Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA
Chapter 19: SHOOTO 11/28/90 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
By Michael Betz & Mike Lorefice 9/10/20

Right away this glorious cassette tape is delivering the goods, as we are greeted to a wonderful montage while Passion from Andrew Blythe plays in the background. This is a truly exquisite experience, as this would be the perfect track for a late '80's martial arts revenge flick, in which the reluctant protagonist decides to get revenge from the evil horde of ninjas that killed his brother because he knew too much about their network of illicit cocaine distribution. The introduction ends with a wonderful screen display that says SUPER FREE FIGHTING over a red backdrop. It would appear that the producers have moved on from the Commodore 64, and are now taking advantage of Broderbund's legendary Dazzle Draw, which is a raster graphics editor that can take advantage of the full 16 color spectrum that enhanced Apple IIe computers can provide.

Even 1 ½ years after the first professional Shooto event, Satoru Sayama is still starting these shows by giving an introduction with his students, but what is most remarkable is that instead of just keeping this demonstration limited to the basic rules, he is also going in depth on technique, proper fighting stances, etc, and is basically conducting a mini training seminar. As I'm watching this, I'm reminded of an interview with Bret Hart where he said that his fathers biggest joy and passion was teaching real shoot holds to anyone that would listen, and I believe that I'm seeing a kindred spirit here with Sayama. Surely, most of the crowd has a general grasp on what's going on by now, so having an introduction to every event is probably unnecessary, but you can see a certain joy when Sayama explains techniques to the crowd, and there is no doubt that starting this new sport had to be a labor of love, as he left behind a life of endorsements, tv commercials, and basically being the Japanese equivalent of Hulk Hogan to do something as crazy as start a promotion based around real comprehensive fighting, and if that wasn't enough, he had no real precedent to base this endeavor off of outside of what existed in the world of pro wrestling. He wound up paying a hefty price for following his passions, as after leaving the UWF, and writing his autobiography, entitled, Kayfabe (where he supposedly exposed the secrets of puroresu) he wound up largely being persona non grata to the Japanese pro wrestling world, and wound up having to return to work in pro wrestling events in the mid to late 90s, past his physical prime, and lacking in finances, as he was ousted from Shooto in 1996 due to disagreements with the board of directors.

First up, we are greeted with a graphics title letting us know that we will be having a match between Kenji Kawaguchi vs. Yuji Ito, and what I find particularly interesting about this is that they list the respective gyms of both participants in a way that became popular in the late 90s/early 00's with promotions like King of the Cage, Gladiator Challenge, Extreme Challenge, etc. This is amazing that as far back as 1990, there were effectively enough different MMA gyms in Japan trying to compete with each other within the Shooto system that differentiation was required. The match starts off with both fighters trading unchecked thigh kicks, but with Kawaguchi seemingly having the power advantage. Ito is fast enough to sneak in some stiff jabs, but there is a considerable gap between the athleticism of both men, and he is having trouble dealing his opponents explosiveness.

One negative to this early Shooto is the complete lack of time on the ground that is allowed. Whereas in the Shooto I've witnessed from 94-96, the refs were much more liberal about allowing time for the fights to play out on the ground (though they wouldn't be afraid to stand things up for a lack of action) and starting around '97 or so, they moved to more of a PRIDE FC format of not standing up fighters at all, and moving the opponents back to the center of the ring if they got too close to the ropes ("STOP! DON'T MOVE!!!"). This kind of rhythm feels a lot like a judo match, in that you had better sink in a submission right away once you hit the ground, or you are just going to get stood right back up.

Round 2 goes right into a total slugfest as both fighters just start letting the swings fly, but again, while Ito is landing just as many, if not more strikes, his punches don't seem to contain the same power that Kawaguchi has. Still, Ito's barrage may be working, as after one such exchange, Kawaguchi fell to a knee, and then seemed to go for a lazy kneebar attempt to try and buy some time. Just when I think that Ito has a chance in this fight, Kawaguchi floors him with a nasty left hook, that scores a knockdown. Ito barely manages to get back up, and is knocked right back down, but is able to stand back up right before the bell rang. Round 3 sees Ito go out on his shield, as he wastes no time going after Kawaguchi, but his power simply isn't there, and is quickly knockout with a counteroffensive. Fun match.

ML: Ito has an awkward striking style where he wants to fight on the inside so he can throw a short right punch or a right elbow, which kind of looks the same because he's throwing both with a bent elbow, to the point I'm not sure if he's got great disguise or is just following through with the right arm until some part of it connects. The first round was pretty even, but Kawaguchi made adjustments in the 2nd, deciding that if Ito was going to keep coming in to try for the phone booth fight that he'd either counter by dropping down into the takedown or by timing him coming in, dropping Ito with a left hook. At the end of the round, Kawaguchi had another knockdown with a right hook for a middle kick. Kawaguchi tried to take it to Ito in the 3rd, but Ito hurt him countering with the bent arm right. However, as both kept swinging wildly, Kawaguchi wound up knocking Ito out with a left hook a few seconds later. Not the best technical match you'll ever see, but an entertaining match that I think you could consider a good match via initial MMA standards.

Next we have a delightful title card informing us that the upcoming bout will be for the inaugural welterweight title, and is featuring Kazuhiro Kusayanagi of the Super Tiger Gym Saginuma (with a background in judo and wrestling) vs Tomonori Ohara of the Kiguchi Shooting Gym (with a background in boxing). Round 1 is almost underway, and we can see that the most fearsome weapon seen today will surely be Ohara's Joe Dirt styled mullet. This round was mostly a kickboxing affair with Kusayanagi moving in and out, effectively using his jab to measure distance, and pelt his opponent with low kicks and punches. Ohara's footwork was in place, but he seemed tentative, and while he would unload a nice shot to his opponent's body, he simply spent most of the round taking kicks to his leg. The end of the round saw Kusayanagi change his pattern and sink an armbar onto his opponent after a beautifully timed double leg, but the bell rang before Ohara had to tap.

Round 2 saw Ohara starting to loosen up a little bit and start to counter Kusayanagi's forward charges with some stiff jabs to the face and body. This pattern went on for a while, until Kusayanagi opted to take the fight to the ground and was able to get an interesting submission attempt going, which was a combination of a leg-scissors and a triangle choke. It seemed that he had finally got the choke secured, in addition to trapping the elbow joint, but again Ohara is saved by the bell, just as the submission was getting too tight to fight out of.

Round 3 was much better for Ohara as he completely dominated by stuffing multiple takedown attempts from Kusayanagi, and landed shots at will throughout the round. Someone must have had a pep talk with Ohara right before round 4 started, as he came out very aggressively and kept the pressure on Kusayanagi until he dropped him with a powerful right. This was a remarkably interesting match, where we got to see a fighter get better and more confidant throughout the rounds to win a fight in a dominant fashion. I would not have given the fighter that I saw in round 1 any chance of winning this fight, but once he found his confidence, that was all it took to make Kusayanagi leave the building on a stretcher.

ML: Hesistant was the name of the game here. Ohara wanted to strike, but Kusayanagi was just waiting for him to commit to something to drop into a double leg, and the fear of the takedown pretty much negated the action. Ohara would land a decent strike now and then, but definitely didn't get the better of the 1st two rounds, probably getting saved by the bell from Kusayanagi's armbar in the 1st, and getting controlled a lot longer in the 2nd while Kusayanagi tried to invent some sort of odd Americana variation that likely doesn't exist for a reason. Kusayanagi was trying to be more aggressive in the 3rd in that he was willing to shoot, but he was doing so from too far away so as to not engage in any striking he didn't need to. Ohara wound up hurting him kind of on a fluke as Ohara threw a wild long right at the same time as Kusayanagi threw a right kick, and somehow Ohara recovered quickly enough to get a left in while Ohara was still resetting himself. Ohara opened up after this, suddenly throwing lead power straights, and although Kusayanagi survived the round fine, Ohara stayed aggressive and was rewarded with a knockout landing a long right straight at the same time Kusayanagi tried to throw a right kick. While the 1st half of the match was bad, at least Ohara was eventually willing to bring it, and was thus rewarded.

Now it is time for the final battle of the evening, with the Shooto Middleweight Title on the line, as defending champion Yasuto Sekishima must face off against number one ranked challenger Naoki Sakurada. Sakurada appears to be a rather short fighter in the vein of a Henry Cejudo, and is probably the kind of fighter where it is a nightmare to try to shoot in deep enough to overcome an insanely low center of gravity. Surprisingly, Sekishima was able to take down Sakurada several times this round, but it was more a matter of him leaning on him and falling down, as opposed to any actual refined takedown techniques. This round was very even, with both fighters aggressively going at one another without a clear-cut winner.

The rest of the match saw both fighters aggressively pursuing what was essentially a boxing match, with a few kicks and takedown attempts sprinkled in. Sakurada was a powerful bundle of compact energy, where Sekishima was long and used his range well. The deciding factor may be Sekishima's takedown defense, as his opponent has the physical stature to make blasting a double a seemingly easy proposition, every time he tried, he got instantly stuffed, and put into a bad position. The fight went to a draw, which was a fair decision. While this would have been ruled a win for Sekishima under modern rules, due to his getting several takedowns in the 5th round (none of which accomplished much) but neither fighter was close to finishing the other, or did any significant damage. Good fight with lots of effort on both fighters parts, despite the lack of a finish.

ML: Sakurada was the better boxer, but was definitely giving up some reach. Sekishima had better kicks and knees, but had a hard time really utilizing the knees, as Sakurada kept him from getting the clinch, and would drop down into a double leg. The match was competitive and wasn't dull, but at the same time didn't have many big moments. Sakurada started to get going in the 4th when he brought the jab down to the body then would follow with the right to the head. Sekishima didn't like this new Sakurada combo, and became a takedown machine in the 5th, dropping really low for the double leg as soon as Sakurada made a move forward.

Overall, I felt this was probably the best Shooto event we have covered so far, in terms of total top-to-bottom quality. I'm excited to try and locate the rest of the missing gaps in our archives, and hopefully -we will be able to chronicle them all. If not, we will return to check in on Sayama and crew for the 11-7-92 event.

ML: These fighters aren't technically perfect, but again, everyone is in shape & more or less well rounded. I think if you asked someone who just watched American MMA to guess what year this show was from, they could easily place it in 1997 or 1998. .

*In Other News*

ML: While we're in flashback mode, I wanted to take a look at the first two UWF matches of Minoru Suzuki, against opponents we've liked in 1991 who he can no longer wrestle due to the splintering into 3 promotions. Though Suzuki has improved considerably in 2 years, he was quite the sensation in '89, injecting a lot of life and quality into the promotion despite barely winning a match.

4/14/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Yoji Anjo vs. Minoru Suzuki 19:39. Suzuki made a really impressive UWF debut here after working about 70 matches in NJ over the past year, already outworking Anjo, who was one of the more reliable performers in the company, having come over from New Japan when UWF started a year ago. Anjo was a great opponent to break Suzuki in because both enjoyed using little antics to rile the opponent up, and were generally entertainers as much as they could get away with being. While this wasn't the most realistic match, they liked finding a spot to work in suplexes and Suzuki's dropkick, both men certainly had a lot of flair as well as talent, and I don't think the odes to pro wrestling detracted. In some ways they even added, as this was even a pretty good story match, with several spots built around the Achilles' tendon hold. Suzuki goaded Anjo with a series of slaps from mount, and although Anjo soon got him in the chest with an up kick when Suzuki got a single leg & was dropping into an Achilles' tendon hold, this second segment was obviously still a win for Suzuki. Anjo began to gain ground in the mind games when Suzuki tried the tendon hold again, but Anjo waited until it was locked in to start blasting Suzuki with kicks in the face, with Suzuki rolling to his stomach and trying to cover, but soon having to release, which allowed Anjo to go into a 1/2 crab. Suzuki refused to give up on the Achilles' tendon hold though, so when he slammed Anjo and set up the hold standing, he stepped on Anjo's left leg with this right leg then dropped down, thus preventing Anjo from kicking with it. Anjo rolled to his back, but before he could think about kicking, Suzuki had locked the leg up sort of like a figure 4, with his right leg on top, now trapping Anjo's off leg inside a leg scissors. Suzuki wasn't going to win his debut, but he made a strong impression putting Anjo on the defensive for the majority of the match. Anjo finally came back when he slipped out of a koshi guruma and hit a fast side suplex drop. Suzuki caught a knee to break up Anjo's run from the clinch, but Anjo countered with a spinning kick to the head. Suzuki tried to regroup with a takedown, but his shot was slow and Anjo stiff armed him to get the distance to land a high kick. Anjo then hit a stomach breaker and finished Suzuki off with a rear naked choke. ***1/4

5/4/89 Osaka Baseball Stadium: Shigeo Miyato vs. Minoru Suzuki 21:31. Right off the bat, this was a much more intense and believable speed oriented contest than Suzuki's debut last month against Anjo. These two were giving each other a lot less, which meant they had to be quicker and more precise with their techniques, even though it was still obviously a work. Miyato wanted to give the rookie his initiation, slapping him while Suzuki had mount and soccer ball kicking him when Suzuki was getting up. While Miyato had the edge in experience, speed was clearly on the side of Suzuki, and he began getting in and slapping Miyato before he could answer, while Miyato's standup was too predictable and thus easily avoid by his better moving foe. Being the wily veteran, Miyato began grabbing hold of Suzuki any way he could, so Suzuki couldn't just backpedal away from his strikes. There was a great spot where Miyato disengaged to get room for a high kick, but Suzuki ducked it into a dangerous looking single leg that took out Miyato's plant leg then swung into a kneebar. Miyato began to scattering some kicks in, but his right boot nearly fell apart in the process, and he had to essentially call time out after landing a middle kick because his heel came out the back of his boot where it had ripped. I really liked the match up until this point, but then it shifted more toward a traditional work where both men had things to do. Though Suzuki's speed was killing Miyato, his goal almost inexplicably (he is the better grappler while Miyato is dangerous standing though not really on the mat) became trying to catch a kick so he could trip Miyato up. Suzuki thus keyed on the middle kick and did his best to check the low kicks, though Miyato's hands were almost all getting through, with Suzuki's only answer being to slap him back. Miyato's striking percentage shot through the roof with Suzuki's change of gameplan resulting in being content to stand in front of him, but Suzuki got some few takedowns off the catch and was able to do run Miyato into the corner to stun him for a dropkick. After an exceptionally overlong grasp at drama with Suzuki inching his way from the center to the ropes to escape the deadly half crab, Suzuki caught another kick, but this time answered with a dropkick. This was pretty clever, but also kind of accentuated what I'd been thinking the past few minutes in that, what was making the match so strong early was that it was realistic, but now that they insisted on making it go so long, they were increasingly undermining that realism both by simply exposing themselves and by building the match up through highspots ala pro wrestling. Still, they were incorporated well, with Miyato getting his spinning heel kick in when Suzuki broke his clinch and thought he was starting another slap exchange. Miyato was happy to slap once Suzuki got up, but with Suzuki now broken down, he finally got a big middle kick through to the softened up liver to finish him off. Again, Suzuki got the better of the match only to lose, but this finish felt more realistic, with Miyato sneaking in his big kick then finishing him off with a shot Suzuki had been able to defend when he was less beat up. While Suzuki isn't purely a rookie, these were very impressive performances for anyone, much less a guy who only had a year experience, much less one who was starting a new style. Again, Suzuki was clearly the better performer here despite Miyato being a known good worker who dates back to the very end of the original UWF. ***3/4