Pro wrestling fans love comparisons to that pseudo sport, and Sengoku offers a great one. While sliding (but still solid) ratings continue to bury the WWE with each passing day, the one refrain they can constantly pronounce is that at least they aren’t TNA, a promotion who has generally operated like a retarded stepbrother. The same goes for Japan: DREAM is all ready to go in 2009 with a slate of shows, despite endless talk of that not going to be the case over here, and their “competition” in the market is a promotion that essentially does retarded versions of everything they’ve gone, right down to copying which weight classes they ran tournaments in. Last night, Sengoku fufilled the promises of this entire calendar year with another generally forgettable show with some bizarre highlights.

To start with anything else other than Kitaoka/Gomi would seem absurd. Takanori Gomi was once an almost consensus top light weight in the entire world. His fights were exciting, often to the point of being FOTY contenders almost every time out. That killer instinct seems to have been beaten out of him following his submission loss/no contest to Nick Diaz at PRIDE 33. After 13 months away, he returned to smash the nose of proficent stand up fighter Duane Ludwig (who is by all rights a high level fighter), but subsequently struggled with the unheralded Seung Hwan Bang. That showing led many to believe that Gomi had clearly lost a few steps, but no one expected what happened next.

Gomi’s next fight was against the unheralded journeyman Sergei Golyaev, an obscure russian fighter who’s best result came against the equally obscure Thomas Hytten. While a close bout that many argued could have gone to Gomi, there were really no excuses for the fight leaving round one, much less going the distance and being a losing effort. Gomi’s time at the top of the sport was over. The amount of money riding on him as a success was simply too much to simply let him fade into obscurity, and so Gomi was allowed to remain the final prize for the lightweight tournament winner. 

For Satoru Kitaoka, what a prize it was. He had languished in obscurity fighting as a welterweight in Pancrase; his solid wins (Condit, Pellegrino, Daley) were overshadowed by losses to lesser men (Inoue twice, Koji Oishi). The opportunity given to him then to move down in weight and fight in the Sengoku tournament against smaller and generally mediocre competition was the chance of a lifetime. Kitaoka made the most of his big shot: tournament wins over Clay French, Eiji Mitsuoka, and Kazunori Yokota may not have been a murderer’s row, but along with his past ledger, it compares well to some of the records brought by the UFC’s contenders. Against Gomi this morning, Kitaoka made short work of the only lightweight champ PRIDE ever knew, locking up the leg of Gomi roughly a minute in and finishing the fight not long after. The win hands him the equivalent of an early era WBO title in MMA, but it is a world title nonetheless and will perhaps build him some cache with the Japanese audience. Kitaoka deserves to probably be ranked in the lower end of the top 10-top end of the top 15 on these shores, and it will be interesting to see what the reaction ends up being from many of the more hardcore fans in the west. Looking at recent history, the expectation should perhaps be that most will pass over his wins and instead reward fighters like Joe Stevenson, Hermes Franca, and Jamie Varner for their higher profiles (with less impressive results). All of this is yet to be determined.

Not alone in providing title fights for the card, the co-main event was a far more competitive affair between a pair of grossly underrated middleweights. Perhaps the “best of the rest”, Jorge Santiago and Kazuo Misaki’s fight to determine a Sengoku middleweight champion was also the result of a tournament seeding that Jorge Santiago came out victorious in. It was Santiago’s second successful one night tournament in the last 15 months, while Misaki has bounced between organizations after a rather successful run in PRIDE, most recently beating Joe Riggs in Strikeforce. Santiago came into the fight looking almost a division too large for Misaki, with the former welterweight’s physical development mirroring other recent ATT talents such as Marcus Aurelio and Thiago Alves.

For the first four rounds, size rarely mattered, as Misaki skillfully moved laterally around the ring and picked off Santiago’s charges with well timed body shots, jabs, and middle kicks. Santiago was able to drop Misaki twice briefly off right hands, but neither was enough to come close to stop the japanese fighter. As the fight moved on, Misaki’s inability to hurt Santiago seemed to be bringing Santiago closer and closer to an ever slowing and smaller opponent, and in the fifth, Santiago was finally able to take control. After bringing Misaki down to the mat, Santiago’s superior grappling and physical abilities gave him the ability to bail himself out from a potential 4 round deficit and secure a tapout by rear naked choke.

Since being head kicked out of the UFC, Santiago has been on a tear. This is his ninth consecutive win, among the longest in the division among fighters in the top ten. Only Mousasi has a longer win streak currently going. Equally impressive is the level of competition he’s beaten. Anderson Silva’s wins against Dan Henderson, Rich Franklin, and Nate Marqhardt clearly put him at the head of the pack, but Santiago’s wins against similar tiers of competition to Anderson Silva’s victories against that same tier are surprisingly similar. Blowouts of Fryklund and Leben are easily matched with blowouts of Salmon, Horn, or Bahadurzada. Santiago has long since deserved entry into the top 10, and with a win against Misaki, its hard to argue he doesn’t belong in the top 6 or 7. An equally strong argument can be made that he should be pushed above Mousasi given strength of competition. Hopefully a fight with Robbie Lawler, Akiyama, or Mousasi himself will arrive in 2009.

The third and final major story from Sengoku is that Hidehiko Yoshida’s career may finally be passing into the night. Now loser of 4 of his last 5, his legends fight with Sanae Kikuta may have been the most enthralling of Kikuta’s career (hardly great praise), but after being repeatedly mounted and punched in the face, he came out loser on 2 of the three scorecards. Yoshida was without his gi and looked to be in the best shape he’s been in for some time, but it wasn’t enough to beat an equally old and crusty Kikuta, who seems destined to go nowhere special. A rematch with Tamura could potentially draw, but it remains to be seen whether or not Sengoku can make such a bout happen. Kikuta’s future essentially doesn’t matter, as he’s never been a major draw or great fighter in his own right, nor is he likely at this point in time, over 13 years into his career to become either.

There were plenty of minor notes to take from the show as well. Mo Lawal easily ran through his Japanese competitor and got perhaps the best post fight response of anyone with his address to the crowd (and playing off of the referee). Antonio Silva took a big risk to make a few bucks while suspended and could probably fight tomorrow following his win over Yoshihiro “Kiss” Nakao, who seemed to hurt his knee merely walking around the ring. Eiji Mitsuoka put another decent fighter on his record by circumventing the defense-only octopus like guard of Sergei Golyaev in the first round with an armbar from mount. Hilariously, Dave Herman’s rise as heavyweight prospect ran into a brick wall named Mu Bae Choi. Much was said immediately after on various boards about Herman running out of gas, but much less has been noted about him being taken down 20 seconds in, nearly getting a kimura sunk on him in round 1, and having repeated opportunities to finish Choi striking with no success. The honest truth is that anyone who loses to Mu Bae Choi has far more deficiencies than just endurance. If Dave Herman is going to be anything more than a less lumpy Seth Petruzelli (who’s striking style he almost mimics), there is a ton of work to be done.

Full event results can be seen here.