Sneak Peak - Shooting Disco 9
Taiki Tsuchiya KO's Sengoku veteran Shintaro Ishiwatari.
There were a few people on forums looking for a larger picture of this from last nights Shooting Disco. Here you go!
Here is Tony Loiseleur’s article on the event too.
Satoshi Ishii Signing
If you have somehow missed all the hype surrounding Satoshi Ishii you must have been living under a rock (or not in Japan I guess). Ever since he won the gold medal at the Olympics in Beijing he has become something of a celebrity. I wrote an article for Sherdog to cover this signing and to give a little background. Instead of writing it all again - here’s a link!
Ishii wore a sumo wig to the presser but no one laughed at all.
Then got embarrassed that no one was laughing and teared the wig off. It got caught and then people laughed. Embarrassment is great!
I've been over it a few times at 100%. Can't find any figures on there.
The other highlight for me was Satoru Kitaoka laughing hysterically at Kazunori Yokota challenging the winner of Kitaoka vs. Hirota.
Sengoku's Tokyo based fighters. Perhaps the start of really big things for the young organisation.
More pictures at Sherdog.
Dream 9
Super Hulks, one of the fights of the year, upsets and disappointment. It was quite the roller coaster at Dream 9. This was the first time I have shot ringside at Yokohama Arena and it was really a lot of fun. The fans really got into it and I couldn’t see an empty seat in the place. Definitely a good sign for dream, the needed a boost. Hopefully the boost came from great matches rather than freak shows though. If FEG get the idea that Dream 9’s success came from the Super Hulk rubbish then I fear for their future. On the other hand, if they feel like it came from fights like Tokoro vs. Cullum, ‘Jiri vs. JZ and Kid vs. Warren then perhaps we have something to look forward to.
The main event was obviously disappointing. It was a great match on paper and it would have been good to see a belt finally relevant again in Dream. As it stands, none of their belts are really actively held which is sad. Jason “Mayhem” Miller got a little over zealous and unfortunately threw an illegal kick to the downed Jacare and cut his head wide open. Ryan Parsons was telling me that he constantly does that same move in training. Catch a kick and then as the opponent is falling he throws a kick to the body or head. He was just a little late with it this time and Jacare was already grounded.
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza about to eat shin. I got a photo of the kick landing too but it's obscured by Jacare's foot.
Jacare knew that he was bleeding everywhere and you could tell that he was trying to face away from referee Yuji Shimada so he wouldn't notice.
Obviously a nasty cut. Mayhem's leg wasn't so hot either.
After seeing Kid training prior to this fight, I had no doubt that he was an incredible athlete but I wasn’t the only one to show concern that Kid was over training. He actually said himself after the training session that he thought it may be a little much. I’m going from memory here but in the morning he was doing four 10 minute rounds of sparring and then four 10 minute rounds of pads and grappling. After that 30 minutes of body conditioning. In the afternoon - rinse and repeat. That’s from memory though so I might be a little off with that but I’m pretty sure that’s right. Either way, it’s totally insane and no huge surprise that he came in and didn’t fire. Warren is no joke obviously so ring rust combined with this was enough to give him everything he needed for the upset.
I'm giving up on being cool, Kid has it down. I'm just going to go to Akiba and buy manga instead.
Warren's game plan was perfect. Greco and punching. He had trouble getting Kid with his double leg but he won the fight with the clinch.
Kid showing BJ Penn like takedown defence. The ropes ended up getting him down here.
Warren yelled "I fucking trust you Matt!" at judge, Matt Hume throughout the fight. Matt was really getting annoyed because he didn't want to look biased (I don't believe he is). Warren was just really concerned that he was going to get robbed.
The only exciting part of the Imanari/Fernandes fight. A bad match up unfortunately.
Hiroyuki Takaya celebrating a big comeback TKO. I was a little disappointed for Maeda, I've been shooting him for a long time.
Hideo Tokoro is just an excitement machine. Every fight - start to finish is a highlight reel.
Abel Cullum was a mess by the end of the fight, could't keep up with the pace.
Tokoro with the standing rear naked choke. Awesome.
The match I was most looking forward too didn't really live up to my expectations. It was awesome, don't get me wrong but JZ didn't really fire. Hopefully it was just ring rust and he will be back soon.
Sokoudjou really lost it against Jan Nortje and just kept going and g oing after the stoppage. Ray Sefo and his crew got in the ring and were very close to losing it too. That would have been nasty. This photo got a bit of attention from the guys over at the excellent Fightlinker. Thanks!
The biggest story for most news outlets unfortunately was Jose Canseco.
- The kick that “blew” out Canseco’s knee. You see this happen a lot in amateur MMA. Fighter’s often fake injury’s when they simply don’t want to be in there anymore. Yes, I’m calling the injury faked.
Jose looking a little shocked but relived after leaving with his head intact.
Lot’s more of this stuff at Sherdog. Got a couple of quieter weeks coming up. I’ll see if I can get my Flickr and catalogue update I think.
Dream 9 Weigh-Ins and Pre-Fight Presser
FEG held open “weigh-ins” (the fights had already officially weighed in) and a press conference at Shinjuku Station Square prior to Dream 9. Shinjuku Station is always a great place to hold a press conference as it is one of the busiest train stations in the world and so they can report massive attendance numbers. In reality, most of these people are just passers by and I have never actually seen any body count people at all here. Still, FEG told us there was about 5000 people here I think.
Lots of new faces in the media pit for this, all showing up for baseball taddle-tail Jose Canseco.
Canseco was facing Korean Techno Goliath Hong Man Choi. Canseco didn’t get any real training for this fight and I’m pretty sure he had never seen Choi until the weigh-ins. Divorces suck when you are/were rich apparently and Canseco must have needed some cash.
Canseco before seeing Choi.
Canseco seeing Choi.
Canseco noticebly more sweaty.
The height difference wasn't as outrageous as everyone had predicted. Canseco could actually reach his head if he tried I think.
Do we have to keep calling Bob Sapp a fighter? He is so good at this media stuff that I want to call him an entertainer.
Sapp took on Mr. Heaven - Minowaman.
Everybody on forums and blogs were going crazy about how awesome the promo video for the Super Hulk tournament is. Here is something to think about though. I was informes by some members of the Japanese press that the guy who makes the promo packages for Dream and did for Pride, Daisuke Sato told FEG that he isn’t trying. He said what he is doing now is at 50% and if they want him to be back at the Pride level, they have to put on matches of Pride calliber. If this is indeed true, that takes some balls.
Asside from the Super Hulk rubbish, there were some awesome and legit fights on the card. A middleweight title fight, the featherweight grand prix second round, the return of Kid and JZ vs. Kawajiri. Definitely drool worthy stuff.
Kid weighs in for the first time in 17 months.
Kid's opponent, Greco Roman world champ - Joe Warren.
Warren might come off arrogant but I really like him. He loves playing up for the camera and he really feels like he is giving you his full attention when you are talking to him. Very cool guy.
Mayhem back for another shot at Jacare at the middleweight title.
The guys over at all elbows did a fantastic video and photo series on Jason’s fight prep. Check it out for sure. They are really supremely talented.
The fight I was most looking forward too was JZ Calvancante vs. Kawajiri.
After JZ’s fight against Joachim Hansen fell through at Dynamite!! on New Years Eve JZ was hanging around with not a lot to do. After the post fight press conference he invited me out for dinner with him and he is one of the most inspirational people I have ever met.
You get used to a certain kind of guy in the fight world and JZ is really one of a kind. All this talk about wanting to show the fans how much he loves them is completely genuine, he talks about love of friends and family more than anyone I have ever met.
He told me about growing up in Brazil and how his father and mother urged him to move to the States to futher his career and a lot of other personal stories from his childhood. He is really a great guy and I’ll probably remember that dinner for a long time. I had spagetthi and he had a huge pizza.
Photography notes
This was really a pretty difficult shoot. The natural light faded quickly through the presser and the artificial lighting was very uneven so I really needed to keep an eye on my exposure constantly.
The white balance was the most difficult thing though. There were four different temperature lightsources in play so the only option was to shoot auto white balance in RAW and correct it as best I could in post production.
This proved difficult too as it was rare that a fighter would just have one light source on them. Correcting for one part of a fighters face might leave the other parts blue or orange.
Unfortunately with pressers I have very little time to edit so I couldn’t afford to mess around too much, I just had to get the pictures up as soon as possible so I did the best I could in the time I had I think. RAW was a must in this situation though.
See the rest of the gallery at Sherdog.
Valkyrie 2
Not sure why but Sherdog took ages to run this gallery. Valkyrie is GCM’s (Wajyutsu Keisyukai and Cage Force) womens organisation. This event was held on the same day as Cage Force but for some ridiculous reason they held the events at the same venue but about 3 hours apart. Also if you wanted to go to both events, you needed to buy tickets to both. I really dont understand why they would do this. It was pouring rain and no one had anywhere to go in the break as Differ Ariake is in the middle of nowhere.
To me it would make sense to have a slightly more expensive ticket for both events, have a 30 minute or one hour break in between the event, sell a ton of food and get much better attendance for both events.
The headliner was one of the top pound for pound female fighters in the world, Yuka Tsuji vs. American import Kate Martinez for the Valkyrie Featherweight title. Kate is a world title holding kickboxer and although she has a blue belt in jiu-jitsu, Tsuji is just way too good.
Yuka Tusji making her way to the ring carrying an oni mask.
Martinez standing across the cage from on of the best female fighters in the world.
Martinez actually scored a bit of a knockdown with this punch but Tsuji quickly recovered.
Unfortunately Martinez's ground defense just wasn't up to scratch. Tsuji was able to move at will on top.
Martinez quickly sucummed to an armbar from mount.
Valkyrie and the now defunct Smackgirl bling.
They are doing a tournament now for a shot at Tsuji. Coming into the tournament, Windy Tomomi had to be the favorite but one of my old stablemates at Alive (Hatsu Hioki’s gym) Kyoko Takabayashi came in and made short work of her.
Takayabayashi would be an interesting opponent if she makes it through for Tsuji but her striking is somewhat lacking.
Takayo Hashi scoring a nice left on Chisa Yonezawa.
Takayo Hashi celebrating a victory.
Megumi "V Hajime" Yamaguchi landing a nice upkick on Emi Fujino in the other side of the tournament bracket.
Photography Notes
Differ is a wonderful place to shoot at. Reasonable lighting that is fairly even and good access to the runway for entrance shots. The cage often makes it tough with lighting though and it is not evenly spread around the edges of cages here. It’s about a one stop difference from the centre to the edges and about 2 stops if they are actually pressed against the cage on my side.
To get around this I either have to shoot the middle ground between the centre and edge of the cage which slightly overexposes and underexposes my photos respectively or I adjust my shutter speed on the fly.
Doing that can be very hard if you are not used to your camera. If a fight is moving really fast I just shoot the average but usually I adjust my shutterspeed depending on where the fighters are. I wouldn’t recommend it unless you are really confident though. If you forget to change your shutterspeed back or you somehow screw it up you can lose photos from an entire fight.
See the rest of the gallery at Sherdog.
Kawajiri and Takaya prepare for Dream 9
Tatsuya Kawajiri and Hiroyuki Takaya put on an open training session for the press prior to their matches at Dream 9. “Session” is probably an over statement actually. For some reason, their trainer Takeshi Yamada chose to keep the media locked out of the gym and only let us in for one three minute round at the end. Also there was about 5 people in one small ring so getting shots of Kawajiri and Takaya was extremely difficult. Contrast this with Kid’s training session and you’ll see that these guys have something to learn about getting themselves press…
The one round we were allowed to see had one minute of mits,
one minute of low kicks,
and one minute of grappling
After their highly intense single round they just kind of sat around and talked. We couldn't hear what they were saying though.
I am obviously posting this post event. Yamada proved to be right too - both Kawajiri and Takaya came out on top.
So I’m sure you can tell that I didn’t really enjoy this training session. I was really excited going into it but it simply didn’t provide many photo opportunites at all. Ahh, well. That’s the way they go sometimes I guess.
You can see the rest of the Kawajiri and Takaya galleries at Sherdog.
Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto and Daisuke Naito
In a effort by FEG to finally get some decent ratings for their struggling “DREAM” promotion, they have teamed up with local boxing superstar, WBC Flyweight Champ Daisuke Naito. Naito’s upcoming title defence, will be aired together with DREAM so ratings should flow over from one into the other, giving the struggling promotion some huge numbers. To promote the coalition, DREAM poster boy KID Yamamoto and Naito held an open training session together. This was easily one of the toughest shoots I’ve ever done.
The amount of media here was ridiculous and it was the tiny Miyata Gym - where Naito trains. I managed to get a good position next to the ring but I couldn’t move my body at all to work for any better angles and I had a video camera resting on my head for a great deal of the time. The gym was really poorly lit so flash was a must to have any hope at stopping the action. Unfortunately, this was the same for every other photographer there so for every punch or kick thrown, about 30 other flashes went off - totally blowing everyone’s exposure and limiting my shot selection greatly. As if all of this wasn’t difficult enough it was 45 degrees in there as Naito had the heater on so he could cut weight! It’s no surprise that I was bedridden for 3 days after this.
Yamamoto barely sweating after going full pace for two 10 minute rounds.
Although this image is slightly backfocused, it serves as a perfect illustration for the flash problem. This was a tame example - others are just completely white.
Pad work
Although he hasn't been in the public spotlight for a while because of his "knee injury", he clearly hasn't changed.
After one ten minute round. Barely has a sheen.
Looking for somewhere to buy some melon but still remaining badass.
Melon get! This was a weird moment. The rest of the photographers found him eating and thought it was interesting too so there was around 30 photogs all shooting him eating a melon.
The media circus around Naito. Hey, I guess I'm one of them though...
Shadow boxing in 45 degree heat to warm up.
Working some pads, this was just as hard as the KID set to shoot. Lucky to get a clean shot like this.
Photo opportunities were more like this. Trying to catch a punch was largely futile with all the flashes going off at once.
Answering questions from the press.
KID wanted to have a spar with Naito but he wasn't having any of it. Naito wasn't really training that hard at all, just providing photo ops. Kid really worked it though and was very impressive. His kicks especially were great. Naito's left uppercut is what impressed Kid the most.
Lots more of this kind of thing at Sherdog.
Shooto Tradition Final
Shooto is definitely one of my favorite promotions, perhaps second only to the now defunct PRIDE FC. Great matchmaking, well thought out structure, transparent rankings and die hard fighters and fans make for one brilliant promotion. To mark their 20th anniversary, Shooto put together one of it’s best cards of all time.
Jordan Breen along with Tony Loiseleur put together a really excellent series on Shooto to commemorate the occasion which can be found here and here.
The main event was the Shooto Charisma, Rumina Sato against promotional favorite and 143lb World Champ “Lion” Takeshi Inoue. I’ve lost count at the number of unsuccessful attempts at the title Sato has made and I really hoped he would get one so he could die a happy man I fear it will always haunt him though. Still, Lion is a solid champ (although he did beat my coach Hiroyuki Abe in an absolutely cracking match) and completely dedicated to Shooto. He gave up a shot for big money and bigger fame in the Sengoku Featherweight Tournament. Says a lot about Shooto to me.
Was trying to get Lions logo on his spats in the pic. Shirt was in the way though.
Sato lands a left to score a knockdown and looks (as usual) on route to an upset.
Lion quickly recovers (as usual).
Lion scores his own knockdown with a left hook.
Finishes in the corner with GNP for a ref stoppage. Was hard to get an angle on it.
While Lion vs. Sato may have been the official main event of the night, the fight that really brought the fans out was fallen 154lb king Takanori Gomi vs Shooto World 154lb Champ, Takashi Nakakura. Nakakura has been one of my favorite fighters for a long time now and I actually picked him to win this. He took a while off a couple years back to rededicate himself to MMA and totally transformed himself. Still, although he put in a valiant effort against Gomi - after a slow start, Gomi came back and scored the KO.
Nakakura gets off to a good start with a solid left.
Gomi gets his range and landed a great body-head combination for the KO.
It was just as the ref was walking in front of me. Made it hard to time the finish but I do like this shot. After the belt Nakakura tried to hand back his belt. I got a nice photo of it but Sherdog didn't run it. Strange.
Usually, in these big Shooto cards, they pad out the undercard with bouts that are good and usually important, but feature unknown fighters. They really went all out with this card though, the card was stacked from top to bottom with champs, former champs and the best pound for pound female in the world.
The undefeated Megumi Fujii works a toe hold. I happen to train with Fujii but even with bias aside, it is hard to argue against her being the best female in the world. Look for an up coming bout with Deep Queen Miku Matsumoto at a catchweight assuming Miku gets over Lisa Ward in their upcoming bout.
Shooto South America 154-pound champion Willamy Chiquerim submitted Pacific Rim 154-pound titleholder Yusuke Endo at 5:00 of the first round. Endo must be kicking himself about tapping.
Mizuho Hirota "knocks out" Mitsuhiro Ishida according to Wakabayashi. Now really, does that look like he isn't intelligently defending himself?
Kenichiro Togashi with a great jab against Tetsuji Kato
Another jab landing. It's not often that a fighter really establishes with their punches in MMA. Usually it would lead to the bout heading to the mat or a finish but when it doesn't we get that rare chance to get a whole lot of pictures of punches landing.
Kotetsu Boku lands some great punches for the finish. He has really been down on his luck for the past couple years. Hopefully things pick up for him - he is supremely talented.
I say this a lot but Wicky Akiyo is absolutely one of my favorite fights. Huge power with a very exciting game and a big art nut. He is pretty much unsubmittable but he just cannot get off his back and it costs him too many big fights.
Check out some art that I shot by Wicky. You'll be glad you did.
A ring full of champions. This is a stitched panorama of three photos actually, hence what happened to right hand side. If I get a bit more time I will try to correct it but I was working to a tight deadline and wanted to include the image. Looks great full size. I got caught without my ultrawide as an assistant had it and he was not to be found. I'll make sure that doesn't happen again.
It was probably my favourite event of all time. Great fights featuring some of my favorite fighters with an amazing atmosphere. Add that to the prestige of the event and you have a winning combination.
Check out Jordan Breen’s follow up article and of course the full gallery at Sherdog.
Sexyama!
The “Yoshihiro Sexyama Battlestation SEXWAGON!!!” has become a phenomenon on the Sherdog.net forums.Over 10,000 posts on 1000 pages and quickly approaching 500,000 views. Tony Loiseleur and myself decided that it was our responsibility to inform Akiyama that he has a tangerine scarf wearing, banana milk drinking legion of followers ahead of his debut at UFC 100. Akiyama was a very nice guy in person. Loves to laugh and very talkative. He is universally hated here after the Sakuraba greasing incident but I personally love to watch him fight.
For these photos I used a two light set up. I had very little room to move or place lights as it was a small room but I’m pretty happy with the photos.
I am still hoping to get access to his training camp before his fight. He is proving very hard to nail down though and travels a lot between Korea and Japan.
Lots of photos at Sherdog. Also, check out the interview that Tony did and at your own risk, have a look at the Sexwagon. Apparently he is thinking of adopting the nickname Sexyama now. If he does, I think about 5,000 keyboard warriors are going to have heart attacks. I heard that at Buffer 720 would be in order for that one and I can’t disagree.
Aoki vs. Fedor exhibition
I some how managed to mumble out, “Hello, I’m Daniel”. He shook my hand and looked me in the eye and said “I’m Fedor”. At this moment, a few responses ran through my mind.
“I know! Everyone knows you!”
“I’m really happy to meet you! I’ve dedicated the last few years of my life to worshipping you!”
“Wow, you are smaller than I thought.”
In the end I am glad that no sound came out. If you haven’t seen it yet, I insist that you spend the next six minutes of your life the best way possible. Watching two of the best pound for pound fighters in the sport throwing each other around.
I don’t thing I’ve ever had so much fun during a match. Even though it was only a five minute exhibition, the atmosphere was just amazing. I think everyone in attendance knew that they were witnessing something very special. Here are my photos from their match. My cameras need to be iced now. Pushed them pretty hard during these few minutes!
The most emotion Fedor has ever shown. Ever.
Fedor has no need for security. The hands part like Moses parted the sea.
Aoki immediately regrets this.
The Tobikan Judan attempted to live up to his name.
... with varied success.
After being thrown full power until now, I think I know what was going throw Aoki's mind here.
Fedor at least took mercy with his strikes. This was pretty much the only punch he threw.
Fedor's best throw. The whole of Japan cringed after this.
Strategy change. Works better in an exhibition than vs Wanderlei Silva.
Aoki repays the favor but...
... it is reversed into a straight ankle lock for the tap. I had a bad angle :-(
Lots more of these at Sherdog. Leave comment and let me know what you think.
Sengoku Eighth Battle
Sengoku’s excellent featherweight tournament continued on the second of May. Looking back at this card, it is really clear the contrast between the two major Japanese promotions - Dream and Sengoku. Dream is gearing up for it’s “Super Hulk Tournament” and betting everything on their superstar Kid Yamamoto where as Sengoku make everyone one of their fighters work to get to the top and focus on prospects rather than “freaks” or already established stars. Although the ratings of Sengoku are much lower, I really love their events. The finals of this tournament are going to be amazing. I really have no idea who is going to take it.
I highly recommend you check out Tony Loiseleur’s interview with the man behind Sengoku, Takahiro Kokuho. Rarely do people speak to the press as bluntly as this in Japan.
Here are a few of my favourite images I shot at this event.
Sengoku gloves signed by tournament favourite Hatsu Hioki.
Fighters prepare in the ring at Yoyogi Gym before the crowd arrives.
Hatsu Hioki
Ronnie Mann prepares himself for Hioki.
Hioki again dominates another opponent with his triangle. Looking unstoppable... but so are Omigawa and Sandro.
The completely uncontrollable Maximo Blanco landing an fight ending illegal soccer kick.
The result. The victor by DQ - Akihiko Mori leaving on a stretcher.
Stanislav Nedkov knocking down Travis Wiuff in their foul fest.
Pancrase Champ Marlon Sandro saying a prayer before destroying Nick Dennis in a matter of seconds.
One of the best BJJ'ers in the world, Xande Riberio getting his second KO from two outings.
Fan Serivce.
Sengoku LW champ Satoru Kitaoka eyeing off possible challenger Kazunori Yokoto.
Michihiro Omigawa has been totally reborn as a fighter. For the second time in a row he destroys a highly touted fighter. This time - Nam Phan
Pancrase Neo Blood 2008 Champ Hirotoshi Saito landing a right.
"Sengoku Training Player" Shigeki Osawa pounding on Kota Ishibashi.
Way more photos at Sherdog. If you like what you see or want me have any photo requests, leave a comment!
Shooto Gig Tokyo 2
Shooto rookies were on display at Shinjuku Face on the 19th of April. Although it was a pretty weak card, there were a couple of people to watch for.
Shooto 2008 145lb Rookie Champion and Rookie MVP Issei Tamura ground out a fairly pedestrian decision against Hayate Usui. Not the most exciting fight ever but Tamura is a solid prospect getting a win over a solid journeyman like Usui isn’t a bad start to his career by any means.
Tamura threatens with an early armbar. Notice how the lights are all different colors and directly in my eyes? Wow I hate shooting at Face.
Tamura lands with the counter uppercut.
Usui pretty much gave as good as he got on the feet but you can see Tamura stepping in here. His aggressiveness was enough for the W.
The other guy that I was really interested in is Yuta Nezu. He will never be a world beater but he is super exciting, nearly always getting fight of the night honours. Is kind of vulnerable against wrestlers and submission guys but until now he has mostly managed to beat them up enough so it isn’t a problem for him. Definitely watch any fight you find of his.
Yuta Nezu doing what he does best. Punchin people.
This would be a great photo from the other side. Punches landing on both of the guys and spit flying out all over the place. Ahh well...
The normally insane Toshimichi Akagi lands a nice body kick.
More rookie goodness at Sherdog.
DEEP 41
Shigeru Saeki’s totally rockin DEEP returned to Korakuen Hall for their 41st instalment on the 16th of April.
Korakuen hall is probably the best place I regularly shoot in Japan. Nice bright, even lights, brilliant access around the ring and cool entrance lighting is a good combination.
The event was headlined by Katsunori Kikuno vs. Koichiro Matsumoto for DEEP’s lightweight strap. Both these guys have looked so good recently, totally outclassing most of their opponents that a lot of people were sure that the next great Japanese lightweight was going to come out of this match. Kikuno’s karate stylings completely dumbfounded Matsumoto and he just destroyed him totally. While people like Gryphon who call him the Japanese George St. Pierre are exaggerating, I can’t say that I am not excited about Kikuno’s career. His trademark frontkick is one of the best weapons I’ve seen in the ring lately and something I’ve been trying to do in my standup training too.
What Kikuno's front kick looks like when it lands (vs.Bu Kyung Jung). A KO generally follows.
Although I wasn't able to catch it as well- the same kick against Matsumoto.
The result. The kick drops the hands and then punches finished the job.
One of the best female fighters in the world, Miku Matsumoto had a non-title bout against Nicdali Calanic. Miku is running out of opponents, she is way too good. Although Calanic was a rookie, she had a bit of hype around her. Although they are friends, I’d love to see Megumi Fuji (my coach!) and Miku meet in a catchweight bout.
Miku Matsumoto entering the ring carrying her Deep Womens Lightwelt belt.
Miku's time in Shootboxing paid off. Devastating knees and front kick.
Calanic unable to breathe after 21 seconds with Miku.
Lots of good fights on this card, all of them ending inside the distance except one. Check out the event on YouTube or your local tracker if you ever see it around.
Guam prospect Joe Taimanglo ran head first into a choke against Toshiaki Kitada.
Shun Yagi's tattoo is most likely a Buddhist symbol but it still makes you look twice.
Won Sik Park slipping a punch against Naoki Matsushita.
Yuji Sakuragi en route to a KO over Minoru Kato.
Get even DEEPer with more photos at Sherdog.
Still working on getting flickr and SmugMug going again.
Shooting Disco 8
Shooting Disco 9 - We Are Tarzan! graced the photographically aweful but atmospherically awesome Shinjuku Face on the 10th of April.
I love watching fights here but absolutely loath shooting here. It’s one of the worst venues in Japan that I have shot at. I need to push the ISO, lower my shutter speed too much, lose lots of shots to the lights as they are way too low and close to the ring and its very inconstant lighting wise across the ring.
Case in point: This might be a decent photo if it wasn't for the lighting robbing it of its sharpness and contrast.
I’ve got shooting at this venue down but it’s very demanding. Its about one stop darker when they are on the mat rather than on the feet and about one stop darker again in the corners. The only way to get good photos is to adjust your shutter speed on the fly depending on where the fighters are or to just try and shoot the average and correct the best you can in post. I generally do a mixture of both, but still the photos are never brilliant here.
Not really any brilliant fights on this card but there were a couple noteworthy fights.
Ryuichi Miki has really transformed his striking lately. Very patient and accurate with his hands and fairly powerful for his weight. Hard not to be fan of Junji Ikoma after seeing his determination in the face of that punishment.
Ropes :(
Junji Ikoma collapsed as the final bell rung.
2008 Shooto Rookie Champ and the esteemed Kiguchi Dojo prospect Ikuo Usuda is one of the brightest rising stars in Japan. Although Guy Delameau was a great test, he was too much for him. Guy has suffered from a couple flash knockdowns in his last few fights and although he has previously recovered Usuda was all over him and ground out the win and never let him recover.
Ikuo Usuda - watch him.
Guy Delameau sporting a nice cut as a result of an illegal but unpunsihed knee.
Lots more photos spoiled by horrible lighting at Sherdog.
Dream 8 Post-Fight Presser
Post fight pressers are horrible. Going to one of these things after only a few hours sleep (for everyone) is just an unpleasant experience. No one is in the mood to talk, the fighters are either banged up or hungover and the press are exhausted. It does make for some great photos though.
DJ Taiki - I don't actually know what character this maestro thing is supposed to be. I really wish his eye would heal properly. He deservers to be in the tournament now.
Marius Zaromskis getting straight back into training (kinda) the day after one of the fights of the year.
The Dream 8 presser was held in a gym above a fighting gear store in Nagoya. It was a pretty horrible venue but the lighting wasn’t too bad and I got a couple few experiences out of it.
Looks like three stitches for Riki Fukuda.
One was chatting with the Shooto legend and very outspoken Noboru Asahi. He currently trains Yoshiyuki Yoshida and help Mach for his fight against Aoki. He talked some pretty funny trash at Yuki Nakai post fight that he probably wouldn’t want me to relay but take my word for it, this guy is one in a million. One of the best characters I’ve met over here.
The hilariously outspoken Noboru Asahi training Yoshiyuki Yoshida.
The second was watching Mach’s fight with Mach and his trainers. They hadn’t seen the fight yet as far as I was aware and they had a replay going on in the store downstairs from the presser. He was still ecstatic with his win and I think even he was pretty shocked at how brutal those knees were. The final was Shibata talking about a huge night he had and hangover only to reveal it was two beers in his hotel room.
Happy bunch of winners (not my choice for the crop...).
Lots more smiles at Sherdog.
Dream 8
For the first time in about 8 or so years a foreign photographer was granted ringside access by FEG! We’ve been working pretty closly with FEG over the past couple years and have developed a pretty good level of trust I think.
The production of Dream shows has always been amazing but the atmosphere at ringside is just incredible.
It was most likely due to the fact that we were in the Nippon Gaishi Hall down in Nagoya rather than Tokyo but it is awesome too see our efforts to get that trust pay off. I definitely appreciated the opportunity and hopefully we can get there again in the future.
Obviously, all eyes were on the main event with the two biggest stars of the welterweight tournament, Aoki and Sakurai - meeting in the first round.
It's actually hard to get the awesome screens in the background during the entrances as the catwalk is restricted to Dream photogs only.
Hopefully, those eyes didn’t blink. It was brutal, shocking and fast. I had a horrible angle but it was amazing. The awe and silence throughout the arena was just crazy. Kawajiri and Ishida were directly behind me and as I was diving over another photographer to try and get a better angle I caught a glimpse of them with their mouthes wide open and just staring at each other. Pretty funny stuff.
About the only 'action' that I managed to catch in this fight. The referee's ass was directly in my face and I was pinned by a camera man.
The aftermath.
Aoki recovering. I was really suprised how easily Mach swept him. Completely effortless.
Mach with some fan service. He was totally hillarious post fight. Really caught up in the moment and couldn't stop celebrating during everyone else's speeches.
Fight of the night was definitely Marius Zaromskis vs. Seichi Ikemoto. Not just fight of the night but one of the best fight’s I’ve ever shot. The photographers next to me were すごいぃ!ing the whole fight and the crowd was just mental. I’ve been shooting Ikemoto for years and he has really developed an exciting style. High kicks, stomps (although banned in Dream) and double fist punch KO’s are just amazing.
Marius Zaromskis gets major nerd points for the Akuma get up. His first kick was a jump spinning kick like in Street Fighter too. Brilliant.
Ikemoto started to fade in the second allowing Zaromskis to land some great punches.
Watch the nose...
... and there it goes!
Photographically, it wasn’t as good as I would have hoped. It would have been because of the venue but it was actually pretty dark ringside. Wasn’t able to get the ISO below 1250. Compare this to ISO 640 with the same settings in Saitama Super Arena. I didn’t get to edit these at all myself either. I would have liked to clean them up a bit more but I wasn’t able to.
Katsuhiko Nagata got dominated by Vitor Riberio and opened up with a nice knee.
Great to see Shaolin back. Still very popular. When shooting post fight, I try to position the spot lights behind the fighters. It gives them a cool halo effect and stops the light from washing out the image.
Kicks are really easy to time and look like a lava lamp when they hit. This was a great fight too, overshadowed by all the other stuff that went on though I guess.
I really love these kind of shots where I get under the ground and pount and try and frame it an any old angle the best I can. This one of Riki Fukuda isn't my best but it gives you a feeling of what it's like to be in there which is hard to get.
See the rest of the images at Sherdog.
Dream 8 Weigh-ins
Catching up on a couple weeks, had a lot of shows on recently and a corrupt BIOS and broken AC adapter has kept me from keeping things up to date. Until I get these problems fully sorted out, I’m going to be pretty slow getting stuff up to Flickr and SmugMug as all the batch processes were on my other computer.
FEG’s Dream 8 was held down in my Japanese hometown of Nagoya and for the first time in ages (maybe ever? I can’t remember) Dream held public “weigh-ins” .
I use the term weigh-ins loosely as the fighters actually weighed in at the hotel an hour before and they weren’t actually using the scales at all. If you look carefully you can see the official holding the scales with his finger.
Public weigh-ins are always fun and I wish they would hold them more often. From the perspective of a journalist and a photographer they are a lot more challenging but the mood is much better. Highlights for me included Shinya Aoki and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai’s face off where they did their best faux badass rapper impersonations (which didn’t make the cut on Sherdog for some reason) and of course Minowa and Shibata. Lowlight was definitely the weather.
DJ Taiki had a really hard cut and was clearly sick as a result. I had heard he was about 3kg over initially and had a difficult time cutting the rest. Hard to blame him though when he was giving so little time to recoverer after his brutal match with Shoji. Sherdog didn’t run any photos this either unfortunately. Ahh, the joys of editing.
The conditions for photography were pretty ordinary. The overcast sky was really bright and flat where as the actual weigh-in area and presser were held was comparatively dark. The only way I could get any detail in the sky and not get it to blow out would be to bring up the brightness of the stage with a couple flashes. As it was a public presser this wasn’t really possible as there was no barrier between the press and public.
See more of this gallery at: Sherdog
Photos of the Week - Sherdog
All of these are from Sengoku. Not a lot of events this month in Tokyo - they are making up for it in April though.
Stephen Martinez’s picture of BJ Kojima is awesome.
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
Buy photos from this gallery at SmugMug