TOKYO, Sept. 17 — The MMA hotspot of Differ Ariake in Odaiba played host to the third incarnation of the D.O.G series. The theme of this event was Team France taking on their Japanese counterparts.
Okami had the reach advantage over his opponent. The fighters remained on their feet all throughout the first five-minute round, circling the octagon and exchanging hard kicks to the legs and body that echoed throughout the event space.
In the second, Okami scored a takedown from the clinch and was able to take half guard. Riccio had a nice kneebar attempt from the bottom, but the Japanese veteran was able to escape.
Okami got the mount and as Riccio attempted to spin away the Japanese fighter was able to take his back. With the Frenchman lying flat on his stomach, Okami sat up and started to rain down punches to the sides of his head. Eventually the referee stepped in and stopped the fight.
Riccio was furious with the stoppage and let his feelings be known to the referee. The referee defended his decision by saying that all Riccio was doing was covering up to avoid the punches and not doing anything to get himself out of the precarious position.
It seemed to me that while the Team France fighters were good on their feet, their ground game was lacking. In each match-up their Japanese opposition was able to take dominate positions such as side and mount, and then execute submission on the first try without having to set them up with anything.
This was the case when Jess Liaudin (Pictures) faced off against D.O.G’s other golden boy, Hidetaka Monma (Pictures).
From the clinch, the fighters fell to the canvas and Monma ended up in the guard. From here he was able to move to half with relative ease, attempting a Kimura in the process, then to the side, and finally finish off with a spinning armbar.
The Japanese domination on the ground continued when Samy Schiavo (Pictures) took on Eiji Mitsuoka (Pictures). To his credit, Schiavo was fairly active on his back, even having a good armbar attempt. But the Japanese fighter was able to take his back, rain down some punches and then finish the French fighter off with a rear-naked choke.
Team France’s Achilles heel was on display again when Fred Fernandez fought against Nakahara Taiyo. The Japanese fighter scored the takedown and got half guard, dragging Fernandez towards the cage. From here, Taiyo worked to the mount, and then executed a textbook armbar.
Another problem of the French Team — perhaps with the exception of Riccio and Schiavo — was that they were fairly inactive on their backs.
When Oliver Moriano faced off against Hirono Takeyasu, after the Japanese fighter scored the takedown, Moriano did fairly little aside from holding on to his opponent. Eventually Takeyasu took side, then transitioned to the mount, and finished up with an armbar.
Moriano, like the rest of team France, looked great one his feet. He moved around, his punches were fast and his kicks like lightning, but his lack of an offensive ground game caught up with him when he hit the mat.
Team France member Mohamed Khacha had an impressive start in his fight against K-Taro Nakamura. He really poured on the punches in the opening moments, staggering his opponent and almost getting the knockout.
But the Japanese fighter was able to weather the stand-up storm that the Frenchman was giving him to eventually score a big punch that put Khacha down against the fence. From here, Nakamura took the Frenchman’s back and applied a rear-naked choke.
In one of the three non-international matches, Tomohiko Hashimoto faced off against the monstrous Russian fighter Alan Karaev (Pictures). Hashimoto is a pretty big guy, but he was absolutely dwarfed by his opponent.
The bell sounded and Hashimoto began to circle. Then Karaev scored a huge punch that knocked the Japanese fighter down. The Russian merely knelt aside his downed opponent and fired down punches and hammer fists. The referee jumped in and stopped the fight after just 27 seconds.
After the fight, Karaev told the K-1 brass in attendance that he wants to fight on the K-1 Dynamite show on New Year’s Eve.
In a match-up that I was really looking forward to, wrestler Kazuhiro Hamanaka (Pictures) faced off against Naito Yukiya. Hamanaka had kind of fallen off the MMA radar screen since his PRIDE Bushido 1 loss to Ryan Gracie and his splitting from Takada Dojo.
The Hamanaka from Bushido was ripped and lean, but at this event Hamanaka looked a bit pudgy. The one unchanged aspect of his somewhat altered appearance were his legs — it looked like he could squat a house.
Throughout the match, Hamanaka was constantly going for the takedown, which he was able to score several times. Yukiya was very active on his back, always moving, working for a reversal or a Kimura.
Yukiya really dominated the stand-up aspect of this one. He was scoring some solid punches and kicks that wore down Hamanaka, who seemed a bit gassed in the second round. The match went the distance and the judges ruled the contest a draw.
Russian fighter Aslan Dezeoev scored a quick knockout over tough Grabaka wrestler Sato Mitsuyoshi.