Pancrase: Oumakhanov Dominates; Silva Wins Again
Tony Loiseleur Feb 28, 2007
TOKYO, Feb. 28 — From the outset, Pancrase's three Japanese
representatives looked to be in for a very rough night, courtesy of
tough foreign challengers set before them on tonight's Pancrase
Rising 2 card at Korakuen Hall.
Macaco Gold Team's two Brazilian entries, Thiago Silva and Gustavo PC, would take on U-File Camp's Tatsuya Mizuno (Pictures) and PANCRASEism's Satoru Kitaoka (Pictures), respectively, while ex-Spetsnaz and SK Absolute Russia representative, Artur Oumakhanov (Pictures), would face the veteran Takafumi Ito (Pictures), also of PANCRASEism.
In the main event, lightweight grappling standout Satoru Kitaoka (Pictures), with his back to the ring post
while in the clinch, looked to finish the fight midway through the
first round by jumping onto Gustavo PC in an attempt to
secure a guillotine choke.
The guillotine was, for all intents and purposes, cinched tight. PC struggled to loosen Kitaoka's hold for some time, first attempting to slam the Japanese grappler by diving face-first into the mat from standing, and then arching back into a bridge, hoping then to impact his opponent's head onto the canvas.
Round two saw the tables turned somewhat, as PC managed to briefly capture Kitaoka's back for a rear-naked choke attempt, only to transition into an armbar attempt right after Kitaoka's escape. From the bottom, PC was once again able to employ his guard to tie up and frustrate Kitaoka's attempts to strike from the top, while he is able to occasionally throw some of his own hammer fists to the head.
PC opened the third frame with a hard punch combo that found its mark, but did little to faze Kitaoka, who instantly dropped to seize a leg for the takedown. From PC's guard, it was more of the same tactics as seen in the previous two rounds: PC attempting to tie Kitaoka's hands up, preventing him from striking, while sending several hammer fists of his own from the bottom. While Kitaoka did manage to land a few strikes, he was also successful in keeping PC's back on the mat, not allowing him to get his leg over for an armbar attempt, or to isolate one of his arms for a Kimura from the bottom.
Recognizing three rounds of grappling control, the judges saw fit to award Kitaoka the unanimous decision (30–29, 29–28, 30–29).
Post-fight, a winded and visibly fatigued Kitaoka thanked the crowd for attending, and in a surprising revelation, expressed his intent to take his next fight in what he believes to be the highest peak of competition: the PRIDE ring, though more specifically, the PRIDE Lightweight Grand Prix.
Often described by Japanese fight media as "the lightweight hybrid of Fedor, ‘Cro Cop,' and Randleman," SK Absolute Russia representative and ex-Spetsnaz Artur Oumakhanov (Pictures) took the fight to a feisty and determined Takafumi Ito (Pictures), despite missing weight for this lightweight bout.
The match, however, was ruled a special open-weight affair, as per Ito's wishes to continue with the fight — a surprising and bold move on his part, given Oumakhanov's recent record of dismantling opponents.
As expected, Ito essentially had little to offer in this bout as his strikes were ineffective against the Russian, often prompting Oumakhanov to drop his hands and stick his head out, daring Ito to take his best shot.
In the end, all three rounds boiled down to one basic routine: Ito shot, Oumakhanov sprawled, took Ito's back, and dispensed with submission attempts in favor of loading up devastating punches to the head that resonated throughout Korakuen Hall.
Outside of a failed suplex attempt, Ito was essentially manhandled by Oumakhanov, giving the judges no choice but to award the Russian the unanimous decision (30–27, 30–28, 30–28).
In the evening's only heavyweight bout, Macaco Gold Team Thiago Silva moved his undefeated streak from eight to nine with a knockout victory over relative unknown, Tatsuya Mizuno (Pictures). Though the match-up had all the appearances of a showcase bout — never mind that it was meant to determine a No. 1 contender — Mizuno was surprisingly game and took the fight to Silva from opening bell.
Fearless to the last, Mizuno charged in at Silva, looking good on the feet by tagging the Brazilian with several well placed punch combinations, successive uppercuts, and middle kicks, which often broke through Silva's defenses.
While the strikes scored solidly, it did little more than anger the Brazilian, as he returned with some dangerous combinations of his own, turning round one into an exciting slugfest. A hard knee to the body would spell the beginning of the end for Mizuno, however, as his natural reaction to dropping from a blow was to go for a takedown. Silva, alas, was out of range, and capitalized by throwing a soccer kick to the face of the U-File rep, knocking him out cold at 4:29 into the first round.
While doctors tended to Mizuno in-ring, Silva thanked the Japanese audience in attendance and requested their support as the heavyweight No. 1 contender to Kestutis Arbocius's (Pictures) title.
PANCRASEism cosplay aficionado (sans the cosplay this evening) Hikaru Sato (Pictures) defeated Rikuhei Fujii of Wajutsu Keishukai RJW in their middleweight bout via majority decision (20–20, 20–19, 20–19).
Despite Fujii being almost a whole head taller, Sato's victory came by way of pushing the pace with well-placed low kicks that kept the taller, rangier fighter at bay, along with clean and business-like judo takedowns that put Fujii in the bottom position for the majority of the bout's grappling.
The second stanza ended with Sato locked onto Fujii's legs, scrambling for any available leglock, while a frustrated Fujii could do little but deliver ineffective hammer strikes in an attempt to keep his opponent from securing the submission.
In the evening's other middleweight bout, Daisuke Watanabe (Pictures) of PANCRASEism defeated Takada Dojo's Tomoyoshi Iwamiya (Pictures) via guillotine choke in the second round.
Despite Iwamiya controlling most of the first round — attaining back-control briefly, before almost locking in an arm-triangle — Watanabe managed to defend against all submission attempts, and frustrated Iwamiya's strikes from the top position by tying up his hands.
Watanabe turned the tide in his favor in the second frame, as a sprawl off of a failed Iwamiya takedown opened the opportunity for his fight-ending guillotine choke, only 0:58 after the bell.
It was a tough night for former Neo-Blood tournament winner Shinsuke Shoji (Pictures), suffering a TKO loss to Nao "Yoshirock T" Yoshida, at 2:06 into round two.
In what may be considered a large aspect of "the classic wrestler style" in MMA, the Killer Bee fighter's tactics were to move in for the clinch and employ dirty boxing and knees. Yoshida's surprisingly stiff jabs foiled most of these plans, however, allowing him to soften Shoji up throughout the first stanza.
The second round saw more of the same until a well-placed knee to the face of Shoji had the wrestler stunned to the point of spitting out his mouthpiece before falling to the canvas, where Yoshida followed and delivered two fight-ending punches to the head before being stopped for the TKO win.
PPT's Masaki Yanagisawa (Pictures) and Killer Bee's Michihisa Asano (Pictures) fought to a majority draw in their featherweight rematch, this evening. Having suffered a loss to Yanagisawa via ankle lock in their 2004 encounter, Asano looked to avenge himself this time around by dictating the pace of the fight, keeping it on the feet, not playing into the Yuki Nakai (Pictures) brown belt's realm on the mat.
With the exception of a low blow (earning him a yellow card in the process), Asano's resonant low kicks landed with precision and skill, making Yanagisawa's kicks look somewhat lacking. Yanagisawa was fairly more effective in round two however, as his constant charging in to pull guard on Asano essentially allowed him to tie up the Killer Bee, frustrating his striking plans.
However, neither man's efforts in the bout served to be enough to earn the decisive win, as the judges ruled the bout a majority draw (19–19, 20-19 Yanagisawa, 19–19).
Macaco Gold Team's two Brazilian entries, Thiago Silva and Gustavo PC, would take on U-File Camp's Tatsuya Mizuno (Pictures) and PANCRASEism's Satoru Kitaoka (Pictures), respectively, while ex-Spetsnaz and SK Absolute Russia representative, Artur Oumakhanov (Pictures), would face the veteran Takafumi Ito (Pictures), also of PANCRASEism.
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The guillotine was, for all intents and purposes, cinched tight. PC struggled to loosen Kitaoka's hold for some time, first attempting to slam the Japanese grappler by diving face-first into the mat from standing, and then arching back into a bridge, hoping then to impact his opponent's head onto the canvas.
While neither attempt successfully broke Kitaoka's guillotine, PC's
patience and reluctance to tap eventually paid off, as Kitaoka was
forced to release the hold from fatigue. From here, PC's guard game
was able to keep Kitaoka at bay by tying up his opponent's hands,
allowing him little opportunity to deliver strikes from the top.
After a failed attempt to seize a leg by Kitaoka, the round closed
out with PC maneuvering his legs to secure an armbar.
Round two saw the tables turned somewhat, as PC managed to briefly capture Kitaoka's back for a rear-naked choke attempt, only to transition into an armbar attempt right after Kitaoka's escape. From the bottom, PC was once again able to employ his guard to tie up and frustrate Kitaoka's attempts to strike from the top, while he is able to occasionally throw some of his own hammer fists to the head.
PC opened the third frame with a hard punch combo that found its mark, but did little to faze Kitaoka, who instantly dropped to seize a leg for the takedown. From PC's guard, it was more of the same tactics as seen in the previous two rounds: PC attempting to tie Kitaoka's hands up, preventing him from striking, while sending several hammer fists of his own from the bottom. While Kitaoka did manage to land a few strikes, he was also successful in keeping PC's back on the mat, not allowing him to get his leg over for an armbar attempt, or to isolate one of his arms for a Kimura from the bottom.
Recognizing three rounds of grappling control, the judges saw fit to award Kitaoka the unanimous decision (30–29, 29–28, 30–29).
Post-fight, a winded and visibly fatigued Kitaoka thanked the crowd for attending, and in a surprising revelation, expressed his intent to take his next fight in what he believes to be the highest peak of competition: the PRIDE ring, though more specifically, the PRIDE Lightweight Grand Prix.
Often described by Japanese fight media as "the lightweight hybrid of Fedor, ‘Cro Cop,' and Randleman," SK Absolute Russia representative and ex-Spetsnaz Artur Oumakhanov (Pictures) took the fight to a feisty and determined Takafumi Ito (Pictures), despite missing weight for this lightweight bout.
The match, however, was ruled a special open-weight affair, as per Ito's wishes to continue with the fight — a surprising and bold move on his part, given Oumakhanov's recent record of dismantling opponents.
As expected, Ito essentially had little to offer in this bout as his strikes were ineffective against the Russian, often prompting Oumakhanov to drop his hands and stick his head out, daring Ito to take his best shot.
In the end, all three rounds boiled down to one basic routine: Ito shot, Oumakhanov sprawled, took Ito's back, and dispensed with submission attempts in favor of loading up devastating punches to the head that resonated throughout Korakuen Hall.
Outside of a failed suplex attempt, Ito was essentially manhandled by Oumakhanov, giving the judges no choice but to award the Russian the unanimous decision (30–27, 30–28, 30–28).
In the evening's only heavyweight bout, Macaco Gold Team Thiago Silva moved his undefeated streak from eight to nine with a knockout victory over relative unknown, Tatsuya Mizuno (Pictures). Though the match-up had all the appearances of a showcase bout — never mind that it was meant to determine a No. 1 contender — Mizuno was surprisingly game and took the fight to Silva from opening bell.
Fearless to the last, Mizuno charged in at Silva, looking good on the feet by tagging the Brazilian with several well placed punch combinations, successive uppercuts, and middle kicks, which often broke through Silva's defenses.
While the strikes scored solidly, it did little more than anger the Brazilian, as he returned with some dangerous combinations of his own, turning round one into an exciting slugfest. A hard knee to the body would spell the beginning of the end for Mizuno, however, as his natural reaction to dropping from a blow was to go for a takedown. Silva, alas, was out of range, and capitalized by throwing a soccer kick to the face of the U-File rep, knocking him out cold at 4:29 into the first round.
While doctors tended to Mizuno in-ring, Silva thanked the Japanese audience in attendance and requested their support as the heavyweight No. 1 contender to Kestutis Arbocius's (Pictures) title.
PANCRASEism cosplay aficionado (sans the cosplay this evening) Hikaru Sato (Pictures) defeated Rikuhei Fujii of Wajutsu Keishukai RJW in their middleweight bout via majority decision (20–20, 20–19, 20–19).
Despite Fujii being almost a whole head taller, Sato's victory came by way of pushing the pace with well-placed low kicks that kept the taller, rangier fighter at bay, along with clean and business-like judo takedowns that put Fujii in the bottom position for the majority of the bout's grappling.
The second stanza ended with Sato locked onto Fujii's legs, scrambling for any available leglock, while a frustrated Fujii could do little but deliver ineffective hammer strikes in an attempt to keep his opponent from securing the submission.
In the evening's other middleweight bout, Daisuke Watanabe (Pictures) of PANCRASEism defeated Takada Dojo's Tomoyoshi Iwamiya (Pictures) via guillotine choke in the second round.
Despite Iwamiya controlling most of the first round — attaining back-control briefly, before almost locking in an arm-triangle — Watanabe managed to defend against all submission attempts, and frustrated Iwamiya's strikes from the top position by tying up his hands.
Watanabe turned the tide in his favor in the second frame, as a sprawl off of a failed Iwamiya takedown opened the opportunity for his fight-ending guillotine choke, only 0:58 after the bell.
It was a tough night for former Neo-Blood tournament winner Shinsuke Shoji (Pictures), suffering a TKO loss to Nao "Yoshirock T" Yoshida, at 2:06 into round two.
In what may be considered a large aspect of "the classic wrestler style" in MMA, the Killer Bee fighter's tactics were to move in for the clinch and employ dirty boxing and knees. Yoshida's surprisingly stiff jabs foiled most of these plans, however, allowing him to soften Shoji up throughout the first stanza.
The second round saw more of the same until a well-placed knee to the face of Shoji had the wrestler stunned to the point of spitting out his mouthpiece before falling to the canvas, where Yoshida followed and delivered two fight-ending punches to the head before being stopped for the TKO win.
PPT's Masaki Yanagisawa (Pictures) and Killer Bee's Michihisa Asano (Pictures) fought to a majority draw in their featherweight rematch, this evening. Having suffered a loss to Yanagisawa via ankle lock in their 2004 encounter, Asano looked to avenge himself this time around by dictating the pace of the fight, keeping it on the feet, not playing into the Yuki Nakai (Pictures) brown belt's realm on the mat.
With the exception of a low blow (earning him a yellow card in the process), Asano's resonant low kicks landed with precision and skill, making Yanagisawa's kicks look somewhat lacking. Yanagisawa was fairly more effective in round two however, as his constant charging in to pull guard on Asano essentially allowed him to tie up the Killer Bee, frustrating his striking plans.
However, neither man's efforts in the bout served to be enough to earn the decisive win, as the judges ruled the bout a majority draw (19–19, 20-19 Yanagisawa, 19–19).
