Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA |
History is inundated with historical moments that marked the beginning of a war or major conflict. From the infamous Boston Tea Party, the bombing of Pearl Harbor, or the fatal moment that Franz Ferdinand was assassinated, the past is replete with key moments that forever changed the course of the world via an act of aggression/rebellion. 8-19-92 marks the date that the UWF-I committed intolerable acts of high treason against Generalissimo Inoki and the pro wrestling establishment when its brand ambassador, Lou Thesz, held a press conference which served to put the rest of their rivals on notice that there was a new posse in town, and they weren't going to play nice anymore. Of course, this fiery rhetoric was merely a contrivance to posture themselves as the home of "real fighting" despite being delivered by a spokesman as credentialed as Thesz. It was also a way to build up interest in their 9-21-92 main event between Nobuhiko Takada and Gary Albright, where the winner will have to face Koji Kitao in October. Yes, several months after losing the intangible accolade of "Best in the World," it's now time for a match with a tangible prize for the winner, Lou Thesz's classic NWA title belt.
We open things up with a behind-the-scenes look at the 8-17-92 press conference, and if being called out by Lou Thesz wasn't painful enough, he's joined by two other wrestling legends in Billy Robinson and Danny Hodge. The three of them talk about how great the UWF-I is and how it reminds them of their own past glories, which may not seem like much to a modern American audience, but all three of these men had legendary status within Japan, so this surely had the intended effect of firing a shot across the bow toward NJPW and other rival promotions.
Tom Burton vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
It only took almost a year, but Booker Miyato has chosen to have mercy on us, his peasants, by having a different opening match. Sadly, there is a portent of impending doom in the air as Kanehara will not be present to pull anything close to passable out of Takayama. All we can hope for now it's a sweet end to our upcoming misery. This affair, while not great, wound up being better than I expected thanks to the two staying active and keeping a brisk pace. Takayama's kicks were pathetic, and his slaps labored, but he put forth another sincere effort and was even able to pull off a decent kneebar attempt. Burton did a good job of maintaining pressure with his constant takedowns, but not much else. The match ends with a KO victory for Takayama via soccer kick. Despite Takayama's usual ineptness, this was entertaining enough to warrant **.
ML: The first junior league was very welcome if only because it brought an essential reprieve from the torture of Yoshihiro Takayama ruining every Hiromitsu Kanehara match, but beyond that, it was very much a mixed bag. I don't really understand how they came up with the two Americans, as Tom Burton has not only been with the outfit since the opening show, but actually headlined it! Mark Silver was a more reasonable selection, but he has been a main eventer and faced Nobuhiko Takada, as well. This match was mostly just boring, as Burton controlled Takayama with his wrestling. Takayama might land a few inept strikes in standup before being put on his back, but was generally on the defensive, not doing much then eventually answering, probably improperly. Takayama did manage to land a pretty good head kick when Burton was on one knee trying to get up, knocking him to the floor for a rather unnecessary count out to end this DUD. This was a big upset for Takayama, his 1st career win, but at the same time, there was no real reason they couldn't have just had the knockdown in the ring.
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Mark Silver
Now it's time to see if all the time and expense that the UWF-I has been investing into Silver is going to pay off. Booker Miyato has been generous in providing Silver ample opportunities to hone his skills with long matches against some of the top workers that this promotion has to offer. He hasn't faced the magnificent Kanehara, however, and this is the moment to see if he can add anything to his magical alchemy.
We quickly see that Kanehara is wise beyond his years by eschewing any pretense of trying to grapple with Silver, instead opting for a gonzo stick'n'move strategy. He was able to blast Silver's thighs close to a dozen times before eventually getting tossed to the mat by the desperate Silver. Mark does what he can to utilize his weight advantage against his smaller foe, but like Tamura before him, Kanehara's scrambling abilities are without peer, and he simply won't be contained for long. This wound up being a 15min draw, and was much better than I would have expected. Silver doesn't have the skills of other Maeda, but he seems to be aware of his limitations and as a result, acts with great urgency whenever he's in danger of being locked into a submission. Still, this had some hokey moments (apparently, the Boston crab is one of only three submissions that existed in 1992), but the pleasant energy gets *** ¼.
ML: Kanehara had to do a different match finally because Silver isn't a striker like Maeda is and Takayama purports to be. Kanehara is usually the one trying to take it to the mat, but while he did want to grapple because he is the superior submission fighter, Silver was the one who was able to get the fight to the ground most of the time with a suplex or takedown, so Kanehara was often on the defensive, fighting an uphill battle against a much bigger opponent. If anything, this felt more like a Silver match then a Kanehara match. While Kanehara is better than Kakihara, he's not as good an opponent for Silver because he isn't going to wow us an explosion of offense that can make up for some of the awkwardness or goofiness of Silver. This match was entertaining, and perhaps more competent than expected, but at the same time, it never really clicked. Silver did some good and some bad things, and Kanehara was good, but honestly below his usual level because he was dictating a lot less. I think there is a lot of potential here, and certainly it was a big step up from the Takayama disasters, but it was more a composite of their individual skills then a match where they were able to meld their styles into something superior.
Masahito Kakihara vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Lately, Kakihara has been proving that he's more than just a protogé of E-Honda with his 1000 mph hand slaps, but that he's a worthy grappler, also. I can only hope that he can quickly dispense of Nakano in this next bout. Things start fantastically as the old Kakihara is back, slapping Nakano with the ferocity of a thousand suns. Nakano instantly received a busted nose and wound up bleeding all over the place. The ref stops the fight long enough for Nakano to wipe the blood off his face, and Nakano goes right back to taking a beating. Eventually, Nakano is able to score a takedown followed by a head stomp/half-crab combo. This wasn't even 5min long, but it was crazy entertaining. *** ¾
ML: Hashimotocito has long been a famous for the nosebleed, but never has Nakano's nose erupted like something out of a horror movie. Kakihara busted him open horrifically with his opening flash of palms, and threatened to run Nakano over pretty quickly. The wily veteran who was able to slow the match down though, winning the positional battle, which allowed him to threaten with submissions, as well as get in a few strikes when Kakihara was prone. This prompted Kakihara to take the ill advised big chance, and as usual he whiffed with his spinning heel kick, and that gave Nakano all the time he needed to submit him with a half crab. This was a really interesting portion of a match, but it's quite thin in its current form, with the opening salvo being the only thing that was really good, and Nakano still being wildly mediocre. In the end, while it was it's clearly better than the junior league matches, it was mostly just memorable for the copious amounts of blood because they weren't able to build upon the great opening barrage, and at just 4:53, there wasn't really much beyond that, especially when Nakano was on offense.
Yuko Miyato vs. Mark Fleming
Now for another opportunity for Mark Fleming to get a chance at some much-needed singles action. Fleming has been one of the better acquisitions since Billy Scott bailed on the company (due to their retarded insistence on forcing him to pay for an unwanted lime green outfit), but has been spending most of his time in unnecessary tag outings. Right away, Miyato lays into Fleming with a barrage that probably made him rethink his decision to leave the NWA. Miyato was also doing quite well in most of the grappling exchanges, which surprised me. Fleming came off as nervous this time around, like someone who has the skills to perform, but isn't yet confidant enough to feel comfortable. Miyato tried to set a high pace, but you could tell that he had to slow things down for Fleming to give him a chance to figure out what he was doing. This wasn't bad, but fell short of what it could have been. **
ML: I thought that you would like this a lot more than you did. The opening minute of Kakihara's match was better, but overall this was the best match so far, almost entirely due to a strong performance by Miyato. Miyato made good decisions, and really did a good job of being decisive here. He fought with urgency, as he had to be first, and keep Fleming guessing in order to seize the advantage from his much larger opponent. Miyato focused on kicking, as usual, which he could get off without allowing Fleming to grab him, but also managed to get the fight to the ground against a far superior wrestler just by being willing to press the action and make Fleming think so much about defending the strikes. Fleming was a little hesitant, and wasn't really able to work with Miyato so much as just go through his arsenal of suplexes and amateur wrestling positions. I was somewhat disappointed in him, as he just doesn't seem very dynamic or flexible, but this was still an entertaining match. Again, it was too thin to be recommendable, but it was an above average match that was another feather in the cap of Miyato.
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Steve Cox
Last month Tamura gave us one of the best matches of the year in an epic adrenaline-fueled masterclass, but he has now been regulated to babysitting duties. Yes, it's his turn to put newcomer Steve Cox through some on-the-job training at our expense. This starts with some fast-paced chain wrestling with Cox looking sharp with his takedowns, but did manage to embarrass himself when he turned the wrong way when trying to set up a Boston crab. For the most part, I liked what I saw here. Cox does one thing well (amateur wrestling), but like so many others that we've been looking at lately, he's lacking in all other categories. His speed and athleticism are most welcome, but when you go up against an all-star like Tamura sans any other kinds of firepower, it's impossible for the audience to feel like you're able to be a threat. Big points to Tamura for the ending where he set up an Americana by knee-dropping his opponent in the face. **3/4
ML: This match was testing my patience quickly, as it was ridiculous that Tamura was always on the defensive against a crab happy Sportatorium reject. I would have been fine with Cox getting the takedown then Tamura immediately coming up with a cool reversal on the ground, but minute after minute, Tamura was shockingly not doing anything fast or explosive, and was just being hugged & held. This was possibly the worst match of Tamura's career. Even when he won, it was just a random backdrop into a chickenwing armlock. This never began to feel like a Tamura match. I assume that Cox is so bad that Tamura didn't feel he could do anything of actual interest with him to the point he just mailed it in entirely, as basically it wound up being 7 minutes of killing time.
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo
Last month Kiyoshi Tamura had to single-handedly carry the evening into greatness, and now this duty falls squarely upon Yamazaki's shoulders. Yes, only Kazuo can now take this card into the realms of greatness that we all seek, with Commander Anjo's help, of course. Anjo takes on the role of the smarmy heel, refusing to shake Yamazaki's hand. However, he doesn't refuse to relentlessly attack Kazuo once the bell rings with a litany of strikes. Kazuo is very sneaky though, and he negated a lot of Anjo's offense by keeping him in clinch range. What's fascinating, however, is that Yamazaki seems to be the only pro wrestler since Sayama that understands feints, and he utilizes them splendidly, which helps him fake his way into the phone both with Anjo. This conflict was a lot of jockeying for the submission victory with mostly unsuccessful attempts from both men. This outing didn't have the boundless kinetic energy that last month's Tamura/Anjo contest had, but it did maintain a mid-tempo burn that I felt was more effective in some ways. The constant tension that they were able to create kept you in rapt anticipation with a feeling that at any moment, all hell was going to break loose. The dam eventually busted open, with this getting more and more heated as each minute went by, with Yamazaki winning by submission in the end. I felt this was on par, or better than the Anjo/Tamura match except for the length. This bout should have been a couple of mins longer to really catapult it past last month's affair, but it was fantastic all the same. While Tamura is the equivalent of sound'n'fury, in your face and unrelenting, Yamazaki is more cerebral and calculating. Those qualities helped shape this into a fiery crescendo that had a great build-up that only needed a little more time to cook. **** ¼
ML: I was pretty disappointed by this match. It wasn't as good as their 9/26/91 match, much less anywhere near the stratosphere of either Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo. The match seemed rather dated, more like the 1985 UWF stuff I've been watching in that it was submission oriented, but just too slow on the mat, so with the lack of amateur wrestling and BJJ, they were really obviously just kind of randomly trading pro-wrestling submission holds because they weren't using counters, explosions, or really doing anything to disguise the transitions or make them somehow plausible. The match would have worked better if we got more of Anjo's dickishness and aggression. The match started off with Anjo refusing to shake Yamazaki's hand, and I wish they went further down this path, as Yamazaki is one of the only guys that can match Anjo's antics, and the heated portions were by far the best thing going on. The random submission exchanging was unfortunately the predominant action in the contest though. With Anjo, that patient, thinking Yamazaki match doesn't work as well as with others because one of Anjo's strengths is losing his cool and being cheap and cheeky. There were moments when the match threatened to take off and be exciting and very aggressive, but unfortunately it would quickly calm down again. They seemed to be wrestling a 20 or 25 minute match that was building to something interesting, at which point the Yamazaki patience could still have won the day, but then they randomly ended it at 10 minutes. There were some good to excellent moments, but certainly not enough of them, and overall it was just very inconsistent in terms of quality. I get that Takada vs. Albright is the big attraction in the entire league this year, but you also have to understand who can handle time and who can't. Things would have been better for everyone if this got an extra 10 minutes, while that was that much shorter.
Nobuhiko Takada vs Gary Albright
Yes, after countless mishaps and missed booking opportunities, this is where we are at, another match between Gary (Best in the World) Albright and Nobuhiko Takada. Not that circling back to this match-up was a bad idea, but if Booker Miyato had been the least bit competent or creative, we would have had several detours before arriving here, with both Kazuo Yamazaki and Bad News Allen as viable contenders in the title mix. Now, due to this short-sighted strategy, we are doomed to spend the rest of our days treading this path of Superman vs. the Behemoth-of-the-Month, at least until Vader's shtick wears off in the days to come. Still, this was doubtlessly effective for the short-term as this matchup has everyone excited to see Takada (who has been forced to ruminate in great sorrow for the last several months) recapture his throne as the leader of the new shoot revolution. Yes, these ragtag group of rabble-rousers are intending to burn Inoki and his ilk in a grand effigy, and this main event is their mission statement. This nonsense probably would have survived the long game if they either had a legitimate shooter at the helm or at the very least several other stars that could be seen as equals to Takada, but their lack of foresight was what it was.
Before the fight starts, we are taken back to the 8-19-92 press conference. Thanks to the mighty powers of our resident translator, John Krummel, we have unlocked the ability to decipher what went down. The announcer at the beginning just says, thanks for coming, now we will begin the signing ceremony for the world heavyweight title bout, etc., etc. and he goes on to introduce Gary Albright, Nobuhiko Takada, and Lou Thesz (as former world champion) as the certifier for the title match. He also introduces Shuji Gotoh, the promoter and CEO of a number of companies (he named a series of them). And as honorary witnesses, Bill Robinson (as former IWA word champion) and Danny Hodge (as former NWA junior heavy wt. champion) are introduced. Then Albright speaks with the translator translating him. (Editors Note: Albright takes this time to fire off some more warning shots, saying that he would be happy to challenge any of the other so-called champions from WWF, All-Japan, New Japan, etc.) And then Takada says, "I'm very honored to be chosen to be a part of this honorable fight. I think that Gary is a very good wrestler worthy of wearing this belt. But I also believe that I deserve this belt even more. So, I am convinced that on the evening of the 21st I will be wearing this belt." Then we are treated to pre-fight interviews of Takada/Albright. Takada's prefight interview: ". well. in any case. both for myself and for UWF-International, I will 200% defeat Gary and Kitao. I am not thinking about losing at all, I'm only thinking about winning."
We then get to witness Lou Thesz enter the ring and drop some comments that were sure to enrage Inoki, Sakaguchi, and the rest of the established pro wrestling apparatus in Japan. Thesz stated: "I am not here to make myself the focal point of this short talk about the future of wrestling. However--in 1937, I wrestled a contest with Everett Marshall and in doing so I won the undisputed heavyweight wrestling championship of the world. In my opinion, wrestling needs the credibility of one undisputed champion. WWF, WCW, All Japan, New Japan, and recently NWA are all claiming some sort of title or championship. A claim is not a fact. I take it upon myself to invite all credible championship claimants to compete for an undisputed world title. Also, I offer to put my prized possession, the original championship belt at stake, to be reserved for the wrestler to emerge as the undisputed champion of the world. I have carefully monitored all title-claiming wrestlers including the UWF-I wrestlers. My 60 years of experience have taught me to recognize a contest when I see one. Gary Albright and Nobuhiko Takada have both shown credible, gutsy competition. I look forward to many entries to win my 90-year-old belt."
After Thesz's words and all of the other pleasantries, the match starts with Albright quickly taking Takada down and looking a lot more agile on the mat than one would expect from a man of his size. Of course, Albright doesn't seem to know what to do for a submission outside of twist a foot and hope for the best. The next several mins saw a lot of bumbling around on the mat, which is disappointing because they showed a lot of energy during their last outing (even if it wasn't realistic). I could see what they were going for here, a back-and-forth war with the threat of a submission at any moment, but we saw the proper version of that match done correctly with Anjo/Yamazaki right before this one, which only highlights how these two are not the candidates for anything involving prolonged mat time. Simply put, they were trying to go for a long epic match to be a proper payoff for the build-up that went into it. This strategy is generally a good idea, but Takada is too clueless to be trying to pull off a 30min classic, so instead, we got something that smacked of a lot of pro wrestling chicanery but somehow managed to miss the potential entertainment value that style can bring. Things were a little better when they were on their feet, but even there, Gary scaled back his intensity, overly pulling his strikes, presumably so he wouldn't hurt Rock Star Takada. I really wanted to like this, and I honestly thought that it was going to be entertaining, but it somehow even failed that. Ironically, because they did such a good job setting up the stakes of this fight, it wound up being even more of a colossal disappointment than the usual Takada match, which we wouldn't have expected to be good anyway. I hate to be negative, but this sucked, and almost ruined what was otherwise a very entertaining show. Needless to say, Takada is now the World Heavyweight Champion, and will go on to face Koji Kitao next month. *1/2
ML: Well, obviously what we had here is one guy that has no clue about any sort of positioning on the mat, and two guys that have absolutely no clue about submissions trying for some reason to work a ground fight where we are supposed to be enthralled by the possibility of an imminent submission without any proper set up or application. The first half mostly felt like an endless loop of taking each other's back, while never figuring out to put the hooks in they failed to secure the choke. Takada actually even managed to go for a rear-naked choke from what would be side mount, if he actually understood what side mount was. The match was more intense in standup, but for a huge match between the two top fighters before a big show sellout crowd, this was still shockingly lacking in intensity and even stiff or showy offense for a long time, and thus the audience was having a hard time getting into it, or if at least finding anything to actually cheer about. The second half was better, with Takada scoring two knockdowns with a series of leg kicks, which finally got the crowd going. Albright, of course, had a couple of big suplexes, but never felt particularly imposing here. The crowd was loving Takada having a big run, including finally suplex in Albright to set up an armbar attempt, but one had to wonder since Albright was losing this match and Takada had no other actual challengers, why was he faring so poorly and looking so ordinary? Given no one had even touched Albright so far, wouldn't it have made much more sense to have had Takada absorb a Herculean amount of punishment, but somehow eek out the win to set up the third match? I don't want to make it sound like the match was a one-sided, but at the same time, Albright never really felt dangerous here apart from the few times he hoisted Takada in midair for the big suplex. His submission game may be no more pathetic than Takada's, but at the same time, you know that people will tap to Takada's armbar no matter how poorly it is applied, whereas you never felt Takada was close to submitting to Gary's rudimentary twists. Albright was the one who was undefeated, yet there never seemed any threat of Tadada actually losing this. This wasn't the worst match on the show, but nonetheless, it should have been a lot more interesting and entertaining than it actually was to make up for all that you knew it was never going to be.
Conclusion: Despite only having one "must-see" match with Anjo/Yamazaki, everything before the main event flowed well and was super entertaining. Kakihara/Nakano was fantastic also, despite being on the short side. The main event had me in a fit of rage on the other hand. Normally, I accept Takada matches for what they are, quick, silly, and marginally entertaining. However, since so much was put into hyping this fight, the meandering no-intensity garbage that we got drug this entire production down. Still, I would recommend this without hesitation if you are prepared to ignore the main event.
ML: To me, this card emphasized the worst aspects of what UWF-I is starting to become, too many foreigners, none of which are adding much of anything really, and thus too many short matches to try to fit all the bad foreigners onto the card (and not expose them too badly). This show had a few matches that could potentially have been good, the ones with two natives, but basically everything was too short to really materialize, except for the main event, which was too long to even be entertaining in its ineptness. I hate to be a downer, but for the second column in a row, I'm going to say this is the worst show we have reviewed from this promotion. Ironically, its closest competitor would be last September's big show, where Yamazaki vs. Anjo was also the only useful match.
Now, here are our translators look at the post-fight comments:
{After the fight, Takada, sitting on the chair in the locker room, says, "thanks everyone," and jokes when they pour beer on him, "ah, it's cold. I might die here from a heart attack." And his post-fight interview: "I didn't like getting my kicks caught and then having my back taken. If I didn't pay attention even for a moment, he'd take my back, and if he was just going to take me down, that's ok, but I was afraid of him taking my back and throwing me over. so that made me stall." One journalist asks, "Were you trying to get him in an arm bar?" and Takada answers, "before when I tried that, he escaped about 3 times to the ropes.so I thought if I could catch him this would work. And I thought if I could catch him in an arm bar without obsessing too much about it that would be good., but then when he was on all fours, I thought, 'what the heck,' and kicked him, and I don't know if my kick hit his face or not, but in any case, I was able to catch him in an arm bar. When I hooked my legs around him when he was on all fours, it was like hugging a tree, and my legs couldn't wrap around him completely because he's too big around the waist, but somehow I got him. it would have been impossible to get him in a leg submission from that position." Another journalist asks, "did you feel any damage from him?" And Takada answers, "the worst was when he picked me up and slammed me down. I stopped breathing [knocked the wind out of me] for a moment and I felt like my back bone may have been hurt. His back suplex wasn't complete because I had my leg hooked on his leg, but the front suplex slammed me on my back and it knocked the wind out of me. He doesn't just throw you behind, but slams you down, so even when you fall on your back, there's always some damage from his suplexes. When he picks you up, you don't know in which direction he's going to throw you, so that was scary. That prevented me from kicking him as much as I wanted." Another journalist asks, "How do you feel wearing the belt?" And Takada answers: "I'm happy thinking that this belt is being soaked with my sweat." And he closes saying, "In any case, this is just the beginning, a starting point, so my head now is filled with the coming match against Kitao in Tokyo."}
*In Other News*
9-20-92 was a furious night of action-packed footfighting in Holland. An event promoted under the moniker "The Night of Truth" took place and we're here to give everyone some of the highlights.
Ramon Dekkers vs Gilbert Ballentine
Round 1 didn't see a lot of activity from Dekkers, but what we did get from him was brutal. Despite his opponent being quicker and having better footwork, Dekkers had the clear advantage here. He would simply wait patiently and wind up a devastating kick when Ballentine couldn't defend.
Round 2 was the battle of the elbows as they seemed to be the only significant form of offense from either man. Even round.
Dekkers plods around the ring like a Rock'em'Sock'em robot in round 3, but everything he does is so scarily accurate that he doesn't need to dance around. Ballentine seems like he is the more active fighter, but isn't connecting with much.
Round 4 saw one unanswered kick after another from Dekkers. Ballentine was moving and dancing around a lot mote than Ramon, but couldn't translate his speed into any effective attacks.
Dekkers was very patient in Round 5 waiting for his opponent to attack and constantly responding with the perfectly placed counter. After a min of this, Ballentine ratcheted up the intensity and threw everything he had at Dekkers, but to no avail. All of this being said, I was flabbergasted that they gave the decision to Ballentine. I can only speculate that this insane decision was an act of corruption, likely due to Ballentine being part of the more established Chakariki Team. Whatever the reason, this wasn't competitive enough to be recommended as an exiting match (when you consider that Dekkers was the rightful winner), but it was a fantastic look at how composure, precision, and viciousness, can be more valuable than athleticism.
ML: Ballentine was the quicker fighter, with much better footwork, but Dekkers just had so much more power. Dekkers would take Ballentine apart with his low kicks, both when they were at distance, and if he could time Gilbert coming in. Ballentine had to get inside to get the fight into a range where he had a chance, as his punching was more accurate though not as damaging, but because Dekkers knew that, and had such good timing, it was difficult for him to get inside without just getting intercepted. Dekkers won the first round easy, but Ballentine showed much better timing with his entries in the 2nd, and I thought took that round, winning the punching battle. Dekkers began walking Ballentine down in the 3rd, which was another way of controlling distance and keeping Ballentine out of this comfort zone, but this was a close round with some good shots from both fighters. Dekkers wasn't that active early in the fourth round, but had a few punishing elbows and a knee from the clinch. It felt like he was getting outworked for quite a while because Ballentine moves a lot more, but Dekkers made a great adjustment to now consistently land the inside leg kick when Ballentine would step forward, and again had the telling shots of the round. Ballentine came on again in the 5th, as he was now able to back Dekkers into the ropes. Dekkers knocked him off his feet with a leg kick though. In the end, this fight was close, probably something like 53% Dekkers to 47% Ballentine, but Dekkers surely won 3-4 rounds. This was an interesting fight, not quite good, but compelling and well worth watching.
Frank Lobman vs. Peter Aerts
This event also had a main event that footfighting fans around the world have been waiting for, a rematch between Frank "The Animal" Lobman and Peter "The Dutch Lumberjack" Aerts. These two first faced each other back in November, and it wound up being the first loss in the incredible career of Lobman. Was this a fluke, or is Aerts the future of this sport?
Things start with a bang as Lobman wisely charges in and bum rushes Aerts. Perhaps he's learned that it's futile to try and fight from the outside against someone with such a significant reach advantage. Lobman put his vast experience to work by continually corralling Aerts into a ring corner. Aerts was able to fight his way back to the center of the ring a few times, but never for long. Exciting round with a sight edge for Lobman.
Round 2 sees Lobman use the same bombs away strategy as before, but this time it was nullified somewhat by Aerts crafty use of the clinch. Lobman still pushed through some nasty shots, the problem was that Aerts was too. This was very even until the end of the round where it was obvious that Lobman was starting to get tired.
Lobman's gas tank didn't get refilled by round three, and it cost him dearly. He didn't even have the cardio to keep Aerts away, let alone press a major offensive. I honestly think that Lobman had a good chance of winning had his stamina been at the level where he could keep that breakneck pace for 4 rounds. Aerts didn't seem to handle being bullied very well, but once you give him some distance to work with, his massive limbs do the rest. Exciting fight.
ML: Great action for as long as Lobman could last! Lobman had to constantly pressure Aerts in order to win this match, and Aerts knew it. Lobman would score when he was going forward, but Aerts was ready to defend, and would just push forward himself as soon as Lobman stopped attacking, forcing a much higher pace than Lobman wanted by not allowing him to get away with taking any breaks. Lobman had big power and a lot of volume, but wasn't very accurate, whereas Aerts was much more confident in his ability to stand the test of time, and wasn't pressing, wasting energy, or taking silly chances. Lobman came out strong in the 2nd, and was trying to finish Aerts off in the corner early on with some huge haymakers, though they mostly missed, and Aerts came back strong once he got back to the center. Lobman was slowing considerably by the middle of the round, as he just expended so much energy in the early portion when he figured he had his chance because Aerts had no room to back away. Aerts may have lost either of the first two rounds, but he was clearly playing the long game, while Lobman was clearly playing the short game. Aerts decided it was time to make his move at the start of the 3rd, knowing Lobman had been fading fast and seeing that he didn't immediately try to blitz him this round. This time it was Aerts that was able to back Lobman into the corner, and he rocked in with a big right cross. Lobman no longer had the energy to hold his hands up, and while he got out of the corner, he made no move to get off the ropes, allowing Aerts to just pick his shots and prepare to take him out with the accumulation of big blows that weren't defended. Lobman finally managed to clinch, but when the ref broke them up, Lobman just turned his back and hunched over in his corner for the stoppage, as he had no more energy to try to win. A disappointing finish, but Lobman gave all he had, and I would much rather see him lose like this, then pace himself and just get outpointed for the duration. Good match.
Decorated amateur wrestler, Dan Severn, is being considered by the UWF-I. Severn is a two time All-American at Arizona State University and one of the original Sunkist Kids. He was also a finalist in both the 1984 & 1988 Olympic Trials. He is currently wrestling for a small independent promotion out of Ohio, while trying to get the attention of bigger leagues.