TOKYO, Feb. 12 – On Valentine’s Day weekend I told my girl, who traveled 600-km to be with me, to stay home so I could pour my love into another thing. Yes, that’s right, I’m pouring my love into the sport you call mixed martial arts.
Chonan-Carneiro was a classic match up between striker and grappler. This man Carneiro has such fast takedowns that they’re almost indefensible, especially with his long legs and arms.
Chonan is a striker. He trains sprawl everyday. If he can’t sprawl, he can’t win the fight. He does it all the time. But Carneiro’s shot was way too fast to defend. When Chonan sprawled halfway, Carneiro’s hands are already catching Chonan’s thigh, and it looked like Carneiro would just run over Chonan.
But here’s the key: I’m sure Carneiro is a great grappler, yet as soon as he took Chonan down his offensive action slowed down. Sure he dropped some bombs from Chonan’s guard. He also passed Chonan’s guard several times, and even took the mount position. But after he took Chonan down, his aggressiveness seemed dialed down.
I heard there are people blaming the referee of this fight. They’re saying Carneiro got robbed? Well, I don’t have any problem that Chonan won this fight. The last jumping knee gave enough impact to shake Carneiro’s brain and he bled pretty badly.
Sherdog.com photographer Stephen Martinez, who was only one yard away from the scene, said, “Carneiro was out of consciousness a very short time. Then Chonan pounded [him and] Carneiro kinda woke up.”
I saw Carneiro in back stage and his bleeding was slowed down. But still he was putting a towel on the right eye area. Even though I couldn’t see the cut, I don’t think he could continue to fight.
Oh, you’re talking about the referee helping Chonan by standing them up too quickly? I agree. Referee Noguchi stood them up pretty quick. I was at the media seat and other media guys were also tilting their head. Yes, it was too quick, especially in round three. Yes, Referee stood them up pretty quick but it’s still acceptable level. How acceptable? Hmm, maybe it’s acceptable, as this sport is not completely developed. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that referee’s commands can be different from fight to fight. But in a process of founding this sport as real sports, it could happen, just like any other sports.
For example, like soccer, baseball or other sports still have BS they call “hometown” decision. But the thing is, Carneiro lost the fight. However, he showed great skill.
Let’s hear what Mr. Saeki, who promotes DEEP, said after the event: “Carneiro is very strong guy. I was sweating [because, Chonan was losing this fight]. Today, unfortunately he lost. But Carneiro may fight very great with other guys too. So I’m looking forward to it.”
That’s a good sign for Carneiro. I don’t know if he wants to fight in MMA before Abu Dhabi. But, hey, his fight caught the promoter’s eyes. That’s something. And yeah all the spectators at Korakuen Hall will remember how sharp his tackle was … amazing.
After the fight, Chonan gave a comment to the media: “Carneiro was very strong. As strong as Anderson Silva, who I fought on New Year’s Eve. Carneiro’s tackle was very fast. I’ve never had such a tackle in fight. My strategy was kneeing him in the face when he comes to shoot. But he was too quick, and I couldn’t even defend his shot in [the] DEEP ring, which is smaller than PRIDE ring.
“He has very long arm and pounded me good on the ground. So my left cheek is swelling up like this. I didn’t feel that much pressure about submission from him.”
Other media asked him if the last knee was just lucky or not. “No it wasn’t a lucky knee at all,” he replied. “I train that knee a lot. If I hit it without training, that’s a lucky knee. But I train that jumping knee really a lot. So that is not lucky one.”
He wrapped up his post-fight interview by saying, “Today, I fought with the injury I got from New Year’s Eve fight. And I hurt my left foot in today’s fight. I kicked Carneiro’s knee. It’ll take couple of days to see if this injury is real bad one or not. But at first I’d like to take a break and take care of my injury.”
Next up, Dokonjonosuke Mishima against Tomomi Iwama (Taisho). Not too many things to write about this fight. Tomomi got pounded on the ground for 15 minutes. Period.
Mishima pounded Tomomi from the top, kind of like he did it to Marcus Aureilo last summer in PRIDE Bushido. Iwama is a jiu-jitsu guy who can actually exchange bombs on his feet. But when they face each other, the body-size difference was so obvious. And Mishima’s takedown is pretty sick. So Tomomi ended up fighting on his back.
But quick question: What happens if a jiu-jitsu guy can’t open his guard the whole time? It’s a box seat of all you can eat “punch.” The funny thing is, Takanori Gomi was at the ringside and Mishima was holding the microphone at the moment in the ring, you know doing his favorite mic performance. But he didn’t say anything about a rematch against Gomi. Then audience loudly shouted “fight against Gomi … Fight Gomi!” and Mishima answered “Please don’t bring it up ... Please.” Obviously, he had a hard time getting over his loss to that man.
And Gomi was just laughing his butt off. You know, once these two fighters, Gomi and Mishima, were a huge rival in SHOOTO. And Mishima had such a painful loss against Gomi. It was mentally damaged more than physically because, after that fight Gomi relentlessly talked trash about Mishima in this magazine and that magazine.
Now both are out of SHOOTO. Is there any chance that they face each other in the ring again? I saw Mr. Saeki walk up to PRIDE staff (who was visiting this DEEP show) and whispered something while Mishima was on the mic. Hmm, DEEP champ maybe joining the PRIDE lightweight tourney? That’ll be awesome! Let’s make it happen.
Yoshiro Maeda hasn’t lost in MMA at all. He destroying each of his 12 opponents and most of his win were earned in a decent fight organization, Pancrase. So he’s not earning that record by fighting one of those wannabe fighters.
And Masakazu Imanari is a guy who has very unorthodox style like Genki Sudo. Stand up sideways against his opponent, somersault forward, backward, to the side … and takedown or catch your leg and submit lighting-fast. Once he touches your leg, you are already caught in his “leglock hell.” His arms and legs just tangle on you like an octopus as you can see in the DEEP picture galleries. Yeah even his head is shaved like an octopus.
This fight was the fight that we enjoy the air between those two fighters. Do you understand what I’m talking about? “Enjoy the air” between them? Yeah, so there wasn’t that much full-contact action. I can easily see, if this happened in America, people would boo for 15 seconds. But the amazing thing is, I didn’t hear any boo at all in Korakuen hall. And every time, those two fighters had contact people said “Wow!” and “Ah!”
During the fight, Maeda’s strategy is very clear: punish Imanari. On the other side, Imanari’s strategy is using his strength, which is submission work. And both of them know what the opponent wants. But what Imanari doesn’t know was how devastating Maeda’s punches are. And Imanari has bitter experience with being pounded on the ground by Mishima a long time ago in DEEP ring. And what Maeda doesn’t know is how strange a takedown-style Imanari has. And Maeda also has a bitter experience when Imanari submitted him in a grappling match.
Once the fight started, they didn’t look like they were scared of each other at all. They just wanted the fight in their territory. So both fighters struggled to bring their opponent in their own world. Sometimes, they both didn’t move even an inch for like 10 seconds to look for some chink where they can cram the wedge in. And once there’s a contact, exchange punch and step back to build their own base. Awesome!
The air was very tense. In the first round there was an excellent tug-of-war. I don’t know how I can express. Imanari went triangle, Maeda defended; Imanari went armbar, Maeda defended; Imanari went omoplata, Maeda quickly spun out … excellent groundwork by both of them.
I mean this fight didn’t have that much contact. But I’d pick this match as the best “blink” fight of 2005. You can’t blink. You don’t know what both of those two will do in next quarter second. The fight went to a draw, and I think it was right. Now both of them respect each other and they chat and became real good friend. I don’t think a rematch will be happen, but it was an awesome fight. I enjoyed this match from the bottom of my guts.
What else was outstanding from this show? Hmm, a women’s fight was great, too. Satoko Shinashi faced Mari Kaneko. Shinashi is undefeated in MMA and she’s the best grappler in her weight class in Japan. On the other hand, Kaneko is a karate fighter. So she was the underdog. In this MMA match up, well, face punch wasn’t allowed on the ground. But it was pretty much MMA. After the fight, I asked Kaneko how was the fight against best female grappler in her weight class in Japan? “I was really looking forward to fight Ms. Shinashi for long time,” she replied. “When this fight was decided, I was very excited, like I finally can test my skill against a strong fighter. I’ve fought in Smack Girl and other shows, but my opponent wasn’t really strong, or well rounded fighter as I can test my limit. I had to cut down to 47- kg (103-lbs) for today’s fight. But I felt this weight match me the best now.”
At the end of the interview I asked her if face punching on the ground was allowed, would result have changed, because she almost submitted her opponent in armbar and her opponent’s favorite submission is leg submission?
“Maybe it could change the situation,” Kaneko said. “I might win this fight. But nobody knows.” Though this interview, I felt that this girl, Kaneko, is such a nice person. She kept a smile the entire time at the interview space, and answered all the questions the journalist threw to her. I read about her childhood story that said she had a real tough childhood with parent’s stuff. But now she’s a kick-ass fighter with some class attitude. Big respect for this girl “ Mari Kaneko.”
I must write what my Panamanian amigo Stephen told me to. In the first fight of the night, there were Gomi as a corner. And the other corner, there was a Genki Sudo. Then behind Gomi there was a Ralph Gracie sitting ringside staring at Gomi from the behind. Stephen Martinez said, “Ralph was about attack Gomi to revenge from the PRIDE Bushido. I really saw the fire burning up inside of Ralph’s eye.”
Okay, folks that’s all for now. Oh! Wait! DEEP is looking for a fighter for the show they will have in Fukuoka on April 10 at Shisui-Kaikan Event Hall. From Team Roken: Takanori Oniki, Masakazu Imanari, Tsuyoshi Kurihara from Pancrase Megaton: Keigo Takamori, Miura Hiromitsu are planned to fight.
If you live in Japan, train MMA and are dying to test your skill, contact maruyama73@deep2001.com with this information, 1. Name 2. Name of your team 3. Height 4. Weight 5. Fight Career 6. Write some personal message.
Gates open at 3:30 p.m. and the show starts at 4:00 p.m. Tickets are 3,000-5,000 Yen. Have Fun! Peace!
P.S. Does anybody know the TV show called Iron Chef? The Japanese TV program that you can watch on Food Channel? I went to some of those Iron Chef’s restaurant. This was the candy for my girl, if say, leaving her alone in the apartment was the “whip” on Valentine’s weekend. Otherwise she’d dump on my ass.