[2018-01-11-DDT-D-King Grand Prix 2018] Mike Bailey vs Yukio Sakaguchi

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This was so awesome. The kicks were deadly, the mat work ruled big time - Yukio Sakaguchi impressed me greatly; I already liked his performance in his tournament match vs. Shuji, but here he was even better - everything he did came with a wonderful sense of urgency. Same could be said about Speedball who also had another super strong performance. Great match. ****

[aaeo_]

Sakaguchi's striking was great in this match, focusing on the body and landing some nice leg kicks. Didn't love some of the transitions on the mat for the style of match, like Bailey taking the back out of nowhere and doing nothing out of that position. Sakaguchi had some great stuff there as well though, constantly looking for a submission from whichever position Bailey gives him. Not to say Bailey was bad here because he carried the same sense of urgency as Sakaguchi and stuff like him picking up Sakaguchi, while the latter had him in a rear-naked choke, and running out the ring was nice. He also does a crazy bump for the penalty kick from the apron afterwards. A couple spots near the finish are goofy (don't like double knockdown spots and there's two of them, one which leads to a pin) but the struggle around Sakaguchi looking for the submission, whether it's the RNC or the cobra choke, and Bailey pinning him out of it kept me engaged. One of the tournament highlights for me.