On Tuesday, October 27th, Coroblock presents QUINTET FIGHT NIGHT 5 in TOKYO was held. It had been a while since the event was last held, and the event took place at Korakuen Hall, the "mecca for martial arts." Popular fighters also made an appearance and tickets sold out ahead of time.
This year's tournament featured the lightweight division with total team weights of 360kg. The first match of the first round pitted three-time champions Team Carpe Diem, a group of jiujitsu fighters, against Team Wolf, which was led by Michihiro Omigawa.
The first match between Masahiro Iwasaki and Grant Bogdanove ended in a draw. In the next match, judo Olympic gold medalist Masato Uchishiba came out to face Tomoshige Sera of Carpe Diem. Sera continued to attack from underneath, and Uchishiba defended himself. The match was a draw, despite a lot of dynamic action and spectacular offense and defense.
In the third match between Masaki Takeura and Seiichiro Ito, Ito set up Takeura for an arm lock cross hold when Takeura came to make a guard pass. Takeura instead went for Ito's arm from below. Takeura escaped from Ito's anaconda choke. Despite the thrilling fight, time ran out and the third match in a row ended in a draw.
The next match was between Daisuke Shiraki and Michihiro Omigawa. Omigawa opted for a four-minute match, as the weight difference exceeded 10kg. Both men received a Shido during the last minute of the fight, so Omigawa attacked, but time ran out again.
The final match to decide the winner was between the top Japanese Jiu-Jitsu fighters, Tomoyuki Hashimoto and Shinji Morito. There was also a weight difference between these two fighters and the match lasted four minutes. Hashimoto attacked from early on in the match, entangling Morito's legs and landing a triangle choke with less than a minute to go. Time was running out, but the referee scored it 3-0, giving Carpe Diem the win and a place in the finals.
The next first match was between Hideo Tokoro's Team Tokoro Plus α 2nd and Kaoru Uno's Team Onehundred. Tokoro's team entered the arena with Akira Maeda's famous entry song "CAPTURED" playing in the background.
In a spearheaded match between Naoyuki Kotani and Kohei Yasumi, Yasumi successfully tackled and took the lead, but Kotani also managed to get a reversal. Yasumi had a total of three takedowns and Kotani performed a front choke later in the fight, but time ran out, with both men receiving a Shido.
The following match was between Masakazu Imanari and Toshiyasu Sagae. Known around the world for his lower limb attacks, Imanari of course went for the feet. Sagae also went for his opponent's legs. Sagae continued to maneuver around the leg attacks, with the fight ending in a draw. Imanari received one Shido during this fight.
The backbone of the Tokoro team was Daisuke Nakamura, and Team Uno's Kenichi Ito faced off against him. Both fighters are well known in the industry, and Nakamura started the match off with a double wrist lock, leading into an armbar for a perfect Ippon. This marked the first win of a match, to which Nakamura responded with a triumphant pose.
The next match was between Nakamura and team sub-leader Shoki Higuchi. Nakamura went for the arms, to which Higuchi responded with a mounted position. Nakamura broke through this attack and then got out of Higuchi's back position attack as well. With four minutes remaining on the clock, Higuchi went for an armbar, which Nakamura navigated out of and then grabbed Higuchi's legs. At the end, Nakamura was able to take the offensive, but the match ended in a draw. These results pitted Tokoro and Uno against each other.
A draw in this match would give the victory to Team Tokoro. Uno went in for a tackle, to which Tokoro responded aggressively with an Imanari roll. During the middle of the fight, Uno continued to tackle while Tokoro went on the defensive. He tried doing an armbar as well as going for the ankles. Near the end, Uno went to a back position, but Tokoro went for his ankles. Tokoro received a Shido, but the non-stop offense and defense continued. Leader Uno was eliminated, paving the way for Team Tokoro's victory.
This event featured two special matchmaking fights. The open-weight match saw Haisam "Giraffe" Rida face off against Igor “Fatninja” Tanabe. This "domestic battle of the heavyweights" was a fierce showdown in which Igor went for his opponent's ankle and managed a De La Riva ankle lock. The battle was expected to be a drawn out one but ended in just 54 seconds. Igor shouted for joy about his swift victory.
The next exhibition match was between Kazushi Sakuraba and Takashi Sugiura. The exhibition's Greco-Roman grappling rules banned lower body submissions, leading to an Iron Man match where the total number of submissions over the eight minute period would be tallied at the end. This battle pitted two GHC Tag Team Championship winners against each other, and they both refrained from using defensive techniques that they'd rely on at the Noah event in Korakuen on the following day.
Sakuraba came in at two minutes and twenty-one seconds into the match with an armbar. As the match started up again, Sakuraba grabbed an ankle, to which Sugiura appealed with a cry of pain. Even though Sakuraba wasn't going full force, it was seen as against the rules and he received a warning. Both fighters began to show signs on exhaustion by the middle of the fight, but the battle continued. Sakuraba drew his opponent in with a cross armbar, but the nimble pro wrestler Sugiura countered with a front neck lock. With both fighters having one Shido near the end, Sugiua unsuccessfully attempted another front neck lock. Sakuraba changed to an offensive style, ending the match with a 1-0 win for Sakuraba.
The final set of matches were a faceoff between Team Carpe Diem and Team Tokoro Plus α 2nd. The fight order was switched up, with Masanori Kanehara hitting the mat for the first time that day. Also up for the first time was Carpe Diem's Iwasaki. Competition heated up as both sides received a Shido. At the end of the match, Kanehara went in for the ankle but time ran out. Iwasaki commented on the match afterward that "Neither of us left any openings for the other."
The next match was between Kotani and Sera. Sera went for a neck grab to counter being tackled but to no avail. He also went for the back, grabbed an ankle and attacked from above. Kotani had been on the defense until then but quickly switched modes with a triangle choke. Sera tapped out in pain, giving Kotani a last-minute win and putting Team Tokoro in the lead. Sera mentioned afterward that a triangle choke from the floor had been unexpected.
During the next match between Kotani and Shiraki, Shiraki attacked in hopes of winning a point. Leading by 2-1 Shido with Kotani pressing on while avoiding any additional Shido lead to a draw.
Team Tokoro's backbone Nakamura was back to continue his Ippon winning streak against Carpe Diem's sub-leader Takeura. TTakeura grabbed a leg from underneath but Nakamura successfully defended. Nakamura then went for an ankle followed by an arm. With one minute left on the clock, Takeura went for a guillotine choke but to no avail. Time ran out, entrusting Carpe Diem to leader Hashimoto and team Tokoro to sub-leader Imanari, with Tokoro and two other members still remaining for good odds of victory.
The match between Imanari and Hashimoto started with Imanari going for his opponent's ankle and Hashimoto countering with an offensive pass. With four and a half minutes remainig, Hashimoto went for a back position, entangling Imanari for quite a while, but Imanari managed to escape and counter with an ankle lock. The tense battle continued with time running out as Imanari achieved a triangle choke, leading to a draw. Team Tokoro achieved their anticipated first victory. As the seconds dwindled down at the end of the Imanari vs Hashimoto match, members from Team Tokoro all stood up to do a countdown. At the moment the fight ended, they let out shouts of joy.
At the closing ceremony, Sakuraba handed out medals as is customary. Sakuraba made a jab at Tokoro, saying "How did you win without me." The Korakuen event ended in a friendly atmosphere fitting of Quintet. Sakuraba commented on the event series, saying "Group battles indeed make things more interesting." Tokoro, who had been participating since the first event and finally won said "This was a group win." Nakamura spoke about how he was happy to have formed a team with fighters of the same age as him and to have won, commenting how "This was a good team." Kanehara had apparently come up with the fight order and team strategy. During Kotani's second battle during the finals, Kotani said he followed Kanehara's instructions and was able to end the match in a draw. You could say that his instructions were also a reason for the team's victory. Iwasaki from losing team Carpe Diem also commented that "We may have lost in the end, but it was no one's fault." This event at Korakuen featured fighters with competitive abilities and really showcased the beauty of winning and losing in team battles.
(Report by martial arts writer Norohiro Hashimoto)
