Yarennoka!

(You won, Dude! Oh, wait...)

So it took almost a month, but the verdict is now in for the December 31st bout between Yoshihiro Akiyama and Kazuo Misaki. The fight was at the New Year's Eve Yarennoka event which ended with Akiyama being knocked out by a kick to the face from Misaki as Yoshihiro was trying to get to his feet. After the fight, Lady Controversy reared her head as to whether the kick was legal or not.

It wasn't.

After Akiyama submitted a formal protest, the Yarennoka executive committee - headed by Keiichi Sasahara - reviewed the fight. After the review, a "no contest" was entered and Misaki's win was erased from the records.

Fedor vs. Hong is what got us to wake up at 6 a.m. on our day off — but the real highlight of "Yarennoka!"/"Fedor Returns" was easily the 8-minute battle between 187-pounders Kazuo Misaki (black trunks) and Yoshihiro Akiyama (red trunks). Misaki's wild jumping-bean dance can't save him from being floored by a punch from Akiyama, who nearly pounds him out on the ground, but Misaki rallies back toward a spectacular finish. Still, there was more behind this fight than the action. Yeo Jong-Hoon gives some historical and political context to the matchup in this article on FightOpinion, and clarifies that what we thought was Misaki paying tribute to Akiyama after the fight was actually him chastising the Korean-born fighter in front of a packed arena. Harsh! A must-read article and a must-see video.

We didn't write much about it in the liveblog because it was pretty much over before it began and it didn't end any differently than anyone expected. But here's the video evidence of the last great (?) fight of 2007. Pause the vid at the 1:29 mark for the best representation of the size difference. Fedor is just a toy that Hong is playing with. And vice-versa, of course...

It's early as hell, so you bloodsuckers better appreciate this. If you're awake too, reload the page every couple minutes and check out our commentary on this sad freak show historic event after the jump. If not, do me a favor and read this when you do wake up. I need to feel like my life has a purpose.

Props to Nightmare of Battle for the Yarennoka! rule change rundown. The first round will be 10 minutes, compared to 5 minutes for the second round. No draws, three judges choose a winner if the fight goes the distance.

But the ones that really take some pepper off the event are the no soccer kicks and stomps to the head of a downed opponent rules. Knee strikes are allowed except for the Fedor Emelianenko/Hong-man Choi fight. Seems Japan is Americanizing the event and it blows. Sure, we can see MMA rules becoming more and more unified and they're certainly more rigid than they were in the early 90's, but the Japanese removing these two doesn't make a ton of sense. Are kicks to the head and face stomping life threatening? Yes, and that's what is so fantastic about them.

In other Yarennoka! news, ProElite.com reports:

ProElite.com (SamCaplan.ProElite.com) has learned from a well-placed source that the eighth and final bout for Yarennoka! in Japan on Dec. 31 is expected to feature Roman Zentsov vs. Mike Russow.  

ProElite.com has also learned from a separate source that Russow is also under consideration to fight on M-1 Global's first card in the U.S.

The bout between Zentsov and Russow is expected to kick off HDNet's coverage of the event, which will commence on Jan. 1 at 6 a.m. ET.

ProElite.com was also able to obtain a preliminary order of bouts on the card. It is as follows:

Fight 1: Roman Zentsov vs. Mike Russow

Fight 2: Makoto Takimoto vs. Murilo Bustamante

Fight 3: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis Azeredo

Fight 4: Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Gilbert Melendez

Fight 5: Hayato Sakurai vs. Hidehiko Hasegawa

Fight 6: Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Kazuo Misaki

Fight 7: Shinya Aoki vs. TBD

Fight 8: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Hong-man Choi 

The fight addition could be a good boost for Russow's career who will be fighting his sixth match this year, with only one loss. This will be a good platform for him to show what he has to offer, but Zentsov is a beast and had his seven fight win streak snapped back in July. He'll be hungry.

Stick around for more Yarennoka! scoops this week.