Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol 7 "A tough act to follow"

[Mbetz1981]

7-13-91

Welcome back one and all, to the next installment of our ongoing journey to thoroughly document the early years of MMA history. Our next stop on the highway leads us to the ever busy UWFI promotion, who will manage to pump out two events in a single month, whereas their two main competitors haven’t been able to consistently hold one. (PWFG has been holding an event every other month thus far, and RINGS hasn’t had an event since May). We are introduced to a montage of calisthenic/warm-up routines from the various performers, and right away we can see that despite any holes in BJJ, or other martial knowledge, that may be present with the Japanese shooters, cardio is not a problem for them. Fast forward to the mid-90s, and I can’t recall a native of the Pancrase circuit ever gassing out, while it was very common for Americans in MMA/Vale Tudo to tire out quickly in those days.

After the usual pomp and circumstance, we are underway with the first bout of the evening as Yuko Miyato squares off against the resident block of wood: Tom Burton. Miyato was unusual, as he was trained by Akira Maeda in the short-lived UWF Dojo in 1985, (as opposed to coming from NJPW) and made his debut in the UWF during September of that year, but the promotion folded before he was able to really do much there. He then migrated to NJPW and was a bit player, before moving yet again to Takada’s upstart UWFI, so here we are sure to have someone that feels like he now has a chance and a platform to make an impression.

The fight starts off with Miyato delivering a stiff thigh kick to Burton, and burton looking really unsure of what to do from here. Burton would try and close some distance with some really weak palm strikes, and then back off, but Miyato did not seem to have any reservations about actually slapping his opponent with some decent velocity behind him. The match held in a pattern of Burton trying to close into a clinch and throw a few half-hearted knees, and Miyato backing off to fire off thigh kicks from a greater range. The fight picked up a bit of steam mid-way through when both fighters traded submission attempts, before Burton won the fight with a double-underhook suplex, followed by a powerbomb, and boston crab. Yes, it would be several years, and many shoots later, before Japan figured out the harsh reality that the Boston Crab wasn’t quite teh deadly.

All fear the power of the crab!


The real winner of this match was Kiyoshi Tamura, as it basically shows us that he was the Amadeus Mozart of the wrestling world. Not only was he great in legitimate shootfights, (defeating Renzo Gracie in a shoot), but he also wound up being one of the best workers of all time, even going as far as to debatably having the greatest pro-wrestling match of all time with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka at Rings Fighting Integration 4th on 6-27-98, (which Lord willing we will get to cover in depth on a later day). Even making his credentials all the more incredible was getting a good match out of Burton, which as we saw here, is not a task suited for just anyone. About the only good thing to say about this was that it was short enough, that it didn’t really offend too badly, but was hardly a great way to start the show.

Thankfully our next match features Tamura, and Yoji Anjo, and surely this will cleanse our palates, and take us into the ethereal planes that we all seek, but that only the finest waza can accomplish.

The first thing that any astute observer will notice is the overwhelming power of Anjo’s zebra striped Zubaz tights, which as of this writing, is only available to the level 20 Barbarian Class. This feat in ring attire doesn’t seem to faze Tamura however, and we are off, and it’s hard to keep up. Not even a minute and ½ into this and we already have stiff strikes, a slam, a double leg takedown, and a beautiful O-Goshi throw from Anjo. The pace never lets up either, as all sorts of position changes, and submission attempts from Anjo occur, before Anjo is finally able to force a rope escape due to catching Tamura in a straight armbar.

Following the rope break, a beautiful sequence followed, in which, Anjo attempted a flying armbar to which Tamura counters with a cartwheel, which is absolutely genius, and shows that we are witnessing something that is truly far ahead of its time. The rest of the bout was filled with a tidal wave of transitions, submission attempts, and passionate striking, all done at breakneck speed. The fight finally ended when Anjo was able to secure a single leg crab, but to his credit, was able to quickly torque it in a way, that actually came off as somewhat credible.

While this fight won’t hold up on the believability scale to a modern MMA audience, due to the tempo, and lighting fast fluidity, it was still truly something special, and may so far be the best glimpse of what both this style of pro-wrestling has to offer, as well as what REAL fighting may have to offer, that we’ve seen so far. Up to this point, it was probably just a given in the pro-wrestling world, that you had to have Irish Whips, clotheslines, and hokey submissions, to create a product that people would want to see, but here we have wrestlers, actually moving like 3-demisonal fighters, (or at least catch-wrestlers) and showing that there may be something after all to shooting.

If you're not wearing Zubaz...You're just wearing pants


Kazuo Yamazaki vs JT Southern:

It was inevitable that whatever proceeded the last match, wouldn’t be able to hold up, but wow….what a drop in quality. Why anyone thought that JT Southern would be a good fit here, especially after his last match with Takada, is beyond this humble scribe’s ability to fathom. Southern simply doesen’t understand how to work in this style, and it really shows. For the first part of the bout, Yamazaki was being patient with him, and allowing him to try and figure out some offense (even going as far as to give him what felt like 20mins to figure out how to do a STF Crossface). The match continued to meander around for what felt like an eternity, when JT Southern started to kick Yamazaki in the back while attempting some kind of weird achilles lock/Boston crab. This really seemed to irritate Yamazaki and caused him to break the hold by kicking JT in the face. He then stood up and proceeded to pepper both of Southern’s legs with thigh kicks, and won the match with a heel hook, after reversing a painfully ignorant attempt at an ankle lock on Southern’s part. Horrible match, which makes me wonder what kind of vetting they had for foreigners, as you would think that they would want to make some kind of effort to see if their outside help would have at least a rudimentary understanding of this kind of style.

Tatsuyo Nakano vs Nobuhiko Takada:

This was better than I expected it to be, although it was far more in the vein of a standard Japanese Pro Wrestling match. Most of the match was on the feet, and we got to see plenty of stiff kicks from both Takada and Nakano, but the few times it hit the mat, it was quite lackluster, as Takada simply doesen’t have a good understanding for how to chain shoot grappling sequences together. It was entertaining though, and leagues better than trying to watch JT Southern.

Final takeaway: This was the first UWFI card that was a net minus. The Tamura/Anjo match was one of the best we’ve witnessed so far, if not for the drama, at least for opening our eyes to the hidden possibilities that this new style possesses, however the remainder of the card consisted of two bad matches, and a modertatly entertaining one, by Puroresu standards. Still, this did move the needle on what would be coming up on the MMA horizon, and did show us that Tamura has all the makings of a future Rockstar. All that’s left is to see how Tamura handles himself in a full shoot scenario, which we will get to witness further down the Kakutogi Road.

 

[Mbetz1981]

*In other news*

On 8-23-91 Brandon Lee (son of famous actor/martial artist Bruce Lee) will be making his film debut in Showdown in Little Tokyo, which will feature Dolph Lundgren as the main star. When Brandon Lee was inquired by the Los Angeles Times, as to if he felt any unease from having to be constantly compared to his father, he demurred, saying that his father was the standard, and all martial artists will have to be likened to him, and himself even more so.

The July issue of Black Belt magazine has a feature on some of the aspects of Shootboxing, which is a combat sport that has been going on for roughly 6 years in Japan. It was started in 1985 by a Japanese kickboxer by the name of Caesar Takeshi. Takeshi was a promising kickboxer having won the Asia Pacific Kickboxing Federation Welterweight Championship. In 1984 he met up with Satoru Sayama and became interested in the newly burgeoning shoot-style of professional wrestling. He was then trained at Sayama’s Super Tiger Gym and was then drafted by Akira Maeda to be part of the original UWF roster. Soon after his arrival, the promotion imploded, and prompted him to start his own Kakutogi promotion, to which he named “Shootboxing.” A Shootboxing fight is basically a kickboxing bout, but takedowns, Judo throws, and submissions from the standing position are all legal. Successful throws score a lot of points within their system and are encouraged. However, if a fight goes to the ground, it will simply be stood back up by the referee.

The following article talks about Shootboxing as well as alludes to other shootfighting promotions, although it is unclear if they are talking about leagues such as PWFG, UWFI, etc, or Sayama’s Shooto. Here is the following article from the July 1991 Issue of Black Belt Magazine:

 

[Mbetz1981]

Here is the event in full:

 

[Mbetz1981]

Let's check in with Dave Meltzer, and see what he has to say:

6-24-91
Akira Maeda's "Rings" runs 8/1 at the Osaka Gym with tickets priced from $45 up to $150 with Maeda vs. Fredrick Hamaker as the main event.

UWFI on 7/3 in Korakuen Hall has Nobuhiko Takada vs. Tatsuo Nakano, Kazuo Yamazaki vs. J.T. Southern, Yoji Anjyo vs. Kiyoshi Tamura and Shigeo Miyato vs. Tom Burton (who improved noticeably in the style in his second match). At the 6/6 card, when Southern came in with his blond hair in a pony-tail, the usually reverent crowd at UWFI shows started catcalling him "Madusa." 7/30 is their first road show in Hakata with Takada & Tamura vs. Anjyo & Southern in a doubles match.

Bart Vail wants to introduce UWF style wrestling to the United States as part of karate shows.

 

[Mbetz1981]

Hart competed in Shootboxing in its early days, but I don't know how close he was with Takeshi. Shootboxing has always imported a few westerners throughout the years.

Here is a blurb taken from a biography of Hart: "Martial Artist Earnest Hart Jr. was an actor and stuntman in the 1990’s. He is known for his stunt work on Mortal Kombat (1995), and his acting in To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), Shootfighter: Fight to the Death (1993), Virtual Combat (1995) and Death Kick (1998).
Earnest Hart Jr’s talents have been used for acting, stunt work and outstanding fight scenes in a variety of movies which include: Karate Kid III, Mortal Combat and as one of Mr. Freeze’s ice thugs in Batman & Robin. He has worked with actors: Arnold Swarznegger, George Clooney, Pat Morita, and Willem Dafoe.

Earnest Hart, Jr. is a world-class martial arts champion, personal safety and self-defense expert, physical fitness trainer, actor, and seminar specialist. In the ring, he earned a reputation as the man to beat, and was considered one of the most formidable competitors of the day.


As a teenager he trained in several fighting arts which included: karate, boxing, judo, jujitsu and wrestling. At 18, these skills were put to task as he shot onto the kickboxing scene. At age 21, Hart won his first World PKA Kickboxing title (among his many other accomplishments). Hart is the only African-American ever to win four kickboxing titles in the welterweight class"

 

[Mbetz1981]

"Mighty" Mike Lorefice has just weighed in... here are his thoughts:
Tom Burton vs Yuko Miyato
Burton vs. Miyato was mostly notable for again showing what a miracle the Tamura/Burton match was, and making a case for Tamura as the most improved worker in 1991. It was basically a sparring contest for the 1st 5 minutes with Burton coming forward but not actually shooting, and Miyato backing to maintain the distance while working his leg over. Miyato finally took over injuring the leg with a low kick, but was unable to finish, and Burton wound up recovering enough to take him out with that crap submission from Boston.
Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoji Anjo

The man who will advance the worked game to its highest level arrives here, in just his 9th pro match. As the leading light of the next generation of shooters, the guys who debuted in one of the worked shoot leagues rather than being trained in the New Japan dojo, Tamura at least feels a lot more like a catch wrestler than a pro wrestler, and this is the most progressive match we've seen so far.

Tamura may not yet be reaching new levels of believability, but as by far the quickest & most explosive guy in the promotion, he's at least expanding the boundaries of what crazy things you can get away with and how entertaining you can be without simultaneously testing the groan factor.

Kakihara has more hand speed, but isn't nearly as slick or well rounded, certainly can't adjust & transition on the mat or maneuver his body the way Tamura can. Tamura is just such an amazing mover that watching him do a simple pivot to avoid a takedown, much less his more spectacular movements, is usually more exciting than watching the juniors do their gymnastic counters.

There's an amazing spot where Anjo is not so much trying to set up a guillotine but just trying to control Tamura with a front facelock, but Tamura does this crazy counter where he bridges backwards just to get low then when he's seperated Anjo's clasp by getting under it, he changes the direction of his explosion entirely & somehow takes Anjo's back into a rear naked choke.

I want to say that Tamura does things that nobody can do, and while that's probably the case with this particular maneuever, generally it's more accurate to say he just does them so fast he catches you off guard, whereas with most anyone else you could see them coming and they might even look clunky because they aren't fast enough to disguise how they are being done and/or the cooperation or lack of opponent's reaction they entail.

This was really a different match for Anjo because Tamura was already such a tidalwave that, when he had a full tank, Anjo was just reacting to him desperately trying to keep up. Anjo is known for his cardio, and normally is prone to more durdling given he's almost always in the longest match on the card, but you could see early on that when Anjo thought he was safe, the next thing he knew Tamura had his back, so he could never relax & had to be proactive.

While this started off sort of like a junior heavyweight match, rather than slowing after the early fireworks it was arguably even faster & more explosive once they shifted from throws into the matwork, with some great twists, turns, and rolls to escape the opponent's submission or counter into their own. The story of the match was that early on Tamura would gain the initial advantage with his blinding speed, but Anjo had a massive experience advantage, and by being the smart veteran who focused on working the body to slow Tamura down, he was able to not only get into the match, but eventually take over due to his superior striking offense & defense.

As the match progressed, it wasn't so much Tamura doing circles around Anjo, but rather Anjo making Tamura pay to get the match to the canvas. It's always been a point of pride for Tamura to find the answers to what the opponent is doing and generate offense out of defense rather than grabbing the ropes, though obviously he'd get much better at this as his career progressed.

Despite Tamura already being the best defensive grappler in the worked game & making a ton of great squirmy counters to save himself, there's quite a few rope escapes as Tamura is a massive underdog given Anjo has been around since '85 and is now hitting his peak. However, by doing everything he can to avoid the rope escape, Tamura generally elevates the moves that actually require them to the intended level, in other words rather than just gaming the system, these feel like moves that would have won had they been caught in more advantageous ring position.

They exchanged advantages on the ground a lot, but one of the big differences is while Tamura would look for the immediate payoff with a submission, for instance a lightning go behind into a rear naked choke, Anjo was confident in his ability to win the attrition battle, and thus happy to take any opportunities for damage, for instance burying knees in Tamura's face. Anjo was happy to put the youngster in his place, so when Tamura would get too overexuberant, fiesty, or nervy, Anjo would do something within the rules but slightly dickish or excessive such as the knees to take him down a peg.

Tamura was already really over, and the fans would go nuts when he appeared to have a chance to win, for instance the half crab after ducking Anjo's leg caught reverse enzuigiri. He didn't have too many of those chances though, as most of his highlights were early on and it became more of an uphill battle as Anjo wore him out beating up his midsection. That being said, it's not as if Tamura wasn't getting submissions, but Anjo was defending them better in the story sense of finding ways to get out of trouble without losing points.

Still, Tamura was so impressive the match seemed a lot closer than it was on the scoreboard, which mostly isn't that relevant given points are a resource as long as you still have 1. Though Tamura's performance was the awesome one, Anjo really did a great job of both following him as well as filling in around him, and deserves a ton of credit as well. ****1/2

Kazuo Yamazaki vs JT Southern
Southern simply doesn't understand shoot style. Yamazaki tried, but Southern was just totally lost to the point he was pretty much freezing out there. He basically just stood or laid around, and when Southern did finally get around to reacting, it was mostly not in proper or predictable ways. Yamazaki wanted to test himself, and went from bored to frustrated as Southern made Yamazaki look bad & the match suck by leaving gaping holes in his defense & either doing nothing or trying silly things such as the lariat & side headlock. Southern kept using this goofy tactic of stepping on Yamazaki's free leg while holding his other leg in what would be an Achilles' tendon hold if he knew how to actually apply it, and eventually Yamazaki had enough & kicked him in the face to escape. The match kind of stalled out then as Yamazaki would low kick Southern, and Southern would just stay near the ropes selling even though Yamazaki was motioning to him to come to the center of the ring & actually fight back. Eventually, Southern caught a kick in the corner & tried to drop down into another misapplied leglock, but Yamazaki got a heel hold for the win. Though Yamazaki definitely made Southern look like a fool at points, Southern mostly did it to himself for being so ill prepared for this style he shouldn't have been allowed in the ring in the first place.

Tatsuyo Nakano vs Nobuhiko Takada

Very pro wrestling oriented, but Takada at least showed up for this one. It started off as a sparring contest with Takada showing his speed, avoiding a lot of strikes. He kept urging Nakano to bring it, and eventually the impact of the kicks escalated, though I liked that there were still a lot of misses. Nakano hit a sweet snap suplex, but Takada answered with a suisha otoshi & a 1/2 crab. The problem with this match is because Takada is clueless on the mat, there was literally no control or positioning there. They either grabbed whatever hold they wanted like pro wrestling or just kind of laid there with one or both guys having some sort of hold of a limb with no attempt to isolate it or control the rest of the body, and at some point they'd indescriminantly start to apply pressure they could have been applying all along & suddenly they'd make a big deal about it, languishing in the hold for a minute even though every method of escape was readily available. If we accept that's the way these guys wrestled, then we can say it was a good effort & somewhat entertaining, but as with all U-style Takada, it has aged very poorly.

Mike's final thoughts:
I'd rate this show as a positive, as it contained one of the best matches of the year in any style. The rest is all skipable, but I'd much rather get 1 memorable match & a bunch of misses than a bunch of fair to good but could really have been better kind of contests. I'm actually a lot more impressed with this early UWF-I than I remember being, if only because having such a small roster is actually more conducive to the useful stuff reaching its potential than in the later years when they'd cram 16-20 guys on a show like it was a New Japan Dome show, and thus everything was spread so thin that most of it was relegated to the level of filler even before the bell rang.

 

[gono btw]

Worked Shoots were an Art & few did it better than Tamura, indeed...

 

[Mbetz1981]

Yes, worked shoots were the finest style that Pro Wrestling ever produced, and Tamura was one of the best.