Mitsuya Nagai v Masayuki Naruse
Hey, this was a really nice, spirited little contest. The stand-up was sharp and clean and I dug Naruse playing underdog. He sold getting knocked around pretty well and I loved how he used the ref' to drag himself back to his feet after the penultimate knockdown. Nagai hurled a few mean leg kicks but still wasn't the full crowbar Nagai that I'm used to, as it was crowbar Nagai that was my first introduction to Nagai way back whenever. They sure telegraphed Naruse catching that high kick, but to their credit they threw a curve ball and switched up the finish nicely. Not spectacular by any means, but definitely fun and a super breezy nine minutes.
Sotir Gotchev v Todor Todorov
Kind of a poor man's Eastern European grapplefest, but a fun one and with another few fights under his belt Todorov could be really good (I'm sure I've seen later Todorov fights, but I don't remember anything about them). Gotchev had a bunch of nice throws again, almost setting them up via bearhug before heaving Todorov over and practically onto his head. At one point he hoisted him up, walked around the ring and hit a body slam. I'm not sure what Todorov's discipline is, but he had a killer harai goshi and once or twice he almost tied Gotchev up in suitably RINGS fashion. Finish was really cool too. There's something about a shoot style STF that's just aesthetically pleasing.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto v Yoshinori Nishi
This was about twelve minutes but it seemed longer than that, and not in a good way. Again it felt like more of an early look at what Yamamoto would become, though maybe that's just me projecting because he's a favourite of mine and what he becomes is fucking awesome. Either way he got a wee bit chippy once or twice and flung an elbow that Nishi didn't appreciate. Nishi still isn't very good on the ground, but I guess he has a somewhat passable takedown defence and so Yamamoto wasn't taking him down at will. But a lot of this went by without much happening.
Volk Han v Andrei Ruminezei
I'm pretty sure this is my first time seeing Ruminezei. He's sort of unassuming and looks a bit like John Carroll Lynch with the perfectly balding pate and such. And he was pretty dang fun! His striking is really tentative and once or twice he looks a wee bit lost to the point where Han is trying to guide him, but he has fun takedowns and brings something to the ground exchanges. Han is worth watching against absolutely anybody already, just a little over a year into his career, and this time he was getting tricky with the strikes. He was throwing ax kicks and quick hands and of course his favourite spinning back fist. It came after Ruminezei caught him with a knee to the gut for a knockdown, going straight to the back fist and following it up with an amazing wrist throw into an armbar. This was longer than the previous bout but it sort of flew by in comparison.
Akira Maeda v Herman Renting
To suggest Herman Renting is hit or miss would probably be generous. He's about eight parts miss to two parts hit. If he's not in the mood then it's usually hard to care about what he's doing. And this wasn't a barn burner or anything, but he was at least pressing the issue a little and I guess it was a watchable enough bout. Maeda obviously has the aura, but I'm wondering if his knee wasn't still giving him legit problems around this point because he hasn't really been up for doing much in the last couple shows. The fact it's heavily taped up means there's always a bit of drama, though. Renting took a few swings at it and the crowd reacted like it was a big deal, so maybe we're not giving Maeda enough credit for his minimalist booking (or maybe I'm full of total horse shit). Skippable fight in all, but on the Renting curve it was better than his average.
Dick Vrij v Chris Dolman
This was never going to be a victim of expectations. I like Vrij a lot and everything, but Dolman is getting on in years and he was never great to begin with and Vrij isn't the sort of guy who drags mediocre to really good. But hey, they upped their game like you and I and anyone with a shred of honour would for the Mega Battle Tournament Grand Final and it wound up being a pretty fun scrap. Vrij is usually much bigger than his opponents, or at least has a reach advantage, and while Dolman can't match up to him in the striking he's not giving up anything in height and could probably use his extra weight to contain him. It means Vrij wants to be aggressive and finish it on the feet while Dolman would rather grind it out on the mat. Dolman isn't expressive at all and sometimes comes off a touch sandbaggy, but if nothing else it made Vrij's first big knockdown feel well-earned and special (and Vrij's reaction to it did as well). I don't know how much Dolman has left in his legs so I guess this was a nice last hurrah.
Complete & Accurate RINGS
