A crazy 2007 left us with a lot of questions and discussion to last us a while but 1 fight, Misaki vs. Akiyama, definitely gave us a lot to talk about in early 2008. Was it legal? Was it wrong? His hand was down.. etc. We saw lots of good arguments from both sides but finally I feel some justice was done. Even though we rarely see it in MMA, we saw a fight overturned due to video and photo evidence that the Grabaka Hitman, Kazuo Misaki illegally struck, the always controversial, Yoshihiro Akiyama with an illegal kick in their much anticipated bout at Yarennoka!! 2007.
I think that it is a great thing that the Yarennoka!! staff and FEG went back and reviewed the issue at hand and came out with a fair and honest decision, which was also a not so lenient one. We see very often in fights were fighters are unable to continue due to illegal strikes and are usually awarded the fight. The case was this with Yoshiyuki Yoshida’s less than spectacular win at the Cage Force Tournament Finals in December against Dan Hardy, where he was not only awarded the tournament title, but also a 4 Fight UFC deal too. I think the judging should have been the same for this fight. The fight should definitely be awarded to Akiyama like we’ve seen so often in the past. My only thought is that the reason why this fight wasn’t given to Akiyama is for reasons that don’t necessarily pertain to fighting but that’s a whole different story.
Where do they both go from here? Akiyama is recovering from an injury sustained in the bout, which definitely sidelines him to until March. FEG is having a show in March but I doubt Akiyama will be participating in it due his need to recover. Misaki on the other hand will be very active when he meets Shooto World Champion at 83 Kg. Siyar Baharduzada at the Inaugural World Victory Road (WVR) Show, Sengoku also in March. Also recently announced was the match up between Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos against Makoto Takimoto and Phil Baroni vs. Sanae Kikuta. Also, the 3rd standout member of the Grabaka squad, the colorful Akihiro Gono was supposed to see action against the very talented, Jon Fitch, but Gono was forced to pull out due to an injury he suffered.
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