Promotions Unite for Kingdom of Grapple Anniversary
TOKYO, Nov. 25 -- MMA mobile phone Web site Kingdom of Grapple
brought together GCM, DEEP, Pancrase and Smack Girl to celebrate
its first anniversary at Shinjuku Face.
Despite the show's festival-type atmosphere, which featured karate fights and "Oyaji" (Old Man) bouts, there were some hotly contested MMA fights. However, due to the fact that there were no judges, all fights that went the distance were ruled a draw.
In the main event, welterweight King of Pancrase interim champion
Katsuya Inoue
(Pictures) squared off against
T-Blood's Shigetoshi
Iwase (Pictures).
Inoue has become quite the knockout artist in recent years, most recently stopping Fabricio Nascimento (Pictures) in July to take the KOP interim title. Iwase has gotten back on the horse so to speak, racking up two victories after a five-loss skid.
Inoue, a very deceptive boxer, hung back, looking for counterpunches rather than pushing the action. The bout played out entirely on the feet, and by the end it was safe to say that Iwase was the better fighter on this night. Without judges, though, the fight went down on the record books as a draw.
PANCRASEism's Hikaru Sato (Pictures) focused on takedowns in his bout against pro wrestler turned MMA fighter Takeshi Go.
Despite being taken down often, Go did a good job in his MMA debut by bridging out of positions and getting back to his feet before Sato could inflict any major damage. This pattern held for the two-round duration, after which the match was automatically ruled a draw.
Masaya "J-Taro" Takita and Tomoya Miyashita (Pictures) really pounded it out on the feet in their battle. Takita pushed forward with punches, and Miyashita did an excellent job of moving his head and slipping a lot of the leather that was thrown at him.
Although there were some close moments, neither fighter could finish off the other, and the two-round bout was ruled a draw.
The Smack Girl promotion got to showcase some of its talent as Yuiga Yuiga (Pictures) squared off against Hari Hari (Pictures).
Both of these fighting femmes connected on their feet, with Hari landing some hard low kicks on her opponent's heavily taped legs. Yuiga took the action to the mat on several occasions, but she was unable to secure a submission before being ordered to stand according to the Smack Girl 30-second ground rule.
By the end of the first round, Yuiga was limping on what seemed to be a previously injured knee. She couldn't answer the bell for the second round, giving Hari the TKO victory.
Despite the show's festival-type atmosphere, which featured karate fights and "Oyaji" (Old Man) bouts, there were some hotly contested MMA fights. However, due to the fact that there were no judges, all fights that went the distance were ruled a draw.
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Inoue has become quite the knockout artist in recent years, most recently stopping Fabricio Nascimento (Pictures) in July to take the KOP interim title. Iwase has gotten back on the horse so to speak, racking up two victories after a five-loss skid.
Iwase was definitely the aggressor throughout. The T-Blood fighter
charged forward with punches and tagged his opponent with some hard
combos. At one point in the second, he had Inoue reeling back to
the ropes after landing the leather, but he couldn't finish him
before ending up in the clinch.
Inoue, a very deceptive boxer, hung back, looking for counterpunches rather than pushing the action. The bout played out entirely on the feet, and by the end it was safe to say that Iwase was the better fighter on this night. Without judges, though, the fight went down on the record books as a draw.
PANCRASEism's Hikaru Sato (Pictures) focused on takedowns in his bout against pro wrestler turned MMA fighter Takeshi Go.
Despite being taken down often, Go did a good job in his MMA debut by bridging out of positions and getting back to his feet before Sato could inflict any major damage. This pattern held for the two-round duration, after which the match was automatically ruled a draw.
Masaya "J-Taro" Takita and Tomoya Miyashita (Pictures) really pounded it out on the feet in their battle. Takita pushed forward with punches, and Miyashita did an excellent job of moving his head and slipping a lot of the leather that was thrown at him.
Although there were some close moments, neither fighter could finish off the other, and the two-round bout was ruled a draw.
The Smack Girl promotion got to showcase some of its talent as Yuiga Yuiga (Pictures) squared off against Hari Hari (Pictures).
Both of these fighting femmes connected on their feet, with Hari landing some hard low kicks on her opponent's heavily taped legs. Yuiga took the action to the mat on several occasions, but she was unable to secure a submission before being ordered to stand according to the Smack Girl 30-second ground rule.
By the end of the first round, Yuiga was limping on what seemed to be a previously injured knee. She couldn't answer the bell for the second round, giving Hari the TKO victory.
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