threat to Takada. They had to bring in a former WWF Heavyweight Champion who has been more or less out of the sport since the new ringleader of the circus scoffs at things such as the amateur backgrounds that the real legends of the sport such as Thesz & Gagne had devoted so much effort to giving value to in their peers & successors. After Takada dispatched of Mr. Bob in mere moments, there was only one man known to be strong enough to give him a run, Yamazaki. While Yamazaki was, at best, the #3 fighter in the UWF incarnations, his win over Takada in their first meeting in the Newborn UWF was really the thing that cemented his presence on the top of the bill there. Granted, he always lost to Maeda & usually to Takada, but was enough of a threat that people believed he could win, & took the matches seriously, filling the buildings and responding rabidly to the action, even if more were rooting against him. Yamazaki absolutely needed to win this, he could then lose the next handful to Takada as usual, but that bought you that handful, as well as Tamura or Anjo's ticket to the top going through Yamazaki. Yamazaki winning gave you options, Takada winning gave your, well, more staleness & embarrasment.

One of the problems with Takada's matwork is even when he was gifted an obvious counter, he just sat on it. For instance, Yamazaki hits a no cooperation backdrop early on, and waits around with Takada holding a Kimura setup, until he just gets bored of Takada not doing anything & pivots to take away Takada's angle. Yamazaki keeps moving so Takada can't do his usual pretend contemplation that's actually not knowing what he could/should be doing, but when he's not doing things he learned in the New Japan dojo, sometimes it's hard to tell what he really thinks he's supposed to be accomplishing, he's really just grabbing appendages sometimes and hoping that looks enough like some sort of submission. Other times, it's easy to see that he has only vague notions of what the actual submissions are supposed to look like, hence his legs being reversed on his triangle attempt. To some extent, the problem with the match is that Yamazaki keeps grabbing/catching the leg & taking Takada down to avoid the thing Takada does well, kick, but to his credit, Yamazaki does enough things well on the mat that the match doesn't fall apart despite Takada mostly being forced to work on the mat. Story wise, Yamazaki is trying to get a leg submission, or at least debilitate the leg enough that Takada can't use it to knock him out. Takada does come up with one a great combo when Yamazaki wants to lock up, but Takada lands a right inside leg kick and a right slap, almost simultaneously, and Yamazaki is caught so off guard he basically turns & covers, allowing Takada to kick around what guard Yamazaki has until he drops him. Once Takada has this one opening, he just steamrolls Yamazaki, getting him down to one point before adding insult to injury by submitting him with his patented armbar. I think the later stages of the match were actually supposed to show how tough Yamazaki was in taking all this punishment that Backlund and the others weren't up to, but one could certainly argue that it made Yamazaki look worse to just get blown out of the water once the first real advantage of the match was gained. This was maybe passable, but it was shockingly never really exciting. It's definitely nowhere near the level of probably any of their previous matches since they were basically rookies.

Conclusion: Outside of a disappointing main event, this was an entertaining, if uninspired event. There still seems to be no clear direction to this outfit, other than to portray Takada as an unstoppable hero, but at least they have been consistently entertaining, so there must be credit given for that. It may be a bit frustrating, knowing that they have the talent on their hands to do more than they are, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

ML: Kind of an odd show in that you had a squash, followed by two overachieving really heated & competitive matches, followed by what should have been the biggest match within the promotion that was somehow transformed into another kind of a squash where this inexplicably mightier version of Takada can now beat a guy who has at least had some success against him in the past without ever being in any trouble. Scott announcing himself, and Miyato taking steps to make himself the relevant in the more modern version of shooting are things to get excited about, while the desperation of going right back to Takada vs. Backlund, without even given Backlund a win to show he's viable, or hell even credible in the 1990's, certainly is not. Again, UWF-I is the most difficult promotion to know what to think of because two very good matches on a four match show is better than the other promotions are doing, but PWFG is more fulfilling in the sense that you have Suzuki, Shamrock, & Funaki already in the main events, and only on the rise, whereas UWF-I has shown itself to be Takada or bust, even though Takada is a bust, and becoming more & more a laughable one as a guy such as Scott, who is just some dude that wrestled in school, can come in and already show way more understanding of both the technical aspects & the compelling methods of fakery in just a few outings.

*Footage of this event can be found at our Patreon*





*In Other News*

UWFI’s event on 9-26 was a sellout but faced serious problems when they almost caused a riot with the inanely short Takada/Backlund main event that only lasted to the 1:15 mark. The ending of the match caused the Sapporo crowd to become unruly, which led to Kazuo Yamazaki grabbing the mic and try and calm them down. After Yamazaki’s attempt at peacekeeping, Backlund grabbed the mic and admitted to being knocked out and would try to learn how to block kicks better, for their next confrontation.

It was a hot night in Holland, as a molten kickboxing event took place on 10-20-91 in Amsterdam. Some highlights include a brutal headkick KO delivered to Nicco Anches by Peter Theijsse. We also got to see up and coming Dutch fighter, Ernesto Hoost face veteran Leo de Snoo, in a brutal 5-round war. Snoo’s composure and experience was tough to deal with, but at the end of the fight, Hoost’s sizeable reach advantage, quickness, and combinations were too much to overcome, as we was able to score a head kick knockdown that put him far enough over on the scorecards, so that he couldn’t be denied. If Hoost continues to stay healthy, then he is certainly going to be a champion for a long time to come.



Leo de Snoo, Peter Smit, Ramon Dekkers, Rob Kaman, and Marcel Wille, from 1990.

 

[Mbetz1981]

For those that may be interested: Bonus content just went up within the hallowed halls of the Kakutogi Patreon. Chapter 16 of our main series is up. In addition to that, we cover some Shooto from 1990, which yields some interesting facts about Manabu Yamada, and tomorrow we will show why this guy right here, could have made a great MMA fighter, all the way back in 1990!

https://www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad

 

[Mbetz1981]

Archives of this series and lots of bonus content can be found at https://www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad
Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol.16 "The Threshing Floor"
*Editors note: Mike Lorefice's comments will be prefaced by his initials.*

Welcome back, to the wonderful world of Kakutogi. We have successfully returned from our jaunt to the proceedings of a year prior (when we looked into the inner-workings of Shooto circa 1990, available only within the hollowed confines of our Patreon) and now we must head back to the future, making a crash landing at the infamous Korakuen Hall. In this case, the date is 10-17-9, and the occasion is another event by the ever stalwart PWFG clan, who has perhaps made the most out of what they’ve had to work with at this stage of the game, compared to their contemporary rivals.

We are greeted to a brief montage of Minoru Suzuki training, and working on his heel-hook entries, contrasted by Bart Vale walking around, showing off his patriotic duds, and basically demonstrating to us that this won’t just be another case of man against man, but will rather be two rival nations colliding, in what must surely be an apex in the history of Japanese-American relations.

The first match of the evening will be between Takaku Fuke vs Jerry Flynn. When we last saw Fuke he gave us a very solid performance against Wellington Wilkins Jr, and when we last witnessed Flynn he was in a rather pedestrian match against Bart Vale, through no fault of his own, but with Fuke at the helm this bout should be an accurate gauge of how he will fare within this style.

Right away Flynn fires off a nice kick to Fuke’s thigh but is taken down by a beautiful single-leg entry before he could launch another one. There must have been something in the water over in those days, as Fuke, Takahashi, and later Sakuraba, always had insanely proficient single-leg techniques in their arsenals.

After the takedown they both jockey for position, and trade submission attempts, before having to restart on their feet, and once they do, Flynn unleashes a barrage of kicks and palm strikes, that are a lot quicker than you would expect from a man of his size. Flynn is looking very solid here so far, and while he didn’t look bad against Vale, he was limited on what he could do working with him, and by being paired up with someone a lot more fluid like Fuke, he isn’t having to scale things back as much.

The rest of the match saw Fuke really earning his pay for the evening, as he took plenty of stiff kicks and palm strikes from Flynn in most of their standing sequences, and the groundwork was nicely paced too. Whenever it hit the mat they kept things at a fast tempo, without ever getting hokey, and also added some nice touches like when Flynn would escape from an ankle lock attempt by kicking Fuke in the head with his free leg, or at one point when Fuke was working for an armbar, and decided to slap Flynn in the face several times to open his opponent up.

This went to a 30min draw, and I must admit that I’m quite impressed with this. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this is one of the best matches we’ve seen so far, as at no point over the entire 30mins did this ever drag, and it was able to really strike a balance between realism and entertainment value. Fuke and Flynn were able to give us a long match with the stiffness and flow of a shoot, but with a faster, and more entertaining pace, without ever feeling corny or contrived. Where I would have assumed Flynn to have been a lumbering ox, he moved gracefully for a man of his size, and it never felt like Fuke was having to really stretch to make him look good.

While the idea of having a 30min draw for the opening match sounded odd to me on paper, it wound up being a great way to put Flynn over, and has really opened my eyes to Fuke, as I always just saw him as a middling journeyman figure from Pancrase, I had no idea he was basically the PWFG’s answer to Yoji Anjo, as a cardio machine, that could be used in a variety of capacities within the card to good effect.



ML: Fuke has already done a shoot where he failed to take down the greasiest of Muay Thai competitors for longer than it took Lawi Napataya to just grab the ropes, and I was really impressed at how he took the distance & his strategy into consideration. This was probably the most realistic fight we've seen so far in terms of approaching the wrestler vs. grappler dynamic. Flynn had a big reach advantage, but Fuke mostly stayed on the outside looking for a kick he could catch when he wasn't making his move to initiate the takedown. Fuke generally did a good job of moving in and out, and would actually even move laterally then cut an angle to get in on Flynn's legs. In the meantime, Fuke would try to check Flynn's low kicks, which really made me take them a lot more seriously.

While the length kept it from being the fastest paced or stiffest match, they did a great job of upping the urgency & stiffness when it mattered. If there was a potential submission for either, or a takedown attempt for Fuke, they found an extra gear or two to fight, and hit, hard to answer it, then would relax somewhat when they were more or less out of danger. I really liked Fuke blasting Flynn with palms to the face to fend off his leglock.

Anyway you slice it though, the length was still the problem, largely because Flynn basically just did his thing, and while Fuke was credible & technically proficient, there were only so many scenarios he, or anyone, could think of to keep a realistically bent vanilla striker vs. grappler match going for half an hour. I don't want to downplay Flynn's contributions, he was the more well rounded of the two in that he could offer more to counter & answer Fuke on the mat that Fuke, who had little striking, could in standup. While these guys were green, this was nonetheless a huge step forward for both, and one of the signature bouts of 1991 in terms of moving the sport forward in a more believable direction. ***1/2

Next up is Ken Shamrock vs Wellington Wilkins Jr. When we last witnessed Shamrock, it was a very solid match where we defeated Minoru Suzuki, and with this booking we can get a glimpse as to what is going to a major hurdle in this style, and that’s the limited talent pool to work with. It makes sense to use Wilkins as Shamrock’s next opponent, as they have never fought before, but it also feels like a holding pattern, as the only other two members of the promotion that are likely to really give him a worthy battle are Funaki, Suzuki, or possibly Koslowski, all of which he has already faced, and if the UWFI has proved anything, it’s difficult to just throw random American pro wrestlers into this style, and expect good results, so we are left with a situation where this small roster of talent in the PWFG is likely to have to be constantly mixed and matched in inconsequential ways, unless they manage to pull in some more talent.

The bout starts, and Ken has a bored look on his face that would indicate that he would rather be anywhere else right now. Things start off with some light strikes back and forth from both contestants, until Ken clinched up with Wilkins, paused for a couple of seconds while seemingly whispering something into Wilkins ear, and then suplexed him.

Things get a bit more interesting on the ground, as Wilkins starts to turtle up, and Ken does a creative semi-cartwheel, diving over Wilkins back, looking for a kneebar in the process. Wilkins gets a rope escape, and after the standup is able to get the fight back to the ground via a northern lights suplex, but is forced to escape yet again, when Shamrock sinks in a rear naked choke. After the stand up, Ken starts to up the stiffness quotient, and puts a lot more velocity into his palm strikes, which causes Wilkins to respond with a headbutt and some knees, to which Ken answered with an especially stiff open handed slap to Wilkins’ face, causing a knockdown.

A few more short exchanges went down, before Shamrock won via an armbar around the 6 ½ min mark, and one nice sequence within those, was when Wilkins was working his way out of a loosely applied guillotine, and was starting to slide out from under Shamrocks left arm/shoulder (while still wrapped around Shamrocks arm) Ken took the opportunity to completely torque his bodyweight into a palm strike using his free right hand, as soon as Wilkins escaped, and scored a knockdown off of it.

Overall, these was a very awkward match, that never really found its rhythm, or a consistent tone. Wilkins was striking way too softly, while Shamrock would oscillate between soft/stiff, and seemed unsure of how to work against Wilkins. Shamrock’s prior five matches all ranged from good to great, but he was working with seasoned veterans in all of them, which is probably what is needed to really pull the best out of Ken at this stage.

ML: Shamrock had the wrong attitude here, just seeing an opponent that was beneath him & being unwilling to do anything to raise him up to the level of having a prayer. By being rather indifferent, and somewhat sloppy, either going easy or throwing wild hard shots that either blew Wilkins away or missed, the match never came off as anything beyond a dull enhancement match. This isn't a bad match per se, but there's also really no reason to watch it.

Dee Snider wins via Armbar…

 

[Mbetz1981]

Vol.16 continued...
Now we have a battle between Masakatsu Funaki, and Kazuo Takahashi, that is sure to violate several building ordinances, as the amount of yellow neon sported between the two, is clearly a safety hazard. Takahashi doesn’t waste anytime firing off an excellent single leg, that would be the envy of any current MMA fighter, taking Funaki down, and quickly slaps his way out of Funaki’s guard, and is able to gain side-control.

Takahashi quickly goes for an armbar, but Funaki is way too slick on the ground, and easily escapes the attempt, and is able to get back to his feet. Takahashi blasts him right back down to the mat again, and repeats his armbar attack, only this time Funaki rolls out, and opts to mount Takahashi this time instead of standing back up.

It is a treat to see Funaki’s methodical nature, even at this early stage of his career. As he has the mount, he patiently rides Takahashi, and starts to grind his elbow across his face, forcing him to squirm a bit, and uses this technique to its fullest, looking to open up a submission. Takahashi remained composed, so Funaki dialed it up a notch and started firing some short, stiff, forearm strikes to Takahashi’s face. This still wasn’t enough to force Takahashi to make a mistake, so Funaki gets up, smacks Kazuo in the face, and soccer kicks him in the head as the ref calls for a break. While the ref is separating them for a restart, Kazuo runs right after Funaki, and gets a swift kick to the thigh for his trouble, but if there is one thing that Takahashi has that Funaki can’t seem to stop, is the speed of his single-leg, and he uses it to good effect, and is able to stop Funaki before he could fire off another kick.

Funaki’s groundwork seems to consist of putting his hand over Takahashi’s mouth and punching him in the face, which doesn’t really yield any results. Takahashi eventually passes the guard but seems to get bored with the idea of maintaining a superior position, and quickly goes for another arm attack, that fails just as quickly as the first two. He loses his position to Funaki, who goes into side-control mode, and goes back to his tactic of using the blade of his forearm to annoy Takahashi.

After making Kazuo squirm a bit, Funaki starts to posture up, and shifts his body towards his opponents legs, which instantly set off Takahashi’s spider sense, and caused him to franticly grab the ropes for an escape. They stand back up, and this time Takahashi has no slick takedowns for his mentor. Instead he suffers the wrath of a stiff thigh kick, followed up with another kick to the face forcing a knockdown.

Kazuo gets up at the count of 9, and takes some more punishment, before Funaki misses a kick, and it’s back to the ground. Sadly, the only submission he cares to try is an armbar, and his 4th attempt fails as well. Kazuo winds up on the wrong end of a north-south situation, but tries to make the best of it, by going for a toehold against Funaki, but the master has all the answers, and simply gives a hard blow to Takahashi’s stomach, forcing his legs to dangle, and goes right for an ankle lock. The lock is in snug, and Kazuo taps out.

Excellent match, that I would assess as a ¾ shoot. They weren’t cooperating, and everything (with the exception of the ending) felt authentic, even they weren’t quite going at each other with an absolute 100% intensity either. This was definitely a great blueprint on how much shoot you can put into a work.

ML: Unlike Shamrock, Funaki found the challege & crafted a competitive match against an opponent who was clearly well beneath him. While the match was a bit repetitive in that Takahashi's chance was getting a single leg then finding an armbar, at least that chance was made real, and thus the threat seemed genuine. Funaki going from one hip to another to back up enough to try to keep Takahashi inside his guard when Takahashi exploded trying to pass is the sort of thing we haven't seen anyone else care about (or probably understand) that made maintaining the defensive position seem to be of the utmost importance. Funaki has been the most realistic worker so far, and while that can often be to his detriment as his striking tends to be much more exciting than his grappling, which is his bread and butter, Funaki found a good mix tonight, largely because he needed to punish Takahashi before he took him down, and hopefully Takahashi would either get KO'd charging into a well timed blow, or some of these strikes would at least slow his shot down enough that Funaki could find an actual defense. Takahashi came close just before the finish, eating a few palms before ducking a high kick into a takedown & passing into an armbar attempt. Funaki rolled though, and then they did a pretty lame finish that, unlike most of what came before it, felt very contrived, where Takahashi tried to transition into a kneebar, but Funaki made Takahashi release with a body shot then went into an Achilles' tendon hold for the win. While it was the first submission locked, Funaki winning with a strike or guillotine to counter the takedown would have been a lot more fitting for the story they'd been telling than Funaki grabbing a leg out of nowhere & Takahashi offering no defense. I think they had to keep this short both because it was a big mismatch & because Takahashi is a one-trick pony, but at 10 minutes they might really have had something here. ***

Thankfully, we just received a rush of adrenaline because we are going to need it, to face what will surely be our collective doom, as Fujiwara faces Mark Rush. We were all the better for Fujiwara’s absence last month, but surely it was too much to hope for that he would lose his way within the building a la Spinal Tap, so here we are. As this fight starts, I am beginning to realize, that I can’t recall Fujiwara ever looking young. Even in 1985 it looked like he was going on 80, but to his credit he is still going strong as a freelance wrestler, outlasting almost all of his contemporaries.

The fight starts off with a brief tie up, before Rush shoots in and takes Fujiwara down, and then proceeds to execute the worlds slowest ankle lock entry. This leads the two to play footsie for a while, before Fujiwara reclaims superior position, and secures a keylock, which prompts a rope escape. After the standup Rush takes Fujiwara right back down, and fumbles for a toe-hold, when two things become readily apparent, the first is that Rush has some legit amateur wrestling experience, and the 2nd is that Fujiwara could easily smoking cigarettes in between submission attempts from Rush.

The next 8 mins of the fight was really a battle of the takedowns, as Rush pitted his amateur wrestling against Fujiwara’s judo arsenal, and to Fujiwara’s credit, he seemed to taking this seriously and was on his best behavior, until just past the 10min mark, where he had to throw a couple of his awful comic headbutts, to which Rush did his best to sell. The rest of the match didn’t fare much better, and it finally ended just past the 17min mark with an ankle lock from Fujiwara. This would have been passable had it clocked in around 5-6 mins, and Fujiwara kept it straight. As it stands, this match only served to be a way for Fujiwara to try and show off his judo, and that could have been accomplished with a much quicker match. All this served to do was kill the momentum of the show, and make Rush look bad.

ML: Shamrock & Funaki each doing 6 minute matches left Fujiwara to eat a lot of time. Typically, he did it in the least intense fashion, getting outwrestled then making fun of Rush when he tried for a submission hold. In Fujiwara's defense, Rush only possessed the most rudimentary knowledge of submissions, and would just kind of make things up, twisting Fujiwara's ankle without isolating it or controlling Fujiwara's body in any way, which I suppose deserves Fujiwara putting his hand to his ear to hold his head up while he rested in this nonsense. The match was dated & lazy, with Rush generally doing little to actually control Fujiwara on the mat, but Fujiwara just laying there passively anyway. The finish was the only time either seemed threatened, but that was overdramatized with a lot of bluster from Rush while staying in the hold too long. This match was just a bunch of air, between being so long & so laid back, I'd rate this as one of the worst worked shoots of the year.

Now it’s up for the clash between East and West to save us, so here’s hoping that Bart Vale said his prayers and took his vitamins before coming out here. Right away, Vale is moving faster than usual, and seems to be giving this his best effort, and he tries to cut the ring off from Suzuki, by working his side stance, and trying to box Minoru into the corner with some sidekicks. Suzuki gets wise, and shoots his way out of the corner, but is stopped by Vale’s sprawl. Vale wasn’t able to capitalize though, and spent his mat time hanging on for dear life against Suzuki, but did wind up warding off a bully choke, and an armbar.

The rest of the match was rather surprising, as outside of a few strikes, Vale was given very little offense by Suzuki. The match was mostly Vale defending Suzuki’s offense, outside of getting a few strikes in, there wasn’t much that he was able to do. The match ended with a weird submission that was a cross between a half nelson, and a neck-crank.

This wasn’t terrible but was by no means great either. To his credit, Vale gave forth an honest effort here, but as usual his problem is that he is just way too slow when put with small opponents. He works ok when put with other large/slow men, but it’s hard to carry him to a good match. He is getting better at this compared to his rookie days, though. (If anyone wants to see a terrible match, they need look no further than his match against Akira Maeda at the 2-27-89 Newborn UWF event).

ML: The move toward realism seemed to help Vale the most, as he did a better job of closing the distance aggressively and landing quicker, more plausible blows that would put Suzuki on the defensive without exposing himself horrible, thus making it more difficult for Suzuki to just grab him & get it to the ground. While Vale was able to back Suzuki with front kicks, and through his generally aggressive barrage, he didn't do a good job of then getting out of the pocket when his surge was finished, so he did wind up spending a lot of time on his back. Vale's ground game could still use a lot of work, and these limitations hampered Suzuki because Vale wasn't giving a ton of openings either trying to rest or survive, but I actually liked the first half of the match, and the last minute or so. The weak portion was almost all control with neither seeming to really be setting anything up, especially the lengthy front facelock by Vale. Overall though, this was way better than any of Vale's other matches, and the first time I mostly enjoyed his striking.

Conclusion: Fuke/Flynn and Funaki/Takahashi were worth the price of admission alone, but in the end, things was seriously hampered by the Fujiwara match. The Shamrock, Suzuki matches, while not great, were short enough that they didn’t drag things down too much, but 17min of Fujiwara/Rush was painful.

ML: What stands out about the show is the concerted attempt made by everyone to step up the realism. While some had more success at that than others, not surprisingly Funaki & Fuke, who are among the most realistic to begin with, and surprisingly Vale, who needed a more urgent situation to get out of his safe movie striking shell, the cooperation was almost across the board much less obvious than in other leagues or on previous PWFG shows. This isn't my favorite PWFG show by any means, but given none of these matches were particularly competitive or compelling on paper, it's a great sign that they finally managed to have two good matches, and hard to argue against the show overacheiving considerably.

*In other news*

Akira Maeda has managed to snag a lucrative job, moonlighting as a sports reporter for the WOWWOW channel (similar to HBO in the states). He was even able to interview both Mike Tyson, and Evander Holyfield for Japanese television.

The terrible match between Nobuhiko Takada and Bob Backlund on 9-26-91 is rumored to have been due to Backlunds unwillingness to lose to a submission (presumably seen as an affront to his reputation), and thus the idea for him to lose quickly to a kick (acting like it was a low-blow) was the solution. It’s safe to say that this idea backfired as it almost caused a riot, that Kazuo Yamazaki had to go out and quell. They are scheduled for a rematch on 11-7-91.

It would seem, that the UWF and the PWFG are in for some stiff competition from the rival FMW promotion. As they recently (10-14-91) almost packed 4,000 people into the Fukata Starlanes, which is considerably more than either of those groups usually do.

 

[Mbetz1981]

This was safely locked up within the confines of the Kakutogi Patreon for a little over two weeks, so it may now be time to share the love with the Underground. Get all of your Kakutogi Content before anyone else by joining the revolution at: https://www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad

Kakutogi Rewind: Vol.1 "Shooto?!? Don't Mind if I Do...."

We at Kakutogi HQ, were recently able to get ahold of another ancient Shooto artifact, in this case the 7-7-1990 “1st Champion Decision Part II” event, which puts us just a little past two years from the last piece of Shooto history that we covered. Our last Shooto examination was with Sayama’s initial public unveiling of his new sport dubbed “The Shooting.” (see Vol.13 of our Kakutogi Road series for the full story).

While we would prefer to be able to cover the entirety of Shooto, uninterrupted and in chronological order, any opportunity to cover the early years of this sport is a good one, so without further ado, here we go:

After screeching through the vectors of time and space in our (patent pending) Trans Hyper-Drive Martial Starcraft, we have arrived at 7-7-90 to a half-capacity Korakuen hall, ready to partake in what is only the 7th Professional Shooto event. It is an absolute travesty to see a sparse crowd for this groundbreaking display, but perhaps this is to be expected, as the masses probably weren’t quite ready for the paradigm shift that was taking place in the combat sport world, and the radical overhaul that the martial arts aesthetic was soon to be undergoing.

First up is Noboru Asahi vs Kazumi Chikiyoshi, and when we last saw Asahi he was one of the original Shooting disciples, taken under Sayama’s wing, and allowed to participate in his 1988 unveiling. Asahi was well esteemed amongst his peers in the early days, and strangely enough, was inadvertently responsible for helping bring BJJ to prominence in Japan, as it was only when he lost to Royler Gracie at VTJ 96, that Yuki Nakai decided that judo newaza wasn’t enough, and took it upon himself to become the very first BJJ blackbelt in Japan.

Chikiyoshi, is an enigma on the other hand, nothing is known of him, outside of his one-and-done appearance here at this event.

The bell rings, and immediately Asahi scores a knockdown with a straight right down the pipe landing flush on Chikiyoshi’s chin, which if this keeps up, Chikiyoshi will be in for a long night. Unfortunately, the match on this release in digested, so we only get a couple more clips before we are shown that the fight ends via unanimous decision for Asahi.

Next up is Tomoyuki Saito vs Suguru Shigeno. Saito by this point in time, was a 5-fight veteran, having been a part of the inaugural professional Shooto card in 1989. It’s crazy to think that by the time the UFC started in late 1993, there were already MMA fighters that had fought numerous times and retired with some close to 20 fights. Saito retired in 1994 with a 2-3-4 record, but even crazier is that Shigeno already had 12 fights under his belt, before retiring in February of 1993.

The match starts and both fighters go right for each other with some stiff straight punches, and both fighters are connecting, but Saito seems to be on the worse end of things, and opts to go in for a clinch, and secures a headlock. The ref gives the headlock a few seconds to find a resolution but breaks them up quickly. One thing that I’m noticing is that starting around 97 Shooto didn’t really interfere with the action, and had kind of a Pride FC habit of dragging competitors into the middle of the ring if they got under the ropes, but in the early day of Shooto, you had to stay continually active, or a restart was not far behind.

After the restart Saito takes some more nasty jabs, and opts to take his chances on the ground, by clinching Shigeno and taking him down, which caused both parties immediately start looking for a leg attack. It’s actually quite refreshing watching MMA sans any type of positional thinking, when you have two fighters that are constantly looking to end the fight, regardless of their position. Also, it seems that if you get a near submission, you are awarded a “catch” and this scores in your favor in a judge’s decision.

Sadly, this is another digested bout, so we are quickly accelerated to the end, and it is a draw. This was the 2nd time these two fought, and they drew the last time they fought back in 10-18-89.

 

[Mbetz1981]

Kakutogi Rewind VOl.1 Continued...

Next up is one of this scribe’s favorite fighters, Manabu Yamada. Yamada is a fascinating character from the early days of MMA, as he managed to be both part of the early histories of Shooto, and later Pancrase, securing his place in the pantheon of early free-fighting legends. To make things even more interesting, is that Yamada was one of the few of the early Pancrase clan, that did not come from a pro wrestling background, but rather from Karate, before hooking up with Satoru Sayama.

Yamada accomplished a lot within his 44 fight/ten year career, and in the process ,showed absolutely no consideration for the lateral joint lines of Matt Hume, Frank Shamrock, Jason Delucia, Vernon White or Masakatsu Funaki.(He had heel Hook/ankle Lock victories over all of them.) He also did not regard the arm tendons of Minoru Suzuki after delivering a brutal armbar after a 14min 46 sec war, in a legendary encounter. He also managed to get 2nd place in the inaugural King of Pancrase tournament, losing only to Ken Shamrock, who despite outweighing him by a very significant margin, still failed to finish or submit him.

It's no surprise that founder Masakatsu Funaki and Masami Ozaki (Executive President of Pancrase at the time) took a liking to Yamada. During this period Funaki had a fasciation with the concept of a “Hybrid Body” which coincided with “Hybrid Training” and “Hybrid Diet” even putting out books in the mid-90s that expounded on these concepts. Surely, Yamada’s bulky, yet relatively lean physique, was a good archetype for what Funaki was attempting to have Pancrase portray.

He was also a welcome contrast to Funaki and Suzuki. Whereas Funaki was the thinking mans fighter (A National Medical University's secondary school division student when he quit in 9th grade to begin his career at NJPW) and Suzuki came from a teen-gang background, before being grounded a bit by Fujiwara and others, here was Yamada, a heavy-metal loving young-adult in his mid-20s, that hailed from the Tochigi Prefecture, which would sort of be like coming from Montana in the United States.

As it stands now, Yamada is in only his third professional bout, having received draws in his first two outings. He is facing Tomonori Ohara, who had 13 fights from 1990-1992, then went on hiatus before coming back and making another Shooto run from 2000-2005.

Immediately after the fight starts, Yamada begins to pummel Ohara with a variety of kicks and is showing an unusual amount of poise and confidence for a fighter this young in his career. Ohara is only able to tentatively parry, unsure of how to deal with Yamada, and it doesn’t take long for Yamada to go in for the kill. After kicking Ohara in the head with a kick that only resulted in a glancing blow, Yamada followed it up with another head kick, this time flatlining Ohara so bad that they had to take him out in a stretcher. A very impressive showing, indeed.

Yamada when asked about the Kakutogi Road…

Next up is Yuji Ito (a fighter that amassed 12 fights, with his last fight being only a couple of months after UFC 1) vs Takashi Tojo, in his 2nd fight (his first being a draw against Manabu Yamada). Round 1 saw both fighters being highly aggressive, with lots of reversals in the action, both standing, and on the ground, but with no clear winner.

Round 3 starts, and Tojo immediately takes Ito down, but blows his superior position instantly diving for an ankle lock, and after fumbling around for a while, the ref restarts them. Tojo gets a 2nd takedown but must ward off a triangle from Ito’s open guard, but the 3rd time is where it went sideways for Tojo. He got a clinch, but Ito was able to use some nice circular movement and reversed it into him having the side-mount. A kimura soon followed, and he was declared the victor.

Right after this fight a mesmerizing sequence took place in which Satoru Sayama took center stage to put on a submission and kickboxing clinic, and I can only imagine how something like this would look today in a current MMA event in the United States. Sayama took time out of the event, with two fights left to go, and proceeded to talk in great detail about submissions setups, and kickboxing technique/strategy, all while the normal everyday people sat in silence, hanging on every word. What is even crazier about this, is that Sayama nearly had a Hulk Hogan level of popularity not long before this event took place. In the 80s he had it all, money, sponsorships, you name it, but he left it to do something that he was passionate about, an endeavor that arguably hadn’t been attempted in close to a hundred years, and never in such a systematic fashion.



Sayama… Demonstrating an old Gotch favorite.

After the demonstration we now have Yasuto Sekishima (a fighter with an impressive 7-2-4 record, all several months before the first UFC), vs Naoki Sakurada. This was Sakurada’s 5th fight, and he’s going into it with a 2-2 record.

Sakurada is a small compact fighter, that seems to have decent hands, but is hampered whenever he tries and closes the distance with the taller and rangier fighter that is Sekishima. The round appeared to be a draw, and while it went to the ground a couple of times, the ref only seems to be giving around 5-6 seconds for the fighters to strike or look for a submission down there, and a bit longer if a submission is close to happening.

Round 2 starts and we are treated to a great sequence when Sakurada decides to shift his strategy. Sakurada started the round, acting like was going to try and box like he did in the first, but faked into a double leg attempt that didn’t work, but he recovered by taking the back of Sekishima’s waist, and drug him down to the ground. This was for naught though, as Sekishima went with the momentum and was able to roll backwards onto Sakurada and went for an armbar that Sakurada was barely able to get out of. The rest of the round was Sakurada forgoing the boxing, only using to set up double leg attempts, that mostly got stuffed, but he was able to secure one takedown, and immediately went for a sloppy armbar attempt, that I have the feeling was due to the insanely short time they are allowed to work on the ground in these days.

Round 3 found Sakurada finding his rhythm in the striking exchanges, as he was connecting more, and looking better on his feet, but he ruined his own tempo by insisting on going for a takedown, every time it looked like he was making some headway. Sekishima was sure to take advantage with some soccer kicks and knees to the body of Sekishima.

Round 4 was all Sekishima, as Sakurada was getting battered both standing and on the ground, and he both fighters completely went for it during round 5, but it was too late for Sakurada by this point, as he simply couldn’t buy a takedown, and Sekishima was too on fire. Kekishima rightly won the decision.

Lastly is Kenichi Tanaka (who wound up with a middling 6-4-3 record fighting from 89-99) and Kazuhiro Sakamoto (who ended his career with a much more impressive 13-4 record from 89-95). The fight starts and Tanaka gets taken down immediately by Sakamoto, who instantly looks for a kneebar, but after examining his opponents defense for a few moments, decides just to stand right back up before the ref could. He then takes him down again with lighting speed, and then cartwheels around his opponent into a north-south position, looking for an armbar entry. When that doesn’t work, he quickly transitions to Tanaka’s back, before the ref restarts them, and I’m beginning to see what this guy wound up with a good record, as he is showing some great fluidity out there.

After the restart, Tanaka tries a shot of his own, but goes right into a guillotine attempt from Sakamoto, they exchange a few knees, and Sakamoto takes Tanaka down, but seems to have left his right arm precariously stuck in between Tanaka’s legs once he got to the ground, and Tanaka instinctively went for the attack. Sakamoto almost got out of it, but Tanaka was able to pivot and reposition himself just in time, and nailed the armbar, for a great win.

This was a solid, albeit not spectacular card, but is a great snapshot of history, and really shows that even in 1990, MMA was at a much more advanced stage than the average fan might realize. The fighters thinking is obviously different without the BJJ influence, but these fighters were light years ahead of the rest of the world, most BJJ practitioners included, as anyone on this card had a good knowledge of kickboxing, submissions, judo, wrestling, and good cardio, and while they may not have excelled in any one area compared to specialists in those fields, they were all well rounded, which was really unheard of in other parts of the world in 1990.

*Special Thanks to poster JacJeanFinger, for loads of useful Yamada/Pancrase information*

 

[Saku'sEar]

Great thread idea.

It just looks and reads a little bit messy and unorganised at times.
Not hating but trying to give you some constructive criticism.

Btw its Dick Vrij not Dick Virj lol

 

[Mbetz1981]

We recently had the pleasure of meeting up with UWFI icon, and catch-wrestling legend Billy Scott at his gym in Smith's Grove KY, and were able to interview him for roughly 2 1/2 hours! We covered all sorts of details about his career, early MMA, and all sorts of things, so I recommend that you check it out! The first part was just posted to our Patreon, and I intend to post another chapter every day until it's complete. There is a lot of interesting information here, so don't miss out!

https://www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad

 

[Mbetz1981]

Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol.17 "Symbiosis"

Greetings, as we once again seek to explore the inner workings of unknown dimensions. Much like Queensryche, we too dream in infrared, as we continue to peer through the jaded kaleidoscope of history, having to sort thru fragmented spectrums. We have now arrived at 11-3-91 at the Hamamatsu Area, a sports venue built in 1990, that is still with us to this day, and is perhaps best known to the world at large as one of the main hosts for the 2010 Women’s Volleyball World Championship.

ML: The 2010 FIVB Championship was one of the high points for the perpetually undersized ball control masters known as the Japanese women's team, finishing 2nd in pool play then coming back from a 2 sets to 1 deficit against the heavily favored US team in the 3rd place match to take the Bronze in 5. It would take a lot for anyone on this Fujiwara show to rise to the levels Saori Kimura & Yuko Sano reached in that match, which, like most of the big matches, was actually at Yoyogi National Stadium, Hamamatsu only hosted the opening round pool that Brazil won. However, I'm sure Fujiwara will be content with the Queensryche references, as long as the fans arrive En Force for his big main event against Suzuki.


When we last joined this prestigious outfit we got a glimpse of unknown greatness, as we witnessed a fantastic showing from Takaku Fuke and Jerry Flynn, and we also got to see further evidence of Master Funaki’s worthiness as a top talent, as both his subtle performance and humility were both clearly present, for all to behold.

Except for Fujiwara headlining, all the matches scheduled for this evening look solid on paper, so everything is set, for this to be a memorable event.

We are welcomed to the proceedings with a few montages complemented by a couple of synthwave tracks that wouldn’t have been out of place on The Running Man soundtrack, until Karl Gotch and Ken Shamrock show up to thank us for being faithful supporters of Fujiwara-Gumi. The first match is Jerry Flynn vs Wellington Wilkins, and I think it is safe to say that we were all taken aback at the splendid showing that Flynn gave last time. Here he must face Wilkins, who so far has always been perfunctory in his role, never showing any flashes of brilliance, but never really letting us down either, so hopefully this will turn out to be proof that Flynn can excel, even when he doesn’t have a worker of the caliber of Fuke to partner with.

Flynn opens things up with some flashy kicks that were crisp and well executed, but only serve as an excuse for Wilkins to take him down. Both fighters seem to possess rudimentary grappling skills once the fight hits the ground, so not much is accomplished outside of a weak ankle lock attempt from Flynn. The stiffness quotient raised as they got back up, as it wasn’t long before Flynn started laying into Wilkins with some Bas Rutten level palm strikes, before leveling him with a particularly stiff shot to the face that resulted in a knockdown.

The rest of the fight followed the same pattern, as Flynn looked impressive in all his striking exchanges, and Wilkins not being able to do much outside of some decent takedowns, and pro wrestling shenanigans. Wilkins only significant moments of offense seemed to come from suplexes (including a flashy northern-lights variation that did little to add to the credibility of this outing). To make matters worse, both fighters lack any jiu-jitsu knowledge, or strong submission skills, so this really came down to Flynn’s striking vs a few pro wrestling tricks from Wilkins. Still Flynn’s striking was fun to watch, and at one point he even scored a knockdown against Wilkins from savagely slapping him from within his guard, making this the first knockdown that we have seen scored in this fashion.

It would seem that the PWFG no longer uses an unlimited rope escape/ten-count approach anymore, although it’s anyone’s guess as to how exactly their scoring system works, but apparently Wilkins was slapped one too many times, and loses the fight due to a TKO.

This was fun but shows that both fighters need a strong opponent to bring out the best in them. Flynn has a lot more potential to be a force in this style, as his striking is already strong, and he moves well. The only thing really holding Flynn back is his newness within professional wrestling, specifically his unfamiliarity with submissions, but that can be easily remedied should he choose to stay within this style and improve on his game. Wilkins on the other hand, is only looking like he belongs in opening matches.

ML: Flynn is a tool that can be worked with, but you need a skilled opponent such as Fuke to react to and shape what he brings. Wilkins is a very straightforward wrestler with none of that creativity, so while Flynn worked at about the same level this show as he did in his very good match on the previous show, I would actually say he was actually better because his strikes were a lot more convincing, now it was basically all up to him. The other issue is the match was totally one-sided, with Wilkins offering almost no resistance to Flynn's striking. While the results weren't nearly as good this time for Flynn, he looked more comfortable with the style, and I feel good about his prospects moving forward.



Wilkins with a busted nose…

 

[Mbetz1981]

Vol.17 Continued...


Next up is Bart Vale vs Takaku Fuke. Both of these fighters were a surprise during the last event, as Fuke really showed his skills as a worker by taking a 30min draw and making it one of the best shoot-style matches of the year, and with a rookie no less. Vale came correct last month as well, and while he won’t be confused with Don “The Dragon” Wilson anytime soon, he definitely gave a solid effort and looked better than he has in the past.

The fight starts and Fuke quickly goes in for a takedown, only to be stuffed by Vale, who transitions to Fuke’s back and starts to control him with a half-nelson, which I always felt was an underrated technique within the BJJ sphere, so props to Vale. They fight for position on the mat, and one thing is clear, that Fuke has a lot of speed, but is giving up a significant size/strength advantage to the slower Vale. After some back and forth Fuke pauses to give Vale a chance to suplex him, only this looks like a complete botch to me, as Fuke winds up taking the bump really high on the neck, and I’m hoping that he doesn’t have cracked vertebrae after seeing this.

The ref counts this as a knockdown, and it seems like Fuke is ok, albeit a bit worse for wear. The fight resumes and I must admit that Vale is continuing to look a lot crisper with his strikes here, then in times past. I can only assume that he was very cautious in his UWF days, throwing a lot of flashy (but very light) kicks, but now seems to be taking a stiffer, more realistic approach, although he is still a bit slow. Fuke getting the takedown is inevitable, but he is having to eat some kicks to accomplish it, though Bart seems to be too strong for him to be able to threaten him with much outside of a heel-hook.

The match continues a with a great back and forth flow between the two, without becoming too formulaic. It is a battle of speed/takedowns vs strength/striking, but they were able to both reverse those roles in small doses, with Fuke getting some nice shots in here and there, and Vale sinking in a nice ankle lock. The match ends with Vale putting Fuke through a sloppy powerbomb, a la Rampage Jackson, (which worked better than how that description might sound) and finishing Fuke off with a rear naked choke.

I am still reeling in a state of shock, but I could swear that I just witnessed two good Vale matches in a row, with this being much better than his last. I don’t know if this is due to Fuke being a forgotten super-worker in the annuls of history, with an uncanny ability to make even Vale look good, or if it just comes down to Fuke’s style meshing better than Suzuki’s, but what is certain is that if Fuke keeps getting better than things are going to get scary, at least on the worked-shoot front.

ML: Though Vale is not the ideal opponent for anyone, I consider this good booking in the sense that you saw Fuke had a lot of success reacting to an opponent with a kickboxing base, so you gave him another one to see if he could repeat. What was surprising is that, although Vale is much higher ranked than both Flynn & Fuke, the match turned out to mostly be on the ground, as Fuke was successful at getting takedowns, and rather quickly. Unfortunately, ranking Fuke's takedown above Vale's kickboxing made for a rather dull contest as Vale then wasn't really giving Fuke much to react to, given his ground game is mostly control based, with low risk, and minimal movement, mainly just trying to conserve energy as his stamina is always in doubt. While the base positions were an improvement over what we were seeing 6 months ago, with more of a BJJ base including Fuke employing a guard, Vale undermined the realism of the control aspect by mostly using it to set up pro wrestling submissions such as the 1/2 crab and both nelsons. Similarly, his highlights in standup were suplexes & powerbombs rather than the expected big kicks. The match was still decent, but it didn't really excite me. I want to see speed, grace, fluidity, creativity, this had little of that. It told a story, but even that was kind of odd, with Vale being the one who won via submission, after Fuke slipped out of the first jackknife powerbomb attempt and landed a nice body hook, but then was nearly knocked out by the second jackknife. At least this match felt somewhat different from what we had been seeing.



*******************SHOOT ALERT*******************************



Here we go with our third shoot in the history of the Kakutogi Road, an infamous meeting between Ken Shamrock and Kazuo Takahashi. The match starts with Takahashi catching a kick to his midsection from Ken, and immediately taking Ken down. They both scramble and Ken is able to stand up and slap Takahashi but opens himself up for another deep single-leg takedown. Ken tries to work a guillotine, but does not have it sunk in, and after quickly breaking free of the hold, they both stand back up, when Ken slaps Takahashi in the face with the might of a thousand suns. Takahashi crumples to the ground, but somehow manages to stand back up during a ten-count. After they stand back up, they feel each other out for a few moments, when Kazuo sets up a beautiful double-leg by feinting a kick to Shamrock’s knee, and then lifts Shamrock up and drops him. This was a bad idea as Shamrock quickly got back to his feet and soccer kicked Takahashi in the face with enough force, that it’s amazing that he didn’t punt his decapitated head into the audience, 6-rows deep.

Amazingly, a very staggered Takahashi got back up before the ten count, but the ref was not having any more of this, and stopped the fight. A dazed and confused Takahashi tried to keep fighting, but the ref stood between him and Ken, while a confused crowd booed and chanted “Shamrock.” Takahashi appeared to be trying to talk the ref into restarting the fight, and Ken seemed raring to continue, but the ref decided to call in a ringside doctor to examine the giant welt that was on Takahashi’s cheek, and called the fight off.

Conclusion: Ken has given somewhat conflicting reports on the specifics of this match. In an interview with our good friend William Colosimo he implied that this turned into a shoot due to Takahashi going into business for himself, and then most recently he told Jonathan Snowden that Takahashi was itching to go full blast, and that they both got Funaki’s blessing to go 100% for this match. From the vantage point of this humble scribe, it appeared to me that Ken didn’t realize he was in for a shoot, until Takahashi grabbed his leg from the first kick and took him down. I’m guessing that this move was off script and Shamrock went into beast mode, easily dispatching of Takahashi in the process.

For the record, here are both quotes. The first with his interview with William Colosimo, circa 2015: “I don’t want to talk on that match but I’ll tell you a story, and it happens all the time– when you get into a situation where both guys are supposed to have an agreement, and things are supposed to work a certain way– and one guy goes in and decides he’s going to do what he wants to do- then you’ve got to take what’s yours. And that’s kinda what happened, I believe that not everybody was on the same page, and I believe that some people think that they were just gonna go ahead and take what they wanted, and they ran into a wall.”

Here is his quote on the subject taken from Jonathan Snowden’s most recent book: “When me and him got in there, I told Funaki ‘let him run.’ Let us go at it. So Takahashi came up to me and says ‘It’s ok? We hit hard?’ and I said ‘yeah dude. Turn it loose. Let’s have fun. Whatever happens, happens.’ We went into the ring with the understanding that we would go in there and knock the shit out of each other. May the best man win.”

While I’m inclined to think that the first quote is a more accurate representation of what happened here, there is no doubt that this was, or at least quickly turned into, a shoot, and I can only wonder what matches like this may have done to poke holes in the believability of the business writ large, for the fans that were able to witness it. Did matches like this expose the holes in what was going on in promotions like NJPW at the time, or was it too low key to make a difference?

ML: I don't trust what any of these guys say in regards to shoots, especially the guys who came up during the pre MMA kayfabe pro wrestling era, and I wouldn't be surprised if another 10 interviews with Shamrock yielded 10 different variations. I can craft a story to support both interviews, the first would be that Ken takes exception to the hard left slap Takahashi gives him when they're standing out of the initial scramble and just lets loose after that, the 2nd being that there's nothing here that is obviously worked. Though the opening sequence where Takahashi catches a kick & gets a takedown could easily be scripted, nothing else that Shamrock does might be worked, while it's much more difficult to tell whether Takahashi is shooting, given he's basically using the same takedowns he always does, though seemingly with more urgency. It's important to note that these guys don't really know what they are in for at this point because even if they are sort of "shooting" in the gym sometimes, the idea isn't to actually lay your opponent out with any marginally legal tactic at your disposal. It's also important to note that they speak different languages, so who even if there was some agreement, who knows if it's understood the same way by everyone involved? If Takahashi is shooting, it's surprising that he both tries and succeeds at the suisha otoshi. Certainly, he is not expecting Ken to be up first and soccer kick him. This really seems to me like a cheap shot by Ken, it's something you would never do in a work, so it's reasonable for Takahashi not to expect it, I'm not sure we've seen one of these yet, it's not a pro wrestling tactic as they just use those cheesy stomps that no one would actually stay down and allow. I can't say Ken is cheating, as I doubt it's technically illegal, especially given there aren't really any rules established for this kind of situation. Ken definitely takes major advantage though with his dick move, and Takahashi's eye is well on its way to swelling shut from the damage to the cheek bone, though again, one could argue whether the fight is stopped because of the injury or because it was obviously "out of hand", so they wanted to move on before there were truly seriously consequences.

A fighter that won’t quit…