[1994-10-14-UWFi-The King's Road: Osaka] Nobuhiko Takada vs Naoki Sano

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Kevin Ridge]

I’m cheering for Sano though he probably has no chance. I wonder if UWFI could benefit from having a play by play guy. Very mat based match between the two. They do exhange kicks every so often. Each guy going for the submission over and over. I thought it was just okay as had trouble keeping my full focus. I thought it would be better with Sano involved. For this UWFI stuff, it really needs Vader/Albright involved for me to fully enjoy.

[Loss]

Great match in a good year for Takada. As much as I normally enjoy Sano and would rank him well above Takada, I thought Takada was the star in this match. It reminded me of the '93 Tamura match in how Takada carried himself as The Man and knew exactly how much to sell.

[Exposer]

This was a great match. I'm not really a fan of Takada at all. However, he was good in this match. I actually thought Vader carried their August match for the most part. Takada was better here. I loved Sano in this as well though. His escapes were awesome.

[soup23]

Fantastic match mixing in slick work with great drama. Takada has had a good year working with some excellent opponents.

[PeteF3]

Good match with some surprising vulnerability shown by Takada. It really seemed like Sano had his number for most of this. Good look at Takada finally working against a non-monster in '94.

[Zenjo]

A nice matchup between two combatants well versed in their craft. The mat exchanges were easy on the eye and the strikes impressive also. A restrained opening bubbled up nicely as they then moved through the gears. Unfortunately the peak was in the middle of the match, as the closing stages were underwhelming. Still a good match, but had threatened higher.

[superkix]

Sano, ever the bridesmaid, had a lot of really good moments in this match, getting his flurries in but also making Takada work on the ground. At some point on the mat, Takada gets busted open and that sparks his anger, as he gets back on the offensive and rockets Sano with a head kick. I thought the groundwork felt really personal in a way - not subdued, like a lot of Takada's opponents, as Sano wasn't holding back. The crowd seems to think Takada is in danger, bloodied and struggling to break out of holds. He does a good job of selling the struggle and of course, we know the outcome but Sano fights the entire way there. By the end, they're both zapped and Sano is just trying to squeeze out an upset, at one point snagging the armbar and making Takada scramble. But in the end, Takada takes it with the submission in kind of a fizzle of a finish. Good stuff for the most part!