New Year's Eve has long served as an occasion for blockbuster MMA events in Japan. And while the contracting JMMA scene has saw the NYE offerings dwindle, Antonio Inoki continues to put on a show.
The wrestling-MMA hybrid Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2015 saw the conclusion of the Inoki Genome Federation's heavyweight tournament, with Oli Thompson (17-8, 0-2 UFC) facing Team Nogueira member Fernando Rodriguez Jr. (9-2-0) in the night's main event.
Thompson earned his spot in the finals with unanimous decision victories over Ikuhisa Minowa and long-undefeated heavyweight prospect Chris Barnett. Both were, ostensibly, upset wins (the latter more so than the former), with the smaller Minowa having a habit of submitting heavyweights and the younger Barnett generally tearing his way through competition. On the other side of the bracket, Rodrigues Jr. claimed first-round knockouts of both well-traveled French product Antony Rea and Yosef Ali Mohammad. The Brazilian would wind up getting a taste of his own medicine on New Year's Eve, though, with Thompson putting Rodriguez Jr. away some two minutes into the opening round. This win makes five in a row for Thompson; this recent run is tied for the longest winning streak of his career.
Also on the card, Chris Barnett (14-2-0) successfully rebounded from his aforementioned loss to Thompson with a first-round knockout of sacrificial lamb Shinichi Suzukawa (2-4-0). Barnett made similarly short work of Suzukawa at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2014; he must be doing something right, because he shaved thirteen seconds off his finishing time.
Also on the card, a trio of notable JMMA veterans took to the ring for a series of wrestling matches.
First was lightweight Shinya Aoki (39-6, 13-2 Dream, 4-0 PRIDE) who followed up his all-too-real TKO of Kazushi Sakuraba with a first-round rear-naked choke of super-heavyweight Montanha Silva (0-0-0).
Later in the evening, national judo champion and Olympic silver medalist Naoya Ogawa (7-2, 4-2 PRIDE) delivered a TKO of Daichi Hashimoto (0-0-0).
And, in the night's co-main event, Kazuyuki Fujita (15-10, 7-4 PRIDE, 1-2 Sengoku), who was once a fearsome heavyweight mixed martial artist in addition to a pro-wrestling star, put away Atsushi Sawada (0-2-0) with strikes. "Iron Head," as he was once known, hasn't competed in MMA since a unanimous decision loss to Satoshi Ishii on New Year's Eve 2013. However, as I understand it, he has of late been rather severely beefing with Ogawa in Inoki's pro-wrestling shows.