After leaving the Middleweight GP weigh-in, Masa Fukui and myself headed to the Pancrase Spiral Tour at Korakuen Hall. This is what I love about Tokyo, MMA events are always happening in this city. It’s like an ingrained part of the culture. I’m not going to go into a detailed description of this event here, but rather just speak on a few highlights.
One of the interesting things that Nick said while we where talking to him was that he doesn’t like going for a week without training while here in Tokyo. Since he didn’t have a dojo to train at over here, he was driven to run laps around the Tokyo Dome.
Nathan’s battle with Oishi was a real slugfest, with both fighters staying on their feet throughout the majority of the match. The Cesar Gracie jiu-jitsu fighter was able to land several punches on Oishi thanks to his long reach. However, Oishi was able to slip past some of these punches to fire back some of his own.
I would have liked if this fight had gone to the ground so as to watch both fighters display their grappling skills. Diaz went for the single-leg takedown a few times and the fighters sometimes got into a clinch, but both remained standing up. In the end it was Oishi who landed quality strikes more often and he was awarded the victory.
Takada dojo fighter Daijiro Matsui pounded his way to a victory over Daisuke Watanabe. Watanabe had a good first round and employed several excellent ground and pound flurries. But in the second round Matsui landed a beautiful right hand against the Pancrase-ism fighter’s face, around the eye.
You could hear the smack echo throughout the building. This was the beginning of the end for Watanabe. Matsui continued to rain down punches from the side till the end of the round. Upon a doctor check in the corner between rounds, the fight was called off. Watanabe’s left eye was completely swollen shut upon leaving the ring.