k1 Survival 2003 , japanese mixed martial arts mma

A rare bad day at the box office for K-1. People are never too enthusiastic about the Beast shows anyway but with the return of Sapp to…..ahem…. competitive action you’d expect better. The entire upper tier (a lot of seats) was blacked out WCW-style and maybe 30% of the rest were empty. Zero atmosphere too. Maybe the typhoon raging outside scared off the casuals. I can’t have been the only one who looked out the window that morning and considered catching the TV show in the comfort of my own home. But, such is my dedication to SFUK readers (and my liking of multiple press passes), that I braved the typhoon, got absolutely fucking soaked and hooked up with a drenched Shootboxing winner (more on that later) for a day at the fights.

Kimo was out of his scheduled match, replaced so late by the tough Ivan Salaverry that the programs still had the heavily tattooed bible basher displayed prominently. I’m wondering if his fight with Rene Rooze was a sweetener to apologise for the Vegas travesty and deflect a complaint to the commission. But then again, I’ve watched a lot of X-Files and that stuff does bad things to your brain, so it might have been a straight booking decision to sell tickets.

Confirmation that the first Musashi-Silva fight was worked came with the high profile given to the rematch, its refereeing by Nobuaki Kakuda (the bodybuilder star who said he’d quit if Silva was allowed back in K-1), and the high level of respect on show between the fighters when that bout finally kicked off. On paper, Sapp and Lebanner have both been given set-ups to smooth their way (as the two biggest draws) to Tokyo Dome, making the Butterbean-Bernardo match the must-see bout.

Lebanner kayos a Zulu

Fight One – Jerome Lebanner vs Shaka Zulu

And before we even start – no they did not exhume the corpse of the legendary Zulu leader and put him in with the injured Frenchie. I know K-1 like to rebuild their stars by putting them in with stiffs, but it’ll be a few months at least before they start bringing back the dead. Then again, they signed Francois Botha, another African warrior who’s been on the slide since the Boer War. This Shaka was billed as 12-1-1, which means whatever you want it to mean. I’m thinking that’s a boxing record, seeing as he went into this match without any ability to kick or block Jerome’s. In his favour he was a big dude, showed no real nerves, and had a decent go at it. He made his ring walk doing a funky Zulu dance and smiling, probably thinking of the paycheque. Or maybe he didn’t know who Lebanner is and consequently was oblivious to the beatdown emanating from the opposite corner. On paper he’s got one chance and one only: mid-kick like crazy at Lebanner’s gammy arm and hope to either flip him out or score a freak injury. Lebanner normally draws a huge pop on his entrance but I think the crowd knew what this match meant and stayed sedate.

Lebanner isn’t fucking about and intitiates a two-fisted attack behind the jab. Zulu circles off to the left and punches back, not doing the midkicks that he should. Lebanner moves downstairs and goes after the lead leg with blood-curdling efficiency, the ‘whacks’ carrying right up to the cheap seats. Zulu is stoically taking it and tries to time counter rights. There’s a down / slip and Lebanner realises that Zulu hasn’t cut a single kick, so he keeps chop chop chopping away. Eventually the African starts pulling away from them. 10-9 Lebanner.

There’s another dodgy down called in Lebanner’s favour, clearly a trip, but it has no influence on the outcome of this mismatch. Zulu is moving well enough to make Lebanner think about his openings but can’t check the kick and his own punches last crispness. Lebanner finally kills the leg and Zulu takes a ten-count on his knees.

Jerome Lebanner by ko (leg kicks) 2RD 1:16

SFUK verdict: Exactly what we though it would be, and it was announced later that Lebanner would next face a second African and the third guy in a row that can’t (or won’t) throw right mid-kicks.

Silva & his hand puppet

K-1 Japan Qualifier 1 – Musashi vs Montanya Silva

The promos weren’t fooling anyone, especially a badly worked scene of Silva slapping a cameraman, but I was still interested in this and rooting for the big guy. It would be the funniest thing in the world if he won the tourney. They touch gloves to start and Silva opens with an awful midkick and takes a few low kicks in reply. When Silva throws a right hand it misses but you can see he’s getting behind some of ‘em and he’s clearly been learning. Musashi is looking to counter over the top of the slow jab but can’t quite find the range so he’s giving ground. Silva keeps his chin high so Musashi does drill him a few times, drawing a cheer, but Silva isn’t going anywhere. He’s a little hesitant, and he’s fighting like a kickboxer rather than the Beast-rush used by most of the untalented big guys. There might be hope for him yet. 10-9 Musashi

Silva is throwing mostly one-twos but punching down so far leaves his chin open to the counter punches. Musashi revs up the left mid-kick but is mainly looking for the single big shots, probably figuring to coast to a decision and stay fresh for a tougher test later tonight. That, added to Silva’s worries, make for a slow fight. 10-9 Musashi.

Silva continues to paw a jab and shuffle forwards, letting his hands go better and it quietens Musashi a little. There’s mid-kicks from the big Brazilian and while there’s nothing on them they still take Musashi out of his game. 10-10

Musashi by unanimous decision (30-28 / 30-29 / 30-28)

SFUK verdict: Silva was better than expected, showing he’s learning his trade and prepared to fight properly, but maybe Musashi just carried him to get an easy first fight.

K-1 Japan Qualifier 2 – Tatsufumi Tomihira vs Hiraku Hori

It’s hard not to like the brave Tomihira after the tremendous heart he showed when dropped in deep against Ray Sefo. He’s real wild and careless though, so Musashi doesn’t have much to worry about down the road. Hori is a tall guy and trains wrestling too. At his age, and on this tonight’s showing, I see a bright future for him in K-1 or mma.

Hori came out southpaw and was much slower that the jumpy ‘Mr Yellow Card’. Tomihira landed mostly low kicks and Hori found himself swiping air when he punched back. Tomihira steps in with flurries and is usually gone before Hori can return fire, sweeping a decisive round 10-9.

Hori starts real strong on the bell with punch-kick combos, sending Tomihira scurrying backwards. He then nails a sweet flying kick and can’t miss. Tomihira weathers it as you’d expect and by mid-round has regained momentum behind a counter right hand but its taken a lot of fight from him. There’s a semi-accidental (Hori was pretty negligent leading with his head) butt that brings a time out and Tomihira is landing well on the bell. 10-10

Tomihira hasn’t been carded yet so he kicks Hori in the plums early bringing a time out. That doesn’t earn a card. Hori is all left-kick and left-hand but its working. Tomihira getting increasingly wild so his shots loop and don’t get through, putting Hori in control of the round. Hori keeps control of the centreline with his straight punches and takes it 10-9

Hiraku Hori by majority decision after three rounds (30-29 / 30-28 / 30-30)

SFUK verdict: It was close and tough to score but I would’ve wanted the extra round.

K-1 Japan Qualifier 3 – Nobu Hayashi vs Yusuke Fujimoto

Nobu has been training at Chakariki in Holland of late but he must’ve been loading up on the Heinekin lager cos all that hard work had done nothing to shift the rolls of flab that cloak his big frame. He was a fleshy 110kg for this one. In contrast, Fujimoto has fallen in love with the mirror and followed the Bob Sapp diet, bulking up to a hefty 107kg (and looking good for it, future mid-life health problems aside).

The fight is fairly lively. Fujimoto walks himself into the corner but he’s starting a good leg attack, landing plenty of low right kicks and not paying a price. Nobu can’t get off at all, a good two beats behind his opponent. Fujimoto flurries away and can’t miss whenever he puts the left hook on the end. After four flush lefts he lets it all go till the bell. A good start for Fujimoto and Nobu is looking confused. 10-9

The buff guy doesn’t fix what isn’t broken, landing plenty till Nobu lands maybe the his only punch all night. It’s short and weak-looking but it crumples Fujimoto onto his knees by the ropes. He’s rocked but responds well, drilling Nobu as he comes on and turns the fight back to his favour. 10-9 Nobu

It’s heated up nicely and Fujimoto is still pressing the action, varying his attack with high kicks and body hooks. Nobu stays inactive but the rare occasions he attacks he’s pretty sneaky and lands well. A strong finish from the big guy isn’t enough to overturn two minutes of being outworked. 10-9 Fujimoto.

The judges can’t separate them and it goes to an extra round that is more heart than skill, with Fujimoto edging it on workrate and low kicks.

Yusuke Fujimoto by split decision after an extra round (10-9 / 9-10 / 10-9)

SFUK verdict: I had it clear cut after regulation time. Nobu just plods forward and doesn’t work hard enough to win this sort of fight. Fujimoto is learning the old boxing adage: you can’t put muscles on your chin.

K-1 Japan Qualifiers 4 – Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs Hiromi Amada

Hiromi is a girl’s name, for what it’s worth. My school classes are full of Hiromis and they all wear skirts. This one doesn’t and he’s something of a slugger. I don’t know what is going on in Nakasako’s life but he is now far removed from the guy who dropped Mark Hunt. Amada is able to walk him down and get busy throwing decent combos, though a bit wide. Nakasako stands with him, taking it on the gloves and throwing straighter punches in reply. Amada is aquitting himself well and fighting his fight, which is a punch-out. 10-10

Amada keeps his opponent in a boxing match and edges it with a good wide left hook every now and then. Nakasako doesn’t look right. His hands are low and his punches are lazy. By the end of the round Amada is landing the left hook at will to take it 10-9.

As they tire, the fight gets sloppy but stays a slugging match and Amada is still landing nearly every left hook he throws. Nakasako is landing too and they go forehead-to-forehead with Nakasako body punching and Amada doing the only thing he’s ever done in a ring: headhunting. Nakasako looks about to drop till the bell saves him. 10-9 Amada

The judges have got it wrong again so Amada has to bull forward in an extra round and keep swinging. Nakasako is too tired to do anything about it but rallies briefly towards the end but loses the round.

Hiromi Amada by unanimous decision after an extra round (all 10-9)

SFUK verdict: One of those matches that is great fun to watch on TV in a pub, with a beer in your hand. It loses a lot when you are uncomfortable in a seat next to two dickhead pro-wreslting fans and all you can see is wild swinging.

Fight Six – Butterbean vs Mike Bernardo

This is a key match-up in the perennial ‘my sport is better than your sport’ argument currently raging between boxing and kickboxing fans. Ludicrous though it may seem, the 196^th ranked Butterbean – and a few years past his ‘prime’ – is the best heavyweight boxer to grace a kickboxing ring. His gimmick is catching on and he has tshirts in the lobby now. Bernardo is exciting, frustrating, and annoying in equal measure depending if you watch him fired up, lazy, or preaching the Good Book respectively. He’s been on a long slide and coming into this one had taken Cyril Abidi’s title of ‘K-1 Star Most Likely To Be Humiliated By a Non-Kickboxer’, hence this matchup. Bernardo has already been flattened in one by the lightly-skilled Gary Goodridge and narrowly avoided the same fate from the zero-skilled Tom Erikson, but in both cases he really cleaned house after those shocks. There were a lot of people out there who figured that with his skills, motivation, aggression and chin all being far far below peak levels, he was ready to be taken by the Beanster. How wrong we were.

Bernardo stepped out of his time machine in 1996-form and gave Butterbean the worst beating he’s had since some fool matchmaker ran out of Oklahoma farm boys and put him in with a real boxing guy and lost him his undefeated record years ago (Mitchell Rose, for those who follow the sweet science).

Mike stayed away at first, using the jab just as a comforter. Bean responded by putting his head down and right hooking at body level, but coming up short. When he did land the weight of it pushed the bible-basher backwards but didn’t hurt him. But it woke him up and he responded with two very hard low kicks, causing Butterbean to sag low and get worried. Bernardo knows right there that his gameplan is gonna work out sweet and a third one chops Butterbean right down and makes him try what is probably most accurately described as an atrocious single-leg takedown. He beats the count but is soon dropped again with a kick to the same leg. He can’t deal with them at all and he ends the round teetering back and forth like a pensioner in a bus queue while Bernardo plays with him. He’s saved by the bell and looks all done. 10-7 Bernardo.

Butterbean has lost what little mobility he had and looks clumsy, missing by a mile. Bernardo heavy-bags him with more low kicks then finishes it in style with a surprise high kick to the chin that drops Bean for good.

Mike Bernardo by ko (horrendous beatdown) 2RD 1:00

SFUK verdict: An unbelievably dominant performance from Mike. He owned Butterbean for every second and didn’t get hit. He showed power, variety, slick movement, aggression…. in fact everything he usually leaves in the locker room. This is a textbook example of how to fight a slow-footed boxer and puts Mike back up there as a sellable fighter. I think this was more of ‘right opponent, right time’ than a true turning back of the clock. On the plus side, Butterbean doesn’t need to go on Ricki Lake to find out what its like to be publicly flogged.

During the intermission pro-boxer Francios Botha hit the ring flanked by the two gayest-looking body builders you’ll ever see. They were HUGE but in exactly the way that’ll put you off weights for life. And I swear one of them was wearing ear rings. For those who don’t know, Botha is the guy that was comfortably outboxing Mike Tyson for 5 rounds, got overconfident and kayoed with a single lucky punch while he was taunting Iron Mike. This was before Lewis destroyed the washed-up champ. Before that Botha had been widely considered a fraud till his 36-0 record was put to the test for the title against the (painfully limited) Axel Schultz. After winning the IBF heavyweight title and being stripped for steroid abuse, he then showed great heart and chin letting Michael Moorer batter him from pillar to post before stopping the South African in the final round. He’s washed up now, sandwiching kayo losses to Lennox Lewis and Wladimir Klitschko between draws with Shannon Briggs and Clifford Etienne. Despite all this, he is still a big step up from Butterbean and it now remains to be seen what Jerome Lebanner does to him.

K-1 Japan Semi final 1 – Musashi vs Hiraku Hori

Musashi knows he’s too good for the youngster and stands right in front of him, slipping, blocking, hitting and generally looking to get it over with quickly. It pressures Hori into a high workrate and that’s what ties the round for him without ever looking like he’ll win the fight. 10-10

Musashi isn’t quite getting off with his hands but the low kicks are thundering in. Despite being outworked by the very tall Hori, Musashi nearly drops him with a high kick then a low kick succeeds, bringing an 8-count. The legs are gone and Hori can barely stand so another low kick sends him back to the dressing room.

Musashi by ko (low kick) 2RD 3:00

SFUK verdict: Musashi allowed himself to trail, knowing those big single shots would wear down his man.

K-1 Japan Semi Final 2 – Yusuke Fujimoto vs Hiromi Amada

I must admit to barely paying attention to this one. It was a decent scrap but I was just numbed by now. There’s something about these Japan GP’s that suck it out of you, in sharp contrast to the Max GP’s that absolutely rock. The fighters didn’t engage for 30 seconds and when they do its tentative. The cleaner harder work is from Fujimoto to take it 10-9.

Fujimoto still leading and catching Amada with left hooks then drops him with a straight right. Amada is ok but can’t find Fujimoto much. For his part, Fujimoto is hooking like the ‘power punch’ of a Masters Of The Universe figure, such is his arm positioning. He takes this round 10-8.

It’s knees that open round three and Amada finally wakes up. He’s doing well now but trailing badly. Fujimoto is carded to narrow the gap and give Amada a round 10-9.

Yusuke Fujimoto by unanimous decision after three rounds (29-28 / 30-28 / 30-27)

SFUk verdict: A pretty good fight from two guys with not the faintest hope of winning the Tokyo GP, but who still want the honours of top dog in Japan.

Mma Match One – Ivan Salaverry vs Rene Rooze

Most of you will remember Rooze as the cheating fucker who Enson put to sleep with a standing rear-naked choke in 1995 and who fouled out against Heath Herring. He’s pretty good when he’s allowed to stay upright. Sergio Barterelli (former IVC ref / promoter and Ronaldo lookalike) was reffingand we spotted Pedro Rizzo in the dutch corner.

The standup was cagey till Salaverry lands a nice low kick and trips his way to half mount. Rooze doesn’t have any guard game at all, holding a guard that even Kimo would pass like butter, and Salaverry is quickly out to sidemount then knee-on-belly. Rooze is clutching for his head and survives till a quick standup. Ronaldo walks the AMC Pankration fighter over for a doctor’s check for what turns out to be a dislocated middle finger on his right hand. Makes me shudder just thinking about it. The match is stopped, and Rooze runs around the ring like he’s just taken the Pride belt. Shameful.

Rene Rooze by lucky-fucking-break 1RD 2:24

SFUK verdict: A bum fight due to the freak injury. Salaverry was well on his way to winning.

The hardest photo in all of Japan

Main Event – Bobb Sapp vs Stephan Gamlin

I dunno where they found Gamlin but I’m hoping they put him right back there after this terrible mma match. I say terrible but it was pulsating stuff. Anyone who’s seen Sapp live will tell you that you just can’t help getting excited for his matches. Apart from his ridiculous size, he exudes charisma and presence. Plus of course he has to finish his fights within a couple of minutes before his cardio betrays him.

The promo was all about who could crush the most apples in their fist and Gamlin looked pretty happy on the ring walk, wrapped in a cocoon of blissful ignorance. Sapp’s entrance gave the event a much-needed charge of electricity and soon has us believing we’d made the right choice to come here. The fight itself was a farce. Sapp did his Beast-fury, punching Gamlin into a corner and rocking his head back. Gamlin pulled out an instinctive American football tackle to put Sapp on his back. It nearly got interesting but Gamlin didn’t know what to do so Sapp pulled a weak half-guard and easily turned out to the side and pushed Gamlin off. Then he unloaded again, shoved him into the ropes and took an easy standing guillotine even cheaper than Ortiz-Mezger I.

Bob Sapp by submission (guillotine choke) 1RD 0:52

SFUK verdict: This fight proved nothing we didn’t already know, except that Sapp has gone back to a training routine. But it was exciting to see two huge guys throw down like that. Gamlin showed heart but just didn’t know what to do.

There was the predictable pull-apart between Sapp and Botha (that’s the way every Beast angle starts) then we all went home.

SFUK is dedicated to supplying you with MMA news - free! We rely on writing/photo contributions. This entire site's contents is by fans like you for fans like you. - if you'd like to write, and think you can help, get in contact with us.