RIZIN 2017 IN YOKOHAMA - SAKURA - Thread

[Richard Fannin]

Thanks to all of you guys for your answers, very informative o/
I know a lot of these guys are retired, but in Japan fighters seem to come out of retirement a lot more than in the US.
Like,

Minowaman vs Baroni or Mach Sakurai would be nice. Baruto would be too skilled for him.

Rizin seems to bring people out of retirement, but Matsui and Oyama have been out for 4 years. Takase has been 2 years.

Yuki Kondo is fighting this weekend in Pancrase against a 1-0 fighter.

Yeah a trilogy bout between Minowa and Baroni would be great, I was half joking mentioning Baruto (in his prime Minowa would have jumped on the opportunity though, one of the most fearless dudes in MMA), like I said it would be cruel... Manhoef vs Sakuraba level cruelty.

And damn Kondo fights a lot, last Pancrase event I caught live was such a long time ago, I think it was against Matsui, really fun fight, would watch again if I could...

Matsui is still going in D-level promotions and in his most recent fight he lost to a guy who was 1-9 at the time. Kaz is really the only one out of those I would be interested in seeing fight

Damn, poor Matsui, last time I've watched both Yuki Kondo & King Kaz fighting live (nowadays I just watch the cards a couple days later) were the events in which they both beat him...
But obviously I didn't become a Matsui fanboy because of his undefeated record ^^ but because of his heart/fighting spirit.
I remember when he pulled a piledriver on Paulo Filho, perfect slam, but recovered and won. Undefeated Filho as a beast to have survived that
(or was it Minowa who pulled that slam? dang it, I'm currently on strong painkillers for my ribs, and my memory is all fuzzy, I hate that shit)

I'd also love to see KazNak fight again, he has already come out of retirement a couple times (or the Yoshida bout wasn't a double mentor-student retirement fight, and I got confused again).
Against an interesting striker like Zelg "Benkei" Galesic (I still remember when he was hyped as the next Lil' Crocop, and his TKD skills are legit) or Marius Zaromskis that would be cool;
Or a solid grappler like Anthony Perosh, that would have been a cool ground fight IMHO.

Or Shannon Ritch (great dude), Tony Bonello, this type of guys.

Or heck even Ken Shamrock if he is done with Bellator, he was very popular in Japan back in the good days...
(my biggest Shamrock regret is that we never got the Frank fight, but at this point...)

I don't wish to feed these guys to younger dudes hungry for nasty KOs over big names on their records, I would have them fight equally washed up fighters with big names for nostalgia.


Anyway thank you all o/ soz for the rant

 

[SakuWandyCop]

They should make Jerome Le Banner vs Baruto in July

 

[Pyreen]

Time for another press conference, according to what Sakakibara said at the last one, the card should be finalized now, expect 10 - 11 matches total:

 

[Asurah]

Akira Shoji is in attendance at the press conference, he is promoting autism awareness. Hopefully he's not planning on fighting

 

[Pyreen]

Akira Shoji is promoting autism awareness.

I cant be the only one who found that hilarious.
Nice gesture though, they promoted some guy's local BJJ gym, his kids have autism and he's trying to start an awareness campaign from that. Shoji was the middleman who told Sakakibara about him.

Edit: BJJ guy will hold an awareness event / open mat session on April 2nd, and RIZIN is going to send Baruto over to "roll with the children". Also, one fight announcement today.

 

[Asurah]

RIZIN is going to send Baruto over to "roll with the children".

Might have some children get rolled over

I assume this announcement is going to be Kizaemon's fight

 

[Asurah]

Kizaemon vs ZST Flyweight champ Seiichiro Ito looks like, awesome fight

 

[Pyreen]

I assume this announcement is going to be Kizaemon's fight

Yup, there he is. Excellent addition. Saiga's wife prob gonna cry again. I like what I've seen from Ito.

 

[Asurah]

Yup, there he is. Excellent addition. Saiga's wife prob gonna cry again.

Probably going to get subbed, should be fun while it lasts though

 

[Pyreen]

Probably going to get subbed, should be fun while it lasts though

They're difinitely not giving Saiga the RENA treatment. Apart from the South African dude it's been all top class grapplers for him.

 

[David Street]

on paper this looks horrid Kizaemon Saiga 3-2 Bantam weight against Seiichiro Ito 11-1-2 a flyweight. but must be a reason for Saiga? Guess he was the true Karate Hottie, and very popular among women when he was fighting in K-1. But never seen him fight before..

 

[GIBLERTBAPTISTA]

Can we get a petition going for Baruto vs Overalls Ariyama?

 

[Asurah]

Can we get a petition going for Baruto vs Overalls Ariyama?

Megaton GP 2 please, make it happen Sakakibara

 

[Asurah]

Aliakbari vs Geronimo Dos Santos announced

Good test for Aliakbari

 

[KenkaBancho]

on paper this looks horrid Kizaemon Saiga 3-2 Bantam weight against Seiichiro Ito 11-1-2 a flyweight. but must be a reason for Saiga? Guess he was the true Karate Hottie, and very popular among women when he was fighting in K-1. But never seen him fight before..

I dunno why Rizin doesn't wanna build him up.

Saiga is like the real life version of Karate Kohinata Minoru

 

[leto1776]

I don't think they care about his record, as long as they can get away with using his and his wife's celebrity to draw people in.

 

[Asurah]

I dunno why Rizin doesn't wanna build him up.

Saiga is like the real life version of Karate Kohinata Minoru

Funny thing is they probably did him a favor by not giving him what he wanted, he was asking to fight Wada in this event.

I think as long as he keeps putting on entertaining fights he will be fine, his fights against Tokoro and Erson were great and he showed in his last fight that he can get big finishes against lesser competition.

 

[SakuWandyCop]

HELL TO THE YES!

 

[Pyreen]

So, per Sakakibara the card is now complete at 11 fights. Also, Kanako Murata will be competing at Pancrase 286 in April.
Dos Santos should be a good test for Aliakbari, he's not top class but can hang with top guys (or could, just saw that he has 46 fights with quite a few T/KOs) and has some solid wins over Vale tudo mainstays like Thiago Santos and Assuerio Silva.

 

[Asurah]

So, per Sakakibara the card is now complete at 11 fights. Also, Kanako Murata will be competing at Pancrase 286 in April.
Dos Santos should be a good test for Aliakbari, he's not top class but can hang with top guys (or could, just saw that he has 46 fights with quite a few T/KOs) and has some solid wins over Vale tudo mainstays like Thiago Santos and Assuerio Silva.

He'll test how Aliakbari reacts to getting hit if he can avoid getting wrestled down quick, he hits hard enough to have made JDS become a wrestler against him back in the day. He's been on a decent run lately, he's technically limited but he's huge and hits hard for a few minutes. The fight might become a gas fest if it makes it to the latter half of the first round though.