RIZIN World Grand Prix 2017: 2nd Round will be held on December 29 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The weigh-ins were predictably unpredictable, with Ian McCall getting cheat shotted by Manel Kape and Gabi Garcia missing weight by 26 pounds for her fight with 53-year-old Japanese pro wrestler-turned-politician Shinobu Kandori, who hasn’t fought for 17 years.
McCall got slapped in the back of the head and responded with a slap of his own, before slipping Kape’s punch.
https://twitter.com/Grabaka_Hitman/status/946283570598961152
Official weigh-in results:
Kyoji Horiguchi (60.75kg) vs. Gabriel Oliveira (61.0kg)
Ian McCall (60.45) vs. Manel Kape (60.4kg)
Kevin Petshi (60.8kg) vs. Shintaro Ishiwatari (61.0kg)
Khalid Taha (61.0kg) vs. Takafumi Otsuka (60.85kg)
Gabi Garcia (107.7kg) vs. Shinobu Kandori (73.75kg)
Jiri Prochazka (92.95kg) vs. Karl Albrektsson (92.4kg)
Reina Miura (70.0kg) vs. Cindy Dandois (68.6kg)
Hiroyuki Takaya (65.95kg) vs. Baataar Azjavkhlan (65.75kg)
Anthony Birchak (60.85kg) vs. Jae Hoon Moon (60.95kg)
Kizaemon Saiga (62.6kg) vs. Kai Asakura (62.7kg)
Shizuka Sugiyama (57.0kg) vs. Kana Watanabe (56.95kg)
Satoru Kitaoka (75.0kg) vs. Kiichi Kunimoto (75.0kg)
The McCall-Kape slap n slip will hopefully put some asses in seats and thus was good for the sport. Pairing up Gabi with a grandma again is a disgrace. And then it got much worse with Garcia missing weight by 27 pounds.
Garcia weighed in at 236.9 lbs while Kandori was 162.25 lbs. No reasonable human being thinks the fight is okay. The promoters are behaving despicably. And missing weight by 27 pounds is unfathomably unprofessional. What’s the excuse? I ate 110 1/4 pound hamburger patties by accident?
Kandori was not impressed and the fight was canceled …
… and Garcia offered a tearful apology.
https://twitter.com/FancyCombat/status/946661089588187136
However, the real villains were the promoters for making a match with a 50 pound weight difference.
Co-main Ian McCall, on the other hand, is stirring it up.
I have been the healthiest physically and mentally than I have ever been in the past three years,” he said. My Grandfather who I have looked up to just passed away, and he always looked at me as the family outcast. I want to win the GP and prove my existence.
Manel is an immature child and needs to be taught a lesson. I am going to put my heel in his face, break his face. He’s no good for the sport. He says
things… trash talk is one thing, but what he says is inappropriate, so I’m gonna hurt him real bad. I have this sadistic side in me and RIZIN rules are perfect. I have absolutely no problem stomping on a person’s face.
The ring is more open. You’re not gonna get caught in the cage as much, the audience has a better view. Honestly I just like the rule set better. I like Japan better, I like fighting for RIZIN better than the UFC, less stress. Tokyo, RIZIN as a whole has made me less happy, and no stress.
I hope Horiguchi and Oliveira beat each other up very bad so it’s easier for me. But I think Horiguchi will win. I hope he wins because I want to fight the best Japanese fighters in Japan to make the Japanese culture embrace me. I love Japan, and I think the best way to build myself as a star in this company, that’s the way to do it.
At first fighting three times over the course of three days was questionable, but I’m not getting younger so I train smarter not harder. For the first time in my life, I did roadwork and pool work. I know how to fight. I’m a veteran now. This is gonna hurt, it’s not gonna be fun. I’ve never done this before. I grew up as the younger guy with people like Chuck Liddell and Quinton Rampage, and all these older fighters that fought in PRIDE. Back then they used to pay by the pound, now it’s the little guy’s turn. I know I have to take Manel Kape out as fast as possible, I know I have to conserve my body. Live by the sword die by the sword. It’s just a fight, ok, so what. You wanna kill me? I’ll go out on my shield.
Ishiwatari seems like the best fighter out of that side. I think it’s more or less I hope he wins, because I think he’s the best Japanese fighter from that side, and again I wanna fight people in their homeland, in this country, the star in their homeland. I want Japan to embrace me as little Fedor.
