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Japan: The Land of Mismatches

News from across the Pacific is that World Victory Road has found an opponent for Kevin Randleman -- a natural Light Heavyweight who frequently fights at Heavyweight. And of course, its Middleweight Pancrase vet Ryo Kawamura. This shit just pisses me off. I realize that there is a limited pool of Japanese heavyweights, but must they throw guys like Kawamura under the bus? Not only is Ryo undersized to be taking on Randleman, but he's just moving up to the "major leagues" having fought all but a couple fights in Pancrase. Also, not that I think Kawamura will become an all-time great, but I'll never forgive PRIDE for destroying the greatest Japanese MMA fighter of all-time by pushing him into bouts with fighters one or two divisions larger than him (see pic).

And as we've seen a lot recently, the guys coming from the 2nd tier Japanese promotions -- K-Taro Nakamura, Kuniyoshi Hironaka, Kotetsu Boku, Artur Oumakhanov -- have a hard enough time handling the step up to top flight competition. Its pretty clear that SENGOKU has a pretty shallow talent pool, but that's no reason to continue the very worst tradition of PRIDE -- feeding the best Japanese fighters to much larger elite international fighters. Randleman should be fighting proven 205ers like Babalu, Vitor Belfort, or even heavies like Jeff Monson, not green middleweights.

Meanwhile they're working to get an opponent for Josh Barnett's headline bout, Sherdog is mentioning "either Olympic judo silver medalist Naoya Ogawa or five-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion Marcio Cruz" as possibilities. Neither fighter is really a match for Barnett and I'd much rather see him take on Jeff Monson, who's at least been a top ten fighter in recent years. This also makes me think its very very unlikely that Barnett will be fighting on the rumored June Affliction card with Fedor and Sylvia.

Update [2008-4-22 19:15:39 by Kid Nate]:

For those who don't know, I'm referring to Japanese MMA legend Kazushi "The Gracie Hunter" Sakuraba. Clearly its time for me to get off my ass and do some more installments of MMA History.

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Re: Japan: The Land of Mismatches
Not so sure if Randleman should be tighting top-tier opponent right out of the gate. The guy hasn't fought for 17 months...and you want him fed to the wolves his first fight back?

If you were to put Randleman in with an upper-echelon fighter then he would take the place of Kawamura as the massive underdog.

Also, you and I might be more intrested in seeing Josh Barnett fight Jeff Monson, but I doubt the Japanese paying public would rather see this fight than someone like Ogawa or another Japanese fighter, even if he's drastically less talented.

by AnonymousA on Apr 22, 2008 12:24 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Re: Japan: The Land of Mismatches
Good point about Randleman needing a build up fight after his long time off, but I still say that opponent should be someone in his own weightclass.
Kawamura is young and could have a big future, Randleman is at the end of his MMA career. Its not smart to waste Kawamura's potential by having him fight a bigger veteran fighter who is also a serious style mismatch for him.

by Kid Nate on Apr 22, 2008 12:26 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Re: Japan: The Land of Mismatches
If they set up Barnett vs. Ogawa and Barnett didn't win (in the first round), I'd pretty much immediately assume it was a fix.

by Chester on Apr 22, 2008 1:58 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Re: Japan: The Land of Mismatches
Kawamura isn't exactly an MMA virgin.  

by ilostmydog on Apr 22, 2008 3:33 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Re: Japan: The Land of Mismatches
Geez Nate...don't you know better than to question the logic of Japanese matchmaking?

by Brent Brookhouse on Apr 22, 2008 3:43 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Re: Japan: The Land of Mismatches
Who is that in the picture, and who was he fighting??

by IImastersII on Apr 22, 2008 3:45 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

Re: Japan: The Land of Mismatches
Kazushi Sakuraba after (or possibly during) his fight against Ricardo Arona at Critical Countdown 2005.  

by ilostmydog on Apr 22, 2008 3:53 PM EDT up reply actions   0 recs

Re: Japan: The Land of Mismatches
I just don't see that rumored Affliction card coming to fruition.

by Tha Realness on Apr 22, 2008 4:22 PM EDT reply actions   0 recs

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