Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

[8.0] "Fujiwara and Maeda usually deliver strong matches, and this was no exception. Fujiwara was aggressive and clever, and Maeda had to dig deep to keep the pace. They were both even when it came to striking, which is a bit of a surprise considering Fujiwara usually isn't known for that approach, but he really displayed his techniques here. Maeda's kicks were harder though, and gave him the advantage when trying to counter Fujiwara's defense. Maeda at one point even goaded Fujiwara into a grappling exchange on the mat, a bit like Antonio Inoki at times. Maeda's kicks come into play at the end where Fujiwara seems to have the wind knocked out of him by the kicks repeatedly targeting his ribs, and Fujiwara can't recover as Maeda finishes him off via TKO. As others have noted, this wasn't particularly convoluted but it was effective in conveying a good amount of struggle while keeping things relatively simple. Another high-end UWF match. ****1/2"

[7.0] "Fujiwara got an upper hand immediately by hitting a few Jumping Headbutts in a row (McGregor/Serrone is a good modern analogy I guess), that spot was done so well that it set it looked like it's gonna be a rough one for Maeda. When things got back to normal though, Maeda was able to win a few small exchanges in a row and turned the tides. Fujiwara had basically to fight dirty to stay in the game, but eventually Maeda cracked the code and won by points after knocking down Fujiwara with kicks three times in a row in quick succession."

[6.0] "I'm not too familiar with these guys history but I thought this was mostly good. There's a lot of heated tension to start, Fujiwara really forces himself into Maeda's space as if to say "Yeah, I'm back and you can't escape me" and Maeda's job is to control the storm. Whenever Fujiwara gets the chance he tends to throw a headbutt and Maeda either stands and strikes or takes things to the ground and both work often. It's not a bad story but it's not done in the most interesting way, there's not the attention to detail that Fujiwara/Yamazaki had or the level of intensity like a Nakano/Funaki so it finds itself somewhere in between. That being said, it's still Maeda/Fujiwara so it never goes far off being wrong and I really like the finish of Maeda just kicking away at Fujiwara in the corner to use all his downs."

[9.0] "A fantastic student vs teacher match. Fujiwara controls at first, evading his submissions and kicks, before Akira slowly begins to take control. Akira comes in strong with the kicks and knocks him down, and the facade of Fujiwara starts to break, he even goes for some rope breaks when earlier in the match he managed to escape all of Akiras submission with no point loss. Eventually Akira starts wearing him down and Fujiwara stars breaking down, in a great finish, Fujiwara just cant go anymore as he keep getting kicked down but gets up until he cant get up anymore."

[8.0] "I've have just two objections about this fight, the first being the pace. Felt like they threw their exchanges and have some sloppy rest-holds as a result. That hurt the pace and they cannot put some big holds. Nevertheless, the rest is great. Maeda wanted to show his sensei that he's now better than him and threw him some big stiff kicks. Fujiwara's headbutts at the beginning were great. Fujiwara stood ahead Maeda on the mat but once they stood up, the later fucked up his elder. Big finish. Test of strength and mental between a mentor and one of his proteges."

[9.0] "This was incredible, like always. Both bring out each other's aggressive tendencies which inevitably turns them annoyed with each other, leading to Maeda kicking Fujiwara hard in the back after the rope break and Fujiwara nailing Maeda with running headbutts to the mouth. The grappling wasn't as tricked out as Fujiwara can offer. It was simple and basic but both were persistent and rugged with it. Maeda even had to ease up on an over the top shoulder lock to avoid snapping the arm long before the finish. The main component of the match was the striking. Even outside of the petty cheap shots. Fujiwara had some great hooks to the body and Maeda responded with his powerful kicks that break through Fujiwara's defence, eventually causing the TKO after knocking him down three times with kicks to the left side of the torso. My favourite moment of the match was Akira Maeda living up to his initial role as the next Inoki after Fujiwara almost broke his patella with a kick. Maeda dropped to his knees and challenged Fujiwara to bring it. Fujiwara tested the waters a little but he didn't fancy it and Maeda got back on his feet. Obviously this is shoot style and you can't be doing "bullshit New Japan" spots so we got a UWF version of it and it's still incredible. It had me marking out big time. God bless Maeda. ****1/2"