Damn, you were at Cage Rage 15?
You lucky bastard you, that's always been one of my all-time favorite
Cage Rage events... I bought the DVD right when it came out with 2 other Cage Rage events and a couple of very early
Jungle Fights cards (icluding the very first one) to go with it for my brother's birthday back in 2006, and mamamia what a night that was.
All of Dave Legeno's MMA bouts were for that promotion, right in the middle of the golden age of Cage Rage. Ever card in the 10s and 20s was stacked with awesome names and match-ups.
But for CR15, The crowd must have gone nuts during
Cyborg vs Manhoef 1
(I felt terrible when they dragged poor Cyborg out of retirement to make the rematch for
Gringo Super Fight [tasteful name] and he got smoked in 30 secondes...)
My man
Jean "White Bear" Silva vs Paul Daley was another great fight, but with an anti-climactic finish...
Jean Silva is one of the OG Chute Boxe fighters that gets talked about the least nowadays; he was at almost every Cage Rage events from that time period, and was even the LW champ for a while... I'm still butthurt that the 2003 event he was going to headline against Jen Pulvers at the Wembley conference center got cancelled, what a bummer...
Zelg "Benkei" Galesic (gotta love that dude) also smashed some Brit in blue pants at that event, back when "Lil' Crocop" was a hot prospect and went to a bunch of Cage Rage events...
Good old
Robert "Buzz" Berry also fought in that one, sandwhiched between the ones in which he KO'd Ken Shamrock and Marc Goddard
And of course I'm a
Daijiro "The Japanese Tank" Matsui absolute fanboy, so I would have paid good money to watch him in the co-main against Sam Stout (I've always had a soft spot for Stout, he got fed to the wolves so many times, I guess this fight against Matsui was supposed to be a break for him; but Matsui is a lilttle Tank, there's no putting this guy out)
Aaaanyway I'm a little off topic there, so...
Here, one matchup I've always been curious about: Kazushi Sakuraba vs
Yuriy "PlayBoy" Kyselov (2-2) at
K1 Hero's 8
Dude had a Gi with the pink Playboy logo on it's back, and seemed like a nice guy, kept hugging Saku after the bout and did splits in the middle of the ring; so I've always wondered what/who he was supposed to be.
The introduction made him seem like a big deal, like a local celebrity in Ukraine or something? He didn't look to athletic, and lost quickly...I figured he might have been a big deal in some traditional martial art of another...
I mean, at that time the promoters would sometimes throw Saku a bone between fights against the usual killers, but usually these bones where young, promising fighters with no experience in MMA but with a long career in another martial art.
For example, like in 2008 when Saku fought the then 0-0
Andrews Nakahara, at least the guy was a famous Kyokushin karate champion, who beat some big names and won either gold or silver in big tournament between 2004 and 2007, beating guys like Ewerton Teixeira)
Nakahara then went on to train at Blackzilians, and had mixed success in MMA, and participated at TUF 21...
How weird is that, I'm just looking for some highlights of his karate competitions days, and the only Nakahara highlight on youtube with a bunch of his MMA + Karate bouts compiled in one vid was posted... 5 days ago
Strange coincidence, but my point is that the 0-0 dudes Sakuraba fought in Japan usually had an extensive background in another martial art, like the legendary
Yoon Dong-Sik,
The Judo King Without a Crown.
Or pro boxer Rubin
"Mr. Hollywood" Williams, who was 29–2 in the noble art before he fought Saku, promising a switch KO... and in a memorably confusing post-fight interview, insisted that in a strictly kick-boxing match he would have easily won, but that he was "overwhelmed by the low-kicks" <{CMPALM}>
(damn, since his loss to Sakuraba, Rubin Williams went friggin
0-32 in pro-boxing, and no it's not a typo
)
According to wikipedia
How do you keep getting booked for fights after losing so many bouts in a row?
That's kinda sad, dude once fought Olympic Silver medalist and Super MW IBF champion Jeff Lacy for his title
, and a few years later, after getting subbed by the Gracie Hunter in your first and only MMA bout, you loses 30 pro boxing bouts in a row.
Cruel world...
Sorry, I keep getting distracted, forgot to take my Adderall... my point was that Yuriy "PlayBoy" Kyselov
(holy shit, Playboy fought just 3 months ago, and it was a 12 seconds doozy!
https://mmajunkie.usatoday.com/2020...lands-huge-one-hitter-quitter-at-mma-festival
)
*hem* Yuriy Kyselov doesn't seem to have backgroud of any sort in any martial art that I could uncover, aside from 3 kickboxing bouts from 2004 that I just found out about for the first time.
Well I guess this is it? First time I find out about these kickboxing bouts, but since he went 1-2 it doesn't really explain his weird celebrity status, participating in big shows in which he's always presented as "the star if the evening" and people go nuts wen he does splits in the middle of the ring.
My quest in life ever since watching that Saku fight and the strange promo before has been to find out who that playboy is, and why is he so famous in his home country.
... I really gotta stop posting these messes