TOKYO, Dec. 11 — The relatively new, yet poorly named cage fighting promotion D.O.G. (Demolition of Octagon Gear — who came up with that?) held its fourth event at MMA hotspot Differ Ariake on the artificial island of Tokyo Bay.
The recurring theme of the night was the unofficial battle between Pancrase and SHOOTO, with several fighters from the rival organizations going head to head. While the last D.O.G. event was a bit lackluster due to the Japanese domination over the French contingent, this event proved that you don’t need to have big name fighters to produce a great show.
The main event of the card pitted this year’s Abu Dhabi World Grappling Championship runner-up Rani Yahya against D.O.G. veteran Taiyo Nakahara (Pictures). After several fights in his native Brazil, this was Yahya’s first outing on Japanese soil. Nakahara, after coming off a submission loss to Mike Thomas Brown (Pictures) at D.O.G. 2, scored a decisive armbar victory over Frederic Fernandez (Pictures) at D.O.G. 3.
Yahya didn’t throw a single punch in this fight — not a one, from standing or on the ground. Right from the start the Brazilian came charging in for the takedown and took half-guard. Nakahara had a brief armbar attempt from his back, but the ADCC competitor escaped.
Throughout the time on the mat, Yahya was always moving, searching for better positions. The Brazilian’s persistence paid off, scoring side position on his opponent and then moving to north-south. With his opponent’s shoulders solidly pinned to the mat, Yahya sunk in an arm-triangle for the tapout victory at the 1:59 mark of the first.
Nakahara really didn’t have a chance to get into this fight. He seemed to be at a loss to answer the Brazilian’s constant transitioning.
Interim welterweight King of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue (Pictures) faced off against fellow Pancrase veteran Daisuke “13” Hanazawa. While well accustomed to the ring, this was the first time in the cage for both fighters.
Although the action was a little flat on the ground in the first two rounds, Hanazawa looked really good on his feet, charging forward with his punches and following up takedown attempts. At the cage, Inoue worked his way back to his feet quickly to avoid taking any major damage on the ground.
Inoue really turned the heat on in the third, rocking his opponent after several hard-hitting exchanges. A staggered Hanazawa shot to defend against the strikes, only to have the Interim King of Pancrase sprawl to avoid the takedown and take half guard. From here Inoue absolutely dominated his opponent, raining down hard punches.
Hanazawa was merely surviving at this point, and just barely at that. Hanazawa turned the tide a bit in the dying seconds of the third, but it was too little too late as Inoue walked away with the decision victory.
In one of the unofficial SHOOTO versus Pancrase bouts, former No. 1-ranked SHOOTO fighter Kuniyoshi Hironaka (Pictures) squared off against Pancrase and D.O.G. veteran Takuya Wada (Pictures).
Hironaka, who was recently out for a year due to a serious elbow injury, which he suffered at the hands of Shinya Aoki (Pictures) in a jiu-jitsu event back in November 2004, was coming off a brutal beating, once again from Aoki, at SHOOTO’s November 2005 event at Korakuen Hall. Needless to say, Hironaka has had a tough time of it recently and was no doubt looking to put on a strong performance here.
The SHOOTO fighter came out striking in this one, scoring a double-leg takedown and getting to half guard. Wada managed to struggle to his feet, only to have the SHOOTO fighter swing around to his back. From here, Hironaka scored a big suplex on his opponent, worthy of something you’d see on the WWE.
The tough Wada shook off the suplex and got back to his feet, but Hironaka held on and eventually returned the Pancrase fighter to the ground, sliding up his shoulders and attempting to lock on an armbar. Wada escaped the technique, falling into his opponent’s guard.
From his back, Hironaka inched his legs to his opponent’s shoulders, eventually locking on a triangle. Once clamped down, Wada had no option but to tap. Hironaka scored the win at 4:29 mark of the first.
SHOOTO veteran Hideki Kadowaki (Pictures) had a big reach advantage over Pancrase fighter Miki Shida (Pictures) in another battle between the two rival organizations. Kadowaki really used his jab effectively, controlling the distance of the fight very well.
Shida, who was backing up a lot to avoid the long arms of his opponent in the first two rounds, really turned it on in the third, capitalizing off of Kadowaki’s failed shots, stacking his opponent against the cage and raining down punches. On his feet he got several Thai clinches and let the knees fly. It was now the SHOOTO fighter who was backing away from the pressure that Shida kept bringing forward.
Shida clearly won the third round and in my opinion did enough in the other two — at least keeping him neck and neck with Kadowaki — but it was not to be either fighter’s night as the contest was ruled a draw.
The battle between SHOOTO and Pancrase was once again in the limelight as SHOOTO fighter Kenji Osawa (Pictures) faced off against Daiki “DJ Taiki” Hata.
While Osawa was really going for takedowns, especially in the first, he seemed willing to stand and box. Amongst the good sprawls that Hata displayed to avoid takedowns, his boxing technique was solid, scoring several punches. At times his fight looked more like a pro boxing match than an MMA fight, and in the end it was Hata who got the decision.
SHOOTO fighter Naoki Matsushita showed his boxing skill in his match-up against Demolition veteran Takahito Iida (Pictures). Matsushita really committed to his punches, especially his right-cross, tucking his head down and going forward with the strikes.
After taking some damage from Iida in the second, the SHOOTO fighter connected with a hard punch that knocked his opponent down. Matsushita followed by raining down punches from the guard, yet Iida showed his heart and managed to get to his feet.
Things went from bad to worse for Iida. Once standing, Matsushita threw a huge right hand that caught the Demolition fighter on the jaw, dropping him straight to the canvas, totally unconscious. After several minutes on the mat, a stretcher made an appearance but Iida was able to leave the cage under his own power.
Pancrase and Demolition veteran Yukiya Naito (Pictures) put on a “knees from Thai clinch” clinic in his fight against U-file camp fighter Fujiyama Fujiyama. In the second, Fujiyama got trapped flat on his stomach with Naito sitting on his back, raining down punches to the side of his head. The U-file fighter could not defend the strikes intelligently and his corner threw in the towel.
In the circus fight of the night, the very rotund grappler Soichi Nishida faced off against former sumo wrestler Wakashoyo. This entire fight consisted of both fighters throwing feeble looking punches in the center; Wakashoyo pushing Nishida back to the cage; and both fighters holding each other against the cage until the referee would come and break it up. About the most exciting thing in this fight was watching these two behemoths crashing into the sides of the cage and wondering if the mesh would hold. This snorefest was ruled a draw.