Lightweight Dream champion, Shinya Aoki, shocked 45,606 fans in the classic Saitama Super Arena by snapping the Sengoku champion’s arm, Mizuto Hirota, in the K-1 “Dynamite: The Power of Courage 2009” on New Year’s Eve in Japan.
The stage for memorable Prides, the stadium that established Fedor Emelianenko, Rodrigo Minotauro, and Wanderlei Silva was true to its history with a solid and breathtaking card, and saw the crowned Hidehiko Yoshida dominate the rookie Satoshi Ishii, also a judo star, and astonished everyone with knockouts from the all-powerful Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi, and Melvin Manhoef.
After a quick fall in the corner of the ring and the bench, Aoki took Hirota’s right arm to his back, twisting him in a bizarre police lock.
With this, Aoki left his opponent defenseless and released several punches until tiring of the game and finishing the job on his arm. The problem was that Hirota had no desire to tap, and his arm was bent, forcing Judge Yuji Shimada to stop the fight at 1min17s.
Like a lankier Brock Lesnar, Aoki raised his middle finger in Hirota’s thuggish face and repeated the gesture for the audience in an extravagant run on the canvas.
The main fight of the night was between two fighters of the Olympic pantheon. A gold-medalist in Beijing 2008, Satoshi Ishii debuted against the gold-medalist in Barcelona 1992, Yoshida. Without a gi, the 40-year old fighter didn’t give his potential successor – a 23 year old – a chance, dominating the fight on his feet in the first attack – which included kneeing Ishii in the face.
The young judo fighter was better in the second attack, and punished Yoshida’s legs by making him limp heavily. But, at the end of the third attack, the jurors chose Yoshida.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1ouPz5ko6A
Another highlight of the night was the Sengoku featherweight champ, Masanori Kanehara, who took Norifumi Yamamoto to his third defeat in 20 fights – the second in a row, however. Another who appears to have acquired a taste for defeat was the fierce Rameau Sokoudjou. The beast from Camaroon lost this time to the MMA employee Minowa, a figure who is always fighting during the Japanese New Year celebration.
K-1 – Dynamite!! Power of Courage 2009
December 31, 2009
Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan
Ikuhisa Minowa defeated Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou by TKO, 3min29s 3R
Hiroshi Izumi defeated Katsuyori Shibata by unanimous decision
Michihiro Omigawa defeated Hiroyuki Takaya by TKO, 2min54s 1R
Akihiro Gono submitted Hayato Sakurai, 3min56s 1R
Melvin Manhoef defeated Kazuo Misaki by TKO, 1min49s 1R
Hideo Tokoro defeated Jong Man Kim by unanimous decision
Tatsuya Kawajiri defeated Kazunori Yokota by unanimous decision
Masanori Kanehara defeated Norifumi Yamamoto by unanimous decision
Alistair Overeem KOed Kazuyuki Fujita, 1min15s 1R
Gegard Mousasi defeated Gary Goodridge by TKO, 1min34s 1R
Shinya Aoki submitted Mizuto Hirota, 1min17s 1R
Hidehiko Yoshida defeated Satoshi Ishii by unanimous decision
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zL8LlMU8TRA
