TOKYO, July 6 — HERO’s II aired on free TV Wednesday night on one of Japan’s most important channels, Tokyo Broadcasting System. This may sound like the most amazing thing for every MMA fan outside of Japan since you can sit just like I did Wednesday night and watch free MMA in your own place, but in fact this is more like a double-edge sword.
Some fights were not shown, like Rodrigo Gracie’s two-round battle with Kiuma Kunioku in which the Brazilian took a decision. In the unofficial battle of SHOOTO vs. Pancrase welterweight champions, SHOOTO’s Akira Kikuchi make quick work of Pancrase’s Tatsuya Inoue in another off-air match early in the night. And others were only in quick highlights — Royler Gracie’s majority decision over Koji Yoshida, for example.
The hottest team in Japan right now, Purebred Killer Bee, had an amazing display tonight with all team members winning by TKO. The main event of the evening placed K-1 MMA golden boy Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto against Australia’s Ian Schaffa. This was the most hyped match of the night, with countless videos showing Yamamoto’s pre-fight preparation backstage.
“Kid” started the round with some nice low-middle kicks, but Schaffa keep pushing forward until he clinched “Kid” near the ropes. From there, Schaffa threw knees, one of which hit low. After the usual referee stop to check Yamamoto’s condition, the fight continued. But once again Schaffa landed another low blow. Around this time the frustration in “Kid” Yamamoto’s face was evident and both fighters exchange some not so nice words with “f___ you” flying here and there right on TV.
At this moment the referee handed Schaffa a yellow card and warning. Schaffa came back guns blazing, but “Kid” countered him with a temple shot. Seconds later and after some traded punches “Kid” managed to take Schaffa down and start working his trademark ground-and-pound punches.
Schaffa tried an armbar but “Kid” escaped just to land some more shots. At the moment the bell rang to mark the end of the first round, Schaffa had “Kid” in another armbar and refused to let go, even after clear indication from the referee to stop the action.
With so many un-called shots from Schaffa and Yamamoto frustration rose high and the fight continued with some really good standing exchanges from both fighters. Schaffa charged Yamamoto with some wild punches, finding his target a couple of times before “Kid” picked him up and slammed him hard on the mat. From there Schaffa basically held on and blocked attacks while the Japanese fighter spent the last seconds complaining to the referee.
The punishment in both fighters’ faces was evident. Schaffa’s right eye was almost shut and Yamamoto’s face was showing signs of swelling. The finish came with “Kid” landing a right hook that barely hit Schaffa’s temple, but the Aussie start to back down looking rocked.
“Kid” charged and threw three punches, all of them missing the target or hitting Schaffa’s forearms, yet sending the Aussie fighter down anyway. “Kid” followed with a missing stomp before the referee jumped in to stop the fight.
To Schaffa’s credit none of the finishing punches seem to land with power, but with Kid over him ready to throw more punches and stomps at the moment of the referee stopped the fight he was probably too tired to realize what was coming.
After the win, Yamamoto told the audience present a Yoyogi Arena that he felt very weak from cold medicine and he promised to be more aggressive in his next fight.
HERO’s main theme for tonight was its middleweight (154-pound) tournament. Though this was called “middleweight,” instead we got to see some of the best lightweight fighters not currently in PRIDE tackling each other for position in the tournament that will spawn across three shows, this being the first.
In the best fight of the tournament ZST star Hideo Tokoro accomplished the upset of the year so far by knocking out current SHOOTO featherweight (143-pound) champion and guillotine nightmare Alexandre Franca Nogueira with a spinning back fist eight seconds into the third round (overtime).
Tokoro worked early with low- and middle-kicks but “Pequeno” quickly scored a takedown. With “Pequeno” on top Tokoro tried to reverse but he was caught in an almost perfect guillotine. As the seconds passed the camera focused on Tokoro’s face the moment he was fighting his way out of the infamous move.
After a short struggle Tokoro was free and started to pound away, but “Pequeno” quickly turned tables and, after slamming Tokoro on the mat and getting on top, set a quick ankle lock. Tokoro pulled out and worked an armbar from the guard, but “Pequeno” fell inside and escaped.
The second round saw Tokoro with some amazing grappling skills against the SHOOTO champion. From the start “Pequeno” scored another lightning takedown but Tokoro worked everything from the guard including armbars, ankle locks, heel and bicycle kicks and even a guillotine choke.
The fight went to the judge’s decision but all judges scored it a draw so an extra round was needed. As the bell rang to open overtime, Tokoro charged with a spinning back fist that landed right on Nogueira’s chin and the Brazilian went down. Tokoro followed with ground punches for the referee stop.
Now, out of this fight two things struck me. First I didn’t see the need for the extra-round since Tokoro clearly won both the first and second rounds. The other thing is at the moment of the referee stop “Pequeno” still looked in the fight.
I didn’t see Nogueira complain after the match and I don’t know what his camp’s opinion about the fight is. Either way, this is a great win for Tokoro, who has all the qualities to become the next big thing among the lightweights from Japan. On the other side this is a difficult loss for “Pequeno,” who was just making his debut outside regular SHOOTO circles for a wider audience in Japan. Clearly he can’t rely on SHOOTO rules this time to get a rubber-match with Tokoro.