OSU. On Saturday, January 28th 2006, the 2nd US Weight Category Tournament was successfully held in Los Angels, California. This time Johnny LeBlanc decided to compete in the event with me as a team mate. I made an entry in the middleweight and he was in the heavyweight category.

To prepare myself for this event, I started to train right after the Vancouver Cup 2005 in which I lost to Dominic Adam in the first round. I was disappointed that I made such a poor performance in that fight, that I was not able to move as I had practiced, and that I did the same mistake as I had made before. So, for this tournament, I wanted to change my style. I wanted to do something else other than just charging forward with no game plan. My goal at this event was set to think carefully about distance between me and an opponent, deliver more diverse techniques, and most importantly, to stay calm at all the time. I knew I could win when all the three would successfully come together.

On Friday the 27th, We arrived in L.A. and went to the Little Tokyo dojo for weight-in. We passed that no problem and got something to eat right after. Then, we walked to the hotel (only a few blocks away) and took a good rest
for all afternoon.

Next day, we woke up at 7:30am and went to the event venue, the Japan America theatre at 8:00am. Then all the Canadian team (Sempai Baldalip from Vernon, Sensei Nathan from Edmonton) got together there. Since my fight was to start at 12:30pm, we went back to the hotel and took some rest.

My first opponent was a Polish American from the Chicago dojo. He was much taller than me.
So I decided to do what I could do best; getting in close to him and throwing lots of Shita-zuki and low-kicks. The strategy worked well and I won by a 4-0 decision over him.

Then I advanced to the main event starting at 3:00pm. After the opening ceremony, the quarter finals began for each division. My opponent didn't show up. So, I was able to advance to the semi final match without sweat.

At the semi final, I faced off against Seiji Hori from the local Los Angeles dojo. Although I had met him at so many tournaments before, this was actually the first time for us to fight against one another in the ring. We knew our fighting styles very well. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to achieve the goal I set before the event. I decided to entirely change my fighting style; taking more distance, trying out more techniques and keeping cool head without rushing in too much through the fight. In the first round, I thought I did my best in working on the new strategy but the decision was 1-0. I could not get enough flags from judges.

In the 1st extension round, I ended up taking more low kicks from Seiji. I couldn't raise my legs to block those. I was not aggressive enough towards the end of the fight. An unanimous decision went to Seiji.

Johnny's semi final in the heavy weight category turned out to be rather short for him. His strength overwhelmed the opponent from Australia and gave Johnny an one-sided match. He got two waza-ari by Shita-zuki and inside Low kick respectively.

I fought 3rd place fight off against Arnold Koh from L.A. He once beat me two years ago at the LA Freshman Tournament. Then, I saw him fight Dominic Adam at last year's Vancouver Cup. Dominic had a very tough time beating the upcoming young fighter in the match. The significant improvement Arnold had made let him fight the champion toe to toe through an extension round. It is no doubt that Arnold is now establishing his name in North America as one of the best MW fighters.

The fight started off pretty quiet, then tension and more techniques built up as each second passed by. It was pretty even until 10 seconds to go. Then I tried out a rolling forward kick, which I had repeatedly practiced with Haoyin at our dojo.

With Dolph Lundgren. He is a Kyokushin black belt who actually fought Shihan Nakamura at the 2nd World Tournament in 1979. According to Shihan Nakamura, the fight against him was one of the toughest bouts in his long fighting career.

The Canadian Team at 2nd US Weight Category with Shihan Stuart and Sensei Brad.

With Shihan Lowe and Sonny Chiba. Baldalip from Vernon took the 2nd place
 in the Lightweight Division

Michi receives the trophy from Sonny (Shinichi) Chiba. Sonny Chiba is one of the oldest direct students of Sosai Oyama. The most famous stunt team in Japan directed by him "Japan Action Club" has many Kyokushin black belts.

Johnny shakes hands with Dolph Lundgren

Canadians with Kancho Matsui
Click the image to enlarge

The kick actually landed on his face and dropped the opponent. It brought me waza-ari. I could say that was just a lucky shot but, on the other hand, I was calm enough to deliver that kind of big kick at a proper timing and distance. I think that was my improvement in this tournament.

After capturing the 3rd place, I coached Johnny at the final match of the HW. His opponent was a renowned fighter, Katsuhiko Nakakuki from the NY dojo. For the first 30 second, the NY's uchideshi showed his excellence in speed and techniques. His fast straight punches and low kicks were aimed to Johnny's midsection and legs so many times, but Johnny calmly checked them. Reading the opponent's attacking patterns, Johnny began launching counter-attack. Well-timed inside low kick was frequently used as a main technique. Towards the end of the round, Johnny shot out about ten inside low kicks in a row, which all landed. I knew how powerful those kicks were (believe me, I really knew). Nakakuki couldn't do anything but went down. Johnny scored Ippon and won the first place of the division.

After the awards ceremony, I was fortunate to see Kancho Matsui, and Hollywood stars like Sonny Chiba and Dolph Lundgren in person. They shook hands with us and was very kind to take a photo with us. They gave me very encouraging words which will keep me motivated to train even harder.

I could also meet many other people at the Sayonara Party. Shihan Gorai from N.Y.,
and all other fighters from all over the North America. Creating friendships with new Kyokushin students and senseis became a big part of this trip as well.

I would like to express my gratitude to Shihan Stuart Corrigal and IKOK-Canada for allowing me to participate in the event. I would also like to thank Sensei Tats and Vancouver Kyokushin Karate members for giving me their solid support as always. Finally, I would like to thank Sensei Taku Nakasaka and the L.A. dojo members for their hard work towards holding this wonderful event.

This tournament gave me a lot of new subjects that I had to work on. I will keep training hard to improve myself in the next Tournament. OSU!!


Michi Nagase
Vancouver Kyokushin Karate

Please also visit kyokushin.ca for an additional report.
The official results and more info at the following web sites:
    IKO New York, Kyokushin LA, Kyokushin Manhattan Beach