‘Wicky Akiyo,’ Yamazaki Advance in Cage Force
Tony Loiseleur Feb 11, 2008
TOKYO, Feb. 11 -- Greatest Common Multiple's first 2008 effort took
place Monday with a Cage Force EX-Eastern Bound card at Differ
Ariake. Even though the event was not part of the main Cage Force
series, Japan's flagship cage promotion started the year strong
with eight finishes in 10 bouts, as well as an auspicious beginning
to its featherweight tournament.
In the main event, Shooto 2006 lightweight rookie champion "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura (Pictures) took on Korean prospect Jong Man Kim in one of the evening's two featherweight quarterfinal bouts.
Taking the center of the cage, Nishiura opened the bout by blasting
Kim with a high kick that, despite landing full force, appeared to
leave the Korean unfazed. Unperturbed at the lack of any ill
effects on his opponent, Nishiura quickly followed up by diving
forward with wild hooks. Kim defended well, though. He used his
opponent's momentum to whip him headfirst into the cage and then
circled out, prompting "Wicky" to follow.
Back at the center, Nishiura began his unique brand of twitching and feinting in an effort to throw off his adversary between lobbing bombs and a grazing high kick. The tactic appeared to have worked. Kim was only able to fire off non-committal low kicks while backing up and defending, tentatively looking for his opportunity to counter with heavy leather of his own.
A man of few words, the brash Nishiura thanked the audience before proclaiming himself the definitive tournament favorite over fellow featherweight contestant Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures).
Speaking of Yamazaki, the Grabaka grappling ace submitted Powergate star Daiki Ozaki by way of rear-naked choke in the second round of their featherweight tournament quarterfinal. Though the southpaw Yamazaki connected with several stiff punches throughout the first round, Ozaki immediately returned fire with powerful, tight hooks that stung Yamazaki just as hard, if not harder. Under the threat of eating more potentially fight-ending blows, Yamazaki opted to clinch and strike with knees and dirty boxing between occasional takedown attempts, which Ozaki thwarted by quickly regaining his footing when brought to the canvas.
Yamazaki fared better in the second, however. A takedown against the cage resulted in him capturing side mount before transitioning to back mount during Ozaki's scramble to regain position. Yamazaki then locked in the choke at 2:30.
With these wins, Nishiura and Yamazaki advanced in the featherweight tournament. Nishiura is now set to face the winner of the Adrian Pang (Pictures)/Armando Sanchez bout, and Yamazaki will see the winner of the Antonio Carvalho (Pictures)/Yuji Hoshino (Pictures) bout -- both of which will be decided on the April 5 Cage Force 06 card.
Cage Force regular Hidetaka Monma (Pictures) put away the visiting Yong Hoon Lee quickly and painfully via armbar early in the first round of their welterweight bout. Slipping after throwing a low kick, Monma looked to be in for a world of hurt when the Korean eagerly jumped into Monma's guard to lay on the ground and pound.
Immediately Monma went for wrist control. Lee responded by swinging his elbows around, forcing Monma to pull Lee's head down to control the distance. Creeping his legs up to high guard, Monma set up the textbook armbar that had Lee tapping at 1:44 into the first.
Shootor Mizuto Hirota (Pictures) survived a dangerous first round to knock out French import Johnny Frachey (Pictures) in the second round of their lightweight tilt.
Frachey sought to end the bout early, forgoing the typical glove touch to throw a high kick. The strike was the opening attack in a sequence of blistering punches and kicks that forced Hirota to abandon the stand-and-bang tactic to take the fight to safer waters on the ground. The plan backfired, however, as Frachey eventually took his back for the latter half of the first round and threatened the Japanese fighter with repeated rear-naked choke attempts.
Unfazed, Hirota came out guns blazing in the second round. He caught Frachey with a flurry that sent the Frenchman down to the mat, where he curled up in the fetal position before the referee jumped in to call the bout, awarding Hirota the knockout win at a mere eight seconds into the round.
Sticking to the simple but effective game plan of pressing for the takedown to rain down punches from the top, Yoshihiro Koyama (Pictures) eventually broke through the defenses of slippery grappler Isamu Sugiuchi (Pictures) to pound him out early in the second round.
Koyama doggedly drove forward in spite of eating several punches en route to taking the fight to the canvas. He forced himself into the grappler's guard to rain strikes as Sugiuchi sought sweeps and submission attempts from his back. With the law of averages on his side, Koyama's barrage of shots from the top got through in the second round and he stopped Sugiuchi for the dominant TKO win at the 2:08 mark.
In what was perhaps the card's lowest point, Toshinari Takashima and Tetsuo Set fought a lackluster bout that resulted in a disappointing majority draw. Both men put forth a performance best characterized as two men fighting not to lose.
Realizing Seto's striking pedigree, Takashima's arsenal seemed to be solely comprised of messy, halfhearted punches that were meant more to mask his attempts to clinch with the kyokushin karate fighter against the cage. From there, Takashima delivered inconsequential and infrequent shoulder strikes, as well as the occasional small shot from the inside. As a result, Seto was able to execute only a few low and middle kicks before being neutralized against the cage. After two rounds of this and with very little damage dealt from either party, two judges ruled the bout a draw, with one dissenting judge giving the nod to Takashima.
The card's sole light heavyweight bout saw Hiroki Ozaki (Pictures) defeat Norman Paraisy in what may have been too quick of a stoppage.
Paraisy controlled the first round with his decapitating left hooks and heavy punches from top position. Early in the second round, though, Ozaki had the wherewithal to capitalize on a momentary breakthrough. A perfectly placed right hook dazed the Frenchman enough for Ozaki to take him down, and from the top he quickly isolated the left arm for a key lock and began to torque. Perhaps seeing danger where neither fighter could, the referee quickly jumped in to call the bout, bringing about immediate protests from Paraisy.
In the card's sole bantamweight bout, Taiyo Nakahara (Pictures) made quick work of opponent Motonobu Tezuka. After Tezuka botched a takedown, Nakahara took the top position and quickly transitioned to a leglock that would soon bring the fight to its conclusion. With the referee repeatedly asking him whether he wanted to give up, Tezuka irritably replied with a rapid-fire "no, no, no!" mere seconds before Nakahara achieved full extension for the tap at 1:07 in the first round.
In the evening's preliminary bouts, Naohiro Mizuno (Pictures) played the heavy-handed antagonist on the ground to an outgunned Ryota Sasaki, handily hammering out a unanimous decision after two rounds, and Suzuki Wataru defeated Manabu Watanabe at a brief 37 seconds into the first round, submitting him with a straight armbar from the judo press.
In the main event, Shooto 2006 lightweight rookie champion "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura (Pictures) took on Korean prospect Jong Man Kim in one of the evening's two featherweight quarterfinal bouts.
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Back at the center, Nishiura began his unique brand of twitching and feinting in an effort to throw off his adversary between lobbing bombs and a grazing high kick. The tactic appeared to have worked. Kim was only able to fire off non-committal low kicks while backing up and defending, tentatively looking for his opportunity to counter with heavy leather of his own.
The opportunity never came. At the 2:13 mark of the first round,
"Wicky" surprised Kim with a savage right hook that knocked him out
cold.
A man of few words, the brash Nishiura thanked the audience before proclaiming himself the definitive tournament favorite over fellow featherweight contestant Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures).
Speaking of Yamazaki, the Grabaka grappling ace submitted Powergate star Daiki Ozaki by way of rear-naked choke in the second round of their featherweight tournament quarterfinal. Though the southpaw Yamazaki connected with several stiff punches throughout the first round, Ozaki immediately returned fire with powerful, tight hooks that stung Yamazaki just as hard, if not harder. Under the threat of eating more potentially fight-ending blows, Yamazaki opted to clinch and strike with knees and dirty boxing between occasional takedown attempts, which Ozaki thwarted by quickly regaining his footing when brought to the canvas.
Yamazaki fared better in the second, however. A takedown against the cage resulted in him capturing side mount before transitioning to back mount during Ozaki's scramble to regain position. Yamazaki then locked in the choke at 2:30.
With these wins, Nishiura and Yamazaki advanced in the featherweight tournament. Nishiura is now set to face the winner of the Adrian Pang (Pictures)/Armando Sanchez bout, and Yamazaki will see the winner of the Antonio Carvalho (Pictures)/Yuji Hoshino (Pictures) bout -- both of which will be decided on the April 5 Cage Force 06 card.
Cage Force regular Hidetaka Monma (Pictures) put away the visiting Yong Hoon Lee quickly and painfully via armbar early in the first round of their welterweight bout. Slipping after throwing a low kick, Monma looked to be in for a world of hurt when the Korean eagerly jumped into Monma's guard to lay on the ground and pound.
Immediately Monma went for wrist control. Lee responded by swinging his elbows around, forcing Monma to pull Lee's head down to control the distance. Creeping his legs up to high guard, Monma set up the textbook armbar that had Lee tapping at 1:44 into the first.
Shootor Mizuto Hirota (Pictures) survived a dangerous first round to knock out French import Johnny Frachey (Pictures) in the second round of their lightweight tilt.
Frachey sought to end the bout early, forgoing the typical glove touch to throw a high kick. The strike was the opening attack in a sequence of blistering punches and kicks that forced Hirota to abandon the stand-and-bang tactic to take the fight to safer waters on the ground. The plan backfired, however, as Frachey eventually took his back for the latter half of the first round and threatened the Japanese fighter with repeated rear-naked choke attempts.
Unfazed, Hirota came out guns blazing in the second round. He caught Frachey with a flurry that sent the Frenchman down to the mat, where he curled up in the fetal position before the referee jumped in to call the bout, awarding Hirota the knockout win at a mere eight seconds into the round.
Sticking to the simple but effective game plan of pressing for the takedown to rain down punches from the top, Yoshihiro Koyama (Pictures) eventually broke through the defenses of slippery grappler Isamu Sugiuchi (Pictures) to pound him out early in the second round.
Koyama doggedly drove forward in spite of eating several punches en route to taking the fight to the canvas. He forced himself into the grappler's guard to rain strikes as Sugiuchi sought sweeps and submission attempts from his back. With the law of averages on his side, Koyama's barrage of shots from the top got through in the second round and he stopped Sugiuchi for the dominant TKO win at the 2:08 mark.
In what was perhaps the card's lowest point, Toshinari Takashima and Tetsuo Set fought a lackluster bout that resulted in a disappointing majority draw. Both men put forth a performance best characterized as two men fighting not to lose.
Realizing Seto's striking pedigree, Takashima's arsenal seemed to be solely comprised of messy, halfhearted punches that were meant more to mask his attempts to clinch with the kyokushin karate fighter against the cage. From there, Takashima delivered inconsequential and infrequent shoulder strikes, as well as the occasional small shot from the inside. As a result, Seto was able to execute only a few low and middle kicks before being neutralized against the cage. After two rounds of this and with very little damage dealt from either party, two judges ruled the bout a draw, with one dissenting judge giving the nod to Takashima.
The card's sole light heavyweight bout saw Hiroki Ozaki (Pictures) defeat Norman Paraisy in what may have been too quick of a stoppage.
Paraisy controlled the first round with his decapitating left hooks and heavy punches from top position. Early in the second round, though, Ozaki had the wherewithal to capitalize on a momentary breakthrough. A perfectly placed right hook dazed the Frenchman enough for Ozaki to take him down, and from the top he quickly isolated the left arm for a key lock and began to torque. Perhaps seeing danger where neither fighter could, the referee quickly jumped in to call the bout, bringing about immediate protests from Paraisy.
In the card's sole bantamweight bout, Taiyo Nakahara (Pictures) made quick work of opponent Motonobu Tezuka. After Tezuka botched a takedown, Nakahara took the top position and quickly transitioned to a leglock that would soon bring the fight to its conclusion. With the referee repeatedly asking him whether he wanted to give up, Tezuka irritably replied with a rapid-fire "no, no, no!" mere seconds before Nakahara achieved full extension for the tap at 1:07 in the first round.
In the evening's preliminary bouts, Naohiro Mizuno (Pictures) played the heavy-handed antagonist on the ground to an outgunned Ryota Sasaki, handily hammering out a unanimous decision after two rounds, and Suzuki Wataru defeated Manabu Watanabe at a brief 37 seconds into the first round, submitting him with a straight armbar from the judo press.
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