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« | Home | »

Why wearing a mask during a fight is a bad idea

By Zach Arnold | January 1, 2009

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At least it’s not as bad as when Kazuhiro Nakamura took off his judo jacket during a fight and promptly got KO’d by Wanderlei Silva…

Topics: Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 25 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

25 Responses to “Why wearing a mask during a fight is a bad idea”

  1. Matt says:

    That whole fight was just horrible.
    Bob Sapp is a terrible piece of crud whose head-that-looks-like-a-brain shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near any form of combat.

    I just imagined him dusting off his old Bob “The Beast” Sapp spandex shorts with a sigh, sniffing the crotch and saying “One more time, fellas… one more time…” before wiping a tear from his eye.

    Kinnikuman is an absolute legend among Japanese kids. If they knew he had just been obliterated by a talentless 500 pound gorilla there would be many an unhappy schoolkid around Japan.

    It would be like someone dressing up as Wonder Woman and getting her ankle ripped off by Kiss Nakao.

    BOO! PLURT!

  2. 45 Huddle says:

    The problem with Japan is that they combine the freak show with the actual talent on the came card. Sometimes in the same fight (Cro Cop vs. Choi). It just gives the real fighters pointless victories and makes it harder to determine who is legit…. Hence why we get guys like Cro Cop coming to the UFC and looking more then human. He didn’t have the Choi’s of the world to beat up on anymore.

    Masks in MMA should be illegal, but I doubt that will be stopped in Japan anytime soon. I weird culture.

  3. PizzaChef says:

    Anyone notice that the crowd at Dynamite! is very much a pro-PRIDE/DREAM crowd?

    If you’re lucky to find a copy of the Japanese PPV version you see for Sakuraba vs. Tamura opening video Daisuke Sato used a PRIDE intro veruses screen. Except in the first screen he replaces PRIDE with “mixed martial arts” but still has the PRIDE lightning bolt logo, and at the actual vs. screen they replaced PRIDE with UWF.

    Anyways when that showed up the crowd fucking MARKED OUT.

    Also, I think 45 Huddle wants someone to murder Aoki now:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqXwfEaK89A&fmt=18

  4. Chuck says:

    Well, that was fun seeing Sapp getting tooled on the ground from a side mount and the north-south position. Clearly Kinniku Mantaro can grapple a little, but man he can’t strike worth for SHIT! That was a pretty bad fight overall. And the way the fight went on, I think Sapp would have won in similar manner even if his opponent didn’t wear a mask. At least Sapp still has a little punching power left.

    Maybe Kinniku Mantaro should stick to catch wrestling?

  5. Ultimo Santa says:

    “It just gives the real fighters pointless victories and makes it harder to determine who is legit…. Hence why we get guys like Cro Cop coming to the UFC and looking more then human. He didn’t have the Choi’s of the world to beat up on anymore.”

    I agree 100%, 45 Huddle.

    In the ultra-competitive world of the UFC, CroCop no longer had the luxury of fighting silly joke opponents like Nogueira, Fedor, Wanderlei Silva and Josh Barnett – all of whom were in their prime – and getting a free ride. So that’s probably the reason for his lacklustre performances.

    Also, it’s probably not worth mentioning that after nearly 60 K-1 and MMA fights over the last 12 years, it’s probably not possible that someone in their mid-30’s might have accumulated an injury or two, and is winding down his career.

    And furthermore, it’s probably also not worth mentioning that other fighters from the silly joke promotions in Japan, such as Anderson Silva and Quentin Jackson, are being marketed as some of the top draws in the UFC, while other heavyweights, like Fedor and Barnett, have not yet had the chance to face off against “The best in the world”, like top-ranked Frank Mir, and octagon veteran Brock Lesnar.

    Finally, I propose something new for 2009: Huddle45 can change his name to 24/7 Zuffa.

    It has a nice ring to it.

  6. PizzaChef says:

    How about Zuffa 24/7 or Zuffa Classics on Demand?

  7. kobashi says:

    PizzaChef

    any chance you got a link to the sakuraba vs Tamura build up video. I remember the build up video for Tamura vs Funaki was really good as it showed all the history the guys had with the UWF.

  8. 45 Huddle says:

    Aoki is more of a UFC Fanboy then I am. Look into it, it’s true.

    Mirko lost to Nogueira. Lost to Fedor. Lost to Mark Hunt. Beat Light Heavyweight Wanderlei Silva. Only Barnett is an impressive HEAVYWEIGHT win on his resume from the list you have given. You take away all the easy fights he was given, and it would have been much easier to see him as a nearly .500 fighter against better guys…. Which is what he is.

    This arguement about these Pride fighters wearing down is interesting. Many of them are not very old. Some of them don’t have 30+ fights like Nogueira or Cro Cop. Guys like Shogun & Filho have come over to the states and looked equally as bad. Must be something in the water over there in Japan…. Or better yet, something in the needles.

    As for Anderson Silva…. If he is being considered a “Pride Guy”, then Wanderlei Silva would have to be considered a UFC Guy to begin with since that is where he fought before Pride (and not successfully I might add).

    The Wanderlei Silva of Pride compared to Silva of the UFC (first run)…. Is the same as Rampage…. In that both showed massive amounts of improvement while transitioning from one organization to the next. It is almost likely completely different fighters.

    And you never hear people complaining about Dan Henderson…. He is 1-2 in the UFC since coming back… He was a Pride fighter…. Two time champion actually…. The difference is that he actually put on solid fights.

  9. IceMuncher says:

    “In the ultra-competitive world of the UFC, CroCop no longer had the luxury of fighting silly joke opponents like Nogueira, Fedor, Wanderlei Silva and Josh Barnett”

    Your points lose their sting when all the tough match-ups you listed are years old at this point. Fedor hasn’t fought a significant fight in Japan since 2005; Sylvia and Arlovski are both Affliction match-ups. Crocop had one fight with Overeem, and two fights with weak fighters like Mizuno and Choi. The only consistently competitive fights have been in Dream’s LW division, which make the rest of the MMA in Japan look abysmal by comparison.

    Compare that to the “ultra competitive” world of Zuffa, which this year alone has put together no less than 6 fights between #1 and #2 fighters in a division, and has had more fights between top 10 fighters than Japan has had in about the last 3-4 years combined.

  10. PizzaChef says:

    Kobashi:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoLvpqXsLb8&fmt=18

    This person also has Kawajiri vs. Takeda, Aoki vs. Alvarez, and the opening show videos and ending credits.

  11. kobashi says:

    thanks man!

    great VTR. Love the way they show that whole UWFI generation all together.

    I noticed at the end how they had both fighters representing UWFI under there names.

  12. 45 Huddle says:

    The DREAM Lightweight Division is very good. Sengoku’s isn’t half bad either. Outside of that, there isn’t much in Japan right now except for random decent fighters who borderline the Top 10 but are nearly impossible to rank because we don’t see them fighting top competition on a consistent basis.

    Even in DREAM’s Lightweight Division, I’m not sure how many good fights there are in 2009. Alvarez is going to Bellator for a while. There is only so many ways to match-up Hansen, Aoki, & JZ. Who knows if Hansen’s medical issues will keep him out for long. And there really isn’t any young great talent coming through the grapevine. Perhaps is Sengoku collapses and they get Gomi, Kitaoka, & Sergey.

    But is DREAM even guaranteed to get all of those guys. Satoshi Ishii is thinking about coming over to the UFC. Guys like Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Yoshiro Maeda, and others…. Who want to really test themselves, are finding their way over to Zuffa.

    2008 was a great year for Lightweights in DREAM. I just don’t see it sustaining for a long period of time. And the rest of the divisions are either non-existant or a mess.

  13. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    I’ve been playing around with some alternative (i.e. quantitative) fighter rankings, and it’s shocking how many guys in Sengoku show up in the upper echelons of the ranking (4 in the all-weight top 100).

    Also surprising (to me): four women in the top 100.

    It’s not saying that they would beat guys, but against the opposition that they are fighting (aka, pound for pound), they’re very well ranked.

    Also somewhat surprising, based on my numbers, Anderson Silva is a long way from the top (19th).

    1. Fedor (2639.7)
    2. Nog (2519.0)
    3. GSP (2503.7)
    4. Sean Sherk (2501.7)
    5. Miguel Torres (2476.0)
    6. Matt Hughes (2468.4)
    7. Takanori Gomi (2413.9)
    8. Rashad Evans (2402.9)
    9. Josh Barnett (2384.1)
    10. Vitor Ribeiro (2373.4) <– I think he’s retired
    11. Diego Sanchez (2358.3)

  14. skwirrl says:

    Shaolin isn’t retired – I’m pretty sure I read an interview with him not long ago where he wants to get back to competing.

    Also Mirko beat Vovchanchyn and Alex E. Those, (especially at the time), are top quality wins.

    I also like how ZUFFA 24/7 AGAIN refered to Shogun as a UFC failure when he fought Griffen with a torn ACL. And how he doesn’t mention that Henderson lost to Rampage (PRIDE) and Silva (PRIDE) and beat Palahares.

  15. rainrider says:

    Mask may help enhance your performance because Satoru Sayama had been undefeated until he removed “tiger mask” from his head.

    In 80’s, New Japan Pro-Wrestling had a plan to make Sakuguchi wear “Kinniku-man”(aka Muscleman, ultimate muscle) mask when The Cobra(George Takano)’s popularity was suggesting further advent of masked heroes. Maybe it was just that Sakaguchi himself was joking about his new gimmick character since such thing has never been mentioned in Inoki’s biography or any history books. (BTW, Sakuguchi’s son happened to be in the NYE event’s card)

    The idea of wearing mask in MMA started sounding legit to me when Aoki became one of the main eventers for big Japanese shows. If you don’t know what I mean, you’re a nice guy.

  16. skwirrl says:

    Since I can’t comment in the thread above…. That groundNPound survey is horrible. Doesn’t have any of the best subs of the year, doesn’t have Alverez vs Hansen available for FotY. Ridiculous

  17. 45 Huddle says:

    I have a policy to ignore any “rumored” injuries or flu’s for Brazilian fighters. It seems like after every loss, we get an excuse from them. It’s been going on for YEARS (literally).

    The Vovchanchin win was not Top Notch. Igor wasn’t even a Top 10 at the time of the fight.

  18. Paul Horton says:

    Seriously! Is there NO WHERE safe from UFC trolls!!!!! Please put an end to this. Our sport is being killed by Zuffa zombies…

    BTW: 45 Huddle sounds EXACTLY like UG troll “orcus” (now known as BJ > DORKUS because of a lost sn bet)

  19. 45 Huddle says:

    I’m not trolling. I have always stated my views very clearly on this website. My goal is to see only one major organization with a fighter’s union to give a proper checks and balances system. If that comes across as Zuffa nuthugging, then so be it. But they seem to do things best. They stay in business. They don’t put on excessive freak show fights. They are far from perfect (ie, Fitch & Okami), but they do so many things right, they don’t deserve the hate they get.

    And I’m not Orcus. I don’t post on the UG (did in the past, but gave it up). Still go there to read posts.

  20. Steve4192 says:

    “Mirko beat Vovchanchyn and Alex E. Those, (especially at the time), are top quality wins.”

    Not really.

    Igor was pretty much washed up by the time Mirko blasted him. He was 1-3 in his last four Pride fights (with the lone win coming versus Valentijn Overeem) prior to Cro Cop making in 1-4 in his last five. The Igor that Cro Cop decapitated was a shell of his former self.

    Aleks was a 3-0 MMA neophyte who had yet to record a significant win in his career. That’s like claiming Dan Severn’s win over Forrest Griffin in Forrest’s MMA debut is a top quality win.

  21. Ivan Trembow says:

    45 Huddle— You’re right. Shogun must have had those two reconstructive knee surgeries just for his own amusement.

  22. Ultimo Santa says:

    it seems like Zuffa 24/7 keeps trying to belabor the point that Pride had a stable of terrible fighters that can’t compete with greatness that UFC has to offer.

    What he fails to take into account is that certain fighters have endured several injuries and KOs that have increased their ‘fighting age’ beyond their biological years.

    This is *NOT* a magical Pride/Japan phenomenon, as Zuffa would like us to believe.

    How do you explain Hughes, Ortiz, Liddell and now Couture being dominated by younger opponents?

    Is it because they’re steroid-pumped losers who had no real competition? Or is it simply the aging process catching up with them, and the accumulation of injury?

    This is true for a lot of fighters, both from PRIDE and the UFC.

    Ivan Trembow is right – the Shogun example is absolutely absurd, and doesn`t prove a point or solidify Zuffa`s argument. Knee surgeries are not the result of anything Japan-related, and to speculate that Shogun was on steroids is yet another very long reach.

  23. 45 Huddle says:

    Pride & UFC fighters were equal. I said it at the time. Yet people still give that promotion rosed colored glasses and their fighters the benefit of the doubt over a year after the promotion.

  24. Steve4192 says:

    The Shogun example is tripe from both sides of the argument.

    Yes, Shogun entered the fight with a legitimate injury (knee) that required surgery immediately afterward. No, it didn’t change the outcome because Griffin also entered the fight with a legitimate injury (shoulder) that also required surgery immediately after the fight.

    Neither guy had an advantage because both fighters entered the cage with serious injuries.
    Both guys were injured.

  25. ilostmydog says:

    Once again, the guys who disagree with 45 resort to namecalling. How completely unsurprising.

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