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Last night in Japan, the opening round of the 2003 Pride Grand Prix bouts took place. The most anticipated fight was Sakuraba Kazushi vs. V. Silva III. From the opeing of the fight, Sakuraba put pressure on Silva with a number of punch, kick and knee combos. By the middle of the 1st (ten minute) round, it looked like Sakuraba was controlling the fight. Then, he threw a left low kick--which scored on the inside of Silva`s lead leg--from an left-leg forward stance. As Sakuraba came back to his stance, his hands were down, and Silva threw a left jab, then a heavy leather, hay maker, over hand right, Sakuraba swayed back and to the left to avoid the jab--with his chin so high there was snow on it--and got hit clean with the right--right on the chin as it was pointed to the stars. Needless to say, Silva dropped him with one punch and ended the fight.
Now, Pride is a MAA venue and spectacular KO`s are part of the program. Last week, I was reading an interview of Sakuraba in a Japanese magazine--Kakutogi Tsushin, probably the finest martial arts serial in print today--in which he said he doesn`t kick the pads at Takada-dojo even though there is a Kick/Thaiboxing coach there, he only shadow boxes in front of the mirror, and then grapples for the main part of his training regime. So, after reading this article, and then seeing him get clocked because of bad form, I could only think, `You should have spent more time kicking the pads, developing better form.` It was a good reminder to practice good form and keep your hands up.
(I`m sure you can get these results on English sites somewhere, right? But just in case you`re curious-sorry for the crappy transliterations of names, non-familiar names from Japanese back into English is not my speciality)
1st bout- Gary Goodridge KO`ed by Russian Heavy Weight champ in less than 1 minute
2nd bout- Chuck Riddel KO`ed Holland fighter
3rd bout- Rampage Jackson won a decision over Brazilian fighter
4th bout- Antonio Nogueria won a decision over Rico Rodriquez
5th bout- Milco Crocop KO`ed Igor Bobchenchin with a perfect high kick in the 1st round
6th bout- Yoshida Hidehiko chocked out, using his gi, Tamura in the first round
7th bout- Sakuraba Vs. Silva
Now, Pride is a MAA venue and spectacular KO`s are part of the program. Last week, I was reading an interview of Sakuraba in a Japanese magazine--Kakutogi Tsushin, probably the finest martial arts serial in print today--in which he said he doesn`t kick the pads at Takada-dojo even though there is a Kick/Thaiboxing coach there, he only shadow boxes in front of the mirror, and then grapples for the main part of his training regime. So, after reading this article, and then seeing him get clocked because of bad form, I could only think, `You should have spent more time kicking the pads, developing better form.` It was a good reminder to practice good form and keep your hands up.
(I`m sure you can get these results on English sites somewhere, right? But just in case you`re curious-sorry for the crappy transliterations of names, non-familiar names from Japanese back into English is not my speciality)
1st bout- Gary Goodridge KO`ed by Russian Heavy Weight champ in less than 1 minute
2nd bout- Chuck Riddel KO`ed Holland fighter
3rd bout- Rampage Jackson won a decision over Brazilian fighter
4th bout- Antonio Nogueria won a decision over Rico Rodriquez
5th bout- Milco Crocop KO`ed Igor Bobchenchin with a perfect high kick in the 1st round
6th bout- Yoshida Hidehiko chocked out, using his gi, Tamura in the first round
7th bout- Sakuraba Vs. Silva
well, just proves the point I brought up in the thread about backwards sayings. Does form follow function, or does function follow form? Clearly here, function followed poor form 
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