Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA
Chapter 27: UWF-I World First Year 3rd 2/29/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
By Michael Betz & Mike Lorefice 12/23/20

World domination! A lofty and enticing goal that many have sought, bled, and died for, throughout the annals of history, and in this case the UWF-I is no different. Join us, as we once again witness their aspirations for martial arts supremacy, as we return to the Korakuen Hall where they are set to have their 3rd event of 1992. Not even three months into the new year, this promotion is making good on their quest to become the victor in the shoot-style wars with the constant inferno that Hiromitsu Kanehara, Kiyoshi Tamura, and (as of late) Yuko Miyato have been bringing to the table.

After the standard ceremony, we are greeted by legendary wrestling icon, Lou Thesz, who now appears to be the gaijin face of this outfit, like Karl Gotch is to the PWFG. In fact, as we reported in our last column, Thesz has been shopping the UWF-I around the United States, in an effort to hopefully start promoting events there. Here he gives us a few words, “Ladies and Gentlemen. I am pleased to be back in Japan, to witness true competitive wrestling. The UWF-International features real wrestling, not show-business. I am happy to be perpetuating a noble sport, wrestling, the thing that I have loved all my life. Thank you!”

This is a fascinating look at where we are at in the growing pains of MMA history, as you can see that the desire of people like Thesz, and others in his sphere, is for pro-wrestling to be taken seriously and treated as a legitimate martial art and sport, yet the powers that be are not confidant enough in the concept of shooting to allow it to stand on its own merits. This leads to him resorting to the chicanery that he decries, in this case, “show-business.” This also helps to explain how the promotion (and shoot-style wrestling in general) faded away and never recovered once the illusion was broken from Anjo’s dojo storming antics, and PRIDE FC exposing Takada’s false image.

Still, we will enjoy the artifice for the time being, as we are now set for round 4 in the never-ending magma stream that is Hiromitsu Kanehara and Masakazu Maeda. After their last outing, I am now fully in favor of them opening every wrestling card on every single promotion from here on out, as it was one of the best shoot-style matches I’ve seen, only coming behind some of Tamura and Han’s best work. No time is wasted as other Madea charges in with a plethora of kicks and palm strikes, but to his credit, Kanehara stands his ground, and fires off several kicks of his own. You can see that he is somewhat out of his element compared to Maeda in the striking dept, but he was able to fend off Maeda long enough to close in and execute a lovely koshi guruma (headlock throw). Things did not stay static on the mat however, and Kanehara constantly tried to attack both the ankle and then the arm of Maeda, but Masakazu was simply too wily, and was able to defend himself from every submission entry until he got back on his feet and soccer kicked Maeda for his efforts.

After his first submission barrage did not work, Kanehara takes Maeda down again, only this time opting for a Kimura attack, but now Maeda is wisely starting to make Kanehara pay for every failed attempt on his elbow joints. After escaping the Kimura, Maeda jumped back to his feet, soccer kicked Kanehara again, but did not stop there, he kept kicking and kneeing Kanehara as he was standing back up, even to the point of wearing himself out, and eventually succumbed to a desperation throw by Kanehara.

The next 16mins were a total non-stop war, where neither opponent gave any pause and were constantly attacking or actively defending. What was really neat about this, is that it was a play on your classic grappler vs striker match, only both the grappler and the striker were also proficient in the other’s discipline, just not to the same degree. So, while Maeda was usually having to defend Kanehara’s submission attacks on the ground, he was able to launch several credible threats of his own, and while Kanehara is not as sharp on the feet as Maeda, he too was able to get some nice shots in. There were also plenty of nice subtleties throughout the match. For example, there was one nice sequence where Kanehara was standing up and grabbing Maeda’s ankle to attack and used that as a way to fake a swift kick to Maeda’s face, and later Maeda was able to return the favor, when Kanehara had him in a variation of a single-leg crab, and his response was to spin around and smash his foot into Kanehara’s head, which got a great pop from the audience.

The last minutes of the fight saw Maeda throwing palm strike after palm strike, until the point of exhaustion, but his show of heart was so profound that the crowd had a Rocky IV moment when they shouted their support with chants of “Mah-eh-da! Mah-eh-da!” This was the beginning of the end however, and it was not long afterwards that Kanehara secured a submission victory via half-crab.

Another excellent match, and I’m thankful as this will keep forcing the rest of the roster to take notice, and hopefully follow suit. While this may have been a smidge below their last outing, by virtue of the extra length and the somewhat contrived finish, make no mistake, this was still fire and well worth your time. Easily ****.

ML: I'd highly doubt that at any other time in history a feud between two rookies would be the best thing going on in pro wrestling. After three 15 minute draws, they've graduated to a 20 minute time limit for the latest fantastic chapter in this rivalry, which was even more urgent than the previous encounters. Maeda gets a little better at executing, and seems to have a little more stamina with each encounter. The urgency is always so out of control that they got a bit wild and sloppy at times with their striking even before Maeda gasses, but overall they are becoming more precise with their chaos. This had a bit more of a striker vs. grappler feel, as Maeda was so aggressive, just non stop blitzing Kanehara in standup the entire match, forcing Kanehara to mostly just try to fend him off and rely on his submissions. Kanehara still had a couple good flurries, particularly to the body, but clearly they seemed more evenly matched in standup in their previous encounter. If ever there was a match where both workers were possibly trying to hard, it was, well, any match between these two. I mean, as impressive as it was, it probably would have been a little better with a bit more patience, precision, and control of their emotions, as Maeda really exhausted himself by the final stages. The pace they kept was simply insane! They took everything to the max, if not beyond. After a series of full time draws, they utilized nearly every point at their disposal before Kanehara finally broke through. I kind of liked the draws more than having an actual finish, it just seemed more fitting, but regardless this was a really crazy all-out match! Though it wasn't as good as their match 2 weeks earlier, it's still one of the better matches we've seen, and some of the best displays of heart and desire you'll ever come across. ****1/2

Foot-fighting phenom, Makato Ohe, returns for a standing bout against Pat Kane. This is excellent news, as this is the first time we’ve seen Ohe this year, and if he had been on the last couple of cards (replacing JT Sothern for instance) we probably would have went from 2-classic fights, to an over-the-top 3 great matches, which would have pushed those events into legendary status. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find out any information on Pat Kane as of press time, but since Ohe is coming off of two back-to-back loses, I wouldn’t be surprised if they went back to the jobber mill to find an easy opponent for Ohe.

Both fighters come out of the gate aggressively, but while Kane is landing some good combinations, he seems to leave his face out in the open while doing so, and is eating some hard leather because of it. The rest of the fight shows an aggressive Kane varying his attacks, and showing some strong power in his fists, whereas Ohe seems to be content in patiently waiting and setting up his thunderous kicks. Even round.

Round 2 starts with more hyper-aggressive behavior from Kane, but he is still adhering to the ancient proverb that punches are best blocked with your face. While he is landing a lot of volume, Ohe is doing a great job of being the counterpuncher and setting up some truly nasty answers, both by vicious straights down the pipe, and nasty knees from the clinch. This round came down to quality vs quantity, with the former going to Kane.

Round 3 was Ohe’s turn to lead the attack, and he quickly laid into Kane with everything he had, prompting a knockdown early into the round. The rest of the round saw Kane make a bit of a comeback by wisely utilizing the uppercut whenever Ohe would try and get into clinch range. Still, this is now going to be an uphill battle for Kane to try and win this fight on points.

Round 4 has Kane coming on strong again, being the one landing the majority of the shots, but he still leaves himself wide open, and continues to suffer some very stiff counters from Ohe, particularly his left straight. Despite a strong early showing, Kane kept eating more and more counters until succumbing to another knockdown late in the round. Kane was able to get back up, right before the bell rang, but he is going to have to pull out a magic trick to win this fight in the 5th .

The final round was a strong showing for Kane, who kept pressing the attack, and continued the wise strategy of unloading uppercuts whenever Ohe tried to clinch. His impressive offensive output came at the cost of a good defense though, and he walked right into the game of a patient fighter like Ohe. Still, this round belonged to Kane, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide, and the decision had to go to Makato. I give the UWF-I credit for continuing to find game opponents for Ohe, and this was a good match, as well as a strong showing from Kane.

ML: Kane was a strong boxer and athlete. He showed good quickness, and was generally the aggressor. His problem is his kicking game wasn't particularly developed. He basically never kicked after throwing a punch, instead just leading with a kick to control the distance and set up his punch combo. Ohe tried to work on the inside so Kane couldn't just beat him with hand speed. Kane's corner wanted to make certain he was completely refreshed going into the third, with his trainer even spraying water down his pants.Ohe probably lost the first 2 rounds, but started strong in the third, landing a big left straight then following with a series of clinch knees and a left high kick, repeating the sequence until he finally dropped Kane with the left hand. Even though Kane's defense throughout the fight was simply to attack, attack, and attack some more, Ohe still had much more success when he initiated then when he waited to land counters to Kane's open face. Kane had to be really active to make up for his lack of defense, and that was increasingly difficult In the later rounds, as Ohe's knees to the midsection really sapped his energy. Ohe landed a few big lefts in the fourth, but it felt like Kane went down from exhaustion as much as from Ohe's big shots. Kane had obviously trained hard in Xanadu, as he still fought hard trying to pull out the victory, though much of his speed was gone, with his right hand particularly lacking zip. Ohe's power advantage was just too much , especially in the second half of the fight. I had Ohe winning the last 3 rounds. Now that Ohe has dispatched of Kane, one can only hope that UWF-I can get Sidney Crosby in here next... Good match.

Now it is time for Pez Whatley vs Tatsuo Nakano. Earlier in the month, Whatley laid on top of Yoji Anjo for 5mins, and now it is his turn to lay all over Nakano. Whatley starts by continually trying to take Nakano down by way of a back body-lock, which prompts Nakano to try and counter with a standing Kimura. Whatley is wise enough to ward off the submission attempt, but while he succeeds in saving his shoulder, he does so at the expense of the takedown. After a while of vain takedown attempts, Takano changes his approach and goes into standup mode, with repeated strikes until he wins via knockout around the 4min mark. Whatley looked a little better this time, but thankfully this was noticeably shorter, and even more thankfully this will be the last time we have to see Whatley, as he went back to the states to work for WCW along with other indies.

ML: The big spot was Nakano ducking and lariat in the corner and coming back with a high kick for the face plant. This was terrible, but at least it was short, and they didn't waste Tamura or someone good on Nakano.

Next up is Kiyoshi Tamura in the way that we all desire to see him, in a singles match, this time against newcomer Mark Silver. The last event showed a good debut from Silver, who seems like he could be a good hand, if properly cultivated. The first couple of mins sees the two cautiously feel each other out, until it’s Silver that draws first blood with a body-lock takedown. Once the fight is on the mat, Silver seems somewhat unsure of how to proceed, and awkwardly goes from a headlock to an armbar attempt that eventually sees Kimura take a rope escape on. Once on the feet, Silver is loosening up a bit and is starting to strike Tamura with some confidence. Tamura then shows an interesting counter to Silver’s punches by putting him in something akin to an inverted full-nelson, which stopped the striking but allowed Silver to taken twist him back down to the mat. Tamura quickly slithers out, and after standing back up, hits a nice rolling kneebar, which evens the score.  The rest of the match showed a more subdued Tamura, as he put Silver through his paces before winning via a neck crank at 13:13. This was understandable as Silver needs a match like this to gain experience, as he is still very green. This wasn’t great, but not terrible either, as Silver did have some explosive moments, and Tamura did a good job of feeding him some opportunities to score some offense. Passable.

ML: This was decent, but obviously disappointing at the same time. Tamura made Silver better, but Silver did more to make Tamura worse. Silver can really only wrestle at this point, but he's also not very fast or agile, so Tamura couldn't really utilize his speed the way he normally does. Silver didn't have much in the way of submission holds or counters either, so once they got to the mat, he did something remedial or just watched Tamura rather than helping him or setting him up. Tamura's back was almost entirely taped up, so this wasn't his greatest effort, and probably everyone was just content to give Silver some time to figure things out.

Now we are heading into what could be the unexpected gold mine, with Yoji Anjo vs Yuko Miyato. Miyato is the one wrestler, that more than anyone else, has changed my perception of him compared to when we first started. This is due to his putting a lot more urgency and intensity into his matches lately, which is something that he only seemed to do sporadically before. The match starts and the atmosphere starts to gain an intense energy again, as these two are going right at it. Anjo keeps trying to push Miyato back with various kicks but keeps eating slaps to the face for his trouble. After a protracted leg-battle that didn’t yield any results, Anjo decides to go for some flying knees, and clinch work, to try and get his point across. He then eventually gets Miyato down and gains a point from forcing Miyato to take a rope escape off a rear naked choke attempt.  The match then took on a disjointed flow that wound up making me like it less than I had wanted to. The stand-up portions where great, with a lot of energy and verve, but the intensity would immediately stall out whenever it hit the ground, mostly from Anjo just kind of chilling until it got back to the feet. The finish was cool though, with Anjo following up a nice throw with an instant straight armbar. A solid ***, but this should have been better, and probably a few mins longer.

ML: I really liked this match. It was realistic and intense, and they really did a nice job of escalating the tensions. The stand up here was quite impressive. They really put the extra effort into their footwork, showing some nice entries and exits, as well as feinting, and generally trying to keep each other off balance. The grappling may not have been quite as impressive from a 21st century standpoint, but that's from lack of proper BJJ training rather than giving anything less than 100% effort on their part. They definitely had some nice counters, and made some nice transitions. Miyato is really on fire the past 6 months, and after seeming rather dated at the start of '91, I'd currently rate him as the most improved veteran overall, as well as the third best worker in UWF-I behind Tamara in Kanehara. The only downside with this match is it was way too short. The 9 minutes felt like 4 because it was so good, but it would have been much more reasonable to give this 5 minutes from the Silver match, or better yet don't waste our time on the junk food man. ***1/2

Now Kazuo Yamazaki must take a break from the illustrious tag-team scene, to take on the unenviable task of getting a good match out of Tom Burton. Things are underway, with Burton trying to bait the usually patient Yamazaki by verbally goading him to attack him. This didn’t work, as Yamazaki wisely just chipped away at Burton’s thighs with some well-timed kicks, which prompted Burton to go for a takedown off a back body-lock, which Yamazaki instantly tried to counter with a standing Kimura. This serves to illustrate that before Sakuraba was breaking Renzo Gracie’s arm years later with this same technique, this counter seemed to be in the lexicon of every UWF fighter. Burton was able to get the fight to the ground, but could not seem to manage anything once it got there, as he quickly found himself defending various submission attempts from Yamazaki. The ne-waza finally ended when Burton was fishing for a toehold while Yamazaki was sitting behind him, and in a cool move, Yamazaki took an escape, not because he was in danger, but simply to get the fight back on the feet.

Yamazaki then does what we all adore about him and starts setting up feints by offering his hand to try and initiate a tie-up, only to instantly send nasty kicks to Burton’s thighs. He then gives us a nice sequence when he takes Burton down with a shoot-style schoolboy, and transitions off that into a straight ankle-lock. As nifty as it was, it didn’t work as Burton simply stood up, and muscled his way into his own standing ankle lock, forcing Yamazaki to take another escape. The end began when Burton hit an explosive tomoe-nage (monkey flip), but Yamazaki wound up landing on his feet like a cat, and this surprising technique from Burton prompted Yamazaki to stat wailing away with kicks, before finishing the fight with what can only be referred to as the shoot-style version of the Million Dollar Dream. I was pleasantly surprised. While the Miyato/Anjo match was a bit of a letdown, this wound up being a lot better than I would have anticipated, thanks to Yamazaki’s subtle and crafty ways. He always looked like the best fighter in the ring, but still wound-up making Burton look like a legit threat due to his size, and power. *** ½

ML: A pleasant surprise. Probably the best performance we've seen from Yamazaki since the restart, combined with quite a bit of improvement from Burton, seemingly out of nowhere. Somehow, Burton was actually flowing here, and Yamazaki managed to pull some pretty nice sequences out of him, whereas the match would normally stall out as soon as Burton got it to the ground with his wrestling. Yamazaki incorporated a lot of nice little touches, such as his ankle momentarily giving out after he escaped from Burton's ankle lock. Burton started off with some annoying cartoonish taunts, but Yamazaki was really on his game here, and played off everything Burton did very well. While this was by far the most pro wrestling oriented match so far, Yamazaki at least set up the fake spots pretty well. Again, the match was somewhat rushed, seeming to just end rather randomly because they suddenly had too many matches to squeeze in. ***

Now it is time for a westerner that will be a most welcome addition to the roster, Lou Thesz protégé, and future head instructor of his wrestling school, Mark Fleming. Much in the same way that Billy Robinson took Billy Scott under his wing and looked over him and his career, Thesz did the same for Fleming. Fleming is coming into this with a wealth of experience, as outside of the Thesz connection, he is also a long time NWA veteran, and had a stint in New Japan Pro Wrestling before stopping here in the UWF-I. Oddly, he will be facing Takada straightaway, which I can only imagine is due to them waiting to book the Albright/Takada match at a larger venue in the future. The match starts with Takada peppering Fleming’s legs with kicks, and Fleming does not really seem to know how to deal with this, but to his credit, when the 2nd volley comes in, he just grabs Takada’s kicking leg and throws him down to the ground where he then tries to put Takada in an ankle-lock. His inexperience showed however, and it wasn’t hard for Takada to simply put Fleming in a heel-hook of his own, while Fleming struggled to finish.

Once the fight restarts, Fleming easily gets Takada back down to the mat, but like many pure wrestlers, doesn’t know what to do after that’s accomplished. He obviously has a good base in wrestling, and is athletic, but would need a lot of work on his submission and striking skills before proceeding further in this style. Eventually, he goes back to what he did the first time, which is dive for an ankle lock, and while it took longer this time, Takada was still able to counter with another heel-hook, forcing the 2nd rope escape. Not long after this, the match ends with Takada getting the win via armbar. Taken in isolation this match wasn’t particularly noteworthy, but I do believe that it shows that with the right training, and some time, Fleming could wind up being a solid asset for this company. While he is older than the missing Billy Scott, he still has a few more solid years left in him.

ML: Fleming showed good potential here, and Takada seemed interested in trying to impress Thesz. Fleming did a nice job of trying to defend Takada's kicks and transition to the takedown off of them. I liked the urgency he showed in catching a kick, tripping Takada up, and applying the Achilles' tendon hold. Takada was actually motivated for this match, moving around a lot, trying to keep away from Fleming in stand up so he could land his big kicks, and even doing more than "thinking" on the ground. While the outcome was never in doubt, this was neither dull nor completely unrealistic.

Possibly, the most impressive thing about Gary Albright was his articulate, and soft-spoken interview style. Here he tells us that he is impressed with Kakihara’s style of fighting, in which he aggressively fights in flurries, but feels that his experience in international competition will be enough to put him over. The magic ended there however, because as soon as the match started, Kakihara took a one-way trip on Air Albright, where he was smothered by the gargantuan beast, until having to take a rope escape from a full nelson. Shortly after this, Kakihara was flatlined by a couple of suplexes, and that was the end. The crowd was going nuts the entire time however, and that infectious energy helped to elevate this past the silly squash match that it was.

ML: What a waste time! Kakihara got in 3 strikes that Gary didn't even bother to sell.

Conclusion: Probably the best UWF-I show yet. We got another great match from Kanehara/Maeda, a good standing bout from Ohe/Kane, a decent match from Miyato/Anjo, and a good match between Yamazaki/Burton. Even the lesser moments of this card were more forgettable than abysmal, not only making this a recommended event, but also clearly puts the UWF-I as the front running promotion. RINGS are surely not far behind from being a threat, once they get solidified, but in the meantime they only thing standing in the way of this outfit is Takada, and the threat of bad booking derailing them. Until that happens, there is simply too much talent here to be ignored, as the PWFG struggles to even have two dynamite matches on their events.

ML: Unquestionably the best UWF-I show so far. We got 4 recommended matches, and amazingly Tamura wasn't even one of them. Though another Albright disgrace left something of a bad taste in my mouth, the undercard was so exceptional that it was hard to get too annoyed. Almost everyone in this promotion seems to be going in the right direction, except the two fighters they actually push.

*In other news*

ML: Ramon Dekkers, a regular in Lumpinee Stadium since 1990, once again traveled to Thailand on 2-28-92 for his third match against former world champion Coban Lookchaomaesaitong, this time for the vacant IMF World Welterweight title. They split their previous bouts, with both ending in first round knockouts. This was a much more measured contest, where the first round was mostly kicking each others block. Dekkers was the more or explosive fighter, with more speed and certainly power, but he just couldn't break through Coban's defenses. Surprisingly, Coban was the better puncher, usually the weakness of the Thai fighters, and that was how he won this fight. Early on, Dekkers was beating him in the kick exchanges, but Coban began to take over in the second round countering with big hooks and overhands. Coban really made his mark in the fourth, when Dekkers backed him with a 1-2 then put out a right hand with his head fake to set up a big left, but Coban instead leveled him with a left hook for the knockdown. With the crowd going nuts, Coban made a big push for the finish including a right hook and a left high kick, leading to a seond knockdown through the accumulation of damage. Dekkers caught something of a break, in that his right eye was so bloody that he got a rest while the doctor took a look at it, which allowed him to stabilize and survive the round. Dekkers was obnoxious throughout the fight in is taunts for Coban to bring it, trying to get Coban out of his counter punching mode that was winning him the fight. That being said, Dekkers not only showed great heart and determination in refusing to give up, but was shockingly able to turn things around and win the fifth round, landing one stunning punch that almost got him the only throw of the match. Coban won a unanimous decision. Good match.