Although the most memorable or important occurrence of the K-1 New Years Eve show was Genki Sudo's announcement of his retirement from the Mixed Martial Arts, a bit of controversy wound up overshadowing the stepping out of a true Renaissance Man from the international fight ring.
For those who had the privilege of witnessing the K-1 Premium 2006 Dynamite!! show, after a great night of K-1 rule and MMA fights, you might have definitely noticed that something indeed went wrong in the end.  As if foreshadowing the oddities to come first of all, Kazushi Sakuraba entered the ring first, as if he was the challenger; this is certainly disrespectful considering that once upon a time the name Sakuraba was synonymous with world wide MMA, and he is an iconic veteran of Japanese MMA. Then came a completely cheesy and over the  top entrance by national Judo darling Yoshihiro Akiyama. Escorted by tiny judokas in their very own little Gi's as a Broadway show theme bitter sweetly filled and curled the milk in the arena. Akiyama then proceeded to get on his knees with all his students as they bowed down in a uniform show of respect.

Akiyama taught Sakuraba the secret of body lotions but wound up with no purse money by the new year as the fight was deemed NC.

More problems became apparent after each attempt Sakuraba made (the masterful ankle picker) trying to go for a take down.  After failing a few times it seemed Sakuraba got something in his eyes, as he began rubbing them. After starting to receive some strikes to the face  instead of actually defending, Sakuraba was yelling something to the referee. "He's too slippery!" or something to that effect was what  Sakuraba kept saying even after the match was stopped in a weird sequence that led to a quasi ground n pound TKO.  As Akiyama  portrayed himself the victor with judoka honor, Sakuraba, who was not really hurt, kept complaining to the referee to check Akiyama's body. In a token gesture the referee patted Akiyama's upper body once or twice, and then raised this hand in victory.
The problem with all this was the fact that the referee never even bothered to check Akiyama's legs.  After all, the last piece of clothing he shed before the fight was his Gi bottom; pants.  t seems that this was the grey area upon which Sakuraba may have encountered  some not so fair play.
Another factor, which did not jive, was the fact that Akiyama was wearing gloves that had no "Edwin" logo. Different gloves can be a serious issue that can affect the outcome of the bout.  I have seen  this occur before in MMA shows, and one has to always be suspicious of those "different gloves" when they are on the hands of the winner.
The fact that referee Yoshinori Umeki repeatedly ignored Sakuraba's pleas and failed to follow the "standard" protocol of appropriately checking a fighter before a bout, or even during, definitely leaves his reputation hanging out to dry, and thus the organization's.  It should have never come to such sloppiness and reminds me of the ending to the Tour de France; one guy parties after the games, and  then the victory is nullified. The fact that Fight Entertainment  Group (Matrix company to HEROS and K-1) decided to call this fight a NO CONTEST means that there was a lot of pressure coming from somewhere.
FEG president Sadaharu Tanigawa revealed to the media that an inquiry had been made regarding the gloves, and they were indeed regulation gloves in the end, sans the logo. Akiyama apologized publicly to Sakuraba and asked for a rematch. Although he wore no Vaseline or Tiger Balm, he had put on some skin moisturizer. Of course in the  end HERO'S held some of the referees in charge of safety checks accountable, although not the main referee, who in my opinion, also  screwed up.

Masato taught yet another boxer not to fuck with a K-1 Max kickboxer.

Kick Boxing
Although the K-1/HERO'S show had a little snag in the end, it wouldn't be a Japanese show without it, it definitely had its  moments. Watching Masato teach a boxer to be weary of where he should step was definitely a high point in the overall show, which was televised live for five and one half hours on Japanese TV. The return of Nicolas Petas of K-1 fame against bad boy Badr Hari was an exciting high intensity duel, which unfortunately for Petas wound up with an arm injury and his corner throwing in the towel. This was definitely not a good sign for Petas, who left the ring for a long time due to a very serious fracture of his leg. There were definitely some fights structured to bring in the masses such as Giant Silva and Akebono, or Bobby Ologun being knocked senseless by Hong Man Choi, literally a building. Giant Silva was quite graceful in his finish showing that his training with Renzo Gracie has indeed payed off. On the other hand Ken Kaneko (Japanese actor) needs many more years of jiu jitsu and better go back to the soap operas since he couldn't beat Bobby Ologun's lil' brother, Andy Ologun.

We Are All One
In the end it is Genki Sudo who emerges with pure substance and  finishes his MMA career with a beautiful triangle against an extremely aggressive, but over zealous American named Damacio Paige. Right from the bell Genki fell into a performance art pose and the  American came in a with a barrage of weapons taking it to the ground  super aggressively as if searching for weapons of mass destruction.  As he tried to ground n pound his way to the truth, Genki raised his  hips brought over a leg, locked it under the opposite until Paige was  forced to tap. After elaborate entrance choreography based around MAYAN Spirit  (including his patented dance moves) and a brilliant fight, with microphone in hand an almost stuttering Genki announced his  retirement to the teary eyed ladies as they sighed and "rolled their  eyes." It was a real emotional kind of moment for the Japanese  fighter who embraces us all and his Japanese fans.

Real Close
Undoubtedly the best fight of the night was between two master grapplers, the young and sparking Hideo Tokoro and perhaps the most  technical of all the Gracies, Royler Gracie. This was an excellent back and  forth duel of technique against spunk, as both fighters were very aggressive looking for the victory. While standing, Royler insisted  on pounding Tokoro's left leg with heel strikes right above the knee  to establish distance. But Tokoro was quick striking and very powerful from the clinch, sometimes throwing Royler down. On the ground Royler worked for a mount but Tokoro has a powerful and sudden  bridge, like a fish flapping, very difficult to control. Both  fighters took the top position at different times but in the end the match was awarded unanimously to Tokoro by the judges, perhaps due to some clearly powerful strikes including a knee to the jaw, which  rocked Royler in the second, although he recovered immediately. Once  again Tokoro proved to be an exciting MMA fighter, but an even better grappler; perhaps he is worthy of an invitation to the next ADCC  Championship. As far as the judges decision is concerned, I'm sure it means nothing to Royler, because for him the match had only just  began. It's amazing to watch Royler work from the guard and the amount of stamina and forward thrust he has at the tender age of forty-one.

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