On November 30, the "QUINTET FIGHT NIGHT 4 in AKITA" was held at Akita Bunka Kaikan. After holding events in Tokyo and Las Vegas, this next installment took place in producer Kazushi Sakuraba's hometown of Akita. As this event marked the first local grappling event, one of the goals was to spark a nationwide interest in the sport.
After the opening fight between Yoichiro Sato and Nobuhiro Obiya (2-1 win by Obiya), a ceremony appointing Sakuraba as Akita's Sports Ambassador was held, followed by greetings from Governor Norihisa Satake and Sakuraba. Sakuraba spoke passionately to his local fans about his wish to "expand the love for [his] martial art, starting from Akita."
In the first bout of the tournament, two time winner TEAM CARPE DIEM faced off against newcomers TEAM K-TOP BJJ. A battle of jiu-jitsu techniques led to a draw in the first round between Tomoyuki Hashimoto and Inseong Jang, with Sotaro Yamada taking out Youngseong Cho in the second round with a kneebar. Yamada continued on to take down the backbone of the opposing team, Gyeongseop Lee, with a rear naked choke. A move in which the fighter stays close to their opponent's back while also immobilizing their legs made for a very STF-like finish to the first bout.
The fight between Yamada and Cho ended in a draw, giving CARPE DIEM a nice lead. Their backbone Masahiro Iwasaki faced off against Wanki Chae for a second draw, leading to the team's bout victory.
An additional special bout between TEAM SAKURABA and TEAM PARAESTRA saw a sort of "proxy war" fought out between Sakuraba and QUINTET's head referee Yuki Nakai.
In the next bout, TEAM SAKURABA's tank Shutaro Debana faced off against Ayumu "GoZo" Shioda, snagging him in an armbar from behind. Debana continued on to fight against Kohei Yasumi, ending in a draw after each side faced 3 penalties. The next battle between Yoichi Fukumoto and Yusuke Honma also ended in a draw, and PARAESTRA's Shoki Higuchi won after putting Yuji Hoshino in an armbar. The final battle between Daisuke Nakamura and Yutaka Saito ended in a draw, making for a great first face-off between these two teams.
To start off the third bout, TEAM SAKURABA's Daisuke Nakamura, who is a QUINTET legend, faced off against TEAM PARAESTRA's shooto master and current champion Yutaka Saito. Both teams had an equal number of penalties up to this point, making this a tie-breaking battle, and Nakamura took the win with a kneebar from below. Saito is from Akita and held onto his local pride, but in the end he tapped out giving TEAM SAKURABA a spectacular win.
Before the final bout, three single round matches were held. The battle between Rida Haisam and Kyle Chambers was a case of leg based defense and attacks, with Rida winning 2-1 by decision. Iron Man matches featuring popular grapplers were held between Hideo Tokoro and Minowaman as well as between Kazushi Sakuraba and Takanori Gomi.
These Iron Man matches featured a new rule - trying to submit your opponent the most times possible within a 5 minute time period. Minowaman tapped out his opponent with a single point using an Indian death lock after being attacked with a heel hook from behind.
Sakuraba then beat Gomi 2-1. Sakuraba first shifted from a triangle choke to an armbar, which Gomi countered with a guillotine choke. 50 year old Sakuraba was left out of breath and tried to leave the mat but was coaxed back by Gomi. With time running out, Sakuraba finished the match by putting Gomi in an ankle lock.
These Iron Man matches were conducted as test matches, meaning no official scores were recorded from them. Sakuraba also commented on these new test matches.
"These matches were only held as tests this time, and by practicing this style with fighters we trust, we saw that a fight style that doesn't end after one submission leads to less hesitation and faster submissions. When media outlets and other related personnel saw our sparring practices, they told us they thought it was an interesting concept, so we tried incorporating the Iron Man rule of fighting within a set amount of time, but there's still plenty of room to improve. I'm glad the fans enjoyed it, but it's still too soon to adopt these Iron Man matches as an official battle style."
The championship bout was between TEAM CARPE DIEM and TEAM SAKURABA. Both teams featured strong tanks, making these battles highly anticipated from the beginning. CARPE DIEM's Tomoshige Sera settled the first battle against Kazuhiro Suzuki with a flying armbar.
The match lasted 43 seconds, and Sera's next battle against Debana also ended in 27 seconds, this time with a kneebar. Sena held his lead through his fight with the opposing team's backbone Hoshino, which ended in a draw. CARPE DEIM's Yukinari Tamura's round against Daisuke Tamura also ended in a draw, taking out both teams' tanks.
The next fighter from CARPE DIEM to step up was Yamada, who also played a big role in the team's first bout. He put his opponent Fukumoto in a straight foot lock, taking him out within seconds. CARPE DIEM finished strong with their two main members still unscathed when the team's victory was decided.
The members of CARPE DIEM have changed, but the team still managed to snag a third championship in a row. Mr. Nakai could even say that the extremely powerful style shown by Yamada, who is also known as Mr. QUINTET, is a true embodiment of the grappling spirit.
