D.O.G 2: Curse or Blessing for Japanese Fighters?
Stephen Martinez Jun 13, 2005
TOKYO, June 11 — New Japanese cage promotion D.O.G. ran its second
show on Saturday at Differ Ariake near the Tokyo bay area in front
of an almost sold out crowd that came to see an interesting mix
between Japanese, Russian and UFC veterans.
D.O.G. is sponsored by the promotion GCM, the same organization that held several small shows like Demolition, Contenders and Cross-Section across Japan. These shows get a lot of help from a big network of gyms commonly know in Japan as Wajyutsu Keysyukai. Think about this network as an independent union of gyms and fighters who runs their own shows, but also send fighters to all the major players in Japan like PRIDE, HERO’s, Pancrase, SHOOTO and DEEP.
In this group of fighters we can find, among others, such veterans
like Akira Shoji, Caol Uno and
current King of Pancrase welterweight champion Katsuya Inoue.
Now the Wajyutsu Keysyukai network has a very good and close relation with K-1 and more recently with Akira Maeda production HERO’s. So think about GCM and Wajyutsu like development territories for K-1 and Maeda MMA in the Japanese market, which is currently led by PRIDE.
Without throwing a single punch both fighters stood in the middle with Thompson going for a single-leg takedown. In the middle of the move and between the subsequent scramble Thompson injured his elbow. Both Okami and the referee were caught by surprise after the shot as Thompson complained about pain. After a quick check the referee, aware the American fighter could not continue, stopped the match and awarded the win to a disappointed Okami.
Later backstage Thompson told Sherdog.com and the Japanese media about his elbow injury. When asked by Sherdog.com what was his strategy coming to this fight Thompson said, “I was aware of Okami’s striking so I decided to take the fight to the ground with the takedown, my elbow felt out of place and I started to feel some burn. I was afraid it might be broken at the moment.”
Later Thompson added, “After the doctors checked they told me there is no fracture; I feel bad for Okami and the fans. I should it keep the fight with the pain.”
American Top team fighter and UFC veteran Mike Thomas Brown faced Demolition veteran Taiyo Nakahara in the under card. Brown came out aggressive, blazing Nakahara with punches but the Japanese fighter used some of his trademark unorthodox striking stances to keep Brown guessing for seconds before attack.
Nakahara got a good chance to finish the fight in the first round after a referee break due to inactivity on the ground. He blasted Brown’s head with a high kick that dropped the American to his knees. Brown somehow under instinct took Nakahara down and worked him from top with ground-and-pound.
The finish came at 2:23 of the second round with Brown working Nakahara’s back. The Japanese fighter scrambled his way to top position inside Brown’s guard but the American managed to catch Nakahara in the transition with a side-choke.
When asked about the move he used to finish the fight, Brown told Sherdog.com, “I practice this move in training all the time but people tell me I shouldn’t use this choke because is ineffective.”
“Nakahara scrambled his way inside my guard but I was already working the side choke so I decided why not and look, he tapped,” Brown continued. When asked about his future plans Brown said, “I will love to continue fighting in Japan. Here I can find people in my own weight to show my skills; right now there is no interest in USA for lightweight fighters and on top I’m a small lightweight too. I’d rather stick to the 65-kg division and Japan is the place to be and fight under this weight.
“There are so many good fighters in my weight division here, guys like Rumina Sato or ‘Pequeno’ Nogueira — people I will like to face in the future but on top I will like a rematch with Genki Sudo. When we fought in the UFC my submission defense was horrible, but now under my new team American Top team I get to train with 20 black belts. I have the best sparring partners and team to train now. My submission defense is so much better now. I will like to get other shot to Sudo.”
Another UFC veteran, Nick Agallar, saw action against KOTC veteran Eiji Mitsuoka — one of the few Japanese fighters with experience inside the cage. Mitsuoka used the strategy of shooting for takedowns and throw punches inside Agallar’s guard. Around the second round Agallar’s corners, Jorge Rivera and Nick Thompson, started to figure out Mistuoka’s repetitive strategy. They told their fighter to work the sprawl and keep the fight standing since Agallar was landing good punches that forced Mituoka to quickly shoot for takedowns.
Agallar followed the advice and kept Mitsuoka at bay with good takedown defense while rocking Mitsuoka with strikes. Around the third round Mitsuoka was already showing sign of gassing out while Agallar was still with full tank pushing forward. The judges awarded the American fighter the unanimous decision.
Half of the award for Knockout Of The Night goes to Hidetaka Monma, who took 3:30 into the first round to brutally land a left punch that knocked out Dave Strasser. The American open the round rushing Monma with punches. He survived the early attack and clinched Strasser while landing inside knees.
Both fighters kept the clinch work with Monma throwing more knees while Strasser’s answer came with short body punches. Strasser broke the clinch and threw a left hook, but Monma countered with a left of his own sending Strasser down hard to the canvas. The referee stopped the action and quickly the ringside doctors and Strasser’s corner stormed into the cage to check his condition.
“I feel very good about today result,” Monma told Sherdog.com. “I wasn’t expecting a KO, especially a quick KO, but I’m glad I won.” About his future plans Monma said, “I will like to keep growing up like a fighter and probably in the future join a big promotion like HERO’s.”
The other half of the KO Of The Night award of the night goes to Kid Yamamoto’s Killer Bees new powerhouse Riki Fukuda, who took merely 28 seconds to land a brutal knockout over Russian fighter Oleg Bazayev. Fukuda survived a very early wild exchange when Bazayev dropped him with a punch.
Fukuda recuperated and held for a takedown, but the Russian caught him with a standing guillotine choke. After Fukuda muscled his way out Bazayev pushed forward with some weird stance similar to Karate and landed body punches. Yet he held his hands totally down.
Fukuda took the Russian coming in and almost decapitated Bazayev with a brutal left. Bazayev’s head went totally backward and he dropped out. Fukuda followed to finish but the referee quickly jumped to stop further damage.
The rest of the card pitted Pancrase veterans Yuji Hoshino and Takuya Wada, each taking a round to score a draw.
Russian fighter Dzeboev Aslan made his MMA debut with a first round KO over Scottish fighter Stewart Fulton.
Another MMA newcomer Hiroki Osaki debuting with unanimous decision victory over Akihiko Adachi in the first bout of the night.
This concludes the second edition of GCM D.O.G. cage show. While my partner Masa Fukui and I notice the crowd was a little bit lower than the first edition we also notice more Japanese press coverage for this show. Hopefully with the good connection between GCM and K-1/Maeda the cage will be around for more shows. This in the end only helps Japanese fighters to get exposure to this new environment more popular in other part of the world.
While the Japanese fighters showed a negative record inside other international promotions that use the cage we also need to keep in mind cage events are not very common in the Japanese scene, which is dominated by traditional ring action.
Only two places in Japan have cages to train with. This makes it difficult for fighters to try and learn to adapt their styles to fight in a totally different environment like the cage, especially since D.O.G. allows fighters to use other weapons like elbows and knees to down opponents like promotions PRIDE and UFC.
D.O.G. is sponsored by the promotion GCM, the same organization that held several small shows like Demolition, Contenders and Cross-Section across Japan. These shows get a lot of help from a big network of gyms commonly know in Japan as Wajyutsu Keysyukai. Think about this network as an independent union of gyms and fighters who runs their own shows, but also send fighters to all the major players in Japan like PRIDE, HERO’s, Pancrase, SHOOTO and DEEP.
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Now the Wajyutsu Keysyukai network has a very good and close relation with K-1 and more recently with Akira Maeda production HERO’s. So think about GCM and Wajyutsu like development territories for K-1 and Maeda MMA in the Japanese market, which is currently led by PRIDE.
The main event of the evening was lead by PRIDE, Pancrase and
SuperBrawl veteran fighter Yushin Okami versus Nick Thompson from the America
freestyle academy. While this fight looked good on paper, I along
with the rest of the fans in attendance were left guessing since
Thompson suffered a freak accident 29 seconds into the first
round.
Without throwing a single punch both fighters stood in the middle with Thompson going for a single-leg takedown. In the middle of the move and between the subsequent scramble Thompson injured his elbow. Both Okami and the referee were caught by surprise after the shot as Thompson complained about pain. After a quick check the referee, aware the American fighter could not continue, stopped the match and awarded the win to a disappointed Okami.
Later backstage Thompson told Sherdog.com and the Japanese media about his elbow injury. When asked by Sherdog.com what was his strategy coming to this fight Thompson said, “I was aware of Okami’s striking so I decided to take the fight to the ground with the takedown, my elbow felt out of place and I started to feel some burn. I was afraid it might be broken at the moment.”
Later Thompson added, “After the doctors checked they told me there is no fracture; I feel bad for Okami and the fans. I should it keep the fight with the pain.”
American Top team fighter and UFC veteran Mike Thomas Brown faced Demolition veteran Taiyo Nakahara in the under card. Brown came out aggressive, blazing Nakahara with punches but the Japanese fighter used some of his trademark unorthodox striking stances to keep Brown guessing for seconds before attack.
Nakahara got a good chance to finish the fight in the first round after a referee break due to inactivity on the ground. He blasted Brown’s head with a high kick that dropped the American to his knees. Brown somehow under instinct took Nakahara down and worked him from top with ground-and-pound.
The finish came at 2:23 of the second round with Brown working Nakahara’s back. The Japanese fighter scrambled his way to top position inside Brown’s guard but the American managed to catch Nakahara in the transition with a side-choke.
When asked about the move he used to finish the fight, Brown told Sherdog.com, “I practice this move in training all the time but people tell me I shouldn’t use this choke because is ineffective.”
“Nakahara scrambled his way inside my guard but I was already working the side choke so I decided why not and look, he tapped,” Brown continued. When asked about his future plans Brown said, “I will love to continue fighting in Japan. Here I can find people in my own weight to show my skills; right now there is no interest in USA for lightweight fighters and on top I’m a small lightweight too. I’d rather stick to the 65-kg division and Japan is the place to be and fight under this weight.
“There are so many good fighters in my weight division here, guys like Rumina Sato or ‘Pequeno’ Nogueira — people I will like to face in the future but on top I will like a rematch with Genki Sudo. When we fought in the UFC my submission defense was horrible, but now under my new team American Top team I get to train with 20 black belts. I have the best sparring partners and team to train now. My submission defense is so much better now. I will like to get other shot to Sudo.”
Another UFC veteran, Nick Agallar, saw action against KOTC veteran Eiji Mitsuoka — one of the few Japanese fighters with experience inside the cage. Mitsuoka used the strategy of shooting for takedowns and throw punches inside Agallar’s guard. Around the second round Agallar’s corners, Jorge Rivera and Nick Thompson, started to figure out Mistuoka’s repetitive strategy. They told their fighter to work the sprawl and keep the fight standing since Agallar was landing good punches that forced Mituoka to quickly shoot for takedowns.
Agallar followed the advice and kept Mitsuoka at bay with good takedown defense while rocking Mitsuoka with strikes. Around the third round Mitsuoka was already showing sign of gassing out while Agallar was still with full tank pushing forward. The judges awarded the American fighter the unanimous decision.
Half of the award for Knockout Of The Night goes to Hidetaka Monma, who took 3:30 into the first round to brutally land a left punch that knocked out Dave Strasser. The American open the round rushing Monma with punches. He survived the early attack and clinched Strasser while landing inside knees.
Both fighters kept the clinch work with Monma throwing more knees while Strasser’s answer came with short body punches. Strasser broke the clinch and threw a left hook, but Monma countered with a left of his own sending Strasser down hard to the canvas. The referee stopped the action and quickly the ringside doctors and Strasser’s corner stormed into the cage to check his condition.
“I feel very good about today result,” Monma told Sherdog.com. “I wasn’t expecting a KO, especially a quick KO, but I’m glad I won.” About his future plans Monma said, “I will like to keep growing up like a fighter and probably in the future join a big promotion like HERO’s.”
The other half of the KO Of The Night award of the night goes to Kid Yamamoto’s Killer Bees new powerhouse Riki Fukuda, who took merely 28 seconds to land a brutal knockout over Russian fighter Oleg Bazayev. Fukuda survived a very early wild exchange when Bazayev dropped him with a punch.
Fukuda recuperated and held for a takedown, but the Russian caught him with a standing guillotine choke. After Fukuda muscled his way out Bazayev pushed forward with some weird stance similar to Karate and landed body punches. Yet he held his hands totally down.
Fukuda took the Russian coming in and almost decapitated Bazayev with a brutal left. Bazayev’s head went totally backward and he dropped out. Fukuda followed to finish but the referee quickly jumped to stop further damage.
The rest of the card pitted Pancrase veterans Yuji Hoshino and Takuya Wada, each taking a round to score a draw.
Russian fighter Dzeboev Aslan made his MMA debut with a first round KO over Scottish fighter Stewart Fulton.
Another MMA newcomer Hiroki Osaki debuting with unanimous decision victory over Akihiko Adachi in the first bout of the night.
This concludes the second edition of GCM D.O.G. cage show. While my partner Masa Fukui and I notice the crowd was a little bit lower than the first edition we also notice more Japanese press coverage for this show. Hopefully with the good connection between GCM and K-1/Maeda the cage will be around for more shows. This in the end only helps Japanese fighters to get exposure to this new environment more popular in other part of the world.
While the Japanese fighters showed a negative record inside other international promotions that use the cage we also need to keep in mind cage events are not very common in the Japanese scene, which is dominated by traditional ring action.
Only two places in Japan have cages to train with. This makes it difficult for fighters to try and learn to adapt their styles to fight in a totally different environment like the cage, especially since D.O.G. allows fighters to use other weapons like elbows and knees to down opponents like promotions PRIDE and UFC.
