Saturday, Dec 30, 2000
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!  Your friends at FCF hope that you all have a very happy and safe New Year’s Eve, and we wish you all of the best in the new year. |
 UFC XXX Tentative Line-upIgor Zinoviev Returns
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| 9th WORLD SUMO CHAMPIONSHIP: GERMANY DEFEATS JAPAN Ibirapuera Gymnasium – São Paulo – Brazil December 2-3  The 9th edition of the World Sumo Championship ended up with a big surprise: The German team defeated the strong Japanese team in the final by 2-1. With that title the Germans took away the invincibility of the Japanese, who won the last eight world championships-seven of which took place in Japan and one in Germany (1999). The German female team once again got the gold medal beating Russia in the final. Exactly 29 countries took part in this world sumo championship.The German male team, who had the biggest weight average of the competition (181kg), started off by defeating Bulgaria and Poland by 2-1 and continuing on to beat the United States in the semifinal by 3-0. On the other side of the bracket, the Japanese team-even without their #1 fighter, Toru, who decided to not compete in the teams portion of the event in order to fight in the final of the open category-showed why they were considered the favorite in this sport beating all the opponents easily. First Estonia (3-0), then Brazil (3-0) and in the semifinal, the Russian giants were beaten 2-1 (Akihide Asada lost to Dmitri Platonov). The final was really exciting, Kenichi Yajima, 130kg (substituting for Toru) started losing to the German Senpo [first fighter] Jorg Brummer (175kg). In the sequence, the Japanese chuken [second fighter]  Takahisa Osanai (130kg) defeated the monster Alexander Gerwinski throwing his 190kg outside of the Dohyo [competition circle area]. The German hit his head on the ground and almost got knocked unconscious. In the last fight which decided who would be the team champion, Torsten Scheibler (180kg) defeated Akihide Asada (130kg) and got the title for Germany. “We are very happy. Actually we expected to get a good place but never thought we’d be the champions”, said the German “chuken”, Alexander Gerwinski. Reinhrd Bunk coach of the team agreed: “It was amazing to beat Japan…unbelievable. They’ve won every world team championship so far.”In the final of open class category (Male and Female) it was the time for the Japanese to prove that they still have the best fighter in the world. Toru Kakizoe (135kg) gave no chance to the top German Sumo Jorg Brummer (175kg) taking him out of the match area in less than 3 seconds. In the female open category Rie Tsuihiji defeated Britta Kreth (100kg) in the final very easily. But in the team female portion, once again the German team got the gold medal defeating the Russian girls by 3-0 in the final. BRAZIL AND USA, GOOD SURPRISES  Even though they do not have much tradition in Sumo competitions, the Brazilian and USA teams did a good job, getting the 4th and 5th places in the teams portion out of the 19 countries that took part in that category, considered the most important of the event. Even with the absence of their #1 fighter Emmanuel Yarbrough (310kg)-Yarbrough received a knee injury during training and didn’t attend-the Americans James Perry (230kg) and wrestlers Kena Heffernan (110kg) and Rene Marte (100kg) did a nice job beating the Paraguay and Finland teams by 2-1 but losing (3-0) in the semifinal to the German champions. In the end, USA lost (2-1) to Poland getting 5th place. The Brazilian team also got good results winning two bronze medals on the first day of competition, first with Fernanda Costa in the heavyweight female category and later with the Brazilian #1 fighter Marcos Santana who got the third place in heavyweight male category. In the team female category Fernanda Pereira da Costa (senpo), Juliana de Paula Medeiros (chuken) and Sabrina Sakashita (taisho) defeated Bulgaria (2-1), losing in the semifinal to Germany (2-1) getting the third place.The Brazilian male team formed by Marcos Santana (158kg), Fàbio Ikemori (115kg) and Rene Marte (100kg) did a nice job beating the Paraguay and Finland teams by 2-1 but losing (3-0) in the semifinal to the German champions. In the end, USA lost (2-1) to Poland getting 5th place. The Brazilian team also got good results winning two bronze medals on the first day of competition, first with Fernanda Costa in the heavyweight female category and later with the Brazilian #1 fighter Marcos Santana who got the third place in heavyweight male category. In the team female category Fernanda Pereira da Costa (senpo), Juliana de Paula Medeiros (chuken) and Sabrina Sakashita (taisho) defeated Bulgaria (2-1), losing in the semifinal to Germany (2-1) getting the third place. The Brazilian male team formed by Marcos Santana (158kg), Fàbio Ikemori (115kg) and Renê Crespo (156kg) defeated Belarus by 3-0, but lost in the semifinal to the Japanese favorites by the same score. “We were unlucky. If we had not gotten the Japanese in the second phase I’m sure we could have gone further. They are the best,” said Santana right after the fight. The Brazilian team came back to try for third place beating Estonia by 3-0 but being defeated by the Russians by 2-1. Friendship Cup of Jiu Jitsu II Pé de Pano & Nino Help Rio Defeat São Paulo Betinho Carreiro Circus – São Paulo – November 30 Text: Marcelo Alonso and Cristiane Ripari Photos: Pedro Colon The Friendship Cup is an event held in São Paulo in order to show the press and the general public how misjudged Jiu-Jitsu is nowadays. After the huge success of the first edition, the promoter decided to repeat the event with 9 Jiu-Jitsu matches, where some of the best fighters from São Paulo faced fighters from Rio de Janeiro. As in the first edition, the audience of 2000 people saw amazing battles. Unlike the first edition, when Rio de Janeiro fighters won easily (5-2), this time São Paulo gave them a harder time, staying on top or tied until the very last match ended it with Rio on top (5-4). Each fighter got $250 to take part in the competition and another $250 in case of a win.
Final standings: São Paulo: 4 wins / Rio: 5 wins
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posted by Full Contact Fighter @ 8:00 pm
