With these rules, victory was a nearly impossible task for Tamura. Like nearly everyone else, he can't stand with Yvel, so he had no choice but to constantly shoot in for the takedown. Yvel knows that almost everyone will try to take him down, so he's improved his defense against takedowns a great deal. The rules make it awfully easy for him to remain on his feet for the majority of the match. If he stays near the ropes, when Tamura takes him down the ref will stand them right back up because they are in the ropes. If he's in the center of the ring, which he rarely has any reason to be, he just needs to drop down on top of Tamura or overhook him and do nothing until the ref stands them up. If he's on the bottom, instead of trying to improve his position mount any kind of offensive, he can do his best to tie Tamura up and lie as still as possible so the ref will get anxious for some action and stand them up.

Tamura proved he could take Yvel down; it just didn't do him much good. Early on, when he was at full strength and energy, he was able to work for a submission, but this isn't PRIDE where you can lay on your opponent the whole fight. This is RINGS where in 13 plus minutes there were five stand ups because they were in the ropes and three due to "inactivity." Tamura is one of the better-conditioned fighters, but he spent most of the fight trying to shoot in for the takedown. That's tiring in and of itself, especially when your opponent is a weight class above you. When you are taking a mix of killer kicks, wicked punches, and brutal knees in the process, it can be more than a bit straining. Yvel never went to town on Tamura, but he hits so hard that any blow from him could potentially knock you out, and he usually got at least a couple in before Tamura took him down.

Tamura had a hard time attempting submissions because Yvel would position himself in a way where he wasn't offering anything. Unless he was sliding to the ropes, he essentially only moved to throw an occasional punch from the bottom. Tamura tried a few times to open things up with ground and pound, but it's not something he's good at and it's also not something that works well in RINGS. The ref doesn't respect it as action since it's basically something that will go on endlessly unless the guy on top gets tired or the guy on the bottom makes a move. Thus, he's more than willing to stand the guys up after a very brief section of ground and pound. Hell, at one point he stood them up when Tamura had the mount and was doing something of a forearm choke with one arm and some lame punches to the rips with the other.

The main reason ground and pound doesn't work well in RINGS is that you aren't allowed to hit your opponent in the face when they are on the mat. Pat Miletich's punching power is probably similar to Tamura's, but for him ground and pound is not about getting a stoppage from a series of punches (although Miletich will certainly go for it if the opportunity presents itself). It's all about making your opponent do something silly. When he disorients them by mixing punches to the head with punches to the body, he can often create an opportunity for himself. Whether it's directly going into a submission or getting his opponent to move into a worse position that with another move or two by Miletich can lead to a submission isn't important, what is important is that it's lead to something potentially better. I'm bored with ground and pound as much as the next guy, but it's important to realize that Yvel knows Tamura doesn't pack a ton of punching power and certainly isn't going to beat him by punching him in the ribs 10 times before the ref stands them up. I don't want to make it sound like it was a conspiracy against Tamura or Tamura would take Yvel at least nine times out of ten if they fought in UFC or PRIDE. Yvel did win this fight because the rules greatly favor his style over Tamura's, but it was hardly a gift. He won it because he was smart enough to use all the rules to his advantage. It was a clear decision on Yvel's part to take whatever pain Tamura's ground and pound caused without reacting in a defensive manner because that essentially killed Tamura's whole purpose in employing the technique. Tamura wasn't going to win from ground and pound, but he certainly could if Yvel exposed himself making a silly move trying to put an end to it.

Tamura could sneak in a good punch now and then in standup, but he couldn't hurt Yvel enough with it to open up a takedown. Like anything else, the longer the decided underdog has to go the less chance they have of victory. In a twenty-second standup segment Tamura might be able to steal it, but if they were on their feet for two minutes he was getting new lumps and bruises. As Yvel was expending so much less energy than Tamura, Tamura became less and less effective when he had control on the mat and took more and more punishment in standup. He was in control on the mat less frequently, and didn't have the burst in standup to compete as well as he had in the first minute, which actually wasn't even that well since it took Yvel about twenty seconds to catch Tamura with a few of his knees.

Tamura deserves credit for taking a lot of blows that would have knocked lesser warriors out. At the same time, in later matches when you see Tamura not looking quite like his old self, you immediately think of matches like this where he took way too much punishment. That said, the stoppage in this fight was a little lame. I realize Tamura was not going to come back and win at this point, and it is better that he lives to fight another day, but a punch to the arm? Tamura had Yvel's leg, but when Yvel pulled it away Tamura simply covered up so Yvel kicked his arm. I'm pretty sure Tamura went down to avoid being trapped in the corner where he couldn't avoid Yvel's deadly and fantastic looking strikes. Tamura put his hand up after he was down, but it seemed to be to protect his face in case Yvel was about to throw another kick (it would have been illegal, but a face can be shattered whether the kick is legal or not). The ref stopped the match, possibly considering Tamura's hand to be a signal that he'd had enough. Tamura was definitely very tired, but I don't believe he quit or think he was in bad enough shape for an immediate stoppage.

It was quite a good fight even though it was bad for Tamura fans. It was certainly a fair fight even though the deck was totally stacked against him. The problem with shoots is that, although the greatly varies, the rules usually determine the outcome to some extent. I don't want to kill RINGS rules too much because there are plenty of problems with the rules of every shoot organizations, and the fights are more exciting than DSE's even if those rules are more "pure." There is no perfect set of rules, but at least in this game a small talented guy like Kazushi Sakuraba can rise to the main events by really beating people. If he loses to a much bigger man like Igor Vovchanchyn his fans can take solace in knowing that the result would have been the same if he had always been a worker, except the chance that he could win would have been out the window because, like every other large gaijin, Igor would be being built up to put over Nobuhiko Takada.

Vanes review:

This was a very smart fight by Yvel. He knew there was no chance Tamura would try to compete with him in stand-up, so he tried to kill any chance of Tamura posing a threat to him on the mat. He mainly did this by smartly using the new RINGS rules to avoid submission. Even though Tamura took Gilbert down several times, it wasn't too effective because Yvel kept going near, if not under, the ropes in hopes of getting an outside break from the referee. When Yvel stopped Tamura's takedown by finding a good position, he'd just cling to Tamura and wait for the inactivity break.

Tamura took a huge amount of punishment, and the 15+ Kg difference was too much for Kiyoshi. Like in his most well known match with Kosaka from 4/23/99 (one of the best striker vs. grappler matches in RINGS history), Yvel would keep killing Tamura with his vicious knees and punches, making his amazing stamina mean less and less. The fact that Tamura couldn't be effective on the mat killed any chance of him winning because the ref would stop the fighters any time they went on to ground, and obviously Kiyoshi would get killed in stand-up afterwards. It certainly was a good fight, with the crowd wanting Tamura to get up every time and fight against all odds. He kept showing his heart, but like Sakuraba he has recently shown, a myth is really easy to kill (or at least placate) in MMA when dealing with size and rules. RINGS finally has weight limits now, but if they want to use Tamura's drawing power (or what's left of it) they need to do a better job of match-making or Kiyoshi might even decide to move to greener pastures.

Being a huge Tamura fan since his UWF-I days, it's really sad to see what shoots are doing to his career. I have no problem watching and enjoying other shoot products like Shooto, UFC, or Pancrase, but with RINGS it's always been different. RINGS has changed a lot by going 100% legit. Gone are the days where you could see 30 minutes of some of the most awesome matwork and creative technique to make the fight worthwhile. I've seen the glamorous (even if not totally realistic) exciting works, the mat classics, and the realistic tour de forces like Tamura vs. Kosaka. Now, we can't get these in RINGS, and I feel like we won't get these anywhere else either. What was once a great style is now buried, and the flagbearers of the shoot style pro-wrestling movement are scattered around the shoot or puroresu world, often being wasted by their current promotions. Daisuke Ikeda, Masahito Kakihara, Mitsuya Nagai, & Minoru Tanaka are a few examples of this, with the promotions forgetting where they come from and thus failing to take advantage of their abilities.

Mike: I agree that it's sad to see the worked shoot become a thing of the past, and that the brilliance of some guys, particularly Tamura & Han, is being wasted. That said, one can't overlook the important change this has lead to, wrestlers under 200 pounds being the top star and draw. While the pro wrestling companies are still keeping the juniors on the undercard or giving them matches with the heavyweights seemingly just so the heavyweights can beat up someone different, the shoot promotions don't have higher ups with a dated mindset holding the smaller guys back. The puroresu MVP last year, Kazushi Sakuraba, would have been a career midcarder, at best, had he stuck to doing works. Instead, his legit wins propelled him to the top of the shoot world. His charisma is a big part of his allure, but he wasn't exactly a bore when he was a worker and there have been plenty of guys with the right look or personality that didn't make it big because they couldn't back it up in the ring like Sakuraba can. Look at the other shoot promotions in Japan. They might not be drawing huge crowds, and of course some people come to see a good show, but it could be said that what they do draw is on the back of a junior heavyweight.

The Tanaka's example might be hard to understand if you haven't seen his work in Battlarts. Minoru is in a very good position right now, working with some of the best juniors in the world like Liger, Samurai, and Kanemoto. New Japan is also giving him a substantial push, he's held both IWGP Jr. Titles, even at the same time. The problem is, while he will still have excellent matches because of his talent and versatility matched with the quality of his opposition, the chance to have matches like he did against Sano or Usuda (Battlarts, 2000) are very slim. He might incorporate some aspects of his shoot style background into his matches, but his best environment is a shoot style match. Here, he can show his best matwork and striking. In New Japan, these parts of his arsenal will mainly be wasted, thus the disappointment.

It's difficult for me now to enjoy a Tamura or Kosaka shoot as much as one of their worked matches. In a worked shoot, no matter how realistic it is, you always have two opponents working together to put on an exciting match. The excitement is subjective based on what part of the work you enjoy (striking, technique, whatever pleases you the most), but the effort goes toward putting forth a good, exciting match.

Mike: I agree when it comes to Tamura because he is such a tremendous worker, but Kosaka has had as many memorable shoots. At his peak, I'd rather see Kosaka in a shoot because he was fearless and had a seemingly endless tank. These days he seems like a guy who took one too many beatings though. When things aren't going his way, he doesn't show the determination and abandon he used to. This actually seems to lead to him taking more of a beating though because he tries to exchange strikes and standup defense isn't exactly his strong suit.

Pure shoot is different, very different, thus I find most of today's Tamura "good fights" to be slightly disappointing. Probably a hardcore MMA fan will strongly disagree with me, but you have to understand that in a pure shoot, everything is different. You're not watching two people trying to put together the best fight; you're watching someone try to best their opponent. When two great fighters clash together, and the rules allow them to showcase their skills, often the end result is a great fight (see Tito Ortiz vs. Frank Shamrock at UFC 22 or Sato vs. Uno in '99). Today's MMA has become too much of a strategy game though. The fighters are so skilled and well trained that what really matters is size and the rules. The best fighter nowadays is not the one with better technique or better stand-up striking. The best fighter is the smarter one; he who uses the rules so well that his weaknesses aren't a problem and his opponent's strengths are minimized. I might not be the "usual" MMA fan, but in shoots I always look for things that the worked shoot style matches gave me regularly: intelligent matwork, impressive standup striking, flashy and glamorous submission holds. IF the rules keep pushing the sport toward a game of strategy instead of the fighters' abilities, I don't know if I'll enjoy it as much as I used to.

Special thanks to: Vanes Naldi - PERFECTO

R1 13:13