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HEROs 7/16 Yokohama Arena
By Zach Arnold | July 16, 2007
Claimed attendance was 11,310. Official results here.
Results in full-page mode.
- Alexandre Franca Nogueira defeated Shuichiro Katsumura in R2 in 1’55 by TKO.
- Andre Dida defeated Artur Oumakhanov in R1 in 1’20 by KO. Kazushi Sakuraba was Dida’s ring second, wearing a Super Strong Machine mask.
- Ralek Gracie defeated Katsuyori Shibata in R1 in 3’05 with a cross-arm scissors hold for the submission.
- Vitor “Shaolin” Ribiero defeated Kazuyuki Miyata in R2 in 1’54 by submission.
- Black Mamba defeated Hideo Tokoro in R1 in 4’47 by TKO.
- Masakatsu Funaki announced his intentions to come out of retirement and fight on New Year’s Eve in Japan. Funaki said that watching the MMA boom in America has gotten him interested in reviving the MMA boom in Japan.
- Kaoru Uno defeated Katsuhiko Nagata by a 3-0 judges’ decision.
- Melvin Manhoef defeated Bernard Ackah in R1 in 2’13 by KO.
- Kin Tai Ei defeated Kiyoshi Tamura by a 3-0 unanimous decision in overtime (after two rounds, Tai Ei had a 1-0 judges’ decision). The promotion did a PRIDE vs. K-1 video theme package before the fight, labeling Tamura as “the Tamura of PRIDE” and then introduced him as the 3rd ever RINGS champion during ring introductions. So, I guess it’s safe to say by Japanese logic that the K-1 guy beat the PRIDE guy.
Video(s):
Topics: HERO's, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 23 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I found Uno to be quite uninspiring. Not much of a main event.
Tamura looked gutted. Still, Saku vs. Tamura should draw the crowds…
The Event Was Awesome. Miyata was really taking it to Shaolin in the 1st round but He Managed to Calm Down and Sink in the Choke. Andre Dida Disposed of His Opponent With Some Beautiful Chute Boxe Violence. Also, Kiyoshi Tamura got Robbed In My Opinion. Also, Who The Hell is Funaki Going to Fight??? Bas Should Come Out of Re-Retirement to Fight Him Again.
Booh, at first I read “Kai En Tai defeated Kiyoshi Tamura”, and hoped that they revisited the Choppy Choppy Pee Pee-Angle after MEN’s Teioh, TAKA Michinoku and Dick Togo laid Tamura out…
As for Funaki’s return: I heard Ken Shamrock needs to pay some bills…
Damn I forgot about this. The two New Japan products lost. What was the Nagata & Shibata matches like?
Umm….
Umakhanov (Note to self): DO NOT fight against a Chute Boxe fighter with your lead hand on your hip…wtf was he thinking!?!?!
Manhoef is the man. Shaolin & Tiny Nog continue to outclass their competition.
Hasn’t Pequeno actually been in a bit of a slump recently? And wasn’t he stripped of his Shooto belt b/c he wouldn’t defend it?
So it would be more like – Tiny Nog [Pequeno] is back to outclassing his competition.
But here, here on Shaolin…glad to see he’s finally getting some exposure on the “big shows”. He’s probably the most talented/best fighter that wasn’t in one of the big promotions for the last 2-3 years imho.
^^ you’re right man…looks like I’m living in the past. I totally forgot about the Tokoro fight and I think there was one after that too.
Shaolin looked so uninspiring that first round. I really question if he can really compete with the top guys like Sherk, Penn, & Gomi. Actually, he probably matches up well with Gomi, as he can’t block a submission to save his life. But Sherk & Penn would eat him for lunch.
You’re awful critical on Shaolin all the time!!! The other day you question if he’s a top 10 and now you’re saying he’d get eaten for lunch…the guy’s probably got the slickest ground game in all of mma. I’ve seen fights where he literally throws ZERO punches in ending it and does so in dazzling fashion.
Miyata is an Olympic wrestler you know…
And Tokoro – wtf are you doing?!?! You have a guy that’s pretty green on the ground and you try to freakin’ heelhook him 2x – jeeezus!! No need to be giving the much larger guy a chance to steal a good position on you, especially after you failed to do anything the 1st time!!…you could probably armbar or rnc him if you were just more patient.
What’s uninspiring about a guy, who is one of the sickest grapplers in the game, testing his stand-up he’s worked on early in a fight? Christ, MORE fighters should be doing this. Moreover, in the second round, he immediately tripped an Olympic wrestler and effortlessly hit a move that he’s finished 952 guys with, and yet Miyata was still powerless to stop.
That slick ground game would mean nothing against Sherk or Penn. Penn is a better grappler and ten times better striker. And I don’t see him doing anything to Sherk either.
The guy was one of the tops back in the day. But since his win over Mitsuhiro Ishida in July 2004, he hasn’t beaten a Top 10 Lightweight. Heck, I don’t think he has beaten a Top 20 fighter. The sport has progressed so much since then. His striking is so weak and his takedowns aren’t strong enough to even compete at the highest level. I even see guys like Huerta picking him apart.
His takedowns aren’t strong? Who HASN’T Shaolin taken down? He took down Ishida, he took down Kawajiri even though Kawajiri was dropping massive pancake sprawls on him, he took down Mohammed who is a very strong wrestler, he took down Miyata who repped at the Olympics.
His stand-up is great by no means, but he’s really only ever been busted in the stand-up in the second Kawajiri fight, and he’s shown marked improvement since then. He’s not going to be KO’ing anyone soon, but he doesn’t really have to. Moreover, Shaolin is an even bigger threat under the unified rules, because he has some of the nastiest GNP elbows I’ve ever seen.
Against Penn, Shaolin would only need a couple of takedowns, and then he could idly GNP BJ to a decision. Sherk is a bigger threat due to the fact Shaolin would have to work from the bottom, but even then, Sherk hasn’t faced a guy with even a remotely similar game to Shaolin. Franca, who really is nowhere near Shaolin in terms of grappling cred and technical prowess in the MMA grappling game, made Sherk gurgle a half dozen times. Moreover, Sherk’s best defensive asset is his ability to create the scramble, where Shaolin often thrives. I don’t know that I’d put money on him in either match-up, but the assertion that either guy would walk over him is beyond laughable.
Note to Breen:
He doesn’t fight in the UFC, thus 45 does not consider him to be an elite fighter. Plus the fact that this is in my estimation (with pretty good evidence) the 1st Shaolin fight he’s seen, so don’t be too harsh.
As I’ve said before – Shaolin is an awesome fighter (best fighter not on the Big promotions rosters until now) and people will soon realize how SIIICK this guy is. I think he has a great chance of taking out Penn and Sherk but some people just haven’t seen him enough and have been brainwashed into thinking certain fighters are unbeatable.
Quit this “back in the day” crap too will ya 45. Couture was the UFC HW champ “back in the day” so does that immediately make him and anyone that was good 3 years ago obsolete? That’s basically become your favorite arguing point about anyone you try to bust down (Silva, Fedor, Nog…blah blah blah).
The Gaijin, I totally agree. Going into an MMA fight carrying your hands even lower than Liddell? NOT a smart move.
But I guess if it works for Chuck – oh, wait…
Well…I mean I’m sure it’s ok to do against a guy with ZERO striking ability that you know is only going to go for a takedown (and even then it’s silly)…but to do it against a Chute Boxe guy, especially a maniac like Dida that you know has some serious dynamite in his mitts – it’s retarded!! You’d think he thought he was Mark Hunt or something?!?!
Mr. Oumakhanov, I knew Mark Hunt and you sir are no Mark Hunt.
45’s arguments are all fight finder, no substance…always.
I know it’s probably been brought up a thousand times before… but the “cross-arm scissors hold” still bugs me. I suggest “elbow cross hold” instead.
Seemed like a big crowd.I wonder what the TV ratings where like.
There is hope for MMA in Japan.
45 Huddle is one of numerous sufferers of the Post-PRIDE-buyout/self-destruction-superiority complex.
Hero’s usually does well ratings wise. Why do they run shows on Monday’s?
Penn is a better grappler than Shaolin?? As great as Penn is, I dont think that this is a very educated statement. More like a biased opinion.
What gets me is that the Russian guy was all the talk of the town when he was announced to fight. People were calling this guy a “small Fedor” and a sambo champion. All he did in that fight was take a punch to the face, stand up, get punched again, etc. etc. etc. I just didn’t understand the point of it….if he is a Sambo champion, why didn’t he take the guy down? Let’s be honest here, he did not do ONE thing that entire match…not one thing.
The Gill/Tokoro fight was awesome…and I think that it should be a fight of the year candidate along with Kedzie/Berezikova. The way that fight went was insane…how in the world Gill managed to strike and support himself with the same hand was really cool to watch. He has such long legs that he can do an honest to God body triangle on some guy and have it be almost too loose. He displayed perfect submission defense (avoiding heel hooks), good grappling and balance (body triangle) and smart striking (elbows to ribs and back and good, Gomi-like punches to the head on the ground.) I was thoroughly impressed.
Ralek Gracie is an ugly mofo, but he did ok…against a pro wrestler. Shibata or whatever his name is is NO Funaki. Nagata vs Uno was very boring, as was Tamura K-1 dude. In fact, the Tamura fight was so bad that when Tamura went for a flying armbar in the extra round, there was no pop from the ground.
K-1 needs Akiyama back.
45 Huddle…I do not understand why you are so hard on Shaolin. I have never seen a guy finish his last 5 fights by submission and garner so much hate.
And Sam Scaff, I agree…Penn wins a very good fight against Pulver and now people are talking about him being champion at 155lbs and 170lbs. I think alot of people want Penn to be champion…and they are too naive to recognize that it really clouds their judgement.