MMA THE BEST Vol.3（エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト・ボリュームスリー）

MMA THE BEST Vol.3（エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト・ボリュームスリー）
イベント詳細
シリーズ PRIDE（THE BEST）
主催 DSE
開催年月日 2002年10月20日
開催地 日本
東京都江東区
会場 ディファ有明
開始時刻 午後4時
試合数 全11試合 

IN THE SECOND ACT OF ALBERT CAMUS' LE MALENTENDU (THE MISUNDERSTANDING), Martha asks Jan, <<Qu'est-ce que l'automne?">>, to which Jan famously replies, <<Un deuxième printemps, où toutes les feuilles sont comme des fleurs>>. A second spring! Each leaf a flower! Pretty good, right? Will we find this to be the case as we encounter of MMA THE BEST Vol.3（エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト・ボリュームスリー）, an event which promises autumnality first metaphorically in the sense that it is the final show in this slightly oddly named series, and also quite literally in that it happened in an October?  Which is also the month of our present writing? It's autumns all around here at TK SCISSORS: A BLOG OF RINGS! Talk about your seasons of mists and mellow fruitfulnesses! And don't get me started on how it loads and blesses with fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run, or we'll be here all day, instead of just for like an hour or two while we watch this charming VHS-to-VCD-to-computers copy of MMA THE BEST Vol.3（エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト・ボリュームスリー）COMING TO YOU LIVE (in no way live) from ディファ有明 Difa Ariake, which isn't even around anymore. "Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?" one might well ask. "Think not of them," we would then be like; "thou hast thy music too." And then we would begin.

As the oddly-shaped THE BEST ring is revealed to us through through "strobed lights" and bad (and yet good) tracking, accompanied by an utterance of turn-of-the-century lightly acidic techno that could have been composed and performed (or at least sequenced [it can send to an external MIDI device!) entirely on a 1998 BOSS DR-202 DR. GROOVE, I find myself in a very comfortable place, æsthetically. I like it here, and may stay. Oh hey, remember our old friend ジャイアント落合 / Jaianto Ochiai / GIANT OCHIAI? Would it surprise you to learn that he has just won our opening contest in twenty-four seconds on account of how Jong Wang Kim has broken his hand upon Ochiai's giant head? Surprised me!

アジ・スシーロ Aji Susilo vs.  シュエ・ドゥー・ウォン × Xue Do Won is our next bout, and if you are new to MMA THE BEST （エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト）as a series (what a time to be new to it, here at its sombre end {it's actually pretty fun!}), you will by now, just two matches in, have discerned the whole situation. These are small shows, for small crowds, and when I say that these athletes are largely performing for "friends and family," please understand that I do not say that to disparage them in any way (who better to perform for? to whom could our performance matter more?), and also that I am not speaking conventionally, but perfectly literally: after a fighter is introduced, you can generally hear their little cheering section, which is then sometimes shown briefly on camera, even. Susilo spends much of the first, five-minute round (all rounds are that length on these shows, it seems) very close to applying 表三角絞 omote-sankaku-jime well, but, alas, it turns out he has only applied it well enough to be slammed with the hugging high lift of 抱上 daki-age more times than you'd generally like to see. Susilo opens round two with a nifty little 双手刈 morote-gari (of the low, tackling variety), moves right up on top into 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame with apparent ease, and, forcing his partner to turn (rather than accept being clobbered), finishes cleanly with 裸絞 hadaka-jime. He did a great job, and aftwerwards strikes A Number of Fun Poses for the photographers present.

Next we have Han Ten Yun, who has an excellent white jacket that straddles the line between "bomber" and "warmup" in ways that I struggle to theorize, up against 今村雄介 Imamura Yusuke, whose jacket is less challenging categorically, and whose relentless attack (including the dreaded PRIDE KNEE executed with Heath Herring-like vigour) secures him a swift win by フロントチョーク fu ro n to chyо̄ ku (learn the kana, my friends; they're neat to know!).

And now here's the lightly enigmatic Kestutis Smirnovas, whose later exploits in K-1 HERO*S might in the fullness of time send the true sicko off in search of previous contests in not just RINGS LITHUANIA (woah) but, if you can even believe it, SHOOTO LITHUANIA (woah). Smirnovas, who holds the rank of 四段 yondan (that's the fourth one) in the exquisite art of  柔道講道館 Kōdōkan Jūdō, will take to fight against—oh my goodness, he's back—none other than アングロサクソン大場 ANGLO-SAXON OBA. Hasve we ever encountered (either within the confines of these pages or without them) a greater enigma? Here is what we were able to discern when first we met at MMA THE BEST Vol.2（エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト・ボリュームツー）   : 

"I am as surprised as anyone, and more delighted than most, to find that our next bout, which is listed on the English-language Wikipedia entry for this even as Fatih Kocamis versus Takahiro Oba, is in fact according to the on-screen katakana a clash between FATIH "THE TERROR" KOCAMIS (which is totally fine, but wait for it . . .) and ANGLO-SAXON OBA (what on earth). It saddens me that Oba's career (largely contested in DEEP) has not warranted its own Wikipedia entry, neither in English (fair enough) nor in Japanese (a shame), but, sure enough, this match is listed on the Japanese event page as ファティラ・コカミス (looks like there's a typo, as that ラ ra should be a フ fu like it is on-screen [but that's neither here nor there right now)]  vs. アングロサクソン大場 which is to say Fatih Kocamis vs. ANGLO-SAXON OBA and this is just bananas to me and I love bananas. A brief video introduction suggests that ANGLO-SAXON OBA has performed in BattlARTS, and enjoys leg-locks! My awareness of BattlARTS—beyond the common knowledge that they are 格闘探偵団 / Kakutō Tanteidan / Fighting Detectives—is really very poor, so I am afraid I have nothing to draw on here; I can confirm that Oba's name appears on the Japanese BattlARTS Wikipedia entry as a past participant, where, yep, his name appears as 大場貴弘（旧：アングロサクソン大場), "Oba Takahiro (formerly ANGLO-SAXON Oba)." How can literally any of this be! When I search アングロサクソン大場 broadly, the best results I get are this Bout Review page that suggests Oba played both high-school and university rugby, but which offers no insight into this most fascinating of sobriquets (noting only that he used to use it), and this overview of Beowulf that includes a helpful list of the several Japanese translations of that Anglo-Saxon (though Tolkien would note that no speaker of that language would have ever called it but Ænglisc) epic (though Tolkien would argue it is better understood as tragedy). Never before have I been—and perhaps never again shall I be—so utterly fascinated by an almost perfectly obscure fighter as they drop a clear-cut, unanimous decision on a completely minor card contested at the soon-to-be-dismantled Differ Ariake (The hall towered, its gables wide and high and awaiting a barbarous burning. That doom abided, but in time it would come: the killer instinct unleashed among in-laws, the blood-lust rampant [haha not really don't worry]). I cannot help but feel that the true promise of our project has been realized? A little?"

I wonder what he'll get up to this time! Oh I see, he has lost by 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame nearly at once; like literally within the first minute. The Lithuanian judo of Kestutis Smirnovas has proven too much for the Anglo-Saxon defences of our strange friend Oba. Will we ever see him again? What more might we learn of his ways?  

I would like to note at this point that the entrance music has been strong in each of these early bouts, featuring club-oriented electronic compositions characteristic of the era, across a variety of tempos, united by lightly acidic bass. This can be said, too, of the interstitial music that accompanies the video packages. If you are familiar with the Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution compositions of 伊藤 二三雄 Ito Fumio 小河 幸男 Ogawa Sachio, just imagine there were several more of those, and that they had been placed here (and there [and again here]).

We have another sort-of-returning  MMA THE BEST Vol.2（エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト・ボリュームツー）competitor joining us in the next bout, as well, in that 岡見 勇信 Okami Yūshin is here, and this time around, his presentation is not confined to a few highlights shown at the conclusion of the broadcast, but instead as a totally regular part of it. Here is how it all happened last time, or at least what we said about it: 

"As the tiny ディファ有明 Difa Ariake crowd trickles out of tiny ディファ有明 Difa Ariake, we are returned to the commentary table one final time, and offered very brief recapitulations of preliminary bouts that did not make it onto the broadcast proper. The first of these sees Yukiya Naito defeat Ken Orihashi via split decision in what was, it seems, just one single five-minute round, maybe? The second, perhaps of greater interest (to me, certainly, and I assume to the group), sees the professional début of 岡見 勇信 Okami Yūshin, who is victorious (via hitting) in 3:52, and has chosen quite a pre-fight look:

The actual finish of the bout is not shown, oddly, but we are offered highlights of his fine 支釣込足 sasae-tsurikomi-ashi and 小外掛 kosoto-gake (let's go). He's a compelling figure! We will see a little more of him—alas that it is only a little!—as we make our way through the PRIDE: BUSHIDO series in particular. I assume he is well known to many of us from his long mixed-fight career that, to my surprise, I have just now learned is ongoing at age forty-two: Okami's most recent contest occurred 12/2/23, a split decision win over Kim Jae-Young at the emphatically named SHOOTO: MOBSTYLES PRESENTS FIGHT&MOSH (video available here; Okami weathers an astonishingly direct kick to the groin around the nine-minute mark). Who knew! Here's something else that's new to me, too: his billing as Yushin "Thunder" Okami comes along later than you might think, as revealed by a Google-translated excerpt from this article (that I simply found linked to from Okami's English-language Wikipedia page): "Also, when asked about the origin of the nickname 'Thunder' that was given to him from this time on, he answered, 'I don't really want to say it, but . . . there is a great professional wrestling geek on the staff of the UFC, and he is the same person as Jushin from New Japan (Pro Wrestling) Jushin Thunder Liger. It's said that Yushin's wording is similar, so it's called Thunder,' he said, revealing the surprising origin." You know what, that is a surprising origin!"

His opponent is the American Steve White, unknown to me entirely. He seems to have competed only briefly, and, though a Californian, carried an affiliation with "Team Wildman Vale Tude" in Denver. He is a good deal shorter than the lanky Okami, and has an expression and an aspect that make me concerned for him a little.

I would have told you that White's striking looked tentative compared to the relatively free and easy Okami, but then I would have to tell you that no sooner had I formulated that thought than White floors Okami with a right hand, and that I am evidently a fool, and so in the end I don't think I'll tell you any of that, but instead keep it a secret. Back up to his feet, Okami elects to clinch and grapple (hey me too!); he takes White to the mat with a fine 小外掛 kosoto-gake, moves from 横四方固め yoko-shiho-gatame to 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame in short order, and takes White's back when White, understandably, declines to be punched from there. "Technical war, technical war, relax" is the analysis and advice that comes from White's corner, but I'm not sure how relaxed we should be during a TekWar of any kind (maybe it's the only way through it; what do I know). When round one ends, I feel like it has been a good one.

As round two begins, White seizes hold of a 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime / front choke, and tries to take it all the way down the mat; alas that Okami legs are already passed on the near side, and I say "alas" because right after that, Okami is on top in an unusually solid 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame and just doing so much hitting. The match is stopped at 3:25, on account of all the hitting, and indeed because of a tap-out due to the hitting, but it really could have been stopped a full minute earlier. People have different levels of comfort with this sort of thing, but I am in favour of many stoppages that others often find early; there are many bouts, for instance, that I feel should probably be stopped—indeed, prevented—before the opening bell has sounded (the ones likeliest to promote hitting, for example). I would like to note that White is a fine sportsman in defeat, and I would like to note further that the fairly heavy disapproval one encounters regarding tapping out to strikes seems to me ("strikes me" haha [please don't though]) as enormously silly, in that Georges St-Pierre himself has tapped out to strikes, and if people feel a need to carry on as though they are tougher guys that Georges St-Pierre, I just feel like I disagree! And now I am reflecting on how Doug Rogers explained to us one time that at 拓殖 大学 Takushoku Daigaku / 拓大 Takudai, 木村 政彦 Kimura Masahiko forbid anyone from finishing 裏投 ura-nage in 乱取 randori, on account of how on crowded mats, somebody is going to get hurt, and also, how hard is it to "finish" ura-nage once you've got the lift—just set your pal back down (you both know where things are headed from there; there's no mystery to it); it was at this point I determined that we did not in fact have to carry on in our tier-two sport-club judo society as though we were in any sense harder than LITERAL MASAHIKO KIMURA and we immediately implemented this same policy [please also consider, in this circumstance,  後腰 ushiro-goshi, the gentleman's 裏投 ura-nage [though I have no doubt mentioned all of this previously, it was tens upon tens of thousands of words ago {there have been so many}).

MMA THE BEST エムエムエー・ザ・ベスト mainstay 光岡 映二 Mitsuoka Eiji, known to some as 金網の申し子 Kanaami no Mōshigo ("The Heaven-sent Child of the Cage"), picks up a top-heavy two-round decision win over slightly overmatched gamer Scott Bills, who, I have just now learned at the "Tapology" website, was once scheduled for a bout against Matt Hughes that was ultimately cancelled (maybe for the best? you'd definitely get a story out of it, though). It seems we have entered the decision portion of the evening, as 久松 勇二 Hisamatsu Yuji (known too as "The Pink Typhoon") bests Demetrius Gioulacos through solid 足技 ashi-waza and good top pressure, before our old friend 松井 大二郎 Matsui Daijirō fares similarly well against Rory Singer, who you may recall from his (Singer's, I mean) later (relative to then [but previous, relative to now]) stint of Ultimate Fighting (is that what the fighting is? is it ultimate?) that included a loss to the very same Yushin Okami who did a good job just a little while ago (please consult the previous paragraphs for more). These last three bouts were all remarkably similar: tidy takedown; solid posture on top but limited success in passing to 抑込 osaekomi; decision win. It's honestly not at all unpleasant! And from an occupational-health-and-safety perspective, this is certainly one of the better ways to proceed, given the alternatives (many of which involve, again, hitting). After his hard-fought main-event loss to Matsui ends, Singer embraces and encourages him, and shouts MATSUI! MATSUI! to a crowd that seems slightly bewildered though not unappreciative of this unusually effusive display of sporting fellowship. It seems like Singer was there to get the most out of this as an experience and an adventure, and I hope he feels that he did. I am reading just now that he is teaching at a club in Athens, Georgia, and I hope that's going well for him.

      

And that's it for us! Regrettably, "Pride.The.Best.vol3.Vhs.Xvid.cd2-iMPi.avi" cuts off before any clips of the as-yet-unpresented preliminary contests can be brought before us, even though it really seemed like they were about to be. It's probably okay though. I note with light sadness that I have nothing to share with you at this time from the pages of the Observer, as Dave Meltzer did not really address himself to any of the ザ・ベスト / ZA・BESUTO / THE BEST offerings (now concluded!), which I honestly totally get (he had a lot on his plate). So that really is well and truly it for now. Thanks as always for your time! Back soon, I think!