Sengoku 11 - Brief Review of Sorts

Wasn't too interested in seeing this card, but Sengoku still translates to "Japanese MMA", so how can I pass it up?


Jorge Masvidal defeats Satoru Kitaoka via TKO

This was the most entertaining match on the card for me. Both fighters went at it and stuck to their guns, when it came to strategy. Each guy took some punishment - Masvidal through joint locks and Kitaoka with punches to his face. The advantage that "Gamebred" had in striking reach made all the difference, when he was abusing his shorter, stockier opponent.
If you've seen Satoru fight before, you probably weren't surprised by the outcome. If he can't get it done in the opening round, his chances of winning decrease dramatically. This is because he relies on the early takedown and submission, when his opponent is neither slippery or ready to defend. As rounds go by, either his cardio or the beatings he take causes him to gas rapidly. Either way, I admire his tenacity to go for the sub and latch on until he gets it.
Or gets lit up like a Christmas tree.


Mamed Khalidov defeats Jorge Santiago via TKO

It looks like Mamed was following Dave Herman's gameplan and go for the KO from bottom. And WOW, did his plan work to perfection. He pulled off the upset against a good opponent, and he did it well.
Not much else to say other than Santiago got caught trying to execute a hasty guard pass and left his chin out there, for a nice ole hammerfistin'.
At least the man's still got his belt, right?


Michihiro Omigawa defeats Hatsu Hiko via Decision

This was a very dull fight for me. Although there was a lot of back and forth between fighters, nothing of substance or consequence really happened. Omigawa did a lot of ducking and bobbing, with some haymakers thrown in and Hioki used his range to jab well and threw in some decent, successful double legs attempts.
Maybe I was watching another match, but it looked like Hioki won. He was backpedaling and not moving forward for most of the match, but I thought Hioki did more damage and implemented a better offense as a whole. Omigawa tagged him good a couple times, but there were other points where he could barely reach Hioki's face with his fists.


So it looks like that was the last Sengoku event of the year, but with the quality of matches they've been recently putting on, I'm not going to be broken up about it.

Next up, UFC 105, WEC 45 and ADCC 2009.

Well, maybeeeeeeeeee ADCC.

~S

Sengoku 10 - Sengoku Fight Night #39

Again with the card lacking in star power but excellent finishes.


1. Maximo Blanco defeats Tetsuya Yamada via Submission (verbal)

When was the last time you saw someone submit verbally in a match?
It was bound to happen again and who better than "Maxi" Blanco to have the first verbal sub in Sengoku. It's also not surprising given the world class, wrestler is a BEAST on the feet. This wasn't his best performance but he still got the job done in Silverback stomping fashion.
Yamada had some reasonable submission attempts but nothing Cerrone-esque (see next post). I do however, want to see more spinning leglock attempts.


2. Joe Doerkson defeats Takenori Sato via TKO

Not sure how these fellas got matched up, but this was just easy money for "El Dirte".
Sato did what he could to take this fight to the ground but he still got dropped a few times by Joe and finally made the mistake of trying to stay in the pocket and get blasted.


3. Dan Hornbuckle defeats Nick Thompson via TKO

I really want to see "The Handler" in the UFC. He really knows how to use his long limbs standing and good bjj defense to stop world class ground guys. He also had Thompson's number with his southpaw stance. "The Goat" made the mistake of circling into Dan's power side once too many times and ate some hard shots to end the match early.


4. Fabio Silva defeats Ryo Kawamura via KO

I liken Fabio to an overweight version of Wanderlei, and stuck Japan as if Pride never went down.
Kawamura just looked like canon fodder for Silva as he took a barrage of punches and knees, including a DIVING punch to the face right about when the ref had to stop the mugging. That should be on mix video somewhere.


5. Kazunori Yokota defeats Ryan Schultz via KO

Schultz is becoming the new Sean Salmon in my book with three, disturbingly bad losses since leaving IFL for Sengoku. Previously,"The Lion" was doing very well in the IFL, accruing a 6 fight win streak and defeating young, standup, wunderkind Chris Horodecki to become the first and only IFL LW champ. Currently, Lady Misfortune seems to be peeing all over Schultz's MMA career.
Yokota got the opposite treatment, with a great Hendo-like overhand right to the unlucky Schultz. I figured he'd have taken a TKO or decision give both fighter's histories.


6. Makoto Takimoto defeats Jae Sun Lee via Decision

A very uneventful match between to barely above .500 fighters. Lots of weak sauce ground striking and smothering. The high points were a nice jumping knee and hip toss by Takimoto.


7. Antonio Silva defeats Jim York via Submission

The arm triangle was a great move to pull off by "Bigfoot". It showed more variety to his game than his usual standup strategy. Plus, "Big" Jimmy had the power to shut off Silva's lights at any moment - man has shoulders like bowling balls.
Let's see if Silva's got more tricks in his bag in his next match with Fabricio Werdum.


8. Antz Nansen defeats Hiroshi Izumi via TKO

The "Notorious" one spoils Izumi's inaugural bout with various punches and kicks that left him with no answer standing.

Tried to keep this one short given the amount of matches shown but still ended up being more than I expected.
Stay tuned for a late analysis of WEC 43 tomorrow.

~S