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A little shock and nervousness
By Zach Arnold | January 28, 2008
The Godfather, Hiromichi Momose (photo – ZAKZAK)
That’s the reaction in Japan amongst the various fight power brokers in regards to the news of Hiromichi Momose’s death. When the Godfather dies, everyone pays attention.
There’s already a rumor floating that Momose died of heart failure.
Sadaharu Tanigawa expressed shock at the news of Momose’s death, even though he claims he hadn’t met with him in several years. Antonio Inoki gave a brief statement on Momose’s death, expressing condolences.
Gryphon has further comments on Momose’s death. Here is Sherdog’s report.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, PRIDE, Yakuza, Zach Arnold | 2 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Other than looking at it from a historical perspective, this doesn’t really seem to have any long lasting effect on the MMA scene in Japan does it?
I feel like I might be missing something here…
Momose’s death changes a lot of power balances in Japan. but momose had lost his power base in Pride in a major yakuza standoff at Pride’s 2003 MW GP finals at Tokyo Dome when he was faced down by Ishizaka’s stronger yakuza (which marked the breakdown in relations between Inoki and Momose as well) and marked the total takeover of DSE by Ishizaka/Sakakibara
there’s a lot of interest in the police report
weird irony and karma that Momose, like Morishita both died in their bathrooms
LOL at Tanigawa distancing himself
it’ll be interesting to see who shows at the funeral