HERO’s: Sakuraba Survives To See Second Round
Middleweight Tournament
Jason Nowe Aug 5, 2006
The fight of the night was definitely the battle between ZST
veteran Hideo Tokoro
(Pictures) and TKO ace Ivan Menjivar (Pictures).
This thing was a grappler’s war, with both fighters taking dominate positions and making escapes. Tokoro had several good looking ankle lock attempts, but the “Pride of El Salvador” had the presence of mind to defend and escape before the situation escalated.
Sherdog.com’s Stephen Martinez stated that one of Tokoro’s
weaknesses is that he gives up positions too easily after
submission attempts. A good example of this happened in the first
round, when Tokoro locked on an excellent armbar and had it fully
extended, only to see Menjivar bridge out of the technique and take
his back.
This was where Menjivar found himself for a good portion of the second round, legs figure-foured around his opponent, searching for a rear-naked choke.
The fight went to the judges and Menjivar walked away with the majority decision.
As was the case with the Ryuta Sakurai (Pictures)-Xavier Foupa-Pokam (Pictures) at Friday’s DEEP event, a strong feeling of déjà vu permeated throughout Ariake Coliseum in the opening moments of the fight between Caol Uno (Pictures) and “The Black Mamba” Kultar Gill (Pictures).
Just as Uno was coming in for a takedown, Gill connected with a hellacious kick-turned-knee to the side of the Japanese fighter’s face that sent him down to the canvas. This was the exact same way that Gill brutally knocked out Hideo Tokoro (Pictures) in the opening round of the middleweight tournament back in May.
Unlike his countrymen, Uno was not knocked out from the technique — but was certainly badly rocked from it, taking several minutes to overcome its effect. Gill capitalized by taking Uno’s back and maintaining dominant ground and clinch control for quite a while.
Gill did well in this bout, scoring several takedowns from the clinch in the second and inflicting damage within the guard. But the thing that makes Uno so dangerous is that he can turn the tables on a person so quickly, and this is exactly what happened.
With Uno on his back after a Gill takedown, the Wajyutsu Keisyukai fighter reversed the situation and scrambled to the Canadian’s back in the blink of an eye. From here he held on and eventually sank in a rear-naked choke for the victory at the 3:30 mark of the second.
Before this event, I predicted that Rickson Gracie black belt Rani Yahira (Pictures) would come out flying off the bell, as he always does, and go for the takedown in his bout against K-1 Max fighter Kazuya Yasuhiro. I then expected to see that the man whom I’ve labeled “Mr. North-South” would in fact transition to north-south position and secure the choke, as he usually does. Sherdog.com’s Stephen Martinez was expecting to see Yahira to throw three punches during the whole fight.
The fight played out exactly as I called it, with “Mr. North-South” scoring the victory, without throwing a single punch, via north-south choke at the 1:08 mark of the first.
In a very brief affair, American Top Team fighter Gesias Calvancanti (Pictures) absolutely laid out Shooto and HERO’s veteran Hiroyuki Takaya (Pictures) with a textbook flying knee that caught the Japanese fighter right in the head.
Calvancanti threw down a few more punches when Takaya hit the ground just for good measure, but this thing was over. The fight lasted only 30 seconds.
Single Bouts
Former Shooto champion Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures) seemed to want nothing to do with Killer Bee fighter Kotetsu Boku on the feet. Rather, the Brazilian was constantly going for the shot throughout the match.
Boku displayed a great sprawl and peppered “Pequeno” with stiff jabs and hard crosses from the outside. The Japanese fighter preferred to keep this one standing, but did on occasion go down to the mat with Nogueira, where he inflicted damage from the guard.
The use of soccer kicks would have really aided Boku when Nogueira was on his back, but under HERO’s rules these aren’t allowed. The fight went the distance and Boku took the justified unanimous victory.
The bout between 2005 K-1 World Grand Prix champion Semmy Schilt (Pictures) and Korean judoka Min Soo Kim (Pictures) once again provided a flashback to last night’s DEEP card. Just like Ryuta Sakurai (Pictures), Kim was bleeding profusely from the nose after taking a Schilt punch, turning the front of his with gi red. Despite a massive reach and power disadvantage, the Korean did trip the Dutch giant down and got to side. But “Hightower” put the judoka back to his guard and pulled him into a triangle. Schilt easily held on to Kim’s gi, preventing him for escaping the technique and forcing the referee stoppage at the 4:46 mark of the first.
American Don Frye (Pictures) employed some good old-fashioned dirty boxing from the clinch to soften up former RINGS fighter Yoshihisa Yamamoto (Pictures).
Frye put the Japanese fighter away for good when he connected with a hard uppercut counter after a wild swinging hook from Yamamoto. The American followed his opponent down to the mat in the corner and followed up with some more punches until the referee called for a stop at the 4:52 mark of the first.
This thing was a grappler’s war, with both fighters taking dominate positions and making escapes. Tokoro had several good looking ankle lock attempts, but the “Pride of El Salvador” had the presence of mind to defend and escape before the situation escalated.
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This was where Menjivar found himself for a good portion of the second round, legs figure-foured around his opponent, searching for a rear-naked choke.
To his credit Tokoro was able to twist into the guard, only moments
later to find himself in the same position. The round finished out
with Menjivar again escaping an armbar.
The fight went to the judges and Menjivar walked away with the majority decision.
As was the case with the Ryuta Sakurai (Pictures)-Xavier Foupa-Pokam (Pictures) at Friday’s DEEP event, a strong feeling of déjà vu permeated throughout Ariake Coliseum in the opening moments of the fight between Caol Uno (Pictures) and “The Black Mamba” Kultar Gill (Pictures).
Just as Uno was coming in for a takedown, Gill connected with a hellacious kick-turned-knee to the side of the Japanese fighter’s face that sent him down to the canvas. This was the exact same way that Gill brutally knocked out Hideo Tokoro (Pictures) in the opening round of the middleweight tournament back in May.
Unlike his countrymen, Uno was not knocked out from the technique — but was certainly badly rocked from it, taking several minutes to overcome its effect. Gill capitalized by taking Uno’s back and maintaining dominant ground and clinch control for quite a while.
Gill did well in this bout, scoring several takedowns from the clinch in the second and inflicting damage within the guard. But the thing that makes Uno so dangerous is that he can turn the tables on a person so quickly, and this is exactly what happened.
With Uno on his back after a Gill takedown, the Wajyutsu Keisyukai fighter reversed the situation and scrambled to the Canadian’s back in the blink of an eye. From here he held on and eventually sank in a rear-naked choke for the victory at the 3:30 mark of the second.
Before this event, I predicted that Rickson Gracie black belt Rani Yahira (Pictures) would come out flying off the bell, as he always does, and go for the takedown in his bout against K-1 Max fighter Kazuya Yasuhiro. I then expected to see that the man whom I’ve labeled “Mr. North-South” would in fact transition to north-south position and secure the choke, as he usually does. Sherdog.com’s Stephen Martinez was expecting to see Yahira to throw three punches during the whole fight.
The fight played out exactly as I called it, with “Mr. North-South” scoring the victory, without throwing a single punch, via north-south choke at the 1:08 mark of the first.
In a very brief affair, American Top Team fighter Gesias Calvancanti (Pictures) absolutely laid out Shooto and HERO’s veteran Hiroyuki Takaya (Pictures) with a textbook flying knee that caught the Japanese fighter right in the head.
Calvancanti threw down a few more punches when Takaya hit the ground just for good measure, but this thing was over. The fight lasted only 30 seconds.
Single Bouts
Former Shooto champion Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures) seemed to want nothing to do with Killer Bee fighter Kotetsu Boku on the feet. Rather, the Brazilian was constantly going for the shot throughout the match.
Boku displayed a great sprawl and peppered “Pequeno” with stiff jabs and hard crosses from the outside. The Japanese fighter preferred to keep this one standing, but did on occasion go down to the mat with Nogueira, where he inflicted damage from the guard.
The use of soccer kicks would have really aided Boku when Nogueira was on his back, but under HERO’s rules these aren’t allowed. The fight went the distance and Boku took the justified unanimous victory.
The bout between 2005 K-1 World Grand Prix champion Semmy Schilt (Pictures) and Korean judoka Min Soo Kim (Pictures) once again provided a flashback to last night’s DEEP card. Just like Ryuta Sakurai (Pictures), Kim was bleeding profusely from the nose after taking a Schilt punch, turning the front of his with gi red. Despite a massive reach and power disadvantage, the Korean did trip the Dutch giant down and got to side. But “Hightower” put the judoka back to his guard and pulled him into a triangle. Schilt easily held on to Kim’s gi, preventing him for escaping the technique and forcing the referee stoppage at the 4:46 mark of the first.
American Don Frye (Pictures) employed some good old-fashioned dirty boxing from the clinch to soften up former RINGS fighter Yoshihisa Yamamoto (Pictures).
Frye put the Japanese fighter away for good when he connected with a hard uppercut counter after a wild swinging hook from Yamamoto. The American followed his opponent down to the mat in the corner and followed up with some more punches until the referee called for a stop at the 4:52 mark of the first.
