[2000-05-11-BattlARTS] Yuki Ishikawa vs Mitsuya Nagai

[soup23]

One of the reasons I love shoot style happens 20 seconds into this match. Nagai immediately goes to the ground inviting Ishikawa down there. Ishikawa proceeds to take this as an insult as he punches Nagai twice right in the face. Check out the woman in the far right of the front row facial expression as she is laughing not really realizing what Nagai is doing to complete horror as she sees Ishikawa just waylay on him. It is a great reaction and shows the visceral violence that can be conveyed in the shoot style setting. This is an interesting match to rank and talk about. I could very well be reading too much into things but this felt like either a collection of short stories or a jazz composition. We had a little bit of a overlying theme but for the most part this felt like a couple of standalone segments that tied together into a whole match. There was just enough there for me to not have this feel completely disjointed. Some visuals like Ishikawa grasping for the rope on the apron and falling and his wry smile after throwing the right hook wont easily escape my memory. Ishikawa is usually someone I associate as the mat technician compared to a striker like Ikeda but this was almost exclusively a stand up kickboxing style bout. Nagai hasn’t been in the ring with chopped liver this year with signature matches vs Ikeda and now Ishikawa but he has held up his end of the deal. He even gets the leg lock submission here to complete the night of upsets. ****

[ohtani's jacket]

This was further proof of the genius of Ishikawa just in case you needed any. What more can be said about Ishikawa? A lyrist, a stylist, a Fujiwara for the 00s! Ishikawa played to Nagai's strengths here and made him look like a beast, but the real talking point was Nagai dominating him on the mat. I don't think anyone would have expected that heading into the match. Nagai winning by submission was a clever touch that legitimised him as more than just a striker while the rope breaks and Ishikawa's unrelenting toughness salvaged any credibility he may have lost by losing to a non-specialist wrestler. Nagai came out of this looking like a legit fighter and not just some meathead striker and clearly had an A game above anything that punters were aware of. Ishikawa got his tactics wrong in retrospect and that wry cockiness of his probably cost him the bout. But he wanted to front Nagai from a striking perspective and Nagai ended up surprising him on the mat. Strong bout that elevated Nagai and helped stamp his mark on BattlARTS.

[Edwin]

The start to this was fantastic with Nagai dropping to the ground like he's Fabrício Werdum inviting Alistair Overeem to jump into his guard with Ishikawa obliging and getting a full mount and blasting Nagai twice in the face with right hands. I dug Ishikawa finding ways to counter Nagai's strikes on the feet either by ankle picking his head kicks leading to kneebars or countering his slaps with armbreakers. I thought both guys came out looking really strong here as they both looked really durable due to the amount of damage they both took and Nagai pulling out a big win with a brutal heel hook submission which Ishikawa did an awesome job of putting over with his excruciating screams of agony.

 

****

[superkix]

I really liked this match. Both guys looked good and Ishikawa did such a terrific job of selling Nagai's strikes and legwork on the ground. That first Nagai kick against the ropes was perfect. When Nagai doesn't let go of a hold after a rope break, Ishikawa's pissy reaction with the kicks made me smile. Going back to Ishikawa's selling, his panic on the mat really adds to the overall sense of struggle, which I thought was expressed well on both sides between all the rope breaks. The striking up top was good, with some great elbows from Ishikawa and big kicks and knees from Nagai, including some head shots in the corner. Ishikawa pulls out this neat little combo of this beautiful right hand > jumping enziguri > grounded manjigatame. After Ishikawa escapes a rolling leglock, Nagai starts buckling his leg with kicks, which leads to the final fight over the leglock, which Nagai wins.

[Mattsdmf]

I really loved this match.  Right from the start, this wasn’t going to be overly graceful or even sportsman like match as Ishikawa prickishly goes after Nagai with some just nasty punches after feeling insulted by Nagai’s jeasture at the very beginning.  I do love Iskikawa’s both cocky wry smile when he thinks he has Nagai’s number to the absolute panic on his face when he was being bested on the mat.  Nagai was really great at having Ishikawa’s number and showing him up when it came to grappling and applying holds.  The struggle at the very end for the leglock that Ishikawa barely got out of was just great.  I also love the near reckless abandon in this match as both, when striking, were going for some wild kicks and punches.  It really added to the near out of control atmosphere that I picked up on this match.  I’m very happy this came across my radar.  Such an awesome match!  Love me some Bat-Bat!