Both Genki Sudo and Kid Yamamoto have progressed to the finals of the Hero's lightweight division. They are to fight at the New Years show on December 31st Still a very long way off, but I can't help but anticipate this matchup! My opinion? Genki should take it too the ground; Kid Yamamoto is known for his one punch knockout and is very good standing up. Whilst Genki isn't the worst fighter stood up, it's certainly not his strong point. My dollar bill is on Genki though All I know is it's a great matchup of two awesome lightweight fighters!
This should be a great matchup. Heroes has put on two very solid shows now and it's good to see the smaller fighters getting opportunities in the bigger shows (Pride's Bushido GP's are starting this month also). I'm going with Genki by sub or decision; Kid's good on the feet, but Genki's a better submission artist. I wouldn't recommend he works from his guard too much though
I'm a big Sudo fan so I'll go with the wonderboy! LOL! But there's no doubt about it.. 'The Kid' is a tough nut that has some hard punches!!! picutre note: that's him on the bottom puttin' a hurtin' on someone!
Did anyone see Sudo's submissions in the recent Hero's GP event? The first was a beautiful transition from body triangle from the back, into an armbar; and the second was yet another beautiful transition from a rear body triangle, into and armbar and then straight into a triangle choke! By the time Takaya had escaped the armbar attempt, he was tied up in a triangle and tapping! It was poetry in motion.
Um I believe Kid is going to pull this one out. If they stay standing but Kid's ground defense seems to be pretty sharp. Sudo again has smooth transitions subs. Sudo seems to always work well with being unpredictable. It's going to be a wonderful match.
I'm going with Genki for a number of reasons... besides he has the same BJJ lineage as myself BTW what new years show? K1? Pride?
That's a good question actually. These fights are taking place in a Japanese organisation called Hero's. While Hero's is a separate organisation run by the former Rings owner, K-1 is bankrolling it and giving them fighters, they're not actually K-1. I reckon all the Hero's GP fights will be taking place on K-1's Dynamite NYE show as I can't see K-1 wanting to finance a show which could potentially take away viewers from their biggest show of the year
Yes, but they're all VERY NAUGHTY! Check the way Sudo's looking at Yamamoto in that pic, it's like "keeping him in the corner of my eye, as soon as this beardy dude lets go of my shoulder, BAM! He'll never see it coming"
The real issue here, that few people have been discussing through this tournament, is size. Half the guys in the tournament were very small for the LW limit, or even natural 143 lbers. (Pequeno and Kid to name 2), while guys like Uno and Sudo are comfortable hanging around the mid 150's. While Kid is obviously extremely built and very strong for his size, he's tiny compared to Sudo at this weight. Kid is a huge puncher and likes to bomb, and he's moonlighted in K-1 standup, so people tend to see him as a standup striker, but that's only part of the story. The guy is a top tier wrestler (There has been talk of him trying out for the Japanese olympic team) with great takedowns, his ground and pound is absolute brutality, and he's amazingly strong for his size. He's starting to inch his way up a lot of people's P4P lists, by actually meeting some legitimate competition in this tourny. Also, surprisingly, he's showed excellet kicks in his K-1 standup match with Zambidis. Sudo is the only guy I can think of who's competed in MMA (Pancrase, Rings, UFC, and K-1 mma), K-1, and ADCC. He can strike when he has to, though he's smart enough to avoid it when possible against guys like Takaya, Ludwig, and Dekkers, and his wrestling and submission skills are both excellent. I have no idea how to call this one. Sudo basically has to win it with a sub (as he has done in two fights he may have been losing so far in the tourny) but Kid is fast, hard to take down, and a superb grappler. Sudo's size advantage may help, but I just don't know that he has the tools to get kid in trouble. Sudo is going to have to get this on the mat in any unorthadox way he can, but when he gets there he's going to have to face kids HUGE GnP left hand, and his considerable strength in ground control. I'm going to say Kid takes it by JD, scoring points with brutal punching, but Sudo could steal this one with a surpise sub.
Brainuse - nice post. Good to see someone approaching MMA fighters with this kind of thinking instead of all the usual hyperbole that gets thrown around. I agree with you 100 percent! Though Zambidis did KO the Kid with a beautifully timed shot in the K-1 bout!
Zambidis hits like a brick to the head. The look on Kid's face after that KO was stunning. I'll be curious to see if Maeda's criticism of Sudo's style in the first part of the tourny (basically he said that Sudo was refusing to engage on the feet and running away, and then using cheap trick tactics to win) will change the way Sudo approaches things at all.
That Yamamoto vs Zambidis fight had me on the edge of my seat all the way through; it's one of my all time favorite K1 fights. I agree with your previous post; Kid Yamamoto is an excellent grappler, as well as a strong striker and it will be a very tough fight for Sudo (possibly his toughest to date). And whilst I appreciate that Kid Yamamoto's ground game is underestimated, I personally dont believe its up to the level of Genki Sudo. Either way, I certainly don't think either of them will be stepping into the ring expecting an easy victory; this is why im so excited about this fight!
Yeah it'll be interesting as because both of the fighters are Japanese maybe it won't get some of the poor decisions that I've seen in K-1 bouts from Japanese judges against non-Japanese fighters. :bang: I agree - when Zambidis stuck Kid in that match - Kid didn't know what got him. Watching closely the footage of Zambidis after the match it was clear that he had figured out Kid's weakness or opening and then it was all a matter of timing. KA-BANG!!!!!!!! What kills me about when Kid fights is that his girlfriend/wife always show up and the Japanese camera guys love that... she gets lots of airtime and she's not even in the ring. LOL!
Nori all the way Genki is definitly one tough dude, but don't underestimate Kid Yamamoto. HE defintly comes full force with his punches but his ground game is in no way weak. As a matter of fact, I don't know why this is never mentioned but he started in wrestling and was VERY good. I went to school with him in tempe,AZ and he was a multiple time 5A state champ and went on to nationals. I saw some quote of Sudo saying that he went to highschool near Yamamoto in Yokohama but I don't know how this could be possible when Norifumi Yamamoto went to high school at Marcos De Niza High School in Tempe, AZ. Hmmmmm...... I don't know. But either way I'm pulling for my boy Nori, should be a great fight