Sunday Blog: Submission of the Year

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By Tony Loiseleur (tloiseleur@sherdog.com)

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Sunday, 2:30 p.m. ET: Sherdog’s Tony Loiseleur reports from the Sengoku postfight presser. Check out his notebook as well.

“I apologize to Mori, and I admit that I made a mistake. I didn’t really think about it, but my foot came out and I kicked him. I wasn’t thinking of doing a soccer kick, but that’s what it was. I hope that next time, I hope to have better control of myself and will train hard for that.” -- Maximo Blanco, smiling like the Cheshire cat, while apologizing to the press for his disqualifying soccer kick.

“He’s the first opponent to make my nose bleed. I’d never had a nose-bleed in the middle of a fight before. Shit. But it was fun.” -- Maximo Blanco

“I’m not Christian, and it’s probably written in Portuguese, so uh … I guess I’ll just let it sit somewhere, at home?” -- Makoto Takimoto, on Michael Costa’s post-fight gift, the Holy Bible.

“I’ve obviously never been knocked out before. I remember my corner saying, ‘Nick, it’s OK, the fight’s over.’ I was really confused, and they walked me out back to the doctor’s room. I heard that when you get knocked out, it feels like there’s cobwebs or something, and that’s exactly what it feels like. When I look back, coming back from the ring, it was like, slowly, cobwebs or clouds were being removed. So it took about five or 10 minutes, and finally, everything was there. I feel fine now, and I don’t really feel that hurt. I guess I’m going to get a headache pretty soon. How do I feel? It really sucks, you know, because I was so convinced that I had him figured out, and I didn’t get to showcase anything that I’ve been working on. So, it’s frustrating, but hopefully I’ll be back in Sengoku.” -- Nick Denis’ on his fist knockout loss.

“I was in a position where I couldn’t really do too much about it. He had me in mount and he went for it from there. Once he put me in it, it didn’t come on straight away, which is why I took a long time to tap. But I knew eventually, it was going to get me no matter what. I did try to hold it, but it was either tap or I was going to sleep.” -- Ronnie Mann, on Hioki’s triangle.

“I think it’s good for me to fight a very strong opponent [like Santos] before getting a shot at Kitaoka. I’m also the kind of fighter that doesn’t perform well if a lot of time passes between fights. This time, there was just too long of a lull between my last fight, so I wasn’t able to fight my best. I would have preferred to strike more, and there’s a lot that I need to improve on, but most of all, I think I managed to show that I won. Hopefully I’ll be able to fight Kitaoka next.” -- Kazunori Yokota

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By Mike Fridley (mike@sherdog.com)

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Sunday, 4:30 a.m. ET: Courtesy of Bellator, check out Toby Imada’s submission of knockout artist Jorge Masvidal.

With respect to Shinichi Kojima’s work on Yuki Shoujou, I think there’s a new front-runner for 2009’s submission of the year.

What is your call for sub of the year?

Continue Reading » Reader comments…

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By Tony Loiseleur (tloiseleur@sherdog.com)

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Sunday, 4:00 a.m. ET: We’re all familiar with the quest to make MMA an Olympic sport. While Western efforts and failures are myriad, no one has really seemed to ask if Japan is doing anything about it.

Well, Japan is, apparently. Here’s one example as relayed by World Victory Road and Sengoku boss, Takahiro Kokuho.

Sherdog.com: Soon after World Victory Road was established, the Kakutogi-Kyokai was also formed. At that time, it was a purported means to unify all of MMA in Japan. What is the status of the Kakutogi-Kyokai today, and is its aim still to “sanction” all of MMA in Japan?

Takahiro Kokuho: Currently, the Kakutogi-Kyokai is called the Nihon Sogo Kakutogi Renmei, or the “Japan MMA Association,” and it’s affiliated with seven other wrestling associations, like the Japan High School Wrestling Association, the Japan Women’s Wrestling Association, etc. The Japan MMA Association is the eighth of these wrestling affiliated associations.

We’re also affiliated with the Fédération Internationale des Luttes Associées [International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles], or FILA, and through them, the Japan Olympic Committee as well as various international wrestling associations throughout the world. Of course, we would all like to work together to try and establish MMA as an Olympic sport in the future. Toward that end, in next year’s World Martial Arts games in China, we are looking to start an event for mixed martial arts, which will be sponsored by the International Olympic Committee.

SD: There’s been a lot of talk in the West about trying to make MMA into an Olympic sport. No one has ever really been clear if Japan was trying for the same things, however. Is this the new goal of the Japan MMA Association?

TK: We are, and our current tactic at the moment is to try and get MMA into the Olympics as a subdivision or a discipline of wrestling. Karate and sambo, at least in Japan, has had difficulty getting into the Olympics because they’ve often tried to come in as a single event. Olympic events are usually set between 26 or 27 different main events, so things are already quite crowded. Olympic wrestling now has Greco-Roman, freestyle, and recently, women’s wrestling under its banner. As a fourth discipline, we’d like to introduce MMA.

FILA is already moving forward in trying to make this happen. In the past, it was often small promotions lobbying for MMA to be in the Olympics. Thus, with FILA’s cooperation, we feel that we may have a better chance of finally making it happen.

Check the blog all day for more entries.

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