February 20, 201114 yr Author comment_5465666 Good, but not as thrilling as Kanehara vs Sakuraba. At least not at first. Takayama turns the volume up big time as the match progresses and has some great moments, including one where he lunges at Takada to take him down and the crowd explodes. Like many Takada matches on this set, good because he has a game opponent.
July 7, 201411 yr comment_5611478 The final match of the UWFI promotion, and it was a worthy send-off. The Beast was younger and stronger than Takada, so looked like a credible threat. The fans were into it and there was some exciting stuff once they got motoring. The veteran was able to hold off the charge with a smart reversal. Most of the UWFI alumni would move onto the Kingdom promotion, which tanked and folded in no time at all. With the dawn of the MMA era shoot style would soon give way.
June 3, 201510 yr comment_5672246 Yeah, Takayama is really what makes this. He fights like he has something to prove from the moment he blows off Takada's handshake. The stand-up portions are awesome and full of energy and hate. It's Takada who drags this down for the first chunk of the match, repeatedly taking Takayama down and then not doing a whole lot on the mat. But a good closing stretch from both guys, with Takada really stepping up his game with a bunch of awesome low kicks leading to an epic near-KO. With every other promotion on the planet using December to book some long-awaited blowoffs and reversals of fortune, they really had me biting that Takayama could pull off the upset, which is as much as you could ask for for the main event of a dying promotion.
December 18, 20177 yr comment_5824544 The final match of the promotion and Takada ends things on top. In some ways this was an encapsulation of why the promotion failed as the match goes through phases of interesting grappling and Takada just filibustering on top. Takayama should some gains in his development and is now a great prospect to see where he evolves from this point forward. ***1/4
May 16, 20187 yr comment_5849574 This took a bit to get going but man was the big strike exchange awesome. Takada really laid into some of his kicks here. Crowd was really nuts for the big strikes and submissions too. Overall, good match.
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