Also, I'd love to know how bad Akebono's cut was. There was a lot of blood, and they spent ages working on it.
Plus, this shot of Sapp; I don't know if it was audible on the foreign broadcast, but after he looked and them working on Akebono's head you could clearly hear him say "OMG that's his skull man..." to his corner in disgust.
no drastic change in the ring or anything really. Some ledlights in the ropes, barely noticeable.
It may not have come across on TV but in the arena, when it was pitch black, the ring looked amazing.
All in all, a really good event. Proper JMMA NYE stuff.
RENA got some huge cheers. It would definitely be a stretch to say most people in that arena were Shoot Boxing fans, but the vast majority at least knew of RENA I would say. She's got huge potential to do big things in RIZIN. It was great when RENA gave props to Rumina Sato (who was doing commentary for the event) for teaching her that flying arm bar too.
People went mad for Takeru too. I was a it surprised actually, what with it being an MMA heavy crowd. Like RENA you can really sense the buzz around him. As Dave said, was a good night for Kickboxing.
And speaking of Kickboxing, the love for Aerts was incredible. I honestly don't know who got the bigger reaction, him or Fedor. In these days of disingenuous marketing and fickle fandom it was genuinely moving to see the respect given to Aerts. It's the same with Fedor. Honestly I'm sure the vast majority of fans there yesterday don't still think he's the best Heavyweight in the world, but he's a legend and that's enough.
The Asen-Kron fight's been changed from the 11th to the 8th fight. Apparently to give KID enough time to second Asen then get from Saitama to Yokohama quick as for his fight with Masato.
Yeah, they announced Aerts earlier on the TV broadcast. Well, "announced" is the worn word, they just presented the fight as Baruto vs. Aerts, no mention of JLB at all.
Apparently JLB pulled out when RIZIN reduced his purse last minute.
Well, the good thing about that is when we wake up a few hours later we just have to start up our internet browser and instantly get all the meaty parts of the press conference and announcements.
Yeah, it'll be drawn out to the max. I'm gonna give it a miss too.
RIZIN will actually be streaming the Fedor press conference live on their site tomorrow at 12:00pm JST. Then they'll be following up on it on TV later tomorrow night. So if anyone wants to know his opponent as soon as, check back at this link tomorrow...
I hate the notion - and once again confirmation - that it pays off to be a dick.
Absolutely 100% agree with this.
McGregor will get his in due time.
Exactly. Now the UFC can market him it's all roses. But it won't be long before the UFC gets everyone onboard a new hype train and they treat McGregor the same way they did Aldo, Jones, and GSP. Somehow I suspect McGregor knows this.
Never updated it in this thread, but Masato/KID has been off for a while:
It's definitely not off at this moment in time. There was a rumour about a problem with KID's tattoos, but the fight is still on. There was a feature about it on TV the other day: (Incidentally the video title mentions how everyone in the studio's put off by KID's tattoos)
I read an article saying that because TBS know it's dodgy as fuck to put this fight on (because of KID's UFC contract) they're being particularly quiet about it. There's been no major press conference about the fight, which is very strange, and they've chosen instead to drip bits of information out online etc and let it pick up it's own steam that way. Of course, it's mentioned it's an exhibition fight for TV, but as they start to promote to a wider TV audience there'll apparently be little mention of this fact.
Also the fight will take place the Osanbashi Hall in Yokohama, and they cut to the fight from studio as they will with Ioka's boxing match in Osaka.
Apparently they'll be some kind of segment on the news tonight at 23:30.
Fucking love Maia for going full jitz against Gunni. I was worried it be a horrible stand up fight but it was a beautiful grappling display.
Rockhold was incredible. Really thought it should have been stopped at the end of the third though. Weidman was a mess.
Feel really bad for Jose, poor guy looked distraught after the fight. Can't argue with McGregor's ability though. I'm a huge fan of Conor's fighting, it's just the way he acts since he got a bit of attention in the UFC that's so unbearable. But still, there are always signs that remind me it's just an act. Like what he said at the post-fight press conference when he showed some genuine empathy for Aldo. Reminded me of the old confident but humble guy from Cage Warriors.