Nobuhiko Takada vs Koji Kitao (UWF-i, 10-23-1992)

UWF-i Combat Sport: Takada vs Kitao, Tokyo, Japan

This is a request via Ko-fi. Takada’s UWF-i was in its second year of operation. Kitao, I am told, had gone off and earned a black belt in karate and Takada brought him in for a big superfight.

Kitao, the former sumo, is indeed wearing his karate outfit and black belt. Takada is hangin brain in tight purple underoos.

They shake hands, and off we go for round one. Both tentative to begin. Takada throws a left leg kick. Again. He goes to the midsection with a kick but Kitao blocks it. Leg kick again from Takada. Now the right leg. Left leg again. Crowd reacting to pretty much everything. Takada picking up the pace a bit with the kicks, bringing them in quicker. He lands another that Kitao has to shake off, noticeably. Kitao too slow.

More leg kicking from Takada, trying to chop the big man down. They lock up a bit and nothing comes of it. Back to the leg kicks from Takada. Kitao basically doing nothing. Takada shoots a kick high to the head and it’s partially blocked. Round ends with a clear advantage for the quicker Takada.

Kitao comes out with his body language suggesting he wants to get more aggressive. Takada locks hands with him a bit but keeps a safe distance at the same time. Kitao gets close and throws a knee to the stomach, then slams Takada down by the waist. But Takada grabs an arm and goes for a cross armbreaker, Kitao blocking with his big hands locked, and he gets the ropes for the break.

Back to the standup. Takada back to the leg kick. He goes high again but misses. The leg kicks basically can’t miss, though. They grapple a bit again, Takada getting close in, which is dangerous, as we’ve seen. Kitao grabs a front facelock and Takada goes to his knees. Kitao goes to the side and looks to work there. Takada working to escape the big man’s grasp. Round ends after they stand back up.

Round 3 begins. Takada kicks hard to the leg. Then again. Then he DECKS him with a kick to the face. Kitao just crumbles and he’s knocked out.

Rating: NR. I like shoot style stuff but I never know how to rate it, so I just won’t. Anyway the big story here is that Takada double crossed Kitao with a shoot kick to the head, and, well, the kick certainly does land flush, and Kitao certainly doesn’t seem to remotely expect it. He starts getting his hands up to block, but not with any real urgency or anything. It just drills him and he’s dunzo. There are some, I read, who deny that this was a double cross, but what do I know?