NAGOYA, July 16 — Since the Josh Thomson-Daisuke “Amazon” Sugie card was released a lot of people have e-mailed me and asked, “who the heck is this ‘Amazon’ guy?” Some even asked me if this guy is Japanese or an alien. So, I’ll take bit of time to explain who and what Daisuke “Amazon” Sugie is all about.
He’s a SHOOTO fighter, as you can see from his Fight Finder page. He loves SHOOTO. I still remember him taking off his jiu-jitsu gi right after he won some BJJ tournament and showing off the fight shorts he wore underneath his gi pants, which said “SHOOTO IS MY LIFE” across his butt.
Because this action in front of everybody was considered very crass, he was warned by tournament organizer — that was after he won the tourney.
How does how he fight? Unfortunately, since he’s been fighting in Nagoya area most of the time I’ve only seen a few of his MMA fights, so I can’t really talk about his fighting style, But he’s known as a very good submission specialist, especially with a gi.
Yes, he’s a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, and he’s won several prizes in the Pan-Am tournament. But at the same time if you look at his record, he hasn’t performed well against a Matt Hughes-type of wrestler.
One of his few fights I’ve seen of Sugie’s was when he fought Mitsuhiro Ishida in a SHOOTO show at Korakuen Hall. Ishida, from team Tops, is a very hyper wrestler, much like his teammate Kawajiri ”The Crusher.” And Amazon didn’t perform well against Ishida. After his this loss I talked a bit to Suzuki Shacho (“Shacho,” which means “President” in Japanese, is the owner of Alive gym, as well as Amazon’s long-time trainer) and he said Amazon’s style fits well against somebody with a “kill or get killed” type of attitude.
A wrestler is the type to secure everything and pound their opponent out. Amazon may have a hard time against those wrestler types, even though he’s been training a lot for that style. Now, look at the Josh Thomson. Yea, maybe Thomson is good at wrestling too, but he’s more like Kid Yamamoto or a Takanori Gomi type of fighter.
He punishes his opponents but he doesn’t own all the spaces between his opponent and himself, like all the other wrestlers do. So I am very interested in this fight. If there’s space, Amazon may be able to do some submission action from the bottom.
What else do I know about Amazon? Hmm. Does anybody know Eiji Mitsuoka? The KOTC veteran and PRIDE BUSHIDO veteran. Him and Amazon went to the same school in their hometown or Handa city in Aichi Prefecture (near Nagoya). I think Mitsuoka is a bit older than Amazon, so I believe they were in school at same time.
But one day when I spoke with Mitsuoka he said Amazon is bit strange. A bit different from other people. Amazon just trains, trains, trains. Like a racehorse that doesn’t know anything but their course. Yeah, Mitsuoka said, Amazon is a type of the guy who trains like he’s obsessed by something. He just does nothing but train.
That’s why he became so good in his Brazilian jiu-jitsu technique, I guess. Some of Mitsuoka’s friends thought Amazon is a bit retarded, even. This Mitsuoka’s story reminds me about the point that Amazon is different from other Japanese. When I came back from the United States in January 2004, I visited this the dojo Alive — Amazon’s gym.
It was raining very hard on this winter day and I really enjoyed the rain because I missed rain a lot while I lived in California. But I wasn’t the only one who enjoyed this rain. While all the other students or fighters came into the dojo with an umbrella, Amazon came into his gym without umbrella; he was soaking wet and he mumbled, “it’s a nice rain.”
Then five minutes later he started rubber band training while other people started rolling on the mat. This guy definitely has a different sense of life from most of other Japanese. I mean, off course in good way; nothing negative and nothing personal.
He just fought in a SHOOTO show in Nagoya on July 3, so this is his second MMA fight in 15 days. Also, according to the world famous Gong Magazine, he was gonna compete in the Mundials this year, so he should have trained BJJ intensively for this tournament. But now he switched his brain to MMA and a battle against Josh Thomson.
I don’t know how many days before the match Amazon got an offer from PRIDE. But, man, he’s gutsy. He’s already a hero in Nagoya and he’s got a whole bunch of quiet Nagoyan supporters on his back.
Now I have to go prepare the cover Sunday’s Bushido show, so please check out the video which I’ll shoot back stage — and you’ll know more about Amazon after the fight.
p.s. Does anybody want to see how ripped Kawajiri is? Check out his blog right here. Unbelievable: http://blog.livedoor.jp/crusher1214/.