NJPW 12/24/06, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Koji Kanemoto vs. Minoru 33:51. Kanemoto has always been a good opponent for Minoru because he can shift his style more toward the kicks & submissions, doing a more credible technical match without going outside his own box. Minoru is definitely a lot more patient than Koji, but the matches running so long tends to shift things in this direction by necessity. In fact, they broke the record they set on 10/9/06, once again delivering the longest IWGP Junior Title match ever. The match had a real old school feel to it, as UWF oriented matches had shifted more toward their technical pro wrestling roots of Thesz, Gagne, Robinson, & Gotch & less toward the wannabe MMA aspect, while still doing enough crazy & athletic stuff to satisfy the junior style requirements. Both men were laser focused on working a body part with Minoru first injuring Koji's arm on the outside after matadoring him to the floor & Koji later countering a suplex to the floor with a Dragon screw onto the top rope. They'd throw in a random junior style spot now & then, but during the first half they mostly kept on theme with Minoru stopping Koji's charge with a kick to the arm, but Koji then thwarting his suplex attempt with a Dragon screw. Suddenly, they started doing another match with Koji poping the crowd with his face scrapes & Minoru hitting insane suplexes with Kanemoto taking a flip bump on the German suplex off the 2nd then popping up after a fisherman buster off the 2nd as only Koji would have the nerve to do. The big moves signaled that the finishing sequence was potentially upon us, but as they shifted back to theme after Koji's Frankensteiner off the top with the Minoru special leading to a series of ankle lock counters the fans were now buying the threat of the submissions. The match was nowhere near over though, going roughly another 15 minutes, and the new pattern was Minoru using some of his suplexes & big moves to set up trapping Koji in yet another armbar. The amount of armbars Koji was surviving was getting a bit absurd, and definitely this was one of those matches where they really needed to see it through from start to finish. Luckily, Minoru finally twisted out of a Tiger suplex & hit the Minoru special in the center, & just as Kanemoto managed to throw the top leg off & get his knees to escape, Minoru rehooked the top leg & flattened Kanemoto out on his back to take the title. With the right finish, the match definitely came off a lot better, and one can now say it was the tenacity of Minoru in sticking with his gameplan from start to finish that earned him his fourth & final (?) IWGP Junior Title reign. ****

WCPW Lights Out 1/6/17: Zach Sabre Jr. vs. Travis Banks 18:14. Entertaining technical match with Banks able to hang with Sabre well enough that they were able to build the whole thing around parity. The match was basically a series of brief mat segments that would end with a staredown as they always had the answer for whatever the other threw at them, neither able to gain more than a momentary advantage. Sabre was theoretically trying to let Banks burn himself out so he could take over later, but you aren't exactly Robin van Roosmalen when you allow the opponent to take as much time between segments as they'd like. In any case, Sabre kept standing with his hands behind his back urging Banks to hit him with his best shot to speed up this process of punching himself out. Banks switched to flying though hitting a tope, but Sabre turned his slice of heaven into a triangle in the best counter of the match. Banks escaped though, & was able to hit the slice of heaven following a released German suplex, and shockingly scored the big upset a fraction of a second before Sabre kicked out. The finish was pretty random as they never shifted from parity to someone actually taking over, it was parity to someone getting lucky, which I guess makes sense given the upset. This definitely wasn't the best match they could do as it was the 3rd match on a 9 match show, but it was actually the longest match of the night, and just really solid & well executed throughout with nicely developed counter laden sequences. ***

WCPW Pro Wrestling World Cup Final 8/26/17

Pro Wrestling World Cup Semifinal Match: Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet 16:47. A really uneven match that alternated between an amazing athletic contest when they were moving and an uninspired EWW match when Ricochet was standing over Ospreay sporadically putting a boot to him. The story here was seemingly that they know each other so well, but it didn't hold up for long. The opening was fantastic with Ospreay trying to do something different to surprise Ricochet, using the Oscutter as soon as he stepped into the ring, but Ricochet staying on his feet & trying a benadryller leading into a series of their land on the feet spots before both got around to taking their jackets off. They kept pulling off spectacular athletic counters until Ricochet finally laid Ospreay out with a brainbuster on the stage, but then the match pretty much died out. After all this early parity, once they got into the body of the match, Ricochet was always a step ahead & completely dominant, arrogantly & deliberately beating Ospreay down with a random uninspired strike or two in between walking in circles & playing to the crowd. Ospreay would make an occasional counter or two, but couldn't even regain the offensive with a reverse Frankensteiner. Once in a while they did a great sequence, but for the most part the one-sided stompdown continued until Ospreay finally hit a flash pin. Granted Ospreay had to save something for the final, but the match was just frustrating because the highs were so high that they clearly could have had another excellent match, and while that really wasn't what I was expecting due to the semifinals & final on the same night format, I was nonetheless shocked by how tedious this was in between the great sequences. ***1/4

Penta El Zero M vs. Mike Bailey 14:55. Penta was the 1 guy in the tournament who hadn't delivered like I expected, but made up for it with this non-tournament match on the final night. Granted, it was mostly Bailey who was stealing the show with his speed & athleticism, but still these two worked together much better than you might expect given something of a clash in styles & the lack of familiarity. Both the fast action sequences & the striking sequences were very good. The match wasn't exactly deep, but it was back & forth with spectacular spots, usually countering them first so they could build to pulling them off later on. Bailey machine gunned something like 54 middlekicks in 30 seconds, which was like making a highlight reel of a Syuri match, except a lot more impressive. Bailey tried to follow with a huracanrana to the floor, but Penta caught him & gave him a vicious jackknife onto the ring apron. The match had some of the same issues as Ospreay/Ricochet in that Penta was stalling a lot when he was controlling with his striking, but Bailey came back a lot quicker & more often than Ospreay, so the match never stalled out & was much more competitive & consistent even though it never reached the level of Ospreay/Ricochet when they were going. Bailey was delivering all sorts of highlights including hitting a corkscrew moonsault attack to the floor, but Penta stopped his ultuma weapon off the 2nd with a superkick. Finish saw Penta destroy the Canadian with the Canadian destroyer on the apron & set Bailey up for another one off the top. However, Bailey stopped it with an enzuigiri off the 2nd then hit a Frankensteiner with both standing on the top, but Penta avoided the shooting star kneedrop & took Bailey out with his fear factor. Overall, just a really fun undercard match with both workers out to make a good impression. ***1/4

Pro Wrestling World Cup Final Match: KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay 18:02. Ospreay's semifinal with Ricochet started more reasonably, but this was far more consistent throughout. It was a big condensed since both had done full matches earlier, and as such was something of a greatest hits collage. Though nowhere near their Super Jr. Final, it was still a big effort from both men. They came out with some big flying as Ospreay dropkicked KUSHIDA to the floor & hit his Sasuke special, but KUSHIDA got his legs up for the shooting star press & hit a tope con hilo. After the initial fireworks they moved to the story of the match, with KUSHIDA working Ospreay's arm in between Ospreay's high flying comebacks. The match seemed a bit on the cute side, as although the moves were awesome & these two have great chemistry & can pull off things that most couldn't even dream of, they seemed to focus so much on making every spot so crazy & every bump so nutty that it seemed a bit forced & short on actual intensity. Don't get me wrong, the offense was insanely good, but at the same time because it was so good they were trying to force us to believe everything was going to be the finish, except no one really believed they were going to do a 5 minute final & in the end, there were only 1 or 2 near falls that the crowd really bought. As the match progressed though, KUSHIDA was so dilligent in working over the arm that you began to believe he'd get a submission sooner or later, but Ospreay failing on a spot or two because his arm was jacked up would have been a good touch to make this something other than whatever flying moves Ospreay could pull off vs. whatever arm moves KUSHIDA's could apply. There was an amazing spot where Ospreay was close to making the ropes to escape the hoverboard lock, but KUSHIDA rolled him to the center & went into his Back to the Future only to have Ospreay pull a cutter out of nowhere. When Ospreay countered the Back to the Future off the top with his Oscutter off the top you finally believed in a finish, but KUSHIDA survived & rolled through on the regular Oscutter then finished Ospreay out of nowhere finally hitting his Back to the Future. This was a great counter, but I really disliked that the whole match was arm work yet KUSHIDA won with the same old headdrop. In the end, the wrestling was great, but instead of letting their work stand on its own they just tried too hard to force drama into a story that wasn't particularly well thought out. ***1/2

FNG 86 4/1/18: Zhalgas Zhumagalov vs. Tyson Nam 5R. Nam walked Zhumagalov down with his hands down for 5 rounds, but still had trouble actually getting to the point where he was unleashing much offense. For the 1st 2 rounds, Zhumagalov would back away until he was ready to step forward with a right low kick, a punch combo, or a spinning backfist, and usually get out of the pocket before Nam landed any notable counterfire. Nam didn't seem the least bit perturbed, continuing to smile, laugh, & taunt Zhumagalov. Nam fought with more focus & urgency after dropping the 1st 2 rounds, starting to open up & work the body & lead leg as Zhumagalov began to tire & grew increasingly more content to allow himself to be trapped against the cage rather than always moving into the opening space as he had in the previous rounds. Zhumagalov sometimes caught Nam coming in now that Nam was closing the distance more aggressively, but for the most part Zhumagalov was slowing down due to the constant backing & wasn't doing nearly as good a job of staying away from Nam. The fight was much more interesting in the 2nd half, as the more tim Zhumagalov was forced to spend in the pocket, the more they slugged it out, though Nam isn't exactly a slugger. Nam was rarely going to the head, but doing a nice job of working the body over to further slow Zhumagalov down, really going all in on the attrition, which makes sense when you don't have a ton of firepower. Nam won round 3 & the 4th was pretty even until Zhumagalov ducked a left hook 3 minutes in & rocked Nam with his own left hook response. Nam's mouth was bloodied either there or in the subsequent flurry, but Nam continued to pressure against the cage, and although Zhumagalov had a couple of his flashy spinning backfists, you could see he was fading & was really having to keep exerting himself to keep Nam off him. Zhumangalov never had any luck getting a takedown, and for the 3rd round in a row, spent much of the time with his back against the cage, but Nam just never found the sort of aggression with his fists he had with his feet. He had to know he probably needed a finish & at the very least needed the round to have any chance at a decision, but he remained too cautious & conservative in his actual output. Though by Benson Henderson inching forward rules Nam was winning the fight, Zhumagalov was once again the one who had the big power strikes, and the crowd would erupt for their Kazakh fighter whenever he gave them reason. Nam finally started throwing the high kick, but despite all the great work he did to the body to set it up, Zhumagalov was always ready for it. Nam may actually have thrown more strikes by the end of the fight, but so many were just putting his arms out feeling for distance or just trying to touch Zhumagalov. Zhumagalov just had a huge power advantage, which was one of the reasons Nam couldn't dig himself out of the early hole. Round 5 could have gone either way, but Zhumagalov wins the fight regardless. The judges had it 49-46, 49-46, 49-45. Good match.

UFC Fight Night 128 4/21/18: Merab Dvalishvili vs. Ricky Simon R3 5:00. Fantastic action that unfortunately was overshadowed by perhaps the most inexplicable finish of all time. Dvalishvili was a joy to watch. We've finally found a guy with more energy than Clay Guida, but he's also recklessly aggressive with it, just charging forward daring the opponent to stop him as he pushes forward endlessly throwing bombs. The first round had the most ridiculous pace. There's pressuring, and then there's Dvalishvili who practically sprints after his opponent when he has them in trouble. Dvalishvili loves to throw spinning kicks, and would just lead with a regular or spinning high kick. He was taking Simon down at will, but this was mainly just burning a ton of energy because Simon would get back up instantly but Dvalishvili would maintain his reverse bodylock & take him right back down wash, rinse, repeat. Dvalishvili dropped Simon 3 minutes in with a right hook following a double jab & went into overdrive for the rest of the round trying to get the finish. Simon tried to run away, but was winded from Dvalishvili chasing him down, I just wish Dvalishvili stuck with his hands because I don't think Simon had the energy to keep fleeing for another minute when he was trying to recover. Round 1 could have been a 10-8 round for Dvalishvili because it was all one-way traffic & he scored a knockdown. Dvalishvili continued to push Simon back throughout the second, though Ricky would sporadically step forward & miss a single shot, he was essentially in full on retreat mode. Simon finally hit a double leg ducking under a right hand midway through the 2nd, but Dvalishvili was up after eating 2 solid elbows. Dvalishvili kept his hands low & pretty much dared Simon to attack him, so Simon landed a random power shot here & there, but Simon had to come forward to do that, and when he did Dvalishvili often dropped into another flash takedown. Round 2 was definitely more competitive, but still a clear Dvalishvili round. Simon fought with more urgency in the 3rd, and there was some excellent action standing toe to toe exchanging, but whenever Simon tried to push forward for a combo Dvalishvili would get another flash takedown. Again Simon had a takedown midway through the round, and Dvalishvili's defense looked bad, going for some wild no leverage Kimura nearly allowed Simon to pass but Dvalishvili was able to explode in the transition & get back to his feet. Dvalishvili went back to work on his feet, and Simon finally seemed to lack the energy to let his own hands go. Dvalishvili was less than a minute away from a 30-27 if not 30-26 decision when Simon finally countered the double leg with a guillotine that essentially wound up resulting in a DDT. Dvalishvili may have gone out for half a second, but either way Simon was able to seize the opportunity & roll into a mounted guillotine. Dvalishvili held his right hand up & when the ref checked his left hand as if it was a pro wrestling sleeper hold he tensed the arm & kept that up too. Fearing the ref was about to stop the fight, Dvalishvili spent the final 40 seconds bicycling his legs. Granted this isn't exactly intelligent defense, but the ref really can't stop a fight from a move that's designed to render a fighter unconscious when said fighter is doing a workout on his back. Dvalishvili was struggling to hold on for the final 10 seconds, but continued to pump his legs. When the horn sounded, he had a huge adrenaline dump, so relieved that he'd survived the fight. Paul Felder thought he was out because he stopped moving after the bell, but probably 98% of the audience would be finished just from the cardio workout he was doing to make sure the fight didn't get stopped, much less the 14 minutes of insanity before it. It seemed pretty clear he just relaxed for a second knowing he'd managed to survive, maybe saying a thanks or a prayer, or hell just taking a second to collect himself & finally taking a breath after 45 seconds before turning his head & saying something to Simon. Dvalishvili then got to his knees & tried to stand up, but the doctors stopped him at a knee & made him take a minute on his back so they could examine him. If he passed out then, or at the pub celebrating his win, it's too late to help Simon any. Once cleared, Dvalishvili climbed onto the cage & started celebrating, putting on his wig & slow jogging around the ring then getting his Georgian flag. The judges gave the fight to Dvalishvili via split decision 29-27, 28-29, 29-28, but before this was announced, literally 4 minutes after the closing bell sounded, the athletic commission awarded the bout to the favorite Simon via TKO. This was some bullshit! The ref can stop a fight just after the bell if he sees the fighter has submitted during the actual 5 minute round but he just missed it due to bad positioning, which is what Greg Franklin should have done in the Celine Haga vs. Amy Montenegro fight at Invicta 21. However, Dvalishvili was clearly still conscious when the bell sounded, he was still doing the exact same thing he was doing for the previous 40 seconds so it didn't suddenly become muscle memory at second 39, and he didn't stop until he survived. The officiating was terrible all night with the muscle man who can't move his arms Gary Copeland being late to every stoppage because he can't move much else either. Here Liam Kerrigan seemingly did a good job, I mean, he had his chance to stop the fight while Dvalishvili was trapped in the choke & he didn't take it because the fighter was doing everything in his power to let him know he was still conscious. Whether or not Dvalishvili relaxed for a second or went out after the bell rang or when the doctor's were examining him, the fight was over & the moment to stop it had passed. Stealing the victory from him here is almost as nonsensical as stopping the fight for a cut when both fighters are already in the locker room, or at the hospital. To make things worse, Dvalishvili already arguably got screwed out of the decision in his previous UFC fight against Frankie Saenz, so now he's 0-2 in the octagon. Very good match.

UFC Fox 29 4/14/18

Lauren Mueller vs. Shana Dobson 3R. The closest match on the show. Mueller seemed the better fighter because she had more weapons, but Dobson did enough well utilizing her reach advantage that you could make the argument for her winning every round. Mueller had more power & wanted to fight on the inside where she could utilize her hooks, but Dobson was doing a good job of using her long jab to keep Mueller off her. Mueller did a good job of countering, using the low kick to answer the jab, and just had a lot better footwork in general, beginning to mix her attacks to keep Dobson on her back foot. Mueller was doing a good job of landing the right middle kick then coming over the top with the right hand. Round 1 was close, but you felt like Mueller was landing the heavier shots as well as increasingly solving the puzzle & gaining traction. Dobson fought a lot looser & more confidently in the 2nd, opening up right away. She was getting off 1st & throwing in combination rather than mainly jabbing & throwing in the 2 now & then, and began picking Mueller apart as Dobson's reach was now really giving Mueller problems. Dobson was running away with the round, but Mueller got an angle off the jab in the last minute & busted Dobson's nose with a short right hand counter. This definitely wasn't enough to take the round back, so it was probably a round a piece going into the third. Mueller took the initiative in the final round, pressing forward & getting inside Dobson's jab where she could use her power punches. Dobson responded with an early takedown to stop the rot, but her increasingly swelling & bloody nose was clearly bothering her, as she'd often touch it in between attacks. Mueller wasn't showing any wear & tear, and mainly took over because her conditioning allowed her to keep the heat on Dobson. Dobson hurt Mueller with a right to the body with a minute left, but was somewhat laboring as she tried to go back to the same spot a few more times with the jab & the knee. Mueller caught a kick & tripped her up, but Dobson was up quickly. This was another round that could have gone either way, as Mueller built up a nice lead early, but Dobson was the one that did the damage & ultimately, finally slowed Mueller down with her late body shots. I expected the scoring to be all over the place, but Mueller won a unanimous decision 29-28. Good match.

John Moraga vs. Wilson Reis 3R. Moraga had big speed & footwork advantages, and combined with his reach was dominating the fight with his right low kick & right straight. Reis had the wrestling advantage, and was having success when he could close the distance, partly because the guillotine choke is Moraga's best submission & Moraga would give the takedown in failed attempts to finish the fight. Damage & attempting to finish was the big difference here for me, as Reis had a lot of pressure & control, but did little with them. Moraga kept moving right, landing the inside leg kick to Reis' right lead leg & getting outside of Reis on the weak side so he could use a hook without getting countered. Reis was pressuring, but much of the 1st round he was just walking into Moraga's right hand & staring at him as he then exited unscathed. Moraga's eagerness for the guillotine began to cost him midway through the 1st, as he got up from Moraga's takedown still holding the position but rather than releasing & going back to what was winning him the fight he just held on & Reis quickly slammed him back down. I liked Moraga's attempt to take Reis' back after kneeing him coming in a lot more, but again Reis is such a good wrestler that sooner rather than later he takes over these grappling sequences. Moraga was doing a nice job of sliding off the center so the counter punch wasn't there, and began to mix his movements up & get his left hook going a lot more as the fight progressed. Moraga got away from the low kick though, and although he was landing his punches, Reis realized that he had to get a hold of Moraga at all costs, and was willing to eat a punch or two coming in to tie him up. Moraga failed on his own takedown then faked low & put up a high kick that was blocked & followed with a big flying knee, but Reis ducked under 1 of his punches & secured the double leg. From here the match was mostly Reis controlling on the ground. Moraga gave his back as Reis was passing into mount, and was able to turn into guard & land some punches. For me, the big problem for Reis here is when he did get Moraga down, he first had to defend the guillotine & then had to concentrate on keeping Moraga down, so he never really got his ground offense going. Even though Reis had the takedowns in round 2, the couple good strikes were from Moraga at the very end so for me this was another Moraga round. Reis did a much better job of keeping Moraga down in the 3rd. Moraga was moving, but couldn't get back to his feet & wound up cutting his forehead on the fence. Reis finally got some ground & pound going as the round progressed, and was doing a much better job of being heavy & controlling. I was afraid they were going to give Reis the fight because of his takedowns even though they didn't amount to much, but being in his hometown certainly didn't hurt Moraga's cause. Moraga won a unanimous decision 29-28. Good match.

Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje R4 0:33. I've never been interested in seeing fighters who fight simply to win, guys like GSP or Floyd Mayweather who are out there doing the math, calculating how to do just enough to cash in on yet another decision win represent much of what's disinteresting & annoying about their sports. Gaethje & Poirier on the other hand, are two elite fighters who always bring it & go all out to win by incapacitating their opponent. Any match Gaethje is in is liable to be a strong match of the year candidate, and Poirier has actually been getting even more exciting of late, now with his last 3 fights that had a winner earning fight of the night, but even going back if a Poirier fight wasn't memorable, it's likely because someone got run over in round 1. You knew this would be a great fight because you had two fighters who simply refuse to ever back down or slow down. Both would go out there an enact their game plan, and it would mostly come down to whose body eventually broke first. Gaethje did his thing, bombing Poirier's lead leg with low kicks until Poirier had to put his effort into not taking more leg kicks, which dropped his hands & thus allowed Gaethje to land his big head punches. Poirier didn't follow Eddie Alvarez's lead in working Gaethje's body, he just endlessly bombed the head around Gaethje's guard until Gaethje was once again concussed. These might not be deep strategies, but these guys pushed an ungodly pace, and just exchanged bombs minute after minute, round after round delivering amazing action like only a Gaethje fight can. As with Gaethje's 1st two UFC fights and his first battle with Luis Palomino, it was one of the best fights I've ever seen. Just an insane slugfest by two beloved madmen. Poirier's team wanted him to smother & pressure Gaethje, which would get him inside Gaethje's kicking range & allow Poirier's superior boxing to rule the day, but it's difficult to pressure a pressure fighter & Gaethje was usually the one who was leading even when they were fighting in the phone booth. Poirier's jab was a big weapon as he used it to punish Gaethje for coming forward. He cut Gaethje's left eye within a minute, and kept peppering it all night, but as usual taking punishment seems to help Gaethje get into his rhythm. Even though Gaethje moving forward was taking away some of his own kicking game, it was also keeping him inside of Poirier's power, so although Poirier was regularly landing, he wasn't getting to extend & was thus forced to throw more short hooks. The thing that kills Gaethje is he's a statue when his combo is finished. It's like he wants to be Robin van Roosmalen with the endless forward pressure, but blocking with little 4 ounce gloves doesn't actually protect his head, and he's not moving forward again when the opponent throws to lessen the power & make the shot connect somewhere other than the intended spot. He's actually more like Joe Lauzon just standing there covering so the opponent can all to easily aim their shots around his stationary block and rattle his stationary head. Granted, much of Gaethje's strategy is that the opponent will punch himself out, so he's goading the opponent to try to hit him as hard & as often as they can, the problem is that's not very difficult & letting a bigger, stronger murderer like Poirer land half his shots & be the more active fighter is, at best, going to be a difficult way to win a fight. For me, Gaethje was doing better early on when he willingly left the pocket so he could actually avoid then come back in with a leg kick, though Poirier's jab accuracy on the damaged eye may have been involved in dissuading him from this tactic. Either way though, since Gaethje's plan is winning on conditioning, I'd like to see him put his energy more toward wearing the opponent down by attacking rather than by allowing them to punch themselves out. Poirier won round 1 because he threw 132 to Gaethje's 64 & landed 63 to Gaethje's 34. Sure, Poirier wasn't going to be able to keep that pace up for 5 rounds, but landing even another 5 low kicks per round could make that academic. If you look at the start of round 2, that for me is a much more effective way for Gaethje to be fighting, and a style that could take him to the title. It's all pressure, but instead of allowing Poirier to combo back, he's disengaging & coming back in with another of his own combos. What hurts him to me is that his mentality is to block as his first line of defense rather than to move first & block if he must. After the 1st of Gaethje's Jon Jones special eye gouges, he switched back to the get in Poirier's face & lead then block style, which certainly is a lot more exciting, but it's still awkward seeing a fighter cover then disengage & charge back in rather than just going back on the opponent's attack then forward for his subsequent combo. The swelling was starting to get to Poirier's leg, and he finally started switching to orthodox. Poirier was still getting a ton of strikes in, but Gaethje was starting to get more of his big hooks to the head in, and Poirier was cut under the left eye at the end of the round. Round 2 was harder to score, but with Poirier now only outlanding Gaethje 58 to 46, the advantage shifted to Gaethje for landing the more significant strikes & Gaethje's throng of fans had to fell pretty good about his plan starting to work & Poirier getting broken down both physically from the leg kicks & cardio wise with another insane round of around 200 combined total strikes thrown. Gaethje was countering Poirier's left hand with the inside leg kick, and Poirier was really starting to slow down. Gaethje was looking tired as well, but now he was standing toe to toe & countering rather than covering. 2 minutes in, Gaethje came over the jab with a big short right hook to the chin that backed Poirier into the cage. I liked Gaethje trying to use elbows & uppercuts, but then he engaged in the clinch & allowed Poirier to recover some. Poirier's lead leg seemed ready to go at any time, and he was looking more miserable out there by the minute. Everything seemed to be going really well for Gaethje until the 2nd Gustafsson, which Herb Dean rightfully deducted a point for, negating the Gaethje round. This looked like it could have been intentional because he started with a closed fist but opened his hand as he was punching. Either way, being the 2nd gouge amidst warnings about reckless finger pointing, Poirier was rightfully pissed, and that woke him back up. Unfortunately, he just came out with his hands suddenly open & his fingers out, quickly deposited a finger into Gaethje's eye for revenge, and that likely won him the fight. Poirier basically knew he could get away with it with just a warning because they essentially never have the balls to deduct for the 1st eye gouge & it's not like baseball where when a team gets warned for hitting a batter, the umps usually also warn the team whose batter got hit that their pitcher will get ejected for retaliation. Gaethje didn't get a chance to recover because it was literally the last act of the round, and although he obviously did have the minute in between rounds, he was blinking & rubbing his eye right up until the bell sounded. As soon as I saw that, I said he's just not right, and sure enough Poirier is suddenly able to counter the leg kick with a huge left hook that sent Gaethje stumbling backwards about 10 feet. Gaethje was close to being out on his feet, so I'm not sure if he simply didn't have the sense to go for a takedown or clinch like Poirier did earlier or was already finished, but in any case he tried to keep slugging it out with a couple slow wild punches & by the time he tried to exit he was stumbling to the point I thought they'd just stop it there. Poirier instead got to knock Gaethje back into the cage & Dean finally stepped in when a right straight dropped Gaethje to a knee. While the win was kinda shady, it's hard to complain too much when Gaethje was endangering Poirier all night despite the rule changes that were supposed to help prevent this. In any case, this was an amazing back & forth fight that's likely match of the year unless Gaethje manages to top himself yet again. Great match.

UFC 223 4/7/18

Karolina Kowalkiewicz vs. Felice Herrig 3R. I figured Kowalkiewicz would have the advantage at distance & especially in the clinch, which was the case, but Herrig might be able to get something going on the ground. What was surprising is Herrig didn't wasn't trying to fake into a double or single leg, & it was Kowalkiewicz who actually failed on an Imanari roll but was then able to sweep into a mounted triangle at the end of the 1st. While Herrig wasn't as single minded here as she was in the Courtney Casey fight, she just seems to get stuck in one mode & just continue it in perpetuity whether it's working or not. Kowalkiewicz is the more skilled fighter to be certain, but she also proved to be the smarter fighter, putting herself in advantageous positions & going back to what was working. This was a competitive fight, but Kowalkiewicz just seemed in a much better place, so loose from start to finish, while Herrig was so tense, which kept Kowalkiewicz from slowing down (though Herrig did make a late comeback to steal the third, that had nothing to do with stamina). The tale of the tape lists Herrig as having a 1" height & reach advantage, but Kowalkiewicz seemed the larger & longer fighter, with Herrig tending to come up short on her punches, though part of that is Kowalkiewicz having better footwork while Herrig almost seems to stop her forward motion when she plants to throw her right hand. When Herrig did grab Kowalkiewicz it was always a high clinch just trying to get underhooks, and that's too much like dealing with a thai clinch for Kowalkiewicz, who would keep her balance & land some shots on the inside then land on the break. Kowalkiewicz wasn't running away with the fight, but she was consistently outmaneuvering Herrig to get more & better shots in. Herrig landed some shots & was able to grab hold of Kowalkiewicz, but she really didn't seem to have any explosion tonight to put any fear into Kowalkiewicz or catch her off guard. The fight picked up midway through the 2nd as Kowalkiewicz landed a spinning backfist & began to be more eager to slug it out on the inside since Herrig hadn't shown an answer to her elbow over the top. Herrig landed some shots on the inside as well, and opened a cut under Kowalkiewicz's left eye. Herrig wasn't fighting with urgency in the 3rd, perhaps because Jeff Curran told her she was winning the boxing exchanges, perhaps because she was just gassed from Kowalkiewicz's pace & pressure at range & her strength in the clinch. Kowalkiewicz had outlanded Herrig in every round and seemed to have the fight all but wrapped up, but Herrig finally rocked her with a big left hook counter. Kowalkiewicz was clearly stunned, but instead of trying for the KO she needed, Herrig again went into the high clinch. Even stunned, Kowalkiewicz was still too strong & well balanced to get down despite Herrig securing double underhooks. Kowalkiewicz didn't nail Herrig on the break for once, but she wanted to steal the round back, so she slugged it out with Herrig for the final 10 seconds. This seemed a standard 29-28 win for Kowalkiewicz with the 1 good shot for Herrig stealing the 3rd round, if not a 30-27 for Kowalkiewicz putting consistency over 1 lucky shot, but somehow a judge found another round for Herrig somewhere, so Kowalkiewicz got a split decision. Good match.

Chris Gruetzemacher vs. Joe Lauzon 2R. This was a fight Lauzon absolutely should have won if he was still, well, Joe Lauzon. Gruetzemacher just lost to Davi Ramos & was now moving up to 155 on short notice. I know the obvious answer of what's wrong with Lauzon is he's absorbed 10 million punches & probably has 30 concussions from all the great wars over the years, but usually those kinda guys now get KO'd from shots they used to take fine. Lauzon, on the other hand, just seems to run out of gas after his initial surge like big guys with no cardio such as Tank Abbott, & although he then gets the shit beat out of him, still nothing puts him down. He doesn't appear to be draining himself to old Anthony Johnson levels to make the cut or anything, with his size & shape he just shouldn't fade so hard so fast. This fight had some great action as all of Lauzon's do. It's just that where peak Lauzon would have finished this fight in the 1st round, now he finished himself in the 1st round instead & hung on for another round plus of getting bludgeoned. Lauzon started great, pressing forward with the jab & tagging Gritz time after time with the follow up right straight. Lauzon landed a big right elbow & shot a double, but rolled to his back when Gruetzemacher sprawled & tried to set up a sweep. This was just a minute in, and Lauzon was already slowing down. Lauzon made another big push when he got back to his feet after going for a heel hold, landing a front kick to the face & big knee. Lauzon was just standing in front of Gruetzemacher though, and Gruetzemacher, who surely knew Lauzon's primary defense is trying to block rather than evade, began battering him with short elbows & mixing some big uppercuts in. This inside battle clearly favored Gruetzemacher because he was fresher & Lauzon typically wasn't moving his head to avoid anything, but Lauzon just stood toe to toe with him because that took less energy. Lauzon used his energy failing on a takedown early in the 2nd, and thus the pattern continued with Gruetzemacher beating Lauzon up on the inside, increasingly bloodying his face with these short sharp strikes. Lauzon made another push when he finally got himself out of the pocket, but he didn't have much on his combos anymore to the point Gruetzemacher was content to let him further gas himself then go back to picking apart the stationary target. In a lot of ways, Gruetzemacher turned out to be the worst type of opponent for Lauzon because he's a very patient, grindy attrition fighter who could torture Lauzon but couldn't just finish him. Lauzon is also too tough for his own good, in zombie mode just continuing to eat punches & fire back from muscle memory. Mario Yamasaki was surely wondering why Dan Miragliotta didn't stop the fight, but again it was a case of the fighter still trying their best & doing all they were currently capable of to stay in a fight that logically everyone knew was over. Lauzon's right eye was cut much worse in the last minute because the fight was allowed to continue, and you then felt the excuse should have been made by the doctor because Lauzon likely couldn't see much if anything out of the right eye. Instead, they put it on Lauzon's corner to do the dirtywork & not let Joe come out for the 3rd. There was a ton of action here, but obviously some of the luster was off this fight because it was also sad seeing one of our heros fading hard & fast before our eyes. Good match.

Zabit Magomedsharipov vs. Kyle Bochniak 3R. Magomedsharipov is the most fluid all around fighter that's entered the UFC in a long time. A lot of fighters have all around skills in a vacuum, but he can really put them together effortlessly into a complete fully flowing highly unpredictable package. Bochniak was the biggest underdog on the card before the criminal mischief, and by all means this should have been a Saturday morning squash. While even Bochniak knew he was overmatched, he totally embraced his status & kept urging Magomedsharipov to bring it. Bochniak simply refused to ever back down or slow down, closing the distance against the much taller opponent & swinging for the fences from start to finish. Bochniak had his moments, but wasn't particularly successful because his weapons are limited & Magomedsharipov was slipping & sliding out of harms way then landing his counters. When Bochniak gave him a second he'd try some crazy strikes such as the jumping switch kick or hand plant high kick, but mostly he was landing hooks or kicks while or as soon as he evaded Bochniak's haymakers. Magomedsharipov is so fast he can throw spinning backfists without getting caught out of position. One of Bochniak's problems was it took him 2 punches to get inside, and by then Magomedsharipov had just backed & landed his counter, which is why Bochniak's corner wanted a second set of 2 punches, but even when Bochniak did that he was mostly just creating a breeze for an opponent who was already gone. Magomedsharipov was outgrappling Bochniak in the 2nd, but Bochniak would get back to his feet & just stick his tongue out at him, scream at him, drop his hands, whatever he could think of to try to sucker Magomedsharipov into a brawl. Magomedsharipov happily landed the lead uppercut & some more wild stuff, some of this was because he wasn't threatened since all Bochniak had was his hands & his heart, but he was still being solid & taking Bochniak's bloody right eye apart with his punches. Magomedsharipov isn't a huge power striker, but all his options combined with his blazing speed & ridiculous length keep the opponent off guard & thus allow him to land a lot of clean shots they don't see coming. Magomedsharipov countered one of Bochniak's early 3rd round charges with a beautiful spinning backkick. When Bochniak tried to come in again, Magomedsharipov dropped into a double leg. You thought Bochniak might slow down from the bloodloss if not from the beating given he had half a crimson mask, but he kept getting back to his feet & doing his Bald Bull imitations. Magomedsharipov tried to counter a high single leg with an enzuigiri, which got Bochniak to release his leg. Magomedsharipov was suddenly sucking wind when Bochniak stuffed his takedown, and now with a minute left Bochniak was finally able to just walk him down & land some big shots with Magomedsharipov just standing around. Finally, Magomedsharipov decided to just slug it out because he didn't have the energy to get out of the pocket & Bochniak wasn't going to stop punching, so he might as well give him something to think about, which made for a great finally burst of action. Bochniak's tireless performance managed to earn him a round from 1 judge and a fight of the night bonus. Good match.

Women's Strawweight Title Match: Rose Namajunas vs. Joanna Jedrzejczyk 5R. I was a lot more impressed with Rose in this fight than the last one even though she didn't score the impressive quick KO. The last fight could have just been a fluke, but here you could see a really evolving & maturing fighter who clearly recognized how Joanna fights & came up with the answer. Joanna is a combo fighter rather than a single shot power striker, and she starts these combos with the jab, but by staying low & constantly sliding off the center line, Rose was able to dodge most of Joanna's jabs, resulting in Joanna just being 1 and done or 1 and countered with a power punch over the top of Joanna's defense. This was a good fight because Joanna is also a great champion, so it wasn't, well, Rose figured out my cryptonite, Joanna realized that Rose's footwork was what was doing her in & made the adjustment to just keep kicking the legs so Rose couldn't do it as well. Because Rose's stance was designed to prevent the jab, she couldn't really prevent the low kicks, and as Rose's movement deteriorated & Joanna's superior conditioning took over, Joanna was able to get her usual jab 1st combos going in the 2nd half of the fight. This might not have been the most exciting fight ever, but it was a great tactical fight where everyone involved was impressive, but the 3 clowns scoring the fight who didn't recognize it came down to the final minute. Both women fought very patiently & very technically. Rose was focusing on her movement, keeping the distance so she was out of Joanna's range, but also not moving in predictable patterns so Joanna couldn't really cut her off or angle in on her. To make things worse for Joanna, Rose wasn't fooled by literally any of her fakes & feints, so she was never really able to change something up & catch Rose off guard to land the big strike Rose wasn't ready for. Joanna was overextending herself too much in the 1st fight, so she tried to stay tight & make Rose come to her, but Rose was looking to counter & wouldn't really initiate. This meant Joanna wound up being the aggressor, and she outlanded Rose in every single round, but Rose landed the harder shots, and right or wrong judges always wind up scoring head strikes & facial damage more than leg kicks & thigh bruising, Joanna & every other fighter ought to know that by now. Out of the 45 strikes landed in the 1st, all but maybe 1 of the handful of good clean ones came from Rose, and Joanna was immediately showing the damage on her nose & under her right eye. Mike Brown urged Joanna to step in with the double jab, but Joanna really seemed really hesitant to commit forward because Rose has the more explosive movement so she just missed the stationary jab time & time again rather than risking the big counter. The problem with that is these rounds that are extremely close such as round 2 wind up going to the fighter who lands the big shot. Rose landed 2 good hooks in this round, but Joanna outlanded her 27-20 because she was a lot more active & did some good work in the clinch, which was an area I would have liked to see her try to initiate because it takes away Rose's movement & also wears her down. Joanna took over in the 3rd, still looking for the left jab, but now taking the right low kick that was there with Rose basing her defense on defending the head punch. Joanna was finally confident & flowing in the 4th, increasing her activity against a fighter whose movement was now compromised & as such who wasn't countering much anymore. Joanna was opening up a bit more, finally worked in some body jabs. Rose had tried to stay technical all fight, but in the last minute of the 4th she began to change her strategy, realizing she could no longer rely on her movement she started coming forward & initiating some brawling. Rose landed a few good shots down the stretch, but still this was Joanna's biggest round, upping her strike margin from 30-19 in the 3rd to 38-22. I had the fight 2 rounds a piece, but the 2nd round was the most debatable & all the momentum was with Joanna. This should have been Joanna's fight at this point, but Rose stepped up in a big way, abandoning the strategy & discipline that got her here & refusing to let Joanna just chip away at her for another round to presumably win an attrition decision. Rose was compromised, so she did what she had to do, committing to stepping in throwing power punches & letting the chips fall where they may. Joanna wasn't expecting Rose to actually take the lead at this point, and it worked really well. The 1st 2 minutes of round 5 were the best of the fight for Rose, landing some big shots & further damaging Joanna's nose before Joanna adjusted to Rose's new tactics. Namajunas even landed a great lead uppercut to the damaged nose. Joanna's right eye was swelling more & more, and I'm not sure she was really seeing what Rose was throwing anymore, as she kind of started just throwing & ducking in a pattern as opposed to actually reacting to what was coming. In any case, Joanna started hitting the leg again either when Rose was coming in or when she was just standing in front of her because she wasn't moving side to side much anymore. Rose then stopped moving to reestablish distance, and was content to just stand in front of Joanna & slug it out. This allowed Joanna to be much active & more accurate with her punches in this round, but she also wasn't using many leg strikes because they were in close. What Joanna was lacking was the same thing she lacked in every round, something decisive that would rock Rose & impress the judges. On paper, round 5 was Joanna's best round, landing 41 (Rose's 26 was also her highest output), but every shot in the fight that popped the opponent's head came from Rose. For me, the fight was still up for grabs with 30 seconds left when Rose finally decided to try her 1st takedown, and hit it. I didn't give the round to Rose because of the takedown, but she had won the 1st 2 minutes with her hands & the takedown stopped the rot of the 2 1/2 minutes after that where Joanna had taken & was eeking her way back but was just perpetually lacking a signature shots. While I agree with the decision that Rose won the fight, all 3 judges giving it to her 49-46 was absurd because Joanna definitely won rounds 3 & 4 and round 2 could have gone either way. In the end, the scoring didn't matter, but had Joanna done something notable at the end to steal the last round, it would have been another NY women's scoring debacle like the Holly Holm vs. Germaine de Randamie fight where Holm lost despite actually winning 3 rounds in spite of taking fight changing shots after the bell when she wasn't defending herself two rounds in a row that de Randamie should have been docked 2 points if not just outright DQ'd for (just look at Hector Lombard vs. CB Dolloway for evidence of how 1 of these can do a fighter in). Good match.

NJ 6/3/17, Best Of The Super Junior XXIV Final: KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay 27:59. It's great to see the two guys who delivered the best matches in the league portion getting to square off in the final. Even better is this battle between the current IWGP champ KUSHIDA & defending Super Jr. champ Ospreay, which had interesting implications in that Ospreay was looking to become the 1st foreigner to win back to back Super Jrs (Tiger Mask is the only one to ever succeed) but he'd have to beat the guy who stopped him in both of his IWGP Jr Title bids, actually got plenty of time. Only 2 matches in the league portion exceeded 20 minutes, KUSHIDA/Taguchi & Ospreay/Ricochet, and they were also the 2 best matches of a tournament where most matches were about 10 minutes long. The length should have been more important for Ospreay because it theoretically gave him the opportunity to show more aspects of his game, in the UK he's expected to show some chain wrestling because they have the long history of counter grapping, but as was the case with Kota Ibushi before him, for the most part NJ seems to just want him to be a flippy guy rather than doing that much striking or technical wrestling. This match was really no different in that regard, as although the early portion had tremendous potential with the quick technical counters being right up KUSHIDA's alley as well, in the end they rather briefly shifted from the mat to striking to flying. Granted, the more important thing to point out is they did this all very organically with great timing & chemistry as they become more & more familiar with one another, and one of the reasons this great match stands out among the pack in NJ is you actually have two guys who can be individually great working together to reach a higher level through constantly adding to & answering what the other has to offer. This wasn't challenger of the month nearly killing themselves to carry Okada through a match where they do all the work then lose to a champ who actually has no answers to most of what they throw at him, it's hard to say who was better here because both were setting each other up & adding to what the other was trying to do rather than simply looking to the opponent & Gedo for the answers they should have themselves. Sure, the various parity sequences, especially on the mat, could have been better developed rather than going into kind of a throwaway version of the predictable KUSHIDA injures Ospreay & tries to slow him down, but Ospreay comes back with his flying anyway. What was great about the early portion is you had to have an answer, once they slowed down there was no sense of urgency as one guy would do a move & then stand around waiting for the other guy to recover enough to do another move to him. The other thing that was weird is KUSHIDA hurt Ospreay's knee then arm on back to back moves, and kind of dabbled into working on both throughout the match without ever really committing to either. The mistake with this match is to try to make it into something it isn't though. It wasn't an all around match or a story match. It wasn't about selling or lack thereof. It's not a heavyweight match or a British style match or whatever. It was simply a longer, all out version of the greatest spectacle they had to offer, which is close to the greatest spectacle on earth, with the slower portion in the middle mostly just being something of a breather in between the hot opening & the amazing lengthy closing. This match is this generation's Kanemoto vs. Samurai final. It's all about being exciting & over the top, and the athleticism here is so outstanding that a lot of the other stuff didn't matter that much in the end. These guys may not have been pushing their all around boundaries, but this was one hell of a difficult match that they made look easy because they're such great athletes & were on top of their game, working together so well that the match didn't come off as the absolute choreographed spectacle it actually was. My friends reaction "they're doing shit I fantasized about, thinking damn it's too bad this is impossible to do in real life" describes the action here better than I can. I can tell you Ospreay was just backflipping all over the place, hitting a no touch moonsault attack to the floor, countering KUSHIDA's charge with the Spanish fly, etc, but that doesn't begin to give you an idea of the kind of fantastic athletic contest this was because these spots were pulled off with such effortless efficiency in the context of a match that was reacting to whatever openings the opponent was giving & taking advantage of the opponents positioning to hit your move instead they generally didn't feel like stunts or ballet, they didn't feel different than the early athletic counters, just an extension of them. The action was really explosive, and they had each other scouted well from their previous encounters with spots such as Ospreay hitting a running shooting star press only to have KUSHIDA get his knees up for the corkscrew moonsault. Ospreay nearly got a countout after following the burning star press with a reverse Frankensteiner on the apron then nearly finished KUSHIDA with the Essex destroyer only to have KUSHIDA turn is Oscutter into an armbar. Ospreay turned KUSHIDA's diving move into a cutter, but when he went for the proper Oscutter again, KUSHIDA avoided & seemed to be countering with a handspring kick, but turned it into a cutter instead. After KUSHIDA had nearly knocked Ospreay out ending their exchange with a big punch to the neck then nearly submitted him with his Kimura, you thought the match was going to end with his Back to the Future, but Ospreay turned it into a cutter & got a near fall with his reverse firebird splash. One cool thing here is that even though KUSHIDA has been the face & top working native in the jr division for some time, the fans were also cheering for Ospreay from the outset to the point that, while KUSHIDA still had more support, it really just felt like they wanted to see a great match & didn't care who won. These two are definitely capable of a few different matches from this, and they may well even be greater, but they were super energized & when you thought they might slow down, they managed to amp it up yet another notch & exchange even more fiercely. The match was dramatic because they had so many answers & it went on for so long that both legitimately could have won a handful of times. Eventually Ospreay tried to up the ante with a cutter off the middle rope, but KUSHIDA stopped it & hit his Back to the Future off the 2nd & then a regular one just to be certain to take the league. Definitely the match of the league. ****1/2

GLORY 52 3/31/18

Josh Jauncey vs. Stoyan Koprivlenski 3R. One of the closest GLORY fights I've seen. They stood toe to toe with both guys being very active & consistent, pretty much throwing 60+ a round & landing 25+ a round. Jauncey is a guy GLORY has wanted to do big things, but they put him in with competition too elite too fast & he lost to great champions like Giorgio Petrosyan & Sittichai then started having really inconsistent results. He needed a win here coming off the big upset KO defeat to Elvis Gashi, but Koprivlenski has surpassed him in the rankings & was already supposed to get a title shot from winning the GLORY 49 contender tournament, they seem to just be trying to get him some more experience in the meantime as he has 10 fights compared to Sittichai's 150+. Koprivlenski was doing a better job of mixing quadrants with his punches, but Jauncey got into a good grove in the 2nd round of following the head punch with the low kick. I thought Jauncey slightly won the 2nd round anyway, but definitely the thing of note was he opened up a nasty gash just under Koprivlenski's left eyebrow with a right high kick. The other 2 rounds really could have gone either way. Koprivlenski did a better job of pressuring in the 3rd, staying long & backing Jauncey, but Jauncey won the toe to toe exchanges when Koprivlenski wasn't pushing him back with his jabs, so again it was very close overall. Jauncey's edges were head punches & low kicks, while Koprivlenski had the body punches, but overall, Jauncey outlanded Koprivlenski 85-83. Jauncey won a split decision 29-28, 30-27, 28-29, 28-29, 30-27. I'd have been happy with a draw, but these 30-27's were rather unreasonable. Good match.

Glory Featherweight Title Unification Match: Robin van Roosmalen (c) vs. Kevin VanNostrand (ic) 5R. About what you'd expect from a van Roosmalen fight, with VanNostrand competing early but progressively getting worn down by the ceaseless forward pressure & great conditioning of RVR to the point he was just struggling to stay out of the corner. These guys didn't even look like they belonged in the same weight class, with van Roosmalen only coming up to VanNostrand's nose. VanNostrand is traditionally a quick starter, and as long as he could keep using his length & faking unorthodox strikes to keep Robin honest he had a chance. He started effectively faking the step knee or teep then coming forward with the jab. Van Roosmalen was content to stay behind his block & let VanNostrand burn energy, deflecting VanNostrand's combo then applying his own pressure, which meant VanNostrand never got a break, he was either using a lot of energy to attack or struggling to keep himself off the ropes where van Roosmalen could have his way with him. VanNostrand backed van Roosmalen into the ropes with a couple missed step knees then bloodied his nose with a short right hand as van Roosmalen was bouncing back off the ropes. VanNostrand looked to land his spinning attacks, but even though these would theoretically help keep Robin back, Robin instead moved forward so he'd be inside the shot if VanNostrand still bothered to throw it & would throw his own punches while VanNostrand was prone. VanNostrand won the 1st round, but van Roosmalen was okay with that, staying in his face & blocking high while landing low kicks. Already in the 2nd, there was a lot more of VanNostrand striking just to try to keep van Roosmalen back rather than having the energy to launch his own offensive as van Roosmalen continued to chip away with kicks & slow VanNostrand down with pressure. VanNostrand was sucking wind just trying to keep van Roosmalen off him in the 3rd, and with his constant forward pressure game now in full swing, van Roosmalen was mixing a lot more head & body punches into his already effective low kick game. Van Roosmalen was pinning VanNostrand on the ropes more and more, and that allowed him to work his typical left to the liver, right to the head or vice versa punch combos. VanNostrand was stunned by one of the liver hooks midway through the 4th and spent the rest of the round trying to find some space to get a breather, but of course van Roosmalen just followed along & kept beating on him. Van Roosmalen was corning VanNostrand more & more in these late rounds, and was still pushing for the finish in the 5th even though he'd won 3 rounds in a row. He didn't get it, but he hurt VanNostrand with a jumping knee & a few more liver hooks. Even though van Roosmalen totally ran away with the fight, his nowhere to hide style demands relentless attacking from both, so it wasn't getting dull. One judge had it 48-47, the other four had it 49-46. Good match.

DDT 7/23/17, KO-D Openweight Title Match: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Keisuke Ishii 17:51. I'm mostly recommending this for the effort & because Takeshita is a young wrestler with a lot of promise that he's beginning to live up to. It's basically constructed most of the way, as they they didn't really work together so much as just exchange stretches of offense, but it's well executed with a lot of good moves & they start to develop the match down the stretch. Ishii did a brutal reverse neckbreaker onto the guardrail, and the story, such as it was, had him focusing on the neck in some unconventional ways as well as with big suplexes/drivers trying to set up his doublearm DDT. Takeshita countered the doublearm DDT on the apron, but Ishii managed a released German. The match picked up when Ishii surprisingly turned Takeshita's backdrop into a DDT, not a great counter on it's own per se, but it caught me off guard because the sequences & transitions hadn't risen above the most basic so far. The match was mostly Ishii doing a good job of pushing Takeshita to make himself credible. Takeshita finally took over turning a final cut into a reverse DDT, and came closer with each near fall until he won with his surprise rose. The match seemed a bit short because it took a while to hit its stride & both could have done more, Ishii actually never even attempted his kneel kick finisher, but overall 18 minutes is a good length for what these guys have to offer, and for some reason Takeshita had another impromptu title defense right after this where he took a brutal jackknife off the apron through a table. ***

Fight Nights Global 84 3/2/18, Fight Nights Bantamweight Title: Tomas Deak vs. Sharamazan Chupanov 3:17 R5. Chupanov lost a split decision to Deak at Fight Nights Moscow 12/11/15, and was determined not to fail once again, really really determined. This was an absolute classic of willpower if there ever was one. Deak went on to win the title after his win over Chupanov, and looked great here exploiting his boxing advantage, just tagging Chupanov all night with his power punches, particularly his nasty left hook counter that seemed poised to propel him to an easy defense. Deak had Chupanov down 35 seconds into the fight following his left jab with such a fast left hook I wasn't sure if Chupanov just slipped until I saw watched it again. Chupanov was up quickly, but a little more than a minute later, Deak countered his left low kick with a left hook for a 2nd knockdown, and this time was able to take Chupanov's back & flurry punches. By this point, you knew the fight was going to be entertaining for as long as it lasted, you just a) didn't know if that was going to be very long the way Deak was off to the races and b) didn't know if Chupanov could work his way into a competitive match or was just going to survive because he has a great chin & the heart to match. Chupanov never backed down though, fighting toe to toe all night & trying to match Deak's punches with his kicks & clinch knees. Chupanov was probably the better inside fighter because of his knees, but Deak was smart enough to disengage before Chupanov could land multiples & go back to nailing him with punches at range. Although Deak made fun of his low kicks early, faking injury, Deak seemed to be trying to mask a minor leg injury before long. Chupanov's big problem is he always dropped his right hand, which wasn't that high to begin with, whenever he attacked, and that couldn't have suited Deak better, as Deak really wanted to counter with full puller left hands. Deak rocked Chupanov with the left hook early in the 2nd and then dropped him with the left hook counter to Chupanov's low kick. Chupanov always recovered quickly from these knockdowns somehow, and would get a clinch, so Deak would have to respect his knees and reset. Deak might have had two 10-8 rounds in a row, but it was Deak who was bleeding around both eyes & had slowed down more. Deak's full power style is much more taxing than Chupanov's more fluid kicking style, but Deak also put so much effort into trying to end the fight that he was full of lactic acid. Chupanov tried to get his takedown game going in the 3rd, but Deak was up as soon as Chupanov tried to mount. Chupanov finally put Deak down with a low kick in the 4th, and dropped a bunch of nasty elbows on him. It was getting to the point where you started considering how many more unanswered elbows Deak should be allowed to absorb when Chupanov finally mounted only to have Deak buck him off & get back to his feet when his single leg failed. Deak answered the knockdown stronger than Chupanov had earlier, landing some good punch combos to finish the round strong. Chupanov definitely got the 4th, and potentially the 3rd, so Deak had to find another wind & make a push in the 5th because it was no longer a foregone conclusion that Deak was winning the decision. The fans were going nuts in the 5th, helping the exhausted fighters to push through their overwhelming fatigue. Deak still seemed more gassed early, but when Chupanov hit the wall, he really crashed & just stopped moving his feet. Deak took the opportunity to switch things up with an uppercut that buckled Chupanov. Chupanov was running below empty at this point, but Deak couldn't put him down with a punch or even a frustration push. Finally, Chupanov got knocked back so many times he was out of real estate, and Deak worked knees & uppercuts on the inside against the cage. Deak landed a right uppercut after Chupanov's knee on the break missed, and with Chupanov again wobbling on unstable legs, Marc Goddard stopped it. What a crazy fight! I was so impressed by how strong these guys came back whenever they got hurt, and it was insane how Chupanov was able to wear Deak out by absorbing so many huge shots then almost win after an attrition knockdown. Excellent match.

NJ 6/1/17, Best Of The Super Junior XXIV Block B Match: KUSHIDA [8] vs. Volador Jr. [6] 15:44. Volador's bad rap in this tournament was unjustified because the cryptonite to his perpetual motion style is a lazy opponent, and night after night he was in there with guys that didn't want to put any effort in, plus ACH who still tries but is your generic American poser. Volador's thing is to go, and with KUSHIDA, he finally had an opponent that would move with him from start to finish. When you're working fast like Volador always does, familiarity is key because the style is based on timing & chemistry, so you have to anticipate where they're going to be & what they're going to do. These two had a couple matches in Mexico last year, so while wrestling each other is hardly second nature like many of Volador's best CMLL rivals, they were much closer to being on the same page throughout even if it was still somewhat deliberate by Volador's standards, and as such Volador's execution was closer to its usual level than in his earlier tournament matches. The match was an exciting all action match that was good from start to finish like Volador's best matches, pretty much in his style with KUSHIDA again doing a great job of adapting to what his opponent can do. If this match happened earlier in the league, it would have been ideal. It's exactly the kind of energetic action this tournament was supposed to be delivering, but actually wasn't. The problem here is it was the final match of the league with the winner advancing to face Ospreay in the finals. While that should be a good thing, after all you have the two best workers in the block going at it to see who moved forward, but they weren't able to take things to the next level & give the match an aura of importance. The match was consistent, but that was both good & bad. They did a bunch of great high risk moves including exchanging Frankensteiners with both standing on the top, and although the setup was a bit awkward from time to time, the issue here was the match didn't really build or climax. KUSHIDA made some crazy armbar counters to Volador's flying here, hitting it off Volador's swandive & handspring, but it wasn't as though you felt he was going to get Volador with one of these, they were just answers. Both men had plenty of answers, and that's one of the reasons the match was good, but the match wasn't building to someone not having an answer, it wasn't really building, and just kind of ended with KUSHIDA hitting his Back to the Future without generating the kind of urgency it needed. ***1/4

DDT 2/28/13, KO-D Openweight Title Last Man Standing Falls Count Anywhere Match: Kenny Omega vs. Michael Nakazawa 35:59. Omega gave one of his one man shows, managing to pull Nakazawa though a really long match that was comedy oriented early but still managed to be a serious struggle for the belt. There were a lot of good moves, albeit mostly from Omega, but the work was pretty basic as Nakazawa is a competent robotic type who isn't going to do high level transitions or counters, but is fine to exchange shots or advantages with. Omega set the tone of his abuse early, taunting the oily muscleman to act normal before the match then pulling out a bag of sexual goodies including an S&M whip and some lube, which wound up getting spit into Nakazawa's face after Nakazawa attacked Kenny. Omega was basically just giving a performance early, and got easily sidetracked interacting with the fans, or more likely just wanted to pad the length. Omega's attempts to complete the Garvin stomp grew tedious quickly, but he was pretty much on his own here, and brought more & more of his big flying moves & gimmick spots as the match progressed. For me the fault of the match was Nakazawa always seemed as overmatched as he was skillwise. He pretty much just got destroyed from start to finish, and was just hanging on because he was fired up & pissed off from getting disrespected while Omega was super cocky & just toying with him because he believed he could. Nakazawa kept trying to win with a sleeper hold, & Kenny couldn't even shake him jumping backwards into the turnbuckle, so he took things a step further & climbed to the top rope with Nakazawa on his back then jumped backwards, which busted Nakazawa's eye open hardway as their heads collided on the landing for a double knockdown. The accidental blood was a good effect as Nakazawa was all heart & guts here, just willing himself to continue as Kenny racked up pins on him. Eventually Nakazawa cut Kenny off on the ropes & hit a sweet backdrop off the 2nd, but still couldn't get a pin. They kept teasing the table until Nakazawa stopped Omega's vertical suplex to the floor & speared him off the apron through the table for his 1st fall. I thought this should have turned the match for a little while & been Nakazawa's chance to make us believe he could actually win, but Kenny recovered immediately & hurt Nakazawa slamming him into the edge of the ring. As the beatdown continued, the match eventually degenerated into Nakazawa simply playing zombie, eating a bunch of chair shots & getting pinned, but being ready to stalk forward into some more by the 9 count. Even for DDT, Nakazawa finally turning the tide after 30+ minutes by stripping down to his jock strap was seriously lame. This was supposed to make for a flaming finish, but having not been competitive for so long, it felt like he should just lose already rather than finally making a push. Omega did finally win after surviving this last stand. ***

DDT 7/2/17, KO-D Openweight Title Match: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Mike Bailey 27:35. These guys didn't care that it was a small show, they both gave great efforts doing a long, hard fought match that had some story & a lot of great action. Bailey was really at his best here, pulling out all the stops in his first challenge for DDT's top title, and truly looking like he deserved to leave with the strap. The body of the match had Takeshita working over Bailey's injured leg, with Bailey making big albeit brief comebacks due to struggling with the leg. Bailey made Takeshita pay for posing after his plancha, elbowing him in the stomach when he walked back over then doing a snapmare into a big punt, but then Takeshita ducked his high kick & Bailey injured his leg nailing the ring post. I really liked the way Bailey was selling when he made his comeback, actually changing the way he ran to take pressure off the injured leg. The weak leg also made Bailey more prone to counters, for instance when Takeshita avoided Bailey's ultuma weapon, Bailey saw him move & landed on his feet, but the impact on his knee froze him long enough for Takeshita to get up & take over with a Dragon screw. The same thing almost happened when Bailey landed on his feet for a backdrop, but Takeshita got distracted pointing the knee out to the fans & this time Bailey was ready to counter with a kick. There was a really weird spot that I'm not sure worked as intended where Takeshita tried to vertical suplex Bailey to the floor, but Bailey held onto him & pulled him over the top rope with him. Either way, they more than made up for it with a crazy, amazing spot where Takeshita tried to powerbomb Bailey on the floor, but Bailey grabbed on to the stairway railing, kicked Takeshita off him and climbed up to the top of the stairs by the ledge, which was at least 5 feet higher than the top turnbuckle, for a moonsault attack! Takeshita nearly got counted out from the moonsault, and they seemed to be transitioning to the finishing sequence, which would have been reasonable given there were a couple hundred in attendance, but they went on delivering big moves & near finishes for close to 10 more minutes. Bailey's knee was "healing" as the match progressed, and Takeshita gave up on working it opting for his usual high impact moves instead. Bailey dropped Takeshita on his head with a released Dragon suplex, hit the tornado kick in the corner then a brutal ultuma weapon off the 2nd with Takeshita on all fours, but Takeshita kept taking all the huge kicks & crazy moves Bailey could come up with & willing himself forward in too Hulkish a manner for my tastes. They'd tease the turnbuckle brainbuster when Bailey ascended to the top rope, and finally Takeshita deposited Bailey up there to try for the finish, but Bailey landed on the apron & countered with a jumping kick. The finish was pretty contrived as Bailey then climbed back up and waited a little since Takeshita was late with his kick to cut Bailey off, but the turnbuckle brainbuster itself was all kinds of nasty, & I'm glad when Takeshita got it that was that. ***3/4

GLORY 52 3/31/18, Zakaria Zouggary vs. Bailey Sugden 3R. The expected action packed match from two of GLORY's most exciting young fighters. These guys really brought it, and weren't afraid to take chances. Zouggary was looking for the high kick from the get go, and was trying high level athletic attacks as usual, landing a jumping switch knee, spinning back kick, even trying a tornado kick like he was Mike Bailey. I thought Zouggary's left high kick should have been scored a knockdown. Bailey was ducking in with a left hand, and it seemed like Zouggary's shin caught him on the chin & caused Sugden to stumble down onto his glove. Zouggary had the speed advantage, and when he had space was too dynamic & diverse for Sugden. Sudgden had the advantage when he could close the distance & use his boxing combos, but he wasn't doing anything to maintain that distace in the 1st & on the outside, other than a couple spinning backfists, he didn't have much for Zouggary. Sugden tried to force a change in the 2nd, just bull charging Zouggary time after time. Zouggary was ready, and was hitting him coming in, which was obviously bad, but just being such a competitive fighter he then refused to give ground to Sugden which was exactly what Sugden needed him to do. This made for an exciting fight as there were some big firefights on the inside with both showing really fast hands, but it also let Sugden into the fight. Zouggary won the 1st round easily, but the 2nd round was very close because of Zouggary's stubbornness, trying to match Sugden in a boxing match rather than staying on the outside & winning with his kicks. Sugden's dad kept trying to get him to throw the body punch, and it landed the few times he actually used it, but he was basically just headhunting. A minute into the 3rd, Zouggary landed 2 good right hands then pushed Sugden down as Sugden stepped inside his left hand, and this time Marcos Rosales ruled it a knockdown. Though the first punch, in particular, was good, it was clear that Sugden was pushing forward & Zouggary gave him a boost with what was essentially an enzui lariat follow through, so Sugden was in disbelief after he popped up. At this point, Zouggary could have just shut it down because he was presumably up 2 points, but he still put up a spinning high kick & engaged in one final wild flurry in the last 10 seconds after eating a right hook. Zouggary definitely won the fight, and while I did give him the 2nd round also, I was still surprised that all 5 judges agreed & had it 30-26 as this was a much more competitive fight than that score suggests. Good match.

MPW 6/24/00, P*Mix Grand Prix Tournament 2nd Round Match: Hiromi Yagi & Tiger Mask vs. Chaparita ASARI & The Great Sasuke 20:29. I'm not a huge fan of mixed tag matches because they usually degenerate into something sexual and/or have men who feel humiliated selling for the women. This had neither of those problems, and is actually the best I've ever seen, succeeding in being a match you could take seriously at the same time it was fun. It's a shame these teams had to meet in the 2nd round because this was the only match where they men & women were natural rivals who were regularly programmed together. Well, rivals might not exactly be the right term for Sasuke & Tiger since they were in the same face unit, but it was Tiger's singles matches with Sasuke over the past year that had elevated him to the top in Michinoku. The main pairings being very familiar with one another & having good chemistry together played a huge part in the success, but what set this match apart is the great performance by Yagi. It's such a shame she retired the 1st time just as JWP was finally giving her a push, and they'd imploded by the time she returned to the ring, but being a free agent without ever having been a star rather than going back or hooking on with some other league (ARSION would have been ideal as she was the closest Mariko Yoshida had to a technical rival) just kind of made her, as her great Iron Maiden theme song suggests, a Stranger in a Strange Land, kicking around the midcards but not getting a lot of big wins or main events because it's hard to push a tiny wrestler who isn't yours. Yagi's quickness & flexibility were even more pronounced with the men involved, and even though she's the only one who isn't a high flyer by trade, she was pretty clearly the one who could control & manipulate her body in the most precise manner. While Sasuke & Tiger's mat portion was outright complacent dullardry laying in some lame hammerlock or ankle twist to kill time, Yagi was doing quick, inspired back & forth lucha sequences with ASARI from the opening bell that showcased ASARI's flying & Yagi's sweet submission counters. Outside of the requisite Yagi material, there was a nice spot where she turned ASARI's Michinoku driver II into a leglock that ultimately was adjusted into kneebar. ASARI & Yagi always had good matches, but this was shockingly better because of how well Yagi & Sasuke worked together. When Sasuke & Tiger came in for their 2nd sequence, they decided it was time to start wrestling, but Yagi came in to stop Sasuke from hitting a dive, & was countering everything he threw at her as well. In particular, Sasuke kept trying to take Yagi out with his thunderfire powerbomb, but twice Yagi turned it into a different armdrag variant & the third time a huracanrana. Yagi vs. Sasuke was easily the best pairing in the match, and by a mile the best male/female pairing of the entire tournament, as Sasuke didn't mind being made a fool of, allowing Yagi to be a step or counter ahead of everything he tried while continuing to work with her because he was determined to actually do something to her. It may sound silly, but it's a shame these two never had a singles match as they had great chemistry together & it undoubtedly would have been excellent if Sasuke wanted it to be. ASARI vs. Tiger was fine as well, with ASARI turning a powerbomb into a facecrusher, but these two are both much better at making themselves look good than the opponent, so the sequences were a lot less challenging than Yagi vs. Sasuke. ASARI was the sketchiest of the bunch overall, she'd grown stagnant before joining NEO & the weight she'd put on since wasn't helping her high flying style, but she worked hard & fast throughout & Yagi gave her excellent setups & bumps as always. I figured Yagi would do the job since the match showcased her, but she not only won, she even got to tap ASARI, avoiding her sky twister press & swinging from a bridging hammerlock suplex into an armbar. In a vacuum, I'm probably overrating this slightly, but this match not only didn't feel sleezy, it gave a reason for intergender matches to exist at a time when they were basically displaced pole dancers getting molested. ****

NJPW 5/31/17, Best Of The Super Junior XXIV Block A Match: Will Ospreay [10] vs. Hiromu Takahashi [8] 15:19. This was the kind of effort I'd been waiting for on the WORLD shows. It may not have been a perfect match, but there's no question they have talent, the question was whether they were going to use it. That's always the most important question in any match. While the debate for almost all the league matches on the streaming shows would be whether they were even half efforts, this is the only one you could argue was in the ballpark of a full effort. You knew this would be one of Takahashi's good car crashes when you saw how these two were shot out of a cannon. They set the tone immediately, getting some dives in early, including Takahashi's sunset flip powerbomb, as well as some stiff striking. Fittingly, Ospreay even created some wreckage setting Takahashi on a chair & taking out a couple rows with a running dropkick. The match was pretty similar to Takahashi's vastly overrated match with Ricochet in that it had a fast start & finish & he meandered somewhat during the middle, but they gave 10x the effort & were actually able to not only create intensity & urgency with their initial surge but actually even maintain most of it by bothering to tell the story of Takahashi trying to wreck Will's knee. Hiromi is hardly amazing when he's not doing something fast & wild, but the storyline made his walking around in circles between stomping the knee a little less annoying. For the most part, he did keep on Ospreay during the slow parts, & Ospreay was certainly always in go mode when he regained the offensive. Ospreay was really jacked up & hyper today, and that was both good and bad. Although this was something of a showcase for him, he mostly just stole the show because he outclassed Takahashi, which maybe not in the way you'd like was still making the match a lot better than what Takahashi was doing on the streamed shows. On the other hand, Will was also hurting the match by overdoing his acting, he's fairly good & consistent when it comes to gesturing to signal the knee is shaky, limping & whatnot, but his vocal selling was at its all-time worst, screaming like a banshee when Takahashi had any kind of submission that targetted the leg in addition to his usual swearing that doesn't offend me but he's not exactly Joe Pesci in making it become the performance either. Ospreay made a big comeback from the leg attack, but when you're the Aerial Assassin, it's hard not to use your legs, and just about everything he was doing was hurting him almost as much as Takahashi. I felt like he did a reasonable job of playing his game even though he was "injured", and even though the body of the match wasn't fully fleshed out by any means & it never felt like Takahashi would win, the explosive action made up for it. There were a few execution issues, but the level of difficulty was high & it was great to see Ospreay hit shooting star press off the apron as well as his imploding 450 splash before putting Takahashi away to advance to the final. ***3/4

DDT King Of DDT 2017 Final Round 6/25/17

King Of DDT 2017 Semifinal Match: Tetsuya Endo vs. Akito 11:30. I prefer having the semifinals & final on different days so you can have 3 full fledged big matches. Given this 2 for 1 format, this was probably the ideal booking for the semifinal. It's not a great match by itself, but it's a really focused story match that is good enough to stand on it's own, while at the same time setting up a much better final. Endo only cared about flying & Akito only cared about destroying his knee so he couldn't fly. Akito relaxed in sukhasana as he waited for Endo to make his way to the ring, so Endo entered with a swandive missile kick & went for a big athletic start only to have Akito push the back of his legs before he can leap for his quebrada & begin to take his left knee apart to slow him down. That was pretty much it for Endo's successful flying. Akito has a really fun off the wall knee attack, taking all sorts of established moves but altering them so the impact was onto the knee instead of the back or the head. He spent the next 4 1/2 minutes brutalizing the knee before Endo was even able to initiate a striking exchange. Endo made a brief aerial comeback, but Akito cut off his swandive move & slammed him on his knees. This must have been the most frustrating match ever for Endo because whenever he tried to do something cool, for instance the shooting star press, the Submission Freak just avoided it & slapped on another submission. Endo no sooner escaped one ankle hold than Akito countered his handspring enzuigiri with another one. This was an absolute battle of wills, and especially because of that I didn't really like the finish where Endo did what my friend described as an "absurd figure 4 counter" using his stacked leverage to get a flash pin. They just did a flash pin in the other semifinal that wasn't really a match, and while they needed to push Endo through to the final as well, this was such a well focused match the only fitting conclusions were Akito tapping Endo or Endo taking him out wish some big Hail Mary flying move. ***

King Of DDT 2017 Final Match: Tetsuya Endo vs. HARASHIMA 22:08. A deceptively spectacular match where they did a good enough job of continuing the injury storyline from the semifinal that the match seemed more under control. It was less dependent on the expected high spot, with Endo missing a lot of flying moves & HARASHIMA picking his spots between telling the story for his. HARASHIMA didn't come out gunning for Endo's knee, but when his landing was unsteady after HARASHIMA avoided his handspring enzuigiri, HARASHIMA took over with a kneecap dropkick. The knee story worked better in the semifinal because Akito has a much more diverse knee attack than HARASHIMA, who is a better wrestler but, like Endo, is more entertaining when he's flying around & doing big dangerous things. Endo still did his thing, selling the knee after every spectacular move, but HARASHIMA kind of didn't do his thing as he was instead smart & opportunistic, primarily concerned with shutting Endo down & taking the opportunity to throw in a falcon arrow or reverse Frankensteiner off the top when it presented itself. Endo's flying offense can more than make a match though, so this wasn't at all a bad thing. He hit a sweet corkscrew quebrada, Tetsuya In The Sky With Diamonds (Spanish fly), & won with a shooting star press. The transitions were good because they were in theme, for instance HARASHIMA going into an Achilles' tendon hold when Endo missed a missile kick, but while the moves were often lights out, the whole structure was really basic with 1 guy doing his thing until he was countered. I feel like I should have liked this match more than I did, but some things were missing such as the big match aura & intensity of a final. The chemistry wasn't quite there, and there wasn't that much interplay between the two to really develop things. It was a good match, don't get me wrong, but it felt like they ran with the basic sketch the bookers gave them rather than really digging into it & developing the sequences. ***1/4

BACK TO QUEBRADA REVIEWS

	Enter your search terms Submit search form
	Web quebrada.net

* Puroresu, MMA, & Kickboxing Reviews Copyright 2018 Quebrada *