Lions, Turkeys & Prom Queens

Takashi Nakakura vs. Bendy Casimir

In a choice clash of 154-pounders, Shooto's world champion takes on Shooto's European champion. Better yet, in typically painful Japanese fashion, there's not a single title on the line. You've gotta love it, baby.

While few of us will ever fully understand, let alone appreciate, the Japanese MMA world's absurd stance on staking titles, much less Shooto's backward bureaucracy, this is not a fight that's hard to appreciate. That of course is contingent on knowing who either man is, and strangely, in an MMA world where seemingly any Japanese lightweight who can win a few fights can get picked up by Dream or Sengoku, Takashi Nakakura remains virtually unknown outside of a small contingent of hyper-hardcores. Meanwhile, Bendy Casimir, despite a sensational 12-fight winning streak in just over 18 months, is more likely to be mistaken for a frau-frau drink or worse yet, a compatriot of the Dirty Sanchez and Rusty Trombone.

"So did you score or what, dude?"
"Gave her the Bendy Casimir, bro."
"Oh dog, that's sick as hell."

And so, while Nakakura's contemporaries all get fights in Dream and Sengoku and Casimir watches the UFC gobble up continental talent (including his own teammate David Baron) to populate their European expansion cards, Nakakura and Casimir will meet in front of less than 2,500 people. And if they put their purses together, they can buy a Shamwow.

The battle itself is one that stylistically favors the sassy Osakan. While Casimir has sound fundamentals in all areas, his success is predicated on an extremely aggressive grappling game. However, while he's cashed in on the European circuit by recklessly diving for leglocks like he's in a 1995 Pancrase highlight, his brand of offense isn't one that will pay dividends against Nakakura, who is a strong technical grappler with superior wrestling and will have the ability to dictate the environment of the fight.

That environment will more than likely be a standing one. Nakakura's striking skills have blossomed tremendously under the tutelage of former Shoot Boxing star Hiromu Yoshitaka. Since returning to the ring in October 2006 following a 14-month layoff, Nakakura has been a completely different fighter, wholly reenergized by the striking afforded to him by Yoshitaka. He's turned it into a string of sterling victories over some of Japan's best young lightweights in Yusuke Endo, Mizuto Hirota and Ganjo Tentsuku.

While he's not a home run hitter, Nakakura's stylish counterstriking game is highly efficient and disruptive, and he should have little trouble using leg kicks to control the pace of the fight while using counter-crosses to pick off Casimir ad nauseum en route to another solid victory. While he's unlikely to follow in the footsteps of other Shooto world 154-pound champs like Uno, Gomi, Hansen, Shaolin and Kawajiri, is it too much to ask that Nakakura get a real payday somewhere? The man deserves the chance to put spinners on his moped.