[1996-03-25-RINGS] Mitsuya Nagai vs Mikhail Ilioukhine

[superkix]

The crowd loves Nagai. I love Nagai. He's scrappy as fuck and he's able to survive and squeeze out submission attempts between the random heavy strikes. Mikhail is a good submission aggressor and gets a few neat attempts, like the early shoot STF or stepover armbar. But Nagai is just a pain in the ass with his leg kicks and palm thrusts. Low kicks, mid kicks, high kicks - Nagai doesn't let up but Mikhail keeps trying to slam and submit. The slams are mostly fails and while the submissions look good, Nagai is too pesky. I just wanted a Mikhail powerbomb, which I thought was happening for a half second...but then nagai keeps popping him in the face with shoteis and finally busts his nose open for the KO. Best match of the card.