Sengoku 4 - Some Thoughts

Monday 25 August 2008

After digesting yesterday's Sengoku event a few thoughts.

Japan has many stars, and most of them are now fighting in DREAM. But what is easy to forget is that these are mostly stars from the Pride era. Japanese MMA has not been inactive, even though Pride died (lacking a better word). It has been hard to measure the development of guys like Mitsuoka, Hirota, Yokota and Kitaoka. They are very experienced guys, but until yesterday I think they were relatively unknown for the average global MMA fan (they might still be).

Hirota had upset of the night, but it was not the only upset. For me, Yokota and Kitaoka were not big upsets they are very good Japanese fighters, but I didn't know much about their opponents. Mitsuoka choking out Damm, I was not expecting. So what did we see yesterday? The start of a tournament that will draw Japanese fans, or the end of it? I have a feeling it would have been better to get some foreign fighters going through as well, just someone for the Japanese "underdog" (they like that).

At the end of the day though, there will be a Japanese Lightweight champion in Sengoku.

Still cant shake the question though... How would these guys do in the DREAM tournament?

With regards to the Nastula stoppage, I felt that it was wrong... He should have been given a warning to get up, he was slow in getting up and a yellow card might have been in place. It was a mistake in my eyes, but the ref was clear afterwards. He called break and Natsula did not stand up.

Takahashi has 3 KO losses (all by knees) in a row now... Just cant be good...

This was IMO the best Sengoku event so far, and they have more fighters coming in. Sengoku has momentum, lets see if they are able to get a TV deal going now...

I also want to thank the guys making comments to me during the PBP, both where very constructive and helpful. I am a one man show and I don't have all the answers, so always good to get help!

Wanna watch the fights? Check out this site: http://www.mmascraps.com/

2 comments:

Anonymous,  26 August 2008 at 20:24  

what japan needs right now is a big show, where the best from these smaller organizations can rise up the ranks and fight top competition from around the world. this is what sengoku should have been, and this is what sengoku aspires to be, but with only a few superstars who are constantly fighting guys from much smaller shows, they're just setting themselves for failure.

take the last show. they took arguably the biggest LW in japan, if not the world, in Gomi, and they made him fight a relatively unknown up-and-comer from korea in a very disappointing and lackluster fight. this is the guy they are building a complete tournament around as a foundation!

while i agree that these guys from smaller shows will definitely benefit by moving up to a sengoku-type of show, but without any easily-recognized point of reference, it will be hard to make superstars out of them.

for example, eddie alvarez was completely unknown, but by beating established superstars like Kawajiri and Hansen in the LW tournament, he has now achieved superstar status.

this situation cannot happen right now in sengoku, except through a very big upset. if they don't sign more recognized superstars, the best they can hope for is to have some Nino Schembris within their ranks.

in the professional fighting business, the anticipation building up to the fight is just as important as the actual fight. right now, sengoku has neither.

Borre 27 August 2008 at 00:49  

Yes, I agree. It is hard to know how good they are. Ryan Schultz should be a very good fighter though.

We'll have to see when the winner meets Gomi, have to say it was lucky Gomi didnt lose... Not saying he was close, just that it would have let the tournament wprthless.

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