Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA
Chapter 32: RINGS MEGA-BATTLE 3rd. IKAZUCHI 4/3/92 Hiroshima Sun Plaza
By Michael Betz & Mike Lorefice 2/24/21

In the final scene of David Cronenberg's oft unheralded masterpiece, Videodrome, James Woods' character is told that to ascend to the next level, he must first "leave the old flesh." After hearing this, he puts a gun to his head, and proclaims, "Long live the new flesh!" before ending his life in a seemingly drastic action that presumably destroys his nemesis, Videodrome, in the process. This is similar to where we are at now in April of 1992, as for pro wrestling to soar to new realms of greatness, it must first shed the mortal coil of what it is and has been heretofore, so that it may be rebirthed into a higher plane of nobility.

ML: The battle for the mind of Japan will be fought in the video arena: the Videodrome. The wrestling ring is the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore, the wrestling ring is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore, whatever appears on the wrestling ring emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore, television is reality, and reality is less than television.

We have been witnessing this gradual phenomenon for the last year now, and in our last adventure we were able to behold a watershed event in this transitional process, where the Sediokaikan organization teamed up with RINGS to bring us what may arguably be considered the first true MMA event in either Japan or North America, excluding anything done within Shooto. Sadly, Shooto, despite being the true pioneers of this upcoming shoot-revolution, are doomed to forever trudge through a veneer of obscure respectability, as they lack the means, star-power, or marketing apparatus, to break through to a wider audience. It also hasn't helped that Sayama's falling out with the pro-wrestling media outlets in Japan basically killed whatever chances of creating buzz about his new sport, in these halcyon days sans internet/social media. 

Thankfully, this paradigm shift that is taking place is now getting a proper outlet with the deft command of the media that both Akira Maeda and Kazuyoshi Ishii possess, thus ensuring the continued explosion of MMA, and the forever changing of the martial arts landscape as a result.

The date is 4-3-92, one week since the Battle Sports Olympic took place, and already RINGS is ready for another show, this time with the rematch between Maeda and Volk Han being the main event. This will be taking place in the Hiroshima Sun Plaza, a 6,000+ capacity venue, that is mainly used for indoor athletic events but also hosts an annual coming-of-age celebration, known as Seijin Shiki. Before the festivities begin, we are taken to a tour of various gyms in Holland that are RINGS affiliates, and we are seeing firsthand that true MMA training has not just been isolated to Sayama's infamous Super Tiger Gym, but is alive and well in the Netherlands, also. Mike Lorefice recently observed that Dolman's gym was the real star in these early days, and he is correct, as these clips show that all of these gyms in Holland while focusing primarily on one aspect of fighting, they are cross-training in a way that shows awareness of the other ranges of combat. They also seem to have a lot of communication with each other, and the main difference between then and now is that instead of having to migrate from gym to gym, oftentimes modern MMA centers will have various experts on staff, in order to have everything under one roof. The scene ends with Dick Vrij getting a chance to train with Peter Aerts and Thom Harinck at the infamous Chakuriki Gym.

ML: The reason Dolman's stable stands out is that you have judo experts and kick boxing experts training under one roof. Plus, they all learn more from these various MMA sort of competitions they are becoming involved in. Admittedly, there are much better kickboxers elsewhere in the Netherlands, but I don't think these guys really have to go outside of their own umbrella so to speak (there are multiple gyms involved as we see from the clip where they start at Dolman's then go to Nijman's), not that it wouldn't help, but they seem more ready than the other gyms for the basics of what each style can throw at one another through sparring and preparing with one another.

My initial ponderings as to the worked/shoot nature of Koichiro Kimura vs. Ted Tenguiz are quickly answered by some feather-light kicks from Tengiz, which were quickly followed by a most polite inside-trip takedown from Kimura. Perhaps, I shouldn't be too hard on Kimura, as the last time we saw him on a RINGS event he was shooting his heart out against shootboxing alum, Mitsuya Nagai, in which he lost to the point of tears. After the takedown, Tengiz grabs Kimura in a way that makes me think he is going to do a fireman's carry, only to pull off what may be one of the strangest moves we've seen yet, in which he stood up with Kimura in tow, and channeled his inner Ultimate Warrior, in what can only be described as a shoot-style gorilla press. The rest of this match was bizarre to say the least, as we had Kimura move around like an experienced judoka, whereas Tengiz spazzed around hitting suplexes from odd angles, and acting like what you would expect from someone pulled out of a sambo dojo, having to try and work a pro wrestling match for the first time. It didn't help that he comically oversold some very light offense from Kimura, and generally looked like he was lost out here. Kimura eventually ends this farce via an armbar around the 9 ½ minute mark. Not boring, but way too amateur hour to be considered for prime time.

ML: Tenguiz insisted on lifting Kimura endlessly. I started to say he tried just about every fireman's carry move save for the airplane spin, but then he even did a mini version of that. He clearly went to the Scott Steiner school of just hoist the opponent up and heave them, set-up and logic be damned. Kimura answered with a nice backdrop and a scoop slam. Kimura, at least, would try to go right into a submission once he deposited the opponent, including a pretty slick fishermen's suplex into an armbar for the win. Needless to say, this was not the most realistic encounter. Some of it was fun, but it never felt like anything beyond an exhibition, even by non WWE standards it wasn't particularly realistic.

Next up, is an AQUA BOUT featuring Nobuaki Kakuda and Tom Van Maurik. Sadly, we only have another year to enjoy Maurik's work, as he met a tragic ending on 4-19-93 in which he was reportedly killed by a local pimp in a dispute over a woman. When we first witnessed Maurik he was delivering some super stiff shots to Chris Dolman in a worked bout, but someone must have chastised him over it, as he is now pulling everything in the most painfully obvious way possible. Kakuda is pulling his punches too, but looks much better doing so. I'm surprised to even see Kakuda in a work, so I hope this is not the start of going back to a purely phony format. This was a very striking focused match, which made all the cheesy attempts from Maurik all the more distracting. Kakuda looked good, but since all of his prior outings saw him go with 100% intensity, it wound up making his half-speed output (which would normally look good by pro wrestling standards) fall flat. Because of all this, this wound up being pretty awful, despite the energy that both men brought to it. Maurik wins with a flying leg-scissors, followed by a heel-hook, years before Ryo Chonan did it to Anderson Silva, but wound up not even looking 10% as cool doing it.

ML: This match was frustrating! Kakuda brought the stiffness and intensity, and Van Maurik performed reasonably on his feet, but his ground and pound, or any type of body shot, was below porn fighting level of pathetic, looking like he was afraid to even graze Kakuda. Van Maurik gave us one our first Anaconda chokes, at least.

Just when I was thinking that all hope was lost, and we would be doomed to spend the rest of the evening witnessing a clinic on how not to throw a punch, Yoshinori Nishi saves the day by getting into a full-blown shoot with everyone's favorite cartoon character, Willie Peeters. This will be the first of many shoots to feature Peeters, despite him already sort-of-shooting even in most of his matches, so far. This will be a FIRE BOUT, contested in 5 rounds, as opposed to the usual 1x30min format.

Round 1 starts with Peeters firing off some flashy roundhouses before being palm thrusted in the face by Nishi for his efforts. This seemed to calm Peeters down, who then tried to work a takedown from the clinch, but with no success, as Nishi's experience is clearly showing here, and he is very composed. Peeters spent the rest of the round trying to bully his way in, but Nishi did a great job of stifling all of his offense with well-timed counterstrikes.

Round 2 sees Peeters immediately charging and securing a bodylock takedown, but to no avail, as Nishi quickly started working a fast open guard, and it didn't take but a few seconds to secure an ankle lock on Peeters, forcing a rope-escape. Nishi shows his strong judo chops for the rest of the round, warding off many of Peeters' attempts to wrangle him back to the ground from the clinch. It wasn't all one-way traffic for Nishi, Peeters did land a few hard shots, but Nishi did an excellent job of using technique to defend against the stronger opponent.

Round 3 begins, and it's clear that Peeters's only advantage is his strength and unpredictability. Both Nishi's judo and striking are superior to Peeters, but this didn't stop Willie from getting Nishi in a guillotine choke, and when Nishi fell to escape it, Peeters responded by landing some hard shots that prompted a knockdown. Nishi was probably hurt after this, as Peeters was able to quickly get Nishi back down and mounted him. After the mount, he rained down some palm strikes, which may have ended this fight, but seemed to put one of his fingers in Nishi's eye, which forced a standup by the ref. First-round that was solidly in Peeters's favor.

Round 4, and Peeters is starting to look tired, which is causing him to leave his face more open. Nishi gladly takes advantage of the situation, and at one-point knocks Peeters down with a swift palm strike, which of course prompts Peeters to do what any classic '80s bully would do, and that's complain to the ref about how unfair it is. The round ends with Nishi punching Peeters in the jaw with a closed fist, and then apologizing about it. Good round for Nishi.

Round 5 starts with Peeters seemingly knowing that he is in scorecard trouble and is showing a great sense of urgency. He had to fight for it, but he was eventually able to get a headlock takedown. He wound up in the closed guard of Nishi, who is doing a great job defensively, preventing most of Peeters attempts at some pre-UFC ground and pound. A few shots are sneaking through, but Nishi is showing some serious skills by utilizing a strong guard to keep Peeters tied up, and close, thereby removing any distance needed to do any significant damage. This is serving as an example of how strong judo is at being a well-rounded martial art, and possibly how strong Rickson Gracie really was, who made Nishi look like a white belt in their future encounter. The round ends, which would presumably end the fight, but the judges call for an extra round, which makes me wonder how they are scoring this, as any reasonable interpretation would have Nishi as a clear winner.

An overtime round is called for, and this time it's Nishi who presses the attack, as he was always on the defensive before this. He overextended, however, and Peeters was able to capitalize by wrangling him down to the canvas, but Nishi pulled off a beautiful move, where he fainted in a way that implied that he was going for a full guard, only to quickly shift into wrapping his legs around Peeters's knee and securing a heel-hook. Peeters was standing when this happened, and simply held onto the ropes for dear life, and I can't tell if this prompted a rope escape, or the ref just got tired of Peeters standing there and called for a break. This aggressive strategy from Nishi is backfiring. While he is landing some nice shots, he is also allowing himself to be off-balance enough for Petters to manhandle him down to the ground and make him eat some hard blows for it. The round ends, and I would say this round was even. The judges on the other hand call it a draw, which if they are only using the OT round as the determining factor, is a fair call, but it should never have got that far, to begin with. Good fight. The best part was seeing judo in action. For if it wasn't for judo and its winning ways, Nishi would have surely been rag-dolled down to the mat in round 1 and been slapped into oblivion.

ML: This is one of those fights is where Peeters gives the illusion of winning because he is the aggressor, but isn't really having any actual success. He tries to press forward with his kickboxing, then use his wrestling to tie Nishi up, but either Nishi uses better low kicks to back him off, or it just ends up being a stalemate against the ropes. The problem is Nishi really doesn't have any idea of how to stop Peeters from endlessly doing what he's doing, so eventually Peeters really is winning through control and pressure. Peeters decides he will need to be Sneaky Peeters, trying to use some different timing and feints to catch Nishi off guard. Ironically, it's a crazy jump spinning heel kick that allows him to continue pushing forward until he ties Nishi up against the ropes and gets a takedown. Nishi shows good balance to fend off most of the takedowns, and it certainly helps that Peeters is trying more for upper body Greco throws rather than dropping down for the waist or legs, but even though Nishi is able to land a few good low kicks per round, he is on the defensive 90% of the time. I can't really tell what Nishi's plan to win actually is, he really doesn't even try anything offensively but low kicks, which he mostly uses to reclaim territory after Peeters has backed him near the ropes. Peeters pulled way ahead with a knockdown off a knee. However, Nishi got lucky in the 4th when the ref ruled an obvious slip by Peeters when Nishi countered a low kick with the right slap a knockdown. Despite Peeters winning 4 of the 5 rounds, it goes to an extra round, where Nishi quickly tries to fire up by tossing his mouthpiece to his corner after failing on a leg lock, but still spends most of the round on his back. Peeters once again rightfully claims victory, but now I'm wondering if there are really even judges, as the fight is a draw. This was okay, more or less want would become your standard boring modern shoot where a non wrestler has no real answers for the wrestler's control.

Now it's time for the requisite AIR BOUT featuring Dick Fly (Vrij) and Marcel Haarmans. When we last saw Haarmans, it was at the inaugural RINGS event, where he was being bullied around by Willie Peeters, as he was trying to put forth a straightforward work, whereas Peeters was oscillating between stiff non-cooperation and begrudging civility. The match has barely started when Haarmans hits a tasty seoi-otoshi (shoulder drop) to kick things off with some nice judo. He then attempts to follow this up with an armbar but fails. Fly fails to show any decency, as he sneaks in a 12-6 elbow to Harrmans' face before standing back up.

What followed was a lot better than I expected it to be. It was a work, but a respectable one, that told a good judo vs kickboxing story. FlAs such y looked solid throughout, and while Haarman's strikes were laughably bad at times, he more than made up for it with some ultra-smooth judo. It would have been better with some more stiffness from Marcel, but even with that flaw, it still wound up being a solid ***

ML: An odd bout, as Vrij was on the defensive throughout. He just couldn't even get started, until he almost immediately won. Haarmans outwrestled and outgrappled him decisively, unfortunately employing some of the same pitiful body shots as Van Maurik. Eventually, someone must have said "Hello DickFly!", as he randomly woke up, pushing Haarmans off and finally beginning to land low kicks. Haarmans unconvincingly went down after a handful of kicks. Vrij now went to town with high kicks with Haarmans doing little more than urging him on, surprisingly finishing with a rear-naked choke despite hilarious clapping and mat pounding by Haarmans to show he was still awake. This match was pretty bad. It was basically Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Tom Van Maurik minus all the good aspects, though at least there was a lot less of the terrible body punches.

Now it's time to witness some THUNDER as it's Shootboxing vs Kyokushin. A bout between Mitsuya Nagai vs Willie Williams is underway. It was only a week ago when Williams was bludgeoning Nobuaki Kakuda in a shoot karate fight, and a few months since Nagai was in a shoot with Kimura. We are told that this will be done in a 3x5min round format.

Round 1 starts with Nagai flying across the ring with a somersault kick, which made me think we were in for a work, but the rest of the round was super stiff with a seeming 100% intensity, so I'm unsure. What I'm not unsure of is that Williams, despite not having any noticeable grappling ability, is much stronger than Nagai, and is able to neutralize all of his grappling entries, by simply clamping ahold of him, and not letting go.

Round 2 sees Nagai going back to the spectacular well of flying kicks,Though volume or but is so small compared to Williams that he just sorts of ricochets off of him. He did manage to follow up with a quick takedown attempt, which got too close to the ropes and almost caused both men to spill out of the ring. This seemed to irritate Williams, who then swiftly dispatched with Nagai, first with a knee to the head, and then the final blow, a stiff palm strike, which put Nagai away for good. I'm now convinced that this was a shoot, just a really weird one. This kind of fight is kind of immune to any rating, as it was over almost as fast as it started and was a total size mismatch from the start.

ML: I thought this fight was a work, as I didn't see a single shot land solidly. It had good intensity, at least. As usual, some of the wrestling is legitimate in these works, as no one is getting hurt in those positions, so often they just let them play out naturally (as we saw in Funaki vs. Roesch). In this case, though Nagai had a big grappling advantage, there wasn't much chance of him getting to utilize it given Williams had at least 100 pounds on him. Nagai did some silly wild kicks, but with Williams having a foot or more reach advantage, they were no more unrealistic that trying to close the distance conventionally. This was just a quick jobber match to set Williams up for a big match with Maeda. It was more interesting than Gary's squashes, at least.

Things probably can't get any weirder from this point forward, but then again, Masaaki Satake is involved in tonight's UNIVERSE BOUT, so anything is bound to happen. The first couple of minutes see Renting continually take Satake down, only to see him be far too determined to stay down, and sort of just will himself to stand back up. The third time is a charm when Renting is able to secure a rear-naked choke, forcing the rope escape. The rest of this match was rather odd, as the grappling portions seemed legit, but they weren't going at each other full speed in the stand-up. I was ready to write this off as another glorified sparring session, those weird matches that really don't exist in either the worked or shoot space, until the ending, which was both contrived and abrupt. Satake just moderately kicked Renting numerous times in the thigh for a knockout victory. Not good, and hard to assess, as I wish they would have just committed to either a full shoot or full work. As it stands this was just pointless.

ML: Satake showed more grappling and submission ability that I was expecting. Renting still had the advantage of the ground, but Satake wasn't overwhelmed, and was capable of going on the offensive. In standup, Renting would lift his leg to check Satake's low kicks, resulting in a little actual contact. Similar to Vrij vs. Haarmans, the grappling was early then once Satake got going, he finished it in short order with three knockdowns in a row. Forgettable match.

Now, for the triumphant return of the Volkster! Here he comes back to have a repeat of his debut match, where he narrowly lost to Akira Maeda, in what was a fantastic debut from this sambist turned pro wrestler. Maeda has proven that he can still pull off a good match in small doses, so it will be interesting to see what he does here. We are treated to full entrances by both performers, and the crowd is absolutely nuts for Maeda. I'm getting the impression that the undercard doesn't even matter to the fans at this point, as Maeda seems to single-handedly be enough to carry this promotion if the crowd reaction is any indication.

The energy of this place is unreal, and the Hiroshima public is captivated by every move these two are making. Things start with a lot of feints and the two feeling each other out. First blood is drawn in the form of a headlock takedown by Han, in which he tries to convert into a choke, but Maeda easily reverses it into an armbar attempt, followed by a failed leg-lock battle by both men. They get back up, but in no time at all, they are right back to a battle to see whose ankle will succumb first. Han wins round one, with a heel-hook forcing the first rope escape. The rest of this was fast-paced and exciting, which saw Han try and contort Maeda's limbs from just about every conceivable angle. This was a very submission-heavy affair, but it was full blast the entire time, and while that didn't exactly make for the most realistic outing from a real fighting standpoint, it didn't matter as the creativity and flow were off the charts. Han eventually wins via a calf-slicer around the 17 ½ mark, and while this would normally be about ten minutes too long for a latter career Maeda showing, here it worked splendidly. In my opinion, this was better than their first outing, and it wouldn't surprise me if it winds up being the last great match that Maeda has. ****1/4

ML: I would obviously prefer a better undercard, but if we are to have a one match show quality wise, it's nice when that match is at least the one that drew the crowd. That hasn't been the case in RINGS due to Maeda headlining all the shows, but he was in surprisingly fine form here, actually moving fairly well compared to what we've seen in the past year. It's Han's movement that is outstanding, and he largely did his best to work around Maeda. He clearly has a massive speed advantage, which he relied on to either enter and exit before his larger opponent could land the counter strike, or to strike his way into the clinch/leaping takedown so he could initiate a grappling sequence. Maeda tried to stifle Han's advantage through low kicks, while Han, who is a leglock master to begin with, was more than happy to attack Akira's bad left knee when they were rolling, which added to the urgency of the contest. Right away, even though this was a work, we could see how far ahead of the shoot game Han was in terms of combining striking and grappling, using a 1-2 to accomplish his goal of securing a bodylock. Maeda did a good job of fighting for underhooks, so Han essentially did a standing arm-triangle in order to trip Maeda, though what ultimately worked on the ground was more of a headlock. Maeda drew first blood, knocking Han down with a nice hand combo where he went to the head to open up the liver shot, but Han responded with a leg-trip into an Achilles' tendon hold on the bad leg for a rope escape. This becomes something of a pattern, with the larger Maeda having the knockdown power, leading Han to respond with a takedown into a bad knee submission. This wasn't the most realistic battle, but it is a fine work that told a reliable pro wrestling story, one of the best of Maeda's RINGS career. Here, he did the right thing in putting Volk over, finally establishing a rival for himself in the promotion. He, of course, had the explicitly played out excuse of his bad knee eventually doing him in after struggling his way to several rope escapes. Ultimately, it was Maeda's willingness to risk the predictable leg submission counter that did him in, and once Han locked the hizagatame in the center, Maeda finally tapped immediately, whereas a healthy individual would have survived longer, and probably had a chance to escape even from the center (granted moreso in pro wrestling where fans allow the performers to get away with spending a minute slowly sliding themselves to the ropes). This felt like the first major match in the history of the RINGS promotion, with Han showing great diversity and endless creativity, while Maeda was a bit repetitive, albeit he at least stuck to his plan and told a good story. A definite improvement over their first match, which was RINGS MOTY for 1991, though not as awe inspiring since we now have an idea of what to expect from Han. ***3/4

Conclusion: Sadly, after coming off a great event with their co-promoted show with Sediokaikan, this wound up being a pretty weak follow-up. It did have a good shoot with Nishi/Peeters, and to my total surprise, an excellent work with Maeda/Han, which was the best match of the night. The problem is that some of these hired guns have no business working. They would probably be fine in shoots, but really shouldn't be allowed on the flipside without first proving some ability behind the scenes. Still, that's probably easier said than done, as you have to fill the card with something, but when there are real fights on a card, it serves to make the bad-looking fake stuff completely jarring, by comparison. To Maeda's credit, he's been allowing shoots on every card for the past several months, which may seem trivial now, but was mind-blowingly progressive in early 1992. He also deserves a lot of praise for being willing to put Han over, especially at this early stage of his career. Takada could certainly learn a lesson from him, in that there are times where it's best to put your ego aside for the long-term health of your company, which is something that he sadly never learned. Maeda succeeded in officially putting Han on the map for years to come by this smart booking decision, as he would get at least a solid 6 years of strong performances from him as a result.

ML: I agree with your assessments, it's just that Maeda and shooting are at cross purposes. Since he presumably has no plans to actually do real fights himself, his primary goal is to develop main event opponents, not real life killers who then have to suddenly figure out how to not make him (and themselves) look bad while at the same time putting him over. Fighters like Williams, Kakuda, and Satake would be quality wins for Akira, so they have to figure out the fake game somehow, and less meaningful undercard bouts are the most reasonable way.

*In other news*

The recent PWFG show that took place in Miami, Florida on 3-20-92 was considered to be a success by both Vale (who helped promote it) and Fujiwara. It pulled in an almost 3,000-person attendance and was marketed to more of a karate/kickboxing crowd, as opposed to a pro wrestling demographic. Roberto Duran was also in attendance, and reportedly weighing close to 250 pounds (he won his first pro boxing title in 1972 at 135), which may be problematic as he is set to have a fight against Maskatsu Funaki on 4-19-92 in Tokyo.

A near-riot broke out recently at a WKA kickboxing card, during a match between Hector Pena and Roney Lewis. Inside leg kicks were legal for this bout, but groin shots and elbows, were not. Former full-contact karate champion Cecil Peoples was officiating this fight, and had to warn Lewis repeatedly about groin shots. Still, despite this, it seemed that Pena was on his way to a clear victory when he was given a hard elbow to the temple. Peoples told the judges to deduct a point, which enraged Lewis to the point of shoving People's and kicking him in the groin. This is where the pandemonium broke out, as it was reported that shortly after this, some of Lewis's handlers rushed the ring, with one member going as far as to throw a stool out to the crowd hitting several people with it. Even WKA president Howard Hansen got involved as he was hit in the head while trying to protect a female timekeeper from the melee. Eventually, the order was restored, and Lewis was fined $200 and given a 45-day suspension for his actions.

The All Japan Kickboxing Federation recently held another exciting card on 3-28-92 which featured 5-thrilling bouts! Let's check in with ace reporter Mike Lorefice, for some analysis:

The most entertaining fight on the card was a Featherweight Next Challenger Decision Tournament match between Takashi Nakajima vs. Michiaki Yamazaki. Takashi Nakajima vs. Michiaki Yamazaki R3. This fight was pretty wild! Nakajima had the height advantage and appeared to be much more skilled and diverse as well. He was landing naked high kicks from the outside, so Yamazaki just started rushing in, trying to clinch. Nakajima was much more versed in a Muay Thai though and would drop down the vaunted 12 -6 elbow, Yamazaki was probably lucky to escape with his life! There was an amazing sequence where Nakajima did a right high kick into a right straight, hit a jumping knee after backing Yamazaki into the ropes, dropped an elbow to the back of his head, which literally caused Yamazaki to run away to the other side of the ring, but Nakajima ran at him and hit a jumping high kick. Though this was essentially a job rematch, Yamazaki did have a few good punch flurries on the inside, but his head was a stationary target even when Nakajima wasn't using the clinch blasts him with knees. When Yamazaki tried to back Nakajima into the corner to start the third, Nakajima just worked him over with knees and elbows, buckling him with a knee to the midsection then dropping the elbow down on his head for a knockdown. Nakajima obediently got another knockdown with clinch knees, and the Ref wisely waived it off even though Yamazaki did make it up. Good match.

The main event, Takahiro Shimizu vs. Atsushi Tateshima, was clearly a battle of styles with Tateshima coming forward and blasting Shimizu with debilitating low kicks, while Shimizu tried to time him and answer with powerful hooks. The problem for Shimizu is his lead leg was compromised literally within seconds, and he spent most of the fight hopping backwards on the good leg like a crippled kangaroo, which really limited his punching power. Shimizu's leg gave out after a low kick halfway through the first round, and while the match was entertaining, you already felt the writing was on the wall. That being said, Shimizu was clearly the better boxer, and managed to have a good second round after he gets uppercut going to make this a fight, despite largely fighting without his left leg. In the third round, the inevitable finally happened, Shimizu's leg gave out from a low kick, and you could tell he wasn't getting up anytime soon. Good match.