Sengoku 7

World Victory Road downsized things a bit with Sengoku 7. From the enormous Saitama Super Areana to the more cozy but still excellent Yoyogi National Gymnasium and from middleweight and lightweight grand prixs down to featherweight.

This doesn’t mean that the fights were any worse though. In  fact, it was just the opposite. Jordan Breen over at Sherdog was saying it the whole time - this GP is awesome. For me, this was leaps and bounds above the Dream GP. Sure there were more recognizable names on the Dream roster but the fights were lacking I felt. I really feel like this is going to be a contender for event of the year already.

It was also awesome to see the team from all elbows make their way to Japan again. They did an incredible video series on Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal and Esther got some great behind the scenes photos. Check them out for sure.

Billed as the battle of two Kings, King Mo took on one of Pancrase Lightheavyweight King, Ryo Kawamura. Ryo turned heads early on in his career with a string of KO’s but since his loss to Fabio Silva he has had trouble finishing fights. Mo was way too much for him though as he gave Kawamura a three round shellacking. I know Mo was frustrated that he wasn’t able to finish but for me it was really awe inspiring to see him handle Kawamura the way he did.

Mo had a bit of trouble with Kawamura’s head movement. He got yellow carded for poking him in the eye twice.

Mo badly injured his knee in the second. It was originally hurt while training with Dean Lister in the week leading up to the fight. Still he was able to chase Kawamura constantly for three rounds.

Part of what makes Mo interesting, aside from his wrestling is how dynamic and powerful his striking is.

Tournament favorite Hatsu Hioki proved why he carries that title with an absolutely dominating win over Chris Manuel. I’ve been following Hioki for a long time as I used to train with him at ALIVE in Nagoya, and while he has always been among the most tallented featherweights in Japan, perhaps the world - he has horrible gameplans.

He has constantly throughout the years felt the need to strike with strikers even when he is far beyond his opponent on the ground. In his last few fights though (barring the Hiroshi Nakamura draw) Hioki has looked great, destroying all his oppenents with his ground game and setting it all up with lengthy strikes. Hopefully he can keep it together and show the world how good he really is.

Hioki’s reach and the high mount that he uses gives him some really good ground and pound.

Really love the way Hioki uses the triangle in mount. His jiu-jitsu isn’t anything flashy - just amazing basics.

Other highlights for me were Marlon Sandro’s excellent standing head-arm choke over Matt Jaggers (although I had a bad angle on it), Chan Sung Jung and Shintaro Ishiwatari’s one round war and of course seeing “Big” Jim York get a nice, high profile knockout.

See more of this gallery at: Sherdog | Flickr
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