People frum mah gymz, in ur ringz winnin ur fightz

Two peeps from my gym (Paraestra Hakata) won their professional fights recently.

Okumiya and Sugi-pro.

Okumiya I know kind of well, since he speaks really good English (complete with New Zealand bloody accent mate!) and we got pissed up a couple of times at various Paraestra parties.

Here he is. What a handsome chap!

Sugi-pro I only know a little. We sparred once in one of my rare shooto training sessions and naturally he kickalised my bottom.

Anyway, they both won, advancing to the next round of the Shooto Rookie tournament, which is freakin’ sweet. This really is a step up the ladder. If they do well, and get wins in the tournament and go pro, well it’s only a matter of time until they get famous (providing they actually succeed.) Pride generally skims the cream of the crop from Shooto at various points and turns them into superstars (Mach Sakurai, Takanori Gomi, Shinya Aoki, etc. – BE sure to check that last link to see the arm-break in the first few seconds. OUCH!)

Okumiya is a really nice guy, despite his badass exterior… Very humble and friendly. But in the ring or on the mat… Yikes.

You can see the results here.
Scroll down to see our friend flipping the bird at the camera. In his post fight interview, he said he was going for the omoplata (Hello machinemind!) but ended up getting pounded to fuck. He felt nearly unconscious taking those punches, but ended up winning the decision.

He also said that training is incredibly different to competing at a pro level. (I’ve watched them train hard at our gym… they really go at it, but rarely do they actually punch the shit out of each other, especially on the ground.)

I’m going training, WOO!