Rounding out the show are an intriguing clash between world class grapplers in Yoshihiro Akiyama and newcomer Katsuhiko Nagata and some serious super heavyweight action featuring Akebono and one of the sport’s most highly touted young monsters in Antonio ‘Pezao’ Da Silva Junior.  Coming just a couple of days before Pride’s Open Weight tournament begins, this show may not be getting all the attention but should do well in the TV ratings and also provide plenty of high quality action.

Line-up:

KID Yamamoto vs. Kazayuki Miyata
Grand Prix: Hideo Tokoro vs. Black Mamba
Grand Prix: Gilbert Melendez vs. Ryuki Ueyama
Grand Prix: Hidetaka Monma vs. Gesias Calvancanti
Grand Prix: Ivan Menjivar vs. Taiyo Nakahara
Grand Prix: Caol Uno vs. Ole Laursen
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Katsuhiko Nagata
Akebono
Antonio Silva
Editors note: At the time of writing Akebono and Silva’s opponents were still officially unconfirmed.  We will do our best to re-edit this preview to include them if possible.

May 3rd 2006
Yoyogi National Stadium

KID Yamamoto vs. Kazayuki Miyata

This has the makings of an absolute war.  Both men are aggressive, powerful punchers with excellent wrestling and should come out firing from the opening bell.  Miyata (2-3) has improved at an incredible pace since his late 2004 debut.  He may have lost to Royler Gracie, Ian Schaffa and Genki Sudo but has taken his superb wrestling (a member of the Japanese Greco-Roman team in the 2004 Olympics) and added some surprisingly good striking and submission awareness.  Capable of landing some big slams and heavy right hands Miyata is also extremely durable and tenacious.  He showed that in his only MAX appearance, taking a low kick masterclass from Takeda Kozo.  Miyata has been on a steep learning curve already but word from the Purebred camp that KID has been training extensively in striking and sprawling means this will be by far his toughest fight yet.  However, Miyata has had some excellent training partners of his own, working with Hayato Sakurai, Tatsuya Kawajiri and Mitsuhiro Ishida.  He also gave Sudo some serious problems in their fight, winning the first round with his wrestling and punching and completely dominated his last fight, armbarring Lithuanian ZST regular Erikas Petraitas late in the first round.  No other fighter on the Hero’s 70KG roster has anything like Miyata’s wrestling credentials.  The only man who can even come close is KID (13-1).

A one-time Olympic hopeful and a genuine wrestling prodigy a few years ago, Yamamoto found an outlet for his hyper-aggressive instincts in MMA.  Blessed with truly concussive power in his fists (just ask Caleb Mitchell, Jadamba Narantungalag or Royler Gracie) Yamamoto also has great striking technique and very fast hands.  He even pushed Masato to the limit in a cracking fight under K-1 MAX rules on New Year’s Eve 2004.  As if Yamamoto’s wrestling and striking don’t make him dangerous enough, he’s also more than competent with submissions, though he much prefers battering his opponents with his fists.  The horrible Tetsuo Katsuta incident seems to be behind him, though he did go for Narantungalag after the bell too, and the 29-year old KID does seem to have grown up a little.  He’s shown real composure and patience in the last couple of fights of his 10-fight winning streak, stopping both Sudo and Caol Uno inside the distance, even if the Sudo stoppage was a little hasty.  With his much greater experience and better-developed skills, Yamamoto should win this.  He may even have the edge in wrestling, strange as that sounds.  Certainly, Miyata has better credentials but Yamamoto has much more experience of using his wrestling within the context of MMA fights.  That could make a difference.  A sprawl and strike strategy looks like being Yamamoto’s best option and he’s the perfect fighter to implement it.  In some ways, this reminds me of the UFC 50 title fight between matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre – it’s just too soon for the fighter on the rise to take on one of the promotion’s most dominant competitors.  I expect it to have a similar income, with Miyata giving KID real trouble early until getting caught.  Look for Miyata to score some takedowns at first but once Yamamoto stuffs and few and lets his punches fly, Miyata will be on the way out.  But whoever wins, this should be a cracker and Miyata can only learn from it.

PREDICTION: Yamamoto by TKO late in the second.

Grand Prix: Hideo Tokoro vs. Black Mamba

I’m not Japanese and don’t pretend to have more than a very superficial understanding of Japan so won’t even begin to speculate on why K-1 took an established, if little-known, fighter in Kultar Gill (7-3) and repackaged him as ‘Black Mamba’ when he first appeared in K-1 MAX.  I do know one thing though.  Mamba will be the underdog against one of last year’s real breakthrough stars, Hideo Tokoro (14-9-1).  A respected ZST regular with an unspectacular record, part-time janitor Tokoro looked like an easy first round opponent for Shooto star Alexandre ‘Pequeno’ Franca Nogueira in the 2005 Hero’s middleweight tournament.  But Tokoro pulled off the year’s biggest upset, being more than competitive on the mat and dropping the Brazilian with a spinning backfist early in the third, extra round, before finishing with some punches on the mat.  Following that up with a decision loss in an excellent fight with Caol Uno ensured Tokoro had arrived on a bigger stage, as did his New Year’s Eve draw with much bigger MMA legend Royce Gracie.  2006 started very badly with his return to ZST and a surprise KO loss to Erikas Petraitas (who Tokoro has twice previously beaten) but Tokoro bounced back in March with a fast, utterly dominant win over Kyokushin Karate fighter Yoshinori Ikeda in a pointless piece of 1994 matchmaking. 

Black Mamba just does not have the necessary skills to beat Tokoro.  He has MMA experience and has mostly fought on the Canadian scene against some good fighters.  He could be dangerous on his feet and was very aggressive when competing in MAX.  Unfortunately for the Indian-born, Canadian based Gill, all 3 of his MMA losses have been by submission and Tokoro is very talented on the mat.  Gill has picked up some submission wins of his own but his losses are much more notable than his wins.  He’s choked out Hawaiian veteran Harris Sarmiento but Yves Edwards, BTT Canada fighter Fabio Holanda and Shooto regular Daisuke Sugie have all forced him to tap.  The always-entertaining Tokoro will likely test his stand-up skills with Gill for a brief period but will quickly take the fight to the ground at the first sign of trouble and the work quickly for, and get, a submission

PREDICTION: Tokoro by submission midway through the first.

Grand Prix: Gilbert Melendez vs. Ryuki Ueyama

Unbeaten 24-year old Cesar Gracie prodigy Melendez (9-0) is, like Hero’s champion KID Yamamoto, a little smaller than most of the fighters hoping to contend for the belt but he’s also one of the most promising.  His opponent Ueyama (6-7-4) is naturally much bigger and will have to work hand to make weight but simply does not have the talent of a fighter like Melendez.  A former protégé of Kiyoshi Tamura, Ueyama has lost 4 of his last 5 fights (he drew the other with Masanori Suda) and usually loses against quality opposition.  Ueyama has not fought under MMA rules since late 2004, although he appeared in the MAX Japan Grand Prix earlier this year – picking up a surprise decision win in his first fight before being taken apart with low kicks and stopped by Yoshihiro Sato.  His most recent MMA fights saw him thoroughly dominated on the mat by Sean Sherk, drop a surprisingly close decision to Ikuhisa Minowa and taken a first round beating from Ryuta Sakurai.  Ueyama may be a decent test for the Californian ranked number 1 in his weight class by Shooto, but he probably won’t win the fight.

Melendez is coming off an impressive win over Hawaiian veteran Harris Sarmiento in March.  Weighing in at 163 pounds, Melendez thoroughly controlled the fight with a great display of sustained, yet composed aggression and the added weight (he usually fights at around 143) did not seem to slow him down at all.  He responded to a nice Sarmiento combination early in the second with a brutally clinical finish with punches and elbows on the ground.  Add that to previous wins over the likes of Shooto legend Rumina Sato (TKO on a cut), Naoya Uematsu, Hiroyuki Takaya and Stephen Palling and Melendez is one of the sport’s most potential-filled competitors.  Boasting a very strong BJJ background, Melendez has actually finished most of his opponents with strikes on the ground and will be expected to hand out some punishment in this one.  He may not be able to finish the very durable Ueyama, but Melendez should dominate and pick up a decision victory without needing the extra round.

PREDICTION: Melendez by decision after two rounds.

Grand Prix: Hidetaka Monma vs. Gesias Calvancanti

American Top Team fighter ‘JZ’ Calvancanti (7-1-1) was supposed to be fighting in London on April 22nd at Cage Rage 16.  A heavy favourite, ‘JZ’ never had a chance to show off his skills.  His opponent Jess Liaudin, who Monma (12-4-3) swept aside with ease last September was hospitalised on the day of the fight after becoming ill while trying to cut weight.  Calvancanti was impressive in his first Cage Rage match last December, obliterating Japanese judoka and Hidehiko Yoshida protégé Michihiro Omigawa with a huge right hand and a couple more on the way down in just 49 seconds.  An athletically gifted, high-energy grappler ‘JZ’ has some excellent submission skills, some busy, effective striking and trains with one of the sport’s very best teams.  He took Joachim Hansen the distance, losing by decision, in just his third fight and this fight could get very interesting.

Former pro wrestler Monma is coming off a boring draw with Rodrigo Gracie (the absolute master of boring fights) in February, and that dominant submission win over Liaudin.  Very tough, very well-rounded and a fighter since 2001, the RINGS, Pancrase, DEEP and GCM veteran will be one of the biggest tests of Calvancanti’s career.  Monma has faced better opposition overall and while he’s lost 4 fights, all of them have been by decision.  Willing to stand and strike (he’s the only man to ever KO the experienced Dave Strasser) and fully capable of grappling on the mat, Monma is a very good fighter.  This looks to be the closest of the night’s Grand Prix matches and with both men’s respective skills, seems set to go the distance.  The Florida based Brazilian trends to be the more aggressive of the two and will probably start out that way here but Monma is a very talented defensive fighter and should be able to hold him off and try some offensive work of his own.  Look for a tight, compelling match that shows off plenty of excellent ground technique that will likely need the third, extra round, to decide a winner.  Calvancanti is just good enough to sneak away with the very close victory.

PREDICTION: Calvancanti by decision after the third (extra) round.

Grand Prix: Ivan Menjivar vs. Taiyo Nakahara

Originally set to face Brazilian Leonardo Noguiera, ‘the Pride of El Salvador’ Menjivar (17-5) now makes his Hero’s debut against late replacement Nakahara (7-3).  Wajyutsu fighter Nakahara has dropped two of his last three but has only ever lost to quality fighters like slippery BJJ specialist Rani Yahira, ATT veteran Mike Thomas Brown and Hideo Tokoro.  Speaking of Tokoro, Nakahara can take some inspiration from his example.  One big win in a Hero’s tournament transformed Tokoro from a well-regarded but fairly anonymous ZST fighter into a genuine star.  A GCM regular, Nakahara looked very impressive in his last victory, armbarring talented French fighter Frederic Fernandez last October.  I may be picking the Canadian based Menjivar to win but a Nakahara victory would hardly be the year’s biggest upset.

Like Nakahara, Menjivar has only lost to very good fighters.  Moreover, two of those defeats were hardly straightforward losses.  He was disqualified in his last fight for an illegal kick and his first professional loss, against current UFC superstar Georges St. Pierre was a truly incomprehensible stoppage that owed more to refereeing errors than anything else.  Menjivar has also dropped decisions to a couple of excellent grapplers – Matt Serra (in that rarest of things, a really enjoyable Serra fight) and Vitor ‘Shaolin’ Ribeiro.  The only man to ‘cleanly’ finish him inside the distance is Miletich fighter Jason Black, and that was 4 years ago.  Both Nakahara and Menjivar have a great opportunity to shine on the major stage here and I have a feeling Menjivar will really grab it.  Extremely talented and durable, he’s also more experienced and should walk away with a win in a fight that will likely be decided on the mat.

PREDICTION: Ivan Menjivar SUB2 Taiyo Nakahara

Caol Uno vs. Ole Laursen

Danish Muay Thai stylist Laursen (0-1) shocked many with his performance against Genki Sudo in March.  What looked to be a straightforward win for Sudo to keep him in contention for a shot at KID Yamamoto’s belt turned into a hard fought struggle.  Showing some surprisingly good mat skills, Laursen went the full 3 round distance with Sudo.  That impressive showing against a clearly overconfident Sudo (for all his showmanship he’s never worn a costume like that in any previous fight) helped earn Laursen a spot in the tournament and a fight with other of the promotion’s best fighters in Uno (19-8-4).  Given the differences in their styles and the evidence of Laursen’s first match Uno is very unlikely to make the same mistake of underestimating the Scandinavian striker.  Which means Uno should win this fight.  While he has some neat, effective striking, Uno would be foolish to spend too long on his feet with Laursen.  Instead look for him to score an early takedown and get to work on the ground. 

Laursen showed some good defensive mat skills against Sudo but even if he can stop Uno submitting him, I doubt he has the ability to keep the initiative and win this fight on the ground.  Uno is a smart veteran with some excellent technique, as shown in his wins over Rich Clementi, Hideo Tokoro, Din Thomas and Yves Edwards, his draw with BJ Penn and his thrilling loss to Joachim Hansen in what may still be the best ever K-1 Hero’s fight.  Look for another impressive showing by Laursen, who seems to be a strong addition to the Hero’s roster, but expect Uno to ultimately control the fight and pick up the win, perhaps by submission.

PREDICTION: Uno by submission midway through the third (extra) round.

Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Katsuhiko Nagata

A world-class amateur wrestler and little brother of New Japan star Yuji Nagata, Katsuhiko (1-0) was impressive, if unexciting on New Year’s Eve when he thoroughly outwrestled ultra-dangerous Lithuanian sociopath Remigijus Morkevicius for a decision win.  Fast and technically sound with his wrestling, Nagata shows real promise but has a lot to learn.  This could be a tough one too, especially since Akiyama (5-1) is not only a world-class judoka with more MMA experience, he’s significantly bigger than Nagata.  By the time they get in the ring former World Judo champion Akiyama could be at least 20 to 30 pounds heavier than his opponent.  Akiyama’s scheduled New Year’s Eve fight with Royce Gracie could have been a breakthrough performance for him as many expected him to win against a legendary name on one of the year’s biggest shows.  Unfortunately for the world’s most metrosexual grappler, a back injury forced him to pull out of the fight.  Now fully recovered, he should really win this fight.  He easily armbarred heavyweight boxer Frans Botha on the last day of 2004 but was KO’ed by much larger K-1 superstar Jerome LeBanner with a violent knee to the face in March 2005.  Since then Akiyama has gone 4-0 but has yet to face anyone with any serious wrestling skills.  His most recent victim, Tokimitsu Ishizawa was a very good amateur wrestler but that was over a decade ago and Ishizawa simply has not done enough MMA training to be a genuine threat.

Akiyama will have the weight advantage but Nagata should also be faster and with neither man being an expert striker, this should turn into a grappling match.  Then again, quite often a pair of elite grapplers will be so wary of each other’s expertise they’ll choose to stand and strike instead.  If that happens, Akiyama should win, simply because he’s bigger and had more experience.  But if Nagata has developed enough submission awareness, there’s a chance he can take Akiyama down, control him on the ground and grind out a victory.  But by far the likeliest outcome is an Akiyama win.  Look for him to take this one, possibly by decision after being pushed very hard by Nagata in the first round or so.

PREDICTION: Akiyama by decision after the third (extra) round.

Akebono

It had to happen.  After the TV ratings disappointment of the last Hero’s event, K-1 have done their best to pack this show with big names.  Its just a shame Chad ‘Akebono’ Rowan’s (0-2) value has been so badly diminished by his continual losses and poor performances in the ring.  Bullying Bob Sapp around in the opening moments of their 2003 TV ratings extravaganza under K-1 rules has been the sole highlight of his legitimate fighting career since signing up with K-1.  He really should stick to pro wrestling where, despite the obvious physical limitations and his lack of experience, he’s been doing surprisingly well.  As usual when Akebono tries his hand at MMA, you really shouldn’t expect much.  Royce Gracie routinely submitted him with a wrist lock at Premium Dynamite 2004 in just 2:13 and TV personality/fighter Bobby Olugon took a decision verdict over the big Hawaiian in a truly atrocious fight exactly a year later.  Aside from height, sheer bulk and some very impressive pushing strength, Akebono offers little under MMA rules.  With his opponent still unnamed at press time, Akebono had better hope things don’t fall through and K-1 put him in the ring with the other super heavyweight making a Hero’s debut.  If he fights Antonio Silva, Rowan will be in for a short, humiliating and very painful night’s work.

Antonio Silva

Co-winner of the 2005 kakutougi.info ‘Rookie of the Year’ award (here), Cage Warriors Super Heavyweight champion and often tagged as the next BIG thing, Silva (5-0) should make a real impact in his Japanese debut.  Like Akebono, his opponent is being kept secret at the time of writing in the hopes of K-1 being able to announce an attention grabbing surprise.  Whoever it is, it’s hard to think of many super heavyweights available to K-1 who ‘Pezao’ doesn’t have the potential to just walk throw.  He’s already beaten a path of destruction through some pretty well-regarded big men and is clearly improving all the time.  Once again training full time at England’s Wolfslair Gym (home to one Michael Bisping) after a brief stay with the Brazilian Top Team Silva could be something very special.  He crushed Tengiz Tedoradze in a way nobody else ever has, easily swept aside Marcus Tchinda and Rafael Carino and most recently hammered Ruben ‘Warpath’ Villareal and Tadas Rimkevicius in CWFC title fights.  None of his fights have gone behind the first 3 and a half minutes either.  Silva still has room for improvement but with his sheer physical size, good groundwork, heavy hands, flexibility (he almost took Rimkevicius’ head off with the first high kick attempt of his career) and, according to his camp, excellent stamina for a man his size, he should make an immediate impact.  Whoever his opponent is, they could be in for a beating.

Predictions Re-cap:

KID Yamamoto TKO2 Kazayuki Miyata
Hideo Tokoro SUB1 Black Mamba
Gilbert Melendez DEC2 Ryuki Ueyama
Gesias Calvancanti DEC3 Hidetaka Monma
Ivan Menjivar SUB2 Taiyo Nakahara
Caol Uno SUB3 Ole Laursen
Yoshihiro Akiyama DEC3 Katsuhiko Nagata