TOKYO, July 28 — In the scorching heat of a Tokyo summer, Pancrase held its twelfth Neo Blood tournament at the MMA Mecca, Korakuen Hall.
The Pancrase Neo Blood tournaments always seem to have that X-factor, with young, hungry competitors going all out to make a name for themselves in the MMA scene. Tonight’s event certainly kept along the lines of this tradition.
Of the veteran fighters, the only American on the card was Carlos Condit (Pictures). The New Mexican has had a mixed bag in 2006, with big wins over Renato Verrisimo and Frank Trigg (Pictures) at Rumble On The Rock, only to suffer defeats against Jake Shields (Pictures) and Pat Healy (Pictures) in his last two outings. No doubt he wanted to put on a strong performance against Pancrase veteran Koji Oishi (Pictures) to get back on track.
Condit had a big reach advantage in this one and really capitalized on it throughout the fight, moving around the ring and peppering his opponent with punches from the outside that caused serious swelling around Oishi’s eyes.
Despite the disparity in reach, the Japanese fighter was able to tag his American counterpart with several hard right hands, staggering him a few times.
In addition to his boxing, Condit utilized his sharp knees, both from afar and within the clinch. Although receiving damage from these shots, Oishi was able to grab the knee after impact and score the takedown. The American showed the strength of his guard, preventing the PANCRASEism fighter from passing or inflicting major damage.
After barely surviving an onslaught of punches and kicks to hear the bell at the end of the second round, Oishi opened the third by once again scored a takedown by grabbing one of the American’s knees. Whilst in Condit’s guard, a cut just over the Pancrase veteran’s eye began to pour uncontrollably. The referee sent Oishi to the corner where it was ruled he could not continue, thus giving the American the TKO at the 1:01 mark.
The light heavyweight division of the Neo Blood tournament was fairly small. On the road to the finals, PANCRASEism fighter Ryo Kawamura (Pictures) knocked out Yuta Watanabe (Pictures) back in April. His opponent, Sumio Koyano (Pictures), picked up his only win against Mike Molina at the same event.
Right from the opening bell, these two fighters had very different strategies, with the fast-handed Kawamura looking to strike, while the portly Koyano sought the takedown. Koyano had a good single-leg takedown attempt early on, but Kawamura was able to shrug it off and remain on his feet. From here he chased Koyano around the ring with strikes, eventually backing him into the corner.
This was the beginning of the end for Koyano.
Kawamura just opened up on his trapped opponent with a flurry of fast, hard punches, eventually catching Koyama with one directly on the chin that dropped him to the canvas like a sack of potatoes.
The PANCRASEism fighter followed up on his downed opponent with more shots until the referee charged in and called an end to the fight at the 1:15 mark of the first, thus crowning Kawamura as the Neo Blood tournament light heavyweight champion.
In the bout to decide the champion of the welterweight division of the Neo Blood tournament, Toushin fighter Shinya Kumazawa and P’s Lab Yokohama’s Asaki Honda (Pictures) both came out swinging. The first half of the opening round saw the fighters brawling in close from the clinch. Honda landed some decent body shots, while Kumazawa looked for the takedown.
The distance between the two fighters opened up towards the end of the first. Both fighters had spent a lot of energy in the opening minutes, but Kumazawa looked the more gassed of the two — his punches slowed down considerably and he was taking several unanswered shots till the end of the round.
The second round saw a lot more ground work, with both fighters moving through positions and escaping submissions. The crowd went into a fevered pitch at one point, when both Kumazama and Honda fell back looking for an ankle submission.
Throughout this non-stop grappling clinic, Kumazawa’s stamina kept deteriorating. By the end of the round, the Toushin fighter was exhausted, giving up positions relatively easily. The fight went to the judges and Honda walked away as the welterweight Neo Blood champion.
The lightweight division of the Neo Blood tournament was the deepest, with 14 fighters originally taking part. Freelance fighter Eriya Matsuda previously went through Takaichi Hirayama and Mitsuo Matsumoto (Pictures) to make it to the finals, while U-File Camp member Tashirou Nishiuchi had to get through Minoru Chujo (Pictures) and Taku Aramaki.
Matsuda displayed excellent boxing throughout, throwing various punches and setting up his combos with his left hand. Nishiuchi took a page out of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (Pictures)’s playbook by attempting a rolling choke, but Matsuda blocked the technique and managed to get to his feet.
The second round saw Nishiuchi score the mount, but Matsuda was once again able to escape and get to his feet before the U-File Camp fighter could dish out any damage.
Matsuda continued to move around the ring well, picking his shots and connecting with some strong kicks. Towards the end, Nishiuchi scored the takedown from the clinch, but again could not keep Matsuda down.
At the end of the fight I had Matsuda ahead via his sharp combinations and the way he controlled the fight on his feet. On this night the judges agreed with me, when at the end of two hard-fought rounds, Matsuda took the split decision and the Neo Blood lightweight division crown.
The featherweight division of the tournament was also fairly deep, with 12 guys originally starting. The field was pared down through the eliminations and semifinals in February and April, leaving only Toushin fighter Tatsuya So and “Master of the gogoplata” Ryusuke “Jack” Uemura to meet in the finals.
This was a pretty well balanced fight, with both guys trading and going for takedowns in the first round. While on his back, Uemura kicked up at his opponent to keep him at bay.
The second round saw Uemura scoring the takedown at the ropes, then getting to his opponent’s back. Later in the round, the ZST veteran had a beautiful Achilles attempt on his opponent, but So defended and escaped to the guard.
Uemura briefly got the mount, and again the back, only to have the wily So escape. The second round finished with a slugfest to the final bell. The fight went to the judges and Uemura was awarded the featherweight Neo Blood crown.
Of the four tournament winners, light heavyweight winner Ryo Kawamura (Pictures) was elected as the Neo Blood tournament MVP.