RIZIN - Breakfast With Fedor

 

We start with a PRIDE-style drum celebration and TAKADA COMING OUT IN A WACKY OUTFIT and giving a giant thumbs up. Glorious. The Bellator announcers tell us that Aoki vs. Sakuraba is opening - which is good, since I have to leave for work soon - so I'll get as much of this done as I can since the intros are so elaborate. Saku has no mask, and no business fighting - but he at least gets a cool intro.

Sean Grande talks about Antonio Inoki being a pro wrestling kingpin, and how the idea to put the Tiger Mask on Satoru Sayama and that made Sakuraba a fan. Saku looks ancient, but in-shape. Still, it's far more fun watching him play pretend MMA fighter in pro wrestling than actually fighting as an MMA fighter. Aoki takes him down and we see the never-ending knee wraps on Saku. Aoki gets the mount and lands about 100 shots before the ref stops it. Saku had nothing left, but "just" got bloodied up a bit - so he at least didn't seem to suffer any lasting damage.

Recap of the GP fights so far. Big John is the ref for Mo vs. Teodorus, who came out as Ryu Hoshi from Street Fighter II in the walkouts that weren't shown here. Basic jabs and kicks for the first round - nothing really noteworthy. Mo takes him down for some ground and pound in round two. He winds up for a big standing punch to his mounted opponent, but it doesn't connect. A second one hits flush and Mo dominates - so he should win this one and does win by judges' decision. Vadim vs. Jiri is up for the GP. It's a crazy war for the first round with all sorts of craziness - including a near flying knee at the end. During the replay, Nevkov is passed out - so it's over. Jiri wins. Saiga vs. Tokoro is up. MILLION DOLLAR DREAM into an armbar for the win for Tokoro. Hasegawa vs. War is up. Not much to the first round - but we get some north-south knees in round 2. Ward wins with an RNC. Kron Gracie vs. Yamamoto is up .Triangle into a powerbomb leads to a triangle win for Kron Gracie.

Gabi Garcia vs. Lei'D Tapa is up next. She is a 14 TIME WORLD JIU-JITSU CHAMPION according to the hype video. SHE STANDS AT THE BEGINNING OF HER DREAM. LADY BEAST LEI'D TAPA's video up next. She is called a popular pro wrestler and Tapa says she embraces her curves. Gabi is GIGANTIC next to Big John. Tapa lands a left and takes her down, while Gabi gets up and goes for wacky Crusher punches that can be seen from space. Her lumbering punches actually connected a few times. An accidental backfist takes Tapa down and we get some ground and pound for a Garcia win. Souwer vs. Nagashima is up. TONS of hard shots to the head and body lead to a win for Souwer. Jiri vs. Mo is up. Mo KTFOs him with a right hook to win!

 

Fedor hype video. HIS FIGHTING SPIRIT HAS RETURNED! Singh video at least makes a case for him being a contender by taking out Russia's number two fighter in K1 and training with Cain. Lenne Hardt's FROM RUSSSSIAAAAA with LOOOVE! bit never gets old. Fedor dominates and beats him with ground and pound. After a dozen hard shots to the head, Fedor wins. We get a "who's next!?" ala Goldberg for Fedor and Jimmy says Fedor needs to face a non-can. This show was just about exactly what I expected it to be - and a fine template for future Rizin shows.

Screens -
http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/w9sywvlqcxrdvf97oi8gkuldlxgke2ha