Much the same as their first fight, though both looked a little more comfortable here, a little more confident. They threw fast hands and it made for a few nice little strike exchanges, even earning Naruse his first bloody nose of his RINGS career. Nothing on the mat was spectacular, but it all felt like a struggle and when it was announced that the time limit was near I bought them going for that win. Fifteen minutes might've been beyond them at this stage, but I'd rather watch these two for fifteen minutes than Kakuta or Kimura for thirty.
Yoshinori Nishi v Peter Dijkman
Perhaps I was hasty in my previous judgment of Nishi not having much of a ground game. Or perhaps Dijkman simply has no ground game whatsoever -- negative ground game, if you will. That judgment does not feel hasty. This was less than two minutes and Nishi's cross armbreaker was a picture.
Mitsuya Nagai v Nobuaki Kakuta
This was pretty rough. A lot of these midcard five rounders feel like the RINGS equivalent of Watts giving Skip Young and Wendell Cooley thirty minutes on TV every other week. It's not the best comparison because I assume this was maybe, possibly, probably a shoot, but it lasted forever and nothing really happened until the fourth round. Kakuta is just not interesting at all. Nagai has his moments, but I don't really care about him in a shoot. I thought his show of respect for Kakuta at the end was cool, but as a fight it had about three minutes of good and every other minute of nothing.
Naoyuki Taira v Eric van der Hoeven
Oh hey, it's Naoyuki Taira! As in the Naoyuki Taira who showed up in Battlarts in 2000 and had a cracking match with Alex Otsuka and then some other okay things with Carl Greco. I'd never even heard of him before last year and I'll be honest, I didn't know it was actually him in this very fight until I checked the match list afterwards, but it was definitely the Naoyuki Taira we (several of us) know and love. I'm almost positive this was a shoot, and a much better one than the previous bout. Taira's kicks are lightning and he busted out a swank flying leg lock after I'd spent the whole fight up until then thinking he had nothing to offer on the ground. Van der Hoeven was pretty nippy as well, but there were a few weird moments where he seemed to either strike Taira with a closed fist or whack him in the eye, and the ref' had to step in more than once. He also complained about Taira being too oily and straight headbutted the back of his head at one point. He never really endeared himself to the evening's crowd. That his sixth strike to the eye was deemed enough to warrant disqualification never did him any favours, either. I'd be fine with seeing more Taira.
Willie Williams v Bert Kops Jr
I think I might be coming around to these Williams bouts. I mean they're not exactly good, but they're short and rough and there's an amusing carny aspect to them. Plus Williams looks like he's enjoying himself more with every fight. I liked how Kops sold that knee at the end as well, just going dead weight like it was a knockout in every sense.
Volk Han v Herman Renting
Quite the mismatch on paper, like something you'd see on a PRIDE card next to some Manny Yarbrough circus show. Like, nobody believes Renting has a shot here. Han toppled Maeda and can submit any living thing. So you want to see how Renting tries to combat that. If he can get lucky once or twice, can he turn it into something meaningful? He almost managed to grab a choke at one point and Han used up a rope break just in case, but part of you knew that might've been the one and only chance Renting had. There was this great bit where Han was probing for a leg lock at the edge of the ring, rolling further into the centre to draw Renting away from the ropes, and with every rotation he seemed to have secured another part of leg (and by the end he'd secured both legs). Kind of low key compared to Han's recent fights, but you take what you can get.
Masaaki Satake v Willie Peeters
Man, this was a slog as well. I don't know if it was another shoot, but it was nothing like any of Peeters' previous worked fights and it was mostly six rounds of tentative stand up. It got real chippy for a second there when Satake threw an illegal elbow and Peeters cussed everybody out ("fuck you all, you all heard it!"), but after threatening to spill over it soon settled back into whatever it had been before. My irrational annoyance at Satake continues to grow (though maybe it's not irrational -- he did take a dastardly cheapshot at Peeters, who we all know is above such comportment) and I kind of hope someone KO's him soon.
Akira Maeda v Hans Nyman
This had the feel of Maeda milking something to add drama to what was basically a foregone conclusion, selling Nyman's kickboxing like it was super dangerous and taking a few downs to give Nyman an early lead. Nyman's kicks looked pretty and they had some nice snap, but none that landed did so with any real impact. Maeda then went full Hogan v Hercules or Cena v Barrett and decided it was time to go home. Nyman got some stuff in, Maeda looked vulnerable (I mean, I guess), but in the end there was only one conclusion.
Strange show. Some of these five round fights are not very interesting and this had a couple of them. Main event was fine for what it was and we did get a Han fight.
Complete & Accurate RINGS
Naoyuki Taira v Eric van der Hoeven
Oh hey, it's Naoyuki Taira! As in the Naoyuki Taira who showed up in Battlarts in 2000 and had a cracking match with Alex Otsuka and then some other okay things with Carl Greco. I'd never even heard of him before last year and I'll be honest, I didn't know it was actually him in this very fight until I checked the match list afterwards, but it was definitely the Naoyuki Taira we (several of us) know and love. I'm almost positive this was a shoot, and a much better one than the previous bout. Taira's kicks are lightning and he busted out a swank flying leg lock after I'd spent the whole fight up until then thinking he had nothing to offer on the ground. Van der Hoeven was pretty nippy as well, but there were a few weird moments where he seemed to either strike Taira with a closed fist or whack him in the eye, and the ref' had to step in more than once. He also complained about Taira being too oily and straight headbutted the back of his head at one point. He never really endeared himself to the evening's crowd. That his sixth strike to the eye was deemed enough to warrant disqualification never did him any favours, either. I'd be fine with seeing more Taira.
Willie Williams v Bert Kops Jr
I think I might be coming around to these Williams bouts. I mean they're not exactly good, but they're short and rough and there's an amusing carny aspect to them. Plus Williams looks like he's enjoying himself more with every fight. I liked how Kops sold that knee at the end as well, just going dead weight like it was a knockout in every sense.
Volk Han v Herman Renting
Quite the mismatch on paper, like something you'd see on a PRIDE card next to some Manny Yarbrough circus show. Like, nobody believes Renting has a shot here. Han toppled Maeda and can submit any living thing. So you want to see how Renting tries to combat that. If he can get lucky once or twice, can he turn it into something meaningful? He almost managed to grab a choke at one point and Han used up a rope break just in case, but part of you knew that might've been the one and only chance Renting had. There was this great bit where Han was probing for a leg lock at the edge of the ring, rolling further into the centre to draw Renting away from the ropes, and with every rotation he seemed to have secured another part of leg (and by the end he'd secured both legs). Kind of low key compared to Han's recent fights, but you take what you can get.
Masaaki Satake v Willie Peeters
Man, this was a slog as well. I don't know if it was another shoot, but it was nothing like any of Peeters' previous worked fights and it was mostly six rounds of tentative stand up. It got real chippy for a second there when Satake threw an illegal elbow and Peeters cussed everybody out ("fuck you all, you all heard it!"), but after threatening to spill over it soon settled back into whatever it had been before. My irrational annoyance at Satake continues to grow (though maybe it's not irrational -- he did take a dastardly cheapshot at Peeters, who we all know is above such comportment) and I kind of hope someone KO's him soon.
Akira Maeda v Hans Nyman
This had the feel of Maeda milking something to add drama to what was basically a foregone conclusion, selling Nyman's kickboxing like it was super dangerous and taking a few downs to give Nyman an early lead. Nyman's kicks looked pretty and they had some nice snap, but none that landed did so with any real impact. Maeda then went full Hogan v Hercules or Cena v Barrett and decided it was time to go home. Nyman got some stuff in, Maeda looked vulnerable (I mean, I guess), but in the end there was only one conclusion.
Strange show. Some of these five round fights are not very interesting and this had a couple of them. Main event was fine for what it was and we did get a Han fight.
Complete & Accurate RINGS
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