Gomi Tastes Defeat, Henderson Victorious

Besides the Gomi defeat, Bushido 10 will be remembered as a tough night for Chute Boxe. In his fight with Brazilian Top Team’s Paulo Filho (Pictures), Chute Boxe’s Murilo Rua (Pictures) basically got dominated.

Filho seemed to be able to execute big, slamming takedowns at will against Rua, and once on the ground had little trouble getting to side and mount.

Not once in this bout was Filho ever in any danger and never was he on his back. Ninja came down in weight to fight in this class, but this was not an impressive performance. Hopefully he can come back from this and find his stride at 183 pounds.

The other Chute Boxe fighter who had a tough night was Luiz Azeredo (Pictures). I was really looking forward to this one between Joachim Hansen (Pictures) and the Brazilian, two of top fighters in the lightweight division.

Azeredo came out slugging right off the bell and eventually scored a single-leg takedown on the Scandinavian nightmare, falling into the guard. But not long after it was Azeredo on his back. From here he had a solid armbar attempt, but the tough Norwegian was able to escape and fire shots back from the top.

After another exchange on their feet, Hansen ended up on his back at the ropes. Standing in the Norwegian’s guard, Azeredo grabbed the top rope with both hands to balance himself for a stomp. The referee saw this, issued the Brazilian a warning and ordered both fighters to their feet.

More stand-up exchanges ensued, and just as Azeredo brought his head down for what appeared to be a takedown attempt, Hansen connected with his left knee during what seemed to be a kick. Azeredo immediately went down unconscious on the mat.

Hansen is a monster with his knees. The way he won this fight was reminiscent of the absolutely devastating knee he landed on Masakazu Imanari (Pictures) at Bushido 8. In his post-fight interview, Hansen said that he received a cut on his left knee from Azeredo’s teeth.

Akihiro Gono (Pictures) had a tough start in his bout against Dae Won Kim (Pictures). The Korean fight scored a takedown early and had him pinned in the corner, raining down punches. The tough GRABAKA fighter managed to use his legs to hold off the Korean from inflicting too much damage, until eventually the referee stood the fight up.

After being taken down again, Gono scored a reversal on Kim and proceeded to pound him from the top. Eventually the Japanese fighter passed Kim’s guard, got to side and attempted a Kimura. Kim fought off the technique, only to have Gono score the mount. The Korean then twisted, exposed his back, and twisted again back to the same position.

Gono shifted his hips and applied a textbook armbar, ending the fight at the nine-minute mark of the first.

Dennis Kang had little trouble disposing of Cage Rage veteran Mark Weir (Pictures). After a brief period on the ground, Kang connected with a hard punch that sent the British fighter to his knees. Kang unleashed a vicious flurry of knee strikes to the half prone Weir before passing to side and eventually mount.

The submission that eventually caught Weir seemed a little strange. Kang rubbed his forearm hard into the British fighter’s face. While certainly not a good feeling, most would think it survivable. However in the next moment Weir tapped.

Unfortunately Weir never made it down to the interview space so he couldn’t be asked about the submission. Was it exhaustion, pain or some other reason that led him to tap?

Slugfest of the Night award goes to the Jens Pulver (Pictures)-Kenji Arai (Pictures) bout. Although it didn’t last long — only 3:59 — these two guys really pounded each other. It looked almost like before the fight they had talked to each other and agreed to stand toe-to-toe and trade.

After several of these toe-to-toe exchanges, Pulver eventually connected with a punch that sent Arai down. Upon hitting the mat, the Japanese fighter rolled to get away, only to have Pulver follow him and connect with a hard soccer kick to the face, opening a cut on his nose. Pulver could see that Arai was out and simply walked away.

Another fairly quick bout was the Mitsuhiro Ishida (Pictures)-Paul Rodriguez (Pictures) fight. I expected Ishida to come out from the bell and go for takedowns, as he seems to like to do in SHOOTO, but this time Ishida seemed content to keep it standing off the start.

After a bit of jockeying on the ground for position, both fighters worked to their feet. But as they rose Ishida threw on a guillotine choke in the corner. When Rodriguez started to climb the corner ropes to escape, the crowd immediately knew the submission was on and seconds later the Gracie Barra Orlando fight tapped.

Coming off a loss to Mark Hominick (Pictures) at UFC 58, “Thug-jitsu” fighter Yves Edwards (Pictures) returned to the Bushido ring to take on DEEP veteran Seichi Ikemoto (Pictures), who was making his PRIDE debut.

Ikemoto had a big reach advantage and used his long legs to try to keep Edwards at bay. The American fighter remained light on his feet in this one, always moving around and picking his strikes.

Not a lot happened on the ground and it seemed Edwards had the higher connect percentage, several times sending the Japanese fighter staggering backwards. The fight went to the judges and Edwards won a unanimous decision.

In the freak show fight of the night, the slightly bizarre yet always entertaining Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) faced off against PRIDE perennial jobber “Giant” Paulo Cesar Silva (Pictures).

Minowa earned the prize for most theatrical takedown, doing a somersault right in front of his opponent immediately followed by a single-leg takedown. This was a thing of beauty, so smooth and flowing, definitely the highlight of the match.

Once down, Minowa took side and proceeded to pepper Silva with knees to the head and body. The ref came in and stopped the fight at the 2:23 mark.