DREAM Fight For Japan Videos

Here are the videos from the last DREAM MMA event. I am glad I always expect the worse when my favorite fighters are competing. Shinya Aoki looked really good and owned Clementi. Though I think it’s funny Clementi was able to say “He hits like a girl” to his corner but then got his face cranked like Aoki was some kind of evil crushing machine. Why can Aoki break and squeeze with power, take people down with speed and have amazing flexibility, but not hit hard?

Anyway here is a highlight to start off with. Will try to add more videos and links below.

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Aoki Drops to No. 8 – Will Team GracieFighter Help Him Back to the Top?

According to Thursday’s USA Today/SB Nation MMA Consensus Rankings, Shinya Aoki has, not surprisingly, fallen down from the No. 2 spot and currently resides at No. 8 in the Lightweight division.

While numbers are numbers, Aoki’s loss to Gilbert Melendez hurt not only his ranking, but it proved to damage the status of Japanese MMA as well. It was a fight characterized as a battle between East and West, with colonization as the penalty for failure. Nevertheless, Aoki was dominated for five rounds, and this cemented the narrative that Japanese MMA as a whole needs to adapt to survive.

Adapt he will. Over the past week, Aoki seems to have gotten the message. According to Cesar Gracie, whose academy is home to Gilbert Melendez, Jake Shields, and Nick and Nate Diaz, Shinya was so impressed with their showing at Strikeforce Nashville that he contacted them about training with their team. Read more »

Another Disappointment, Another Haiku

the river stops now

Shinya’s homeland colonized

small crowd in silence

Like a bad dream in a bad movie, the flashbacks and distorted voices begin.

If I lose this fight, MMA in Japan is over. Japan will become a colony of the USA.

- Shinya Aoki

. . .

If DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki is indeed the class of Japanese mixed martial arts, then there’s no longer any doubt where the world’s best fighters reside.

- MMAjunkie.com

. . .

melendez winning. come on aoki you fuck!!

Aoki you break my heart

- Michael Schiavello

. . .

It was an embarrassing defeat that didn’t do the lagging Japanese scene any favors. Had plenty of opportunities to get his game off, but was stifled by a superior fighter in every facet of the game.

- Sherdog

So, is this is what it’s like to know that there is not one Japanese fighter in the whole world who could be argued to be ranked number one in any weight class? To know that the best last hope for man… I mean, salary man-kind, gets owned for 5 rounds and leaves the cage crying wearing a horrible TapouT shirt and shorts?! Read more »

Strikeforce Nashville: All Eyes on Aoki

To me, the most interesting of the  three championship fights on the card for Strikeforce Nashville, which airs April 17th  live on CBS, is the lightweight championship match between Shinya Aoki and Gilbert Melendez.

Here is a short list of the major reasons why I’m very interested in how this fight plays out and why I’m cheering for Aoki:

• The top ranked BJ Penn lost recently and this puts Aoki on the path to be ranked number one at lightweight worldwide.
• Aoki is the only Japanese champion in the major leagues of MMA, and a loss could be a permanent dent in world opinion regarding  Japan’s place as a source for talent. Also, the last time Dream fighters fought Strikeforce fighters, the results were not in Dream’s favor.
• Aoki isn’t wearing his cool pants!
• Aoki has never been better then he is right now, and that cannot be said for many talented fighters from Japan when they make their way stateside. He broke Hirota’s arm his last fight!
• I almost always cheer for the grappler. There is nothing I like better than slick submissions.

For these reasons, and probably many more, I’m excited and nervous about this fight. What makes it worse is the fact I think Aoki is going to lose this fight. He is going against a powerful striker and wrestler who trains with some amazing BJJ specialists, the Diaz brothers (long and flexible like Aoki) and Jake Shields at Cesar Gracie’s school. Aoki is also going to be in a cage for the very first time, and that is always a wild card. Even Fedor got stuck against it in his first cage fight. The rounds are different as well compared to Dream. The fight could be 25 minutes long, but there won’t be the long 10 minute first round that they have in Japan that gives people like Aoki time to work submissions.

Final prediction: I foresee Shinya Aoki getting knocked out, his face looking off into the distance as he is punched again and again from a relentless ground and pound. The referee will stop it, and Melendez will still be the champion.

I will be pissed off if this happens. So although my head tells me I shouldn’t just get my hopes up and subsequently crushed by cheering and hoping for Aoki, I will go with my heart and believe in the power of submission grappling and the Japanese fighting spirit.

Aoki Adds Insult to Injury

Shinya did great harm

insults man like child, crowd too

heart breaks, much shame brought

Shinya Aoki may have won his fight against Sengoku title holder Mizuto Hirota at Dynamite!! 2009, but not before losing his integrity in the process.

Aoki dominated the roughly 2 minute long fight, initiating a single-leg takedown, which led to him pinning and mounting Hirota. The physical damage was done as Aoki was able to successfully control and attain a hammerlock on Hirota’s right arm, resulting in a cringe-inducing pop when Hirota, failing to tap, allowed his arm to be broken. Rather than an amazing submission, sadly, what is infamously going to be remembered more about this fight is Aoki’s childish and unsportsmanlike behavior as he emphatically flipped off an injured Hirota and then turned the insult to the crowd.

Reminiscent of Brock Lesnar’s one finger salute after his win over Frank Mir at UFC 100, this ass-worthy display by Aoki hits harder compared. Maybe it’s because it’s so unexpected from a usually mild-mannered and classy MMA great. No doubt it is that much more insulting to disrespect a fighter you just seriously injured. I mean, it’s Hirota’s fault for not tapping, but don’t be a complete fool and literally stand over him and gloat, showing zero sympathy or concern. It’s disgusting.

Shinya Aoki has been a fighter we have cheered for again and again, but today we don’t have a victory to glory in, only disappointment.

Video of the fight after the jump. Read more »

Who Are You Cheering For???

When asked why you would support a sports team, many people would cite family tradition or location as big reasons. If you picked a team because they won all the time you would be a jerk, or worse a Yankees fan. Other times it’s some more intangible reason like team colors or attitude, like being a Raiders fan. When it comes to fighters, all of the above reasons also seem to hold true, but people are often more forgiving of a bandwagoner in MMA than in a team sport. Most of the time Favorite equals Greatest (Georges St. Pierre, Anderson Silva, BJ Penn, Megumi Fujii), and people too easily forget the glory days of a fighter after a tough loss, demand to see an endless string of victories, or come to believe some type of super human hype (Brock Lesnar) before they say they really like a new fighter.

I, on the other hand, find great joy in cheering for the underdog (Hitomi Akano vs Cyborg), the nerd (Roxanne Modafferi, Shinya Aoki), the crazy person (Jason Mayhem Miller), the quiet guy (Fedor), the heroic suffer (Yuki Nakai, Sakuraba vs Smirnovas, Galesic), or the unique stylist (Cung Le, Machida, Sakuraba). Often one fight will make me a die hard fan, add a cool back story, and I will be a fan forever (Hideo Tokoro).

So who am I cheering for? The previous names are all fighters I cheer for, but many of them are already pretty popular and they can all be considered great fighters. So the question is, who do I cheer for despite the fact they are not (YET) a great or very good fighter? Who do I, for some intangible reason, put my best wishes behind?

Answer: Shizuka Sugiyama!!!

Why am I cheering for this almost unknown female Japanese Zendokai Karateka MMA fighter, who supposedly was born in New York and likes rugby?

Is it simply because she’s cute? No.

Is it because she has a funny t-shirt or makes funny faces? Maybe.

Is it simply because her haircuts always seem to  grab my attention? Quite possibly, yes.

Or is it because she seems to have a lot of fun and is genuinely happy with life, especially when she wins ? Definitely, yes!

Pancake Landing will do its best to become the English language HQ for everything Sugiyama. In the meantime, check out more info about Sugi at her blog.