MMA Brawl

Sumo is a Japanese grappling sport where fighters try to push one another out of the fighting surface or touch the floor with anything other than their feet.

It’s the Japanese version of Wrestling and Sumo players are considered like divinities in their home. They manage to get colossal size in order to develop extreme strength and gravity but are quite flexible despite their obesity.

The first fighter to make an attempt at MMA was Teila Tulli at UFC 1 against Gerard Gordeau. He lost fair and square from a kick to the face, losing a tooth in the process. Gossip reported that the missing tooth landed at  Big John Mc Carthy wife’s feet.

The second Sumo wrestler to make an attempt at MMA was Emmanuel Yarborough at UFC 3 against Keith Hackney, who earned the nickname “The Giant Killer” because of that fight. Yarborough also made a try out in Pride Championship, taking a loss to Daiju Takase.

The Sumo wrestlers were like a fish out of the water in cage fighting contests. Sumo is by essence a non-striking martial art. They are ways too slow against much smaller opponents and their elephantine shapes make them an easy target to unload strikes, kicks and submission attempts to them.

The only weapon they have is to rush onto the adversaries and press them against the cage or ring corner with the full amount of their weight. However, it can’t work against skilled MMA fighters. They are, by definition more fitted to pro-wrestling event where they can take adventage of their monstrous size.

Tadao Yasuda is actually the most successful Sumo wrestler in MMA (2-4-0). He achieved to gain two victories in the Pride ring, against Masaaki Satake in March 2001 and chocked out the famous French K1 Kickboxer Jerome Le Banner at Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye in December of the same year. Following those fights he embraced a pro-wrestling career in Japan.

The most famous and latest one to make a try out in MMA was Akebono Tarō, the first foreign sumo wrestler to ever get the Yokozuna title, the highest rank in sumo.

K1 tried to use his Yokozuna fame in Japan to fill the Osaka Dome. He’s sporting a 0-4-0 fight record in MMA and his most notable oponents were Royce Gracie and Don Frye.

Regardless of the god-like aura Sumo wrestlers have in Japan, they were not much better than Joe Son and his homemade JoSonDo style. They have nothing to do in a striking event.

They can only bring shame and disrespect to the glorified and sacred sport of Sumo. Actually, most of the Sumo fans in Japan were discussed by Akebono participation in Kickboxing and MMA events.

They brought absolutely nothing to MMA except humiliation and hanger to Japanese Sumo fans who felt that a Yokosuna presence in a commercial fighting events would only bring shame and dishonor. They forgot to ad mockery to the list…

Possible Damages:

• Suffocation due to piledriver rush

• Various fractures from falling through the ring

*****

The Most Pain Grinding Styles of Mixed Martial Arts

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