Herring’s game plan for this one seemed to be all about the takedown, with the Texas native constantly going for shots. However, after many of these attempts, the American would end up either on all fours or on his back. According to HERO’s rules, fighters are prohibited from throwing soccer kicks or knees against a downed opponent. In the last minute of the first, with Herring down on the mat, Goodridge had his opponent lined up perfectly for a soccer kick and seemed ready to throw it, only think again and pull back.
Because of the no-knees-on-the-ground rule, Goodridge was resigned to go to his knees and throw bizarre looking uppercuts when Herring was on all fours. K-1 may need to rethink this rule in the future.
The second round saw Herring fall to his back after his shots and Goodridge kicking at his legs. This situation repeated itself several times, with the referee eventually ordering the fighters to stand. After being placed on their feet, the Texas Crazy Horse came in with a big right hand that caught Goodridge on the chin, sending him to the canvas at the 1:55 mark for the TKO victory.
K-1 veteran Jerome LeBanner (Pictures) made pretty quick work of former King of the Cage super heavyweight champion Jimmy Ambriz (Pictures).
Ambriz came out swinging when the bell rang, catching LeBanner with a stiff jab and then getting a takedown along the ropes. On his back LeBanner did a good job of preventing Ambriz from passing his legs.
After getting to their feet, Ambriz came in swinging at the K-1 kickboxer once again. This probably wasn’t the best strategy to employ against a renowned striker like LeBanner, because as the American fighter came in LeBanner caught him with a vicious right hand to the chin that sent Ambriz face down to the mat.
The K-1 fighter could see immediately that Ambriz was out and didn’t bother to follow up with anything, opting instead to merely walk away from his downed opponent.
Judo champion Yoshihiro Akiyama (Pictures) was supposed to face off against Egyptian wrestling machine Karam Ibrahim (Pictures), but the Olympic gold medalist wrestler had to pull out of the fight just days before the event due to a broken hand. This no doubt left the promotion scrambling for a replacement, which they found in Tokimitsu Ishizawa.
Ishizawa, prior to turning to pro-wrestling and becoming known as Kendo Kashin, was a Japanese National Wrestling Champion. The K-1 organization was marketing him as “The Gracie Hunter” based upon his two bouts with Ryan Gracie in PRIDE 10 and 15.
With Kazuyuki Fujita (Pictures) in his corner, Ishizawa displayed excellent wrestling skills, constantly going for a single-leg takedown. But Akiyama was able to fight off the attempts and between shots pepper the pro-wrestler with strikes.
Akiyama’s boxing was very impressive; he landed some hard shots against and moved out of the way of punches to avoid damage. From the clinch he used uppercuts very well to stagger Ishizawa.
In the second round, Akiyama finally got the hip toss he was looking for, taking side after executing the technique. He immediately followed this up with a gi-choke to take the victory at the 1:41 mark.
Japanese wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata (Pictures) was supposed to face off against “The Pride of El Salvador” Ivan Menjivar (Pictures), but once again the injury card reared its ugly head. Fortunately for K-1, Lithuanian fighter Erikas Petraitis (Pictures) stepped up to the plate to take Menjivar’s place. The SHOOTO veteran just came off a big win against ZST Golden Boy Hideo Tokoro (Pictures) last month.
Petraitis came out punching, but Miyata quickly shot in for a takedown. On the ground Miyata never really looked back, dominating positions and was just generally all over Petraitis like a bad rash.
From the bottom, Petraitis twisted to all fours to escape and, hopefully, get a better position. Unfortunately for the Lithuanian, Miyata followed him, stepping over his head to apply an armbar. With the technique fully extended, the referee called an end to the bout at the 3:59 mark of the first.
Dutch fighter Melvin Manhoef (Pictures) basically manhandled Shungo Oyama (Pictures) in their bout, throwing brutally hard punches and kicks that rocked his opponent. Manhoef was never in trouble. Eventually Oyama sustained a cut and after two doctor checks the fight was stopped at the 2:51 mark of the first round.
In the battle between Japan and Korea, Yoshihisa Yamamoto faced off against Kim Min Soo. I’d be lying if I said that I was impressed with this one. This looked more like a bar fight than an MMA bout — both fighters where throwing big sloppy punches and not doing much to avoid strikes. I will say though that Min Soo showed a lot of heart. At one point he looked rocked and it seemed like victory for Yamamoto was only seconds away, but the Korean hung on and eventually got his opponent to the ground. There, he sank in a rear-naked choke for the victory at the 1:32 mark of the second round.