[RIZIN] Masanori Kanehara, a fighter who knows the vast ocean

RIZIN.44 was held at the Saitama Super Arena on September 24th.

The main event,Kleber Koike vs. Masanori Kanehara, a top-class featherweight bout, resulted in making the RIZIN featherweight division even more chaotic.

Featherweight
●Kleber Koike vs. ○Masanori Kanehara
Masanori Kanehara wins by 0-3 decision

Kleber, who has defeated every Japanese fighter he faced and even won a championship, suffered a loss to a Japanese opponent in a fight he could not afford to lose if he wanted to return to the title picture.

With this, Kanehara has moved significantly closer to a title match, and it is highly likely he will fight the winner ofVugar Karamov vs. Chihiro Suzuki.

Whether it is the fight against Karamov he has long desired, or a battle against the champion holding the belt, Kanehara will be able to face a long-awaited fight that is worth giving his all for, no matter which way it turns out.

The reason for Masanori Kanehara's victory

Until now, Kleber has worn the KSW belt and continued to rack up victories in RIZIN, repeatedly demonstrating his ability.

Kleber is certainly strong, and his finishing ability was threatening, but I think part of what helped Kleber win was the lack of growth in domestic MMA, where there were no other fighters who could incorporate a high level of jiu-jitsu into MMA.

This also indicates that few fighters have been exposed to high-level MMA, and there is a tendency for extremely few fighters to have experienced competing against strong opponents on the international stage.

There is no doubt that the difference in experience and technique has a major impact on the outcome of fights.

In fact, I don't think Kleber's overall ability is that high compared to strong international fighters (top-ranked fighters in the UFC and Bellator).

His jiu-jitsu level is not as outstanding as Satoshi's, so I think there would be a fair number of fighters (internationally) who could deal with that.

However, there were almost no fighters in Japan who could do that.

Among them, veteran MMA fighter Masanori Kanehara, who has experience fighting in the UFC, possessed the knowledge and technique to deal with it.

One could view it as Kleber's fangs having rusted from soaking in the tepid waters of Japan, but Kleber has always had the flaw of hitting a dead end if his jiu-jitsu is evaded or if he cannot set up his own game through grappling, so there is no doubt that Kanehara, who accurately exploited those weak points, captured the victory after breaking down Kleber.

The high level of overall ability, combined with the experience of facing fighters of Kleber's class and the knowledge and technique to deal with it,is what I believe led Masanori Kanehara to victory.

I also felt that this enabled tactics and movement specialized for fighting Kleber.

Also, in MMA, that high level of overall ability naturally translates directly into strength, so having a well-balanced and wide defensive range allows for more adaptable and stable fight management.

Perhaps the difference in raw strength and the difference in the time spent facing martial arts also manifested in the match.

Perhaps due to the decline in performance caused by the difficulty of weight cutting, which Yutaka Saito also pointed out, there were many moments where Kleber's movements seemed sluggish.

However, since moving up a weight class would mean having to face Satoshi, it is likely that Kleber will remain at featherweight. But as he gets older, the impact of severe weight cutting on his body will only increase, and considering that, it might become difficult for him to reclaim the title in the future.

More than anything, I was surprised that Masanori Kanehara, despite being 40 years old, was still able to perform accurately and cleverly in the ring against a champion-class Japanese killer.

It was a victory that seemed to highlight his steady, careful accumulation of training and his serious approach to martial arts.

An easy environment for international fighters

With a noticeable lack of fighters capable of handling international competition, if more international fighters continue to enter, the space for Japanese fighters to succeed will likely shrink further.

If fighters who have proven their skills overseas start flowing in one by one, the Japanese market will be devoured in no time.

For fighters coming from abroad, this might be an ideal situation where they can easily earn wins and generate income.

I hope for an improvement in the domestic level so that the organization does not become one solely for outsiders.

However, in Japan, there is a problem where the flow and mechanisms for various disciplines (boxing, wrestling, judo, karate, etc.) to coordinate side-by-side are not well-developed, making it difficult to smoothly improve overall comprehensive skills.

If you are inferior in physique and also inferior in knowledge and technique, it is naturally difficult to win.

Therefore, perhaps we first need to create a trend where fighters like Yuki Motoya and Juntaro Ushiku move their bases overseas and import those techniques from the outside.

Fortunately, the younger generation is actively moving to challenge themselves abroad, widening the path that Kyoji Horiguchi and others have pioneered.

The growth of the younger generation will surely lead to the future, and I hope this trend will grow and spread even further.

If the movement like those who moved to ATT spreads among active fighters who have already gained experience, I think the level of the domestic top tier will also be raised.

And I would like to see a RIZIN tournament where domestic fighters capable of repelling powerful fighters who have come from abroad, like Masanori Kanehara, are born, and where the framework has been strengthened.

For that, we may need to wait patiently for a long time.