(this is not their theme but nothing was listed anywhere so this seemed aesthetically appropriate!)
Known as: Sean McCully
Height: 5 Feet 8 Inches
Weight: 185 lbs
Time in New Japan: 1999
Discipline(s): Boxing, Kickboxing, Jiu-Jitsu, MMA
Signature Moves: (it seems to be kicking people in the head but I am unsure!)
MMA Record: 3-6
Sean McCully and his younger (but much larger) brother Justin McCully are some straight-up, old school No Holds Barred dudes. Originals from Team Punishment (Tito Ortiz baby!), Sean was also the founder of the famous LA Boxing gyms that were eventually bought out by UFC and turned into those UFC branded gyms (yuck!). Both had short stints in New Japan before returning to MMA and venturing to other Pro-Wrestling promotions like Zero1 (this will be a post for another day!). The McCully's have a minor but important place in the history of Inokiism and exploring there time in New Japan bears much weird and wacky fruit!
LET US RIDE ON INOKI'S FLYING SAUCER OF COMBAT:
As discussed in the previous post on this blog, the Universal Fighting-Arts Organization (UFO) was Inoki's early experimentation ground for the Inokiist concept. Combining his history of mixed matches with a worked MMA style very similar to that of Nobuhiko Takada's KINGDOM Pro-Wrestling promotion (Inoki and Ogawa had even met with Takada at a KINGDOM show in 1997), Inoki brought together martial artists and No Holds Barred fighters to do worked shoot fights. The ring was a giant white circle (get it! like a UFO!) with square ropes which caused there to be large overhands to continue the battle if it spilled outside.
Sean McCully here is fighting Orlando Wiet (he was in Kingdom and lost to Sakuraba!), someone who failed at MMA but excelled in Muay Thai kickboxing (he is very good trust me). We see both training for the fight in the pre-match video package which brings a very real feeling to this whole UFO thing. McCully as expected tries to bring the kickboxer down quickly; its not that McCully has poor boxing skills (he owned boxing gyms!) but he knows he has an advantage on the ground with his training in BJJ and Wrestling. This is a cool fight with McCully bringing Wiet to the ropes and using his strength to slam Wiet, but Wiet is very sly and after figuring out McCulley's pattern of attack slaps on a guillotine to counter a takedown attempt for the win!
Sean McCully and his younger (but much larger) brother Justin McCully are some straight-up, old school No Holds Barred dudes. Originals from Team Punishment (Tito Ortiz baby!), Sean was also the founder of the famous LA Boxing gyms that were eventually bought out by UFC and turned into those UFC branded gyms (yuck!). Both had short stints in New Japan before returning to MMA and venturing to other Pro-Wrestling promotions like Zero1 (this will be a post for another day!). The McCully's have a minor but important place in the history of Inokiism and exploring there time in New Japan bears much weird and wacky fruit!
LET US RIDE ON INOKI'S FLYING SAUCER OF COMBAT:
As discussed in the previous post on this blog, the Universal Fighting-Arts Organization (UFO) was Inoki's early experimentation ground for the Inokiist concept. Combining his history of mixed matches with a worked MMA style very similar to that of Nobuhiko Takada's KINGDOM Pro-Wrestling promotion (Inoki and Ogawa had even met with Takada at a KINGDOM show in 1997), Inoki brought together martial artists and No Holds Barred fighters to do worked shoot fights. The ring was a giant white circle (get it! like a UFO!) with square ropes which caused there to be large overhands to continue the battle if it spilled outside.
Sean McCully here is fighting Orlando Wiet (he was in Kingdom and lost to Sakuraba!), someone who failed at MMA but excelled in Muay Thai kickboxing (he is very good trust me). We see both training for the fight in the pre-match video package which brings a very real feeling to this whole UFO thing. McCully as expected tries to bring the kickboxer down quickly; its not that McCully has poor boxing skills (he owned boxing gyms!) but he knows he has an advantage on the ground with his training in BJJ and Wrestling. This is a cool fight with McCully bringing Wiet to the ropes and using his strength to slam Wiet, but Wiet is very sly and after figuring out McCulley's pattern of attack slaps on a guillotine to counter a takedown attempt for the win!
LIKE WATER:
This is what a squash match looks like in the world of Inokiism. In the build up to Kazuyuki Fujita's (fantastic) run in MMA, Inoki was booking him incredibly strong (as one would!) and this match is an example of just that. After Sean McCully says he will "be like water, flow" (how cliche) to get around the sheer size advantage of Fujita. Guess what? It doesnt work! McCully gets slammed a ton, kicked in the face, and ends up tapping to a standing achilles lock!
Known as: Justin McCully
Height: 6 Feet 2 Inches
Weight: 238 lbs
Time in New Japan:
Dsicipline(s): Boxing, Kickboxing, BJJ, MMA, Pro-Wrestling (trained by Tom Howard from UPW hence why the brothers went to Z1 along with Tom and others from UPW)
Sognature Moves: Flying Armbar, Senton Splash
MMA Record: 11-5-2
BULLDOGGIN' AT THE OPENER:
Justin McCully made his debut in the world of Inokiism at the first Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye show at the end of 2000. Featuring all worked bouts promoted as "dream matches" by Inoki, McCully was in the opener against the venerable Yoshiaki Fujiwara! This is an incredibly uncooperative affair as Fujiwara will not give ANYTHING to the new guy while at the same time bulldoggin' and potatoing when hes in control. This one is rocky and the non-cooperation is obvious at times with both being frustrated throughout. Fujiwara is able to pull this one out after about ten minutes of struggle by locking on a beautiful crucifix. This definitely is not the most well worked bout, but the absolute hardheadedness of Fujiwara makes it quite interesting as a sort of baptism for Justin McCully in the world of Inoki!
BULLDOGGIN' AT THE OPENER:
Justin McCully made his debut in the world of Inokiism at the first Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye show at the end of 2000. Featuring all worked bouts promoted as "dream matches" by Inoki, McCully was in the opener against the venerable Yoshiaki Fujiwara! This is an incredibly uncooperative affair as Fujiwara will not give ANYTHING to the new guy while at the same time bulldoggin' and potatoing when hes in control. This one is rocky and the non-cooperation is obvious at times with both being frustrated throughout. Fujiwara is able to pull this one out after about ten minutes of struggle by locking on a beautiful crucifix. This definitely is not the most well worked bout, but the absolute hardheadedness of Fujiwara makes it quite interesting as a sort of baptism for Justin McCully in the world of Inoki!
THE CHYNA CONNECTION:
Justin McCully essentially worked one tour for NJPW in the year 2002, but despite his short time spent in Inoki's colosseum, it was an eventful one as he teamed with CHYNA (r.i.p.) in a series of tag matches that saw the first win by a woman in New Japan. Known by Joanie Laurer in New Japan, she was part of the Foreign Army that was tearing up and down the card in 2002 that culminated in NJPW The Spiral (hey remember Rutten is also in the foreign army and had that great match against Nishimura there) later in the year. Foreign Army was mostly comprised of friends of Inoki who were involved in his newly opened Inoki Dojo in L.A. Chyna (who became close friends with the Inoki family and trained at the facility), Justin McCully, Wallid Ismail (more on him later!), and Don Frye were all in attendance at it's opening in April 2002. Check out this fantastic write up on the history of the Inoki Dojo; it is a great resource on this forgotten yet incredibly important facility for pro-wrestling and MMA training in the early 2000s.
This match is cool mishmash of all the styles at play in New Japan at the time. Chyna and Shane bring a very American pro-wrestling feel, McCully and Kakihara have an obvious shoot based pedigree, and Liger and Nagata form the sort of old guard here. McCully is able to get the win here with a very slick lift of Kakihara using his legs from the bottom guard to drop him into an armbar. McCully's signature in his short time in New Japan were these sly transitions into armbars while also having cool green flames on his kickpads and vale tudo shorts (very 2002 I love it!). Watch this one for the cool match and stick around for Chyna threatening to take Nagata's belt.
ONE FOR THE ROAD:
Before leaving the world of New Japan, McCully had one of his best bouts as he teamed with Masahito Kakihara (a great friend from UWFI and KINGDOM, a true bad ass in every way) against a fellow former RINGSman (McCully had one RINGS match) in Masayuki Naruse and Yutaka Yoshie. An incredibly tight tag match coming in under 9 minutes, this is a great example of how good the undercard could be in the Inokiist era of New Japan. Definitely not a full shootstyle bout, these guys still manage to include nice palm strikes and grappling exchanges to the delight of the crowd and me. There is a great sequence when McCully comes in to fight Naruse and lands a cool springboard legdrop and then a suplex, but Naruse is able to lock up McCully delivering a nice punch to the gut then a running kick. After an action packed fight full of knees to the face, slams, and hard palm strikes, Justin McCully uses a double underhook suplex on Naruse into an armbar for the win (WOAHHH)!
A SHORT RETURN TO RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE:
JUNGLE FIGHT! Now one of the largest and longest running MMA promotions in Brazil, it was founded in a joint effort between Wallid Ismail, famous vale tudo and BJJ wildman known for his deep hatred of the Gracie's and their bourgeois ways, and Antonio Inoki. The story goes that they met on a plane ride and got into a discussion about their love for the Amazon and their dismay at it's rapid destruction. So, in an effort to bring awareness to the plight of people of the Amazon, Inoki and Ismail created JUNGLE FIGHT. The story of it's inception is quite as ridiculous and awe-inspiring as one can imagine, so I'll point my readers to this great article on its creation! Here is an amazing excerpt:
This match vacillates from clinching on the ropes for long periods (snore) to some exciting (yet short) exchanges of strikes and knees. McCully here is fighting Dario Amorim, a veteran of Vale Tudo tournaments of the late 90s in Brazil, in what would be Amorim's last match. After going the full three rounds, McCully pulls off a tight decision victory as Amorim had made some good moves later in the fight. A nice send off for our gassed up American friend Justin McCully and another win for Inokiism in the MMA ring. Smiles all around!
No comments:
Post a Comment