UFC 144: Hioki & Gomi Win In Japan

One was the former #1 lightweight, and one is the unofficial #1 featherweight.

Takanori Gomi and Hatsu Hioki represented both their country and the Japanese MMA scene superbly with two displays of varying excellence. Hioki put on yet another grappling clinic, whereas the wilder Gomi showed considerable grit to come back from a combination of knockdown and a tight chokehold at the climax of round 1 to finish his foe in the second. Though it was fantastic to see both legends of J-MMA pick up victories on the UFC’s return to Japan, in reality the significance of Hioki’s win far outshines that of his compatriot; Gomi is unlikely to match his PRIDE run from six and seven years ago, whereas while Hioki has been top 10 ranked since roughly the same time, one feels that some of his best performances and biggest achievements are in his future, not merely limited to his past.

Hioki faced Bart Palaszewski, a tough Polish-American fighter ranked in the world top 10 and with a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt. As ever, Hioki made an utter mockery out of his opponent’s grappling credentials, manhandling him with the same ease with which he did Shooto legend Rumina Sato and even grappling great Baret Yoshida. A stiff jab dropped the Pole in the opening minute, and what followed was a dominance of the highest order. Round 1 saw a beautiful transition from a full mount to taking the back and attempting a roll over armbar, which Palaszewski did well to avoid. The Pole almost succumbed to a subsequent triangle, but his BJJ black belt level skills enabled him to escape. They did not enable him to finish the round in any other manner than being pounded on from the full mount, luckily surviving to fight on.

Hioki proceeded to cookie-cooker two further rounds to an easy points win. The two best things about watching this genius fight is that he is never boring grappling; his transitions are exquisite, his submissions brilliant, his style that of risk-taking, usually of the successful variety. The second is that many of the people he makes look like rank amateurs are often brilliant grapplers with storied careers, deep résumés and sick skills. But he relentlessly outfoxes them. Sato, Sandro, Yoshida, Palaszewski, Carvalho… and given that his rightful victory over Michihiro Omigawa was ruined by an outrageously bad/criminal judging decision by Sengoku’s notorious pro-Omigawa judges, Hioki is to me and most others who have followed his career the best featherweight in the world since his last defeat – also a controversial split-decision win – in 2007, and on a sixteen-fight-win-streak. Indeed, if one scores the Omigawa, Jong-Man and Carvalho the way I and others personally would (win, win, draw respectively) Hioki is unbeaten since his 2003 loss to the sometimes brilliant but generally inconsistent Hiroyuki Takaya.

Hioki:

*Undefeated in nearly a decade
*28-1-2 rightful record
*Sengoku  champion
*Shooto champion
*TKO champion
*Top 10 ranked 2006-2012
*Best grappler in the entire sport

Gomi, on the other hand, faced up-and-comer Eiji Mitsuoka, a veteran of J-MMA and one of the standouts of the post-PRIDE transitional era (whose confusion he contributed to; as PRIDE champion Gomi dropped fights to Sergei Golyaev and Satoru Kitaoka, Mitsuoka outpointed Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen in Shooto). Mitsuoka is a stud in his own right, and almost proved it further with a first-round finish over Gomi; punishing the iron-jawed star for wading in with hands lowered, he dropped him and almost secured a win via rear-naked-choke. Only the bell saved Gomi, and in the following round the referee played the role of saviour; rescuing Mitsuoka from ground’n'pound.

Good to see Gomi back in the wins. The FIREBALL KID!

Other stars of J-MMA competed on this event, with mixed fortunes. Yushin Okami lost in frustrating fashion to Tim Boetsch, after winning the first two rounds and being well en route to a decision victory. A head kick clipped him, after which the dazed Japanese fighter was unable to defend against the barrage of uppercuts against the fence that sapped his remaining resistance and forced the referee to save him from further damage.

Perhaps the second most impressive JMMA fighter on the card was Yoshihiro “Sexyama” Akiyama. The Judoka settled into welterweight with frightening ease, imperiously defending against Shields’ desperate takedown attempts and weak standup, hitting him with more meaningful shots of his own and scoring eye-catching, crowd pleasing uchi-mata judo throws and a wonderful trip. The Korean-Japanese, whose “Sexwagon” was recently migrated on facebook (please, all former 500 members, rejoin with a quickness) was in next to no danger until the very end of the fight, when a throw attempt led to Shield’s (finally) managing to get him to the ground. A choke attempt was unsuccessful, but despite this being the only meaningful offence Jake mustered throughout 15mins of combat, he was awarded the victory. My scorecard was 29-28, giving Shields’ only round 3 based on its final minute. Ridiculous decision; to me, Akiyama just scored a clear win over the former Strikeforce Middleweight champion and UFC Welterweight #1 contender.

Give him a rightful title shot after his next win, in the name of all that is good and just in the world.

KID Yamamoto is done. Not done as a competitor, an athlete or a fighter; he’s done as the p4p invincible monster beasting elite fighters who hold significant weight advantages over him. Serious injury has long since been the bane of many a bright career, and it’s the same sad and sorry tale in this case; Englishman Vaughan Lee from Birmingham putting the exclamation point on it by submitting the man who faced such men as Royler Gracie, Caol Uno and Genki Sudo and didn’t come close to being outgrappled.

The Olympics in 2008 were his aim; wrestling was his game. Once MMA stopped being his focus, and he suffered the dislocated elbow and tear. Losing to Masanori Kanehara, with all due respect to the former Sengoku champion, was not a fitting result for the man that KID was, and years later and with two UFC losses to his name, it is indisputable that the reign of terror of KID Yamamoto is officially over.

Credit must go to Phuket Top Team alumni Vaughan Lee for his impressive display. His submission skills stand him in good stead with the rest of the division.

UFC 144 was enjoyable in its non-Japanese fights too:

*Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson, the two Americans in the main-event, shared five thrilling rounds for the gold. Henderson won a close but fair decision; Edgar should drop to featherweight to fight men his own size. Then again, he’s hardly struggled at lightweight, where he enjoyed one of the most memorable UFC Lightweight championship reigns, so perhaps he’s where he’s meant to be.

*Former J-MMA star Quinton “Rampage” Jackson earned more bonus points with the hardcore fans by entering to the PRIDE FC theme, but performed in a distinctly un-PRIDE-like way; losing a points decision to fellow American Ryan Bader. As is now the norm for Rampage, he placed emphasis on wading forwards throwing his trademark bombs, showing little of the kicking, clinching, Muay Thai & wrestling machine that he once was in the PRIDE days. Shame. Bader moves closer to the title shot he lost the right for at the hands of current champion Jon Jones; Rampage slips further down the rankings behind the likes of Jones, Rashad Evans, Lyoto Machida, Bader, and even Rogerio Nogueira. It remains to be seen if he can reinvent himself and put forth another title run; on the evidence of Jackson/Bader, I would have to say it is unlikely.

*Fan favourite Anthony Pettis scored a quick win over Joe Lauzon. The former WEC champion, who famously waived his right to a UFC title shot in favour of staying active and promptly losing to Clay Guida, has now recovered from that blip, and it is likely he will rematch the new champion Ben Henderson for the gold. Ironically, it was in beating Henderson in the WEC that earned Pettis a UFC title shot; the Guida loss paved the way for Henderson to manoeuvre into his own shot, which he won at this very event.

The full results were as follows, courtesy of sherdog’s fightfinder:

MATCH	FIGHTERS					METHOD	ROUND	TIME
11	Ryan Bader WIN		vs		Quinton Jackson LOSS	Decision (Unanimous) Leon Roberts	3	5:00
10	Mark Hunt WIN		vs		Cheick Kongo LOSS	TKO (Punches) Herb Dean	1	2:11
9	Jake Shields WIN		vs		Yoshihiro Akiyama LOSS	Decision (Unanimous) Marc Goddard	3	5:00
8	Tim Boetsch WIN		vs		Yushin Okami LOSS	TKO (Punches) Leon Roberts	3	0:54
7	Hatsu Hioki WIN		vs		Bart Palaszewski LOSS	Decision (Unanimous) Herb Dean	3	5:00
6	Anthony Pettis WIN		vs		Joe Lauzon LOSS	KO (Head Kick and Punches) Marc Goddard	1	1:21
5	Takanori Gomi WIN		vs		Eiji Mitsuoka LOSS	TKO (Punches) Leon Roberts	2	2:21
4	Vaughan Lee WIN		vs		Norifumi Yamamoto LOSS	Submission (Armbar) Herb Dean	1	4:29
3	Riki Fukuda WIN		vs		Steve Cantwell LOSS	Decision (Unanimous) Marc Goddard	3	5:00
2	Chris Cariaso WIN		vs		Takeya Mizugaki LOSS	Decision (Unanimous) Leon Roberts	3	5:00
1	Issei Tamura WIN		vs		Tiequan Zhang LOSS	KO (Punch) Herb Dean	2	0:33