I'm not going to do this report in my usual style because, quite frankly, I don't want to watch any of this ever again.
1. Fabio Silva vs. Kazuo Takahashi. Silva is a Chute Boxe guy who pretends to be Wanderlei with all of his might. Rolling wrists, facial expressions, everything. He is a poor fighter, but has crazy intensity. Takahashi is, indeed, the famous PRIDE can Yoshiki Takahashi. He is beyond done as a fighter. Of course, since this is Japan, he continues to get bookings. The bell rang and Silva beat the LIFE out of him, crumpling him with a knee, and making sure to get in a couple head stomps for good measure. Takahashi looked like his brain hurt. No one knows why this fight happened.
2. Jorge Masvidal vs. Rodrigo Damm. This is actually one of the few legit fights on the card, as Masvidal is an extremely well thought of prospect at 155, holding wins over guys like Joe Lauzon and a brutal head kick KO of Yves Edwards. He also fought some bare knuckle boxing matches against one of Kimbo's stooges in backyards across Miami. Damm is that dude who has a sister that does roids and a bodogFIGHT SUPERSTAR. I figured Masvidal would roll here, since all Damm can really do is jiu-jitsu, but Masvidal was not his usual aggressive self and wound up getting caught by a big punch that was inexplicably the end of the fight. Masvidal was knocked down, of course, but appeared none the worse for wear and took no further damage from Damm. The ref just stopped it. Masvidal looked like he wanted to stab someone. Afterward, Damm called out Takanori Gomi, who just looked at him like "LOL I HOPE THIS HAPPENS." It was around 4 A.M. at this point. I hate fighting.
3. Marico Cruz vs. Mu-Bae Choi. Cruz is beyond awesome at BJJ, but kinda sucks at fighting. He is also a giant man. Choi is a kitschy Korean guy that people like because he does disco dances upon victory. Choi was in shape for the like the first time ever, but it mattered not. Cruz got him on the ground and went from a back mounted triangle into a jiu-jitsu transition so advanced I really don't know what happened, but he eventually locked in a triangle armbar for the tapout. Again, nobody knows why this happened.
4. Sanae Kikuta vs. Chris Rice. Kikuta is about 400 years old and the leader of the Grabaka team, home to guys like Akihiro Gono and Kazuo Misaki. Chris Rice is some English guy. Kikuta has a reputation for being an incredible grappler, but one that is about as boring as you can imagine someone being. His 90 minute fight with Renzo Gracie at an early PRIDE card still induces shudders. Kikuta ended up armbarring Rice with the slowest armbar ever. I have no idea why Kikuta still fights.
5. Nick Thompson vs. Michael Costa. Thompson is legit, Costa is not so great. Thompson was like 40 feet tall and 300 pounds (he is a huge 170) while Costa is small. Costa managed to pretty much dominate the first round, but Thompson caught him with a very mean spirited kimura in the second round. Thompson's 2-0 in Sengoku, maybe they'll make a belt for him.
They had an intermission. They announced a tournament in August to determine a challenger to Takanori Gomi for a Sengoku lightweight title, who will also fight on the show. The tournament participants thus far are Duane Ludwig, Eiji Mitsuoka, Rodrigo Damm, Kazunori Yokota, and Satoru Kitaoka. Hopefully they can wrangle together some more LWs like Keita Nakamura (and give Masvidal another chance which he deserves) or something. Frank Trigg and four Eastern European wrestlers were announced as fighting (including the guy who fought Fujita in 2006 and had a stance straight out of the 1850s), and literally no one made a sound. Good job, guys.
6. Kazuo Misaki vs. Logan Clark. Misaki is, as anyone who bothers to read this will know, the former PRIDE GP champion and the guy who kicked Yoshihiro Akiyama's nose to death. Clark is a great prospect, formerly of WEC (Clark asked for his release when the company gave him such long periods between fights), and has great size and strength (he absolutely dwarfed Misaki). Clark did well in the first round, but his gameplan of standing and using his jab sort of crumbled when Misaki found the range to counter. Clark didn't take advantage of his size, basically. Misaki was caught with a shot in the third round, but still took the round after getting Clark to the mat and trying some stomps and kicks. Misaki got the decision, but Clark was the guy who looked impressive. Misaki struggling with a guy of Clark's caliber (no disrespect to Logan, but he is not a top ranked middleweight) says a lot about his overall talent level.
7. Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Travis Wiuff. IRONHEAD VS. YAMMA KING! I looked forward to this with a sort of morbid curiosity, as Wiuff is a total journeyman heavyweight and Fujita is more of a personality than anything. Fujita's fights usually involve the whole thing degenerating into a slugfest, and as long as he's fighting a dude who isn't that good, he usually wins because his head is hard. APPARENTLY NOT. Fujita may be the first example I've seen of a man with an incredibly thick skull with a totally glass chin. Wiuff hit him with a jab to set up a right hand, but the jab was enough. Fujita went down and Wiuff punched his face like 10 times. YAMMA IS GOING INTERNATIONAL! Also, one of Sengoku's quasi-draws in Fujita is completely ruined. Awesome.
8. Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Maurice Smith. Smith is a legend, Yoshida is a judo gold medallist. Smith is like 49 and a kickboxer, so three guesses as to what happened here. Smith avoided Yoshida's first takedown, but Yoshida eventually got him to the ground, transitioned to scarf control (he was wearing a gi), and eventually neck cranked the hell out of him. It went about a minute. This show was so bad, so pointless, and it drew no money. They ran the SAITAMA SUPER ARENA with this. No way this promotion can make it a full year. All of the supposed "momentum" they built up with their first card has been totally crushed, and DREAM will hopefully swallow them soon. I cannot believe I was up until 7 AM watching this. {plug}
Send us a news tip: newstips@wrestlingobserver.com
Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news from this site or from our newsletters, please include a link to www.wrestlingobserver.com
For the most in-depth and detailed news and analysis on pro-wrestling and MMA, always turn to Wrestlingobserver.com/Figure Four Weekly Online, the #1 website of its kind on the Internet. Members receive online access to both the Wrestling Observer and Figure Four Weekly newsletters and growing archives, Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer three times per week, the popular Bryan and Vinny Show twice per week, additional radio shows including Figure Four Daily with Alvarez, Mike Coughlin's Five Star Radio, the Dr. Keith Lipinski Show, The Adam and Mike Big Audio Nightmare, Tough Talk and the Karl Stern Wrestling History Show, the infamous BOARD, and more! Members also have full access to the thousands of hours of audio in our radio show archives which date back to 2005. For your convenience, we offer secure online payments using your VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Discover card or PayPal account. Don't miss out on the fun, sign up now! Don\'t miss out on the fun, sign up now!
Want full access? QUICK AND EASY $10.99 SIGNUP!
