REMIX TAPES
WORLD CUP 2000 Tournament 1st Round
Becky Levi vs. Miwako Ishihara. Levi leaned on Ishihara, but otherwise wasn't able to do much with her height and weight advantage. Ishihara did some damage fighting from the inside, but not enough to win the fight. Boring.
Junko Yagi vs. Flor Holman. Yagi was aggressive and did more damage even though her technique is worse. She bloodied Holman's nose with right hands. Since Holman is supposed to be a kickboxer she should have won because it was almost all standup. The ending was weird. Holman hit Yagi, who had Holman against the ropes and was on the offensive, hard enough to back her off, but then slumped over in pain in her corner and the ref stopped it.
Erin Torghill vs. Irina Rodina. Close fight. These rules really put Elina at a disadvantage because her takedowns are pretty worthless in the scoring and she only gets 20 seconds to work for a submission so her ability to keep the opponent down is negated. Her size works for her when it comes to takedowns, but against her because her stamina isn't going to be as good. Torghill was a lot better striker. She didn't do much damage, but whatever she did was apparently worth more than 4 takedowns.
Kyoko Inoue vs. Svetlana Gundarenko. Kyoko was off balance and out of control. She tried her lariat, but Gundarenko caught her and threw her down. Gundarenko had no problem taking Kyoko down, and Kyoko had no clue of how to defend herself once she got there.
Merlos Koonen vs. Mika Hiragai. Quick submission.
Megumi Yabushita vs. Bambi Bertoncello. Bambi is mainly a kickboxer, but she never got off. yabushita had too much quickness and ability for her. She dominated the fight, even giving Bambi a version of the suisha otoshi.
2nd Round
Becky Levi vs. Junko Yagi. Levi tried to fight Yagi like she did Ishihara, but Yagi was better equipped to stand up to her. Still, Levi pretty much had her way in round 1. Yagi tried her judo throws, but couldn't get the leverage against such a large opponent. It was all standup, with Yagi fighting hard but ultimately not being able to get over her size disadvantage.
Erin Torghill vs. Svetlana Gundarenko. Torghill came out throwing, but Gundarenko had more energy than I expected. Gundarenko didn't throw great punches, but they allowed her to get inside and grab Torghill. Gundarenko took some blows, but eventually she'd get Torghill down and put her weight on her. Torghill needed to make Gundarenko work harder, burn more energy. She did pretty well striking since she was always willing to stand toe to toe with Gundarenko, but eventually Gundarenko would get her down. With this scoring system, Torghill was probably ahead on points, but you have to last two rounds for that to matter and she didn't even come close.
Semifinals
Becky Levi vs. Merlos Koonen. Koonen would throw a punch then run so Levi couldn't counter. Koonen used a dobitski udehishigigyakujujigatame, and although Levi fell on top, Levi still had to submit because her arm was straight
Megumi Yabushita vs. Svetlana Gundarenko. This was such an exciting match because Yabushita, the crowd favorite, fearlessly took it to the huge Russian even though you could fit five of her in one Gundarenko. It was funny to see Gundarenko getting a yellow card to avoid getting taken down by little Yabushita. Yabushita was so outsized that Gundarenko had to punch unnaturally low to avoid punching over her head. On the other hand, Yabushita had to jump to try to punch Gundarenko in the face. Gundarenko could get Yabushita down, but Yabushita would just cover up so Gundarenko would waste her energy getting nowhere. The rules were really in Yabushita's favor because Gundarenko probably could have kept her down the whole fight, but instead she had to use bursts of energy trying to do something in the mere 20 seconds she got and then she had to get right back to trying to take Yabushita down again. One of the highlights was Gundarenko suplexing Yabushita, but Yabushita getting right on top of her and trying to get the hooks in. Not a great match, but certainly a fun one to watch. I'm not sure Yabushita really won, but the yellow card, huge size disadvantage, and crowd support was probably the difference in a close fight.
Special Match: Atsuko Sakuraba vs. Kovochinova Tatiana. Sakuraba had no idea what she was doing. She tried to strike, but let's just say her form is the opposite of her figure. Well, I can't help but mention that she was throwing punches that couldn't reach Tatiana unless Tatiana inexplicably jumped intot hem. Tatiana could take her down anytime she wanted. Sakuraba bravely and stupidly tried to avoid submitting to the udehishigigyakujujigatame because there was only 6 seconds until the standup. Sakuraba lasted, but Tatiana did so much damage to her arm in this time that Sakuraba couldn't continue.
Final: Megumi Yabushita vs. Merlos Koonen. Best match on the show. Yabushita was getting Koonen down, but Koonen probably did more from the bottom than Yabushita did from the top. Koonen was able to attempt a few armbars from the bottom, which is more than Yabushita was able to do from the top. Yabushita lacked the reach for standup, but she was able to take Koonen down a decent number of times and Koonen wasn't able to do anything notable in standup either. Even after overtime it was still too tough to call. Yabushita controlled the fight, but Koonen came closer to winning. Very good final.
Jamilla Meston vs. Mika Hiragai
Ikuma Hoshino vs. Kovochinova Tatiana
Anna Kopyrina vs. Aya Koyama
Yuuki Kubota vs. Yuta Dum
Lee Yeun Hwa vs. Kaori Nakayama
Merlos Koonen vs. Yoko Takahashi
Svetlana Gundarenko vs. Junko Yagi
Erin Torghill vs. Megumi Yabushita
Mika Hiragai vs. Yuki Kubota
Akemi Torisu vs. ? Hoshino
Junko Yagi vs. Miki Morifuji
Full match list coming soon
Junko Yagi vs. Mako Ogawa
Full match list coming soon
Nanachanchin vs. Emi Kakuta
Noriko M16 vs. Hisako Hoshino
Hikaru Shinohara vs. Mieko Murayama
Yuki Kubota vs. Megumi Sato
Mari Kaneko vs. Mika Harigai
Ikuma Hoshino vs. Makiko Ito
Yuki Kubota vs. Mika Harigai
Full match list coming soon
Match list coming soon
Yukie Ichimura vs. Miwako Ishihara
Drake Morimatsu vs. Hikaru Shinohara
Full match list coming soon