Archive for the 'judo' Category

As the strains of an elevator music rendition of “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da” fill the University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium between the completion of the gold medal matches and the commencement of the medal ceremonies, let’s talk some judo. Some great judo, actually.

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From August 9th through the 15th, 386 men and women from virtually every country you have ever heard of will compete in fourteen divisions at the University of Science and Technology Beijing Gymnasium for the most prestigious title in one of the world’s most widely practiced sports: judo. And it will almost certainly be really, really awesome. Japan is coming off perhaps its best showing since it introduced to the Olympics in 1964 at the Tokyo Games: in Athens, Japan took home eight gold and three silver medals. This year, however, things are comparatively wide open — at least if you listen to the Japanese press, who have virtually no faith in the men’s side of their team. There is an uncommon amount of turnover on the Japanese squad as the old guard fades away and newcomers try to live up to the enormous pressure of representing the sport’s founding nation.

Let’s take a look at some of the big stories to watch for over the next week. But let’s begin with what you can expect out of Olympic judo if this is your first exposure to the sport at its highest level.

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How have you weathered these thirty days since Kazuhiro Nakamura’s untimely release from his UFC contract, friends? Have you felt adrift? I admit that I have, a little. But I have found some measure of comfort in this disproportionate career retrospective of ours, and I hope you have as well. Disproportionate career retrospectives comforteth like sunshine after rain, it is said, and I hope this has been as true for you as it has been for me.

When we began our look back, we proceeded from three essential Kazuhiro Nakamura truths: (i) that he came to mixed martial arts from a fine career as a judo player, holding championships in international B and C level tournaments, and an impressive third-place showing in the 2001 Japanese national championships; (ii) that he managed to adapt his judo nage waza or throwing techniques to mixed martial arts better than some others (such as his training partner Hidehiko Yoshida or Polish judo legend/walking pharmacy Pawe? Nastula) who possess far more impressive judo credentials; and (iii) that while he has competed well against the best light heavyweight competition this sport has to offer, he has always been on the outside of that group looking in, never quite able to make the leap from his division’s second tier into its highest ranks. Despite having more going for him than most on the level of technique, both grappling and striking, Nakamura has never really turned out to be what it looked like he could be. Imagine Bas Rutten’s disappointment, and what the burden of that must feel like.

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Last time, we looked into Kazuhiro Nakamura’s strange bout against Wanderlei Silva in Pride’s 2005 Middleweight Grand Prix, and made what sense of it we could — which is of course very little, as the match is an inscrutable, incomprehensible singularity, utterly without precedent or apparent cause. As you’ll recall, Nakamura decided to disrobe mid-match, as his short-sleeve gi jacket (itself an inexplicable choice, but let us not travel down that road again) all at once became somehow unbearable to him. And so Wanderlei Silva knocked him to the ground and pounded him out. To that point, Nakamura had perhaps surprisingly held his own against one of the young sport’s all-time greats, certainly one of its most feared strikers. The first, say, four minutes and forty-five seconds of the Silva match is arguably the finest showing of Nakamura’s mixed martial arts career; the thirty seconds that end the fight most perhaps his worst. Bas Rutten, as always, found just the right words: “He should have never, again, thrown away his gi.”

You might expect such an enormous and embarrassing mental gaffe to be the kind of thing that would lead a fighter to give his head a good shake, to reflect on his strengths and weaknesses, and approach the game with a renewed sense of focus and a singularity of purpose. Some fighters, perhaps, yes.

But Kazuhiro Nakamura?

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While the rest of the MMA world continues to look forward to what will surely be one of the great weekends in the sport’s young history, featuring some of the world’s top heavyweights (Affliction: Banned), lightweights (Dream 5), and middleweights (Ultimate Fight Night), let us continue our look back at our favourite middling and indeed baffling light-heavyweight enigma. That’s right: our completely disproportionate Kazuhiro Nakamura retrospective continues apace! Last week, we followed Nakamura through his triumphs over the ever-ready Dos Caras Jr., the slightly dangerous Chalid Arrab, the hard-done-by Murilo Bustamante, the possibly diving Stefan Leko, and the wildly inconsistent Kevin Randleman. We also bore witness to his second (and presumably last, although who knows what tomorrow might bring?) loss to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, and his freak shoulder injury against Dan Henderson. Recall that the note sounded throughout these early matches was Nakamura’s considerable promise, his potential to develop into a formidable competitor in Pride’s 205 lbs division. At the conclusion of Nakamura’s slightly plodding decision win over Randleman, Bas Rutten strangely proclaimed, “A new star is born!” Stranger still, it sounded like he meant it. “Beautiful victory, unanimous decision — we’re gonna hear a lot from him,” was Bas’s bold prediction. Well, sort of, in that, here we are, right?

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Our completely disproportionate Kazuhiro Nakamura retrospective rolls on! Last week, we considered the general phenomenon of Kazuhiro Nakamura and looked into the earliest stages of the baffling ordeal that is his mixed martial arts career. We saw Nakamura look poised and preternaturally relaxed in his debut match against Antonio Rogerio Nogueira before tiring and falling prey to a lovely armbar from the back, and we saw him fight Daniel Gracie at a pace that beggared belief (given his chubbiness) en route to a decision win. His first of many! This week’s installment begins with Nakamura taking head-on the only luchador to ever break Kengo Watanabe’s arm with a German suplex in DEEP (can you believe there was only one?). That’s right, it’s Dos Caras Jr.!

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As you know, Dave Meltzer covers the business of mixed martial arts better than anyone. But, as you might also know, his technical knowledge of the sport is very much a work in progress. This is true of all of us, of course, whether we’re casual fans, devotees, or martial artists who train in grappling or striking arts ourselves. Mixed martial arts is a sport marked by such rapid technical innovation and evolution that we’ve all found ourselves behind the curve at one time or another. We’ve all had our, “wait, what on earth was that?” moments as we’ve been exposed to techniques for the first time. But unlike most of us, Dave Meltzer unfortunately has his “wait, what?” moments recorded for posterity. And the June 23rd edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has a real doozy.

Recapping the June 15th Dream 4 event, Meltzer offers this somewhat baffling analysis of the finish to the Shinya Aoki / Katsuhiko Nagata Lightweight Grand Prix match: “[Aoki] remained on top, doing very little until using what was called a gogoplata from the mount, but really wasn’t, as it was more of a forearm choke except using the shinbone instead of the forearm.”

Wait, what?

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