http://ironforgesiron.com/2010/10/31/horrendous-decision-mars-another-great-sengoku-card/
Published on mma-japan.com by Daniel Fletcher:
http://mma-japan.com/?p=100
A Japanese fight card featuring rounds from two separate Grand Prix’s at Bantamweight and Welterweight sounds like fun. In fact, it sounds like the best fun you can have with your clothes on. With some stellar performances and a solid card, the night should have ended with the knockout-of-the-year contender provided by the irrepressible Maxi Blanco. Yet World Victory Road had to climax with their darling hometown favourite Izumi; Olympic champion, and beneficiary of one of the worst decisions of all time, marring an otherwise excellent event.
As a supporter of Pancrase, watching the BWKOP Manabu Inoue dominate and advance to the semi-finals was brilliant. The man is highly underrated. Criticised in some quarters for lacking a killer instinct, he makes up for it with skill and the ability to impose his will on weaker fighters and lesser talents. He will be joined in the semis by Tamura; representative of the wonderful org known as Shooto. Perhaps surprisingly, I had mixed feelings on that fight, given that I like his opponent Shoko Sato too. But Tamura is a solid fighter, at both Bantamweight and feather, and it is great to see Shooto fighters do well in other orgs. A Tamura/Inoue final would be FANTASTIC, albeit major mixed feelings on the outcome yet again for me personally…
Ishiwatari/Nakahara put on a stellar scrap; grappling and striking exchanges, reversals and counters, a 5* opening round and a split decision win for the latter man. This bout ever so beautifully demonstrated the spirit of Japanese MMA, with both men taking risks and laying it all on the line in the name of Bushido and warrior spirit. I enjoyed this fight greatly.
“Korean Ultimate Fighter” winner Chang Seob Lee provided the “epic” factor in the usual “epic entrance” stakes that J-MMA never fails to provide. In his case, it was coming out to “Kung Fu Fighting” while dancing around throwing what were universally – and ironically – termed “karate kicks” across the internet, and wearing a yellow jumpsuit. Epic. His opponent is an old warhorse – Pancrase alumni Yoshiki Takahashi. While the old boy might be 2-8 in his last ten fights, the man is a veteran warrior and fought some of the best names of the ‘90s, such as Ken Shamrock (0-2), Bas Rutten (0-1), Masakatsu Funaki (0-1), Minoru Suzuki (1-0), Semmy Schilt (0-3), and even in the following decade he would face the likes of Igor, Heath Herring and Melvin Manhoef. So, it was good to see him secure quick a slick submission win over the “Kung Fu Fighter”, when he trapped the arm and used his legs to apply pressure, with Lee’s face trapped and open to strikes. Takahashi scored his first win in five years.
Shunichi Shimizu will join Inoue, Tamura and Nakahara in the semi-finals, after soundly decisioning Takahashi’s namesake, Wataru. It was a just call; Shimizu got the better on the feet, countered with jabs and leg kicks, took Takahashi’s back in the first and almost secured a sub. In the second, it was more of the same, and he ended the fight in top control, pummelling away at his beaten foe, who at least had the dignity and achievement of going the distance.
Performance of the night had to be Yasubey Enomoto. Now, the name ‘Enomoto’ puts vivid, horrifying imagery in my head because I intrinsically linked it to Masayo Enomoto; the convicted rapist and murderer who fought in China for the Imperial Japanese Armies in the conflict that both preceded and then carried on alongside World War II. Years later, Enomoto revealed his horrendous deeds frankly in Laurence Rees’ excellent Horror In The East. Perhaps future opponents of THIS Enomoto, Yasubey, will have similar forebodings upon hearing they’d drawn his name for their next fight. He is scary good. The man booked his place in the Sengoku Welterweight Grand Prix with a display that broke his opponent, Taisuke Okuno. He bitchslapped him. He ended the fight (a one-sided beatdown) with a Saenchai-esque cartwheel kick. Enomoto is terrifying, and I’d love to see him square off against Mariusz Zaromskis sometime in the next year.
His opponent will be Keita Nakamura. He beat Wada after a body lock throw, that he followed up with securing a crucifix position and ending the fight when Wada tapped after a huge volume of unanswered, indefensible punches rained down on him. The fight reminded me of Roy Nelson vs. Kevin “Kimbo” Ferguson on The Ultimate Fighter.
Nakamura is good, but I would not want to be a welterweight squaring off against Enomoto right now. That is, unless I was a bald Canadian with the power to take down anyone my own weight, and hold them there for a decision…
Maxi Blanco is a savage. We knew this was a squash match, but it was still ended in impressive fashion. A flurry of punches in round 1 drops Kunioku, and Blanco strikes him repeatedly to the head before bizarrely attempting a sit down on his head. Whether it was disrespect to his opponent, humiliation tactics, clowning around or an attempt to “faceplant” Kunioku, perhaps we’ll never know, but in any case, Blanco swivelled and hit him with the uppercut from hell seconds later anyway, when his poor foe tried to rise to his feet. An impressive end to a fight that should have been an impressive end to a card. But it would not transpire that way, because we had to get the Japanese hero involved…
Izumi lost all three rounds. OK, Shamrock’s robbery against Severn was a fairly even, and highly boring fight. Randleman and Bas could have gone either way, though Mr Rutten got very, very lucky to be able to put “UFC Heavyweight Champion” on his curriculum vitae. Machida/Rua was a joke, but hell, Lyoto scored at least one, if not two rounds. No, gentlemen and ladies… THIS was a true robbery. Izumi lost all… three… rounds.
He didn’t win a round. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that one, kids… and it’s a damn shame, because this card was tremendous, and I would love for Sengoku to challenge FEG and to grow their org. They have a fantastic product. But robberies of this nature have happened before, and they need to stop.
Full results here:
Main Card
Hiroshi Izumi def. James Zikic via split decision (30-29, 29-30, 30-29)
Kazunori Yokota vs. Brian Cobb def. Kazunori Yokota via split decision (28-28, 29-30, 28-28)
Maximo Blanco def. Kiuma Kunioku via KO (punches) at 4:26 of Round 1
Yoshiaki Takahashi def. Chang Seob Lee via submission (armbar) at 2:28 of Round 2
SRC Welterweight Grand Prix 2010 Semifinals
Keita "K-Taro" Nakamura def. Takuya Wada via submission (strikes) at 3:30 of Round 1
Yasubey Enomoto def. Taisuke Okuno via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-25, 30-25)
SRC Asia Bantamweight Tournament 2010 Quarterfinals
Taiyo Nakahara def. Shintaro Ishiwatari via split decision (19-20, 19-19, 20-20)
Akitoshi Tamura def. Shoko Sato via split decision (20-18, 19-20, 20-19)
Shunichi Shimizu def. Wataru Takahashi via unanimous decision (20-19, 20-18, 20-18)
Manabu Inoue def. Jae Hyun So via unanimous decision (20-19, 20-18, 20-18)
Sweet!
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