For Japanese sports fans, France is a country which is considered a "powerhouse" of elite athletes but in the world of MMA, the caliber of French fighters is undetermined, perhaps a veiled mystery. Well, at least till the third D.O.G. show took place on September 16th. Many fans that came to Differ Ariake were curious to see what style, emotion, and showmanship French MMA fighters posses.

Monma (top)is on a row. Ever since he was fighting in Demolition shows, he was popular among female fans also.

However, it turns out and is apparent that French MMA fighters need to learn more about defending, indeed, and fighting on the ground. This team competition between two countries - some called it Team Wajiu-tsu Keishu-kai vs. Team France - began with K-taro Nakamura's domination of Mohamed Khacha, and then Japanese fighters basically rolled all over Team France. 5 straight first round tapout wins. Oliver Mariano, Fred Fernandez, and Samy Schiavo all showed their aggressiveness with their sharp punches but once they were on the ground, it was just not compatible to fighters who train in MMA now and study strategies in the Octagon.

Tsuyoshi Takano pushed European San-da (Chinese Karate) champion Mariano to the fence and then took him down for an armbar. Taiyo Nakahara shot in, then ground and pounding his way over Fernandez. Schiavo, at least, proved that he knows a little bit of the ground game attempting an armbar from the bottom but when Eiji Mitsuoka pushed him against the fence throwing a barrage of punches, Schiavo panicked and gave up his back as Mitsuoka nailed him with a rear naked choke.

Naito (right) landed hard kicks in the second round but with Kazuyuki Fujita on his corner, Hamanaka, as pro wrestler, showed his toughness.

The biggest disappointment, by far, was Jess "Joker" Liaudin. Liaudin and Hidetaka Monma simply don't belong in the same league. Monma jumped in with his right hook took Liaudin down placing himself with an armlock, from the half-guard, and finishing it with an armbar.

However, Damien Riccio, who fought Yushin Okami in the Main Event, barely saved the entire French squad from being put to complete shame. Riccio stood and traded strikes with Okami in the first round and in the second round, when Okami changed his tactics forcing the ground game, Riccio did well defending on the bottom. At the end, Riccio, on the ground, took too many punches from behind and the referee stepped in to stop the fight. Obviously, the biggest flaws in Team France were, not knowing the defense on the ground, and giving their backs up way too easily.

Contrary to the French fighters, two Russian fighters from Marupro Gym made a huge impact in the minds of the Japanese fans by knocking out their opponents, in less then 30 seconds, with hard heavy fists.
These two Russians made a case that if D.O.G. is planning to continue this team competition format then the next show has to be against Team Russia or Team Marupro.

Okami's goal is to fight in Hero's next year.

A lot of Japanese MMA fans were also anxious to see Kazuhiro Hamanaka vs. Yukiya Naito. Hamanaka is an elite wrestler who is walking the same path of elite pro MMA fighter in Japan - making a pro MMA debut, in PRIDE, originally from Takada Dojo and now representing Inoki Office. On the other hand, Naito is a fighter who climbed up from the bottom of Wajiu-tsu Keishu-kai who finally made it to the big shows such as Hero’s and ADCC world championships.

The fight became the battle of takedowns and strikes.
Hamanaka took Naito down twice in the first and three times in the second but couldn't pass Naito's tight guard. In the second round, he took powerful knee shots and right hooks from Naito, but Hamanaka didn't back off. He showed his strong chin and kept pushing forward, but all three judges scored the bout a draw.

After the show, Okami expressed his desire to fight in the Hero's show, "I heard Hero's is planning to do a tournament at my weight class so I just couldn't lose this fight. I am sure I will have at least one fight before Hero's so I want to make sure to put myself in top condition. I see fighters at different weight classes are doing very well in other shows, but as long as the opportunity is provided, I feel I can do that also."

FEG President & K-1 Event Producer Sadaharu Tanikawa was at the show but he was not cleared about who might make it to Hero's. Tanikawa only said, "There is a possibility" but didn't reveal any names or dates. Hero's is planning to host their first show in Korea on either November 5th or 6th so we might see some winners of this show testing their skills in Korea.

Other Photos & Official Results >>