Sunday February 26th – the day began rainy.

I arrived at the Saitama Shin-Toshin train station to be re-greeted by a gray sky. On the way out, I crossed a group of four guys. Each of them wore different fighter related clothing: “Chute Boxe Academy”, “Team Crocop”, “Emelianenko”, and “Russian Top Team”. A symbolic scene. “We are all one.” So is war and business, MMA style.

The day’s event theme wasn’t about rivalry though. This time it was about dreams, dreams of upsets, of comebacks. Each match up featured a clear underdog or a fighter on the edge. And four of the fights were pseudo-Open-weight match samples. Who will make the come back? Who will upset the odds?

With these thoughts in mind, I stood around the Keyaki Square situated in front of the Super Arena. Razor Ramon MG (not HG) was on the center stage with mike at hand embodying the Hustle spirit. March 05th: Hustle 14 in Yokohama. March 12th: Hustle 15 in Nagoya. Seats had to be filled, tickets had to be sold.

After he finished with his speech on “Why you should come Hustle!” he moved into the adjacent booth where they sold the tickets alongside Pride’s star fighter goods. At that point, there were only a couple dozen people standing around. Soon, Wanderlei then Fedor was scheduled to show up. As that time approached, the crowd grew larger.

I stepped aside to ask bystanders about “Your favorite match up”. Most people picked “Hunt vs Nishijima”. Out of these, some knew Nishijima and thought he had a chance to at least be entertaining, some didn’t know much about Nishi and just liked Hunt. Other people picked “Kohsaka vs Sperry”, and “Nog vs Tamura”.

Kohsaka seemed to have earned much respect from the Japanese fans. Others looked forward to Nog’s return. The Korean fans picked Yoon’s fight although they didn’t think he’d win. One journalist didn’t look forward to any, as the match up seemed uncompetitive.

My pick was “Einemo vs Werdum”. Most people seemed still quite ignorant of Einemo and consequently didn’t care about the whole match up. I speculated that most of the crowd was looking for an upset by an underdog or a nice return by a fan favorite.

During:

Fighter entrance. One by one, the announcer called in the fighters. This was the first time I was in the arena on time to see the preliminary ceremony. For each fighter, the crowd expressed their expectations via claps. I gradually paid attention to these noises. TK was clearly the fan favorite. Nog and Kharitonov got a decent applaud. Shogun and Tamura got a fine applaud. Josh got a mild one, Nishida little less. Nakamura got nothing much. For the rest, I didn’t take note.

At this point, quite some seats were still empty. They’d get gradually filled with time. I felt that the crowd’s vocal intensity was higher during the NYE event. The roar Fedor and Wand got then from the fans was at another level. Both were sitting by the ringside. Fedor seemed relaxed, chatting with his friends, often referring to the large indoor TV monitors to see the actions on the ring.

The first match up, between his under dog team mate and the Rock on the edge.

(1) Roman Zentsov vs. Pedro Rizzo

Zentsov walks into the arena wearing a “Russian Power” T-shirt featuring a drawing of a falling bomb. He looks neutral.

Rizzo gets in wearing beach sandals. He looks relaxed, maybe too relaxed. He enters the ring over the top rope.

Rizzo is in the center of the ring. He throws some empty jabs. He’s testing the air, the distance… He still feels insecure about getting closer to punch. That’s when he threw his usual right low kick. Boom. Zentsov lands a perfectly timed left overhand hook that knocks out Rizzo. The end. 25 seconds. Stunning.

Rizzo got up after a short moment. Fedor was in the ring to congratulate his friend. Zentsov raised Fedor’s arm to probably give him partial credit for this victory. Rizzo walked away a broken man.

Comment. A demonstration of tactical preparation. Rizzo has a habit of throwing a low kick without setup from the get-go. Struck the obvious. Perfect execution. Red devils smiling. However, whether Zentsov can win against the champion contenders remains uncertain.

(2) Rampage Jackson vs. Yoon Dong Sik

The black wolverine is in the house. Rampage comes in wearing a T-shirt featuring a bunch of product(?) names. I only read “Rock Star”. He gets in the ring over the top rope. His fight short features a cross. He’s apparently in the God’s Street Soldier team.

Yoon enters with the gi on but he takes it off once he gets in the ring. The introductory video clip shows him training arm bars and some basic boxing with Sakuraba. Coincidentally, Yoon knees and ankles are all taped up like Sakuraba.

R1: Yoon throws a real quick jab to immediately clinch up. Rampage throwing some knees. Some loud “Jackson kill him!”, “Kill him!” calls. A few quieter cheers for Yoon who takes down Rampage via tsurikomi-ashi and gets a full mount. Rampage gets up, slams Yoon, and gets into Yoon’s half guard, then full guard. Some GnP. “You go Jackson!” calls. Yoon attempts an arm bar. Pretty tight. Rampage tries to lift and slam but fails. Yoon’s right arm is grabbing his left leg. Rampage eventually manages to lift his way out of it. Yoon is in the corner, getting kneed, stomped, and pounded. Yoon eventually gets Rampage into his guard. Not much happens.

R2: Yoon throws some weak low kicks. Rampage is gun shy. Yoon clinches and waits for the opportunity to judo throw. Doesn’t happen. They separate. Yoon is getting more confident with punching. Rampage clinches, throws knees and uppercuts. Clinch continues. Yoon attempts a nice tsurikomi-ashi but fails. Clinch. Break. “Rampage ganbare!” Clinch. Low-blow to Rampage. Restart. Rampage landing some hooks and uppercuts. Rampage throwing knees. Clinch. Yoon’s tsurikomi-ashi fails. Rampage falls into guard.

R3: Light punches in the air. Clinch. Break. Yoon throws a horrible tiip then attempts a takedown. Rampage counters with uppercuts and hooks. Clinch. Yoon takes down, full mount, then pound. Rampage eventually reverses and ends up in guard. Yoon attempts an armbar but fails. Rampage gets side mount and throws knee. Yoon regains half guard. The end. UD for Rampage. Rampage looks tired. He may have limped a bit. Still has enough energy to sign an autograph. His face seemed to say “I’m just doing my job”.

Comment. Yoon got better. Great jab made Rampage gun shy for a while. Pretty tight arm bar attempts. Smart move grabbing on Rampage’s leg. The gi would have perhaps come handy. The usual Rampage slam escape worked but risky. Rampage hit plenty. Yoon came out surprisingly unscarred. Smart defense, weak offense, uncertain. Once again, “tsurikomi ashi” worked plenty. Refer: Oyama vs Renzo. Yoon mentioned he wanted to train once again in the States. He could become something if he regularly trained with a competitive team.

(3) Fabricio Werdum vs. John Olav Einemo

Bad match up.

Einemo stood still, moved straight forward, throwing combos with no set up. Werdum couldn’t capitalize. Einemo’s long left hand and strong right hand dissuaded a premature rush.

Instead, Werdum often waited, backing up into the corner. Does he practice that? Einemo was also gun shy. His corner had to input command: “1, 2 John!”, “1, 2, low!”, “Jab!!”, “Don’t wait for (his) jab!”, “1, 2 low kick!”, “1,2 knee!”, “Knee him in the leg!”, “Kick!”, “Kick!”, “Kick!”, “Move head!” (Joachim Hansen who also cornered him seemed to advise in Norwegian.)

I felt like I was watching someone’s first muay thai bout. Werdum heard these as Einemo sometimes followed instructions to the letter. To Einemo’s credit, his low kick seemed strong, and he landed two nice right.

Werdum’s punches were mild but his knees were effective. Apparently he worked on them with “Sergio”? His knees rose up to Einemo’s chin even without neck clinching and with ease. (And Einemo is tall enough to step over the top rope.) Flexible body. Meanwhile, I don’t know what Crocop is teaching him.

Regardless of who’s teaching him what where when, Werdum eventually got enough confidence to aggressively throw punches and knees, which would often land. The knees bloodied Einemo’s nose pretty bad.

Einemo often stood away from Werdum’s guard. A testimony of Werdum’s fine ground work. This seemed a little awkward as Einemo had little striking skills. He’d stand out of guard, then clinch, take down, land in Werdum’s guard, and stand out. Their grappling styles apparently neutralized each other.

I guess Einemo was hoping to land a lucky punch or fall into a nice position. Besides the two right, Einemo’s punches seemed too wild, and besides a few lucky side mounts from which Werdum regained guard, Einemo didn’t get much done on the ground. Einemo mentioned he had surprisingly less energy in this fight. That’s maybe due to his lack of striking stamina.

Wanderlei kept yelling advice to Werdum. “Be confident!”, “Kick more”, so forth. I asked Werdum about his display of support. Apparently they got acquainted at some event but they aren’t friends. I remember Werdum was supposed to join Chut Boxe before getting the offer from Team Crocop. I wonder if there is more to this.

UD for Werdum.

(4) Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. Mario Sperry

TK exchanging punches. Sperry clinches to throw a few knees. Separates. Sprerry lands a big right hook. TK remains offensive. He keeps throwing punches. Clinch. TK gets a take down via O-uchi-gari. He lands into guard but stands out of it. Break. Sperry lands a right, but TK remains offensive. TK lands a vicious right hand to the temple. Sperry is knocked out.

Comment: TK’s apparently been working on his boxing at Mejiro’s Yonekura Boxing Gym. His offensive boxing seemed better. He may need to work more on his defense. Sperry’s boxing seemed to be at a similar level as when he fought Ninja. Hmm. Future uncertain. Meanwhile, TK got himself a ticket to the Open Weight tournament, his retirement fiesta.

(5) Alistair Overeem vs. Sergey Kharitonov

Jab exchanges. Equal speed. Alistair in a low stance, with quick but cautious jabs. Alistair gets a beautiful wrestling style double leg take down. (At this point, Sergey may have injured his right shoulder.) Lands into side mount. Throws knees to the face. Sergey’s nose is bleeding. Alistair transitions to full mount. Sergey reverses, giving up his back to Alistair who decides to stand out and immediately attempt a guillotine. Sergey decides to lay back to avoid the guillotine in exchange of getting side mounted again. Alistair maintains this position while throwing a bunch of powerful knees. TKO.

Comment: Alistair has got prospect. With good stamina, he could beat Shogun. In this fight, his endurance didn’t get tested though. Plus Sergey apparently injured his right shoulder at the beginning. I wonder if he’s overcome his stamina issues. I also wonder if Alistair boxed with a very low stance and defensive jab as a precaution against Sergey’s jabs and body punches. Team Golden Glory remains yet a slight mystery to me. (Same goes for Rings Holland.)

(6) Nakamura Kazuhiko vs. Josh Barnett

Josh in with Matt Hume and Akira Shoji. Nak not getting much applauds. Josh 191cm, 115.5 kg. Nak 178cm, 102kg. The first of four Open Weight match ups; seems more like an Open Height match. Nakamura showed that the “o-uchi gari” is pretty effective even in mma. Nakamura survived Josh’s leg lock attempts. Besides that, nothing much happened. The match was uninspiring. Josh won by rear naked choke. The smaller guy lost.

(7) Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Tamura Kiyoshi

Nog with the K Powers shirt. (The freestyle wrestler Ikematsu Kazuhiko is also funded by this Pachinko & Slot company.) Nog gets into the ring over the top rope. Pride announcement: 22,141 spectators in the stadium.

Nog at 109 kg reenacts Rings KoK 2000 Armbar submission win over Tamura at 85kg who now wants to re-re-match Nog a la Sakuraba vs. Wand. Tamura, Minowa, and Sakuraba are similarly somewhat enigmatic.

Anyways, the smaller guy lost easy.

(8) Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio Shogun

Coleman with his dad and Phil Baroni. Coleman gets in the ring over the top rope. Shogun with Ninja and the usual two. Coleman is slimmer. Was he really at 101.7kg then? Shogun at 103kg is then heavier. Transition from MW to HW.

Shogun throwing wild kicks. Coleman throwing punches then takes down. Shogun attempts a triangle armbar. Coleman slams. Shogun transitions to leg lock attempt. Shogun’s bjj is smoother. Nino doing his job. Coleman gets out and immediately shoots for a takedown. Coleman seemed back in the right wrestling mindset, hungry for the takedown. The persistence paid off. Shogun falls onto his forearms. His right forearm dislocates. Ref stoppage. TKO. At first I didn’t know why the ref stopped the fight. The replay clarified the situation.

Aftermath: Meanwhile, Coleman got overly pissed, Silva came in for the punch but fell to the ground, Coleman and Baroni pounded while bunch of people gathered in to stop or fight. I’m unsure about when and what Ninja did to whom. Some reported that Ninja was the first one to throw a punch at Coleman, then Silva went for the takedown. Another account doesn’t feature Ninja. One of Shogun’s corner men got a yellow card. Maybe Rafael Cordeiro?

Comment: In guess there’s a new storyline. Hammer House vs Chute Boxe! And again, this match ended with the defeat of the fighter that came up from a lighter weight.

(9) Mark Hunt vs. Nishijima Yosuke

It was 95.5kg of pure boxing vs 132.5kg of pure madness. Nishijima in with his lucky pants featuring his lucky colors (yellow and green). It was a war! Nishijima has a nice left jab and hook. Hunt’s getting on top of his jujitsu positioning and chicken winging.

I wonder if Hunt still trains with Marcelo Rezende at Gracie Barra Sydney. This match also featured the devastating power of knees. But another right hand to the temple ended the fourth and last Open Weight match of the night.

Hunt’s post fight qualification of Nishijima was pretty mild. Great heart, good hands, but nothing too special. Nishijima’s punches apparently didn’t pose danger to Hunt. Says Hunt himself. Bluff? Possibly. For sure Hunt is tough but his endurance is questionable.

This match up turned out to be exciting as Nishijima kept standing back out and up from all the bombs Hunt kept landing. It sort of reminded me of Ken Norton vs Jerry Quarry.

I’d like to see Nishijima in the MW instead. I know he’s been pursuing the heavyweight dream in boxing. But at this rate, he may never reach the top in both fields. Lets see if he decides to put boxing aside to become more well-rounded.

Afterthoughts:

Rizzo is a broken man. Zentsov’s future is uncertain. Rampage is just doing his job. Yoon needs work. Einemo needs work. Werdum needs to train some more boxing. TK wants to fight Fedor in the Open Weight GP. Sperry is out. Sergey is injured. Alistair is well-rounded but inconsistent (like Ignashov for the K-1 fans out there). Josh didn’t get to show much (is he progressing?). Nakamura is inconclusive and mediocre. Nog got to take Tamura on a quick school bus ride. Tamura is out of the loop. Shogun is injured. Coleman is back in the race. Hunt got to beat up on a retired boxer for three rounds. Nishijima needs work.

I look forward to Werdum’s progress. A match-up against Alistair would be interesting. Coleman’s come back is heart warming. Another big win would be nice. He’ll probably have to fight a Chute Boxe representative in the near future. Nog gives me the vague feeling that he is still progressing. I like that kind of fighter. Nishijima seems to have potential if he opens his mind up. Yoon may also have a chance to become better than Yoshida.

All in all, the event was pretty action packed. 2 KOs, 3 TKOs, 2 SUBs, and 2 wild fights.

Welcome to show business.