Well, Heiwa 1 has come and gone and, despite what promised to be a return to the two round Bushido format, we saw a mildly disappointing show. Hardly the powerhouse, high-production performance that fans got from World Victory Road’s Sengoku event.
Obviously, the card brought the opportunity to see world class mixed martial artists return to action after a Pride buyout that left that massive void in the Japanese market.
I’ll admit, I was glad to see the triumphant return of long time Japanese favorite Ikuhisa Minowa (who’ve I’ve been a fan of ever since the 180 pound warrior tapped out Eric “Butterbean” Esch with an armbar in Pride), though he had fought a few times in K-1, dropping one fight to 400 pound monster Zuluzinho in the freak matchup that Japanese fans seem to wallow in. “The Punk” finished Bum Chan Kang with a kneebar in under 1:25, in a fight where his opponent seemed confused as to what the hell a submission looked like.
Fellow Japanese country and crowd favorite Hayato “Mach” Sakurai pulled out a big win over a nobody with a 4:12 knock out over Hidetaka Monma. The win is Sakurai’s fifth in a row, one of which came over recent TUF winner Mac Danzig. Sakurai’s only loss in his last ten fights was to Takanori Gomi, and in his lists of conquests are two top ten fighters (Shinya Aoki and Joachim Hansen, who were both on the card) and top 145 pound WEC contender and former UFC lightweight champion Jens Pulver.
Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen, the albino Norwegian who’s fighting style can be as frightening as his appearance, marked his first fight of the New Year with a less than impressive Unanimous Decision win over no-name Kotetsu Boku. Hopefully, Hansen will show the impressive form that has made him a top ten fighter in alot of people’s minds, with his explosive knees and saavy submission game.
Katsuhiko Nagata and Mitsuhiro Ishida rolled to convincing, though hardly exciting, Unanimous Decision wins. Their place in the division seems to be uncertain, as the organization has yet to really establish a pack of fighters, but I would imagine that they are more than ready to take their place in it so that they can establish themselves as consistent fighters.
Luiz Firmino took home the win when he submitted Japanese wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata with a rear naked choke. Firmino looks like a promising prospect and his two recent losses are to respectable competitors in Tatsuya Kawajiri and Luiz Azredo. Hopefully he will show some versatility, because people aren’t going to submit for “no apparent reason” like his first opponent. (seriously, look at his sherdog profile)
Mirko “CroCop” Filipovic got his first win in over a year, when he knocked out Tatsuya Mizuno in 56 seconds. CroCop looked comfortable back in the ring and very aggressive, and we can only hope that his apparently regained confidence will translate when he fights competition that doesn’t suck.
Eddie Alvarez TKO’d Andre “Dida” Amade and, while these guys don’t seem to be top competitors and are relatively unknown, he may have established himself a following. The Japanese fans become attached to fighters quickly, but it’s also Alvarez’s very American style of fighting that may make him attractive to Japanese fans, who are looking for a fighter like that to round out the division with a solid kickboxer/wrestler and submission fighter in the headliners Calvancante and Aoki, but I’ll get to them later. Whether he has won the crowd or not, he proved that he is fun to watch, and the Japanese fans, while not as frustrated by decisions, like excitement just like the rest of us.
Tatsuya Kawajiri posted the nights 4th Unanimous Decision when the judges gave him the fight over Kultar Gill after two rounds. I’ll admit, I wasn’t happy with Kawajiri’s performance, and I don’t think that he should be either. Even the Japanese fans, who love watching him fight, know that he shouldn’t have let that one go the distance.
In case you aren’t aware, the main event of the evening was declared a no-contest just 3:46 in, and this is a serious problem if Dream fails to put together another matchup between these two guys, because this matchup presented the promise of a top lightweight contender, something that the Japanese haven’t had for a long time. Between the two of them, they’ve beaten most of the Japanese top ten guys with the exception of Takanori Gomi, who has once again fallen from the graces of the MMA world with his submission loss to Nick Diaz. Despite the fight being overturned after Diaz tested positive for marijuana, it’s still not a secret that Gomi lost that fight, and that he deserved to lose that fight.
That said, it’s important to recognize the need for a serious East Asian powerhouse to emerge. Whether it is the triangle master Aoki or the K-1 force to be reconned with in JZ, it needs to happen, and we need to see a decisive fight between these two, if only to spark excitement and interest among the overarching world of fans, and not just the Japanese (who might be quite content with Sakurai and Minowa). If this organization wants to thrive, it’s going to have to show that it can produce a real champion, with a belt and everything.
That, more than anything else, is a wakeup call for Japanese MMA. The void left by Pride is still not full, and it’s going to take more than a few finishes on the undercard and Mirko CroCop smashing a punching bag to make people excited again.
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