Minowa Leads Japan Over Disappointed Korea

TOKYO, May 24 — Korean promoter CMA (Central Martial Arts Association) joined forces for the first time with Nagoya based promotion DEEP to co-sponsor the CMA DEEP Festival held on Wednesday at Korakuen Hall in this city.

Nine of 11 fights were held under MMA rules, with two female kickboxing bouts rounding out the card. All fights were open-weight matches except the female mixed martial arts contest between Yoko Takahashi (Pictures) and Lee Yong Joo.

Now, this reporter has been to a fair share of live shows in Japan and not always have the shows turned out to be perfect. In fact I’ve witnessed perfect shows when all matches are exciting. I’ve also seen really bad matches mixed with excellent bouts. And total disappointments, like D.O.G. 3, when Japan literally butchered Team France.

But tonight’s show will hold a special place as one of the most disappointing shows I’ve ever witnessed.

I understand Korea is fairly new to mixed martial arts, being most recently a big target for Japanese promotions to expand business in the neighbor country. Now, for this show: take the striking exchanges out of ESPN’s “Best of Hockey Fights.” Add one-dimensional wrestlers with very limited ground skills. Don’t forget poor production values. And the Japanese side literally rolled over their Korean counterparts as soon as the fight hit the mat.

What the net result? All the ingredients for a night of big let downs that not even a Japanese star like Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures) could save.

The main event pitted the Japanese King of open-weight matches, Ikuhisa Minowa (Pictures), returning to Korakuen Hall for the first time since 2002, to face jiu-jitsu and Aikido specialist Park Hyun Kab, who outweighed the colorful Japanese fighter by over 40 pounds.

Hyun Kab opened the match with a lazy kick, which Minowa answered by quickly taking a page out of similar performances in PRIDE — against the likes of Gilbert Yvel (Pictures), Stefan Leko (Pictures) and Kimo Leopoldo (Pictures) — when he twisted away with an Achilles lock.

After rolling around for a better position, Minowa finally sunk the submission just 17 seconds after the opening bell.

Minowa told the media afterwards that his personal doctor advised him not to fight because he was coming off the brutal knockout loss against Croatian bomber Mirko Filipovic (Pictures) in PRIDE’s open-weight tournament and his fighting condition was not 100 percent.

However, the Japanese star couldn’t refuse the invitation from DEEP to fight in Korakuen Hall, where he holds many memorable wars under the Pancrase banner.

Minowa also set clear his intention to continue fighting heavyweight opponents and in open-weight matches in the near future, and that he would like to fight again in the early summer.

Korean fighter Na Mu Jin saved face for the Korean’s, scoring one of only three victories for his side. Displaying more heart than skill, Mu Jin survived an early heel hook attempt and standing Kimura attempt to win a split decision over Minowa’s sparring partner Junpei Hamada after two rounds of sloppy action.

Korean female kickboxer Kim Yun Sung won her match by unanimous decision. Using her weight and reach advantage to literally bully Smack Girl ex-champion Megumi Yabushita (Pictures) with inside knees from the clinch, Yun Sung mixed beautiful liver and head combinations in one of the two females kickboxing matches of the card.

The other saw Smack Girl veteran SERI turn her fight against smaller Korean kickboxer Chun Yeon Sil into a wild punching and kneeing affair inside the clinch to take the split decision victory for team Japan.

In more female action, but this time under MMA rules, Japanese fighter Yoko Takahashi (Pictures) used her kickboxing skills to keep Korea’s Lee Yong Joo at bay by using her longer reach to connect with punches in combination with low kicks.

After placing Yong Joo in danger several times through the first round without gaining a clearly lead, Takahashi decided to turn tables early in the second round with a takedown, which led to a heel hook for the tapout victory at 47 seconds of round two.

Masakazu Imanari (Pictures)’s teammate Yoshinori Oniko threw exactly four punches, including one standing and three on the ground from the top position, on his way to earning a stoppage victory 3:40 of round one due to strikes over Jeong Mun Seok, leaving the Korean with his right eye looking similar to a golf ball.

Japanese Takanori Onda (Pictures) turned the tide in the second round after coming close to losing. He scored a knockout victory via straight right punch over Lee San Soo at 1:01 of round two.

Pancrase Veteran Kousei Kubota (Pictures) made a successful return to MMA for the first time since 2004 with a heelhook victory over Ban Sun Han at 1:58 of round one.

The first Team Korea victory came via rear-naked choke at 4:28 of the first, when Kim Dong Hyun displayed some good jiu-jitsu skills over Mitsunori Tanimura for the submission victory.

In the first two bouts of the night, Team Japan’s Ken Hamamura defeated Kim Chung Hyun by submission via rear-naked choke at 0:41 of round one. And Flavio Tanaka defeated Kim Han Wu by submission via triangle choke at 3:08 of round one.