#8

Satoru Sayama vs Yuji Ito-Gracie Tournament 29.7.1994.

Firstly I'd like to thank the person that helped me decipher Yuji Ito's kanji/name and made this review possible. One of my favourite things right now is finding as many Sayama shoot matches as possible and their inaccessibility and the convoluted youtube journeys I have to go throught to find them make them even more amusing. They mostly seem to be exhibitions on MMA cards. This was completely badass, just them trying to cramp as much cool stuff as they could, kind of like a highlight video of neat kicks, submissions and takedowns. The lack of struggle is something that could usually bother me but here I thought it was acceptable because of the medium and the purpose of the match. The technique Sayama showcased in his execution was tremendous. A GIF match, but a great one. ***1/2