Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA |
Reflection: An innately human ability to observe his/herself, and possibly change their environment or behavior, thus leading to potentially better outcomes. This could include forming new positive habits, discarding harmful ones, and introducing new people or influences that could alter their current trajectory, both positively and substantially.
This wonderful gift is one of several things that separates us from the animal kingdom, but unfortunately, Fujiwara and Co. insist on operating under their baser and more primal instincts, by insisting on forging ahead without the benefit of thoughtful self-analysis. Instead, they opt to live up to their lion king monikers by fighting on via routine and the ever-deceitful quest to find the path of least resistance. They have the talent to be lords of the jungle, but in warfare, a strong mind is the greatest weapon of all..
The date is 5-15-92, and we have returned to the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. We begin this sordid affair with a glimpse into Fujiwara's training, as he prepares to later face kickboxing legend Don "Nakaya" Neilsen, for the 2nd time. Neilsen was an excellent kickboxer whose career was winding down just as Seidokaikan was morphing into K1. He was a fixture on the Japanese circuit in the late 80s/early 90s, appearing and competing in a variety of events, both real and worked. Their first meeting took place on 7-29-88 on an NJPW show, and was one of the better mixed-matches that I have seen from that period, however, if they just do a rehash of what they did then it is sure to come across as dated.
Our first match will be Dieuseul Berto vs. Yuki Ishikawa and is the 2nd match for both men. We last saw Dieuseul a couple of months ago during the PWFG's Florida invasion, where he showed a lot of spunk and intensity, despite being very green, and when we last saw Ishikawa he was in a shoot against Kazuo Takahashi. In the sense of real fighting, it may not be fair to categorize Ishikawa as a rookie, as he now has several years of experience having started with Satoru Sayama in the early days of Shooto, but he has yet to work a pro wrestling styled match, so it will be interesting to see how he fares with a newcomer like Berto.
Things start with Ishikawa throwing some very genteel kicks towards his opponent, signaling right away that we are not going to get the intense assault that we were all hoping for. Thankfully, it quickly goes down to the mat, where we get a more legitimate grappling contest, but this entire affair went on way too long eventually going to a 30min draw. During the stand-up portions, Ishikawa patterned himself like Kakihara, that is if Kakihara took a couple bottles of Benadryl before performing. Since this is his first non-shoot match, it's hard to determine if he was holding back solely for the benefit of Berto or not. Berto didn't move as well as Ishikawa but had the right amount of stiffness to his strikes. This would have been a perfectly fine way to open things up, had it been in the 8-10 min range, but to have this go the distance tells me that whoever is booking this, is probably just throwing darts at a board with index cards. **
ML: 30 minute draws are meant for matches with greats such as Kawada vs. Misawa, to keep Kawada from ridiculously putting Misawa over yet again. Bad and/or inexperienced workers should not be doing 30 minute matches, particularly in shoot style, where we have seen even the absolute best fighters struggle with lengths above 20 or 25 minutes. This match was somewhat passable, I suppose, but never really caught fire and obviously had greatly diminishing returns. The ground was much better than standup, as while Berto was clearly the better striker, with some nifty footwork, both seemed to have trouble figuring out the proper spacing, especially early on. Ishikawa's strategy of attacking the foot to avoid Berto's strikes was decently done, and I liked Berto trying his best to kick his way out of an ankle hold to avoid burning a rope escape, but eventually having to give in.
Hopefully, this next outing will be the jolt of caffeine that we need, as we have two great strikers in Jerry Flynn vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa. Thanks to the recent arrival of Yanagisawa, we get to have what should be a great match, as this is a good pairing on paper. Ryushi doesn't disappoint, as he charges Flynn with some great kicks, and Flynn obliges him back with plenty of his own firepower. This is probably the most intense we have yet seen Flynn, and we are off to having a nice striking orientated match, which was a rarity for the PWFG. Yanagisawa is kicking way above his weight class, however, and it's not long before he gets smitten down to the ground like a gnat by the giant Flynn. Surprisingly, after knocking down Yanagisawa twice, Flynn shoots in with a nice single-leg takedown, which he quickly converted into a Kimura attack, which didn't work, but later he was able to secure an ankle lock. The rest of this match continued its winning ways, eventually ending just shy of the 11min mark, via an arm-triangle choke by Flynn. This was a great example of a mostly striking-based worked shoot that was intense, entertaining, and just the right length. Some of the grappling sequences felt unnecessary, but that is a minor quibble. *** ¾
ML: Yanagisawa is paying dividends already. Not only was his second match a good one, but it was one we really haven't seen yet. It's amazing that a mostly standing bout where they still tried to finish on the ground at every opportunity feels new more than a year into the shooting experience, but that just goes to show how incredibly hard it is to make that style look decent. I mean, pro wrestling fans have been numbed into accepting "toughman" nonsense where two braindead jerks just stand there urging the opponent to clobber them while making no attempt to defend themselves at all, but even with two trained kickboxers making a real effort to move and defend, it is difficult to make hitting just hard enough work. The first half of this fight may be the best lengthy sequence of standup we have seen so far, as Funaki, who is clearly way more skilled and talented than either of these two, refuses to actually display these talents for more than brief flashes unless he's in with a fighter he can't take down. And even this portion was not without faults, as Yanagisawa's selling was awkward. Flynn was the better of the two here because he is more experienced, and it was fun to finally really see him in his element, but Yanagisawa clearly has more potential, and already really wasn't far behind. Unfortunately, the match was held back somewhat by not being super competitive. Flynn is the one fighter who has the reach on Yanagisawa, and combined with his experience advantage, there was little doubt of who was going to win. The match was more competitive when they went to the ground, but still it was more an entertaining fight than a particularly dramatic one. ***
Next up is Minoru Suzuki (who is sporting a seriously awesome PWFG tracksuit) and Kazuo Takahashi. I'm excited about this as both men have been shooting a lot recently, and this could easily become a tinder block if they choose to let their passions get the best of them.
Things started in a way that took me by surprise, as both men spent the first couple of mins constantly jockeying for position within the clinch, the struggle only being broken by the occasional strike from Suzuki or volatile throw from Takahashi. Eventually, first blood is drawn in the form of a beautifully explosive guillotine choke from Suzuki, which prompted the first rope escape. Afterward, Takahashi continued to forge ahead with his only formidable weapon, his lighting quick single-leg takedown, but Suzuki was able to stall out on the mat with a full guard, neutralizing Kazuo before being able to pivot into a rear-naked choke entry.
The rest of this match had a different tone and feel than most of the worked shoots that we have experienced so far, but in a totally welcome way. There wasn't a lot of striking here, but everything they did exuded credibility and intensity. Even the moderate amount of striking felt like it had less to do with some kind of contrived pro wrestling logic and instead felt like a situation where you had two wrestlers whose forte clearly wasn't attacking on their feet, and simply used just enough to try and open up logical entries for their grappling attacks. Both of these fighters always carry around a lot of intensity, and here that was the key ingredient that really caused them to complement each other. That said, while Takahashi has the heart and passion to face Minoru, his toolbox simply isn't big enough to find any way to put Suzuki in danger. Eventually, he succumbs to a standing rear-naked choke, in which he was too tired to fight off. Different, intense, and exciting. **** ¼
ML: A realistic struggle that saw a better performance than we've seen from Suzuki in a while, though still nowhere near the level he was consistently hitting last year. This match wasn't exactly about standup the way the previous one was, but Suzuki was a joy to watch in that regard, as he was so light on his feet and fluid. It felt like he could just palm Takahashi into submission if he really wanted. Takahashi has his moments in standup as well, disengaging and landing the quick right. Both were pretty chippy, and enjoyed getting their little digs in. Takahashi couldn't get his takedown game going here, so in a sense this was more of a standup match in the MMA manner of sort of backing into it because the match starts there, and that's all that really is working. That being said, there was never really a thought that the finish would be anything but a submission. While many of the PWFG matches lately have been way too long, this was really the opposite, as it was a nice start to a match, but the little pleasures never led to any great delights, as once Suzuki hit a trip, he was immediately able to choke Takahashi out. ***
Now it's time for Masakatsu Funaki vs. Yusuke Fuke. Fuke still holds the PWFG's M.V.P. position in my heart, as no matter what kind of inane booking he is straddled with, he has been making the most of it, and always seems to elevate what he's given. This time he has Funaki to work with, so there is no reason why this shouldn't be a great contest. They are off to a great start, by being the first two, so far, to look like well-rounded professional fighters. Funaki is bobbing, weaving, and feinting like a pro, and Fuke does a great job transitioning to an excellent takedown off of some nice striking offense. Of course, just like we will see later in his Pancrase career, Fuke is great at getting the fight to the mat, but doesn't have the grappling skills to do anything to Funaki once it gets there. After getting handled easily on the ground from Funaki, they're back on their feet, only Fuke is now hobbling on one leg. I cannot determine if this is work or shoot, as the bad leg is already taped up, so perhaps he aggravated a pre-existing injury.
Fuke does his best fighting one-legged, exchanging in a slap battle with Funaki, but the problem is that Funaki is just too good, and not only parries away from Fuke's palm strikes but easily takes him down at will, also. Funaki carries him for a couple more mins before putting him away with a slick armbar. This was entertaining, but the main problem was that outside of his takedown skills (which became hampered with his bad leg) Fuke is simply outclassed in every dimension by Funaki. Funaki was toying with Fuke but wasn't just giving him anything either, so this played out like a shoot where one guy was carrying the other one, stretching the match out before the kill. This sort of thing continued into the Pancrase era, as Funaki was simply light years ahead of the rest of the roster and had to carry some of his victims to longer matches than they would have normally had. Entertaining, and an interesting precursor into what was to come in Pancrase, but this style of match didn't allow Fuke to shine. ***<
ML: A big disappointment. Fuke finally got an opponent he could potentially have a good match with, but he was broken coming in. A healthy Fuke had little chance of hanging with Funaki, but unfortunately, we never really even got to see that mismatch play out. By the time Fuke got up after his quick takedown, which Funaki immediately seized control after, he was hobbling around to the point he could barely put weight on the taped left knee. This was just a dull squash match. It didn't suck in terms of being technically inept, but I wouldn't even consider rating this 7 minute jobber match more than *.
Now for one of the greatest examples of résumé padding in MMA history, here is the match that, to this day, Bart Vale will claim was completely on the up and up. Yes, it is time for Vale vs Shamrock, and whatever happens, at least this is a new matchup that we haven't seen yet, and Ken is big enough that he will hopefully not make Vale look like molasses, which is usually the case during his fights.
Things start with Vale throwing his usual movie star fluff-kicks, and not much else. Shamrock, to his credit starts, by taking this match seriously, feinting from the side stance, "looking" for an entry to attack, and generally treating Vale like a credible opponent, but the problem was that Vale never bothered to step up the intensity at all, and wound up not only almost putting me to sleep, but half the audience and Shamrock as well. One could almost take a smoke break for each of Vale's kicks or read a chapter of War and Peace as he slowly meanders across the ring with all the intensity of a sloth at mealtime. I don't blame Ken, but this wound up being a 16min snoozefest, where the drama surrounding the outcome wound up being far more entertaining. Vale used his "win" here to his advantage by opening some future opportunities for himself, both with John Perretti's Extreme Fighting promotion, as well as the first and only WCC event in 1995. It was hilarious listening to the WCC commentary team introduce Vale as one of the few men with a victory over Ken Shamrock, clearly showing that they had never actually seen the fight in question. Vale's insistence on this narrative eventually irritated Shamrock to the point where it was rumored that he both threatened him with a lawsuit as well as a challenge to step inside a cage for a real fight.
ML: Yes friends, it is sad but true, in their one and only meeting, Bart Vale defeated The World's Most Dangerous Man Ken Shamrock, in the days when he was merely Wayne. While few outcomes more obviously scream of being worked, it was convenient for the Vale, and more pathetically actual shoot promotions, to give this more credence than Doink defeating Bob Backlund. Shamrock was clearly not pleased with this upcoming result, and did his best to make Vale's life difficult, spending the entire early portion especially just avoiding Vale's cornball kicks. Shamrock refused to throw anything back, perhaps because he wasn't allowed to beat Vale, so the best he could do was show that Vale couldn't beat him either. Vale was already sucking wind by the time they finally locked up for the first of several uneventful amateur wrestling sequences that were controlled by Shamrock. Vale didn't know what to make of Shamrock's tactics, which was perhaps understandable, but also didn't seem to care, which was really frustrating. I kept waiting for Vale to make some type of adjustments, actually try to do something faster or more aggressively, use some diversionary tactics to set or change things up, but he instead seemed more than content to just kept waiting for Shamrock to stop putting up resistance, and do his duty. Vale's level of complacency was so high that when Shamrock avoided one of his spinning kicks and actually finally threw a kick back, which he even tried to stop because Vale was obviously so caught off guard he was out of position, he wound up getting Vale in the eye with his toe, causing an accidental down while Vale recovered. Vale finally gotten a measure of revenge by refusing to cooperate with Shamrock's German suplex despite Ken queing him by ruffling his hair. As the match had to end eventually, Shamrock finally just stood there and let they'll nail him with a palm strike, and follow with a few big high kicks for the finish. This sequence with the most impressive thing we've ever seen from Vale in terms of stiffness and credibility, again because Shamrock finally literally just stood there and ate his best shots. Though I garnered some perverse enjoyment from someone finally refusing to stand around and eat Vale's silly kicks, this match probably actually managed to contain less action than the infamous Detroit Dance between Shamrock and Severn, which was the worst MMA match of all time until The Black Beast somehow became a main eventer by refusing to do anything beyond pray the opponent would just be dumb enough to walk right into his big punch. An awful match, but not without a redeeming factor.
Now for the main event, Don Nakaya Neilsen vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Don Neilsen was an exciting and overlooked fighter from his era, as he was someone that bridged the gap from the shiny pants WKA days into the beginning of the K-1 era. He didn't have the skills to quite make it to the top of the heap, but he was always a game fighter and deserves a lot of credit for being willing to branch out and fight in different styles, including stints in NJPW and PWFG. His last match was a rematch against Masaaki Satake at the 1993 K-1 Illusion event.
I'm hoping that this will be a shoot, but I highly doubt it. Sadly, if Fujiwara is being lazy enough to go right back to 1988 to try and generate some interest for this card, then I can only brace myself for a repeat of that showing. As I mentioned earlier, that was one of the better of the late 80s Kickboxer/Wrestler showings that NJPW/UWF put out, but is not what is needed right now, especially when their competition in the UWF-I has been forcing their boxing guest stars to have real competitions.
This was over almost as quickly as it started, and is very hard to assess as a result. Things started normally enough, looking like it would be another typical NJPW styled work, but shortly into the fight Fujiwara got kicked in the head, causing a nasty gash, and also served to completely disoriented him. The doctor examines Fujiwara, and it's clear to everyone that he is in no condition to keep fighting. While this was too short to glean much information from, I would venture a guess and say that this was a work-gone-wrong, and Fujiwara accidentally got punted much harder than what was intended.
ML: This was a work gone as awry as possible. Nielsen was almost retired at this point, focusing full time on his groundbreaking chiropractic clinic in Thailand, so Fujiwara was almost surely supposed to win to avenge his 7/29/88 loss to Nielsen in New Japan and keep up with the UWF-I beating pro boxers. To make things worse, the main event really never even got started. Fujiwara surprised Nielsen ducking down to try to catch a kick, but wound up eating what turned into a knee to the head, getting a godawful gash that was essentially a second eyebrow. The commercial tape correctly awards Nielsen a TKO victory at 1:07, but I've also seen it listed as a no contest, so I'm not sure if the result was later changed because Nielsen wasn't supposed to win, or was simply incorrectly reported. In an interview William Colosimo did with the late Don's brother Jon Nielsen, Joe said, "It wasn’t supposed to end like that, but the cuts with the kick to his head, I mean that’s just the unfortunate side of things. But, that was supposed to go I believe three or four rounds...All I know is my brother goes 'Yeah, I kind of f**ked up' (laughter).... He gave two low kicks, and the second one (Fujiwara) bent down in to, and it just split his forehead...He just threw the kick, and he didn't expect him to lean into it, I should say. He wasn't trying to end the fight, let’s put it that way."
Conclusion: While not perfect, this was one of the better PWFG shows that we've seen in a while, simply because they were willing to change things up, and give us some new matches. The biggest crime was having two newcomers try and carry each other to a 30min broadway. As coma-inducing as the Vale/Shamrock match was, that at least showed some promise on paper, and could have been decent had Vale bothered to put in any effort. We did get some great moments from matches 2-4, so while this was far from ideal, it was mostly worthwhile.
ML: This was probably the second best PWFG show of the year behind 1/15/92, but normally the main event is at least a good long match. This show started promising, but quickly turned disastrous. The positive is that Yanagisawa is already the real deal, and definitely has a chance to wind up being one of the top five workers in the promotion for 1992.
*In other news*
It would appear that Akira Maeda's recent trip to Bulgaria paid dividends, as he has reportedly signed on several new fighters from that country, including 2 contenders for the 1992 Olympics.
Back in Vol.23, we mentioned that reports were coming in that when pressed by the Japanese media contingent following his loss to Billy Scott on 12-22-91, James Warring claimed that his match was supposed to be fixed in his favor, if he went the full ten rounds, but was double-crossed by Billy Scott. Recently, Gene Pelc, a talent liaison for the UWF-I wrote into Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, to comment on Warring, Berbick, and some of Meltzer's reporting. Here is a verbatim quote of his comments in addition to Dave Meltzer's rebuttal: "I represent the UWF International in several areas, mostly in regard to foreign (non-Japanese) matters. I am involved in making arrangements with foreign fighters that participate in UWF International promotions and directly negotiated all the details with Trevor Berbick and James Warring in regard to their appearance in Tokyo on December 22nd. Your report on them, how they performed and why, was unfortunately, quite inaccurate. You gave the impression that they had been double-crossed. I assure you that I personally, in the presence of both their managers and their attorneys, explained to them exactly what they were getting into and what was expected of them. I told them they were coming for a "shooting match" and they accepted those terms. They then performed less adequately than promised. In the case of Berbick, the word "defraud" would be the best description of his actions.
In a later newsletter, you reported that Koji Kitao has signed a multi-bout contract with each fight in excess of $150,000. This is wrong. He has a one-time deal making much less than you reported.
On May 8 in the Yokohama Arena, Matthew Saad Muhammad will take on Kiyoshi Tamura in a mixed-match. Saad Muhammad is a former WBC light heavyweight boxing champion. He has been told exactly what to expect. I have sent him a videotape of several UWFI matches which he has received. His people tell me he will put on "one helluva fight." The fight will be 100 percent on the level. A total shoot. I'm hoping for a really good, exciting match and the best man will win. Tamura is using a sparring partner who was a great fan of Saad Muhammad's and preparing him for what to expect. Saad Muhammad's manager traveled to Tokyo many years ago with the Muhammad Ali people when he fought Antonio Inoki, so he knows a little of what this is all about.
Gene Pelc
UWF International booking agent
Tokyo, Japan
Now here is Dave Meltzer's rebuttal: "Warring himself claimed after the fight he had been double-crossed in complaints to the Japanese press after losing the decision. We reported that Billy Scott (Warring's opponent) and Nobuhiko Takada (Berbick's opponent) were shooting. Berbick did make comments to Japanese reporters in preparing for the fight, which weren't printed, which indicated he was taking it as an exhibition. We did get reports that when Berbick got to Japan, he was trying to get someone to change the rules to ban the kicks to the knees which indicates he may have realized differently when he got to Japan or didn't want to go in the ring with someone who he thought would go after his knees. We reported Kitao's deal as $75,000 per match, not $150,000."
*For the record, our official position at the Kakutogi Road is that both the Warring and Berbick fights were legit shoots, and this is sour grapes on the parts of Berbick and Warring, respectively. *
Kathy Long fires back..at Bill Wallace that is! Wallace wrote a column in the March/1992 issue of Black Belt Magazine , where the essence of his thoughts was that he disapproved of women's combat sports and didn't feel like they had any place in the sports landscape. Decorated kickboxing champion Kathy Long took exception to this and wrote an open letter in response.
Here is her letter in full: "When I first saw that Bill Wallace had written a Front Kicks column on women's kickboxing, I knew that I wouldn't be thrilled with what I read, he's never been a fan of that end of the sport. I endorse his right to have his opinion, but he made several statements in the guise of fact that are utterly ridiculous.
His statement that women aren't designed for combat started everything off on an amusing note. Men aren't designed for combat either. Nobody is. Human hands are fragile, the skin above our eyes tears, and our knees are subject to damage. If in fact humans are designed for anything, it is for the perpetuation of the species. This trend appears throughout the animal kingdom, where, by the way, females are the predominant fighters and hunters.
Wallace's comment about men's muscles being better suited for high bursts of energy is also interesting. After four weeks of lifting weights, I was able to bench press 210 pounds. Considering that I weigh 123 pounds, I think that my percentages stack up against most men lifting weights for a similar period of time.
If the point of the article was that Troy Dorsey can beat Kathy Long, then I have no argument. I agree. He can also beat Jorge Paez and just about anyone else his size that is stupid enough to get inside the ring with him. However, while training, I've broken the ribs of a 165-pound male sparring partner, given a nine-inch gash to a World Karate Association champion, and have knocked out several sexist black belts who couldn't believe that a woman could really fight.
Regarding Wallace's comment about promoters not taking female fights seriously and consider them just entertainment between the more legitimate men's matches, when I fought in France, I was the main event. I sold out 5,000 seats and more than 1000 people stood outside in the rain to watch through the windows. I recently fought in the main event in Hawaii, and the undercard was made up of men's fights. The truth be known, Wallace's little exhibitions with Tommy Hearns and Joe Lewis were just entertainment between the more legitimate fights on the same card.
Wallace shouldn't kid himself into thinking that a broken nose gives a man character any more than a bald spot does. Character is a trait which grows from within and not from the groin. Men and women can wear it equally."