Japanese promotion Rizin Fighting Federation had another weird show last night, with Kazushi Sakuraba taking on Wanderlei Silva in a tag team grappling match and a host of other hard-hitting, soccer kicking matchups. You know, the kind of matchups that enthrall the type of MMA fan that likes to stay up until 7 a.m. on Sunday morning.
On top of the aforementioned tag match, Rizin provided quite a spectacle with co-main event light heavyweight fighters Karl Albrektsson and Vadim Nemkov tumbling out from between the ring ropes and spilling onto the floor. Albrektsson looked shaken up and grabbed his head for a spell while both fighters recovered. The fight would continue on to see Albrektsson win the split-decision, but the real winners were supporters of cage-only MMA.
The ring vs. cage argument has been on and off for years, and died down when Japanese promotion Pride shut its doors. Even Dream, the promotion that took up the Japanese reins after Pride went down, flirted with a cage now and then. Some believe the cage is a more pure representation of MMA, while proponents of the ring believe it enhances the action and elicits far less “wall and stall” on the cage. If you’re a proponent of cages, fights like this probably help your argument out a lot.
(Via Reddit user Cashmate)
