Sengoku IX Post Event Analysis and Review

How can such a good thing do someone so much bad? What on the exterior looked to be a great night of fights might have had a bad affect on business. World Victory Road’s Sengoku IX may be the event that in the future look back to find that it was a culprit in stifling the promotion despite the fact that the fights on the card were incredibly competitive and hard fought. From a promotional stand point the company could not have come out feeling more happy or sad. Not to say that the fights in and of themselves were bad, but after tonight WVR’s Sengoku series is caught in an unenviable position of trying to swim upstream as their DREAM counterparts seem to in slightly better shape in a mediocre Japanese MMA pool.

Where do we start? Let’s look at the booking crisis to come after this show. From a matchmakers prospective this show could have some negative repercussions in the short term. The short term negatives are:

1.) Akihiro Gono, a perennial crowd pleaser and favorite was brutally knocked out by midcarder Dan Hornbuckle. Also, not only is this Gono’s 3rd straight loss but also they can’t count on him in the near future since he will likely be out with an injury, which thankfully doesn’t look to be as bad as originally thought.

2.) Kazuo Misaki, who will be serving an indefinite suspension after running from police during a traffic stop, beat Kazuhiro Nakamura, who would’ve earned a title shot with a win, now both are in limbo leaving Jorge Santiago with no viable opponent to defend against in the near future essentially freezing the belt for a while.

3.) Satoru Kitaoka, who beat the popular Takanori Gomi to become the 1st Lightweight champion in the company, is dethroned in his 1st title defense to a way less popular but legitimate opponent Mizuto Hirota leaving a apparently less marketable and familiar champion on top.

Finally 4.) The Featherweight GP was in no way, shape or form decisive, as Hatsu Hioki was forced to withdraw due to injury he suffered after his Semi-Final bout and the Marlon Sandro-Michihiro Omigawa bout in some people’s opinions ended up being a robbery.

Anyways, enough with the negativity. Overall the show was excellent, even though it did boast a lot of decisions but that isn’t always a bad thing. The GP Semi-Finals were a 4 man affair. Hatsu Hioki vs. Masanori Kanehara and Marlon Sandro vs. Michihiro Omigawa. Hioki vs. Kanehara started the GP Semis and it couldn’t have been a more one sided fight. Hioki, who along with Sandro were favorite to win, put a clinic on Kanehara. He looked hungry and just overwhelmed Kanehara in the opening round. He seemed comfortable even enough so to go for submission from mount at will and in pretty unconventional move actually grabbed Kanehara’s head with both hands and slammed it against the mat in a flurry of offense. To Kanehara’s credit the man displayed huge amounts of heart by never submitting and always finding a way out of a bad situation, which he had a lot of. The one thing I did notice is that Hioki didn’t visibly take an enormous amount of damage but it was enough to keep him from the Finals.

Now the controversy in some people’s eyes. The 2nd GP Semifinal between Sandro and Omigawa was an incredibly close bout. Personally, I had the bout at a complete draw. The 1st round could be the tie breaker in my opinion. Both men kept the fight primarily on the feet. Sandro with his stiff, flat footed stance wailing bricks at Omigawa, while Omigawa looked for openings to counter and soften up Sandro. The strength advantage at 1st glance looked to be Sandro’s but they were matched very equally in strength. During their clinches neither man was able to force their will on the other. I gave this round as a 10-10 draw. The 2nd round was more of the same except that Sandro managed to sink in a guillotine that forced Omigawa down and psychically looked to be doing it’s job but to no avail as Omigawa made it out of the round. That round I obviously scored for Sandro. The Final round was a bit reversed since Sandro looked to try and secure the takedown, which he didn’t. The key was that with about 30 seconds left Omigawa managed to finally take Sandro to his back, and really didn’t do any damage. I scored that round for Omigawa. 29-29. A Draw in my book but since they have this ludicrous “must decision” rule than I would’ve given it to Sandro. Sandro edged him out but I don’t feel in any way that it was a robbery.

The Finals treated us again to another great, grinded out fight. Kanehara strangely doesn’t look as sluggish as Omigawa, even though he visibly took alot less damage from his opponent. Kanehara quickly managed to get body triangle on Omigawa with he would use to pepper his opponent with short range punches and hammer fists, while still piggy backing on the mobile Omigawa. Kanehara took complete advantage of every position he was given in the fight. He didn’t leave anything to chance and made sure he showed the judges that he was actively trying to inflict damage on his opponent. The 2 men brawled and displayed some of their stand up skills. In the Final round Omigawa turned up his pace but too little too late. Masanori Kanehara is crowned the Featherweight GP champion via Split Decision and is also given one of the violent hugs in history as his cornerman in a burst of true emotion almost tackles him to the ground. Great performance by both men but as far the true validity of the belt that really remains to be seen.

In the main event of the show at first glanced appeared to be a very favorable match towards the champion, Satoru Kitaoka, turned out to be a nightmare as Challenger Mizuto Hirota claimed the title in a stellar Lightweight title fight. Kitaoka pulled no punches and it was very apparent that he would look to pound out his opponent until a submission attempt was available. Hirota on the other hand would keep his cool even under bad situations as he clearly dropped 2 of the 3 1st rounds due to Kitaoka takedown ability and ground & pound. All facets of the stand-up were clearly dominated by Hirota to no one’s surprise. The turning point in the bout came during the last 1 minute of the 3rd round where Hirota was strangely given a yellow card for stalling from the bottom it seemed. The fight resumed on the feet and even though he clearly lost the round Hirota got his stride. He carried this into the 4th round. Than something clicked. He managed to score some knee strikes to Kitaoka’s head that clearly hurt him than in a Punchout!! style moment he found what appeared to be Kitaoka’s true weak point. He just continued brutalizing with the knees until the point that it was disturbing to watch the end as Hirota kneed his way to a title. The referee definitely marked out watching the ending and could’ve got Kitaoka seriously hurt.

On the other bouts on the card, Yoshihiro Nakao not surprisingly wins a lackluster decision. I wonder who didn’t see that coming? Akihiro Gono get schooled and eventually head kicked out of consciousness by Dan Hornbuckle who picks up a nice win over the PRIDE and UFC veteran. Blagoi Ivanov pulls a big upset over PRIDE veteran Kazuyuki “Ironhead” Fujita in a flashy bout. Kazuo Misaki got a nice pick me up submission win before his suspension over Kazuhiro Nakamura. Eiji Mitsuoka continues to rack up wins in Sengoku by submitting Clay French, as did up and coming Korean prospect Chan Sung Jung over Matt Jaggers.

99 Problems but the Heavyweight division isn’t one of them. There are plenty of reasons to tune into WVR and most of them have to do with their Heavyweights. Satoshi Ishii was on hand at the event and according to Kamipro hinted that he could make his debut at either the  Novermber 11 event or at the year end Sengoku no Ran show and possibly against his mentor Hidehiko Yoshida. Josh Barnett is also slated in November since he wasn’t suspended by the California State Athletic Commission since he was only applying for a license. Muhammed Lawal is definitely a person that demands attention. He’s doing so lately by being featured in a video where he and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson have a heated conversation in a van and because he signed on to fight Don Frye at M1 Global’s Breakthrough on August 28. Throw in Blagoi Ivanov, who isn’t ready to face top dogs but has infinite potential at the moment and also add the Yoshihiro Nakao, who is always a great measuring stick for someone. And definitely don’t forget about Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, who after defying the CSAC is still very much great fighter. If only the could put on a Heavyweight Gp? Sounds like a perfect idea especially since they need to put people in seats. Zach Arnold again points out that they’re again not giving an attendance for the event.

Quick Result:

Quick results:
Main Event – Lightweight Title Fight (5x5min):
13. Mizuto Hirota Def. Satoru Kitaoka by TKO Round 4 2:50

Co-Main Event – Featherweight GP (3x5min):
12.Final: Masanori Kanehara Def. Michihiro Omigawa by Decision 2-0-1 (must decision for Omigawa)

Non-Tournament:
11. Middle: Kazuo Misaki Def. Kazuhiro Nakamura by guillotine choke Round 1

10. Heavy: Blagoy Alexandre Ivanov Def. Kazuyuki Fujita by Decision 1-1-1 (gives it to Ivanov)
9. Welter: Dan Hornbuckle Def. Akihiro Gono by KO Round 3 2:50
8. Light: Eiji Mitsuoka Def. Clay French by guillotine choke Round 1 1:51

Featherweight GP:
7. Reserve: Chan Sung Jung Def. Matt Jaggers by triangle choke Round 2 1:25
6. Semi-final 2: Michihiro Omigawa Def. Marlon Sandro by Decision 0-1-2 (Pick Omigawa as winner)
5. Semi-final 1: Hatsu Hioki Def. Masanori Kanehara by Decision 3-0

Non-Tournament:
4. Heavy: Yoshihiro Nakao Def. Chu Mu Bae by Decision 3-0

Opening Fights:
Don Quiote Presents Sengoku G Tournament Finals (2x5min.):
3. Light: Ikuo Usuda Def. Koji Ando by Decision 3-0
2. Feather: Shigeki Osawa Def. Harai by TKO Round 1 4:25
1. Bantam: Ryosuke Komori Def. Takeshi Numajiri by KO Round 1 3:25

(Results courtesy of Japan-MMA.com)