The date is 3-30-93, and we are about to witness a spectacular showing of karate’s divine retribution set to take place within the hallowed grounds of Japan’s Korakuen Hall. It is fitting that such a prestigious sanctuary as Korakuen will be the host of yet another important step for Seidokaikan, as they begin to shed their identity as a mere karate organization to fully embrace their quest to become the most prestigious outlet for all standing combat arts. This event will be their warmup showing before they have their inaugural K-1 KING OF KINGS tournament, which is due to take place exactly one month from now.

Thankfully, Kazuyoshi Ishii is still experimenting with the format by dabbling in sogo kakutogi (MMA) rules. This quest for enlightenment has been a trend in their most recent events, so we will see some various rules changes/formats in-between matches. So far, this has been both a blessing and a curse as the various rule changes are enough to give anyone whiplash, but at the same time, have been an undeniably fascinating look at the early birth pangs of not only MMA but K1, also. The average MMA/kickboxing fan could be forgiven for not realizing just how tethered Ishi was to RINGS/Maeda in these early days, and how they could have just as easily been known for MMA had they continued to push it heavily from 1994 onward. To be fair, Ishii never abandoned MMA entirely, as he continued to permit a sprinkling of MMA matches over the years, but never a full-throttled commitment to the concept until their legendary K1 Romanex event. The Romanex concept would later morph into their HERO’s series of shows, which continued until the death of PRIDE FC, which took place a few years after its inception.

ML: As ridiculous as some of the rule variations we've seen in the Ishii & Maeda promoted events have been, particularly alternating between rounds with and without gloves, it's important to remember that there weren't MMA gyms so to speak in those days, so in order to get fighters to compete under rules that forced them to extend outside their normal and comfortable fighting discipline, they sometimes had to make these concessions, if for no other reason than to make both fighters believe they had a fair chance. There's definitely something to be said for just getting them into the ring, so we could see what would happen, even though there would always be extenuating circumstances, such as one fighter being favored because the first excursion under rules that gave them the advantage came in round 1 or because they got an extra round under their optimal rules. In the end, I suppose it wasn't all that different than the striker having the advantage because the fight starts in standup, but there was so much fear and aprehension of the unknown in these early days. 

Junji Kageishi vs. Yoshihisa Tagami R1 1:46

We last saw Tagami last October when he had one of the better fights of the evening against Stephen "Superkick" Vick. Despite being given one of several highly dubious decision victories that evening, he at least proved to have tons of heart, not to mention being in possession of the East’s answer to Tom Selleck’s mustache. Tagami is also coming into this fight having put on an impressive showing at the recent 2nd Annual Towa Cup Karate World Championship, where he made it to the quarterfinals before losing to Toshiyuki Atokawa. This fight will be contested under the pre-K1 seidokaikan rules where elbows and backfists are both legal.

The match starts, and I am liking Kageishi’s kicking technique, where he quickly snaps out high kicks from long range while simultaneously moving his head back to avoid a counterstrike. However, despite having technique, Kageishi lacks any semblance of athleticism, which Tagami takes full advantage of. Tagami spent the rest of the round absolutely mauling Kageishi to the point that we crawled back to whatever obscure dojo he came from, never to be seen again. It’s a shame, too, because Kageishi had an interesting style that I would have liked to see more of, but he wasn’t cut out for the top shelf.

ML: Maybe in karate, where there's less lateral movement, Kageishi would have had some chance, but Tagami just had too much speed and athleticism for him. Early on, Tagami used his movement to create angles, but once he hurt Kageishi he was able to just swarm him for the quick win.

Taiei Kin vs. Haruo Wada R1 0:59

Some of you may be familiar with the notorious screen caption of one of Vitor Belfort’s early fights where he was listed as having "No known weaknesses," and that is how I feel about Kin. The man is about as exciting as a Ron Howard flick, but that’s only because his skills are so well-rounded. This contest will be another bout under the glorious full-contact seidokaikan rules, where elbows and back fists may flow freely.

Well, whereas I was able to find some good things to say about Kageishi during the last fight, I have no such accolades to bestow upon Wada. He was clobbered by Kin in under a minute. Usually, Kin is a boring, patient, and calculated counterpuncher, but here he was a brutal aggressor that destroyed Wada without mercy.

ML: If you conjure comparisons to any of the shallow, infantile, predictable, muddled dreck Opie has been involved with, that's certainly a big weakness, but seriously, the obvious downfall of Kin was his size. Being under 6 feet tall, and a fighter who would probably have fought at 155 had all the modern weight classes been in place in a one openweight class promotion with no steriod testing where everything trended bigger and bigger was a huge liability. It prevented him from taking part in the K-1 Grand Prix Tournaments, and relegated him to an undercard performer who never got to face most of the luminaries of his era despite arguably being about as skilled. Tbis was a total route, but it was entertaining for what it was because Kin was used some pretty evolved combos such as the right spinning backfist into the left middle kick and the right spinning solebutt into the left high kick, the later of which scored the knockout.

Adam Watt vs. Shinjiro Aoki R1 0:40

It’s great to see Watt back since his disastrous match against Stan "The Man" back in October. That fight quickly ended when both fell out of the ring, and Watt suffered a shoulder injury as a result. He was in fine form, as this fight was even quicker than the last two! It only took forty seconds for Watt to murk Aoki. If this continues, then the entire event will be over within the time it would take to smoke a cigarette.

ML: If this show took place in The Netherlands, it would have to be billed as The Night of the Mismatch! It's generally not a good sign for the longevity of a fight when one fighter lands a high kick within the first five seconds. Aoki actually caught the kick on the rebound, which didn't help him any, as Watt kept punching him in the head until he released the leg. The finish was odd, as Aoki went down from the uppercut as if he took a finger in the eye, but these are boxing gloves.

Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Yoshinori Nishi 15:00

Our two favorite war horses are back together in the first full-blown MMA fight of this evening. What's incredible is that both of these men have been taking on an almost monthly schedule of shoots with their recent moonlighting in RINGS. However, this shoot will be with the bizarre handicap of not allowing punches to the face. Both men start very slowly and only seem interested in turning this into a slow-paced kicking contest. The lack of a punching counter-threat allows Kakuda to bide his time and look for a thunderous low kick. Eventually, the fight goes to the mat when Kakuda botches a kick which causes Nishi to diligently seek to take his opponent’s back, but just as he secured one of his hooks, the ref restarted the fight. This blunder may be the critical error in tonight’s proceedings, as these refs are surely not seasoned enough in the ways of MMA to realize that you have to give someone more than thirty seconds of ne waza time. Once they were restarted, we saw one of our best judo moments yet when Nishi executed a beautiful variation of the kosoto-gake (minor outer hook). Nishi set this up by unloading a flurry of punches to Kakuda’s midsection, which allowed him to grab a headlock and follow through with the foot sweep. For the rest of the fight, Nishi was able to easily get the fight to the canvas and control Kakuda, but would only show a half-hearted commitment to attempting submissions, likely due to the risk of losing his position. This fight had its moments but was severely hindered by the rules. Had they merely allowed palm strikes to the face, it would likely be a classic. It is worth noting that Nishi is the only fighter we’ve seen so far that has taken more of a position-over-submission approach. Even though Nishi secured an ankle lock submission on Kakuda, this was ruled a draw because the rules stated that two rope escapes were equal to one down.

ML: It's nice to see a 3 fall match outside of lucha libre, but I don't know about the practicality of this in MMA, it sounds like concussions are us. Kakuda is clearly the superior striker, but because he is giving up reach to almost everyone, these rules really make it difficult for him against a superior grappler who can get the takedown/throw such as Nishi. In order for Kakuda to get close enough to land his karate punches to the body, he had to put himself into range where Nishi could just step forward and trip him or grab him and use his judo to get him to the mat, where Nishi had a big advantage both in ability to control, as well as the potential to finish. By staying on the outside, Kakuda could land his low kicks, but that was really all he could land without allowing Nishi to grab him, and that wasn't really enough to win the fight. Kakuda is a game opponent who gives his all and tests the skills he has. He really tried  to use the grappling knowledge he's picked up of late  in RINGS in order to actually make this an MMA fight, rather than just run and chip away so as not to lose a kickboxing match. He was definitely on the wrong end of the grappling exchanges, usually leg locks, as Nishi always had an answer to what Kakuda tried, when Kakuda was able to get into a position where he could actually even try anything. You had to admire Kakuda's heart and determination though. Nishi clearly would have won had judges who weren't complete morons been in place, as he was able to control and work armlocks from the mount. This is worth watching, but certainly more interesting from a proto MMA perspective than actually good. 

Chizumi Yoshida vs. Peko Chan Yuri 2R

This is interesting because up to this point the Seidokaikan organization has never put any of their female participants on any of their commercial offerings. In fact, until this event, I was unaware of Seidokaikan even offering a women’s division. This bout started quite entertaining with Yoshida’s nice footwork vs. Yuri’s power slop approach, a la Kevin Rosier. Yuri’s swing-big-or-go-home style was effective while it lasted, but was expending a lot of energy, which led to diminishing returns. Yuri did an excellent job of punishing Yoshida with her significant reach advantage, but lost a lot of power by not pacing herself, which led to an entertaining albeit sloppy fight. I’m guessing this was simply an exhibition since it ended after two rounds and was ruled a draw, which would have been awful if it was a ranked bout since Yuri would have been the clear winner. Entertaining.

ML: The first, and one of the only female fights in Seido Kaikan/K-1 history. They emptied the tank in the first 90 seconds of this two round exhibition match. It was pretty wild at the outset, with some fun though not particularly technically sound frantic swinging. After that, the fight was mostly Yoshida chasing Yuri down and trying to bully her. Yoshida dominated the fight, and clearly would have won had competent judges been in place. 

Katsumi Usuda vs. Naoyuki Taira 14:03

No one is in more need of redemption right now than Taira, who took a break from his winning ways to give us a snoozefest a month ago at the debut Korakuen League event that RINGS put on. I’m ecstatic to announce that this will be another MMA styled match, however it looks like strikes to the face are forbidden here, also. Taira starts off by slowly stalking Usuda, peppering him with low kicks, After the third or fourth unanswered blow, Usuda tried to take his chances on the ground, but was completely shut down by an excellent sprawl by Taira. This match continued to be a complete blowout with Usuda having nothing to offer Taira in any dimension. It was great to see Taira redeem himself, but sadly it was against a much inferior opponent. Taira wins with a nice guillotine choke where he swooped down and cinched it while his opponent was on all fours.

ML: A huge experience mismatch as Taira has been fighting for over 6 years, debuting in Shoot Boxing on 1/31/87, whereas Usuda has been training with Fujiwara, but won't be deemed good enough to make his professional wrestling debut for another seven months. While Taira is predominantly a stand up fighter, he completely dominated on the ground, largely because Usuda's ground game is just woeful. It felt like Usuda had no way of getting a takedown, the schoolyard jumping leg scissors wasn't exactly cutting it, or improving his position on the mat, and his back and neck were usually exposed. Taira was having trouble with Usuda greasing, but after the ref dried Usuda off as though he had just gotten out of the shower, Taira was able to finish him with a basic no body control choke, immediately prompting the 2nd fall to start. Things didn't exactly improve for Usuda from here, but Taira didn't seem to have many finishers, and the largely wound up just controlling until he finally found a finger guillotine.

Stan The Man vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa R5 2:22

Any day that we get to cover Stan "The Man" Longinidis is a good one, and we are especially excited because his last fight was a bizarre footnote where he dumped Adam Watt over the top rope, which somehow resulted in Stan being awarded a TKO victory. Here, Stan must face the defense-heavy stone golem that is Toshiyuki Atokawa, who was technical enough to stifle most of Naoyuki Taira’s offense a month ago over in RINGS. Round 1 sees Stan take a more measured approach than usual, where he takes his time to get a read on the distance between him and Atokawa. After every few test punches/kicks, Stan would try and uncork a bomb, but Atokawa’s defensive abilities are top-notch, and he managed to deflect most of the damage. Stan started dialing up the aggression towards the end of the round, which did yield some results with the occasional hard shot landing, but he was never able to chain much together before Atokawa could counter with a nice straight down the pipe. Slight edge to Stan this round.

Round 2 was great, as Stan kept an aggressive pace against Atokawa, but couldn’t find any angles to push his bombs through. Atokawa wasn’t throwing much, but when he did, it was landing, especially his right straight, which seemed to keep catching Stan off guard. The round was even, but it seemed like Stan may have tagged Atokawa just as the bell rang, as he had trouble getting back to the corner, prompting his teammates to carry him back to the stool.

Stan unleashed his aggression in round three, making me think that he suspected that Atokawa was rattled. Usually, this is where Stan’s opponents start to crumble, but Atokawa, while clearly in survival mode, weathered the storm. Great round for Stan, as Atokawa didn’t do much except absorb punishment. However, Stan seemed to be tiring himself out by the end of the round with all he was dishing out.

Atokawa looked a lot better in round 4, as he was able to offer some counterfire of his own, and never appeared to be in danger. Stan was still far more active, but almost all the heavy leather he was throwing was getting blocked, whereas Atokawa’s occasional counter was landing.

Round 5 was where it all turned around, as right away Stan popped Atokawa in the chin with an overhand right, scoring a knockdown. That was all it took to get Stan motivated to finish the fight, and a leaping left hook was the beginning of the end for Atokawa. He got up from the second KO, but was more or less out on his feet. The ref soon stopped the fight, and Stan was the winner. Good fight. 

ML: An obvious mismatch, but Atokawa gave it his all, and was able to make it difficult for Stan, though he clearly didn't have enough firepower to threaten him. Atokawa was clearly the faster and more athletic fighter, as he needed to be given he was given up 20+ pounds, and early on he was able to fight a smart fight where he stayed away, using his movement and feints. Unfortunately, while he had enough speed and deception to land some jabs, he didn't have anything enough weapons to either push forward himself to get the knockout, or more importantly just hold Stan back. Stan was patient early on, getting his reads, but ultimately he realized he could close the distance aggressively because Atokawa just didn't really have the ability to make Stan pay for it. The more aggressive Stan got, the more Atokawa was forced to either run or exchange, neither of which were winning him a fight against a larger opponent with this sort of punching power. The end of the second round was particularly good though, as Atokawa was able to counter Stan's left hook with a right high kick then land a good right hook and uppercut. Stan landed a good overhand right in the final exchange, but I think Atokawa just slid off his chair rather than really being that out of it. Stan pushed hard in the first half of round 3 in case Atokawa was ready to go, and these were more exciting times, but he tired himself out in the process, and the second half of round 3 and all of round 4 were more competitive because Stan was sucking wind. Stan got a knock down to start the fifth round though, countering a right low kick with a right straight. Atokawa largely went down because he got hit when one leg was in the air, but it was a good hard punch, so it was a tough decision whether to call it a knockdown or a slip. Atokawa was basically gutting it out at this point. Stan threw a left to the body, but his subsequent right to the head didn't do what he hoped because Atokawa circled away to the right. Stan kept this in mind though, and when Atokawa made his move to circle away to the right again, Stan stepped forward and just leveled him with a big left hook for another knockdown. I don't really understand why the ref stopped it 10 seconds later. Atokawa was still moving well, getting away after Stan landed a blow. I feel like the ref changed his mind and decided he should have just stopped it before, 2 knockdowns in the round was enough especially in a fight Atokawa was clearly way behind in, so then he just jumped in randomly, and Atokawa was left disappointed. Good match.

Masaaki Satake vs. Chris Brannel R2 1:39

Oh my! This farce has to be the most hilarious train wreck we’ve yet witnessed in our long journey. This disaster is even more of a bizarre spectacle than the Berbick/Takada fiasco. While Berbick was a legit boxer who didn’t cotton to being kicked in the legs, Brannel looks like some random middle-aged dude from a strip mall karate dojo that decided to lie on his resume to get a fight in Japan so he could brag to his other instructor friends. Every move Brannel made was accented with wild gesticulations as if the very thought of being punched in the face was too much for him to bear. Furthermore, Brannel didn’t punch as much as fail with each lunge, almost as if this was a macabre performance piece. At one point, in one of the most indescribable things I’ve ever seen in any kind of fight, Satake threw a medium-velocity punch at Brannel, which he blocked with both arms while doing some kind of diving somersault. The ref counted this as a down, despite not connecting, and it has to be seen to be believed.

To everyone’s amazement, Brannel made it to round 2, where Brannel shifted his strategy to running around the ring in sheer terror. The ref finally had enough after the second knockdown, and called the fight. I highly recommend that everyone see this right away, albeit for all the wrong reasons.

ML: This should be at the top of the cult fiasco match list! It was absolutely hilarious because Brannel fought the entire fight like he was completely petrified. He was so scared he wouldn't even throw a strike, and just went down anytime Satake hit him, mostly missed him, or once just appeared ready to hit him! Brannel was either level changing for the takedown that wasn't actually legal or hopping away, regardless he never did anything that constitutes legitimate kickboxing offense, and he went down more times than I did the first time I tried to rollerskate. The fans kept laughing at him, which was the only legitimate response given a fighter was consistently hitting the canvas from blows that were grazing, at best. It's possible that Brannel is the worst fighter in history, and they just concocted his championship credentials, but this looked way more like the classic movie plot where they threaten to harm your family if you don't take a dive. Brannel managed to kill some time without doing anything that could possibly harm Satake, and honestly despite taking more pratfalls than Charlie Chaplin, didn't really take more than a couple clean shots himself. All the times he went down kind of forced the ref to eventually stop it because it was just so embarrassing to everyone, which perhaps allowed him to lose without having to absorb the coup de grace. By any technical assessment, this is one of the worst matches of all-time, but it's way too hilarious and unconventional to be placed alongside the sort of uneventful snoozefests that populate that sort of list. This is a fight I immediately watched again because I was in utter disbelief at what I'd just witnessed. Though I can't hate the fight like Lewis/Ngannou, it's yet another reason to hate Satake, as there are just way too many instances of some sort of shenanigans when he steps inside the ring. This fight was supposed to make him look good, but ultimately, though he was clearly trying to hurt Brannel, he's so hopeless that even the opponent coming off as the biggest joke to ever set foot in the ring didn't actually succeed in shining a favorable light on Satake. It was just an all around embarassment.

Conclusion: This could have been better, but it had its share of good moments. The Stan the man/Atokawa fight was worth anyone’s time, and the rest of the card outside of the main event were all very solid matchups. Like anytime you're dealing with real fighting, things can simply not work the way you expect, and this event was slightly hindered by some really fast finishes, and the MMA bouts could have had a better set of rules. As it stands, this was better than the Battle Sports Olympic III event, but not as good as volumes I/II of that same series. Still, this is not a bad way to spend two hours by any means.

ML: This show was all mismatches. Atokawa & Kakuda had enough heart to make their's interesting, but still, it felt like one of the many bad Bellator's where there wasn't a single match where the outcome was actually in doubt. That being said, these matches weren't dull, and while you could skip everything beyond Stan/Atokawa if you were in a hurry, there's quick finishes and a farce, but nothing you actually need to avoid if you are in the right mood for it.

Krummel’s Corner

Let’s check in with our most prestigious translator and see what he had to saw upon reviewing this show.

Beginning narration: Toshihiko Atokawa (Seidokaikan), born 1968, 24 years old. As a boy he was a prowrestling fan, and he joined Seidokaikan to start karate. Atokawa will now make his 2nd challenge to the thick wall of the world by fighting under kickboxing rules. Even Atokawa cannot hide his nervousness. His opponent will be the WKA superheavy wt. champion, Stan the Man. He has KO’d numerous opponents with his powerful right hook, and even knocked down Maurice Smith when the latter was in his prime. He is a feared hard puncher. Atokawa’s weight is 85 kilos, Stan is 95 kilos. Atokawa will have to fight against someone 10 kilos heavier. To this Atokawa simply stated that, "as long as I’m going to enter this fight, I’ll win" Adam Watt encourages him and says, "You’re not fighting alone, we’re all fighting together with you, we’ll win." As most people are anticipating a KO loss for Atokawa, the fight begins at this sacred site for fights, Korakuen Hall.

Sanctuari [Japanese misspelling of English] 1993.3.30 Korakuen Hall

Taiei Kin in front of camera: "Hi I’m Taiei Kin, how are you doing?... [laughs]" Was that alright?"

Kakuda wrapping his own hand wraps, says, "I always wrap these myself... I was doing a lot of logistical work preparing for this show and someone said to me, ‘I guess you’re not fighting then’ so I said, ‘actually I’m fighting also!’ But just now I did the final check in preparation for this show [he’s talking about all the logistics, lighting, ring set up, etc.], and I’m already tired, hahaha."

Taira in hall: "when I checked the ring, the ropes seem a little loose. I’m afraid of loose ropes hahaha"

In locker room, Tagami says to Atokawa, you look a little nervous and everyone laughs.

Opening ceremony: message from Seidokaikan president Kazuyoshi Ishii: "Osu, first of all I want to thank all of you fans for coming here to Korakuen Hall. Next, I want to thank the various organizations that have cooperated to contribute to this event: Daitoshi-juku, Keishukai, Senjo sogo kakutogibu, and also RINGS. For us, ever since we started putting on fight events, to stage such an event here at this sacred site for combat sports/martial arts, Korakuen Hall, has been a dream. But to be honest with you, we had fear. When I think of the long history of martial arts/combat sports and all the professional fighters who have fought here, we could not stage an event here if it’s going to be half-baked. As a preliminary event for the coming K-1 Grand Prix, it is my great pleasure that we will be able to stage our show here. I ask you to warmly cheer for the fighters to the very end of this event. That’s it. Osu!"

Full-contact karate rules:

Allows punches to the face/head with gloves.

Also allows elbow strikes and backhand blows.

3 knock downs in 1 round will count as a KO [and end the match]

5 rounds, 3 mins: Junji Kageishi (Toshu kakutojutsu Daitoshijuku) vs. Yoshihisa Tagami (Seidokaikan).

5 rounds, 3 mins: Taiei Kin (Seidokaikan) vs. Haruo Wada (Keishukai).

5 rounds, 3 mins: Adam Watt (Seidokaikan) vs. Shinjiro Aoki (Toshu kakutojutsu Daitoshijuku).

Experimental sogo kakutogi (mixed martial arts) rules: Aside from strikes, also allows throws, joint submissions, chokes. But no fist, elbow, or palm strikes to the face/head. Win is by 3 falls: whoever obtains 3 knock downs or submissions first wins. 2 rope escapes counts as 1 knock down or submission.

Sogo Kakutogi (MMA [Japanese style]) Rules, 3 falls: Nobuaki Kakuta (Seidokaikan) vs. Yoshinori Nishi (Keishukai).

Exhibition [Kickboxing] match 2 rounds, 3 mins: Chizumi Yoshida (Seidokaikan) vs. Peko Chan Yuri (Saitama Seido Gym).

Sogo Kakutogi (MMA [Japanese style]) Rule, 3 falls: Katsumi Usuda (Seidokaikan) vs. Naoyuki Taira (Senjo sogokakutogibu [Senjo MMA Club]). [I swear there was a wrestler of the same name in PWFG, but I didn’t know he originally came from Seidokaikan. I believe Usuda will join Fujiwaragumi soon after this, and then in Battlarts after that. And Taira is fun to watch, when he’s confident, he does fancy moves. Also that referee didn’t see the first time Usuda tapped and called it a rope break until the judges told him he tapped! And then a 2nd time, Usuda tapped again, and he called it a rope break, but no one caught that! In any case, Usuda wasn’t too impressive in this match.]

[Also, I must say these modified sogo kakutogi rules, which are almost like UWF rules except without any face/head strikes, even with palms, is somewhat unsatisfying. I think they could have at least allowed palm strikes like in Pancrase or RINGS.]

K1 Grand Prix rules: closed fisted face attacks with gloves are permitted. But elbow strikes and back hand blows are not permitted. 3 knockdowns in one round counts as a knock out.

K1 rules, 5 rounds, 3 mins: Stan The Man (WKA world superheavy wt. champion) vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa (Seidokaikan). [very good fight]

K1 rules, 5 rounds, 3 minds: Masaaki Satake (Seidokaikan) vs. Chris Brannel (WKBA cruiser wt. North American champion).

Narrator: Masaaki Satake, as the "ace" of Seidokaikan, having fought worldclass fighters, such as Maurice Smith and Peter Aerts, has rapidly risen as a fighter. His fighting level is already among the best in the world. His opponent is Chris Brannel, who is the WKBA North American cruiser wt. champion. This is his first time in Japan. But Satake who will enter the K-1 Grand Prix in a month, is expected to win this match. This is an opponent against whom Satake cannot afford to lose. Moreover, his junior Atokawa had just finished fighting a good fight against one of the candidates expected to win the K-1 Grand Prix, Stan the Man. Satake cannot afford to lose to his junior [Atokawa] in terms of the match’s content as well. Satake’s real opponent is the excessively inflated expectations of the fans. Under unimaginable pressure, we see a color of tension on Satake’s face.

[alright, who is this guy Brannel? He really sucked from the get-go. Is he a real pro fighter, or just some white dude they found on the street and paid to be a jobber?]

Narrator: Satake, who knocked out Brannel with his outstanding conditioning and sharpness in movements. However, his facial expression was not necessarily happy. His opponent was just not good enough.

Satake’s post-fight comments: "Well, my goal is good, so I’m just sprinting towards it. I’ll dominate the K-1 Grand Prix, and there’s Maurice Smith and Peter Aerts to beat. I’m studying them." Q: "Did you watch Atokawa’s fight" A: "Yeah, I did since it was before my fight. I don’t know if Stan was fighting with 100% of his ability, but his hard punching is dangerous, if you get hit once, that’s it. But today Atokawa did really well. I’m sorry about my fight even though I won. But this is a start, there will be a lot more good fights in the future. From tomorrow, I start training again, staking my martial arts life, for another month of hard training. Please, cheer for me, osu!"

Atokawa’s post-fight comments: "The punch from above the guard didn’t hurt me at all. But what caught me in the end, which was my mistake, was that since some of my jabs were hitting him, I decided to fix my guard and stop my body movement while throwing the jab. But he blocked the jabs and threw his hook, and this happened several times. And after a series of exchanges, he got me. When throwing a punch, my guard naturally gets lower, and that’s when he got me with his hook as a counter. The 2nd time he knocked me down, I have to be honest, that he hurt me. What inspired me today was when Adam [Watt] told me before the fight that the fight will be fought not by myself alone, but by everyone. By the 3rd and 4th round, I was quite tired, and I started getting hit, so I was thinking maybe that’s it, but my seconds kept telling me that I hit him and to keep going, etc., and they kept telling me I can win. So then I didn’t feel like letting them down. I was able to fight to the extent I did only because of the cheering of the fans and the support of my seconds, etc." Looking at the camera, Atokawa screams jokingly, "Stan, you idiot! My head hurts because of you!" And he continues, "Yeah, I was scared, to be honest with you, but I fought hard!... I wanted to fight a little bit more in the final round!"

Narrator: The fights have ended. And the hot breaths of the fighters have made their mark on the sacred site of Korakuen Hall. But the path has only just begun. The challenge of Seidokaikan will continue.

Chizuma Yoshida’s comments to camera: "Oh, I’m so nervous, I didn’t think it was going to end so quickly [the match preceding hers], sorry."

Tagami’s comments to camera: "After Kakutogi Olympic II, I got a book." [not sure what the context was]

Kakuda to camera, while eating: "Oh, today, everything’s a blur for me, wawawa, I’ll eat"

Kakuda making announcement at the after-show party, "Thanks everyone for taking part in the show, and we’ll see you all again at the K1 Grand Prix!"

[I’m curious to know who’s baby (and probably wife) that was, but they didn’t tell us.]

Final scene showing 1993 schedule: 4/30 K1 Grand Prix at National Yoyogi Gymnasium, 5/16 at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium 2nd Stadium, 6/25 at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, and 10/4 ’93 Karate World Cup at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium.

*In Other News*

Maurice Smith has been invited to the prestigious inaugural K-1/Seidokaikan KING OF KINGS Grand Prix that is coming up next month. In the meantime, Smith took a tune-up fight over in All Japan Kickboxing against German fighter Markus Fuckner. This bout was also an important match for Smith, who needed validation after being knocked out by young Dutch upstart Peter Aerts during his last outing. Smith demonstrated his legendary composure during this match, easily avoiding any serious threats from Markus until knocking him out in the third round. This bout was a very smooth performance from Smith, and if he can stay healthy, he should be a serious contender for the K-1 Grand Prix.

It is being reported that the earliest that Akira Maeda will be ready to go back into action is in October.

Rumors are swirling that the UWF-I is in negotiations with Animal (one half of the famous Road Warriors tag team) to come in and work at a similar pay scale that they just signed Van Vader to. It’s unclear if this is intended to be a long-term plan, or just a plan to have Animal lose to Takada in Japan, further building upon his unstoppable reputation. Animal has been out of action with a badly injured back since 10/16/92 (and didn't wind up making it back to the ring until 1/29/96).

RINGS has recently reached out with an olive branch to the PWFG, offering Fujiwara and the rest of his roster slots to work if they so choose. Bart Vale, Ken Shamrock, and Yoshiaki Fujiwara have all been courted, but it appears that Fujiwara is on the fence about making any commitments to him. It’s being reported that he wants his preliminary guys to work and get the experience, but that he himself may be getting offers to work again for New Japan and may not want to miss out on that opportunity.

It seems that Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki hit a roadblock in launching their new promotion as their original financial backers have pulled out. It remains to be seen if they will secure new investors at this time.

The UWF-I recently held a press conference where they announced that Vader will be officially debuting for the company. However, things got complicated when New Japan shortly afterwards put out a statement that they owned the worldwide rights to the Vader name and likeness, and have simply been allowing other promotions to use their trademark as a courtesy. It remains to be seen if Vader will have to perform under his legal name, Leon White.