RINGS didn't really run enough shows to warrant a year end list, but at the same time, it feels a bit silly doing UWF-I & PWFG but excluding them. While RINGS was largely just Akira Maeda at this point, and Maeda was largely just broken this year, they somehow, eventually managed to navigate their way from a one-man show to the best, and by far the longest lasting of these three shoot promotions. Their beginnings were incredibly humble, but in a sense having Maeda meant more than having a half a roster of good workers, as their 4 shows were all big events due to him, and based on the padded figures they drew 32,250 or an average of 8,063 per show, easily more total fans that PWFG drew in their 7 shows and only 5,800 less than UWF-I drew in their 11 shows.

RINGS didn't carry wrestlers over from U.W.F., and 5 months wasn't enough time to get trainees ready, but Maeda knew that bringing in the foreign martial artists was what differentiated the U.W.F. major events from the monthly Korakuen Hall shows. He exploited the contacts he already had with places such as the Netherlands, as well as establishing new ones in places such as the USSR. Obviously, professional fighters and gym owners having friends, students, and training partners, hence the Fighting Network was hastily hatched. This plan had several faults, most notably that the Netherlands leader, Chris Dolman, was already 46-year-old and moved like he had two knee and hip replacements and was fighting his way through quicksand.

The value of RINGS this year was in introducing a number of new fighters. While results varied, in the end my rookie of the year list is almost identical to my top 5, and that bodes really well for their future.

RINGS future finally began to take shape with the arrival of the immortal Volk Han on the final show of the year. If I were ranking purely on skill rather than putting some merit into the quality and quantity of the overall output for the year, Han would already be #2 overall shoot stylist, which is remarkable given he had no pro wrestling matches, or probably really even training before facing Maeda in the year end main event. But that lack of training was likely a blessing, as he brought with him none of the bad habits the majority of shooters carried over from the New Japan dojo, and thus totally came at shooting like he would a real fight. That's not to say he ignored the entertainment aspects, if anything he might be too steeped in them, but he approached the fight from the basis of an actual active live opponent doing their best to resist his attacks rather than standing around doing their best to make them as easy for him as they could possibly get away with. There's a solid undercurrent of realistic positioning and movement to his fights that isn't present in many other bouts that aren't going for realism at the expense of all else, which allows his crazy inventive grappling to seem a lot more earned.

MB: It's quite remarkable knowing that Rings would go on to become one of the most important MMA organizations in history when one looks at their 1991 output in isolation. In fact, if you were to only view their events from '91, you couldn't be blamed for thinking this promotion was doomed to last only another year or two treading water. Fortune favors the brave however, and that is something that Maeda possessed, in his courage to just brazenly go big in everything he did, even if he didn't have the talent to pull it off at first. He also benefited from a willingness to keep his ego in check (at least to some degree) for the good of his company. We saw this when he put Dick Vrij over in what was only the 2nd event, and we would see him continue this from time to time, as needed. Compare this to Takada, who couldn't even find it in his heart to put over Yamazaki, who he had not only lost to before, but would have been an excellent move at that point in time, for the long term health of his promotion.

The year-end events of RINGS and the UWF-I were quite revealing in showing us that where one company was destined to be ablaze for the short-term, eventually the ancient maxim which states those who live by Takada, are doomed to die by Takada would hold true, and that is what happened when Anjo exposed the outfit by getting destroyed by Rickson Gracie, and Takada put the final nail in shoot-style by losing to everyone that they couldn't successfully bribe on his behalf. On the flipside, we saw that while RINGS was very raw and in need of refinement, the concept was strong enough that it could only get better and better in time once the talent pool was acquired.

5/11/91: Willie Peeters vs. Marcel Haarmans 10:51. Peeters was the most interesting of the original roster because he more or less really went at it, and his matches were extremely intense, out of control, and sometimes baffling because of that. None of his matches this year were straight up shoots, but they felt less planned than what most of his peers were doing. Peeters might not have been actively trying to knock Haarmans out, but he wasn't really pulling his strikes either, which made for an odd contrast given Haarmans was pulling his, and I kept waiting for Haarmans to complain about the way Peeters was laying into him. What's actually more interesting though, and makes the match look very much ahead of its time, is the lack of cooperation on the throws and various attempts to get each other down, resulting in a style where both guys exploded and whatever happened, happened. Seemingly Peeters would sort of cooperate by not specifically resisting the lockup or immediately trying to get back to his feet in the grappling, allowing Haarmans to toy around with crabs, but he wouldn't necessarily cooperate with the throws and transitions. There was a lot of flash though, mostly from Peeters, with spinning kicks and belly to belly suplexes since Haarmans was much more obliging, but they both made each other work for things & didn't sacrifice the essence of the fight for entertainment value. ***

MB: Peeters was a master of general jackassery for most of his career, but at least he was entertaining throughout it all. This match was bizarre, as Haarmans was trying to be a professional in the ring and put the appropriate amount of force behind his strikes, but Peeters seemed to be content in doing whatever he felt like. He wasn't completely shooting, as he would allow Haarmans some time to work for a submission, but he was definitely taking liberties by laying into Harrmans with strikes that were certainly much stiffer than Haarmans was bargaining for. I wound up being surprised that Haarmans put up with this, as I was expecting him to either complain to the ref, or start shooting on Peeters, but he stayed level-headed throughout, which only further served to illustrate that Peeters was a jerk. Still, this served as an intriguing example of what could be achieved in this style, when there is a legitimate amount of non-cooperation, which would later be fully realized by some of the PWFG matches later in the year.

9/14/91

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Herman Renting 12:23. While our second helping of Nagai vs. Renting isn't exactly producing the ecstasy of dining on honey dew and drinking the milk of paradise, it's a much more sufficient banquet than their initial brew. In fact, outside of Kiyoshi Tamura and Naoki Sano, these two are battling each other for the biggest improvement from one match to another we've seen so far, with the edge going to Renting. They really figured out how to blend their styles, and now had a clear course of action with Renting either being proactive & initiating the clinch or urging Nagai to kick so he could get the take down by grabbing him. Renting did a lot once he got the fight to the ground, showing a variety of submission attempts, but Nagai's ground game was solid as well, and he was able to both apply submission pressure from the bottom and get back to his feet. The urgency was high here, and they did a nice job of keeping the match moving by continuing to find different transitions & counters to the same basic sequence where Renting would get a takedown off a Greco body lock. Renting's striking was solid as well, but he wasn't going to duke it out with a stronger striker when he could put him on his back & get the first crack at finishing him. They kicked it into high gear after Renting got a down with a soccer kick, with Nagai charging the length of the ring at Renting, which was such a theatrical departure from the otherwise fairly U.W.F. credible action even though he missed the flying knee that had preceeded, that it kind of worked in showing he was fired up & didn't care about the risk. Nagai then managed to do an even more spectacular version of the leg catch enzuigiri spot where he instead flipped forward for a knockdown. Renting's takedown game eventually ruled the day though when he changed things up, rolling Nagai down in an arm in guillotine then releasing & reapplying the guillotine from side mount for the win, which the billed as a "reverse full nelson hold". ***

MB: This is the exact same pairing seen a month ago at the Aqua Heat event, and while I found it to be a moderately entertaining excursion, it wasn't exactly something that demanded a revisiting. This match started off in the vein of an open-handed-kickboxing-sparring-session kind of vibe, but thankfully it didn't stay there long as we got to see plenty of fine judo from Renting throughout, including a nice ashi-dori-ouchi-gari (leg-pick-inside-trip). There was also a nice sequence from Nagai that saw him charging toward Renting with a flying knee, only to miss, and then rebound with a kneebar attempt that forced a rope escape. When the ref stood them back up afterwards, Nagai executed the very first somersault kicks in the kakutogi spectrum, which resulted in a knockdown, and was pleasant for all to behold. The fight did not last much longer though, as the wrath of Renting was complete, and he turned a headlock takedown into a neck-crank for the submission win. While it wouldn't be confused for match of the year by anyone, I was pleasantly surprised by all of this, and it did feel like they were starting to find a groove for this style by adding some more variety in their grappling and striking exchanges, which led to the match having more drama and a better flow than their first bout.

Bert Kops Jr. vs. Willie Peeters 12:37. There was a classic Peeters dick move when he didn't go with Kops head & arm throw, and soccer ball kicked Kops rather than letting him back up. That being said, he's one of my favorite fighters on these early RINGS because he's such an unpredictable wildman. Willie landed several of his signature hard closed fist punches to the body today, but Kops seemed to be on the same wavelength, or at least know what to expect from Peeters, and was actually responsible for escalating, if not starting, the violence right at the outset. Kops was very active & aggressive, enjoying displaying his power with a variety of rotational deadlift throws. There was a nice spot where he hit a rather low impact suisha otoshi only to have Peeters pop up & drop him with a running uppercut. This wasn't the most realistic match, but Kops showed a ton of potential as suplex machines whose credible strikes were in short supply in these days. He was probably more suited to UWF-I, but he seemed too good an athlete not to have made an impact somewhere. One of the great things about this match is Kops refused to take Peeters crap. He came right back dropping Peeters with a knee, and then when he was supposed to be disengaging, he gave the downed Peeters a little kick. Kops wasn't trying to hurt Peeters, but keeping him in check by letting him know that he could, and would consider it. These two seemed to be vying for who could be the bigger subtle heel at this point, as Peeters responded by threatening to cheap shot Kops on the rope break. Unfortunately, Kops seemingly tore his left knee midway through the match, and though he tried to proceed as normal, eventually the kneecap seemed to be moving around on him, and it appeared that they'd have to stop the match. Kops wasn't trying to quit though, he just had them spray it numb so he could finish as planned. The injury probably knocked 1/2* off the match, as it continued beyond the point where Kops was particularly productive, with Peeters eventually KO'ing him with a knee. Still, this is the best RINGS match we've seen through 3 shows. ***1/4

MB: Kops is perhaps best known to modern MMA fans as one of the mentors to former Bellator middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi, but he has been wrestling since the age of 6, and is active to this day in the Netherlands MMA and wrestling scene. Right away, it seems that Peeters is being a bit more behaved than his last outing, and is cooperating with his opponent, although he is still a bit spazzy and his body shots are probably too stiff for a work. Both fighters trade throws, strikes, and submissions, and the entire time Peeters manages to come off like a cartoon character. Kops starts throwing some surprisingly decent worked kicks at Peeters, at an appropriate genteel speed, before shooting in on Peeters to execute a backdrop slam. Peeters responds by charging forward and clocking Kops in the jaw, in a seemingly (shoot) jerk move, as it appears to be way too stiff. The rest of the fight saw Kops use several throws, including some beautiful examples of the Koshi-Guruma (Hip Wheel, or Headlock Throw in BJJ parlance) and some rather contrived gut-wrench suplexes. Watching Kops try and execute solid fakery with an opponent that only seems to want to cooperate when he feels like it, led to an entertaining match, albeit for the wrong reason.

12/7/91: Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han 12:16. In probably the greatest pro wrestling debut up until this point in time, and perhaps only since surpassed by the woman who would go on to be the top MMA fighter of her generation, Megumi Fujii, a once in a generation talent arrived from Russia and carried one of the handful of top stars in Japanese wrestling to his best match in quite some time. Han immediately proved himself to be one of the couple best performers in the genre, somehow seeming to understand how all the styles of actual MMA worked despite it barely existing at the time, and relying on a really flashy and innovative version of his sambo background rather than trying to assimilate to the accepted chicanery that passed for pro or even shoot wrestling. Han was super exciting, with a vast array of submission holds that relied on large and/or small joint manipulation. He was the forerunner of chaining of submissions, which perhaps never really caught in on pro wresting but would eventually form the basis of the Japanese MMA style in the no ground punching era. Though Han's background was in submission, we immediately see him putting his energy toward employing actual, legitimate kickboxing footwork and feints that are maybe not quite up to the level we saw earlier from karate legend Nobuaki Kakuda, but otherwise set him apart from the pack, even though this isn't what he's been doing all his life. While Maeda is theoretically the better standup fighter, he can at least knock you out if you are expecting him to be working with you rather than taking a cheap shot, the artist formerly known as Kwick-Kick Lee can't manage to touch the nimble Han, who is able to back away from his kicks with ease, as well as get in & out of range quickly enough to incite him with slaps to the face and his own low kicks without taking counterfire. Of course, Han's real plan is to grapple, and while it's true that hitting a flying armbar as the first move of a match may not be the most realistic, it certainly speaks to the self confidence, guts, and out of the box thinking of Han to go out there and do this not only as the start of the match, but of his pro career. I had never seen a flying armbar before this, it was a jaw dropping what is this, and more importantly who is this kind of moment. While it's important to focus on what Han is doing, what's actually more telling is how that was forcing Maeda to step up his game in so many ways, to use footwork himself, be quicker with his attacks, and to try to chain them together because Han wasn't just going to stand there for him like a doofus. Sure, the match was a work, but there's really varying levels of what the opponent is going to allow you to get away with, and Maeda not only saw that Han's standard is high, but just being a proud athlete who wants to win because he's better not because he's running the company, he was pushing himself to earn thing and get over on Han. Suddenly, we saw a great sequence from Maeda where he wasn't merely content to land a snap suplex, but was up like lightning trying to grab an appendage and drop into a submission, in this case an armbar, before Han couldn stabilize. This was the first time all year that Maeda looked good. Han's matches are built around the high spots, which are plentiful, but he is able to get away with that more than others because he doesn't half-ass the basics of fighting, the positions, or the execution of the moves. In addition to understanding spacing on his feet, he's already using the mount and the guard on the ground, and chaining his submissions to try to catch the opponent off guard or just beat their defenses by being proactive and reacting quicker. Han may be selling because he still reacts quickly when Maeda does something, but used to 5 minute sambo contests, he appeared completely out of gas down the stretch, holding his hands on his knees the way Mark Coleman would go on to make famous in his historic loss to Maurice Smith at UFC 14. This allowed Maeda to get a spinning wheel kick in for a knockdown. Han was able to answer with a suplex to set up one of his rolling cradle sort of leg locks, but Maeda was able to stop the roll and use his left leg to block Han's lock, thus getting the better position on the mat to crank on the ankle, with a desperate Han realizing he's left with nothing but to tap in disgust then cover his face with his hands in embarassment and shame. ***1/2

MB: Now, for the moment that will forever change the course of Rings and have an incalculable effect on all things in the shoot-realms for many ages to come.. Yes, we are about to witness the professional debut of Volk Han (real name: Magomedkhan Amanulayevich Gamzatkhanov) who wound up being one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time by helping to cement the shoot-style's status as being the very apex of what professional wrestling could achieve as an art form. Han had a background in collegiate wrestling before joining the military, which is where he began learning sambo, going on to become a three-time Russian champion in the '80s. Maeda thrust him into the main event, despite this being only his first match, so he surely Maeda saw something special in him right from the get-go. We can see that Han was being groomed for greatness right away, as they gave him one of the best theme entrances of the era, Jean-Michel Jarre's Second Rendez-Vous, a grandiose synthesizer intro that sounds like what would happen if you were to mix the Phantom of the Opera with something from Brad Fiedel's work on The Terminator soundtrack. Tthe crowd is absolutely in total rapture for Maeda though, he could be wrestling a Yakisoba vendor tonight, and I don't think it would affect how over he is. The first minute is quiet, with some feeling out between the two men before Han hits a tobi-juji-gatame (flying armbar) for an instant rope break well before the maneuver become the cool thing for Carlson Gracie students to do. This breathtaking maneuver may not be the best opener for the purposes of realism, but it is done with such verve that we must allow its indulgences. Maeda then throws some high kicks, forcing Han to distance himself a bit before stalking his way up to Maeda and hitting the 2nd kani-basami of the evening, which is now banned from judo competitions for its perceived riskiness. Han attempts a heel-hook off of this, but Maeda was successful in rolling into the ropes, prompting a restart. The next several minutes see Han attempt just about every leg attack one could think of (and perhaps many that no one has thought of), and also marked the debut of his infamous rolling kneebar that we have all come to cherish. Maeda winds up pulling a win out of nowhere by securing a toe-hold while tangled up in a human leg-pretzel with Han, and serves to remind me why I gave up my Twister addiction a long time ago.

1. Volk Han. An amazing one of a kind, once in a generation talent who was immediately head and shoulders above everyone but Kiyoshi Tamura despite having never competed in a worked or full rules shoot. Han really revolutionized the grappling game, popularizing the attacking, chain submission style that made people outside of hardcore practioners want to watch ground fighting and, perhaps indirectly, became the basis of the gambling, no risk no reward Japanese MMA ground style at a time when American MMA was all about lay & pray. No submission wrestler was ever flashier than Han, yet perhaps because he wasn't trained in the lazy ways of cooperative pro wrestling, he maintained most of the good habits he'd employed in competitive tournament fighting, and was able to build the sparking end game around a really solid, technically sound foundation. Han had amazing reflexes with the speed and anticipation to capitalize on them, moving constantly and correctly, adjusting, tweeking, eventually capitalizing on something that might otherwise be outlandish, and probably would just be too slow and deliberate if a lesser athlete and/or tactician attempted it. Han was never content to be a one man show, but rather someone who forced the opponent to step up their game to try to keep up with him. Han was going to work his hardest, and if you had any semblance of talent, he wasn't going to let you get away with getting anything over on him without earning it, which again added a level of urgency and intensity to his contests.

2. Willie Peeters. RINGS resident wild man Sneaky Peeters was a lot of things, but certainly never boring like his senpai Dullman. In fact, I'm not sure anyone tried harder to entertain than Willie, and managed to be the only repeat offender... on my RINGS top matches list. Sometimes Peeters undermined himself by being so out of control he was simply sloppy, but his matches had great energy, and he kept the crowd at the edge of their seats by being chaos incarnate. While most wrestlers bore me to death through the Ric Flair connect the same dots 24/7 repetitive style, you just never knew what insanity you were going to get from Peeters. Certainly, no one will ever accuse him of not being stiff enough... assuming he managed to connect. His heavy body punches were ahead of their time, and something it's baffling we never saw more of in the worked world given that even most of the marks would eventually know deep down that real head punches without gloves would get fighters nowhere but the emergency room to reset their shattered paws.

3. Herman Renting. Life would be better without most of these foreigners, but I'm surprisingly not calling for a moratorium on Renting. Renting may not be the most talented guy around, but he was figuring things out with each match. At first I thought he had little beyond a Greco Roman takedown, but he was actually able to display a lot of variance in his submission game out of that in his second match with Nagai. He may not be the best standup fighter offensively, but showed a good ability to work standing sequences around his takedown and submission game, and impressed me with his footwork in his subsequent match with karate champion Nobuaki Kakuda, which would be my #5 match if I absolutely had to pick from among the stuff I wouldn't quite call good.

4. Akira Maeda. I liked Maeda as a pro wrestler, and in the less evolved days of shooting, but now that he's done a good thing in surrounding himself with a bunch of legitimate martial artists, he needs to fight like one instead of still just being a pro wrestler. I will give him a pass for now because he was having enough trouble getting through his few matches on two feet, much less trying to learn whole new legitimate methods of combat in the interim. While his matches were all passable enough, and he was carried to the promotions match of the year, he largely seemed like a dinosaur, albeit one who was obviously not boring, lacking in gravitas, or without a certain brand of showy skill. This was the worst year of Maeda's career since he came into prominence, and while he didn't impress me, he kind of gets the nod here by virtue of being a solid performer who was in the big match on every RINGS show, which were all 1 match shows in the pro wrestling sense.

5. Mitsuya Nagai. Nagai was somewhat ahead of the curve for a rookie because he had been in various gyms since 1986, starting out with Satoru Sayama, but following his primary instructor there, Naoyuki Taira, to the Shootboxing promotion, where he was 5-2 as an amateur. He joined the U.W.F. in 1989, but a neck injury kept him from ever making his debut. His standup skills were better than his ground skills, but having participated in enough real and fake fighting training sessions, he was pretty well rounded. Nagai isn't a top shelf athlete though, so he needs that solid technique because he can't get away with things as easily or make up for them with speed and aggression the way a Kakihara can. It's hard to really gauge Nagai because he had two matches against fellow rookie Renting then a shoot against ultimate sleezebag Gordeau.

MB:

1. Volk Han. There is no way to argue against this choice, as even without the foresight of knowing what greatness Han would achieve in the future, his debut alone shows us that there is a lot of talent just waiting to be discovered. Even though we saw a lot of flashiness in his style when he fought Maeda, he did it with such a stylized sense of confidence that he came off like a Russian super-hero who seemingly had loads of never before seen attacks at his disposal.

2. Willie Peeters. While it pains me to put him over due to his general jerky behavior (which would only get worse in the years to come) there is no denying the entertainment value of this man. He was truly all over the place, but that is where the fun was, as you never quite knew what you were going to get out of him. His antics aside, he did have talent, and could surely hold his own in a real shoot if he had to, although that opportunity hasn't come up yet.

3. Koichiro Kimura. This is where I'll deviate a bit and proffer the multiple time S.A.W. champion for everyone's consideration. Granted he only had one match, and yes in that one match he wasn't given a lot of opportunities to shine due to his opponents inexperience in working a match, but in that one match I saw a lot of potential in him that exceeded what I saw in others like Renting and Nagai. He showed nice fluid movement throughout that match in both his footwork/striking, as well as smooth/explosive judo. The figthers we've seen so far tend to have one dynamic or skill they are good at, but rarely do we see anyone capable of blending the different aspects together in a coherent fashion. While time may prove me wrong, from what I was able to see in his initial match, I'm going out on a limb and saying that he is in the upper tier of Rings talents right now.

4. Mitsuya Nagai. While I think it would be completely fair to swap out this slot with Herman Renting, I feel compelled to choose Nagai simply due to his well-roundedness. His Shootboxing background gave him a nice kickboxing foundation to build on, but he also has had enough pro wrestling/shoot training to round his skills out. While neither his striking or grappling are world class, they are both good enough that he will always be a skilled hand to have on board, even if he can never really rise above the mid-card ranks.

5. Akira Maeda. It feels odd picking Maeda, but the fact is that he has a lot of gravitas as a performer, and every time he shows up, the crowds go into a complete state of rapture. That isn't a quality that should be neglected when we assess these performers, as the ability to project yourself and sell your act so to speak, is just as important as the actual work that you do in that ring. Furthermore, I actually like paired down Maeda more than the '80's version. Yes, he is a shell of his former self here, but less is oftentimes more, and when I watch a lot of his 80s matches I find about 5-6 minutes of great action squished by 15 minutes of coma inducing or otherwise lazy matwork. By keeping things short and simple (even if it's due to necessity), I am enjoying his matches more now, even though his current lack of physical ability hampers the realism that he is going for.

1. Volk Han

2. Willie Peeters

3. Herman Renting

4. Mitsuya Nagai

5. Bert Kops Jr. Kops only had one fight, but it was the 2nd best of the year here even though the later stages were very compromised by a knee injury that he probably shouldn't have continued pushing through. He impressing with his array of deadlifts & suplexes, as well as his willingness to not only stand up to the out of control bully Peeters, but actually even escalate the stiffness of their contest. I suspect he would be much higher had he managed to be more active, but at the same time, the guys ahead of him all had much better careers.

MB:

1. Volk Han

2. Willie Peeters

3. Koichiro Kimura

4. Mitsuya Nagai

5. Bert Kops Jr.

1. 12/7/91: Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han

2. 9/14/91: Bert Kops Jr. vs. Willie Peeters

3. 5/11/91: Willie Peeters vs. Marcel Haarmans

4. 9/14/91: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Herman Renting

MB:

1. 12/7/91: Akira Maeda vs Volk Han

2. 12/7/91: Willie Peeters vs Dick Vrij. When I think of this match, I'm reminded of a review that Roger Ebert did for Basic Instinct 2 where he opened with ""Basic Instinct 2" resembles its heroine: It gets off by living dangerously. Here is a movie so outrageous and preposterous it is either (a) suicidal or (b) throbbing with a horrible fascination. I lean toward (b). It's a lot of things, but boring is not one of them. I cannot recommend the movie, but ... why the hell can't I? Just because it's godawful? What kind of reason is that for staying away from a movie? Godawful and boring, that would be a reason." Peeters/Vrij may not be good in any conventional sense, but it is FAR from boring. In fact, I would say it was one of the most entertaining matches of the year, despite everything that we know to be both good and right. Peeters was oscillating from not having his strikes connect at all to having them connecting way too hard, and bounced around more than the Tasmanian Devil in a pinball machine, all while the Japanese crowed went bananas. The entire B-movie atheistic was further amplified by the evil henchman comic-book appearance of Dick Vrij, who's icy cold demeanor and bodybuilders physique only served to add to the experience.

3. 12/7/91 Gerard Gordeau vs Mitsuya Nagai: Again, when viewed in isolation, there is nothing particularly noteworthy here, but taken in the context of its time, I found this to be rather fascinating. It was the first full blown shoot in the RINGS promotion, and was an interesting matchup as you had a kickboxer with grappling experience in Nagai against a savate champion who presumably had little to no grappling skills in Gordeau, but this played out in a fashion that I wouldn't have expected. Nagai was able to get the takedowns, but couldn't follow up on them, and couldn't hang with the superior striking skills and reach of his opponent. Perhaps it's because this was a nice change of pace being a shoot when so far we hadn't seen any yet from RINGS, but I liked it when taking everything into consideration.

4. 9/14/91: Bert Kops Jr. vs. Willie Peeters

5. 9/14/91: Mitsuya Nagai vs Herman Renting: I found this rematch from their initial meeting on 5/11/91 to not only have been the better of their two matches, but an entertaining bout in its own right.