Who Is GRABAKA’s Takeshi Yamazaki And Why Is he Fighting In D.O.G.?

Fukui: That’s interesting. OK, so let’s talk about D.O.G, which you’ll be fighting in next weekend. Is this pronounced like not “dog,” as an animal, but like “dee-oh-gee,” like you pronounce the single letters?

Yamazaki: Yeah it’s not “dog,” but called “dee-oh-gee.”

Fukui: OK, so how about the rule of this show? Is that UFC rules? Or more like PRIDE? Can they use elbow? Knee? Stomping? Tell us about it.

Yamazaki: No elbow, and about knee, you can knee on stand up, but no knee on the ground. It’s kinda like SHOOTO rule. But we can use that Cage a little bit, like to keep the balance with the cage, lean on it … but we can’t grab the cage.

Fukui: You said the rules are same as SHOOTO. So they have standing knockdown? Once the fighter downed, the referee start counting 10?

Yamazaki: Oh no, that part is not same as SHOOTO.

Fukui: How about stomp?

Yamazaki: No stomp. So I think this D.O.G show sets the fighting environment as between UFC and SHOOTO, in both rule-wise, and stage they prepare.

Fukui: So, no elbow, but still ground-and-pound will be very effective in cage fights. Do you look for beating up your opponent? Like pound him out? That’s something I can’t imagine from you. You don’t seem like the type of person who pounds somebody out till the guy passes out. You seem more like mild personality guy who prefer submission than smash your opponent on the ground.

Yamazaki: Well, I don’t know how you look at me, or other people look at me. But if I have a chance, I’ll go finish my opponent in any way. If it’s pound, I’ll go pound. If there’s submission opportunity, I’ll take that chance to finish the fight. I like submission a lot. But that’s not the only way to finish the fight. I hate decisions. So if there’s a chance, I’ll go pound with no hesitation.

Fukui: If you do that, it’s like you’ll show New Image of Takeshi Yamazaki to the Audience eh? Wild, Cruel Takeshi Yamazakiliiiiiiii!

Yamazaki: Hahaha.