« Drama between Miletich & White continues | Home | Mirko out of open-weight tournament? »
HERO’s 8/5 Tokyo review
By Zach Arnold | August 5, 2006
8/5 Tokyo, Ariake Colosseum results | Kakuto.com show review
Anyone who gets a chance to watch some of the matches, feel free to write a comment to this post.
Update: On Sunday, Akira Maeda gave comments to the media about the Sakuraba fight. Maeda stated that bad decisions were made by the referee, judge, and doctor. He suggested that the rules and system of the HERO’s show be modified soon. Maeda said that MMA is a sport, not a ring where fighters are supposed to kill each other. Sakuraba went to the hospital after his fight, and no abnormalities (such as brain swelling) were shown on the CT scan. An MRI will be performed shortly.
Update II: The show drew a 9.3% rating, which is not great at all.
Topics: All Topics, HERO's, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 17 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Sakuraba vs. whatsisname was rather dodgy…
Sak got knocked to the mat with a BIG left hand and was basically out. Then Smirnovas proceeded to make cookie dough out of his head, pushing him out of the ring. Sak had clearly gone bye bye and was counting sheep. I thought it was over, the ref stepped in… Only to decide that he wanted to pull Sak (still snoozing) back into the ring – he should have stopped it. So poor sak wakes up for a second and Smirnovas continues pounding on him like an alarm clock from hell.
Well, once Sak got his senses back it turned into a pretty good fight (thanks of course to the ref for giving him a second chance!), and Smirnovas was gassed like crazy… (watch Saku transition from side to knee on belly with the speed of a narcoleptic snail)…
Tokoro seems to have lost his way a little…
Don Frye looks more and more confused each time he fights… I love the guy but he just doesn’t seem to be enjoying it any more…
Caol Uno was great…
It was an awesome show. Japanese MMA = / = Pride, there’s plenty of life left in it yet!
Matt, watch the fight again.
The referee visibly waits until Sakuraba’s head is completely through the ropes before he steps in to move them back into the ring, as per the rules. It could have been stopped before this happened because Sakuraba was definitely hurt, but the reset was the right call once they moved through the ropes, which they did quickly.
…then the referee stops Smirnovas punching Sakuraba because the fight hasn’t been properly restarted yet, as per the rules. Afterwards, Sakuraba managed to secure a leg and give the impression of being somehow still in the fight, albeit barely.
Smirnovas also repeatedly held the ropes to avoid being taken down and gained an advantage from it, for what that’s worth.
I do think the fight could have easily been stopped and nobody would complain (especially when Sakuraba was just lying on his stomach the second time), but he DID come back to win, so…
Another classic bit of Japanese refereeing. Part of me thinks he wouldn’t of stopped the fight unless Sakuraba was dead.
I’m glad the referee let it go a little longer. In general, I think we see too many early stoppages now. Of course, fighter safety is paramount but something like Saku/Shamrock was ridiculous.
It could easily be said that this fight should have been stopped and no one would have complained it was a bad stoppage. Saku was stunned and took a beating and I personally think it should have been stopped when he was eating blows to the back of his head a couple of minutes later without defending. He was beaten 100% at that point.
He somehow pulled it out though. You have to admire his heart and fighting spirit.
And it’s amazing the way the Japanese crowd pops when Saku transitions to and finishes the armbar.
Keith – a lot of people are angry about how the Sakuraba fight turned out. Many of the fans (afterwards) thought the referee should have stopped the fight. After the controversy with Kameda in his fight that was on national TV a few days ago, the Sakuraba fight was another controversial fight that got press coverage for that reason.
But you are absolutely right. He looked like he could get killed at any minute, and yet he showed amazing guts to comeback and win. They marketed Smirnovas as the “Takada of Lithuania.” They didn’t give him enough credit. 🙂
Well, at least the fight fans that complain about early stoppages can’t complain about this fight. Although I could only imagine the US mainstream press coverage a fight like this would have gotten if it happened in North America, and it happened in the UFC.
Wow. If you show this to a TUF mark he would be like. “OMFG Y si teh YOUFC si n0t usang deez refz?! LOL!” Like one of the members on the “underground” forum said. “Herb Dean would of been a blessing for this match.”
The refereeing was horrible for the Crosley Gracie vs. Melvin Manhoef fight too, but the Sakuraba one would get all of the press attention simply because of Sakuraba. Maeda has a right to be pissed off.
Saku is amazing. He looked totally gone and I think it should of been stopped. But I cant take anything away from Sakuraba who showed amazing fighting spirit to recover and win the fight.
The ref for that fight is bad for the sport.
Just saw the fight…
Saku taking a couple dozen unanswered shots to the face – with no ref stoppage – was definitely brutal, but it’s not the first time it’s happened in MMA (and it certainly won’t be the last).
Every fan seems to think they know the exact second it’s appropriate to stop a fight – like in Shamrock/Ortiz 2 when everyone was saying it was too early, and Ken should have been given some leeway. Now people are complaining because Sakuraba *was* given a chance to come back (justified or not) and actually won.
Since it was Saku’s HERO’S debut, I’m sure the promotion was going to give their new superstar every available chance to make a comeback, and not stop the fight too soon. In this case it looked a little sketchy, but in the end, (a) no one was seriously injured, (b) Saku never tapped out, and (c) the dude won.
Despite what some people are saying, Smirnovas was NOT robbed, and was not cheated. If Saku was hurt as badly as everyone is claiming, then Smirnovas should have had no problem forcing a tap or a submission.
I agree that the ref was only stopping the fight if Sakuraba was dead. However, that was one hell of a comeback!
actually sakuraba is suffering some damage to brain, it is in newspapers. very sad. maybe he cannot show up in october card.
one of 4 left is oyama shungo! surprising! but strange also because he was in old yakuza festival pictures with takada.
also now people all over chat say tbs tv channel is yaocho company. 2 yaocho in one week! kameda fight and this one
Kaku, can you give me a link to the story about Saku’s brain damage? That is very worrying…
I never spotted Shungo in the old yakuza pics…
Mike Sanders, I think you need to watch the fight again… every man and his dog knows the fight should have been stopped. And if Saku has suffered some kind of serious injury from this, it will be even worse…
I think he said in Japanese,after winning the fight, he could only half remember where he was and what he was doing…
Found it…
http://www.sponichi.co.jp/battle/special/2006heros_0805/KFullNormal20060807020.html
“yaocho” means a fix, as in a “fix” being in for a fight (a certain outcome or favoritism for a preferred outcome).
[…] Last week turned out to be bittersweet for Tokyo Broadcasting System, which televised both the Koki Kameda fight (that drew monster ratings) and the HERO’s 8/5 Ariake Colosseum show, featuring the debut of Kazushi Sakuraba in the K-1 MMA ring. Both of those fights had controversy, but there was another fight on the HERO’s show that drew more controversy (the Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Kin Tai Ei contest). On Monday, the HERO’s rule director released a statement stating that the referee stoppage by Kenichi Serizawa was improper and that the referee, sub-referee, and judging crews would be further analyzed. A public apology was issued to the fighters and the fans. […]