TOKYO, Dec. 22 — Spreading beyond the borders of Japan seemed to be the mantra this year for the fight organizations in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Tonight the young upstart promotion put a close to their inaugural year with a card from the Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium.
Both Pancrase and Shooto have run this venue before, but neither came close to the production values that MARS put on for their final show of 2006. It almost looked like a mini-version of K-1 HERO’S minus the fireworks. But like both Pancrase and Shooto, MARS had a tough time filling the seats. This venue seems to be strangely cursed when it comes to drawing a gate.
The main event pitted Team Garo’s Ryuta Noji (Pictures) against Hard Combat’s Edmund Calvancanti.
Noji, who made a name for himself in the ranks of Pancrase, suddenly broke away from the promotion while he was entered in this year’s heavyweight King Of Pancrase tournament, with neither side giving an explanation as to why. Since then the former Karate fighter seems to have made MARS his new home.
Jiu-jitsu stylist Calvancanti started his fight career with the promotion just last October and has since notched up two wins to his record.
Noji has put on some pretty decent performances in the past, but this certainly was not one of them — he got schooled, plain and simple. His takedown defense was nearly non-existent with Calvancanti taking him down at will. The Brazilian constantly passed guard and scored mount and back-control embarrassingly easy on several occasions throughout the match.
It seemed like Noji couldn’t mount any kind of offense on the ground and spent the whole fight working to escape what Calvancanti threw at him.
Even on the feet, where Noji is known for being at his most dangerous, he looked lackluster, and despite connecting with a few hard kicks and punches never had the Brazilian in any real danger.
This one went the distance and Calvancanti picked up the highly justified decision.
A tournament designed to put a fighter in bodogFIGHT’s next U.S. pay-per-view card brought together four lightweights from Japan and Korea.
The first half of the lightweight tournament semifinals saw Atsuhiro Tsuboi (Pictures) square off against U-File Camp’s Tashirou Nishiuchi (Pictures). This was a fairly even fight in the first, with both fighters scoring takedowns and reversals.
Tsuboi put together good hand combinations in round two and tagged his opponent from the outside. Nishiuchi scored with takedowns, but really didn’t capitalize before Tsuboi was worked back to his feet.
Tsuboi’s stand-up and ability to get to his feet were better than Nishiuchi’s takedowns ground game on this night, with the judges giving the unanimous decision to Tsuboi.
It had been a good week thus far for Korean fighters in Japan, as they took three of four matches in the Japan versus Korea series this past Wednesday at the DEEP show in Korakuen Hall. In the second half of the lightweight tournament semis, Korea’s Do Hyung Kim looked to keep the streak going as he faced off against Akihiko Mori.
Kim had to think fast early in this one as he found himself trapped in an armbar from the bottom, but the Korean slammed his way out of it and proceeded to rain down punches from the top.
Kim’s stand-up looked sharp in his one as well, connecting with excellent charging combinations and a vicious left cross that had Mori staggered several times. In the end, Kim’s fists were too much for Mori and he took the unanimous decision.
After showing off his stand-up game against Mori, Kim changed gears and displayed his ground game in the tournament finals against Tsuboi.
Shortly after scoring a takedown, the Korean took his opponent’s back, then transitioned from an armbar to a heelhook attempt. Kim worked his way back to the top after Tsuboi managed to escaped his submission attempts, then in an absolutely textbook finish, threw his leg over his Japanese opponent’s head for what could best be described as a flying rolling armbar.
By the time the technique had reached the end of its motion, Tsuboi’s arm was fully extended with no chance of escape. The referee came in to put an end to the bout, naming Kim the tournament champion.