"I'm fine here, though I've been stressed out because of some personal problems recently. But watching MMA always makes me relieved."

Is MMA becoming the same phenomena as boxing, will we wind up with too many ruling bodies and too many varying rules and rankings? The ideal, as many fighters have expressed it, is a unified, objective, ranking body. Perhaps MMA journalists could partake along with various other unbiased experts.

"So it's exactly one month to go to the GP, and what's your plan? I remember you said earlier you wouldn't come for the April tournament. Is that right?
If you want me to, I may be able to cover it.
I'm going to go to Saitama Super Arena anyway. The arena is just 30 minutes away from my apartment. Take care"

I recently received a series of e-mails from a friend in Japan who expressed great concern about the effect that K-1 MMA will have on the upcoming Pride Heavyweight Grand Prix on April 25, 2004. Because of the competitive nature of the promoters, organizers and the amounts of money involved, there is a rush on, to tie the top fighters into exclusive contracts, thus limiting their ability to participate in events put on by the competition.

"How's it going? Did you hear the news that eight participating fighters for the PRIDE GP have been announced already? They will have to pick eight more, though. No Japanese so far, I guess there are not many Japanese combatants in the heavyweight division. Yoshida has yet to make a decision, but he will soon."

This is an event that only comes around once in a great while, almost like the World Cup. For those of us who have been patiently awaiting the return of our favorite MMA heavies, we would prefer the optimal candidates to participate in this event. Already I am very disappointed with the fact that Igor Vovchanchyn is out of the tournament due to an elbow surgery, but unfortunately that is a result of Igor's own wear n tear, beyond anyone's control. The positive result of this is that Murillo Ninja will be stepping up into the heavyweight tournament.

"Not only the MMA stuff, but the whole K-1 organization is going in the wrong direction, I think."

But, then comes to play the politics of MMA. The leanest biggest man in Japan, Bob "The Beast" Sapp has been locked up by K-1 and will not be participating in the GP. So far Inoki's disciple Fujita is also unavailable and should definitely be in the tournament. Another man who should be there is "Gaijin" Josh Barnett, a current King of Pancrase, but his tail is also tied to Inoki and NJPW. So what is the problem here? Shouldn't the main man of MMA send his camp to the biggest MMA war? Unfortunately, the war here is being fought outside of the ring.

"I finally saw the K-1 New Year's Eve event. I borrowed a video and my impression of that was that most of the fights were jokes. Ignashov-Nakamura was probably the only one I thought was decent. Everything else was like circus matches. Even the Ignashov-Nakamura bout wasn't great, I have to say, because neither of them was a specialist in MMA. The K-1 MMA fights might be flashy, but they're simply not for me."

My friend may be right about this one, but I feel that Ignashov might become a major force in MMA, perhaps in the K-1 footsteps of Cro-Cop, although The Scorpion doesn't have the Mercenary vibe. His match-up in his second MMA bout left something do be desired, a great wrestler way past his time. The Scorpion's knees might be responsible for many future Vale Tudo knock outs. Another former K-1 fighter and experienced MMA man who I would like to see against Cro-Cop would be former King of Pancrase Sammy Schilt. Why not, I doubt Mirko could just nail him, and Sammy is way superior on the ground, if it ever got to that it would be a submission.

"I saw the K-1 MMA on TV. Although it was their first event, I thought the level of the show was low. Ignashov vs. Steve Williams? Sapp vs a Mongolian? It's a joke to me. I know that K-1 is trying to make it different from PRIDE, but I just wasn't thrilled with the fights."

The Sapp fight was a complete let down. Sapp was dominated by Dolgorsuren Sumiyabazar and got lucky once again. I knew there was something going on when I saw a Buddha and a Bob Sapp mask next to each other at a market near Tokyo's remaining temples in Asakusa. He has the spirits on his side, although his performances recently have been questionable both in MMA and K-1.

"I watched the 3.27 K-1 event, too, and it was even worse than the 3.14 thing. The Shannon Briggs vs. Tom Erickson match was a total joke. Erickson is not a K-1 fighter and he doesn't have any K-1 techniques. He's an MMA fighter, as you know. So it was a fight that Shannon was to win."

Bingo, K-1 has to entice the boxers somehow and offer them sacrifices, victories. It reminds me of the way Pride treats K-1 refugee Mirko Filipovic. He was pampered and slowly submerged into the MMA ring. Perhaps it's very good management, it's definitely a very well-planned strategy. At one of Mirko's press conferences in Japan, his interpreter was even cleaning up his responses from English to Japanese. This man is a very valuable product and MMA commodity. Few other fighters have that level of inside contact, opportunities or access in Pride. Hell, why isn't Nogueira in Pride Bushido? He's the number one fighter in the world and has achieved more than anyone in the history of MMA besides perhaps Royce Gracie. I suppose we should be grateful that Fedor is still in the groove, and this modest man knows a great opportunity to prove that he is the very best in the world. I believe it essential that Nogueira and Fedor be seated in opposite brackets in this tournament, but don't be surprised if they have to face each other first to get to Cro-Cop. Cro-Cop should be in Fedor's bracket, Nogueira already proved he's the better man and the fans are hungry for the Eastern Eurasian match-up. Sergey Kharitonov is another fighter who will change this entire equation thus far.

"Since boxers like Botha and Butterbean have been struggling in the K-1 ring, it set up a stage for Shannon to win his debut match by any means. I would say it was a set-up."

They may love the governor in Birmingham, but the Bean already recognized utter humiliation and the MMA artfulness of Genki Sudo in his own debut. Sure he's corpulent and round, but Butterbean definitely has this Je ne sais quois. Replete with his Lynard Skynard entrance, he's obviously a character who makes money for the promoters, why else would they bother? He fought a tough boxing match against Japanese biker Hiromi Amada who made his entrance to the current pseudo punk wave of the Offspring.

"Sapp and his opponent, Akebono, they are all amateurs. They just swing their arms. That's it. It's not professional at all.
I love to see a lot of MMA fights but I just want the K-1 MMA to be more serious.
How about yourself? How did you like it?"

A Bird In Hand …

Overall the K-1/MMA warm-up was thin on talent. Perhaps the most exciting fighter in both of the K-I MMA/Inoki related events thus far has been Inoki's secret weapon Lyoto. It's no mystery why Lyoto beat the Black Sniper, and he took no risk immediately going for the take down. This was Michael McDonalds MMA debut, and this man who formerly trained with Andy Hug dove into the deep end, unlike other MMA prima donnas. We must remember that Michael McDonald is the last man to knock out Cro-Cop, Ahem!

It will be interesting to see who finally winds up in the cards for this upcoming Grand Prix. First because of the possible great talent that might step in, which paves the way for dream matches. And secondly, because this will reveal the possible course of Mixed Martial Arts future in various ways. Rankings will definitely be based on the relationships which these various large organizations have with each other. It all ends with a minimalist Spike Lee film title, Do The Right Thing, but its up to the real big boys, the ones that pull the strings from Mt. Fuji to Tokyo. Hell, the real ultimate surprise would be if Rickson Gracie entered the tournament, and left the world of MMA with a real explosive finish.  
Sayonara Baby!

P.S. Akebono gets major credit for having stunned Musashi, although a bit illegally, but he has indeed improved. Musashi joked about how he would knock the big man out on national television, but instead he wound up perhaps not remembering that he won.

"So what are we going to do for the PRIDE Grand Prix?
There is a lot of fuss about the PRIDE GP. Yoshida has pulled out of the tournament, the Predator fights in K-1 instead of PRIDE, etc.
My honest feeling is that this year's GP may not be as exciting as last year's middleweight tourney, because we simply don't have famed Japanese fighters like Sakuraba, Yoshida and Tamura (I know Yokoi and Yoshiki Takahashi are not bad)DSE and Takada have recently said they might put in a 'surprise'' or two for the remaining spots, and the guys DSE is negotiating are not ones that everyone can imagine. Some MMA magazine predicted it may be Naoya Ogawa, another Judo king.
Yes, that would be cool if Ogawa steps into the PRIDE ring again. I've heard that Ogawa is a bit better than Yoshida in terms of ground work.
Anyways, take it easy and let me know when plans for the GP are determined."