KENSEI AND KONRAD MAKE THEIR DEBUT IN VERNAL, UT
Kensei “Alpha” Sato and Konrad “Rebar” Jones epitomized what Mushin Fighter Corps stands for in their debut fights in Vernal, Utah.
Kensei took on Blake Sprouse who was once a student of Mushin and trained for his first few fights with our team. He has since moved to Vernal where he has been training with the Unbroken Circle team. This was Blakes 10th fight and Kensei’s 1st.
They came out and it was obvious that Blake wanted to get this fight to the ground as fast as possible but Kensei is a student of Yamasaki’s Anti-Grappling method and it worked like a charm. Kensei shut down one takedown attempt after another and at one point he even sent Blake head first into the cage by deflecting his shot. Unfortunately Kensei took a heavy shot right on the nose in the first minute of the fight and had to battle on while swallowing blood and struggling to breathe. Kensei did not seem what bit phased by his bloody nose though as he pressed forward with head kicks, axe kicks, and boxing combos. Kensei scored a beautiful double leg with ease showing how well rounded he is which is the mark of a Fighter Corps Graduate.
Many people agreed that his was the best fight of the night and promoter Mike Stidham even came over twice to congratulate him on his ”heart” and performance.
We didn’t know anything about Konrad’s opponent going into this. When we arrived at weigh ins we got to see him for the first time and he was very tall so the game plan was to get a take down, control him from top position and pound him out which is exactly what Konrad did for 3 straight rounds. He transitioned from side control to north and south, passed the guard and landed strikes from the top in every position. It was really cool to see the reaction of the UCE regulars that had Konrad pegged as a straight kick boxer and he totally dominated the ground game against a very tough fighter.
Special thanks goes out to Brian Yamasaki for training these guys and to Shane Taylor who handled all of the logistics and cornering for the fight and thanks to Jake Paul and Emilee who also drove all the way to Vernal to support the team.
Great article sir. I feel like I was there… kind of. Makes me wish I were. Looks like you guys had a good time! Great work all of you!
Thanks for the update & photos. Congrats to Kensei & Konrad for great performances in their debut fights. Mushin is always so well represented. Hope to see them fighting in SLC soon, can’t wait.
Thank you so much for your dedication to this weekend’s effort. Spending this past weekend with you and having you and Shane in my corner was a strengthening of the professional and personal connection between us. You are all an inspiration to my continued growth not only as a fighter, but as a true artist and as a person and I thank you again for your help this weekend.
wow that was a great experiance, thank you so much. so many people helped me out thank you so much guys.
wow conrad you look freakin scary
oh yea and what about the side story when you got drunk??
Excellent write-up. Great job, Kensei & Konrad! What a fun and successful road trip with the boys.
Congrats guys! I knew you both would do awesome, I wish I could have seen it.
i live here in vernal it was my first time to a fight like this i enjoyed it very much but i cant fint the info on when and what channel it will be aired on in two weeks please get back with me my daught would like to see it and didnt get to go. Thank you
Kensei, congratulations on a hard fought war this weekend, I’ve heard nothing but good things about your performance. Your an inspiration to all that have had the privilage of training with you. Keep up the good work!
High Misty, it should be aired on channle 30 3pm on sunday if i am correct. Thank you for your support for MMA.
CJ
thank you so much, thank you for sparring with me and pushing me on those saturday trainings.
when you train for your fight i will be there to get my beating
Yamasaki and I did the commentary for Kensei’s fight the other night. Should be airing on the UCE show very soon. Look for it on Sunday at 3pm on WB Channel 30 in Salt Lake.