Sengoku 5 Recap + More

(Jorge Masvidal vs. Ryan Schulz; more videos here.)

From today’s Sengoku show at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan…

Middleweight GP 1st Round:
Yuki Sasaki def. Yuki Kondo via submission (rear-naked choke), round 2
Siyar Bahadurzada def. Evangelista Santos via TKO (injury), round 1
Jorge Santiago def. Logan Clark via submission (arm triangle choke), round 1
Kazuhiro Nakamura def. Paul Cahoon via unanimous decision

Lightweights:
Jorge Masvidal def. Ryan Schultz via TKO, round 1
Kiuma Kunioku def. Sol Kwon via unanimous decision

Heavyweights:
Muhammed Lawal def. Travis Wiuff via TKO, round 1

Light-Heavyweights:
Xande Ribeiro def. Takashi Sugiura via TKO, round 3

In other weekend fight news…

– Phil Baroni scored his third-straight win as a welterweight on Friday with his unanimous decision victory over WEC vet Olaf Alfonso at Palace Fighting Championships 10 in Lemoore, California. Baroni later apologized for his performance, saying he couldn’t find his rhythm in the fight.

– Jeff Monson choked out MMA cautionary tale Mark Kerr in the first round of their bout at Don King Productions’ debut Vengeance FC card, held last night in Concord, North Carolina. It was Kerr’s ninth loss in his last 11 fights.

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TUF 8.02 Recap: Blind Judges With Sh*t for Brains

Last night’s episode of The Ultimate Fighter didn’t waste any time before getting into the fights, so we won’t either. Here’s how Block B of the round-of-32 shook out:

Wesley Murch vs. John Polakowski (155): Murch is a Brit who quotes Winston Churchill. Polakowski is an ADHD-sufferer who loves hugging people. Murch takes Polakowski down right away, finds nothing from top position, then goes for a heelhook and loses it. Polakowski gets on top and passes to side control, but Murch works his way out and stands up. After a good knee from Polakowski, the fight moves back to the ground where Murch takes Polakowski’s back. Polakowski reverses and ends up in Murch’s guard. Back on the feet, Murch throws a kick and falls to the ground; the round ends with Polakowski on top, throwing punches. It turns out that Murch seriously effed up his shin when he connected with the kick, but he decides to soldier through it, stiff upper lip and all that. Limping badly at the start of the second round, Murch throws a flying knee, then collapses in agony. Polakowski freaks out as if he just knocked out BJ Penn, sprinting around the cage then bouncing out to hug Nogueira, Dana White, and Mir. Mir is visibly disgusted.

Shane Primm vs. Sean O’Connell (205): Primm and O’Connell fought with an intensity usually reserved for the 155′ers. Primm strikes first with nasty knees in a clinch, while O’Connell pressures Primm with takedown attempts and a slam. Primm rolls from his back and works hard to get an armbar. O’Connell frees his arm and briefly tries for a guillotine before the fight goes standing again. Primm lands more knees from a tight clinch, then pulls O’Connell down with a kimura. Primm scores the mount, and O’Connell rolls, allowing Primm to take his back and sink the rear-naked choke. Primm thanks Mir for the coaching. Prediction: Mir’s “NIIIIIIIIIIICE!” is going to become as annoying as Matt Serra’s “Y’GOTTA BREATHE!”

Ido Pariente vs. Efrain Escudero (155): Escudero scores a takedown after some sparring, and tries to set up a darce choke. Pariente gets up and shoots in for his own takedown, but Escudero has his neck wrapped up. The fight goes to the ground, and Escudero takes Pariente’s back and secures the rear-naked choke. Pariente tries to hang in, but he’s eventually forced to tap.

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Mousasi Wins DREAM Middleweight GP; Aoki, Kharitonov, Akiyama Also Victorious

Armenian-Dutch fighter Gegard Mousasi put in a career-making performance at today’s DREAM.6 in Saitama, Japan, earning quick stoppage victories over Melvin Manhoef and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza to win the middleweight grand prix. In his first fight of the night, Mousasi easily dominated Manhoef, quickly scoring a trip-takedown, then securing the mount and clamping on a triangle choke when Manhoef reversed the position. Manhoef attempted to slam out of it, but was forced to tap at the 1:28 mark. Meanwhile on the other side of the bracket, Souza enjoyed a similarly brief win over Croatian Zelg Galesic. After getting a double-leg takedown, Souza passed from guard to mount and snatched an armbar when Galesic tried to buck.

Both men moved into the GP finals relatively fresh — not that they needed to be. When Mousasi and Souza finally met in the last fight of the night, it seemed like Mousasi was in over his head, as Souza first slammed him then began to drop punches from half-guard. But Souza made the fatal error of standing up, and Mousasi caught him with a Hail Mary upkick that knocked Jacare out cold as he began to dive in for a punch.

DREAM.6’s non-tourney featured matches went pretty much as expected, with the stars beating up on the cans. Shinya Aoki returned to his flamboyantly winning ways, hopping on the back of WEC castoff Todd Moore and finishing him at the 1:10 mark with a neck crank. Jimmy Ambriz should be applauded for lasting over two minutes with Sergei Kharitonov, who battered The Titan with vicious strikes until Ambriz was forced to tap on the ground. After abusing him for most of the first round, Yoshihiro Akiyama submitted karate practitioner Masanori Tonooka (1-2), who, let’s just say, is no Lyoto Machida.

The only real surprise (and disappointment) was how the heavyweight feature between Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Alistair Overeem played out.

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UFN 15: The Undercard

(The head kick. Photo courtesy of MMA Weekly)

You didn’t see it on Spike TV last night, but the undercard bouts for Ultimate Fight Night 15 were worth showing up for all by themselves. Yours truly was Octagon-side for the whole thing, and when I wasn’t hanging out in Clay Guida’s dressing room (more on that later), I was busy being impressed by some UFC newcomers.

Dan Miller def. Rob Kimmons via submission (rear naked choke) at 1:27 of round one

This one was quick, with only sporadic fits of action. Miller jumped to Kimmons’ back almost immediately. Kimmons tried to defend and dump him off, but Miller wasn’t having it. After about a minute of absolutely no movement, Miller locked in the choke and Kimmons fell backwards ala Frank Trigg against Matt Hughes, then tapped meekly while the ref took his time about stopping it.

Mike Massenzio def. Drew McFedries via submission (kimura) 1:26 of round one

New Jersey’s Mike Massenzio was particularly impressive in his first-round submission win over Drew McFedries. He put his wrestling skills to good use right away, shooting in on McFedries and getting side control in the ensuing scramble. After McFedries recovered his guard and attempted a triangle choke, which Massenzio shrugged off, it was countdown to kimura time. Massenzio got to north-south and extended McFedries’ arm, forcing him to tap.

Alessio Sakara def. Joe Vedepo via KO (kick) at 1:27 of round one

The most brutal finish of the night also came in the prelims, as Alessio Sakara put his shin directly on Joe Vedepo’s chin early in the first. Vedepo was looking for the takedown from the start, but Sakara’s defense looked much improved. When Vedepo couldn’t get him down he consented to stand and trade. That’s about when the high kick landed with a vicious crack that elicited ‘ooohs’ from the crowd. Vedepo stiffened up and keeled over backwards. Sakara moved in to finish, but it was — to put it mildly — unnecessary.

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TUF 8.01 Recap: A Show of Balls

The season premiere of The Ultimate Fighter: Team Nogueira vs. Team Mir began not with a bang, but with a whimper: As the 32 UFC hopefuls lined up to get pep-talked by Dana White, Phillipe Nover got a case of the vapors and passed out. (Is this show hardcore or what?!) To add further embarrassment to his situation, nobody seems to know how to pronounce Nover’s first name. He says “Filip,” but everyone else decides to go with the more ethnic-sounding “fi-LEEP” or “fi-LEEP-ay.” The guys are told they’ll be given 24 hours to cut weight, and will fight the following day. Our Guamanian buddy Joe Duarte comes in ten pounds over, but it ain’t no thing to him. Jason Guida, on the other hand, comes in like 47 pounds over.

During his agonizing cutting process, Guida pukes into a toilet like a sorority girl after a big date, then cramps up completely and his team has to look at his balls flopping out of his towel (see above). A doctor checks him out and says he can weigh in one more time before he’s given IV fluids and taken to a hospital. His final score: 207. One pound away. He fucked up, and he’s furious. He tells NSAC executive director Keith Kizer that he’ll “never be forgiven.” We are treated to this classic exchange…

Guida: “Just let me do this, doc.”
Kizer: “I’m not a doc, but no.”

And Mike Stewart, who was hanging out in the parking lot for just such an opportunity, gets in as an alternate. Then it’s time for the fights…

Krzystof Soszynski vs. Mike Stewart (205): Stewart gets jacked right away with a huge left hook, and then swarmed with strikes until the ref stops it. Back to the parking lot, buddy. By the way, there’s no fucking way I’m spelling out “Krzystof Soszynski” ever again. He will be referred to as K-Sos from now on.

Fernando Bernstein vs Dave Kaplan (155): Bernstein, a man after my own Hispanojew heart, faces another nice Jewish boy in Kaplan. Bernstein seems to strictly be a kickboxer, though, and after some ferocious striking exchanges, Kaplan gets the fight to the ground and sinks in a rear-naked choke. Dana suggests that Bernstein change his nickname from “Machete” to “Butter Knife.”

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Ultimate Fight Night 15: Undercard Results

(Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

Here there be spoylers. Proceed with caution.

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Gomi + Trigg Win, Schultz Gets KTFO @ Sengoku 4

(In Trigg’s defense, he had just gotten out of the pool.)

Sengoku’s “Fourth Battle” went down today in Saitama, Japan, featuring the long-awaited returns of Takanori Gomi and Frank Trigg, and the first round of their lightweight grand prix. In a non-tourney main event bout, Gomi faced 5-1 Korean DEEP vet Seung Hwan Bang — who should have been steamrolled by the legendary “Fireball Kid” — but Bang hung in for all three rounds. Eventually, Gomi’s accurate striking and control of the fight’s pace convinced the judges to unanimously give him the win. Trigg’s opponent was Makoto Takimoto, a judoka and PRIDE vet who came into the fight with a 4-4 MMA record, and as with Gomi, the fight was a little more difficult than it should have been. Trigg dominated the standup and inflicted major damage from top positions on the ground, but Takimoto nearly caught Twinkle Toes in a kimura in the second round, and spent a lot of the third on top; still, it wasn’t enough to prevent the judges from giving Trigg the decision after the fight went the distance.

The first round of Sengoku’s lightweight tournament held some surprises as three big names were unceremoniously bounced out of the competition. The HIT Squad’s Clay French was tapped in 31 seconds via achilles lock by former Pancrase mainstay Satoru Kitaoka, and jiu-jitsu ace Rodrigo Damm also suffered a first-round submission at the hands of Eiji Mitsuoka. Former IFL lightweight champ Ryan Schultz, who was the biggest favorite to win his first GP match, got his lights put out by a superman-punch from Cage Force champ Mizuto Hirota in the second round of their fight. Full results after the jump; videos to come.

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