TOKYO, May 3 — If Wednesday’s K-1 HERO’s show from the Yoyogi National Stadium is remembered for anything, it will be for the surprises that it held. The events that transpired here will have repercussions not just for the HERO's promotion, but quite possibly for the entire industry.
According to reports, both Sakuraba and Daijiro Matsui (Pictures) left the DSE-connected Takada dojo earlier this week.
“The Gracie Hunter” came to the ring wearing a mask similar to the one that his childhood pro-wrestling idol, Satoru Sayama, wore when wrestling as “Tiger Mask” back in the 1970s. When asked his name, he simply responded “Tiger Mask,” much to the amusement of the crowd. It was then announced that he would be making his K-1 HERO’s debut in August.
With Sakuraba jumping ship to HERO's, the war between PRIDE and K-1 has really been turned up a notch. It seems probable that Sakuraba will be a part of the HERO's 85-kilogram tournament, which is set to start this August.
The question remains of how will PRIDE counter this development. As of this writing there has been no response from DSE, but tomorrow will be the press conference for May 5’s Open-Weight GP, so I imagine that a statement will be made at that time regarding the situation.
This is truly shaping up to be the “Summer of MMA” here in Japan. The grudge match between K-1 HERO's middleweight and light heavyweight tournaments versus PRIDE’s welterweight and open-weight Grand Prixs will be in full swing, not to mention big SHOOTO and Pancrase shows set for August.
The main event of this evening’s card pitted Killer Bee fighter Norifumi Yamamoto (Pictures) against former Sydney Olympic wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata (Pictures). This bout was listed as a “super-fight,” not part of the middleweight championship tournament, due to the fact that both Yamamoto and Genki Sudo (Pictures) were automatically seeded to the second round due to making it to the finals last year. For Miyata, beating Yamamoto would guarantee him a spot in the tourney.
This was a fight many have looked forward to, but K-1 may have staged this match-up prematurely. Miyata is an awesome wrestler and has been getting better and better with each time out. K-1 should have taken their time and let this guy hone his skills against some of the other fighters in the division before sending him to face the champion. Then that match would have generated a tremendous amount of attention and Miyata would have been an even stronger contender.
But K-1 decided not to do this and now Miyata has the dubious distinction of having the quickest knockout loss in HERO's history, perhaps ever.
Right off the bell, Yamamoto came running towards Miyata in his corner. As he neared the ex-Olympic wrestler, “Kid” threw his right knee up into the air, left the canvas, then followed and connected with his left knee in mid air to the side of Miyata’s head.
This move totally caught Miyata by surprise and he instantly went down upon impact. For the briefest of seconds it appeared that Yamamoto thought that he had knocked Miyata out cold, but the referee didn’t signal him to stop, so he followed up on his downed opponent with punches to the face. Seconds later the referee jumped in to call an end to the fight. The whole affair lasted a mere four seconds.
Miyata was caught totally off guard by Kid’s charge, and with this loss now seems to be out of the tournament, which is a real shame considering how much potential this guy has. There is a chance that he could fight as an alternate in the tournament, but that’s about all.
Hyped as “Judo versus Wrestling: Which is the strongest?” the other “super-fight” pitted judoka Yoshihiro Akiyama (Pictures) against Sydney Olympic silver medalist wrestler Katsuhiko Nagata.
With only one MMA fight behind him, Nagata is another example of a guy who K-1 should have built-up more before throwing him in with Akiyama, the more experienced and heavier (by 20-plus pounds) fighter.
Despite circling the ring, Nagata ate a lot of punches in this relatively short affair. Akiyama has really come into his own in terms of striking and he peppered Nagata with shots along the ropes and in the corners.
Nagata came in with lightning fast shots, getting Akiyama down twice, but only very briefly. Then, as Nagata was along the ropes, Akiyama, who was feinting spinning techniques all match, connected with a textbook spinning back-kick that caught Nagata right on the ribs. Upon impact the Olympic silver medalist went down and the ref could see that he wouldn’t be getting up, calling an end to the fight.
It’s kind of ironic that in the battle between judo and wrestling, it was in fact kickboxing that won.