New Year's Eve 2006

UPDATE (2007-01-09)

Sorry for not being able to update until now. First I was away from computers to visit my family during holidays, then I get very busy at work.

I woke up on New Year's day and a lot of news had traveled overnight, some of it to my mobile phone email, about the Sakuraba x Akiyama match. As you probably all know by now, there was controversy about Akiyama applying a slippery substance to his body. This was the reason for Sakuraba's strange behavior, i.e., trying to signal the referee for a time-out during the fight. It could also partly explain why Sakuraba's legendary single leg tackles seemed so hopeless.

Don't forget that Akiyama came into the ring and was checked with his dogi on. He said something about leaving it up to "inspiration" to determine whether to fight with the dogi on or not. Akiyama did not take off his dogi until just seconds before the fight started. And then curiously, after the fight he could not seem to jump back into his dogi quickly enough.

The complaints led K-1 to double-check Akiyama's body after the fight, and they said they found nothing. But would you really expect them to say anything else?

Sakuraba is not a fighter who makes excuses for his losses, even when it is clear that he is at a disadvantage or is the victim of a foul. For example, everybody saw Ricardo Arona push his thumb into the wound above Sakuraba's eye, but Sakuraba did not say anything about this. (Of course, he does complain about things he really thinks is unfair sometimes, like Conan Silveira fight or his comments under his breath about Silva long time ago.)

When you think about it further, though, the accusations against Akiyama are not really surprising. Akiyama was accused of cheating in a similar way on many occasions in his judo career. Other observers in Japan have started making remarks about Akiyama's gloves being different from the standard issue one worn by all other fighters at K-1 Dynamite. At some point, though, it becomes difficult to tell between criticisms and analyses made by real fight fans who are interested in fairness, on one hand, versus those made by the many Japanese people who still have xenophobic suspicions against Akiyama for his Korean heritage.

It is a shame, though. Akiyama would probably have won anyway with his youth, strength and balance. Now the best outcome we could get is a horrible rematch. And if Sakuraba somehow wins that one, get ready for a rubber match at Dynamite 2007. You can imagine all the dollar signs in the eyes of mentally challenged Tanigawa.



PREVIOUS POST (2006-12-31)

I just got back home from PRIDE Otoko Matsuri and some soba. On my HDD recorder, I just watched Sakuraba x Akiyama twice quickly. That was a very strange fight. A few days ago, I made my first post on a MMA forum in a long time. I talked about the possibility that Sakuraba would throw his fight to put over Akiyama.

Sakuraba lacked basic ground smarts. He did not push off Akiyama during the ground and pound, even though Sakuraba's feet were conveniently on Akiyama's hips. He also took a lot of punishment without trying to improve position. These two things together kind of smell like a work. Taking that kind of punishment seemed especially like a pro wrestling-style work.

If it wasn't a work, then Sakuraba was not even in condition to be in the ring in the first place. Of course, most people think he is too far past his prime and too weak against his rivals to compete, but that's not what I mean. I mean that his health, even his mental health, is too poor to put him in fighting situations. At one point after getting up from a bad single leg tackle he attempted on Akiyama, Sakuraba signaled for a time-out! Well, for his time-out singal, Sakuraba got no acknowledgement from the referee, and only a punch flurry from Akiyama. This man is a extremely experienced MMA fighter. Of all people, he should know that he can't signal for a time-out in a vale tudo match. Sakuraba's brain might be so gone at this point that perhaps he momentarily thought he was only in a practice session.

(In case you're wondering, I also put the video on rewind to see if there was a low blow by Akiyama or something right before Sakuraba signaled for the time-out. Nothing there.)

Anyway, I will write more next year about tonight.