Rizin World Grand Pre Dec 2015

After years off network television in Japan, two of Japan's major networks and a third television station will all be broadcasting MMA type events on New Year's Eve.

Nobuyuki Sakakibara's Rizin promotion debuts with shows on 12/29 and 12/31 at the Saitama Super Arena. Highlights from both shows will air on New Year’s Eve in Japan on the Fuji Network, as well as that morning on Spike TV in the U.S.

The main selling points are a Fedor Emelianenko fight against an opponent to be named., plus a taped fight from two nights earlier with Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinya Aoki, which was announced last month. On the 11/6 Bellator show, they introduced Gabriella “Gabi” Garcia, 29 a huge, muscular woman who has won 11 world championships between Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Abu Dhabi competition grappling (some years twice as in 2010, 2011 and 2012 she won in both the unlimited weight class and the Open competition tournaments in BJJ). Her opponent will be former TNA wrestler Lei'D Tapa (real name Seini Draughn) was announced. Tapa, 32, whose uncle was The Barbarian and who had another uncle who once fought for UFC, is said to be a BJJ blue belt and was a great female athlete before pro wrestling.
Draughn excelled in volleyball and basketball growing up, and later spent four years playing for the Carolina Queens of the Independent Women's Football League. She worked for TNA in 2013 and 2014, before being released, and most recently wrestled for the Global Wrestling Federation on its Las Vegas tapings.

Also announced was an eight-man light heavyweight tournament that would take place over the two shows, and Bellator’s King Mo Lawal was announced as their representative. Lawal started his career fighting in Japan. The tournament is said to include representatives from promotions around the world.

On 11/9, at a press conference in Japan, they announced a fight between two relative newcomers, grandsons of legends–Asen Yamamoto vs. Kron Gracie.

Asen Yamamoto, 19, who has been training MMA in Thailand along with his famous uncle, Kid Yamamoto, is being pushed as a younger prodigy debut for the promotion. He was Japan’s teenage national champion wrestling this year, and captured the Cadet (17-and-under) world championship in Greco-Roman wrestling in 2013 in Zrenjanin, Serbia, in the 152 pound weight class. He was written up in that tournament as the star in any weight class.

He’s the grandson of Ikuei Yamamoto, who placed seventh at 126 pounds in the 1972 Olympics in Munich and then became an Olympic coach. His mother, Miyu Yamamoto, was a world champion in 1991, 1994 and 1995, before women’s wrestling became an Olympic sport, and was a key participant in the famous women’s pro wrestling star at the Tokyo Dome in 1994.

His aunt, Seiko Yamamoto, won four world championships between 1998 and 2003. His uncle was at one time the most popular MMA fighter inj Japan. His father, Nobuyasu Ikeda, Miyu’s first husband, was a star soccer player in Japan at the time Asen was born. He’s not the son of Enson Inoue, an early Japanese MMA star, who was Miyu’s second husband and Kid Yamamoto’s original trainer. But Asen was heavily influenced by Inoue and trained at his gym. Asen was actually known in international circles in wrestling first as Asen Sasaki. Miyu’s third husband, Akira Sasaki, from 2006 to 2011, was a slalom skier who represented Japan in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics. He’s now going by the Yamamoto name since that name is big in wrestling and MMA circles, and to Japanese sports fans, he’s part of the “golden” family.

The press conference was carried as a major event in Japan, largely due to Ikuei Yamamoto and Rickson Gracie, Kron’s father, both being there.

Yamamoto, at the age of 12, moved to Hungary to train in European style wrestling. Ikuei Yamamoto was formerly a major critic of MMA, and was responsible for Kid Yamamoto’s short-lived retirement from the sport at his peak when Kid left to try and make the Japanese 2008 Olympic team in a “real sport” like wrestling due to the pressure from his father.

“I am very surprised by this announcement,” said Miyu Yamamoto. “But I am sure that he decided after much thought and consideration, so as a mother, my job is to respect his decisions and support him as much as possible. I hope this experience will help him in a positive way for his future.”

Asen Yamamoto’s goal is still to attempt to win the Olympics in Tokyo in 2020, when he’s 24 years old.
Kron Gracie, who has a 1-0 MMA record, is 27, the son of Rickson and grandson of Helio Gracie. He was the 2013 ADCC submission grappling world champion at 171 pounds.

However, Gracie vs. Yamamoto will be at featherweight. A marketable young fighter like Yamamoto in the U.S. would never be put against someone with such a high skill level in his debut. But the Japanese mentality is very different, and it’s really not as good for long-term careers. But the feeling is that they like people starting as “young boys” and seeing their rise, and losing early is okay. In the U.S., they try and protect prospects from losses at the start of their careers.

Spike, which had originally slated to air the show in prime time on New Year's Eve, announced last night the show would air at 10 a.m. Eastern time on 12/31, a Thursday morning, although most people will have the day off from work, with a "Breakfast with Fedor" theme. That will still be on a few hour tape delay from Japan. On the West Coast, it will also air at 10 a.m. It’s not clear why they wouldn’t air it in prime time, because there is no way a tape show at 10 a.m. is doing anywhere close to a show at 9 p.m., even with the fact lots of people are going to be out and away from television that night.

Promoter Nobuyuki Sakakibara has been doing media interviews pushing that Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura (who has done MMA in the past), Kazuchika Okada (who may have done MMA secretly in Mexico) and Kota Ibushi (who is out of action with a herniated disc in his neck) should all do his show. Ibushi was a karate champion before pro wrestling, and at one point was going to fight in K-1 in 2006, but it fell through. His name was rumored for the New Year’s Eve show before his injuries. Obviously Tanahashi, Nakamura and Okada are not doing this show. Thus far there are four pro wrestlers, all of which have MMA backgrounds, announced for the show with Lawal, Tapa, Sakuraba and with 46-year-old Tsuyoshi Kosaka coming out of retirement.

The memories of how the popularity of Pride and wrestlers doing Pride generally hurt pro wrestling badly (although it did jump start Nakamura’s career as a star by doing MMA), has made Sakakibara hated by those in pro wrestling when he pushes to get wrestlers to come in and get beaten up. The feeling is that it has taken more than a decade from when the New Japan talent was brought in as sacrificial lambs on major MMA New Year’s Eve shows, and it’s taken this long to rebuild the business back to where it is now.
But that is hardly the extent of the New Year’s Eve battles in Japan, which will feature three major MMA shows in the Tokyo metropolitan area, as well as at least ten pro wrestling events.

TBS, which stands for the Tokyo Broadcasting Systems, a second network, announced a show called Kyokugen, which is Japanese for Extreme, headlined by Masato vs. Kid Yamamoto in a five-round kickboxing match. The match is being billed as an exhibition due to Yamamoto's existing UFC contract.

Masato Kobayashi, 36, was the golden boy of Japanese kickboxing a decade ago. He had retired six years ago with a 55-6-2 record. His most famous match was against Yamamoto at the 2004 New Year's Eve show at the Osaka Dome, which also featured Royce Gracie beating 6-foot-8, 485-pound sumo legend Akebono. The fight where Masato, a 154-pounder, fighting Yamamoto, then 141 pounds, drew a 31.6 rating and an audience of about 34 million people. It's one of the most famous fights of the golden era of Japanese fighting. The number is even more impressive considering it went head-to-head with a highly rated Pride show as well as Japan's traditional New Year's Eve television concert.

Masato was knocked down, but otherwise dominated the fight in winning a decision against his much smaller opponent. Yamamoto, who was Japan's biggest MMA star at one time, came from a wrestling background and is 1-3 as a kickboxer. But it was the loss to Masato in kickboxing that made Yamamoto Japan's most popular MMA fighter for several years.

No other fights haven't been announced for that show.

Tokyo MX, a third broadcast station, will be airing taped fights that night from the Real FC show that will take place on Dec. 5 at the Yokohama Bunka Gym.

A third live show on New Year's Eve will be the already announced IGF Inoki Bom Ba Ye show at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, which last week announced Aoki vs. Montanha Silva, a Brazilian giant. They are promoting it as a "50 centimeter difference in height," which is a huge exaggeration. Silva is 6-foot-10 and 320 pounds. Aoki is 5-foot-11 and fights at lightweight and sometimes featherweight. That show is likely to be a mix of both MMA fights and pro wrestling matches. At this point, they don't have a television deal. It is still not clear in Japan whether Aoki vs. Silva will be a pro wrestling match or an MMA fight.

This is a very interesting political situation. Aoki is a free agent and will be doing an MMA fight with Kazushi Sakuraba on the 12/29 Rizin show at the Saitama Super Arena.

IGF and Rizin are in a New Year’s Eve war with IGF at Sumo Hall and Rizin at the Saitama Super Arena, and the IGF has even in its promotional material for the show noted being in a war with Rizin. So Aoki is working a live show for IGF head-to-head against the group he’s working two nights earlier for, and doing a live match in Tokyo head-to-head with his biggest mainstream fight in years airing on network television.

I’m presuming Aoki, who fights at 155, is doing a pro wrestling match against Silva. Silva, who has done both K-1 and has done pro wrestling with Inoki’s group in the past, is being billed at 7-foot-5 ½ and 385 pounds. Aoki, the current One lightweight champion, fights at lightweight and featherweight. IGF announced the match and Oli Thompson vs. Fernando Rodrigues Jr. for the IGF heavyweight title this past week. Thompson vs. Rodrigues is the final of a tournament that has been all MMA matches. Aoki vs. Silva is being advertised as a fight, not a pro wrestling match, but we’ll see when times come close.

Between the size difference and that it’s two days after a fight, I think it’s a better bet it ends up being a work. IGF does both shoots and works on its shows, but differentiates them as the shoots have rounds and the works don’t, and right now nothing has been said about that fight. Aoki has done a few pro wrestling matches.

New Year's Eve became a tradition for major fighting shows on television in Japan, peaking in 2003 and 2004, but it had faded away in recent years.

Emelianenko's opponent was reported Friday night on Inside MMA as Kosaka. Kosaka, a former Japanese pro wrestling star who was a judo champion before pro wrestling, and then did MMA in Pride and UFC, was awarded a win over Fedor via blood stoppage in a December 22, 2000 fight.

Kosaka nailed Emelianenko with an elbow to the head, illegal under the RINGS rules at the time. Emelianenko bled badly and the fight was stopped in just 17 seconds. Emelianenko dominated the rematch, on April 3, 2005, in Pride, when the doctor ruled Kosaka unable to continue.

Kosaka, who was a hell of a pro wrestler in RINGS (really the three best of the golden era were Kosaka, Volk Han and Kiyoshi Tamura–he had classic matches with Tamura, Han, Akira Maeda and others), also did a ton of MMA fights from 1995 to 2006. He was part of one of the early mixed training camps, “The Alliance,” where Kosaka (judo), Maurice Smith (kickboxing) and Frank Shamrock (submission wrestling taken from the Wigan catch wrestlers and taught by Karl Gotch to the Japanese) all would pool knowledge of their specialties to create early well-rounded fighters. Kosaka was announced last week as coming out of retirement to fight on the show.
Jerry Millen, who is Emelianenko's U.S. rep, immediately denied the report. Japanese sources say that the opponent has not yet been chosen and that several names, Kosaka being one of them, are on the potential list. The list also includes other pro wrestlers with fighting backgrounds similar to Kosaka, including Hall of Famer and MMA pioneer Masakatsu Funaki, now 46.

The list also includes a giant former sumo star, Baruto Kaito (6-foot-6, 425 pounds) of Estonia. Real name Kaido Hoovelson, and said to be closer to 385 pounds since retiring from sumo. Because of his size and success in sumo Baruto, is a well known name to the general public in Japan.

He was on his way to being the first European born Yokozuna, as he was a major star from late 2009 through the summer of 2012, but a thumb injury and thigh injury caused him to start losing most of his bouts, and he retired in 2013. Baruto was also announced last week as fighting on the show.

One of the things Rizin is working on is getting Vladimir Putin, who has attended Emelianenko’s fights in Russia before to be a special guest at the show, but that’s tricky because Russia and Japan do not have good relations with each other over a number of political issues. The point being in all this is that Emelianenko is not being put in with any kind of competition this time out.

Akebono, one of the biggest names in sumo history, now 46, will be working one of the shows, as both Rizin and Kyokugen are attempting to sign him with Rizin seemingly having the edge. He was the Triple Crown champion for All Japan Pro Wrestling, but dropped his title last week and has left the promotion for the time being. Inside MMA reported Akebono against Bob Sapp, a rematch of the most watched fight in modern Japanese history. But this has not even been hinted about in Japan.

The shows are all about drawing television ratings and putting famous people in fights, or promoting weird looking matches, like Aoki vs. Silva, with the idea that the size difference will cause television viewers who aren't fight fans and have no real understanding of fighting, to be intrigued. The prime example was the 2003 fight with Akebono vs. Sapp, which drew 54 million viewers out of a total population of 128 million that year on New Year's Eve. It drew even more viewers that the Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki fight in 1976.
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Tsuyoshi Kosaka is off the list of potential opponents for Fedor Emelianenko, as Rizin announced Kosaka vs. James Thompson for one of their two shows (12/29 and 12/31) at the Saitama Super Arena for the company's launch. Thompson is coming off a 54 second loss to Bobby Lashley on the 11/6 Bellator show in St. Louis, where he blew out his knee on the first takedown. Kosaka, a former pro wrestling star in the 90s with RINGS and later appeared on big New Japan shows, is now 45, and hasn't fought since a 2006 loss to Mark Hunt, but the former judo champion was a good heavyweight in the late 90s.

Aside from that, all is quiet on the Rizin front. We know the company has been in contact with Bob Sapp, and that Masakatsu Funaki is scheduled for the show but it appears they will wait until after Funaki has his Real Japan match with Daisuke Sekimoto before announcing that publicly.
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It was anything but a classic fight, but on December 31, 2003, Bob Sapp and Akebono put on a spectacle that nothing since has ever come close to equaling in Japanese culture. On 11/27, a rematch was announced for a show that takes place exactly a dozen years after the original fight.

The two giants fought under kickboxing rules as part of what turned out to be the biggest New Year's Eve fight night during the period it became a television tradition in Japan, battling before 30,000 fans at the Nagoya Dome. The Sapp vs. Akebono fight won the night for K-1, when three different networks were airing live fights, with shows that combined MMA, kickboxing, weird mixed rules fights and even pro wrestling all on the same stage.

On a Fuji Network prime time show, Nobuhiko Takada, the pro wrestling legend who is the public face of the new Rizin promotion, announced the rumored rematch as official. The Fuji Network will be carrying Rizin on New Year's Eve, a television show that will combine matches from shows on Dec. 29 and Dec. 31, at the Saitama Super Arena. Spike TV in the U.S. will be airing a similar show at 10 a.m. on Dec. 31, promoted as "Breakfast with Fedor," since the return of Fedor Emelianenko will be the main event. Emelianenko's opponent has not been announced, but in Japan, there were talks of trying to get a famous sumo or pro wrestler to face him.
Ron Kruck on AXS TV's Inside MMA had originally reported the Sapp vs. Akebono fight for the Rizin debut weekend.

In another major coup for Rizin, announced for the eight-man heavyweight tournament is Satoshi Ishii. It’s notable this tournament was announced on Spike TV as a light heavyweight tournament, when King Mo was the first fighter announced for it. Obviously as the only Japanese representative, they are hoping this winds up with Ishii beating Mo (who started his career in Japan and was fairly popular there) in the finals.

A press conference was held on 11/30 in Tokyo with all the fighters and the bracketing announced. The first round matches will take place on the 12/29 show at the Saitama Super Arena, with both the semifinals and finals on the 12/31 show. Ishii, the 2008 gold medalist in judo in the super heavyweight division, is a coup because he’s been pushed as the top star of the IGF, which is running a show head-to-head on 12/31 at Sumo Hall, and Ishii was expected to be Inoki’s big draw. The IGF is rumored to be downsizing greatly in 2016.

The first round matches are: Mo vs. an opponent to be announced from the BAMMA promotion in the U.K. (Mark Goldbeer was the originally planned opponent but just pulled out due to a neck injury in training and has since announced his retirement citing the lack of pay in the sport and fighting professionally at a loss), Tedoras Aukstuolis (a 24-year-old light heavyweight from Lithuania with a 7-2 record fighting representing the Bushido Lithuania promotion) vs. Bruno Cappelozza (a light heavyweight with a 7-3 record representing the Jungle Fight promotion in Brazil), Ishii vs. Jiri Prochazka (a 13-2-1 light heavyweight from the Czech Republic representing the Gladiator Championship Fighting promotion in that country who has had 12 of his wins and both of his losses end in the first round), and Goran Reljic (15-5, a former UFC fighter from 2008 to 2010 where he went 1-3, and now represents KSW in Poland where he was the light heavyweight champion until losing to Tomasz Narkun on 10/31 in London, he beat Atilla Vegh, the former Bellator champion on 5/23 to win the title) vs. Vadim Nemkov (3-0, a light heavyweight from Russia).

There is also a reserve fight with Valentin Moldavsky (1-0 from Russia) vs. Yuta Uchida vs. Yuta Uchida.

The winner of the tournament will receive $300,000 and the interviews saw the fighters talk about what they would do if they won. The interviews came across like 70s interviews before the city’s annual big money Battle Royal. Mo, for example, said he’d buy a ton of ice cream, clothes and go on a vacation to Disney World and Las Vegas, party and buy jewelry. Ishii said he planned to invest half the money and donate the rest to charity.

Rizin chairman Nobuyuki Sakakibara said that fans may not know most of the fighters, but noted that in 1993, nobody knew Branko Cikatic or Mike Bernardo (two early K-1 stars) but they opened doors and became famous.

Sapp, a college football star at the University of Washington had an undistinguished NFL career. After being a third round draft choice of the Chicago Bears, Sapp was cut in training camp. An offensive lineman, he played in one game, in 1997, with the Minnesota Vikings, and then failed a steroid test in 1998 and never played again.

He had become all the rage in Japan through the promotion of Kazuyoshi Ishii, the K-1 mastermind promoter. At 6-foot-4 and 360 pounds of muscle, he became a cultural phenomenon, appearing in more television commercials than anyone in the country during that era. For a few year period Sapp was easily the most famous American in Japan.

Pride had put him in matches against four pro wrestlers, as well as Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and at the time he had compiled a 4-1 record. The Nogueira loss, via armbar, in a crazy match at Tokyo National Stadium on August 28, 2002, before 71,000 fans, was one of the most famous matches in Japanese MMA history.

He was also 4-3 as a kickboxer, but two of those losses were via disqualification. Strangely, two of the wins were over Ernesto Hoost, generally considered the greatest heavyweight kickboxer of all-time, both via stoppage.

Akebono, born Chad Rowan, was a 6-foot-8, 485 pound sumo legend, and one of the biggest names in the history of that sport. A former high school basketball center in Waimanalo, Hawaii, at the age of 23, he became the first non-Japanese Yokozuna in sumo. That was a huge cultural and sporting accomplishment at the time. He brought interest in sumo to a high point in the early 90s. His battles with Japanese brothers Takanohana and Wakanohana led to ratings records in that sport and peaked mainstream interest, that has never been equaled since. Akebono was still at his peak going 80-14 and winning two of the six major tournaments in 2000 when he retired due to an injury.

The fight itself, won by Sapp at 2:58 of the first round via knockout, was more impressive for its publicity than any of its action. To say it captured the imagination of the public in Japan would be an understatement. On New Year's Eve, going head-to-head with two major MMA events on network television as well as a concert that is almost a Super Bowl like television event in that culture, 54 million of the 127 million people in Japan viewed that fight.

The bout got worldwide publicity, covered all over the U.S. on news stations and major newspapers covering the battle between a former sumo champion and NFL lineman.

Akebono, now 46, was a great sumo, but not a fighter. He would fight under MMA rules on the next three New Year's Eve shows, losing to Royce Gracie via quick submission, Bobby Ologun, a popular Japanese television comedian who fought on major TV events, and the 7-foot-3, 400-pound former pro wrestler Paulo "Giant" Silva. He ended up going 0-4 in MMA and 1-8 in kickboxing, with his only career win coming against Nobuaki Kakuda, a referee who worked in the front office for K-1.

He then went into pro wrestling in Japan in 2005, with mixed success. He mostly headlined for smaller promotions, but once faced Brock Lesnar in a major singles match when Lesnar was the champion with New Japan Pro Wrestling, just prior to his signing with UFC. He was champion with All Japan Pro Wrestling, a once-major promotion that had fallen on hard times, and left the promotion in November amidst rumors he was going to be part of the Rizin debut weekend.

Rumors of a Sapp vs. Akebono rematch based on the business success of the first fight have been around for years, but the closest was in pro wrestling on January 4, 2013, at the Tokyo Dome, when the two were on opposite sides of an eight-man match.
Sapp, now 42, saw his stardom in Japan run its course after a few years, but has come back regularly over the years for pro wrestling appearances.

He ended up losing 13 of his last 14 kickboxing matches between 2005 and 2013, nine in the first round. In MMA, he had a similar fate, losing 15 of his last 16 recorded fights between 2009 and 2013, with every loss coming in the first round. He was known for going down the first time a punch came, or sometimes, it seemed, even earlier than that.
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Since Spike will be airing the New Year’s Eve Rizin show, the next Bellator event won’t be until 1/29 in Fresno with Josh Koscheck’s debut.
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A few Rizin notes: The Bob Sapp vs. Akebono fight on 12/31 was announced as being under Shoot Boxing rules. That’s a Japanese sport that combines boxing with takedowns, but no ground work, no submissions and no kicks. Bret McDermott (5-2), will be the first round opponent for King Mo Lawal in the light heavyweight tournament as the BAMMA rep. McDermott was a Rugby League player in Ireland from 1996 to 2011, who announced his retirement at that time, but then it came out that he had tested positive for both steroids

Drostanolone and Decadurabolin and was actually banned from the sport for two years. He started as an MMA fighter in 2011 going 4-1 in amateur fights before going to BAMMA as a pro in 2013. He does hold a knockout win over former UFC fighter Oli Thompson, which is key because Thompson is in the finals of the IGF heavyweight tournament that takes place for IGF on the rival 12/31 show, so it makes sense for Rizin to bring in a guy who knocked out the guy who could end up as the IGF world champion. They also announced a K-1 rules match for 12/29 with Hiroya Kawabe (who was the high school fighter K-1 was promoting years ago as a big star and has a strong young girls fan base) vs. Akiyo Nishiura. They also announced Yuichiro Nagashima, the well-known cross dressing kickboxer who has done some pro wrestling, would face former K-1 Max star Andy Souwer, and Muay Thai champion Yang Ming of China faces Takeru Segawa on 12/31, with those fights also being under K-1 rules
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In an underwhelming announcement, Fedor Emelianenko's opponent for 12/31 was announced as Jaideep Singh, a kickboxer with a 2-0 MMA record.

Singh was the original opponent considered before it being nixed due to the negative public reaction to the match. Singh is a 6-foot-5, 240 pound kickboxer from India. He's 28-years-old and has a 40-10 record in kickboxing but has lost his last three fights. His last kickboxing win came in 2011. He won a K-1 tournament in Seoul, South Korea in 2009 over a group of unknowns to get into the K-1 Grand Prix that year, but lost in the first round of the annual big tournament to Ewerton Teixeira. It's been mistakenly reported in some circles that he won the K-1 Grand Prix in 2009, when he just won a qualifying tournament with no-names in it.

Every opponent considered by the Rizin Fighting Federation, which runs its debut shows on 12/29 and 12/31 at the Saitama Super Arena, was someone Emelianenko wasn't supposed to have any problems with, but Singh was the least well known.

Spike sent out a press release which listed these fights, so they are likely to be the ones airing, with the Emelianenko fight as the main event, Bob Sapp vs. Akebono, Brennan Ward (a Bellator fighter) vs. Ken Hasegawa, the eight-man heavyweight tournament (using mostly light heavyweights who won't have to cut weight) with King Mo, Brett McDermott, Satoshi Ishii, Teodoras Aukstuolis, Bruno Cappelozza, Jiri Prochoazka, Goran Reljic and Vadim Nemkov, Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. James Thompson, A.J. Matthews (another Bellator fighter) vs. Anatoly Tokov, Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Shinya Aoki and Gabrielle Garcia vs. Lei'D Tapa in a women's fight. The show starts at 10 a.m. Eastern and will also air at 10 a.m. Pacific time on Spike billed as "Breakfast with Fedor." The original plan of airing the show in prime time on New Year's Eve was nixed because Spike didn't want to put it head-to-head with major college football playoff games.

Both shows now have complete lineups listed, with Rizin on 12/29 opening with Kosaka (90s pro wrestling and MMA star), facing Thompson (former Pride attraction); Carlos Toyota vs. Kirill Sidelnikov (a training partner of Fedor); Yuki Motoya vs. Felipe Efrain; Hiroya vs. Wicky Nishiura under K-1 rules; Kazuyuki Miyata (a former Olympic wrestler who was a popular fighter in Dream and Hero's) vs. Hinata (a kickboxer) in a match where they will alternate between MMA rules and kickboxing rules; Matthews vs. Tokov; Hideo Tokoro (who has also fought for Bellator, an entertaining fighter who constantly goes for submissions and was a star in the old days of Japanese MMA) vs. Kizeamon Saiga (a kickboxer who is 2-0 in MMA); Hiroyuki Takaya (a regular in Japanese MMA for Dream, who fought in the U.S. with WEC and Strikeforce without much success) vs. D.J. Taiki (real name Daiki Hata, a veteran with Pancrase, Deep and Dream); Valentin Moldavsky vs. Yuta Uchida in a heavyweight tournament reserve fight; the first round of the heavyweight tournament with Mo vs. McDermott, Aukstuolis vs. Cappelozza, Reljic vs. Menkov and Ishii (the native star and 2008 judo gold medalist) vs. Prochazka; with Sakuraba vs. Aoki as the main event.

Sakuraba will be receiving $165,000 for the match.

The 12/31 show opens with Rena vs. Jleana Valentino in a woman's fight, the heavyweight tournament semifinals; Ward vs. Hasegawa; Takeru vs. Yang Ming in a K-1 rules match; Soo Chul Kim (a South Korean who is a star in Road FC, a smaller Japanese group) vs. Maike Linhares (a Brazilian bantamweight who is 9-0 with nine finishes); Gabrielle Garcia vs. Lei'D Tapa in a women's no weight limit fight; Akebono vs. Bob Sapp under shoot boxing rules (punching, kicking and takedowns legal but no submissions or ground fighting); Andy Souwer (superstar from the K-1 Max days) vs. Yuichiro Nagashima (the cross dressing kickboxer who also had a run as a pro wrestler in Japan); Jerome LeBanner (heavyweight kickboxing legend) vs. Baruto (huge famous sumo); Kron Gracie (Rickson's son) vs. Asen Yamamoto (19-year-old champion wrestler who is the son of former woman's world champion Miyu Yamamoto and grandson of the former Olympic wrestling coach and a former Olympic wrestler as well as nephew of Kid Yamamoto); Fedor vs. Singh; and the final match will be the heavyweight tournament finals.
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The 12/29 debut of the Rizin Fighting Federation, an attempt by former Pride President Nobuyuki Sakakibara to revive MMA mainstream in Japan, used a lot of the trappings of nostalgia and feeling good about the old times.

Like during the heyday of Pride, the show opened with Nobuhiko Takada, the pro wrestling legend from the 90s whose match with Rickson Gracie in 1997 both created Pride and destroyed his mythical legacy as being a legit fighter, in the same samurai costume he’d wear if it was years ago, pounding the same oversized drum. The next voice was that of Lenny Hardt, the screaming banshee woman from that era whose booming voice would slowly enunciate the stars of that era–say this super slow, Antonio, Rodrigo, Nogueira, screaming the last name. Hardt introduced all the fighters on the show. Takada continued pounding the drum in sumo wear. For all of its ridiculousness as compared to the current sport of MMA, and backstage shenanigans, and sometimes ring brutality, people remember Pride as fun. It had its own theme, one that some UFC fighters have asked to come out to, and that played in the arena that night. The Pride theme, like the UWF theme of years earlier, are like hearing Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage or Bret Hart’s entrance music today in the U.S. Pride combined elements of fighting, but more brutal with stomps and soccer kicks and lack of steroid testing, with far more one-sided mismatches and manipulation, which resulted in creating more mythical stars. It was both the best of pro wrestling and MMA on one stage. And the worst. MMA as a sport has greatly evolved and changed since Pride went down. Most of that evolution was positive. But with Rizin, the attempt was to pretend the last eight years had never happened, and that Kazushi Sakuraba, Fedor Emelianenko, Jerome LeBanner and the freak show guys like Bob Sapp and Akebono were all still in the limelight.

The night ended, like it often did ten or 15 years ago, with Kazushi Sakuraba, a college wrestling star turned pro wrestler and a legend from another era, entering to his familiar ring music.

Unfortunately, time marched on. Sakuraba is 46, hadn’t won a fight since 2009, and had no business fighting. But his name was very important in selling of the show to the Fuji Network. Sakuraba faced Shinya Aoki, the ONE lightweight champion, with both agreeing to fight at welterweight. This was the same Sakuraba that used to beat up some of the biggest and baddest light heavyweights through wrestling and submission skills, before their size and his small frame did him in. Then he started taking cruel beatings.

This was no different. Sakuraba was taken down immediately, and Aoki went from mount to back position several times over the 5:56 the fight lasted (like Pride, the fights were fought with three rounds of ten, five and five minutes). Aoki threw a lot of punches, and Sakuraba spent most of the fight covering up, and some of the fight unsuccessfully trying to buck Aoki off of him. It was as if time stood still, and the referee, like in the old days when Japanese favorites would be given chance after chance to come back, sometimes resulting in them taking unspeakable beatings. Luckily for Sakuraba, Aoki is not a heavy hitter, and Sakuraba was never knocked out, and was still blocking a lot of the punches thrown from mount and back position. At one point, after throwing something like 65 punches in a row, Aoki seemed to get tired, but Sakuraba couldn’t get out of the position. Aoki clearly looked at the ref to stop it as he didn’t want to keep hitting Sakuraba, but when the ref wouldn’t react, he went back to punching. A few punches later, long after the call should have been made, it was stopped. It’s hard to say how this affects Sakuraba with New Japan, since the mentality from a dozen years ago, where this would have been very bad for him, has changed. But still, Sakuraba is only there as a shooter and legend, and he was completely destroyed by a fighter who is very good, but also usually fights at 145 or 155.

One major fight fan friend of mine called it the modern version of the Muhammad Ali vs. Larry Holmes fight, where Ali clearly had no business fighting and took a terrible beating while not being able to put up any kind of resistance.
The key footage was after the match where Sakuraba raised Aoki’s hand and Aoki broke down in tears. Aoki then challenged Takanori Gomi, but that fight can’t happen right now because Gomi is under a UFC contract.

It was at least a passing of the torch that made sense, Japan’s original submission master losing to its next generation submission master, although far too late to have major impact.

Most reports had the Rizin debut as a fun mix of nostalgia and devastation, albeit with the sad ending. It was said to be a great night of fighting action with awesome show production.

At press time, no attendance was available for the debut. We were told the upper part of the arena was closed off, but 80 percent of the rest of the arena was full, so it sounded like around 12,000. Given the “real” show was the one two days later, it sounded about as what could be expected. Reports were that the big show was close to being sold out. Still, the live attendance is a non-issue both for this show and 12/31, and it is the ratings of the prime time show, part of the theme being Sakuraba’s farewell, that is the key. It was noted that the television was being produced by the Entertainment Division, not the Sports Division of the Fuji Network, one of Japan’s major networks, and the idea was about appealing to mainstream Japanese curiosity fans, not the small MMA fan base.

The show opened with the return of Tsuyoshi Kosaka, a judo star who became a pro wrestling star and then had some success as a fighter in the early days, most notably a fluke win over Fedor Emelianenko. At 45, he hadn’t fought in nine-and-a-half years. His opponent, James Thompson, showed up at 291 pounds, but Kosaka dominated him and finished him by strikes in the second round. It was nice for older fans to see the show open like this, but there’s no future in this promotion for Kosaka.

There were the freak shows and the exciting fights. It was really a prelude to the 12/31 show. Fights from that show and some fights from this show air on 12/31 on Spike in a 10 a.m. Eastern and Pacific time slot, for a show subtitled, “Breakfast with Fedor.” On a Thursday morning in the U.S., the audience will be limited. The key for the promotion is how well it does against the top New Year’s Eve television competition in Japan. It’s the legends from the past, Fedor, Akebono, Sapp and Sakuraba, as well as Baruto’s debut, that will either capture the attention of mainstream TV viewers or not. Without them, there is no prime time network television in Japan. But whether mainstream viewers are up for that nostalgia is a different story. And even if they are, there are still questions as to how big this can be, given in the heyday of Pride and K-1, most of the perceived best fighters in the world were there. Today, that can’t be the case.

In the heavyweight tournament, all four winners, Jiri Prochazka, Vadim Nemkov, Teodoras Aukstuolis and King Mo Lawal scored first round wins via strikes. Prochazka finished local favorite Satoshi Ishii in 1:36, which was a bad result for the promotion, even though most who had seen Prochazka was expecting it. For Japan, interest in the tournament was largely based around Ishii, and with the exception of Mo, the rest were all unknowns to the Japanese fans. The semifinals and finals will be on the 12/31, with Lawal vs. Aukstuolis and Nemkov vs. Prochazka. Lawal had the hardest first round fight while Prochazka had the shortest and took the least damage. The winner gets a first place check for $300,000.

There were a few bits of news going forward. Jerome LeBanner never came to Japan for his fight with Baruto Kaido, a 6-foot-6 ½ former sumo superstar who competed in that sport at 425 pounds and weighed in here at 403.5 pounds. There were stories going around regarding it being a money issue. LeBanner, one of the most famous stars of the K-1 era, will be replaced by an even more famous K-1 legend, Peter Aerts. There were a few problems with this. For the obvious one, Aerts hadn’t trained to fight at all, although this wouldn’t be the first time Aerts has done this, because he once came to a show to be an announcer, and when Bob Sapp dropped out of a fight at the last minute, he borrowed Semmy Schiltt’s trunks and went in there and fought Ernesto Hoost. For another, Aerts had been training Baruto to fight LeBanner. For another, Aerts, 45, with 141 kickboxing fights between 1987 and 2014, and no serious wins in that sport since 2010, should no longer be fighting. Aerts has only fought twice in MMA, and Kaido is a debuting fighter.

On TV pushing the New Year’s Eve special, the biggest push was for Aerts vs. Baruto, and there were those who seemed to think this would be the highest rated match. Gabi Garcia, who weighed 216 pounds to 201 pounds for Lei’d Tapa, was also pushed with the idea of women’s MMA, which was never mainstream during the heyday, would draw viewers as a novelty. Also pushed hard was Asen Yamamoto vs. Kron Gracie, with the idea of the next generation Yamamoto family vs. next generation Gracie family. Rickson Gracie was at the 12/29 show, so he’ll likely be in his son’s corner. They were also pushing Bob Sapp (330.5 pounds) vs. Akebono (419 pounds) hard, because everyone knows those two. While Fedor Emelianenko is the biggest draw to the hardcore fans and probably means the most for live ticket sales, and he’s the reason the show is on TV in the U.S., on Spike, and Russia, his opponent is a no-name and there is a feeling that several of the matches on such a competitive night will beat Fedor’s in the ratings.

Originally, the top matches from this show were going to air as part of the New Year’s Eve show on Fuji, but Fuji ended up airing much of the show in edited form on 12/29.

A lot of attention was put on the Hideo Tokoro fight with Kizaemon Saiga, who was a star in the K-1 Max (154 pound weight class kickboxing that got really popular in Japan after Masato became a big star with the mainstream, particularly women, with his fight with Kid Yamamoto on a New Year’s Eve show). Saiga was put on the card because his wife is a famous model and actress and the gimmick was that they mic’d her up, and she played her part well, screaming for him the entire fight. Even though he lost, that story was a big part of the show for the Japanese so the feeling is Saiga would be pushed going forward.

They announced at the start that because James Thompson was contracted to come in at 264 pounds, but weighed in at 291 pounds, that he was given two yellow cards before the match even started. Neither fighter looked good to hardcore fans, but it came across well for the casual audience that the much smaller Japanese fighter who was 45 years old showed no fear. Kosaka is now working as an assistant coach for the Japanese Rugby team, focusing on teaching them wrestling and judo. Members of the Japanese Rugby team were shown at ringside cheering him on.

Eiko Koike, another famous model and actress who played the pretty girl commentator during the Pride heyday was back for more Pride nostalgia.

Also announced is that the third Rizin show would be 4/17 in Nagoya.

1. Tsuyoshi Kosaka (27-18) beat James Thompson (20-16) at 1:58 of the second round via strikes from back position. Thompson showed up out of shape while Kosaka was in great shape and basically threw Thompson around and out struck him the entire fight.

2. Kiril Sidelnikov (8-4), once known as “Baby Fedor,” beat Carlos Toyota (6-8-1) via strikes at 2:32. Sidelnikov was Emelianenko’s main training partner and his being on the show was likely a favor.

3. Felipe Efrain (9-2, 1 no contest) beat Yuki Motoya (15-4, 1 no contest) via punches in the first round after Motoya had controlled him on the ground and threatened him with submissions. Great action. However, based on Rizin rules, because Efrain missed weight, the official result is a no contest.

4. Hiroya Kawabe, a former high school K-1 star that was being groomed for greatness, just known in those days as Hiroyo, beat fellow kickboxer Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura via third round ref stoppage under K-1 (kickboxing) rules. Hiroya was far better technically. There was a great double knockdown spot in the third round. Even though Hiroya was pushed big when K-1 was on TBS with the idea of him being the next Masato, this fight didn’t air on television.

5. Hinata Watanabe, another former high-school K-1 star just known as Hinata when he first broke in, beat former 2000 Olympic wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata, a so-so MMA fighter who was a big favorite because he would frequently use German suplexes in his fights. The rules here were they would alternate rounds between K-1 and MMA rules. But with the first round as kickboxing, Hinata took the 39-year-old Miyata apart, knocking him down three times, when it was stopped based on the three knockdown rule that K-1 rules had. This only aired on TV with clips of the three knockdowns.

6. Anatoly Tokov (22-1) beat Bellator’s A.J. Matthews (8-4) via knockout in :55.

7. Hideo Tokoro (33-28) of Bellator, a Japanese favorite from Dream and Hero’s as the janitor turned protégé of Akira Maeda who fights like a pro wrestling submission whiz, beat kickboxer Kizaemon Saiga (2-1) in 5:15 via armbar.

8. Hiroyuki Takaya (21-11) won a three-round decision of DJ Taiki (17-10-7) in what was said to be a really exciting fight, which went back-and-forth and was considered by many as among the best fights this year. Taiki has that name because his real job is as a DJ. Even though this was the show-stealer live, it didn’t air on television.

9. In a heavyweight tournament reserve fight, Valentina Moldavsky (2-0) beat Yuta Uchida (0-1) in 2:20 using a camel clutch submission. Really.

10. In the heavyweight tournament, King Mo Lawal (17-4) beat Brett McDermott (5-3) via ref stoppage in 9:10. Lawal outclassed him, but apparently McDermott was physically much bigger since Lawal is a small light heavyweight fighting at heavyweight. While not a great fighter, McDermott had a ridiculous chin and pretty much wore Lawal out by taking shots that would have finished almost anyone else a lot sooner. Lawal destroyed him for seven minutes, and then both were out there just exhausted and throwing bombs. Lawal was quicker and landed the big punch and ref John McCarthy stopped it. Lawal came out wearing wrestling shoes, meaning he couldn’t kick, but allowing him great stability on his feet, and slammed McDermott overhead and down early. McDermott survived the ground and pound and lasted almost until the end of the round when Lawal started landing big punches and it was stopped.

11. In the heavyweight tournament, Teodoras Aukstuolis (8-2) beat Bruno Cappelozza (7-4) via punches at 3:32, countering a high kick with an overhand right that face planted him and punches on the ground.

12. In the heavyweight tournament, Vadim Nemkov (5-0) beat Goran Reljic (15-6) via strikes in 2:58, with a knockdown, a soccer kick and punches on the ground. The promotion of this fight was built around Russia vs. Croatia, with the idea it was continuing the rivalry started by Fedor vs. Cro Cop, one of the biggest MMA heavyweight fights in history and a high point in Pride history.

13. In the heavyweight tournament, Jiri Prochazka (15-2-1) beat Satoshi Ishii (14-5-1) via strikes in 1:36. Prochazka overwhelmed Ishii from the start using his five inch height advantage and quickness. Once Ishii failed on his early takedown attempt, Prochazka took him apart, with a high kick starting Ishii’s demise, followed by hard knees. When Ishii left, the announcers outright said that Japan needed to find a new star heavyweight.

14. Shinya Aoki (39-6) beat Kazushi Sakuraba (26-17-1) via ref stoppage from strikes in 5:56.
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There was craziness, ugliness, and some memorable moments as Nobuyuki Sakakibara’s Rizin Fighting Federation and the Fuji TV Network attempted to revive the ghost of the Pride Fighting Championships and the Japanese New Year’s Eve tradition of mainstream MMA fights.
The show looked heavily to the past, and some to the future. What was very clear is that the nostalgia of seeing Bob Sapp’s rematch with Akebono meant very little as compared with the their first fight a dozen years ago that drew 54 million viewers in a country of 127 million. But it was still believed to be the highest rated match on the show.

In fact, the Fuji Network finished fourth among the six broadcast networks on the country’s biggest television night of the year. In the heyday, Pride and K-1 would battle for second place, behind the Red & White concert, a Super Bowl like event that has dominated New Year’s Eve ratings since the beginning of time.

But that wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

The show did a 5.6 rating from 7 to 8:45 p.m., showing one fight from 12/31 and some fights from 12/29, most notably Hideo Tokoro’s fight, as well as airing the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Hong-man Choi fight from December 31, 2007.

The big fights from 8:45 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. did a 7.3 rating, which is the key number everyone was looking at. That was built around Gabi Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa, Baruto vs. Peter Aerts, Akebono vs. Bob Sapp (which is believed to have done the peak ratings for the show), Asen Yamamoto vs. Kron Gracie, and Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jaideep Singh.

They aired Andy Souwer, a former K-1 Max star, against Yuichiro Nagashima, the cross-dressing kickboxer who later went into Japanese pro wrestling, as well as quick highlights of the heavyweight Grand Prix semifinals, most of the finals and replayed highlights from some of the fights from that night, including the Baruto, Gracie and Emelianenko fights. Even though the belief was that Sapp vs. Akebono had the most casual viewer interest, they didn’t replay the Sapp fight in the final segment, probably because of how bad it was. The final segment, airing between 10:30 p.m. to 11:45 p.m., did a 3.7 rating, which was fifth among the six networks.

The key is during the prime time period, the Fuji Network, which did big numbers a decade ago with fighting, the past two years had drawn 2.0 and 4.0 ratings respectively. They were projecting a 6.0 during that prime period.

Within the industry in Japan heading into the show, the belief was that anything under a 5.0 in that slot would be death for MMA’s future mainstream, while a 5-6 rating would be questionable. Anything above a 6 was going to be considered a success.

The 7.3 was less than half of what the main prime time fights Pride used to do on New Year’s Eve would get. But that’s still 7 to 8 million people watching in a country barely one-third the size of the U.S. From a mainstream viewing and crossover standpoint, they drew more viewers in a country with one-third the population than the biggest UFC or WWE event could get on television in the U.S.
Rizin announced its next show for 4/17 from Nippon Gaisha Hall in Nagoya, the former Rainbow Hall, that used to house major pro wrestling and fighting shows. Rizin also announced shows in July and September. The idea they’ve talked about is to run July at the Tokyo Dome, but to do that, they’d need a killer lineup.

If Fuji airs the show, and the time slot it is put in, it will answer the question of what they really thought of the rating. It will also be interesting what type of lineup they can put on, both for a next show, and also if they really try to do a Tokyo Dome card. Most of the good fighters from the Pride days are either retired or in UFC. You can only go to the well at this point with Sapp and Akebono for so long. Fedor Emelianenko costs millions to get. Kazushi Sakuraba is clearly done, as is Peter Aerts, and it would be criminal for either of them to ever fight again. And while Asen Yamamoto got over great, him fighting regularly would be a bad idea for his fulfilling the family dream of winning a medal in wrestling at the 2020 Olympics in Japan.

The New Year’s Eve concert on NHK did a 34.8 rating from 7:15 to 9 p.m., and a 39.2 rating the key period from 9 to 11:45 p.m. NTV had strong counter programming that did a 17.6 from 6:30 to 9 p.m., and 15.3 from 9 p.m. on, good for second place. TV-Asahi had a big quiz show that opened at a 10 rating but faded to a 5.6 when the fights on Fuji, TBS and TV Tokyo started.

TBS had a show called Kyokugen, a series of sports events from around the country, paced by a rematch of the second most watched New Year’s Eve fight in history, a kickboxing match with Masato vs. UFC’s Kid Yamamoto. Masato retired years ago. Masato, now 36, was Japan’s most popular 154 pound kickboxer in the 00s, retiring in 2009. Yamamoto, 38, fights at 135 pounds in UFC, but has only fought once in nearly four years due to a series of injuries.

Masato vs. Kid on December 31, 2004, did a 30.6 rating and well over 30 million viewers, the second biggest audience for a New Year’s Eve fight in history. Masato won that fight via decision. But Yamamoto hardly came out the loser, scoring a knockdown while giving up 13 pounds at weigh-ins and probably considerably more come fight time, even though fighting under his opponent’s specialty rules.
The match made both men into mainstream stars, particularly younger women. Masato became Japan’s most popular kickboxer, and Yamamoto became the country’s most popular MMA fighter.

Billed as an exhibition, because of Yamamoto’s UFC contract (and UFC didn’t appear to be concerned about their fighter participating in this event), Masato took a three round decision and scored one knockdown in the fight. The fight show did a 9.0 rating, beating Rizin, although most expected Masato’s return and a return match of his most famous career bout to be the most watched fight of the night between the three different networks that aired fighting. It was the highest rated event of the all night sports show called Kyokugen, which otherwise ranged from a 4.6 to an 8.8 rating.

TV Tokyo aired “Boxing New Year’s Eve World Championship,” featuring Kazuto Ioka vs. Juan Carlos Reveco for the WBA Flyweight title from the Edion Arena in Osaka, which did a 3.7 rating head-to-head with Rizin’s strongest period, or about half the audience.
Highlights of both the 12/29 and 12/31 shows at the Saitama Super Arena aired on the Fuji Network as well as on Spike TV on 12/31 at 10 a.m. Eastern on a taped show called “Breakfast with Fedor.”

The show averaged 156,000 viewers over the approximately two hours and 45 minutes, peaking at 271,000 viewers for the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Jaideep Singh fight. Spike viewed it as a successful solid number, acknowledging that 10 a.m. on a Thursday is not exactly the best time to draw sports viewers.

While the Spike feed was the same as the Fuji feed, with the key crowd shots that were significant to the Japanese audience airing in the U.S., they aired different fights.

In the U.S., the Sapp vs. Akebono fight, which was awful, didn’t air. In Japan, even though it was pushed as the No. 2 fight, the 12/29 main event with Shinya Aoki vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, because it was so sad, didn’t air on the New Year’s Eve special (it had aired two nights earlier) in Japan, but did air in the U.S. The show featured, among other things, the return after a three-year retirement of Emelianenko, MMA’s best heavyweight of the Pride era. Now 39, Emelianenko was given a former K-1 kickboxer named Jaideep Singh from India, who hadn’t won a kickboxing rules match since 2011. Emelianenko took him down quickly and ground and pounded him into defeat as expected in 3:03. There was really nothing you could tell from this fight as to how much Emelianenko has left, as he was given an opponent that didn’t figure to be, and wasn’t, much competition.

Emelianenko didn’t look much different physically. He was a tad under 6-feet tall and a stocky barrel chested 236 pounds. He said he would fight at least one more fight at heavyweight and would be starting a new training camp in a few weeks, giving the impression he’ll fight on the 4/17 show. The Japanese commentators made up history saying that Emelianenko is always in the main event on the New Year’s Eve show, which is hardly the case.

The show also featured the semifinals and finals of a heavyweight tournament, which saw Bellator’s King Mo Lawal knock out Jiri Prozchazka at 5:09 in the finals after each had won a fight two days earlier, as well as their semifinal earlier in the show. While tournaments in MMA usually fall apart in some way, this one saw every winner advance without any significant injuries. Lawal was given a check for 40 million yen ($332,385) for his weekend. It also puts him in line for a shot at the winner of an upcoming Liam McGeary vs. Phil Davis Bellator light heavyweight title match.

But the freak show fights, Sapp vs. Akebono, Gabi Garcia vs. Lei’d Tapa and Baruto vs. Peter Aerts, were also heavily talked about before and after.

The Sapp fight was weird. Sapp, 42, ended up actually trying to win for once. This match was under shootboxing rules, which meant boxing, kickboxing and takedowns were legal, but after a takedown, both would be stood up. It ended up not mattering, as neither man tried a takedown.

Sapp was doing most of the punching, mostly to the back of the head, which was illegal. Akebono, 46, started bleeding from the back of his head and Sapp targeted the cut. They kept stopping the action to check the cut, which had a dual purpose of giving the 330.5 pound Sapp and 419 pound Akebono time to get their wind back, and also extended the time of what most expected would be the most watched fight on the show.

Shockingly, the fight made it out of the first round. Between rounds, Sapp was given a yellow card for punching to the back of the head. When the second round started, Sapp punches opened Akebono’s cut and he was bleeding heavily. The fight was stopped at :47 of round two. If this was the U.S., it would likely be a no contest, or even a disqualification of Sapp if the cut was caused by an illegal blow, which given where Akebono was bleeding from, it was. If the blow was legal, then Sapp should have won via cut stoppage. Instead, they went to the judges, and since Sapp had landed almost all the punches in the fight, he got the unanimous decision. The rules are different in Japan, as without regulation, Rizin can use whatever rules it wants.

They’ve since announced they are going to review the decision due to the cut and it may be overturned. If so, there is talking of setting up a third match.

Even more amateurish was the women’s fight, introducing Japan to Gabi Garcia, a world women’s champion in Jiu Jitsu who looks like the giant bodybuilder Nicole Bass did in the 90s. She was billed at 6-foot-1 and 216 pounds, but looked monstrous next to Tapa (Seini Draughn), billed at 5-foot-11 and 201 pounds. Tapa was a large woman who had a few months of training and was pretty much an amateur. Garcia, for all her BJJ credentials, was just out there swinging like someone who had never put on gloves. Tapa actually knocked Garcia down early on. Both were throwing like they’d never fought before, and it was each woman’s first sanctioned fight, and Tapa was doing a fight with only a short period of training at the American Top Team in Coconut Creek, FL. Garcia threw a backhand, that didn’t even look like a targeted punch as much as a reflex backswing that actually caught Tapa on the jaw and dropped her, and then finished her with hammer fists on the ground in 2:36.

The other big thing was the debut of Baruto, which is a story in itself. The Estonian former sumo star was to face Jerome LeBanner of K-1 fame. Two days before the show came word that LeBanner didn’t come to Japan, and Baruto would instead face his trainer, Aerts, another K-1 star, who had retired from fighting.

LeBanner then showed up on Antonio Inoki’s rival Inoki Bom Ba Ye card at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, congratulating Oli Thompson, after he defeated Fernando Rodrigues Jr. in the main event and finals of the IGF world heavyweight title tournament, which started as a pro wrestling championship which is now defended only in shoots.

Sakakibara quickly announced he was going to take legal action against LeBanner for showing up on the rival show. LeBanner then claimed that he never reached an agreement nor signed a contract for the Baruto fight. His representatives also claimed he had a left foot injury so couldn’t have fought even if they did come to terms.

Unlike most of the Rizin fights, which had ten minute first rounds, the Baruto vs. Aerts fight was three three-minute rounds.
Baruto, at 6-foot-6 ½ and 403.5 pounds was surprisingly athletic as he took Aerts down and started landing solid shots on the ground. While sumos usually don’t do well in MMA, he had a judo background before sumo.

Like with Sakuraba, the ref seemed determined not to stop the fight since Aerts was a legend. Baruto hit him with about 45 punches while Aerts ended up trapped under the ropes. He landed about 15 more before it was stopped and they were put in the center of the ring. But that reprieve saved Aerts. Baruto took Aerts down and pounded on him for three rounds to get a decision. I’m not sure what future Baruto has as a fighter, although he could probably draw big TV ratings against Sapp, Akebono, Satoshi Ishii or others. But the guy would have been tailor made as a main event heel in the 70s and 80s pro wrestling scene.

The other heavily talked about match in Japan was the battle of third generation stars, with Kron Gracie (grandson of Helio Gracie, son of Rickson) against 19-year-old Asen Yamamoto (grandson of former Japanese Olympian and Olympic wrestling coach Ikuei Yamamoto, son of former women’s world champion Miyu Yamamoto). While on a far smaller level, this was the equivalent of the first Masato vs. Kid Yamamoto fight. Like his uncle, Yamamoto was giving away considerable size. Gracie competes in Jiu Jitsu at 169 pounds and was a welterweight in his first MMA fight. But he cut to 145. Gracie showed impressive technique, but the fans got into Yamamoto showing heart. The TV show featured Yamamoto’s grandfather from ringside and mother from the stands (she was fairly popular in Japan about 20 years ago because she was a world champion in wrestling and very pretty), while he got out of numerous submission attempts. Finally Gracie locked on a triangle. Yamamoto gave him a hard power bomb, but Gracie held on and Yamamoto tapped out. Still, Yamamoto was named the MVP of the show.

Pro wrestling tie-ins included Nobuhiko Takada beating the drums. Takada, going shirtless, looked awfully fit at 53, looking in betting shape than most UFC heavyweights. Hiroshi Hase, another major stars of the 90s, now a Senator and member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet, was there giving a speech before Emelianenko’s fight, and also presented Emelianenko with a world championship belt after his victory. The belt was modeled after the Ric Flair WCW world heavyweight title belt, which Hase won briefly in 1994 when it was called the WCW International World title.

Takada interviewed Kanako Murata, 22, a woman wrestler who was Junior (teenage) world champion at 121 pounds in 2011 and 2012. She also competed in judo and said her goal was to transition to MMA.

Women never competed in Pride, but there were two women fights on the show, with Rena being pushed as a star, and having the best submission finish of the first two shows with a flying armbar.

The reaction by the Japanese public was positive, with Rena, Takeru, Baruto and Yamamoto getting over.

The 12/29 show drew 12,214 fans while the New Year’s Eve show drew a full house of 18,365 fans.

1. Rena (Rena Kubota) (1-0) beat Jleana Valentino (0-1) at 3:31 of the second round. These were women kickboxers making their debut. Rena did some nice judo takedowns and had the great flying armbar finish. Rena has star qualities, similar to UFC’s Michelle Waterson. She’s not that good an all-around fighter. The finish was great, but overall you could see her weaknesses. She has the right look to be a star, which is why she was on this show and pushed strong on television.

2. King Mo Lawal (18-4, 1 no contest) beat Teodoras Aukstuolis (8-3) in the semifinals of the tournament via unanimous decision. Because the winner fights again, they did two rounds, a ten minute first and five minute second. It was slow paced with Mo, who started his career in Japan and has a small name there, landing more. He easily won the first round. In the second round, Lawal picked Aukstuolis up over his head and slammed him. Lawal got two more second round takedowns landing ground and pound.

3. Jiri Prochazka (16-2-1) beat Vadim Nemkov (5-1) via stoppage after the end of the 10:00 first round due to exhaustion in the other semifinal. This was a great back-and-forth fight. Prochazka got a quick early knockdown. Nemkov used a high slam takedown. Nemkov went for a guillotine. Nemkov got another takedown and went for an armbar. Nemkov landed a lot of punches on the ground. Prochazka blocked a takedown and landed on top, and then got his back. Nemkov reversed to the top and used punches and kicks on the ground. Nemkov took him down into full mount and went for an armbar, but Prochazka escaped. Both were really tired late in the round. Nemkov got another takedown before the round ended. When the round ended, Nemkov stayed on the ground for a long time due to exhaustion and the fight was stopped.

4. Brennan Ward of Bellator (13-3) beat Ken Hasegawa (10-1-1) via choke at 1:54 of the second round. Ward used shoes to give him better footing. Ward got a knockdown but Hasegawa got a takedown. It went back-and-forth throughout the first round. Ward survived a high slam in the second round and came back with a belly-to-belly suplex right out of pro wrestling, landed a soccer kick to the head and got a choke for the submission.

5. Soo Chul Kim (12-5) beat Maike Linhares (9-1) via unanimous decision after three rounds. Boring fight as Kim took him down at will.

6. Takeru beat Yang Ming in a kickboxing match at 3:00 of the second round. Takeru won a one-sided fight and won with a barrage of punches.

7. Gabi Garcia (1-0) beat Lei’d Tapa (0-1) at 2:36. This fight visually, seeing Garcia compete against a woman, is why MMA with no drug testing at all is just a sideshow. Garcia looks too freaky and that does get over to the Japanese, but this was not a fair fight at all, even though Tapa did land a punch that put Garcia down. Garcia has just ridiculous looking shoulders and traps. Even though it was horrible from a technical standpoint, the crowd loved the two big women flailing away. Garcia just backhanded Tapa, which landed perfectly to the jaw and Tapa went down. Garcia threw some hammer fists on the ground and it was stopped.

8. Bob Sapp beat Akebono at :47 of the second round in a shoot boxing match. This was just Sapp connecting with cuffing punches mostly to the back of the head and Akebono doing little. This was a serious worst match of the year candidate, as was the prior match.

9. Baruto (1-0) beat Peter Aerts (1-2) via decision after three rounds. Aerts physically looked good for 45 years old. They did three three minute rounds of Baruto continually taking Aerts down and punching him.

10. Andy Souwer (1-0) beat Yuichiro Nagashima (4-3) in 5:19. Souwer was Masato’s big rival during the K-1 Max heyday. He’s now in MMA. Nagashima was the cross-dressing kickboxer who went into pro wrestling later. Souwer threw a knee and lost balance and Nagashima got on top. Souwer got back up and got aggressive. Nagashima took him down again and went for a leglock. But Nagashima lost him. Souwer started landing punches and knees on the ground, knocking out one of Nagashima’s teeth, which he spit out. Souwer started taking him apart with all kinds of shots until it was stopped.

11. Kron Gracie (2-0) beat Asen Yamamoto (0-1) in 4:57. Gracie was too big for Yamamoto to really implement his wrestling game. Gracie got an armbar but Yamamoto escaped and reversed to the top. Gracie went for a triangle from the bottom but Yamamoto pulled out of trouble. Gracie got a takedown, missed to side control, then mount, and went for a triangle and armbar. Yamamoto escaped a second time, but then had the triangle locked in. Yamamoto picked him up and power bombed Gracie, but Gracie just squeezed tighter and got the submission.

12. Fedor Emelianenko (35-4, 1 no contest) beat Jaideep Singh (2-1) in 3:03. Singh, at 6-foot-5, towered over Emelianenko. Emelianenko landed a few punches and took Singh down, moved to side control, then mount and landed punches until Singh tapped out.
13. King Mo Lawal (19-4, 1 no contest) beat Jiri Prochazka (16-3-1) in 5:09 to win the heavyweight tournament. Prochazka had a huge size and reach edge here and was landing all kinds of kicks. But he had the tougher first round match and Lawal was laying back. He continued to land all kinds of kicks until Lawal got the takedown. He cut Prochazka near the left eye, and landed a solid right to the jaw for the knockout. There was a big tournament winning in-ring ceremony.
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Wanderlei Silva, 39, reached an out-of-court agreement regarding claims from both sides that led to the lawsuit UFC filed against him for alleging that they were fixing fights and it wasn’t a real sport. The end result was that Silva apologized for what he said, and admitted it wasn’t true, and in exchange, UFC gave Silva his release, so he can do whatever he wants to do in Japan, where he was a big name from 2001 to 2007. It’s possible Silva would get an offer to face Kazushi Sakuraba in New Japan, as there was interest in that a few years ago for a Tokyo Dome show, but Sakuraba’s level in the company as far as headlining has dropped in the past few years. Silva also could probably do pro wrestling for IGF, but they are downsizing, so the money may not be there like it once was. If he wants to fight, he’s a natural headliner for Rizin, and as an opponent for Fedor Emelianenko. I know that some would think Silva vs. Sakuraba in Rizin is possible, and that’s an obvious conclusion, but it’s also criminal after Sakuraba’s last fight. Silva’s statement was, “In July of last year, I posted a number of comments on Facebook and Twitter, which included repeated claims that the UFC `fixed fights,’ and that I could prove it. I hereby retract any such statements in their entirety as I failed to understand that the term `fight-fixing,’ specifically refers to the illegal action or practice of dishonestly determining the outcome of a fight contest before it occurs. I understand the UFC’s reputation would be harmed if my fans and others actually believed that the UFC engaged in fight fixing, and I have no evidence to support such a claim. I apologize for any misunderstanding my comments may have caused.

Jerry Millen, who is the Vice President of Rizin as well as the English language representative of Fedor Emelianenko, said that Emelianenko would not be fighting on the 4/17 Rizin show in Nagoya, but would return later in the year. In an interview with Submission Radio, Millen said he was taking a vacation with his family and he’s looking at fighting this year in July, September or October, and again on New Year’s Eve. He also confirmed the obvious, that Rizin has interest in Wanderlei Silva. He said he thought Fedor vs. Silva would be a huge fight. I’m not sure with the way Silva kept refusing to sign to face Chael Sonnen that he’d really be looking at fighting a 236-pound guy these days. He also said that Rizin talked to Randy Couture about fighting Emelianenko for New Year’s Eve, but Couture said he needed more time to get ready. He said tons of guys were talked to but Jaideep Singh made the most sense. I don’t know about saying that with a straight face. He also said they’d be interested in Alistair Overeem, but also said he didn’t think UFC would let him leave (UFC has the rights to match any outside offer for Overeem, whose contract expired with his win over Junior Dos Santos).