Why isn't Imanari in Rizin?

[ryohazuki]

Masakazu Imanari is the most interesting Japanese fighter to watch. Why the fuck is he in that shitty promotion DEEP instead? Blah.

 

[Yosuke]

You have some homework to do. Deep is elite. Imanari is deep.
To answer your question, he will probably end up fighting for RIZIN, even if only for 2-3 matches.
Motoya is the guy RIZIN is hoping for. Young, marketable and he has some skills, too.

 

[kimocomplex]

Imanari should be retired, or just doing shows like Polaris

 

[Asurah]

DEEP is where RIZIN took most of their roster from lol

 

[leto1776]

Maybe he doesn't wanna sign a contract with a promoter who might not be around this time next year?

 

[GIBLERTBAPTISTA]

How dare you bismirch the name of DEEP

 

[Richard Fannin]

DEEP is the shit, and Imanari is one scary leglocks enthusiast (I remember when Palhares was called "the Brazilian Imanari") and known cosplayer.

Just last month he heel hooked Nam Phan under one minute, nice, look at that bad boy sub
Thankfully Nam Phan tapped quickly and Imanari decided to be merciful.


He basically ended Jean "White Bear" Silva's career because he didn't tap fast enough, he was never the same after that nasty heel hook...

Most people will remember this former Chute Boxer from his fight with Gomi in PRIDE, (when The Fireball Kid was on his Chute Boxe hunt and they dragged Jean from Cage Rage, when he was holding the promotion title, to avenge Luiz Azeredo after Gomi went full "Kid" on him)

Or because of his badass fight against Paul "Semtex" Dailey, capoeira in MMA, who knew that it could be effective?

Imanari vs Palhares at the next Metamoris please

 

[EndlessCritic]

You have some homework to do. Deep is elite. Imanari is deep.
To answer your question, he will probably end up fighting for RIZIN, even if only for 2-3 matches.
Motoya is the guy RIZIN is hoping for. Young, marketable and he has some skills, too.

too bad motoya got KO'ed in his rizin debut after dominating the whole fight.

 

[LHWBelt]

Masakazu Imanari is the most interesting Japanese fighter to watch. Why the fuck is he in that shitty promotion DEEP instead? Blah.

Guy is like 80 and not all that effective.

 

[Fork]

Masakazu Imanari is the most interesting Japanese fighter to watch. Why the fuck is he in that shitty promotion DEEP instead? Blah.

what's this shitting on DEEP about? pearls before swine, i guess.

and imanari can be great, but when his style isn't working he can also be really frustrating.

 

[CDF47]

Imanari would be a good signing

 

[ryohazuki]

DEEP is the shit, and Imanari is one scary leglocks enthusiast (I remember when Palhares was called "the Brazilian Imanari") and known cosplayer.

Just last month he heel hooked Nam Phan under one minute, nice, look at that bad boy sub
Thankfully Nam Phan tapped quickly and Imanari decided to be merciful.


He basically ended Jean "White Bear" Silva's career because he didn't tap fast enough, he was never the same after that nasty heel hook...

Most people will remember this former Chute Boxer from his fight with Gomi in PRIDE, (when The Fireball Kid was on his Chute Boxe hunt and they dragged Jean from Cage Rage, when he was holding the promotion title, to avenge Luiz Azeredo after Gomi went full "Kid" on him)

Or because of his badass fight against Paul "Semtex" Dailey, capoeira in MMA, who knew that it could be effective?

Imanari vs Palhares at the next Metamoris please

Thanks for the post, I have never been able to find that fight. How did you find that? Do you speak Japanese or something?

And second, Deep is not the shit. I downloaded a recent DEEP event just to watch imanari fight, and I'm sure there was less than 100 people in the audience. That is sad.

 

[Asurah]

Thanks for the post, I have never been able to find that fight. How did you find that? Do you speak Japanese or something?

And second, Deep is not the shit. I downloaded a recent DEEP event just to watch imanari fight, and I'm sure there was less than 100 people in the audience. That is sad.

You judge how much you like an event based on the audience? Seems like not the best way to do things

 

[Fork]

And second, Deep is not the shit. I downloaded a recent DEEP event just to watch imanari fight, and I'm sure there was less than 100 people in the audience. That is sad.

you're only hurting yourself.

 

[ryohazuki]

^ If they had PRIDE rules at least, it wouldn't be as sad.

 

[Fork]

^ If they had PRIDE rules at least, it wouldn't be as sad.

hahaha, fair enough. i think one of the great strengths of japanese MMA is the variety of rulesets, but if you're going to dismiss an organization because they don't follow PRIDE's rules, as i said i think you're only depriving yourself of great MMA.

 

[Richard Fannin]

Thanks for the post, I have never been able to find that fight. How did you find that? Do you speak Japanese or something?

You're welcome! No I don't speak Japanese (sadly), I just follow DEEP and Pancrase events randomly stumbled on the fight vid in a JMMA thread on 4chan, I was just lucky.

And yes MMA is not doing too good in Japan nowadays which is a shame since I started following the sport during the PRIDE early days and loved the whole atmosphere. PRIDE for MMA and K1 for kickboxing, we were so spoiled....
I was so bummed when it got cancelled, and then K1 heroes and DREAM both sunk
-
still gave us plenty of classicc fights, despite the bitter disappointment that they got rid of Stomps and Soccer kicks... and tomake the pill easier for the fans to swallow, we didn't get elbows when they brought the bit-too-late DREAM cage...
-
It's just that DEEP and Pancrase events, even if they are "small" brings some of the nostalgia back, make me follow young japanese prospects (and hope to find some promising enough to get picked up by Bellator or the UFC), and have the occasional former big names that I used to watch in their prime; plus, only one or two japanese new year events à la Inoki Bom Ba Ye is not enough to end the craving >< and they allowed a fight like Sakuraba vs Aoki to happen. which

And a fight card is a fight card, it's like the UFC smaller events, often crazy fights happen there but go relatively unnoticed because everyone is focusing on the main card.

My last favorites fighters still in the UFC (AFAIK, since I've been less interested in MMA lately, hopefully just a phase) are Gomi and Kikuno; sadly Kikuno's style, that I loved to watch so much (the Dida fight is perfect example of his style working, and Dida's stand up is top notch) didn't transition so well in the Octagon.
Well he was not really in his prime anymore when he got signed, didn't expect him to beat the champ, but at least hand in there with the lower top 10 of his division

And Gomi, damn I'm still pissed of at the Diego decision...

And I'll stop my rant now

 

[DuppyMekka]

Imanari is fun to watch as long as he doesnt fight a LnP fighter. If so he ends up pinned to the canvas for 15 minutes...most fighters are intelligent enough not to play footsie with him...

 

[LiveFreeorDie]

2 types of JMMA fans, ones who like DEEP, and ones who like JMMA when there are no Japanese fighters fighting.

 

[ryohazuki]

hahaha, fair enough. i think one of the great strengths of japanese MMA is the variety of rulesets, but if you're going to dismiss an organization because they don't follow PRIDE's rules, as i said i think you're only depriving yourself of great MMA.

2 types of JMMA fans, ones who like DEEP, and ones who like JMMA when there are no Japanese fighters fighting.

You judge how much you like an event based on the audience? Seems like not the best way to do things

I'm going off topic, but there are only two things that are attributes of Japanese MMA to me:
1. The solemn, quiet Japanese audience
2. Soccer kicks and stomps

Given that the audience is an indicator the fighter's pay and his honor/recognition for that fight, the ridiculously low # of attendance really saddens me.