This was the highly anticipated Japanese debut of MFC welterweight champion Eddie Alvarez. This star wrestler turned MMA fighter is only 22 years old, yet his pro MMA record was already very impressive at 7-0 with 7 KO or TKO's. He is not just a wrestler who can move fast, sprawl, and shoot. His biggest weapons are his hands - that uppercut's coming from every possible direction.

Eddie's name first surfaced in the Japanese MMA media in February 2005 when he convincingly defeated Seichi Ikemoto, a veteran from Shooto in the MFC 3 USA vs. the World show. After this fight, Ikemoto went on to PRIDE Bushido, the premiere MMA stage in Japan, and Eddie went on to defeat another Japanese fighter, a strong grappler from Cobra-kai Daisuke "13" Hanazawa, followed by a UFC veteran Derrick Noble to become the very first MFC welterweight champion.
When it comes to American MMA, the Japanese MMA media mainly looks at the UFC. Everything else is just "the rest of them" but Eddie's case became a bit different when the MFC signed an affiliation deal with MARS in Japan. Eddie became a topic of conversation because he was the one. He was the one MARS has chosen, to make the breakthrough they desperately need.

Eddie Alvarez, with this aggressive style and a flying punch, left a huge impact in the mind of the Japanese fans and the MMA media.

MARS is a new promotion began in February of this year. In the beginning, they were in a collaboration with GCM Communications, with a little push from K-1. Then from the second show in Korea, the situation started to change and by the May show at Makuhari Messe, a company called Trinity Inc. was in the driver's seat. It's not unusual to see the operating body changing in MMA or any other sports or entertainment shows, but when this newcomer named Trinity, came into a play, they ran into one major obstacle. They have the capital, they have the foreign booking route, but although Trinity is a Japanese company based in Tokyo, the biggest problem was booking Japanese fighters.

Like any other business, in the Japanese MMA world, it takes time and many working collaborations to establish a trustful relationship.
Especially in a country like Japan where it always requires, a series of presentations, meetings, phone conferences, clearing various red tapes, to get any project going, for a newcomer to build a relationship with fighters and gyms, it does require substantial time and extra effort.
On top of this, since there is no unified sanction of MMA anywhere, each promotion tends to secure "their own fighters" and they don't like to see "their fighters" fighting in the other promotions. And also, almost every known veteran fighter in Japan has his / her own gym so they can't be thinking about just themselves. Their disciples, gym, sponsors. Things can get quite complicated. For a fighter or gym to commit to a new promotion sometimes means the end of the relationship with the other one. In that case, a fighter or gym must make sure that they can get fights for their disciples, younger talents. Therefore, the basic rules here are, at least, if you get an offer from a new promotion, making a phone call to the matchmakers of the promotions you have been dealing with, which is absolutely mandatory.
You would need to explain the offer, and you would have to make sure that doesn't have a conflict with the future planning of each promotion. It can be called, paying respect. It’s not as easy as picking up a phone or simply writing an e-mail. In Japan, it requires setting up the right place, time, and most importantly "proper situation" to communicate, getting the situation straight before you make that one phone call.

When MARS lost Eddie's opponent, they ran into this problem. The time factor was against them also. They had one fighter signed ready to go but it didn't work out because this fighter got a call from a bigger promotion. By then it was only a couple weeks till the show and it was just not enough time for MARS to get someone good, and courageous enough to step up against this new fighter coming into the Japanese market. For any established fighters in Japan, Eddie Alvarez is a big risk. This kid has an impressive record of 7-0 but the truth of the fact is that he never fought in Japan and its not like he's a current UFC champion. His name is not established in the Japanese market so for anyone, especially the ones with local belts and titles, there isn't any reason to step into that ring provided by a new promotion with just two weeks notice to face a very dangerous opponent. After a series of meetings and phone calls, at the end, finally, one young up and coming fighter from ADCC world champion Sanae Kikuta's GRABAKA gym stepped up for the challenge. His name is Hidenobu Koike, with a mediocre record of 2-3-1.

Eddie weighed in at only 73.9 kilo for this fight. He can certainly compete in the lightweight division of PRIDE Busihdo.

Everyone knew Koike was not ready for Eddie. The fans in the Ryogoku Sumo Arena just had one thing in their mind. How long is Koike going to last? Or, how fast can Eddie finish the fight? Everyone was looking forward to seeing a one-punch knock out from this MFC champion from Philadelphia. But Eddie did way better than winning with absolute dominance. The moment he stepped into the ring, he had to know he was much better.
Right off the bell, Eddie jumped up twice trying to nail the flying knee. Koike stepped back and to the side but the crowd loved Eddie's showmanship. And when Koike went down on Eddie's punches, instead of just going for a simple ground and pound, he stood up, jumped high again, to nail the flying punch to Koike's head. The fans went wild with this Matrix-like offensive move. At the end, it was an one-man show by Eddie.
This fight, however, is way more than just winning, its about that flying knee and flying punch. Even though he is only 22 years old, it's an obvious sign that Eddie has a clear understanding of professional sports and the aspect of show business. He is in the ring with a weaker opponent, for the first time in Japan, so what is he supposed to do? Make sure to leave an impact in the minds of the fans and the media. And that's what he did. It seems like he has got this keen instinct, knowing exactly what to do within various circumstances.

Also, MARS was hoping for this. An exciting new strong fighter with showmanship and the title.
He is now 8-0 with 8 TKO or KO's. MARS is now hoping someone in Japan will step up and say, OK, let me handle Eddie. And that is the breakthrough MARS is looking for. But there is one problem for this scenario. Koike was not exactly a good yardstick to measure Eddie's true potential. In other words, some can argue that the only thing Eddie has is three wins in a row against Japanese fighters. But sometime that maybe good enough to shake things up. The next Japanese appearance for Eddie is scheduled on February 2007.

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