Oumakhanov Advances in Cage Force Lightweight Tournament
TOKYO, Nov. 11 -- A late addition to the year's Cage Force
schedule, Cage Force EX Eastern Bound was held Sunday to determine
the last fighter to advance to the lightweight tournament final at
Cage Force 5.
The semifinal bout between Tomonari Kanomata (Pictures) and Artur Oumakhanov (Pictures) was noticeably missing from Cage Force 4, when the other welterweight and lightweight finalists were determined. Cage Force is the only Japanese promotion that follows North America's unified rules, and Oumakhanov had been unable to fight for 90 days after suffering a knockout loss to Andre Amade (Pictures) in July's K-1 HERO'S.
Perhaps still haunted by the specter of his knockout against Amade,
Oumakhanov started the first round tentatively. He opted not to
engage, doing little as he ate low kicks from Kanomata. Despite
catching several low kicks and tripping Kanomata to the canvas,
Oumakhanov refused to follow his opponent down. Instead he kicked
at Kanomata's legs and threw the occasional punch.
Things heated up only toward the end of the first period. Kanomata dropped for a takedown after eating a hard right hook, and eventually he took the Russian down but lost top position in the ensuing scramble. With Kanomata pasted to his side between guard and back mount, Oumakhanov leaned into his opponent while dropping short punches until the round's end.
With copious amounts of blood flowing and cartilage visibly exposed, it was clear that Kanomata could not continue. Cage Force's chief rules officer, Gen Isono, addressed the audience, saying that under Cage Force's rules, an unintentional head butt would not result in disqualification or a no contest. Rather, the fighter who cannot continue automatically loses the bout.
While it is curious to see Oumakhanov awarded the technical decision for an unintentional foul, he still advances in the Cage Force lightweight tournament. He'll face Killer Bee's Kotetsu Boku on Dec. 1 at Cage Force 5.
Despite near disappointment early, UFC veteran "K-Taro" Keitaro Nakamura managed to knock out Takafumi Hanai. Perhaps a little too excited, Nakamura followed a clean left punch, which had put Hanai flat on his posterior, with an illegal knee to the face. The referee called a brief break, allowing Hanai a moment to recover from the blow.
Hanai resumed the fight soon after. It wasn't long before Nakamura connected with a tight right hook that made Hanai go rigid with shock. Clinching up this time to make his knees legal, Nakamura launched two knees straight up into his opponent's exposed face, which prompted the referee to intervene at the 1:59 mark of the first round.
Yoshihiro Koyama (Pictures) went to war with scrappy Yasunori Kanehara. For three rounds Koyama scored takedowns and landed strikes from above. Despite being dropped twice with well-placed left hooks in the first, Kanehara came alive and unleashed vicious hook combinations that marked Koyama up throughout the remaining two rounds.
Koyama was lit up, but he persevered with takedown after takedown. He also pounded on Kanehara with small punches and elbows in his opponent's half-guard, earning the 3-0 unanimous decision.
In the evening's purest display of standup excellence, former All Japan kickboxer Koji Yoshimoto (Pictures) went back to his roots against Shootor Fan Jin Son, winning the fight by majority decision. Both men dispensed with the ground game entirely; the two strikers met head to head at the center of the cage to bang each other out. Despite swinging with bad intentions, Son found himself outclassed by Yoshimoto's kickboxing, and he ate counters and knees off of Yoshimoto's punching combinations -- a rarity in today's MMA.
In the second round, Yoshimoto pulled ahead with his quick, twitchy style. He outpaced Son and angled away from him, never staying in a position to absorb Son's counterpunches. As he pushed forward, Yoshimoto sapped his opponent's energy with a nonstop blitz of punches, knees and, especially, uppercuts that took advantage of Son's bad habit of ducking under flurries to defend against them. After outworking and lighting up his opponent for two rounds, two judges ruled the bout for Yoshimoto, with one judge, curiously, ruling the bout a draw.
Pancrase rep Masahiro Toryu (Pictures) and Wajyutsu Keisyukai wrestler Keitaro Maeda (Pictures) took each other to a competitive split draw after two rounds. Toryu's game plan consisted of mainly stuffing his opponent against the cage en route to taking him down. As a result he was able to control and outpoint Maeda for the first round.
But as constant takedowns will do to you, Toryu grew tired. Maeda sprawled on most of his foe's attempts in the second round, which allowed him to drop hammerfists and hooks while dominating. Two judges were split on their choice of the victor, and the other judge ruled the bout a draw for the split draw.
Styles make fights, and in a fine example of that time-tested axiom, Yuusaku Tsukumo, while under heavy fire, defeated Ikkei. Tsukumo beat the striker with takedowns, constant pressure and superior ground control.
Even though Ikkei powered out from under the wrestler time and again, Tsukumo was unfazed, doggedly pursuing the takedown anytime the fight got back to standing. After a number of picture-perfect double legs, submission attempts from the back and hammerfists from the top, a visibly winded Tsukumo was awarded the unanimous decision.
Wataru Miki (Pictures) fought for a hard-earned unanimous decision against a tough Kiyonobu Nishikata. Miki took a great deal of punishment in the form of hook flurries en route to out-grappling and controlling position on his opponent. With Nishikata firing his hooks wildly, Miki found his winning strategy of staying clear and putting clean right jabs in the face of Nishikata before dropping for doubles and driving forward into his opponent's guard.
In the evening's main K-Grace women's MMA bout, Misaki Takimoto (Pictures) mysteriously drew against Naoko Omuro after two rounds of standup and positional dominance. Gauging her opponent in the first round, Takimoto sent head-snapping counter right straights and stiff left jabs down the pipe on her shorter, more aggressive opponent.
The second period saw Takimoto much more confident. She stalked Omuro around the cage, hitting her at will with clean punches and kicks, and stuffing a desperate takedown attempt to pound away for the remainder of the fight. Despite this otherwise sound performance, all three judges strangely ruled the bout a draw.
Emi Fujino (Pictures) blitzed opponent Yuuko in the evening's first K-Grace bout. Fujino opened the fight with a roar followed by a flurry of punches. Throughout the two rounds of the special rules match, where punching to the face of a downed opponent was ruled out, Fujino out-boxed and out-grappled her opponent to a unanimous decision.
In the evening's sole preliminary bout, Naoki Yamamoto defeated "Bancho" Yoshiaki Takahashi by 2-0 majority decision.
The semifinal bout between Tomonari Kanomata (Pictures) and Artur Oumakhanov (Pictures) was noticeably missing from Cage Force 4, when the other welterweight and lightweight finalists were determined. Cage Force is the only Japanese promotion that follows North America's unified rules, and Oumakhanov had been unable to fight for 90 days after suffering a knockout loss to Andre Amade (Pictures) in July's K-1 HERO'S.
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Things heated up only toward the end of the first period. Kanomata dropped for a takedown after eating a hard right hook, and eventually he took the Russian down but lost top position in the ensuing scramble. With Kanomata pasted to his side between guard and back mount, Oumakhanov leaned into his opponent while dropping short punches until the round's end.
The second stanza looked to be a repeat of the first. Oumakhanov
caught every other low kick and tripped Kanomata to the mat, but he
did not follow through with any significant offense. It wasn't
until 2:54 into the round that an accidental clash of heads
occurred in the clinch and broke Kanomata's nose, forcing the
referee to stop the bout and have the Japanese fighter checked.
With copious amounts of blood flowing and cartilage visibly exposed, it was clear that Kanomata could not continue. Cage Force's chief rules officer, Gen Isono, addressed the audience, saying that under Cage Force's rules, an unintentional head butt would not result in disqualification or a no contest. Rather, the fighter who cannot continue automatically loses the bout.
While it is curious to see Oumakhanov awarded the technical decision for an unintentional foul, he still advances in the Cage Force lightweight tournament. He'll face Killer Bee's Kotetsu Boku on Dec. 1 at Cage Force 5.
Despite near disappointment early, UFC veteran "K-Taro" Keitaro Nakamura managed to knock out Takafumi Hanai. Perhaps a little too excited, Nakamura followed a clean left punch, which had put Hanai flat on his posterior, with an illegal knee to the face. The referee called a brief break, allowing Hanai a moment to recover from the blow.
Hanai resumed the fight soon after. It wasn't long before Nakamura connected with a tight right hook that made Hanai go rigid with shock. Clinching up this time to make his knees legal, Nakamura launched two knees straight up into his opponent's exposed face, which prompted the referee to intervene at the 1:59 mark of the first round.
Yoshihiro Koyama (Pictures) went to war with scrappy Yasunori Kanehara. For three rounds Koyama scored takedowns and landed strikes from above. Despite being dropped twice with well-placed left hooks in the first, Kanehara came alive and unleashed vicious hook combinations that marked Koyama up throughout the remaining two rounds.
Koyama was lit up, but he persevered with takedown after takedown. He also pounded on Kanehara with small punches and elbows in his opponent's half-guard, earning the 3-0 unanimous decision.
In the evening's purest display of standup excellence, former All Japan kickboxer Koji Yoshimoto (Pictures) went back to his roots against Shootor Fan Jin Son, winning the fight by majority decision. Both men dispensed with the ground game entirely; the two strikers met head to head at the center of the cage to bang each other out. Despite swinging with bad intentions, Son found himself outclassed by Yoshimoto's kickboxing, and he ate counters and knees off of Yoshimoto's punching combinations -- a rarity in today's MMA.
In the second round, Yoshimoto pulled ahead with his quick, twitchy style. He outpaced Son and angled away from him, never staying in a position to absorb Son's counterpunches. As he pushed forward, Yoshimoto sapped his opponent's energy with a nonstop blitz of punches, knees and, especially, uppercuts that took advantage of Son's bad habit of ducking under flurries to defend against them. After outworking and lighting up his opponent for two rounds, two judges ruled the bout for Yoshimoto, with one judge, curiously, ruling the bout a draw.
Pancrase rep Masahiro Toryu (Pictures) and Wajyutsu Keisyukai wrestler Keitaro Maeda (Pictures) took each other to a competitive split draw after two rounds. Toryu's game plan consisted of mainly stuffing his opponent against the cage en route to taking him down. As a result he was able to control and outpoint Maeda for the first round.
But as constant takedowns will do to you, Toryu grew tired. Maeda sprawled on most of his foe's attempts in the second round, which allowed him to drop hammerfists and hooks while dominating. Two judges were split on their choice of the victor, and the other judge ruled the bout a draw for the split draw.
Styles make fights, and in a fine example of that time-tested axiom, Yuusaku Tsukumo, while under heavy fire, defeated Ikkei. Tsukumo beat the striker with takedowns, constant pressure and superior ground control.
Even though Ikkei powered out from under the wrestler time and again, Tsukumo was unfazed, doggedly pursuing the takedown anytime the fight got back to standing. After a number of picture-perfect double legs, submission attempts from the back and hammerfists from the top, a visibly winded Tsukumo was awarded the unanimous decision.
Wataru Miki (Pictures) fought for a hard-earned unanimous decision against a tough Kiyonobu Nishikata. Miki took a great deal of punishment in the form of hook flurries en route to out-grappling and controlling position on his opponent. With Nishikata firing his hooks wildly, Miki found his winning strategy of staying clear and putting clean right jabs in the face of Nishikata before dropping for doubles and driving forward into his opponent's guard.
In the evening's main K-Grace women's MMA bout, Misaki Takimoto (Pictures) mysteriously drew against Naoko Omuro after two rounds of standup and positional dominance. Gauging her opponent in the first round, Takimoto sent head-snapping counter right straights and stiff left jabs down the pipe on her shorter, more aggressive opponent.
The second period saw Takimoto much more confident. She stalked Omuro around the cage, hitting her at will with clean punches and kicks, and stuffing a desperate takedown attempt to pound away for the remainder of the fight. Despite this otherwise sound performance, all three judges strangely ruled the bout a draw.
Emi Fujino (Pictures) blitzed opponent Yuuko in the evening's first K-Grace bout. Fujino opened the fight with a roar followed by a flurry of punches. Throughout the two rounds of the special rules match, where punching to the face of a downed opponent was ruled out, Fujino out-boxed and out-grappled her opponent to a unanimous decision.
In the evening's sole preliminary bout, Naoki Yamamoto defeated "Bancho" Yoshiaki Takahashi by 2-0 majority decision.
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