Welcome to Leg Kick TKO, a MMA blog
that’s a worse judge of fights than Cecil Peoples.
Fighter Retrospectives is when I take a look back at retired
fighters (Or at least a guy that’s been fighting at least 15 years) and try to
convince you why they are super-duper awesome.
Today, the focus is on the Transforming Trickster, the Neo-Samurai, Genki
Sudo.
Wull, why should I care about this guy? (That’s you)
Genki Sudo is probably my favorite fighter that I never saw
live, and sometimes he’s my favorite fighter, period, with no
qualifications. He was predominantly a
grappler, having done Greco-Roman wrestling in high school, and then later
taking up Brazilian jiu-jitsu. His
striking wasn’t awful, and he even fought in some K-1 kickboxing bouts (to
extremely limited success, going 2-4), but his hugging prowess easily overshadows
his kickpuncher skills. What really
draws me to Sudo is his ability to mix showmanship with skill. He had ridiculous entrances that not only
blew most other fighter entrances out of the water (Pretty easy, since other
than like five dudes all walk-outs are boring and bland), but were way better
than a lot of professional wrestling entrances, too. The antics didn’t stop inside the ropes (Or,
for like three fights, the cage), though.
Genki would dance around during a fight, dropping his hands to do the
robot, turn his back on his opponent, and basically refuse to take things
seriously. He claimed it was never to
embarrass or make fun of his opponent, but his attempts at elevating the fight
to a true art form. His overarching
message is We Are All One, a concept he enforced by carrying a banner with that
phrase and various flags of the world stitched onto it.
Okay, wull, lemme see some of these “awesome entrances” I
guess. (You, again)
A Genki Sudo entrance is a great thing to behold because it
always involves costumes, backup dancers, rad, choreographed moves, and usually
the dramatic removal of the aforementioned costume.
He’s walked out to the fight as, among other
things, several different space robots, a Chinese drunken boxer, some sort of aboriginal person,
and Rick “Wild Thing” Vaughn.
Check out more Genki Sudo radness after the jump.
