Ono Takayoshi vs. Kimura Tsuneo

Looking back there were a lot of weird fights that bright, Sunday afternoon in BFE Osaka. The next in line was Kimura "Jacknife" Tsuneo out of Shooting Gym Osaka taking on Ono "Kogan" Takayoshi who represents Gon's Gym. Tsuneo came out like an F'ing zoo animal. Sitting next to the ring I felt myself actually want to back away from a man much smaller than myself. He was stomping and screaming and pacing like he was trapped in a cage. Leaping to the apron he began working up power by firing himself backwards and using the ropes to launch him back forwards, much like the kid in Superman 2 at Niagra Falls. On his last attempt, having gained the power to shoot him over the ropes, Tsuneo missed and fired himself into the audience. I tried not to laugh as I had so recently been afraid of a man who was now made pitiable. He finally made it into the ring the traditional way.



Where he continued to stand, stooped and threatening sporting a sweet mohawk and banging his feet into the canvas.

Ono came out incredulous. The look on his face was the exact appropriate one for the moment and one that wouldn't have occured to me. He swayed from side to side, head cocked, lip flaring like Billy Idol.







The two looked ready to explode and I began to get nervous thinking about the clash at hand which launched itself into this:



Loads and loads of clinching against the ropes. Don't get me wrong, clinching is a struggle, but I have never seen to people so fired up to fight suddenly looking like the last thing they wanted to do was throw down on each other. I don't think it was timidity, it was probably just playing it safe and cancelling each other out.



The fight on the ground was a stalemate.



Tsuneo had a good sprawl and Ono was good at maintaining guard and getting back to standing.



I felt that Ono's strikes were much more effective than the sout-paw Tsuneo. They were a little circular, between a hook and a straight, but they were more powerfull and more prone to landing. He also took better angles and had a nice right hook. When Tsuneo hit the ground, Ono scored some nice kicks to his legs and looked to make a KO punch.



On the ground, Tsuneo's guard was also too hard a problem for Ono to solve.



So Ono opted for standing.





Tsuneo looked to clinch whenever possible.

Towards the end of the 1st round, Ono got on top of Tsuneo in front of his own corner. They began to tell him, "That's it. You've got it! Lock it in." To which Tsuneo's corner wondered, "What has he got? I don't think it is anything." I shared their sentiment, but I couldn't see the far side.



The 2nd round saw more of the same, with Ono mixing in foot stomps from the clinch.



This is where I make the disclaimer that I have made before. To photograph an event and to experience an even are very different things. My pictures can tell me, accurately, what color shorts the fighters were wearing and where they place their feet on a guard pass. But, what they can't give me, is the same impression that standing watching a fight. I thought, I knew, I assumed, that Ono had won the fight easily. The decision went to Kimura "Jacknife" Tsuneo. I don't get it. Apparently neither did Ono. He left the ring immedietly. Ikeda (I beleive it is) the head of Chokushinkai and a scary old man/former pro-wrestler ordered him and his crew back into the ring to soak in his own doo-doo.



Other people told me later that they thought Jacknife had won clearly. I don't see it. I didn't see it, but I accept that the lense alters reality.