Akiyama was supposed to face Sakuraba in the semifinals, but with “The Gracie Hunter” withdrawing two weeks before the event due to injury the slot was filled by the man who Sakuraba beat to make it into the semis: Lithuanian fighter Kestutis Smirnovas (Pictures).
Smirnovas threw some heavy bombs early, but the Japanese judoka moved well and avoided the shots. Akiyama circled and peppered the Lithuanian with low kicks, turning the Shooto Europe champion’s left thigh purple.
Whilst pushing his opponent to the corner, Akiyama connected with a hellacious right high kick worthy of a K-1 World GP rather than a MMA bout. Smirnovas was rocked upon impact and the Japanese fighter immediately followed with a left-right combination to the Lithuanian’s chin that dropped Smirnovas to the canvas. Akiyama followed with a few punches before the referee came racing in to stop the bout at 3:01 of the first.
The other semifinal between Manhoef and Shungo Oyama (Pictures) looked very similar to the first time they met back in March, when Manhoef basically laid a beating on the Japanese fighter.
This one didn’t last long.
After a bit of circling and trading from both fighters, Oyama went for a takedown. Manhoef avoided the technique and absolutely opened up on the judoka with punches and kicks, forcing him to the ropes.
After just nearly missing on a high kick that looked like it would take Oyama’s head off, Manhoef connected with a crushing right hand while moving forward. Oyama fell to the corner, where Manhoef nearly stomped him before the referee came flying in to call a very legitimate end to the fight at the 1:04 mark.
One half of the 154-pound semifinals saw Calvancanti face off against fellow Brazilian Rani Yahya (Pictures). In just about every single fight, Yahya — the man I’ve dubbed “Mr. North-South” due to his seeming obsession with the north-south choke — comes flying out of his corner off the opening bell for a takedown. This time was no different, but Calvancanti was ready for him and sprawled out to avoid being taken to the mat.
Just seconds later, Yahya once again went in for a takedown. Sometimes “Mr. North-South” is guilty of leaving his neck exposed when he goes for his takedown attempts, and Calvancanti capitalized on this mistake, catching Yahya with a deep guillotine.
Calvancanti held on like a pitbull, squeezing the technique until Yahya tapped just 39 seconds after the opening bell. This is Yahya’s first defeat in Japan and his quickest loss in a fight. Calvancanti moved on to the finals with no damage.
On the other side, Uno went through a close, 10-minute war with Canadian fighter Ivan Menjivar (Pictures). A lot of this fight took place in the clinch, with both fighters scoring inside punches to the head and body. When at a distance, both peppered the other’s legs with low kicks.
In the last minute of this close back-and-forth battle, Uno scored a trip takedown, getting all the way to the mount. Menjivar twisted to escape and momentarily gave Uno his back before struggling to his feet. Menjivar then brought the fight back to the canvas, briefly taking side on Uno.
The fight went the distance and the judges awarded Uno the unanimous victory.
Carlos Newton (Pictures) came back after nearly a two year absence from the ring to take on Japanese pro wrestler/MMA fighter Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Pictures) in the light heavyweight reserve match.
Newton’s return lasted a mere 22 seconds, in which time he connected one left hand followed by three right uppercuts that sent Ishizawa to the canvas before the referee came in to stop the fight. This was a flash knockout; the first left rang Ishizawa’s bell and the second and third uppercuts put him out.
At first the crowd was a little confused by the result, and Ishizawa couldn’t believe the call, protesting that he was fine. But the call stood and Newton walked away the victor.
Japanese wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata (Pictures) made his much anticipated return after his unfortunate four-second loss to Norifumi Yamamoto (Pictures) in May. This time around he faced off against Australia’s Ian Schaffa, who just came off a huge knockout victory over Genki Sudo (Pictures) at last month’s K-1 MAX event.
This bout looked like it could have been a show stealer, but unfortunately it was cut short. Miyata came charging out with a takedown attempt, which Schaffa sprawled to avoid. From here Miyata put the Australian fighter on the ground with a nice hip toss into side-control.
After falling back to half, Miyata began to fire down punches from the top with his right hand. After only a few punches, the referee broke up the fight and sent Schaffa to the corner for a doctor check of a cut over his right eye. Upon examination the doctor ruled the cut was too severe and called an end to the fight at the 49-second mark.
Popular HERO’S fighter Hideo Tokoro (Pictures) has been on a bit of a slide as of late, suffering back-to-back defeats at the hands of Kultar Gill (Pictures) and Ivan Menjivar (Pictures). Having been knocked out of the middleweight tournament twice from these losses, K-1 matched him up against Japanese actor turned MMA fighter Ken Kaneko (Pictures), whose only fight resulted in a loss against Charles Bennett (Pictures) at PRIDE Shockwave 2005.
Kaneko came charging out off the bell, but it was Tokoro who got the takedown. Tokoro pretty much controlled everything, taking the mount and eventually getting the armbar at 1:50 of round one.
HERO’S stalwart Don Frye (Pictures) had a tough first round against Korean judoka Min Soo Kim (Pictures), being taken down twice and seeing his opponent score the mount.
The second round went better for the American, when after some clinch work he connected with a huge right hand to the Korean fighter’s head. Kim went down like he had been shot. Frye followed with some punches before the referee stepped in and ended the fight at the 2:47 mark.