[1995-12-19-RINGS] Mitsuya Nagai vs Nikolai Zouev

[superkix]

It's Nikolai Zouev, which means a lot of rolling around, trapping arms and legs with arms and legs. That's, of course, not a bad thing and Nagai is fun in that he's trying to counter and do his own thing, and while he's not the strongest on the mat, he looks pretty good here. Zouev usually has answers to Nagai's kick attempts but not always, and he nearly gets knocked out of the ring by a series of kicks and knees in the corner. There's an awesome moment in the match where Nagai tries for a big kick, Zouev slides underneath to sweep the leg and transitions seemlessly into the rear choke. Zouev has some great holds, sometimes pretzeling Nagai in various ways, but Nagai will also find ways to put Zouev in predicaments. He fights for an armbar, which Zouev tries to bridge his way out of before finding an escape and reversal with an armbar of his own. They kind of slap it out at the end and Nagai snags a front necklock, holding on when Zouev takes him down to force the tap out. Good stuff. 

[El McKell]

This match is on Mitsuya Nagai's MMA record on wikipedia. Do we know if this is actually a work or a shoot?

[Ma Stump Puller]

7 minutes ago, El McKell said:

This match is on Mitsuya Nagai's MMA record on wikipedia. Do we know if this is actually a work or a shoot?

There are MANY shoot-style matches that are counted as legit on MMA records for some bizarre reason. Some examples include:

Yoshihito Takayama vs Hikaru Sato from 2013, listed as official on wikipedia AND Sherdog despite them not even really trying to make it look legit

Fujiwara vs Maeda from 1996 

Speaking of which pretty much all of Akira Maeda's "official" RINGS MMA/mixed fight matches, especially his Karelin match which is the fakest shit I've ever seen

Rule of thumb for me is that if it starred someone who did semi-scripted fights and it isn't in PRIDE or anywhere that wasn't shoot-style, you can be about 80% sure that it was worked, much like this one. It's done really well, mind you, but they start going for the cheesy slaps and big flying knees and that's when it's pretty much spelt out.