Japanese MMA Thread, DREAM, WVR, K-1, etc. Options

[Lord of The Curr...]

I was a tad surprised at Bas knowing dick all about Hioki.

[Lt. Al Giardello]

Yeah Bas was pretty horrible last night. I can't even defend him.

[Lei Tong]

The thing is, Bas is a good guy, and easily one of the coolest MMA fighters I've ever met (probably right behind Tito), so it's not like I'm biased against him, but he was damn bad last night. At least Rice has the (weak) defense of knowing fuck-all about MMA.

The thing that's amazing to me about MMA announcers & journalists being ignorant about fighters and events is the resources they have at their disposal which seemingly goes unused. Even those without access to the massive libraries of footage that promoters and matchmakers collect could simply go onto almost any MMA forum, say "Hey, guys. Hook me up with some of _____'s fights", and you'll have people falling over themselves to show them fights.

EDIT: Also, it's technically their JOB to know what's up.

[Lord of The Curr...]

For reals. It's called YouTube, Bas.

[The Niggardly Ki...]

Still the same conclusion from me, Ronnie Mann by total domination

[The Niggardly Ki...]

(IMG:http://upshizzle.com/gallery/albums/October_2008/hellojapan.gif)

[Cuban Linx]

The Melvin Manhoef bandwagon just went up in flames.

[Lord of The Curr...]

And the Overeem one took a bit of a hit too. I personally thought Bojansky would take it but Alistair had a lot of hype behind him.

[Mik]

Haven't seen the fight yet but I've read reports that make it sound like Alistair had the fight won until a flash knockdown late in the 3rd.

True/false for people who've seen it already?

[Lei Tong]

I don't see any reason either guy should feel particularly bad about how they performed.

[AboveAverage484]

The Remy/Alistair fight was pretty boring, definitely not what a lot of people were expecting. The rest of the night was great, Japan finally has a legitimate K-1 champion, believe it or not. Spong naturally didn't look as quick or as smooth with all the extra weight; hopefully he will be better prepared next time he fights.

[Hawkius Maximus]

Keijiro Maeda winning the Heavyweight K-1 title is huge. I don't know if it'll help Japan's fight business, but it sure as fuck can't hurt. Maeda becomes the first Japanese fighter in a mainstream promotion in Japan to win a title at a heavier weightclass. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. If nothing else, good for Japan. Unlike all the other promotions in the world, they'd never had this moment before.

I liked the show a lot. Much more then any of the recent MMA shows from Japan. Even the Schilt fight which was more or less a plodding manhandling was entertaining to some respect. The fans and the commentators giving Schilt no respect was hilarious.

Speaking of which. Ray Sefo and Australian dude? They crush all the other commentating teams. Australian guy, whose name I can never pick up, is corny but it's not like Renallo who sets up everything and tries to be witty. I firmly believe Australian guy just...talks like that. In the middle of a hot spree, he'll just blurt out shit like, "HE'S TURNING INTO WINONA RYDER. HE'S TRYING TO STEAL THIS FIGHT!" and so on. Intensely amusing at four am. Ray Sefo had an issue about talking over himself, but he stood out when Maeda won the HW title, and did an awesome job selling it. Which makes sense, he's lived it. And he was constantly on everyone's shit for fighting poorly. The Schilt fight had some fun moments as well, such as the Australian guy praising Schilt's back step jab. This led to an awkward pause, before Australian guy goes, "Don't worry Sugar Ray...I won't mention that backstep jab again." and then both started laughing. Good times.

If I took anything from the main event, it's that Alistair Overeem's a jerk. I have no idea why they weren't taking points away from him. He hit Bonjasky late once, and he kept basically throwing Bonjasky. Atleast once, Bonjasky crashed onto his head. If anything took Bonjasky out of his comfort zone, it was being tossed on his head like that. But Overeem was winning the fight until the KD in Round Three...but neither looked overly impressive. Overeem didn't look as explosive as he did against Hari, which I can only think is because instead of deciding to come out bombs away, Overeem decided to actually kickbox. Bonjasky, I have no idea why he looked so poor. It was like he wasn't prepared for Overeem, and then barely squeeked out the win.

Peter Aerts looked very, very good in his fight but I'm not a huge Zimmerman fan. Le Banner pulled a dipshit and basically gave away his fight. Oh and Feitosa killed him a Junichi. Good show overall.

[AboveAverage484]

You're thinking of Michael Schiavello, him and Ray are actually pretty good friends.

Maeda holding the HW title is good for K-1 in Japan until he eventually faces Hari and gets murdered.

[Hawkius Maximus]

We need more Michael Schiavello. Have him call everything HDNet imports.

Have him call every MMA event broadcasted.

It's so much easier to watch these events when the commentator team actually treat it with respect, and want to do it. Kenny Rice doesn't know what the fuck he's doing, and halfway through events Bas either gets tired or bored every time. Not Schiavello. He was a godsend. Even if the fight was in a lull, he'd bust out something corny to make me laugh.

[Lei Tong]

Schiavello's so fucking grating, it's almost unbearable sometimes.

[Cuban Linx]

I like Schiavello, but i don't think i could stand listening to him all the time. I'd take him over Rice, Mauro, Quadros, Trigg or present day-Bas though.

[The Niggardly Ki...]

Bring back Gus Johnson

KIMBO SWEEP!

[AboveAverage484]

Schiavello only works in small doses for me.