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- May 29, 2013
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So I just watched a Ganryujima event on youtube and it's really fascinating. You can win by knocking out your opponent, throwing him out of the ring 3 times or having him tap out to strikes on the ground. (I don't think there were submissions.)
The first thing you notice is how blisteringly fast and action-packed the matches are. It's like a series of sprints until somebody wins.
Given the rules I thought sumo wrestlers had a distinct advantage and, at the beginning of the event, there was one particular sumo who was running through people. But then this little Brazilian guy started giving him fits with his speed.
Turns out a sumo is really hard to throw out.
Then the smaller Brazilian, who won his last match with a capoeira kick to the dome started spamming that same kick over and over again. After a few times throwing it against the sumo he got lucky and actually managed to toss the sumo out.
That's when the little guy realized it was the perfect kick to throw because if he missed, it would just go to the ground and they would restart, at which point he would throw the kick and fall down all over again. This was the longest match in the tournament and he almost knocked the sumo out with another spinning kick to the dome and, as the match went on, the Brazilian kept getting crazier and crazier with his jumping kicks.
Then he realized that, not only could the sumo not throw him out if he was on the ground, but the sumo could also not throw him out if he pulled guard.
Like I said, it was the longest match of the tournament, but the sumo finally managed to throw the Brazilian guy out three times, even though the sumo was beyond exhausted.
The sumo just had a weakness in his rush-and-push style exposed and the man he would meet in the finals would take note of how to prevent the sumo from bull-rushing you out of bounds.
The man who had the most success tossing people out was a San Da kung fu fighter. The San Da guy (white pants in the gifs below) started getting cocky and experimental, like the Brazilian, and literally throwing out video game attacks.
Turns out the San Da guy was so adept at tossing out his MMA-based opponent that the MMA guy actually lost the match by diving out of the ring to avoid being launched AGAIN.
The Sumo made fought some mystery guy in the finals. I couldn't figure out anything about him because of my lack of Japanese, but the mystery man shut the Sumo down hard, again and again, by spamming striking-to-guard-pull relentlessly. The sumo was helpless in trying to shove the guy out of the ring and as soon as he tried too hard, this happened:
Mystery man won, Sumo came in second.
This was an amazing event to watch. You could see this new hybrid sport literally evolving as the matches progressed. To top it off, they were so action packed that literally every few seconds something new and wild was happening. There was only full-tilt or no tilt: there was no feeling out here.
The first thing you notice is how blisteringly fast and action-packed the matches are. It's like a series of sprints until somebody wins.
Given the rules I thought sumo wrestlers had a distinct advantage and, at the beginning of the event, there was one particular sumo who was running through people. But then this little Brazilian guy started giving him fits with his speed.
Turns out a sumo is really hard to throw out.
Then the smaller Brazilian, who won his last match with a capoeira kick to the dome started spamming that same kick over and over again. After a few times throwing it against the sumo he got lucky and actually managed to toss the sumo out.
That's when the little guy realized it was the perfect kick to throw because if he missed, it would just go to the ground and they would restart, at which point he would throw the kick and fall down all over again. This was the longest match in the tournament and he almost knocked the sumo out with another spinning kick to the dome and, as the match went on, the Brazilian kept getting crazier and crazier with his jumping kicks.
Then he realized that, not only could the sumo not throw him out if he was on the ground, but the sumo could also not throw him out if he pulled guard.
Like I said, it was the longest match of the tournament, but the sumo finally managed to throw the Brazilian guy out three times, even though the sumo was beyond exhausted.
The sumo just had a weakness in his rush-and-push style exposed and the man he would meet in the finals would take note of how to prevent the sumo from bull-rushing you out of bounds.
The man who had the most success tossing people out was a San Da kung fu fighter. The San Da guy (white pants in the gifs below) started getting cocky and experimental, like the Brazilian, and literally throwing out video game attacks.
Turns out the San Da guy was so adept at tossing out his MMA-based opponent that the MMA guy actually lost the match by diving out of the ring to avoid being launched AGAIN.
The Sumo made fought some mystery guy in the finals. I couldn't figure out anything about him because of my lack of Japanese, but the mystery man shut the Sumo down hard, again and again, by spamming striking-to-guard-pull relentlessly. The sumo was helpless in trying to shove the guy out of the ring and as soon as he tried too hard, this happened:
Mystery man won, Sumo came in second.
This was an amazing event to watch. You could see this new hybrid sport literally evolving as the matches progressed. To top it off, they were so action packed that literally every few seconds something new and wild was happening. There was only full-tilt or no tilt: there was no feeling out here.
