[2010-09-11-EVOLVE 5] Bryan Danielson vs Munenori Sawa

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This has always been one of my favorite EVOLVE matches. It's just Danielson & Sawa smacking the crap out of each other with some fantastic grappling in there as well - and it all comes with a beautiful sense of urgency & struggle. ****1/2

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Doesn't hold up that well on a re-watch almost 2 years later, but it's still worth a watch.

This was awesome & frustrating at the same time. Awesome pretty much solely thanks to Danielson, who was excellent as always. Frustrating because of Sawa, who brought the match down quite a bit with his lackluster performance; all of his strikes looked super weak, light as a feather, especially compared to those of Danielson's. Then as Danielson goes after his leg w/ some awesome submissions (absolutely LOVED all those counters he busted out, easily some of the best highlights of this thing), OF COURSE Sawa doesn't sell it at all. He just continues with his quick, shitty comeback bursts. Thankfully Bryan is the one leading on offense for the most part, and it's truly fantastic stuff when he is on the driver's seat, but my goodness, this is a yet another example of him carrying someone to something worthwhile. Makes me wonder how good this could've & would've been had Sawa been at least a bit better. ***1/2