Featuring superstars like Genki Sudo, KID Yamamoto and Caol Uno and top talent like Remigijus Morkevicius, Hiroyuki Takaya, Hideo Tokoro, Kazayuki Miyata and Hermes Franca, this could be an incredible event.  Throw in a handful of intriguing non-tournament matches that range from the bizarre, to the mismatched, to the intriguing and the highly competitive and you have another show that should have something for everyone.

Line-up:

Tournament, all 2 x 5mins, with an extra round if needed
Genki Sudo vs. Kazayuki Miyata
Remigijus Morkevicius vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
KID Yamamoto vs. Royler Gracie
Caol Uno vs. Hideo Tokoro
Hermes Franca vs. Koutetsu Boku (Reserve match)
Winner of Sudo-Miyata and Morkevicius-Takaya
Winner of Yamamoto-Gracie and Uno-Tokoro

Non-tournament:

Zuluzhino vs. The Predator
Sam Greco vs. Shungo Oyama
Akira Kikuchi vs. Kiuma Kunioku
Yoshihiro Nakao vs. Faii Falamoe

The Fights:

Lightweight Tournament Quarterfinal: Genki Sudo vs. Kazayuki Miyata

2004 Olmpic freestyle wrestler Miyata’s (1-2) difficult first year as a professional fighting career is likely to continue here.  In his debut K-1 threw him in with Royler Gracie for an MMA match in November last year.  Miyata pulled off some good slams, as well as showing a willingness to throw punches, before being caught with a triangle choke midway through the second round of a mini-classic.  Next up was his MAX debut where he showed tremendous fighting spirit as Takeda Kozo gave him a masterclass in leg kicks ending in a painful third round TKO loss.  At the first Hero’s show in March, Miyata dropped a close decision to the underrated Ian Schaffa, a clear sign he was rapidly improving.  Then finally, in July he was given an ‘easy’ opponent in the opening round of this tournament.  Originally scheduled to face Arslan Magomedov, a very late substitution saw Miyata hand out a one-sided mauling to Shamil Gaydarbekov instead.  Now though, he’s back in there with a far more experienced fighter.  And worse, its one of the most talented and charismatic fighters in the tournament, the Neo Samurai, Genki Sudo (11-3-1).

Sudo is one of the most intriguing characters around.  He’s built a reputation as one of the sport’s biggest lightweight stars, and is certainly one of the most marketable at his weight.  A shrewd self-promoter, Sudo has parlayed his bizarre ring entrances, oddball character and strange fighting style into real success.  Yet he rarely fights genuinely top class opposition.  Look at his career since debuting with Pancrase a little over 6 years ago.  Wins over Kousei Kubota and Nathan Marquardt are impressive but he dropped decisions to Minoru Toyonaga and the underrated Kimua Kunioku.  Facing Andre Pederneiras at Colosseum 2000, little happened early but Sudo dominated the final few minutes in a fight where, if there had been judges, he’d have walked away the inarguable decision winner.  He’s also scored some fairly routine wins over Victor Hunsaker, Craig Oxley and, moving on to RINGS, Brian Lo-A-Njoe before fighting Kenichi Yamamoto in December 2001.  Sudo won that one by rear naked choke after an unusually subdued performance.

His international debut followed and he looked amazing in beating Leigh Remedios in London at UFC 38.  He followed that stunning performance with an excellent, controversial fight at UFC 42 with Duane Ludwig.  An awful third round restart to check Ludwig’s cuts while Sudo was in a dominant position gave ‘Bang’ a massive break.  Ludwig went on to score a bitterly disputed decision win that led to a UFC rule change on restarts.  Since then, Sudo has faced few really serious challenges.  First, he won by heelhook in a gross physical mismatch on New Year’s Eve 2003 against Eric ‘Butterbean’ Esch.  He followed that up with a routine win over the outclassed Mike Brown at UFC 47 and then fought Royler Gracie at K-1 Romanex.  Sudo dispatched the older man in style with some vicious punches on the ground, before kicking off his campaign for a year-end fight with Royce Gracie.  That unsurprisingly didn’t happen and in his last fight Sudo quickly heel hooked aged, injury-riddled Muay Thai legend Ramon Dekker, in March.

Despite his lack of experience, Miyata could be Sudo’s biggest test in some time.  Sudo has incredible talent though and is such an unorthodox fighter a it’s going to be very hard for Miyata to prepare a strategy.  It’s hard to see Miyata pulling off an upset here.  He’s one of the sport’s better wrestlers and is clearly improving all the time but his raw striking technique, his sheer inexperience and Sudo’s own skills mean this fight should only have one winner.

PREDICTION: Sudo by submission, late in the second round.

Lightweight Tournament Quarterfinal: Remigijus Morkevicius vs. Hiroyuki Takaya

With both men coming off impressive KO wins in the first round of the tournament, this could be a very explosive fight.  Lithuanian nutter Morkevicius (14-3) is one of the most exciting fighter’s around and Takaya (5-1-1) is one of Shooto’s real rising stars.  Aggressive to the point of reckless endangerment, Morkevicius is likely to charge out at the opening bell and bombard Takaya with fists and knees.  How well Takaya deals with this early onslaught will be a key factor here.  If he survives the initial assault, things could become very tricky for Morkevicius.  Takaya has already fought some very good fighters, drawing with Joao Roque, TKOing Stephen Palling and going the distance with Gilbert Melendez.  He also battered the much bigger Jani Lax in the first round of this tournament in July.  Morkevicius’ only losses have come against Marcus Aurelio, Hideo Tokoro and Naoyuki Kotani and Takaya has already proved he belongs in their class. 

Morkevicius looked excellent in the first round of this tournament as he obliterated ‘hard-as-nails’ pro wrestler/kickboxer/fighter Takehiro Murahama.  Few people have ever done that to the diminutive battler.  Morkevicius will have a size advantage over Takaya, and aside from his vicious knees and punches, has been continually refining his skills to make him a little more multi-faceted.  He’s also riding a six fight winning streak and has finally arrived on the big stage after putting in so many stunning (and brutal) showings in ZST and events in his own country.  Takaya is undoubtedly the more well-rounded fighter but the Lithuanian’s aggression and power may tip the fight in his favour.

PREDICTION: Morkevicius by TKO early in the second round.

Lightweight Tournament Quarterfinal: KID Yamamoto vs. Royler Gracie

This could be a very short, very painful night for Gracie.  On paper, Yamamoto has the easiest fight going into the semi-finals as everyone expects him to overwhelm and batter his older opponent.  Certainly, Yamamoto (9-1) is an excellent wrestler, an ever-improving, concussive striker and has the technical skills to avoid Gracie’s submission attempts on the ground.  Gracie will have trouble taking the near-Olympic hopeful calibre wrestler down onto the mat in the first place.  Takedowns are not Gracie’s strength and Yamamoto has the power and the technique to keep the fight upright.  And if the fight does remain standing then Yamamoto, who gave Masato real problems under K-1 MAX rules on New Year’s Eve, should be able to pick off Gracie (5-2-1) at will.  Gracie struggled at times against former boxer Koji Yoshida in the first round of the tournament, while Yamamoto fought and won a bad-tempered war (non-tournament) with Ian Schaffa.  Gracie’s skill and experience were enough for him to beat Yoshida, but Yamamoto is much different.  He’s pushed Masato to the limit, wasted Takehiro Murahama (in K-1 MAX) and has battered Mongolian hard case Jadamba Narantungalag as well as pasted Tetsuo Katsuta, Hideki Kadowaki and Caleb Mitchell.  And his only MMA loss was due to a cut in a brief fight with Stephen Palling back in May 2002.  Gracie has won just twice in recent years (both against MMA debutants in Miyata and Yoshida) and in 1998 it took him over 30 minutes to armbar useless former pro wrestler Yuhi Sano at Pride 2.  Everything points to a fast and conclusive win for Yamamoto here.

PREDICTION: Yamamoto by first round KO.

Lightweight Tournament Quarterfinal: Caol Uno vs. Hideo Tokoro

This is a fascinating fight, and probably the closest of all the first round matches.  Tokoro (11-8-1) is coming off the undoubted upset of the year in his first round fight with Alexandre Franca Noguiera.  Not only did he control the action for most of the fight (‘Pequeno’ seemed a little fortunate not to have lost the decision after two rounds) but he finished the fight off with a beautiful spinning backfist and a few punches on the ground early in the third.  Uno (17-7-4) is coming off a similarly dramatic match at the first Hero’s show, contesting an incredible fight with Joachim Hansen that ended just 12 seconds from the final bell with Uno laid out by one of the Scandinavian monster’s knees.  Tokoro’s mediocre record (including losses to Antanas Jazbutis, Morkevicius, though he did win a rematch, TAISHO, Darius Skliaudys and Masahiro Oishi) seemed to make him a safe opponent for the Brazilian guillotine machine.  A composed, skilled Tokoro saw things differently though.  It’s pretty clear Noguiera seriously underestimated Tokoro (he’s been complaining bitterly of just about everything from not being given the decision after two rounds, to the supposedly early stoppage) but Shooto, Lumax Cup and UFC veteran Uno is unlikely to make a similar blunder.

Uno, still just 30 years old, has been around since 1996 and has faced some of the best lighter weight fighters in the game.  He’s been in there with Hayato Sakurai (an armbar loss in his debut fight) and Rumina Sato (two wins, and that was when Sato was at best in 1999 and 2000).  He’s also fought Jens Pulver (a decision loss), Fabiano Iha (a quick KO win), Yves Edwards (decision win), BJ Penn (a short, sudden loss and a draw that Penn probably deserved to win) and Tatsuya Kawajiri (a draw).  Uno also holds a pair of wins over Din Thomas and two quick wins under ‘Mixed rules’ on K-1 shows over experienced strikers Chandet Sorpantrey and Serkan Yilmaz.  Uno is a very experienced, very talented and very intelligent fighter.  It’s possible the years of fighting are catching up with him though, and in the last couple of years he’s been a little inconsistent.  He looked flat in the rematch with BJ Penn and was blasted out by Hermes Franca but his recent results have been better.  Drawing with the powerful Kawajiri and pushing Hansen to the limit is impressive stuff, even if his only wins since September 2002 have been against Sorpantrey and Yilmaz.  Basically, recent Gong magazine cover boy Tokoro is unlikely to pull off another big upset here.  He’s been much more active than Uno in the last couple of years but the veteran’s experience and talent should see him take this fight by decision.  Even if he has to go the full three rounds to do it.

PREDICTION: Uno by decision after a third (extra round).

Lightweight Tournament Reserve match: Hermes Franca vs. Koutetsu Boku

Former UFC Lightweight division standout Franca (10-4) makes a welcome Hero’s debut against Purebred fighter and Shooto regular Boku (8-3) in the tournament’s reserve match.  American Top Team member Franca is coming off a pair of losses: a close and disputed split decision to Yves Edwards in February and a surprising KO loss to the talented but fairly low profile, Ray Cooper in March.  Franca has beaten Rich Crunkilton (in a truly memorable preliminary fight at UFC 42) and Caol Uno (with some brutal punches at UFC 44) in a fight that really made his reputation.  Not to mention his highly popular battering of internet loudmouth Manny Reyes Jr.  He’s also been the victim of some poor judging, losing very controversial decisions in his first fight with Edwards (at UFC 47) and Josh Thomson (UFC 46).  Tagged as one of the unluckiest fighters around, Franca is highly talented, particularly on the mat where he works patiently for submission opportunities and can hand out some real punishment. 

His opponent Boku is a good fighter, with wins over Ryan Bow, Takaharu Murahama and Kohei Yasumi in his last three fights.  This will be his first fight outside Shooto and it could be a very difficult one.  Expect both men to take this fight very seriously, as an injury to any of the quarter-final winners could see them just one fight away from a high profile, potentially career making match at Premium Dynamite 2005.  As talented as Boku is, Franca is simply better and could make quite an impact with Hero’s.  It would certainly be good to see him get the exposure he deserves.  Expect him to win this one impressively.

PREDICTION: Franca by submission late in the first round.

Tournament Semi-Final A:

As with any one-night tournament, much depends on how the first round went.  In this one, I’ve gone for Sudo and Morkevicius to win their fights, and I don’t expect either of them to have an easy time.  Any prolonged grappling with a quality wrestler like Miyata will take its toll on Sudo and I don’t see Morkevicius taking Takaya out early either.  Of the two I’d pick Sudo, who has been around longer, has fought more diverse opposition, and generally competed in longer fights, to have the edge in stamina.  Morkevicius though, has more recent tournament experience, fighting twice in one night and winning ZST’s Grand Prix 2 in January of this year.  He won both fights by KO as well.  Sudo’s last such experience was back in 1999, when he beat Kousei Kubota and lost to Minoru Toyonaga in one day during that year’s Pancrase Neo-Blood tournament.  Stamina aside, this is probably a bad matchup for Morkevicius.  He can’t match Sudo’s wrestling or submission skills and the Japanese star’s unorthodox style may make Morkevicius think twice about charging in as he usually does.  Sudo has the ability to subdue Morkevicius and make him fight Sudo’s kind of fight.  I’m not sure Sudo will finish Morkevicius off but he should do more than enough to claim a clear decision win after the first two rounds without needing a third to decide the fight.

PREDICTION: Sudo by decision after two rounds.

Tournament Semi-Final B:

If stamina is a key element in the first semi-final it may well be the decider here.  I’m expecting Yamamoto to make short work of Gracie and for Tokoro to push Uno right to the end of the fight.  If that does happen, it gives Yamamoto a significant advantage going into this one.  Uno does have one night tournament experience, back in the 1997 Lumax Cup (though they were very short fights) and he’s gone 25 minutes with Pulver and Penn, and 24 with Andre Pedernairas, as well as gone to the three round time limit, or close to it, in 10 more of his fights.  Yamamoto tends to get things over with more quickly but he has beaten Jeff Curran by decision in Shooto, went the distance with Masato in a furious MAX fight, and was well into the third round of his fight with Schaffa before punching and stomping his way to a win.  If these two were fighting each other and both were fresh I’d go for Yamamoto’s strength, aggression, wrestling and heavy hands to earn him a win over Uno.  He wouldn’t have an easy time of it, and I don’t think he will here but eventually, I think he’ll grind Uno down and finish him off with punches on the ground late in the fight to earn himself a New Year’s Eve date with Sudo in the tournament final.

PREDICTION: Yamamoto by TKO midway through the third (extra) round.

Sylvester ‘The Predator’ Terkay vs. Zuluzhino

If the lightweight tournament looks set to provide some top quality action, this one should provide enough old-fashioned barroom brawling fun to make purists shudder.  Much like the Bob Sapp and Alan Karaev fight at the last Hero’s event, this one will likely showcase two big, big clumsy fighters bashing the crap out of each other.  Zuluzhino (1-0) but claiming an unlikely 34 KOs on obscure Brazilian shows is the son of Zulu, an infamous Brazilian streetfighter who fought Rickson Gracie in the 1980s.  Terkay, a former NCAA wrestling champion, back in 1993, is 2-1 in MMA.  Both are huge, around 6’5” with Terkay weighing some 300 pounds and Zuluzhino (whose huge belly makes it look as though he trains for his fights by scoffing food and chugging beers) probably a little more.  Appearances can be deceptive though, and Zuluzhino has surprising stamina and some good ground skills.  He also trains at the Wolfslair Gym in Northern England with the well-regarded Sukata brothers and rising UK stars like Mike Bisping and Tom Blackledge.  In his only fight so far, at Cage Warriors: Strike Force 3 in July, Zuluzhino slowly wore down the incredibly stubborn Polish hardman Rafal Dabrowski, to score a crowd pleasing second round KO.  The fight certainly wasn’t pretty, looking like something from UFC 2 at times but Zuluzhino showed he can hit hard, and take a good shot too. 

Terkay seems to be developing as a fighter.  In his debut, he simply bull rushed much smaller late substitute Mauricio da Silva for a 13 second KO win.  His strategy was the same for his second fight, this time against Gary Goodridge, and the Bruiser Brody impersonator paid for that foolish error as ‘Big Daddy’ gave him a quick beating.  But in his most recent outing, against French submission specialist Kristof Midoux, Terkay used his wrestling skills and power to score a quick win with a neck crank.  Expect Terkay to try taking Zuluzhino down early and punish him on the mat.  And expect Zuluzhino to do his best to stand and trade.  Whatever happens, this is likely to be decided pretty quickly and end with some wild shots.  I’m going for the younger Zuluzhino to pick up the win with some big right hands.

PREDICTION: Zuluzhino by first round KO.

Sam Greco vs. Shungo Oyama

This one could be very short, and very painful for Shungo Oyama.  38 year old K-1 veteran, and former pro wrestler Greco may only be 2-1-1 in MMA but he should have more than enough ability to give the perennial loser a proper kicking.  Greco (most notable recently for instilling some discipline in Bob Sapp) first dabbled in MMA back in 2001, going to a boring draw with Masaaki Satake.  Since then he’s polished his skills and choked out Stefan Gamlin and dropped a very close, very controversial split decision to Antonio Inoki’s golden boy Lyoto at Romanex just over a year ago.  Greco shocked many observers with his grappling skills and seemed to have done just enough to take that fight and in March this year, he beat Heath Herring at the inaugural Hero’s event.  True, Herring badly blew out his knee midway through the first round but Greco had made a promising start and that fact alone should see him as favourite to win here.

Debuting in 2001 for King of the Cage, Oyama (3-7) started off in promising fashion.  First he quickly KO’ed the much bigger Mike bourke and then had a thrilling fight (which he lost) with the underrated and long forgotten Philip Miller two months later.  Then he faced Wanderlei Silva at Pride 14 and was crushed in 30 seconds.  Oyama followed that up by losing to Wallid Ismail at Pride 15.  Then came the fight Oyama has been living off ever since, a decision win, in a career best showing against Renzo Gracie.  Since then he’s lost to Ryan Gracie (97 seconds), Dan Henderson (an incredibly one-sided 3:28), Mirko Cro Cop (a horrid mismatch that lasted 60 seconds) and, in his first fight for K-1, he was battered by WWE failure Sean O’ Haire at Rumble on the Rock 6 (31 seconds).  Oyama’s latest fight lasted a mere 88 seconds too but this time he actually won, heel hooking badly faded Dutchman Valentijn Overeem for a win at the first Hero’s show.  That was a major surprise, but given Greco’s talent, and Oyama’s past history with top strikers, don’t expect this to go more than 2 minutes.

PREDICTION: Greco by KO early in the first round.

Akira Kikuchi vs. Kiuma Kunioku

Shooto Middleweight champion Kikuchi (12-1) annihilated Pancrase Welterweight titleholder Katsuya Inoue at the last Hero’s show and now faces former Pancrase star Kunioku in a very intriguing fight.  Kunioku (30-19-7) didn’t fare as well in July, dropping a clear, predictable, and predictably dull, decision to Rodrigo Gracie.  With his second round win in July, Purebred fighter Kikuchi added Inoue to a list of victims that includes Jani Lax, Jutaro Nakao, TUF2 contestant Sam Morgan and Jake Shields.  An aggressive, and extremely talented fighter (particularly on the mat), Kikuchi may just be too good for Kunioku.  The former Welter and Middleweight King of Pancrase has been around since the open-handed strikes, no weight class days and has fought an incredible range of fighters in his long career, from Frank Shamrock to Semmy Schilt, from Yuki Kondo to Bas Rutten.  Strong, technically skilled, intelligent and vastly experienced, Kunioku could be a stiff test for Kikuchi but hasn’t had much success of late.  He’s won just one of his last five fights, losing to Crosley Gracie, Kazuo Misaki, Izuru Takeuchi and Rodrigo.  He also cuts pretty easily and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Kikuchi, who has some crisp striking skills, to dominate the exchanges and open Kunioku up badly enough to pick up his seventh successive win.

PREDICTION: Kikuchi by TKO, late in the second round.

Yoshihiro Nakao vs. Faii Falamoe

Undefeated Japanese heavyweight Nakao (3-0) faces MMA debutant Falamoe in a classic clash of styles.  Nakao is a powerful and talented wrestler who debuted on New Year’s Eve in 2003, giving blubbery former Olympic Judo medallist David Khakhaleichivili a quick pasting.  Five months later he faced Don Frye and, after an almost comically intense staredown, the fight was quickly stopped due to an accidental headbutt and the ensuing monstrous cut Frye suffered.  An unsatisfying no contest, the two fought again on New Year’s Eve 2004 and Nakao walked away with a very clear decision win.  And in November 2004 he earned a decision win over ‘Cabbage’ Correira in Hawaii.  In that fight he showed he was more than just a wrestler too, opting to stand and trade with the dangerous, cement-headed local and, sloppy as he was at times, Nakao did more than enough to earn the win.  He should be careful though, because any attempt to repeat that kind of gameplan with New Zealander Falamoe is likely to end in painful failure.

A former heavyweight boxer with a verified professional record of 8-3-1 (source: www.boxrec.com), the 33 year old is also Ray Sefo’s boxing coach.  A highly regarded trainer (he clearly gets results) he also has some very heavy hands and the kind of boxing technique that Nakao should be very wary of.  Falamoe has some serious amateur boxing experience and represented New Zealand at Super Heavyweight in the 1998 Commonwealth Games, losing in the first round to Britain’s Audley Harrison.  Falamoe turned professional later that year and reeled off 5 stoppage wins.  A surprising points loss to Willie Chapman in 2000 in Las Vegas cost him his unbeaten record but he came back to win 3 more fights before dropping two in two months, one of them to Ray Austin who battled Larry Donald to a draw earlier this year.  After the Austin loss in 2001, Falamoe disappeared from the pro boxing scene (mainly through contractual troubles) until resurfacing (having packed on some 40 or 50 pounds) in March, drawing with the much smaller Tipton Walker over 8 rounds in Auckland.  Huge, strong, disciplined, heavy-handed, and able to take a shot, Falamoe should be able to dominate the fight standing.  But if Nakao can avoid his fists and take him down he should able to grind out a TKO win with punches on the ground.  Still, Falamoe’s protégé and cousin, Sefo made a successful MMA debut against a far more experienced grappler at the last Hero’s show as he KO’ed South Korean Judoka Min Soo Kim.  And if Nakao isn’t careful he could find himself flat on his back and staring at the arena lights.

PREDICTION: Nakao by TKO midway through the second round.

Predictions Recap:

Genki Sudo SUB2 Kazayuki Miyata

Remigijus Morkevicius TKO2 Takaya

KID Yamamoto KO1 Royler Gracie

Caol Uno DEC3 Hideo Tokoro

Hermes Franca SUB1 Koutetsu Boku

Genki Sudo DEC2 Remigijus Morkevicius

KID Yamamoto TKO1 Caol Uno

Zuluzhino KO1 Sylvester Terkay

Sam Greco KO1 Shungo Oyama

Akira Kikuchi TKO2 Kiuma Kunioku

Yoshihiro Nakao TKO2 Faii Falamoe