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

Fukui: OK, like we discussed a little bit, there’s a difference between fighting in cage, and fighting in a ring. Do you think a lot of Japanese fighter wants to fight in cage or do they prefer fighting in the ring? Generally what do you think?

Yamazaki: Well, I don’t know about other fighters. But I told this at press conference: “I think, cage is much better to execute my game.” I hate [when a] referee drags me back in center of the ring and restart the fight. It’s different. Even if they restart from same position, it’s not the same. So I think cage is much better for me.

Fukui: Let’s say a lot of Japanese fighter wants to fight in cage. How about Japanese fight fans? Do you think cage fight will be accepted well? Because if you look at the UFC, sometimes fights looks a bit boring because they just pound and pound and pound beside the cage. Do you think this cage show will be accepted in generally in Japan?

Yamazaki: I think so. I think it’s depending on the fighters. Even if some fighter fights boring in the ring. Fun fight is fun fight at anywhere. So it depends on fighters. But I hope it’ll be accepted.

Fukui: By the way, did you get inside of the octagon?

Yamazaki: Yeah.

Fukui: How did you feel? I talked to Eiji Mitsuoka, the KOTC/Bushido veteran, and he told me that cage is really hard. No cushion on that cage. He said UFC cage is more like bounce, but not this D.O.G cage.

Yamazaki: I don’t know about the cage in foreign country. I felt comfortable. I don’t know if I feel same when I face somebody next week. But yeah I felt comfortable.

Fukui: In the octagon, there’s eight corners right? So that’s another difference between ring and octagon. You can push your opponent to the corner in the ring. But it’s kind of hard to keep pressure your opponent to back him up to the corner in octagon. What do you think?

Yamazaki: Yeah, hmm, if I look back my fight career, I often won by pressuring my opponent, back him up to the corner and took him down then submit him. That’s kind of my winning theory. So I don’t know how this octagon corner changes my strategy. But hopefully result doesn’t come out in negative way. Now when I train at gym, I tried to trap my training partner to the flat wall like octagon cage. So, this training works good for my fight. By the way, I think my teammate will do good in octagon. I know this through my training for this fight, especially Eiji Ishikawa. I think he will do great performance inside of octagon. He’s good at takedown at flat wall side.

Fukui: Don’t promote your buddy in my interview …

Yamazaki: (Laughs) Never mind. But I myself would like to fight in this show.