Knockouts Abound, KOP Crowned
TOKYO, May 30 -- A cold and rainy night in Tokyo was set afire with
mixed martial arts action as fight Mecca Korakuen Hall played host
to a packed Pancrase card.
As evidenced during last Saturday's rematch between Chuck Liddell (Pictures) and Quinton Jackson (Pictures), all it takes is one good punch to totally change the momentum of fight.
Fighters can prepare with endless hours of drills, pad-work and
defensive game plans in the gym, but knockouts are always lying in
wait and sometimes a fighter, despite all his efforts, just gets
caught with that punch he didn't see coming.
This certainly seemed to be the theme tonight -- out of nine fights, seven of them ended by either KO or TKO.
The fighters' respective game plans were pretty obvious right from the outset.
Kawamura wanted no part of the clinch, instead keeping at a distance by using footwork to move around the ring while setting up a hard right cross and deceptive uppercut, complimented by stiff jabs from the outside.
Silva, on the other hand, was all about getting the Thai clinch, from where the Brazilian fired punishing knees that just barely missing Kawamura's head on several occasions.
Kawamura had a strong first round, connecting with his accurate hit-and-run punching while managing to escape Silva's clinch before taking too much damage.
But the second proved to be a different story for the talented Japanese fighter. Silva connected with an excellent right hook early in the round, knocking Kawamura to the canvas close to the ropes.
After scoring the reversal on the mat and working back to his feet, Kawamura again tasted Silva's leather in the form of a good left hook. The Brazilian followed up with a takedown at the ropes, taking his turtled opponent's back. But the wily Kawamura pulled a page out of BJJ 101, grabbing his unsuspecting opponent's leg and somersaulting for an excellent kneebar attempt.
Kawamura really had the kneebar on, but unfortunately for the PANCRASEism fighter, both he and his opponent were too far outside the ropes, forcing the referee to break the hold and stand the fighters up in the center of the ring.
From here it all went downhill fast for Kawamura. Just seconds after the restart, Silva charged in and connected with a devastating right hook, follow by a left, sending the Japanese fighter unconscious to the mat. The referee immediately rushed in and stopped the bout at the 3:43 mark.
The vacant heavyweight King Of Pancrase title was on the line Tatsuya Mizuno (Pictures) faced off against Assuerio Silva (Pictures).
Originally it was to be heavyweight champion Kestutis Arbocius (Pictures) that faced off against the No. 1 ranked Pancrase fighter Mizuno, but the Lithuanian sustained an injury that made it impossible for him to defend his title within the allowed time, thus having to give up the title that he won only last August.
Mizuno looked quite good off his back, especially for a big guy, going for armbar and triangle attempts. When Silva took his back while on their feet in the first, Mizuno knew to go for the standing Kimura to stop his opponent from attempting a suplex.
Unfortunately for Mizuno, Silva always had top position on the mat and inflicted a massive amount of damage with ground punches. In the second, Silva escaped an armbar and passed to side, eventually taking the mount. The Brazilian veteran sealed the victory with hard punches that Mizuno had no answer for, forcing the referee to come in and stop the fight at the 2:08 mark.
With the TKO win Silva, a UFC and PRIDE veteran, becomes the third heavyweight KOP, joining Yoshiki Takahashi (Pictures) and Arbocius.
In the No. 1-contender battle for Daizo Ishige (Pictures)'s welterweight KOP title, former Pancrase champion Katsuya Inoue (Pictures) squared off against third ranked Koji Oishi (Pictures).
Oishi started out strong, connecting with several hard right crosses followed by crisp left hooks. Inoue was staggered a few times, but the southpaw fighter weathered the storm and answered back by pounding the right side of Oishi's body with well-placed roundhouse kicks and stiff left hands. By the end of the first, Oishi's eyes were puffy and the left side of his body, especially this shoulder, was purple and welted.
Inoue continued to pound on Oishi's body in the second, landing a higher percentage of shots than his opponent. Then, just as the PANCRASEism fighter was coming in, Inoue connected with a perfectly timed left hand to the chin that badly rocked his opponent. From here, the former welterweight KOP made no mistake, finishing off Oishi with a flurry of punches in the corner, putting him to the canvas for good at the 2:45 mark.
The last time he fought fight, Eriya Matsuda (Pictures) laid out "The Oriental Mystery" Takumi Yano (Pictures) with a hellacious knee to the face early on in the first. After being down on the mat for a long time, Yano could barely walk from the ring and needed help from his cornermen.
The same scenario played out again tonight, but this time it was Pancrase veteran Kenji Arai (Pictures) who was the victim. Right off the opening bell, Matsuda connected with a vicious hand combo that rocked Arai badly and forced him to go for the takedown to try to stop the onslaught.
Sensing that the end was near, Matsuda managed to get away from the takedown attempt and again opened up with punches on the rubbery-legged Arai, finally connecting with a big right hand that sent Arai unconscious to the mat at the 23-second mark.
Arai was out for a considerable amount of time and, just like Yano, could barely walk once revived, needing his corner to help him exit the ring.
Number-one ranked featherweight contender Daiki "DJ.taiki" Hata, had a bit of a slow start against Jameel Massouh, jousting with his opponent on the feet for the majority of the fight.
Massouh had a deceptive overhand right that he tagged Hata with several times, and quite possibly could have gotten the knockout victory in the second with a spinning backfist that Hata didn't see coming if he had been just a few inches closer. For his part, Hata did a good job of connecting low kick counters and straight punches from the outside.
Just as it looked like the fight was going to go to a decision, Hata connected with a big right hand in the last 20 seconds, badly staggering his opponent. From here, Hata sealed the deal with a mere 10 seconds left in regulation, putting Massouh to the mat with a flurry of punches to score a KO victory at 4:50 of the second.
Ichiro Kanai (Pictures) made fairly quick work of Kozo Urita (Pictures), jousting with his opponent for a while before connecting a strong right hand. The wobbly-legged Urita survived for a few more seconds until Kanai sealed the deal with another right hand, putting him down for good at the 3:50 mark of the first.
Daichi Fujiwara (Pictures) made his first return to action since his horrible freak back injury last December during his bout against Miki Shida (Pictures), in which the whole show had to be stopped while emergency services personnel took him from the ring on a stretcher.
Fujiwara looked like he hadn't missed a beat in his time off, going for takedowns, maintaining dominant ground control and going for armbar-to-triangle submissions throughout the bout. In the last 10 seconds, the Pancrase Inagakigumi fighter took his opponent's back, but could finish off the rear-naked choke before the bell.
The fight went to the judges and Fujiwara walked away with the unanimous victory.
Michihisa Asano (Pictures) looked sharp in his bout against Yuki Yamasawa, scoring takedowns almost at will and connecting punches from within the guard. Asano had this opponent's back in the last 20 seconds, but like Fujiwara, couldn't seal the deal.
The fight went to the judges and the Killer Bee's Asano took the unanimous victory.
In the Neo-Blood Featherweight tournament semifinals, Koji Yoshimoto (Pictures) stopped Takashi Hasegawa.
As evidenced during last Saturday's rematch between Chuck Liddell (Pictures) and Quinton Jackson (Pictures), all it takes is one good punch to totally change the momentum of fight.
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This certainly seemed to be the theme tonight -- out of nine fights, seven of them ended by either KO or TKO.
The main event pitted Pancrase light heavyweight Golden Boy
Ryo Kawamura (Pictures) against Chute Boxe's Fabio Silva. Kawamura recently
seems have been making a career out of fighting Chute Boxe guys,
first knocking out Daniel
Acacio (Pictures), then drawing Nilson de Castro (Pictures) in a hard-fought battle just
three months later. Revenge no doubt must have been on Silva's mind
as he stepped into the ring for this one.
The fighters' respective game plans were pretty obvious right from the outset.
Kawamura wanted no part of the clinch, instead keeping at a distance by using footwork to move around the ring while setting up a hard right cross and deceptive uppercut, complimented by stiff jabs from the outside.
Silva, on the other hand, was all about getting the Thai clinch, from where the Brazilian fired punishing knees that just barely missing Kawamura's head on several occasions.
Kawamura had a strong first round, connecting with his accurate hit-and-run punching while managing to escape Silva's clinch before taking too much damage.
But the second proved to be a different story for the talented Japanese fighter. Silva connected with an excellent right hook early in the round, knocking Kawamura to the canvas close to the ropes.
After scoring the reversal on the mat and working back to his feet, Kawamura again tasted Silva's leather in the form of a good left hook. The Brazilian followed up with a takedown at the ropes, taking his turtled opponent's back. But the wily Kawamura pulled a page out of BJJ 101, grabbing his unsuspecting opponent's leg and somersaulting for an excellent kneebar attempt.
Kawamura really had the kneebar on, but unfortunately for the PANCRASEism fighter, both he and his opponent were too far outside the ropes, forcing the referee to break the hold and stand the fighters up in the center of the ring.
From here it all went downhill fast for Kawamura. Just seconds after the restart, Silva charged in and connected with a devastating right hook, follow by a left, sending the Japanese fighter unconscious to the mat. The referee immediately rushed in and stopped the bout at the 3:43 mark.
The vacant heavyweight King Of Pancrase title was on the line Tatsuya Mizuno (Pictures) faced off against Assuerio Silva (Pictures).
Originally it was to be heavyweight champion Kestutis Arbocius (Pictures) that faced off against the No. 1 ranked Pancrase fighter Mizuno, but the Lithuanian sustained an injury that made it impossible for him to defend his title within the allowed time, thus having to give up the title that he won only last August.
Mizuno looked quite good off his back, especially for a big guy, going for armbar and triangle attempts. When Silva took his back while on their feet in the first, Mizuno knew to go for the standing Kimura to stop his opponent from attempting a suplex.
Unfortunately for Mizuno, Silva always had top position on the mat and inflicted a massive amount of damage with ground punches. In the second, Silva escaped an armbar and passed to side, eventually taking the mount. The Brazilian veteran sealed the victory with hard punches that Mizuno had no answer for, forcing the referee to come in and stop the fight at the 2:08 mark.
With the TKO win Silva, a UFC and PRIDE veteran, becomes the third heavyweight KOP, joining Yoshiki Takahashi (Pictures) and Arbocius.
In the No. 1-contender battle for Daizo Ishige (Pictures)'s welterweight KOP title, former Pancrase champion Katsuya Inoue (Pictures) squared off against third ranked Koji Oishi (Pictures).
Oishi started out strong, connecting with several hard right crosses followed by crisp left hooks. Inoue was staggered a few times, but the southpaw fighter weathered the storm and answered back by pounding the right side of Oishi's body with well-placed roundhouse kicks and stiff left hands. By the end of the first, Oishi's eyes were puffy and the left side of his body, especially this shoulder, was purple and welted.
Inoue continued to pound on Oishi's body in the second, landing a higher percentage of shots than his opponent. Then, just as the PANCRASEism fighter was coming in, Inoue connected with a perfectly timed left hand to the chin that badly rocked his opponent. From here, the former welterweight KOP made no mistake, finishing off Oishi with a flurry of punches in the corner, putting him to the canvas for good at the 2:45 mark.
The last time he fought fight, Eriya Matsuda (Pictures) laid out "The Oriental Mystery" Takumi Yano (Pictures) with a hellacious knee to the face early on in the first. After being down on the mat for a long time, Yano could barely walk from the ring and needed help from his cornermen.
The same scenario played out again tonight, but this time it was Pancrase veteran Kenji Arai (Pictures) who was the victim. Right off the opening bell, Matsuda connected with a vicious hand combo that rocked Arai badly and forced him to go for the takedown to try to stop the onslaught.
Sensing that the end was near, Matsuda managed to get away from the takedown attempt and again opened up with punches on the rubbery-legged Arai, finally connecting with a big right hand that sent Arai unconscious to the mat at the 23-second mark.
Arai was out for a considerable amount of time and, just like Yano, could barely walk once revived, needing his corner to help him exit the ring.
Number-one ranked featherweight contender Daiki "DJ.taiki" Hata, had a bit of a slow start against Jameel Massouh, jousting with his opponent on the feet for the majority of the fight.
Massouh had a deceptive overhand right that he tagged Hata with several times, and quite possibly could have gotten the knockout victory in the second with a spinning backfist that Hata didn't see coming if he had been just a few inches closer. For his part, Hata did a good job of connecting low kick counters and straight punches from the outside.
Just as it looked like the fight was going to go to a decision, Hata connected with a big right hand in the last 20 seconds, badly staggering his opponent. From here, Hata sealed the deal with a mere 10 seconds left in regulation, putting Massouh to the mat with a flurry of punches to score a KO victory at 4:50 of the second.
Ichiro Kanai (Pictures) made fairly quick work of Kozo Urita (Pictures), jousting with his opponent for a while before connecting a strong right hand. The wobbly-legged Urita survived for a few more seconds until Kanai sealed the deal with another right hand, putting him down for good at the 3:50 mark of the first.
Daichi Fujiwara (Pictures) made his first return to action since his horrible freak back injury last December during his bout against Miki Shida (Pictures), in which the whole show had to be stopped while emergency services personnel took him from the ring on a stretcher.
Fujiwara looked like he hadn't missed a beat in his time off, going for takedowns, maintaining dominant ground control and going for armbar-to-triangle submissions throughout the bout. In the last 10 seconds, the Pancrase Inagakigumi fighter took his opponent's back, but could finish off the rear-naked choke before the bell.
The fight went to the judges and Fujiwara walked away with the unanimous victory.
Michihisa Asano (Pictures) looked sharp in his bout against Yuki Yamasawa, scoring takedowns almost at will and connecting punches from within the guard. Asano had this opponent's back in the last 20 seconds, but like Fujiwara, couldn't seal the deal.
The fight went to the judges and the Killer Bee's Asano took the unanimous victory.
In the Neo-Blood Featherweight tournament semifinals, Koji Yoshimoto (Pictures) stopped Takashi Hasegawa.
