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Good cop, bad cop
By Zach Arnold | August 1, 2006
So you want to hang out with Josh Barnett?
Our first stop was Akihabara, the holy-land for “otaku” [“fanatics”]. Although we went there so Josh could be interviewed by a sports newspaper, the first thing Josh spotted was a life-sized figure of the comic Fist of the North Star’s hero, Kenshiro. Josh, a huge Fist of the North Star fan, immediately said, “I want it!” The price, though, was equal to more than US$5,000! However, Josh swore that if he wins the Open Weight Grand Prix, he would buy it and take it home. How much would something like that cost to ship to the US?
It seems that hanging out with Josh is a lot safer proposition than, let’s say, being a foreigner in Brazil sometimes (from Denis Martins):
Hashimoto Kinya and Go Matsuyama, journalists of the famous Gong-Kakutougi magazine, were in the news of the main newspaper here in Brazil, “O Globo”. The newspaper reported that the two jouralists were extorted by police in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro last Friday. The two were walking to a cab and police stopped the cab, asking the men for their passports. They didn’t have their passports on them and the cops threatened to put them in jail until each paid the cop around $200 USD. The men paid the cops so they wouldn’t go to jail. Hashimoto said that he had been to Brazil five times before and never was extorted. He said this incident will now stop him from coming to Brazil again. With only $20 left in their pocket, they had problems getting a cab to go to the airport and pay their last expenses in Brazil.
The commander of the 6th Battalion of Militar Police (responsible for the security in Copacabana) argued that both journalists should go to the police station to file charges because this would be the only way to find out who was guilty for the acts. The journalists were fearful of backlash and didn’t file a police report.
I worked for Gong Kakutougi until 2005, when they stopped asking me to write for them. Even though they never contacted me again (and didn’t contact me after this incident), I am sorry about what happened.
You can read Denis’ newest article, Mundials 2006, for the On The Mat site.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 1 Comment » | Permalink | Trackback |
[…] Title of a thread over at Fight Opinion with a quote from OTM reporter Denis Martins. Denis is of course the OTM Brazil correspondent and one of the most prolifc writers on the MMA scene. We’re really lucky to have him on board with us. […]