shooto : SFUK's mixed martial arts reports

George Bush may have milked September 11th something rotten, but even he would blush at the mileage K-1 has flogged from Andy Hug's death. This is coming on the back of several tribute videos and an earlier memorial show. And speaking of milking something you don't deserve, Hideko Yoshida was ringside to commentate on the back of his 'win' over Royce Gracie last month. This show continued the Pride vs K-1 theme.

Fight 1 - Bob Sapp vs Cyrille Abidi

Big ol' Bob is still doing the Ric Flair pink-robed entrance and he looks just as frightening in 10 ounce gloves as he does in open finger ones. He still had Maurcie and Josh in his corner. In the pre-fight promo Sapp ate an official Cyrille Abidi toy doll then said the fight would be his desert. Abidi's got some work to do to remove the stigma of being starched in one by Quinton Jackson. If he takes out Big Bob then all is forgiven. As a gimmick, K-1 owner Ishii was the special guest referee, nominally because of Bob's rampage in his previous bout.

Abidi is totally overwhelmed in the first 12 seconds and receives a count as he turns his back and covers up. It was one big right hand clean that rattled him, the rest were kind of clubbing. The frenchman was still dazed but threw a few good punches on the restart. They landed clean as Sapp had zero defence, but he walked through them and resumed a wild onslaught. It was all power and no technique, pure arm-punching. But with arms like those..... Abidi was ducking and grabbing and generally having a bad time of it. A few illegal blows to the back of his head turned him round to the ropes again and as he covered up he received another count. He was totally overwhelmed, but this time in his frenzy Sapp was landing clearly illegal blows mixed in among his legal efforts. There was still only 40 seconds elapsed as they restarted. Again Abidi led with some clean straight shots and again he was steamrollered into a corner and clobbered. He was battered to the ground for a stoppage by the 3 knockdown rule by hammerfists to the back of the head.

Bob Sapp by tko at 1RD 1:07

SFUK verdict: A joke. The second and third knockdowns should have been warnings to Sapp for illegal punching. That said, it made no difference to the outcome, as Sapp would have still flattened him. Bob is carving out quite a record now, but this was all size and no skill. He just jumped on his man, flailed away without a hint of technique, and Abidi had neither the power or chin to stand up to him. Sapp did show a sturdy chin, as the hard shots that he did eat didn't move him at all, but how much can you say about a 1 minute match against K-1s most vulnerable heavyweight? If he can deal with Ray Sefo or Jerome Le Banner, we'll have a true star in the making.

Fight 2 - Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs Ryuta Noji

Nakasako is best known to mma fans as the victim of Bob Sapp's rule-breaking mauling a few months ago. They showed highlights and I'm increasingly convinced it was a work on Bob's part - i.e. he was told to go wild. Bob's knees and stomps seem very much 'pulled' and aimed to miss. Nakasako also dropped Mark Hunt in his first fight after winning the 2001 Grand Prix, before losing to the champ.

A right lead, left hook landed clean from Nakasako but didn't rock his opponent. Both kickboxed in the normal fashion, unlike the wild melee that went before. As usual in K-1, the karate guy (Noji) didn't show the slightest hint of his kyokushin background. Nakasako got through plenty of low kicks and then wobbled his man with a flurry. He briefly scented a finish and opened up but relaxed again when the karate man defended intelligently. Nakasako clearly didn't feel threatened and was walking into Noji quite calmly.

Round two was another relaxed start. The crowd roared as the karate man seemed to catch the kickboxer and he pushed Nakasako back onto the ropes with a long flurry. Nakasako wasn't the slightest bit worried, took them all on his gloves and shoulders, then returned with a sweet 8 punch combo of which 7 landed. Not very hard though, so Noji backed up and survived. It was clear than Nakasako could land anything he wanted whereas his opponent had to make do with mostly cuffing him around the ears in short bursts.

The karate man was still putting forth a gutsy effort but was still failing to land anything of consequence. Nakasako picked him off and seemed happy to coast to a decision. Most of the action in the middle minute was forehead to forehead and nothing of power. Before long the punches were coming through treacle they were so arm-weary.

Tsuyoshi Nakasako by unanimous decision (30-29 / 30-28 / 30-28)

SFUK verdict: Totally one-sided but always competitive. Noji was too tough to take out in the three rounds with what Nakasako was throwing at him.

Fight 3 - Yusuke Fujimoto vs Toru Oishii

This was another K-1 Japan quarter final bout featuring guys unlikely to see Tokyo Dome in December. Fujimoto is a spitting image of Alexander Otsuka and he was getting the better of it early on. It was a scrappy but spirited showing from both fighters and a couple of times they tumbled to the mat. It looked from the outset like their chins were more than a match for the punches so someone was guaranteed a decision and both guaranteed splitting headaches tomorrow.

By round three they were exhausted and hugging like UFC champions. Then with 1:28 gone, Fujimoto landed a long right lead and about 2 seconds later a left hook, both on the point of the chin. I'd call it a combo, but it was more like a one----------two. Still, his opponent was knackered and couldn't get out the way. He dropped like a stone and was wobbly after a 9-count. He got dropped for good right away

Yusuke Fujimoto by ko 3RD 1:47

SFUK: Big surprise that it ended when it did, coming as both were coasting. A good hard fight.

Fight 4 - Musashi vs Hiromi Amada

Another quarter-final match. Amada seemed to think he was guaranteed a first round kayo, cos his corner came in carrying a sign proclaiming it. He's a tub of lard, but he has a few kayos in K-1. Amada came out tripling the jab and true to his word chased the early kayo. A few rights had Musashi swaying but he never loses his composure and Amada had to start working more intelligently. It was all one-twos from him while Musashi was his usual patient self, mixing his shots on the rare occassions he threw them and keeping his hands mockingly low.

Round two was more of the class from Musashi and the workrate from Amada and there wasn't a clinch in sight. It was still more strategic than wild, and Musashi earned a time out in the 3rd for receiving a knee to the stots. Amada tried to finish strong but it was taken all on the gloves.

Draw after 3 rounds (30-30 / 30-30 / 30-30), so it went to an extra round

They started even but then Amada's conditioning betrayed him and he couldn't offer any offense in the last two minutes, leaving Musashi to peck away and coast to an easy 10-9 extra round decision.

SFUK verdict: Hardly a match to get excited about, as the whole bad-blood angle could only interest a native Japanese fan. Musashi definitely earned the close decision.

Fight 5 - Mike Bernardo vs Tom Erikson

Now what the sfuk is a wrestler doing in the main event of a kickboxing match. No doubt he'd destroy the South African bible-basher in an mma match, but kickboxing rules? This makes Don Frye's decision to match wits with Jerome Le Banner look smart. Bernardo is another member of the 'humiliated in one round by a Pride fighter' club, going down to Gary Goodridge in under 2 minutes recently. In his favour he's big, can box properly, has a decent chin and good power. On the down side, he's been having tough fights against the top K-1 guys for 9 years and his body is starting to creak under the strain. The Big Cat is really up against it here, having only a 60lb weight advantage in his favour to balance what he gives up in experience and skill. The gimmick here was that K-1 owner Ishii told Bernardo it was a win-or-quit bout.

Erikson belly-to-belly suplexed Bernardo in the first ten seconds and got a warning. His gameplan seemed to be to bull into close range and swing madly. The ferocity of it had Bernardo going backwards for the first minute. Then the first real punch he threw, a left hook, stiffened Erikson. As he went to follow up, the wrestler drilled him with a right that landed high up the head and dropped the South African. On the restart Erikson put him back on the canvas with an even better shot and the whole crowd were 'what the sfuk?'. Bernardo looked on the verge of going home early. He just covered up with his gloves up high while Erikson had 2 minutes to get the clinching knockdown. It didn't happen so Bernardo looked up and threw his own combo to drop Erikson. It was all fairly crazy now. Erikson was up at nine and didn't look too steady. Bernardo dropped him again with clean shots and this time Erikson stayed face down after briefly trying to get up.

Mike Bernardo by ko 1RD 2:05

SFUK verdict: This was almost another shocker where a top K-1 guy (admittedly on the slide) is starched in a round by a wrestler in his first kickboxing match. Erikson was literally one clean punch from a crushing kayo victory. When Bernardo did fire, the difference in class was obvious and Erikson had no defence.

Fight 6 - Kiyoshi Nakasako vs Yusuke Fujimoto

This was a fairly dull effort until Nakasako caught up with his tired and outclassed opponent late in round two and put him down flat with a kick. He put him down for good right after.

Kiyoshi Nakasako by ko 2RD 2:30

SFUK verdict: Fujimoto didn't have the skills to match K-1's top light-heavy and he's also shipped plenty in his previous bout. Nakasako just wore him down at his own pace.

Fight 7 - Musashi vs Tatsufumi Tomihira

I missed Tomihira's decision win in the opening round. He was carded for fouling within 10 seconds and clearly doesn't like Musashi. Musashi wobbled him with a hook soon after and punched him into a corner. Tomihira was hurt bad and just covered up. Whatever things you can say about Musashi, being a finisher isn't one of them. He flurried aimlessly and his opponent recovered enough to wobble him right back with a trio of clubbing shots. Musashi lost his mouthpiece as he stumbled into the ropes. He was in trouble but turned the tide again and now it was Tomihira backed up against the corner post. Musashi was able to pound away and even rested his left glove on his opponent's forehead to pick his shots with the right. Tomihira rushed forward to take him down and fell over, receiving a count. The bell went to end a wild round.

Musashi was well in control of round two and staggered his man with a knee and them an uppercut that rocked his head right back, but didn't finish. Tomihira backpedalled to stay in it and then with 2:45 gone was wobbled bad by another knee.

Tomihira had figured out how to survive by round three and didn't draw Musashi out of his patient game until 2 minutes in when he foolishly traded and Musashi cracked him with two picture perfect left hooks that sent him reeling backwards a few steps. He gamely stayed in it.

Musashi by unanimous decision after three rounds (30-26 / 30-25 / 30-26)

SFUK verdict: Another wildly exciting fight (or at least the first round) in a night that was blessed with several eventful bouts

Main Event - Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs Musashi

Yoshida was called up to the ring to present both fighters with envelopes pre-fight for this 8-man tourney final. These two were clearly the class of the field so no surprise they made it through to this showdown for a place in the World GP. This was a typical kickboxing match with plenty of jabbing, flurries ending in low kicks and feinting. Nakasako owned the ring centre while Musashi was happy to walk back and look to counter one-twos with his fast left hook.

More of the same followed in round two, but by round three they really let it all go. They stood toe-to-toe and traded in long bursts, eating enough shots to turn their brains to mush. No doubt both fighters really wanted the win and they are tough guys. I was waiting for a spectacular collapse from Musashi in the last minute, like when he failed at this final hurdle last year to Nicholas Pettas. But it didn't come and both handed it over to the judges after a great finish.

Draw after three rounds (30-30 / 30-30 / 30-30)

After the judges passed the buck it was on to the extra round. And after both fighters once more dug deep, would you believe it but the sfuking judges still wouldn't render a proper decision and ordered them out for a fifth round (I had it for Musashi, just). They were too tired to do much in that round and eventually Musashi took it unanimously. A come-back fairytale for him, and heartbreak for Nakasako.

Musashi wins K-1 Japan Grand Prix by unanimous decision (all 10-9) after the second extra round

The K-1 guys have been mugged in their cross-promotion battle with Pride. Cro-cop is the only K-1 fighter to earn a win under mma rules, and both Jerome Le Banner and Matt Skelton were flat-out humiliated. For the much anticipated 'away match' under K-1 rules, they haven't done much better. Abidi starched within a round by both Sapp and Jackson, Ernesto Hoost and Musashi decisioned by Semmy Schilt, Bernardo in a round by Goodridge and then so close to another helping from Erikson. It all seems to point to one inescapable conclusion: K-1 fighters are crap. Or maybe the fact most of them were fighting at big weight disadvantages didn't help. Is it any coincedence that the only guys to buck the trend were Ray Sefo (with an iron chin) and Jerome Le Banner (awesome puncher under K-1 rules), two heavy guys in their prime.

These match-ups are likely to inflame the debate over who are the better athletes, what the standard of kickboxing is like at K-1 level, how does a boxer match against a kickboxer (all the Pride fighters won on punching alone), how important is weight in a match and so on. Personally, I find it hard to believe Sapp, Erikson, Goodridge or Jackson could face a guy like Lennox Lewis and just bullrush him into a corner for a quickie kayo. Something is up in K-1.