Alvarez Outguns Hansen; Uno, Kawajiri Advance
Diaz Victorious
Stephen Martinez May 11, 2008
In the welterweight title eliminator, Nick Diaz (Pictures) earned a much-needed, dominating
win over Pancrase veteran Katsuya Inoue (Pictures).
The fight largely resembled a boxing match. Diaz worked up and down the body with punches, often doubling and tripling up with hooks and using his reach to jab. As he did against Gomi, Diaz opted for accuracy and numbers rather than power and the tactic was truly effective.
Other than a few solid shots from Inoue, it was all one-way traffic
with Diaz keeping his fists in Inoue's face all night. Eventually
Inoue's corner threw in the towel 6:45 into the first.
During roughly 30 minutes of interesting post-fight comments from Diaz, he said that although he is looking forward to fighting Hayato Sakurai (Pictures) for the Dream welterweight title, right now he would really like to fight Shinya Aoki (Pictures).
Like Funaki's last outing, it wasn't a good showing for Shibata. Miller quickly took the initiative with strikes from the outside and in the clinch, which forced Shibata to pull guard for a guillotine. On the ground, Miller outclassed his opponent by moving into back mount and delivering strikes until the referee stopped the bout 6:57 into the first.
It was an impressive debut in Japan for Miller, and if his romancing of a ring girl after the fight is any indication, he could have a bright future in Japan and Dream.
Shibata went on record after the fight with a perplexing comment: "I don't want to reveal what my game plan was for this fight. I want to use it again."
After derailing one of FEG's newest and hottest acquisitions in Marcelo Garcia (Pictures), Dae Won Kim (Pictures) stepped into the ring against "Marvelous" Marvin Manhoef in a middleweight grand prix reserve match.
The Dutchman was not in top form and would not have been fighting had there been an athletic commission in Japan. Just two weeks ago Remy Bonjasky knocked him out. He looked tentative against Kim, who rocked Manhoef with what looked like glancing blows and even dropped him.
While trying to recover in the clinch, Manhoef was taken down with a beautiful foot sweep. Kim landed several hammer fists, but he was reversed when Manhoef took a single-leg during an escape to his knees.
From there it didn't take Manhoef long to finish. He landed a dubious knee to the back of the head and pounded away with hammerfists for the TKO at 4:08 in the first.
Afterward Manhoef apologized for his performance. "Next time you will see a monster!" he said.
In other action, Daisuke Nakamura (Pictures) handed Bu Kyung Jung (Pictures) his third loss in a row with a second-round knockout.
Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures) was too good on the ground against Shoji Maruyma in the opening fight of the night. Shoji looked good throughout with some high-flying strikes, but it wasn't enough to sway the judges after being controlled on the mat for the rest of the fight.
The fight largely resembled a boxing match. Diaz worked up and down the body with punches, often doubling and tripling up with hooks and using his reach to jab. As he did against Gomi, Diaz opted for accuracy and numbers rather than power and the tactic was truly effective.
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During roughly 30 minutes of interesting post-fight comments from Diaz, he said that although he is looking forward to fighting Hayato Sakurai (Pictures) for the Dream welterweight title, right now he would really like to fight Shinya Aoki (Pictures).
To fill the last spot of the middleweight grand prix,
self-proclaimed Monkey King Jason "Mayhem" Miller dispatched
of Masakatsu Funaki
(Pictures)'s pupil Katsuyori Shibata
(Pictures).
Like Funaki's last outing, it wasn't a good showing for Shibata. Miller quickly took the initiative with strikes from the outside and in the clinch, which forced Shibata to pull guard for a guillotine. On the ground, Miller outclassed his opponent by moving into back mount and delivering strikes until the referee stopped the bout 6:57 into the first.
It was an impressive debut in Japan for Miller, and if his romancing of a ring girl after the fight is any indication, he could have a bright future in Japan and Dream.
Shibata went on record after the fight with a perplexing comment: "I don't want to reveal what my game plan was for this fight. I want to use it again."
After derailing one of FEG's newest and hottest acquisitions in Marcelo Garcia (Pictures), Dae Won Kim (Pictures) stepped into the ring against "Marvelous" Marvin Manhoef in a middleweight grand prix reserve match.
The Dutchman was not in top form and would not have been fighting had there been an athletic commission in Japan. Just two weeks ago Remy Bonjasky knocked him out. He looked tentative against Kim, who rocked Manhoef with what looked like glancing blows and even dropped him.
While trying to recover in the clinch, Manhoef was taken down with a beautiful foot sweep. Kim landed several hammer fists, but he was reversed when Manhoef took a single-leg during an escape to his knees.
From there it didn't take Manhoef long to finish. He landed a dubious knee to the back of the head and pounded away with hammerfists for the TKO at 4:08 in the first.
Afterward Manhoef apologized for his performance. "Next time you will see a monster!" he said.
In other action, Daisuke Nakamura (Pictures) handed Bu Kyung Jung (Pictures) his third loss in a row with a second-round knockout.
Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures) was too good on the ground against Shoji Maruyma in the opening fight of the night. Shoji looked good throughout with some high-flying strikes, but it wasn't enough to sway the judges after being controlled on the mat for the rest of the fight.
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