Bruce Lee Bullshido

I made this post on the Sherdog forums on a discussion about Bruce Lee:

So what? Are you saying that because Bruce Lee “inspired” more people to do martial arts, he can rightfully be called the Grandfather of MMA?

The sad things is, the evidence points to Bruce Lee inspiring people with his MOVIES and not his actual martial arts or rantings about martial arts.

Did anyone actually listen to his JKD musings? Apparently not, because when UFC 1 came along seems everyone was doing single style fighting and nobody was cross training.

In effect, he netted the same influence with his JKD philosophy as Dempsey did with his Tough Crosstraining Manual: NADA.

Everyone still thought that martial arts was about standup fighting with fancy kicks and going “Wataa!” Thanks no doubt to Bruce Lee’s movies that glorified this kind of fighting. And this is pretty much what everybody who got into martial arts because of Bruce Lee was thinking. I read the article on the frontpage a few days ago about Vera’s wife. She described herself as a “Bruce Lee-crazed tomboy begging her parents to enroll her into taekwondo” (or something to that effect.

How many people got inspired by Bruce Lee and enrolled into Brazilian Jiujitsu or Greco Roman Wrestling or Sambo? Probably none. They all went to the arts we like to sneer at with disdain as McDojo arts (Karate, Taekwondo, and various forms of Kungfu).

One dimensional as they were, the Gracies are the ones who opened up the gates to what MMA is like today, by proving in the actual spectacle of combat that standup would get demolished by grappling. That is what ultimately led to people crosstraining en masse to succeed in MMA.

It was putting together the different styles in ACTUAL COMBAT that people were able to see what worked, what didn’t, and what needed to be thrown away and to find out what to keep. Not all the theorizing and bullshido Bruce Lee did that never proved anything — again everyone still went back to TMAs and standup in the wake of Bruce Lee’s heyday. It wasn’t Bruce Lee’s JKD who got Mo Smith learning the ground game in order to take out Coleman and eventually become UFC HW Champ, it was actually fighting in real combat, with real stakes, that got him to realize the importance of being a true Mixed Martial Artist.

Bruce Lee is old news. He gets credit for increasing the public awareness and interest in martial arts in a way nobody else ever managed, but his actual success — or lack thereof — in actual practical martial arts will never go away no matter how much the diehard Bruce Nuthuggers wish for it. Theoretics only goes so far, you can’t swim unless you get into the water and get wet. You can’t really do martial arts unless you actually fight.

This is something I had always believed in. Bruce Lee is the Grandfather of the Martial Arts Movie, and perhaps the Grandfather of Bullshido, but it would be a stretch to really call him the Grandfather of MMA.

He had the right idea going — getting out of the style and learning what works — but his lack of actual practical combat experience and more importantly his emphasis on his Kung Fu Movies and his McDojo approach were what ultimately led to people doing nothing but using their interest in him to get into the McDojo TMAs that are scorned by real mixed martial artists and even regular martial artists.

We all know the wonderful site Bullshido.com and it is quite arguable that Bruce Lee is the man most responsible for the rise of McDojo Martial Arts as we know it today, which we all love to call Bullshido. Bruce Lee was famous for going around America doing martial arts demonstrations like his one inch punch, and getting people to believe in his style of fighting, not unlike the various demonstrations Bullshido McDojos use to gather students.

Maybe if Bruce Lee put his money where his mouth was, he’d have a real airtight legacy. Joe Lewis, a world karate champion, always lamented that Bruce Lee never sparred with him and often talked about how Bruce wasn’t the best ever because he never really competed. I have to wholeheartedly agree.

As it is, while there will always be people who will consider him the best martial artist the world has ever known, there will also be a lot of us who see him as nothing more than a glorified movie actor.

Roger Huerta, Hiding Arrogance

Roger Huerta is one of those new UFC sensations that everyone is talking about. The buzz around him is phenomenal, people say he is the future of the lightweight division, and Zuffa is hellbent on marketing him as much as it takes to build him up as their future posterboy, in the USA and in Mexico.
Most people will agree that Huerta is a very humble man. They will say that he is all class and that he is one of the nicest guys on the planet. That is all well and good.

But I must be one of the few oddballs here, but I find that Huerta gives off an arrogant vibe. I don’t think he’s humble at all, it just seems like that from the verbiage of his interviews but if you look at him, his manner, and the way he talks about his fights I feel he’s got a too-good opinion of himself (bordering on narcissistic) and that he is actually quite arrogant.

Just because people don’t talk shit about other fighters doesn’t mean they are humble or not arrogant. Again one only needs to look at his latest MySpace blog. He is actually surprisingly arrogant here even though he sounds “all classy” and that stuff.

For starters he is calling out BJ Penn, which by itself is already intrinsically arrogant, no matter how nice the words he uses to say it. Second, he details his jam-packed training schedule and shrugs it off as if to say it’s just a piece of cake. He goes so far as to say other people would find it crazy, but to him it’s easy. Get my drift? He chooses his words well and he is a real talker, and many people who don’t read between the lines equate that to “class” and “humility” but if you look at it deeper, Huerta is a rather arrogant person. ANd of course the big kicker. “I honestly believe that I was put on this Earth for a bigger reason.” Oh wow. Messianic complex there man.

That said I don’t dislike him for being arrogant. I don’t get why people think that you should hate arrogant guys, and like humble guys. I like a lot of arrogant fighters like Aoki and I hate a lot of humble ones like Forrest Griffin.

However, I do dislike Huerta for all the hype that’s built around him (mostly by the UFC; not Huerta’s fault) and how he isn’t proven yet in the cage.
Here’s to Huerta and Florian duking it out, and hopefully we see El Matador prove he is worth his salt, or perhaps the Huerta Hype Train will be permanently derailed. Either way it sounds like a good fight.

UFC 84 – The Best Event of the Year

Today’s UFC was probably the best MMA event of the year. A lot happened and we saw a lot of good things. Here are the highlights of today’s event:

• Rogan calls Mandy Moore a groupie. Goldberg agrees. Locker Room Groupie!
• Machida takes referee Yves Lavigne down — without even touching him.
• Mario Yamasaki does a Mazagatti. He was about to stop the fight but got frozen in his tracks by BJ’s killing intent.  Just like Steve did last UFC with Jason MacDonald and Joe Doerksen.

Here again is an image of Lyoto taking Yves down without even touching him:

Well, that’s the essence of UFC 84. Now, let’s get on with the lesser things, the fights:

Goran Reljik does a number on Gouveia! In what was one of the more exciting fights in a night packed with exciting fights, Goran Reljic stands more or less evenly with Gouveia, but gets rocked, taken down and pounded against the fence. He then escapes, takes Gouveia down with a punch, and then finishes him from the top. What an amazing reversal! He also shows that he is indeed the protege of Mirko Crocop, he destroyed Wilson’s right arm with those unbelievable left leg roundhouses. His only problem is that he mentioned Randy Couture in front of millions, meaning Dana White will want to ship him out as soon as possible.

Soukoudjou vs. Nakamura – well I am happy Kaz lost, I hope Dana White fires him beacuse I really don’t want to see him again. With the long history of layoffs the UFC is having today, I would not be surprised to hear him let go within the week. Sokoudjou uses extreme athleticism again to pepper Nakamura with kicks, Nakamura shows a habit of catching the leg later on with his hand, so Sokoudjou takes advantage and kicks, as Nakamura catches the leg Sokou uses the same extreme balance he showed against Arona to launch a super man punch AFTER the kick, and rocks Nakamura flush until he falls down on his right knee, injuring it ala Crocop vs. Gonzaga, and gets counted out for the TKO.

Yoshida puts up a great performance. His unwitting oppponent clinches him unexpectedly (though Yoshida says it was “just as planned” with his best Yagami Light impression) and ends up doing a perfect judo hip toss and right into an anaconda choke. The poor guy passes out without tapping and Herb Dean calls the fight.

Toquinho vs. Salaverry – this was probably the most lopsided fight of the evening and there should really have been no question that Salaverry would get his ass handed to him. Toquinho shows absolutely perfect jiujitsu. He slips a leg kick from Ivan and ducks into a beautiful takedown. Once down he lands in sidecontrol, perfectly and easily passes to mount, transitions to the rear, plays with a rear naked choke attempt for a minute and as Ivan tries to escape he transitions perfectly into the most beautiful rear armbar I have ever seen in my life. Salaverry, totally outclassed.

Carwin vs. Wellisch – well Wellisch is a decent fighter but this had to be KO of the night, a scant 40 seconds in after trading in a boxing match Carwin steps in with a one two and catches Carwin solidly with the right cross, sending Wellisch’s mouthpiece flying straight out of his mouth and stopping the fight there and then. Wellisch only got flash KO’d and he was alright seconds after dropping but the referee wants no more of that because Carwin could have brutalized him with ground and pound after he dropped. Good KO for Carwin.

Thiago Silva and Mendes — Mendes showed a good showing but Thiago truly has the heart of a champion. Mendes’ standup was better and he totally rocked Thiago with a guarded high kick that blasted through Thiago’s guard and into the back of his head, sending Thiago down to the canvas. Mendes tries to finish but Thiago keeps his cool and hangs on, managing to get out of the situation. After another standup Thiago again gets rocked and falls down, Mendes is a bit hesitant but tries to finish again, but fails to do so and they stand up again. Unfortunately for Mendes he gets in too close after being too eager, Thiago clinches and takes him down, Thiago then gets mount and pounds Mendes out. Excellent reversal and shows a bit of a lack of heart in Mendes who taps to the strikes. Thiago continues his wrecking ball act through the LHW division, is Machida next for him?

Wanderlei and Jardine – well I called it before, Wandy may have had trouble with Chuck but Jardine should be a cakewalk. Styles make fights — Wandy’s brawling fed right into Chuck’s countering style and longer reach advantage, but against Jardine’s unorthodox stance and style me and a lot of other fans saw Wandy just walking in and doing damage to Jardine on the inside. And guess what? He did and screwed Jardine even faster than Carwin did Wellisch. Wandy is battle-worn but he always brings it and Jardine thought way too highly of himself. It’s great to see him get knocked a peg down he is someone who thought too highly of himself after beating Forrest and Chuck, but truth is he isn’t good enough to be someone in this crowded LHW division just yet.

Wanderlei demolishes Keith Jardine

Machida vs. Tito — perhaps my most anticipated fight of the night, I wanted to see Machida totally embarass Tito. And he almost did, except for a slip at the end of the fight. This was a great fight, and Machida showed us a lot: in Round 1 he frustrates a takedown attempt by Tito, which did not even come close. He then punishes Tito in typical Machida fashion with his trademark strikes: right low kick, left cross, right jab, and totally shuts down all of Tito’s offense. He then goes for a punctuation mark at the end of the round and clinches Tito for an upperbody judo takedown! Tito got his ass handed to him.

Machida then comes into the 2nd round doing much of the same, stops Tito’s 2nd takedown attempt and shows a few new moves like a fake left kick which he turns into a scissor kick with his right. He also uses the same Brazilian Kick that Glaube Feitosa has on Tito, and while avoiding Tito with a left sidestep around the ring he forces referee Yves Lavigne down to the Matt with the force of his evasion!!!! That was freaking great.

Machida uses a flying scissor kick on Tito

In the third however Tito manages to clinch well and does some Randy Couture dirty boxing on Lyoto, which seems to take some stamina out of Lyoto. After more of the same, Lyoto catches Tito with a powerful knee to the midsection that drops Tito. Lyoto jumps in seeing the finish and gives it all into a pounding in Tito’s guard, but Tito survives and slips his legs up in an arm triangle over Machida! Seems Machida blew his wad a bit and let his guard down. As Machida rolls he manages to pull his arm out so that the elbow is at Tito’s groin, keeping him safe from the triangle attempt. He rolls out and Tito transitions to an armbar, but Machida’s arm is too low to be in any danger. Machida gets out easily but it puts a smudge no his otherwise perfect performance. Machida went for more chances than he usually does in R3 and it was not surprising that he would get caught in an attempt, despite being in little danger.

Liver shot with a knee drops Tito

End result is still a 30-27 decision for Machida and Tito is thoroughly embarassed, being completely unable to use his style at all. Machida knows though that it was a tough match and he did not walk all over Tito, the two show big respect for each other after the fight. War Machida!

Finally Sherk vs. BJ, I was expecting a totally different fight, but for some reason Sherk came in with arguably the worst gameplan he could have had. He apparently wanted to stand with BJ a bit and outstrike him before going for the takedowns. Presumably to soften up BJ’s legendary takedown defense.

Sherk attempts one takedown at the start of R1, which he wasn’t anywhere close to getting, BJ punishes him with a few punches and a knee and they get to what most of the 15 minutes of the fight will be: a kick boxing match. Sherk lands a few good leg kicks and his hands look good as they typically do, with fast punches and hooks. He lands a few however they seem to have no effect whatsoever on BJ, as Sherk’s standup is again suspect of being devoid of any power. BJ on the other hand tags Sherk over and over with his left jab and one two combos, and the round ends with Sherk’s face cut under the eye.

Round 2 is more of the same, with BJ consistently outpunching Sherk. Sherk gets in some good hooks and swings but once again BJ totally ignores them as if they were fly swatter slaps, and continues to do a number on Sherk’s face. This continues on to the third round, and Sherk does get one good flurry where BJ almost seems like he is rocked a bit, but BJ comes right back with punches and knees and proves that Sherk’s standup, while good-looking, is totally ineffective.

Round 3 ends with BJ pressuring Sherk back with his punch combos, BJ uses the same punch he used on Kaoru Uno almost a decade ago and forces Sherk back against the fence. As he does BJ senses an opportunity and runs in with a high knee which Sherk ducks right into after reeling from the fence. Sherk is blasted down and BJ follows up with two quick uppercuts to Sherk’s jaw, knocking him out. Mario Yamasaki moves in to stop the fight but as he does BJ continues to pound out Sherk’s face, and Yamasaki is seemingly stopped by BJ’s killing intensity. The bell rings and Yamasaki breaks them up. BJ thinks he’s won but Yamasaki hesitates again, BJ callst he fight “I win!” and Sherk looks on from the ground, unable to get up. BJ licks his gloves *again* and runs to Sherk’s corner, gets some blood from Sherk’s gloves and licks his hand again. BJ now officially has assimilated Sean Sherk’s strength, making him a double stronger fighter. If only he had managed to bloody Machida up he would have had Samurai Blood in him, too, but he missed his opportunity.

Yamasaki is won over by BJ’s bravado and calls the fight over. Sherk confesses he didn’t even hear the bell, he was clearly out and the fight should have ended sooner had Mario made the proper call earlier. BJ becomes undisputed UFC LW champion and shows that he is a few levels above Sherk in ability. Back to the drawing board for Sherk, and Rogan calls out GSP for BJ. Expect to see BJ move up to Welterweight soon.

In retrospect Sherk probably wishes he went for more takedowns, theoretically that would have tired BJ out sooner and that was Sherk’s plan coming into this fight. Even if BJ stuffed all of Sherk’s takedowns, he would have expended more energy than just standing up and boxing. It’s still highly unlikely that Sherk would have won with that gameplan, but I think it was a far better idea than standing with BJ. BJ has the best hands in the UFC LW division, the only people in the world who can compare are Takanori Gomi and possibly Nick Diaz. Sherk signed his death warrant by choosing to strike with BJ. It goes to show: if your only gameplan to win a fight is by out-cardio-ing your opponent, you don’t have much of a chance. BJ is way above Sherk and this fight proved it.

***

I did not get to see Clementi or Kim fight but I will check their fights later on.

Even without those fights though that was easily the best event of the year so far. We had some great events from Dream and Sengoku and a good few UFCs too but this easily tops all of them. This has been a great year for MMA and we still have the Affliction Banned card to look forward to in two months time. It’s a great time to be a fan and I hope we get to see many more great fights to come!

Dream Is Here, for the sake of Pride

The first thing I notice as I watch the event is growing sense that this is it. That “missing feeling” that I did not get from watching UFCs for an entire year. “This” was what I fell in love with as a Mixed Martial Arts fan. The UFC was always a great org but it didn’t have the kind of air and atmosphere that Pride shows always had. Dream has it. Like Yarrenoka before it, Dream had the air of an epic martial arts tournament that was missing from the boxing-like production values of the UFC. And so here we see the spectacle of Dream.

 Now that is how to make a promo poster!

I once again realized just how quiet the Japanese crowd was, and yet also appreciative. The crowd was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, yet would burst in a appreciative applause anytime a fighter would go into a good flurry, a ground pass/technique or a good escape. It wasn’t just for the hometown favorites though; in fact the applause for the entrance of Joachim Hansen was a lot louder than the applause for the home grown fighter, Koutetsu Boku. Yet the crowd showered both equally well with applause when Hansen took him down and performed a series of submission attempts, and also applauded Boku when he did his escapes and got the fight back to the feet.

This was all great, I loved it, I let it sink in, then I went to the meat of the fights. I will relive this later on once I get my hands on a more complete version of Dream’s inaugural event, as I had just watched the Japanese free-to-air version that edited out most of the fighter entrances and indeed many of the fights themselves. But I will tackle that in a later entry, for now let us look at the fights.

Hansen vs. Boku - it was quite clear form the onset that Joachim Hansen had this fight in the bag. His technique, power and skill was clearly above Boku’s by a few levels, and he dominated the entire fight form start to finish. Boku did get in a few punches but Hellboy just shrugged them all off and even taunted Boku many times to hit him harder, not even bothering to raise his gloves to defend in some cases. Other than those punches, Hansen took Koutetsu down, transitioned from a smooth series of sub attempts from RNC to armbar (from rear body triangle!) to traingle choke, Boku defended masterfully and the fight seemed to take a strange turn after that point — this being where Hansen stands up, seemignly a bit groggy and tired from his sub attempts, and Boku jabs Hansen in the face several times. Hansen shrugs them all off, taunts Boku a bit, then proceeds to counter punch him strongly.

It is unclear to me whether Hansen really was gassed after those sub attmepts, or whether he was just doing some kind of macho man display. His movements certainly seemed different afterwards, and though he recovers some snap and still manages to land many punches that flor Boku, he was moving more awkwardly than he was prior to the sub attempts. Regardless, it was still clear domination for him and no surprise that the fight went his way to a unanimous decision.

Minowa vs. Lee – it seems Dream had to get a really late, last second fight for Minowa. As usual, Minowa gets into another David vs. Goliath freakshow match, but unlike Zulu, Lee looks like he really has no business being in the ring. Minowa tries his rolling knee takedown twice, the same move he used against Giant Silva, but it seems Lee is too smart to fall for that. Lee tries a punch and Minowa scoops down for a shoot, taking Lee down into halfguard. While Lee defends MInowa’s punches, Minowa shifts his stance and ends up in a perfect position to do a kneebar, similar to the technique Ken Shamrock used on Bas Ruten back in Pancrase. Lee taps out after a few seconds of his knee being hyper-extended.

Maha Sakurai vs. Monma – pretty impressive match, Monma has some real skills however Sakurai’s low kicks are back with a vengeance and he lands many solid ones on Monma’s lead left leg. Sakurai gets a plum on Monma and knees him a few times (blocked by an arm), after which Sakurai elects to trip from the plum and alnd on top. Sakurai stays here only briefly, after seeing Monma’s tight guard Macha probably realizes he isn’t going to get anywhere with this approach, and stands back up. He lands a good punch that drops Monma, but he motions for him to come back up; he wants no part of the ground and why not, he is doing so well in the standup, and that has always been his strength. A few more exchanges later Monma moves in for a punch combo but Sakurai catches him with a powerful left hook counter connecting to the back of his ear, putting him down. He pounces on him instantly and rains in punishing straights from the guard, ending in a delayed referee stoppage. Ouch.

Black Mamba vs. Kawajiri – this was a big surprise. Many people held Kawajiri to be one of the favorites in the tournament, a powerful wrestler who used his skills to inflict brutal ground and pound on his opponents. Mamba on the other hand is well-known for a great standup but a weak ground game. In this fight however, Gil truly brought the fight to Kawajiri. In a performance similar to the one Maurice Smith gave against Mark Coleman that earned him the unanimous decision and the UFC HW Belt, the Mamba upped his game with an impressive sprawl and an even more impressive, tight and deadly guard. For whilst Kawajiri did manage to nullify the Mamba’s standup for most of the fight and take the Canadian Indian fighter down multiple times, Kawajiri never managed to take advantage of his top position, whether in the guard or the multiple times that he passed to side mount and north south, and to back mount. Instead of going for ground and pound, he had to settle for sporadic submission attempts like a side choke and rear naked choke. All of which the Mamba deftly evaded.

In fact, Kultar totally nullified any offense Kawajiri had, and was even doing more damage from the bottom position with numerous small punches and even a well-timed knee to Kawajiri’s head while he was in sidemount. By the end of the fight Kultar Gill looked as fresh as when he started, whereas Kawajiri was noticeably tired, bloodied up and otherwise exhausted. So it came to me as a huge surprise when Dream’s judges gave the unanimous decision to Kawajiri. Judging from the look on his face, The Crusher knew that he didn’t won that fight, and even bowed deeply to his opponent and gave an apologetic consolation to the opposing corner. Whilst it was true that Kawajiri did manage to control the entire fight, Gill did more damage and nullfied every offensive move Kawajiri had to offer. In a way, he controlled the fight as well, except from the bottom position.

Kawajiri winces in pain from a knee strike from the bottom delivered by the Mamba

I can’t agree with the judge scoring, however the rules criteria do have aggression and ring control as primary criteria, so you could judge the fight in that manner. However, the rules also give weight to damage and Gill had the nod there. But in retrospect the judges would have given that to Kawajiri, as they have done in the past in the Melendez vs. Ishida fight under Yarrenoka (similar to this one, although Ishida too less damage than Kawajiri and was not as exhausted) or the Minowa Baroni fight (pretty similar to this one).

All in all we can say that the LW division needs to watch out, the Black Mamba is now a legitimate top contender and will terrorize this division from now onwards.

Alvarez vs. Dida – I have to give it to Alvarez, he really brought it that night! This was thought by many to be the hardest fight to call that night, as it was questionable how the two would match up to each other. Yet as it would turn out, Alvarez gave us an incredibly dominating peformance, starting with an early punch that may have ruined Andre’s rhythm the entire fight, and afterwards showing some extremely good boxing as opposed to the powerful wide swinging (unfortunately extremely telegraphed) from Dida. This allowed him to drop Dida, and once he was on top he deftly passed guard, put in some very brutal punches on the ground, and proceeded to get to mount to sidemount and back almost at will. Referee stopped it a little too late after Dida was blooded to a pulp.

Alaverez then puts a cherry on top of his performance by performing a massive back flip from the top ring post, much to the delight of fans everywhere. People, a new LW star is born in Japan.

Jung vs. Ishida – it is a shame that this was only a highlight, for this was one of my most anticipated matches of the night. I can’t tell much from the highlight but it seems the fight went the typical Ishida route — with Ishida getting top control and Jung throwing numerous armbar attempts. It is sad that Jung was not able to get his “Jungbar” as the fight went to the judges for a unanimous decision for Ishida.

I have not seen the entire fight but I would wager that it went similarly to the Gil Kawajiri fight, with Ishida getting top control for the most part, and Jung offering some good offense from the bottom (sub wise, not really damage wise), and some flurries where Jung got the better standing up. I can’t say for sure who I’d give the fight to, not having seen it, but it looked a lot closer than the Kawajiri vs. Mamba fight judging from how the fighters looked at the end.

Miyata vs. Buscape – again another highlight; Buscape was the favored fighter here and he came off with a nice RNC near 8 minutes into the first round. Miyata looked like he put up a good fight but unfortunately we did not get to see the entire fight.

Nagata vs. Oumakhanov – We saw some impressive weaving from the bottom on Oumakhanov’s part but we don’t really know what happened. Oumanakhov seems to have lost by decision, again to the Japanese fighter.

I can’t seem to condone this coming trend of favoritism by the judges to the hometown fighters but without having seen the actual fights I can’t tell who won. With Mamba and Kawajiri I will agree the judging was consistent with how it was in Pride and Yarrenoka, so I can understand giving the nod to Kawajiri but the other two fights I can only hope they rendered the right decision.

Aoki vs. JZ – the mian event of the show was unfortunately a huge disappointment as it ends with a no-contest after an illegal blow from JZ using an elbow to the back of Aoki’s neck and head. It started off tentatively with Aoki carefully staying out of JZ’s reach as JZ tries to tee off. Aoki actually got in a good mid kick each time JZ tried to come in, though his kick didn’t have much damage and JZ barely flinched each time. AOki tries several flying guard attempts but falls to his back each time, with JZ tentatively trying to kick but not willing to commit to go tot he ground. The referee breaks and restarts them standing each time, until JZ tries for a huge high kick which Aoki evades. After JZ lands his feet back down, Aoki realizes his window of opportunity and shoots in for a fast single on JZ’s leg. This backs JZ into the corner, and as Aoki tries to get hte single, JZ defends with 4 elbow strikes to Aoki’s back, the last two of which hits the back of Aoki’s neck and head — a clear foul under Dream rules.

The doctor stops the bout as Aoki is unable to continue, but at the very least Dream rules it a NC instead of a DQ for JZ, for which I am grateful… hey give the Brazilians a break too! Hoepfully we get to see the rematch at Dream 2, in time for the LW GP to continue. I was also surprised at how docile Aoki was from the stoppage, normally Aoki can act like a real asshole. JZ as usual was all class and even apologizes to the audience and bows down before Aoki for forgiveness. All in all, a disappointment but at least we will surely see a rematch.

Mirko vs. Tatsuya - now we head to the “real” main event, which was really not even a question. In an extremely dominating performance against an obviously outmatched opponent, Mirko delivers some punishing low kicks and a vicious knee from the thai clinch that destroys every ounce of fight left in his opponent. Mirko then proceeds to systematically corner and demolish him with some spot-on punches to drop him and deliver a couple of devestating straights to a turled up Mizuno. The ref stops it before any more serious damage is done.

Devastating knee delivered by Mirko. Even with the hand guarding it still has an impact

Well I have to say it Mirko, why the hell weren’t you fighting like this against Kongo and Gonzaga! If you had at least *tried* against them you wouldn’t have had a legion of UFC fans calling you a coward and a loser. It’s good to see the old Mirko back, it seems Mirko himself didn’t know until after the fight, he was crying from the emotion of the moment, whether due to being able to validate to himself that he was a fighter, or whether the nostalgia of the crowd from Japan, his true home as a fighter, simply overwhelmed him.

It’s good to see you back Mirko, but now you have to prove yourself against stiffer competition to show that you really are #1.

All in all it was a great event. Dream still needs to put on a beefier heavyweight and light heavyweight division, but it surely has the lower weights covered very nicely. I cannot wait for Dream 2, and as we go along I can only hope that fears that Dream will succumb to the same yakuza threat as Pride did are unsubstantiated. May Dream have a long prosperous run as the next Pride.

Pride is Dead, but the Dream Lives on

As of this writing, the inaugural event of Dream, the new MMA organization from Japan, should have already finished. Last year saw the fall of what many people outside of North America (and even in North America!) consider the best MMA organization of them all: Pride Fighting Championships.  Due to a yakuza scandal that cost Pride its TV deal with Fuji TV, the organization continued to lose money until its owner, the oft maligned Nobuyuki Sakakibara, sold Pride to its main competitor the UFC under Zuffa and Dana White. Zuffa then dismantled Pride and in its rift was a void in Japanese MMA that would not be filled until last NYE when Yarrenoka was held in the Saitama super arena as a one-time event by former Pride staffers.

However, as a one-time event, Yarrenoka was not destined for longevity. It is then that we hearken to the words spoken by FEG head Sadaharu Tanikawa last October 5, when he said that, “To protect the Japanese Kakutougi world, all fighters must unite!” and today was the realization of that ideal.  FEG, the parent company behind the vastly popular K1 kickboxing organization, had started an MMA branch of K1 under the monniker K1 Heroes. It was Tanikawa’s attempt to create a Pride-like organization to rival the original PrideFC. It was not as well-received as Pride, but did fairly well in its own right especially in the lower weight classes.

As MMA fans mostly directed their attention to NA after the fall of Pride, Tanikawa worked behind the scenes and, the result was Dream, with its first event, Heiwa Dream, held today 3/15/08 3:00pm Japanese time. K1 Heroes had a strong stable of lightweight fighters, so it made sense that Dream would start off its operations with a Lightweight Grand Prix to determine the strongest LW in Japan, and possibly the world if MMA rankings are to be believed — the UFC, notorious for neglecting its LW division, can arguably be said to not have the same caliber of athletes in general as the Japanese orgs.

The event should be over by now but I will have to wait until I can get a hold of the fights from the internet somehow. The event was only broadcast on TBS (a Japanese channel) and XTM (a Korean channel). I do not have either on cable so I will be relying on the internet for a source to these fights, I should be able to watch them sometime tomorrow.

At that time, I will write another entry with my thoughts on the event.