Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA |
The link between pro wrestling and MMA has admittedly gotten a certain amount of superficial attention amongst various media outlets over the years, but truthfully, the inextricable link between the two is a vast chasm that very few have even attempted to rappel the depths of. Thankfully for the world at large, we at Kakutogi HQ are on the job and are pleased to be reporting an event, that while being obscure to most modern MMA fans, was an incredibly important part of its early development.
Many fans of the fight game can easily recall how K-1's brand of kickboxing was immensely popular at one point in history, even briefly enjoying status as the number one spectator sport in Japan (it even surpassed baseball at one point) but they are probably unaware that it spawned forth from Sediokaikan karate, an offshoot of Kyokushin Karate started by Kazuyoshi Ishii in 1980. For 13 years, Ishii hosted many karate tournaments until towards the end of 1991, he started to dabble with his format by introducing gloves. Sediokaikan tournament rules did not allow punches to the face and required participants to wear a gi, but on 10-10-91 a revolutionary change to Ishii's format happened. He restructured the event so the first round be business as usual, but the 2nd round would see the competitors take their gi tops off, and if a decision still hadn't been reached by the end of the third round, they would don boxing gloves and have full kickboxing round(s) to try and determine a winner.
Then, in a move that furthered its path towards becoming a full-blown kickboxing promotion, they held a massive tournament on 1-12-92, featuring 57 combatants, and a cash price of 10,000,000 yen (approximately 100,000 in U.S. currency). This mega tournament had full kickboxing rules including spinning back fists, elbows, protracted clinch time, etc., and went for unlimited rounds, with the end of each round being judged, until a winner was decided by the vote of three judges. This event was attended by the owner and top performer of FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS, Akira Maeda, who was friends with Ishii and was a major influence on him during this point in time. Ishii had ambitions to not only be the top promoter of all things combat-sport-related in Japan, but also wanted a way to showcase various styles of standup fighting from around the world. Maeda, on the other hand, was struggling to get his fledgling wrestling promotion off the ground, which until the end of 1991, had almost no stars outside of himself, and was thus forced to rent out various martial artists from Holland and Russia to fill in the gaps in his roster.
Serendipity abounded once again, as these two larger-than-life personalities came together at the perfect time, and their decision to forge ahead with an equitable relationship allowed combat sports to reach unheralded levels of presentation, but also wound up having a symbiotic and influential relationship to MMA for years to come. Ishii and his ensemble of karate stars were available to help Maeda through a lean patch in his company's history, and in return, he offered a lot of insight to Ishii on the finer points of formatting, booking, and presenting what was heretofore a niche sport with a grandiose verve and panache that was inspired by pro wrestling theatrics. Now, both men and both promotions head into the next phase of their respective transitions by co-promoting an event that will feature both RINGS and Sediokaikan performers, in an effort to highlight both styles.
We find ourselves at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, a massive sporting complex located within Sendagaya, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. It was built in 1954 to host a wrestling championship, and is currently renowned for being an elite venue for gymnastics & table tennis, in addition to other sports. The first bout of the evening, held under RINGS RULES, will feature Akira Maeda vs Koichiro Kimura. When we last saw Kimura, he was in an entertaining and tough shoot against Mitsuya Nagai, in which he lost, but it's safe to presume that Maeda will not be indulging in shoot shenanigans anytime soon. To the credit of everyone involved, this was advertised as a 5min exhibition match, so surely there will be a built-in face-saving mechanism in place, in the event this turns out to be awful.
Things start with Maeda looking spryer than I expected, throwing some quick leg-kicks, before being forced to the mat with an excellent single-leg from Kimura. Maeda quickly scrambles to a dominant position, before utilizing his considerable weight advantage to stand back to his feet. Once up, he throws a nasty inside-leg kick to Kimura, and again, this was not the Maeda that I was expecting. Kimura no longer wants to directly engage Maeda, so he opts to try and shoot in from too far a distance, allowing an easy sprawl counter from Maeda. Maeda then hits an explosive (albeit showy) suplex on Kimura, then forces a rope escape by putting Kimura in a Kimura. The rest of this quick bout was fast and entertaining, with Kimura adding just the right amount of spice and resistance to Maeda. Maeda was urgent throughout, and everything here looked good, proving that he is still capable of working a good match, as long as it's done in a minimal amount of time. This was too short to be offered as a recommended match, but in the context of this event, it worked as a good introduction for RINGS, showing what their style of bout looked like.
ML: I assume this was an exhibition because a "real" Maeda match would have had to be the main event, but doing so would have ruined the flow by putting something farcical at the end of a bunch of legitimate contests. Nonetheless, I'm sure that would have happened anyway if Maeda wasn't beat up and trying to conserve himself. This was a surprisingly interesting match that was closer to shooting than Maeda has been so far, although Maeda certainly was allowed to go much harder than Kimura was. Basically, Kimura was allowed to go for a takedown, but then had to let Maeda take over so he didn't take any damage. Maeda did one suplex, but was more realistic and less loose here. He was pretty nasty beating up Kimura's legs with low-kicks as Kimura set up his takedown attempts. The brief time limit kept things from getting repetitive and too over the top. Overall, while something a bit more striking based would have been preferable for this audience, I think this was a successful introduction to the RINGS style.
Next up is Daido Juku ace, Mikoki , going against judo stalwart, Pieter Smit. I'm unsure of exactly how the rules are supposed to be in this one, but it appears that the first round is under RINGS rules. Unfortunately, Ichihara is mostly known for losing in a most inglorious fashion to Royce Gracie at UFC II, thus causing him to be completely mistaken as but a mere footnote in MMA history. Truthfully, he had a very strong stand-up game, being a major player within the Daido Juku Karate organization. Daido Juku was similar to Sediokaikan karate, the main difference being that they would allow punches to the face, but insisted upon their competitors wearing face gear ripped off the set of an 80s Italian post-apocalyptic flick. They also hosted events that could be arguably be considered the first true MMA contests, as their format did allow for submissions and ground fighting, but the time that they were generally permitted on the ground was so quick that scoring a submission was neigh impossible even if the opponent basically didn't know how to defend, making the inclusion of it to be of no practical value. The Daido Juku organization was also keen on loaning out talent and featuring guest fighters with their series of events dubbed "The Wars", which we will hopefully be able to cover more in future columns.
Round 1 starts, and right away we see some excellent inside-out footwork from Ichihara, which made Smit look completely flat-footed by comparison. Sadly, this disparity didn't matter, as Smit simply walked over to Ishihara and fell on top of him, which had this been a judo competition, would have surely qualified as an unskilled entry into ne-waza. Thankfully, the ref quickly restarted them, giving Ichihara a chance to unload a few powerful kicks, and overhand strikes, before Smit would hug Ichihara into the ropes. Ichihara quickly adapted to the hug-a-thon, and shifted his strategy to quickly sticking and moving, getting some nice shots in before the end of the round.
Round 2 sees the fighters don boxing gloves, which can only be bad news for Smit, who has no business trying to be in a straight kickboxing affair. Sure enough, Smit is clearly out of his element as he is only managing to survive Ichihara's assaults, and that by covering his face and charging in for the hug. At one point, Smit is able to force Ichihara down to the mat and attempts an armbar, so it would seem that we are still under some kind of mixed rules, only with boxing gloves. They were too close to the ropes, so the ref simply stood them back up, but Ichihara will be in trouble if Smit can manage to get him down in the center of the ring. The rest of the round saw Ichihara continuing to bank on powerful overhand punches, but he seems to lack even basic submission awareness, and at one point was easily put in a rear-naked choke, where Smit simply stepped around him, and slapped it on from a standing position.
Round 3 sees them going back to a gloveless round, and back to normal RINGS rules. Ichihara is sticking to his fast-moving strike hard and run-away strategy, which is paying dividends, as early in the round he was able to land a hard overhand palm-strike flush into Smit's face. Smit is getting craftier, however, and is able to land several hard knees, after backing Ichihara into the corner. The fight ends when Ichihara blasts Smit in the face with a combination, and in desperation, Smit hugs Ichihara and falls to the mat with him. At first, it looked like a takedown, but once the ref stood them up, you could tell that Smit was completely dazed, and his takedown was out of desperation. Ichihara scored a KO victory. This was fast and entertaining, but it's easy to see why Ichihara did as poorly against Gracie, as he did. He is clearly a great striker, and is quick, but seems to lack any takedown defense skills. Had he cross-trained in those early days, and was more aware of what Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was, then he may have been a formidable opponent in those early days, but he was a victim of being in the right place at the wrong time.
ML: Here we see the problem of the early days concept of trying to determine which martial art was superior. Both fighters were strong within their own discipline, but in order to try to make it fair, we're alternating rounds with and without boxing gloves, which drastically shifts the styles and capabilities of the fighters, or at least it should. Ultimately, this was a heavyweight against a middleweight, so even beyond the fact that one was a judo practitioner and the other was a striker, the overriding dynamic was Smit had to use his size, while Ichihara had to use his speed. Smit's plodding nature accentuated the explosiveness of Ichihara's striking, while Ichihara's complete lack of submission defense made Smit look like a submission wizard. None of this is amazing by 21st century standards, but imagine having trained spinning back fists and only worryied about the counter strike, only to suddenly be in the ring with an opponent who instead took you right down and slapped on an armbar. Imagine giving your back in the corner and having the opponent rear naked choke you rather than figuring out where to still strike legally. Imagine thinking there was safety dropping to your butt, only to take repeated knees, if they didn't just knock you through the ropes to the floor. There was a great spot where Ichihara matadored a right hand to the point that Smit fell into the middle rope, only to have Ichihara nail him with a charging right as soon as he turned around. The finish was rather questionable, Smit seemed to just quit, but this was a fun match for its time. Good match.
Next up is another overlooked figure in the pantheon of lesser-known pioneers, in Yoshinori Nishi, who is going up against Herman Renting. Nishi was one of the more interesting personalities in early 90s MMA, as his main strength as a fighter was his incredibly strong judo acumen, but he was also a respectable karate practitioner. If anyone knows him at all, these days, it's mainly from his horrible showing against Rickson Gracie at VTJ 94', where the only thing he managed to do was show the world that Eddie Bravo did not invent the Lockdown. He was able to win the inaugural Lumax Cup in 1994 (an MMA tournament where the practitioners wore gi-jackets) and later went on to promote or be involved with several Japanese MMA events in the 90s, all while starting up his own martial art brand, named WA-JUTSU. He was a mentor to both Akira Shoji and Caol Uno, and as a result, his influence was felt even into the early 00's Pride era.
Round 1 (RINGS RULES) starts with a feeling out process between the two before Renting is completely surprised by a thunderous thigh-kick that catches him off-guard. Here we get to see the difference between Nishi and Ichihara, where one was quick, young, and one-dimensional, the other was seasoned and had a multi-faceted game. Nishi takes his time, and employs feints, as he stalks renting, before carefully timing another leg kick. Renting is able to catch it and toss him to the ground, but Nishi quickly works to either get a half-guard or leg attack, before scrambling into the ropes for an escape. Renting is eventually able to get Nishi pressed into the corner, but the round ends before he can capitalize.
Round 2 sees Renting wise up to Nishi's timing, and after an initial period of trepidation, he perfectly times one of Nishi's kicks and punishes him with a violent takedown turned into a guillotine choke. Nishi smartly avoids having to take a rope escape by pulling a Ric Flair and manages to slide underneath the ropes just enough that the ref opts for a clean break instead. Once they return to their feet, Nishi shows more caution and switches to a more conservative palm-strike approach.
Round 3 starts, and it's not long before Renting gets Nishi close to the ropes and attempts a rather sloppy rear-naked choke, but winds up spilling out of the ring with Nishi in tow. Once they get back inside, he spends a significant amount of time complaining to the ref, in what seems like an appeal to take a point from Nishi's score, due to the choke. The ref isn't having it, however, and a confused Nishi is now having to face an angry, and increasingly more confident Renting. Renting wastes no time getting Nishi back in a rear choke, this time applied deep and would have been a sure win in a different setting, or a cage, but Nishi must be given credit for his ring awareness and is able to slide back under the ring for another restart.
Round 4 has Renting bull rush Nishi, right outside of the ring again, and his aggression is clearly more than Nishi can deal with but is going to have to be channeled properly if he wants to succeed. Renting then presses Nishi into the corner, and just when it looks like Nishi's fighting spirit may be waning, he pulls out a wonderful Ouchi-gari (inside leg-trip) with impeccable timing. The rest of the round saw more ruthless aggression from Renting, who closed out the round by starting a choke attempt, while both were clearing out of the ring, and almost ready to spill out onto the concrete.
Round 5 sees both men tired and moving much slower. Nishi attempts a headlock throw, but botches it and winds up on his knees, exposing his back. Renting could have probably ended the fight right here, but was too tired to quickly force his hooks in and Nishi wound up deflecting him long enough for a restart. The round then ends, and Renting is awarded the win, although I'm not sure what the judging criteria is here. I suppose, from a modern standpoint, that the win is justified as he came close to finishing Nishi a couple of times with a choke, and had this been done under a more contemporary rule-set then there is little doubt that Renting would have won. As it stands, it was an interesting and decent shoot for the time.
ML: Both fighters were far more well rounded than we saw in the previous fight, resulting in a more strategic, albeit less exciting encounter. The fight was mostly faking & feinting, with Renting setting up one or two counter rushes per round. It basically it came down to whether Renting could defend the low kick and counter with the clinch/takedown or was simply getting his leg chewed up, although the threat of the tie-up kept Nishi's activity below the level where he could really put the leg out of commission. Scoring wise, it was a clear win for Renting, but in reality their styles largely negated one another.
Next up is the debut of Eric Edlenbos, a Dutch fighter that would wind up having a few fights in RINGS, before calling it a day and Shootboxer Naoyuki Taira. Taira spent the late 80s/early 90s cutting his teeth in Shootboxing before transitioning to Rings and then eventually K-1. His later record is quite admirable, holding kickboxing wins over Jan Lomulder, Taro Minato, and Hiroki Kurosawa.
This match was quick and brutal! Edlenbos quickly bum-rushed Taira and used his impressive athleticism to wail away on his opponent, but 8 years before Kazushi Sakuraba made it famous in his match against Renzo Gracie, Taira was able to turn his back on Edlenbos and secure a standing Kimura. Like Gracie did after him, Edlenbos spun Taira down to the mat, but Taira wouldn't let go, and was able to keep rolling with his opponent, until the point that he was able to secure a side-mount and pin his opponents' shoulder with his forearm, which served to further restrict Edlenbos's movement, and probably dislocated his shoulder. This was a fantastic display and makes me wonder if Taira could have been a forgotten MMA legend had he spent his time in Shooto, instead of Shootboxing. A great display of submission being greater than speed and strength!
Now it's time for a kickboxing bout between the legendary Rob Kaman and newcomer Adam Watt. Watt debuted at the last RINGS event, putting up a good showing against Hans Nijman. Kaman, of course, is coming into this as the major favorite, so I don't expect Watt to last long. Watt shows some good strategy from the outset by using his reach advantage to quickly attack Kaman from a variety of angles. Kaman was clearly off his game by having to constantly adjust to different attacks, which was wise on Watt's part, as the last thing you want to do is be stationary long enough to be a target for Kaman's brutal leg kicks. Watt finishes the round with some nice crisp shots to Kaman's face, including a tasty uppercut, and spinning back-elbow. Good round for Watt.
Round 2 is another demonstration that there is no substitute for experience. Watt started strong, producing some good work from both the clinch, and then disengaging to fire off some nice shots down the pipe, from a distance, and was winning this fight, until that sudden moment.. where he wasn't. Watt stepped in to clinch with Kaman and ate a hard shot to the side of his head as he was engaging and got knocked down for an 8-count. He showed a lot of heart by getting back up, but you could tell that his equilibrium is now off. A couple of seconds, and a couple of punches from Kaman later, it was all over. Despite the loss, this was a great showing for Watt and showed that he has the skills to hang with the very best. This could have just as easily swung in his direction, so no shame here. If he can stay focused and healthy, then Watt has a bright future ahead of him.
ML: I thought Kaman was looking good here. He was patient, taking what Watt was giving to him, and forcing Watt make things happen. Watt had a nice right straight early and some good moments down the stretch when he had a half clinch, but Kaman mostly circled off and landed the right hook when Watt attacked or landed a low kick if he didn't. Watt probably won the round, but Kaman was forcing Watt into a fight where he had to be attacking constantly, which meant he had to chase Kaman and take a lot of risks. Watt continue to do well, but finally Kaman landed clean with the right hook counter he was setting up all fight, and that was all she wrote.
Next is a karate bout between Willie Williams and Nobuaki Kakuda. Williams only seems to have lost some of his speed and agility from his '70s glory days but has still retained some good power. This makes for an interesting contrast to Kakuda, who keeps attacking with hyper flurries but is giving up size, strength, and reach to his opponent. Kakuda is also one of the most intense fighters that you could ever witness, as he always comes across as someone who would rather die in the ring than lose in one. This was a karate slugfest for three rounds, before being called a draw. Fun.
ML: Williams probably has a foot on Kakuda. Even though he is past his prime, he's just too big. Williams keeps leading with the left/right body punch combo or the left middle knee. Kakuda has a couple good flurries of body punches and a nice low kick, but really as long as Williams wants to stay active and use his reach, there's almost nothing Kakuda can do. Kakuda does a little better in the 3rd when the big guy begins to slow down, but it still wasn't exactly competitive.
Now, time for the main event between Maurice Smith, and Seidokaikan darling, Masaaki Satake. The last time we saw Maurice Smith was his stellar performance against Stan "The Man" Longinidis, where he survived a total massacre for the first two rounds and managed to slowly climb his way back up, until he had exhausted Stan, and won a split decision. Satake on the other hand has been hanging out in Rings, somehow being even more of a jerk than Gerard Gordeau.
Round 1 sees Maurice fighting a lot more aggressively than usual, keeping constant pressure both from the outside and the clinch. Satake did a decent job defending but didn't land anything significant. Good round for Mo.
Round 2 starts with a shift in the rules. Apparently, we are now in RINGS rules, but Satake gets to take off his gloves, which would theoretically put Smith at a disadvantage, but I don't know if Satake possesses any notable grappling skills by this point. Satake does better in this round, as he starts to approach it more like a Seidokaikan fight and sticks to targeting Smith's midsection. He is also countering some of Smith's shots with some well-timed low kicks of his own, but is still being out-struck by Smith by roughly a 2-1 ratio.
The gloves are back on Satake for round 3, and honestly, by this point, I have no idea what the rules are. Smith is on fire for this round, and completely clobbers Satake in every range until he knocks him down completely. Satake gets back up, only to get knocked right back down, by an unstoppable Maurice.
Round 4 goes back to gloveless Satake, and even though this was Maurice's least productive round, he still managed to land a lot of hard shots to Satake's midsection. If this had been a normally judged bout, then Smith would have taken the decision in a landslide, but it would appear, as we saw witht her previous match, it was contracted to go to an automatic draw if there wasn't a KO win. Nice, and entertaining showing from Smith, despite the bogus decision to protect Satake with an automatic draw.
ML: Satake's general advantage was that he was one of the only Japanese fighters who was over 6 feet tall and something of a legitimate heavyweight. However, he didn't have much chance fighting a taller fighter who was a far superior athlete, with a huge speed advantage. The rules gave Satake a little bit of hope, in that Smith wasn't allowed to punch to the head every other round because that is illegal in karate. He opted to leave his gloves on, while Satake would spend the time in between rounds with the old on/off, but this was largely irrelevant beyond allowing him to put his finger in Smith's eye, which I'm assuming wasn't part of the plan. Smith really dominated the kickboxing rounds, but the karate rounds were more competitive because having to punch the body naturally leads to fighters standing in front of each other more, which helps the slower and shorter fighter. Smith knocked Satake down twice in a row in round three, and if that happened today, the fight would likely have been stopped, but the Japanese were never big on protecting the fighters. Though Smith presumably wins this fight 40-34 if there were judges, the fight was nonetheless entertaining.
Conclusion: This was entertaining, and more importantly, a highly historic event. I hadn't thought about it until now, but this marks the first full-blown MMA event in either North America or Japan (excluding anything under the Shooto umbrella) if we subtract Maeda's exhibition and Kakuda's karate match. While I felt that the rules needlessly jumped around too much, I liked the format of the rounds that they used for RINGS matches here, as they seemed to force a faster and more aggressive fight, compared to their usual 1 round x 30mins. A great glimpse into the future greatness of both companies, and MMA in general.
*In other news*
Koji Kitao is set to debut at an upcoming event for the Japanese UWF-I promotion. This comes as a surprise as when we last heard from Kitao, he disgraced both himself, and the SWS promotion, by throwing a tantrum during his match against John "Earthquake" Tenta, where he refused to cooperate in the ring then quit, but not before grabbing the microphone to tell the audience that pro wrestling is fake. Reportedly, he has been working a lot on his karate skills and is ready to bring his name value, which is still considerable in Japan, to Takada's promotion.
Real estate investor and former karate practitioner, Bob Wall, recently called out Steven Seagal in an issue of Prevue Magazine. In this article, he mentioned that he has amassed 12 different personalities that all claim that they would be willing to fight Seagal, to prove that he is nothing but talk. His list includes notable martial artists such as Bill Wallace, Benny Urquidez, Gene LeBell, Howard Jackson, and Dennis Alexio. However, this has not been without some controversy. The 59-year-old LeBell initially agreed to be part of Wall's list, but is now having second thoughts because he feels that it is hurting his opportunities for stunt work within the film industry. LeBell was quoted as saying, "It's nice to be the toughest man on the planet, but that doesn't pay the bills." Wall realizes that it is highly unlikely that Seagal will accept any challenges, but he is simply wanting to embarrass him, and is content with that.