Igor Vovchanchyn vs Enson Inoue
This fight is the closest any fighter has ever come to dying in a major MMA organization. It's not pretty to watch. The fight and the aftermath are disturbing. It’s heinous because the severe, near-death injury did not have to happen. No fight in modern MMA would ever be allowed to go on this long without the ref stopping it. It’s possible that MMA was so relatively new back then that people didn't realize the extreme danger that was occurring. Brace yourself.
Intro:
Enson Inoue is Japanese-American who grew up in Hawaii but lived in Japan during the time of this fight. He had beaten MMA legend Randy Couture in a vale-tudo match but lost to Mark Kerr in his first Pride match before this. The crowd is decidedly in favor of him. He doesn’t have even half the experience of his opponent, but seemed respected in MMA at the time.
Igor Vovchanchyn is from Ukraine and at 5’8”, 228 lbs you would think this guy is obese. But looking at him he is solid and packs some power. He already had a fearsome reputation as a puncher and was one of Pride’s premier fighters. This was already his 46th MMA match, most of which were under vale-tudo rules and having to fight multiple times in one night. So Igor Vovchanchyn is an ice cold badass.
Staredown:
During the opening staredown the fighters shake hands right away and are very respectful to each other. They don’t scowl or even look at each other much. Both nod to the ref a few times before going back to their corner. This does not foreshadow at all what was about to happen…
The fight:
The fight begins and immediately both fighters try swinging for the fences. It gets wild right away and they’re throwing bombs. Most are missing, but it looks crazy. Enson lands the first big shot in the beginning, but Igor starts going off, getting the best of the exchange and Enson goes to his back.
Igor is bleeding from a cut right away and is in Enson’s guard. In all his fights Igor gets cut and bleeds easily (due to his skin type?). The fight does not slow down as Igor is landing shots from the top and Enson looks close to getting an arm bar. Enson’s head is banging off the mat from some of those punches…
Igor is doing a sit-up type guard, which is not used enough by fighters. It gives you great leverage to throw power punches. Meanwhile it looks like a bad cut around Igor’s left eye and it’s bloody.
Enson is keeping his legs high going for a submission and I don’t know why he’s not trying any up-kicks.
Igor is doing a great job punching Enson in the body a few times and then going for a big head shot. It is doing tremendous damage. This is the beginning of the slaughter and it starts to get hard to watch.
Enson is taking huge shots to the head but still looks coherent. He even says he is okay to the referee who checks on him, but it looks bad.
The fighters get too close to the ropes and the ref moves them to the center of the ring. Enson puts his arms up and two referees drag him towards the center of the ring. His head is dragging against the mat. He does not move under his own power. They could have stopped the fight here.
Everything that happens after this is just a horrible destruction of a mostly defenseless fighter.
However, Enson does look like he is intelligently defending himself when they continue action, but only at the bare minimum. Igor has a lot of power punching from the top. He has full posture when throwing them, so these aren’t your typical punches most guys throw when in the guard.
After at least 4 more monster punches, Enson takes another big one and stops defending himself, rolling to his side and wincing in pain. They should have stopped the fight right here! You can hear the crowd react to how bad it was.
A few seconds even go by with Enson just lying there and Igor stopped punching. And still the ref did not stop the fight. The ref maybe didn’t know how to tell when a fight is over when a guy is getting punched on the ground, and that is utter incompetence.
This starts to piss me off to watch this. I don’t want to see guys get seriously injured because a fight is going on longer than it should. I don’t understand what the hell Pride or the ref were thinking to let this go on.
Moments go by and it does look like Enson is defending himself again slightly, but he looks rocked.
Enson has taken at least 30 big punches from Igor now, not counting smaller ones. Minutes go by with Enson in the same position but not taking as big of punches.
At one minute left Igor gets almost full mount and unleashes some huge back fists to Enson’s head. This is just an utter one-sided beat down.
Enson is in turtle position and the fight should have been stopped here!
This is extremely graphic, but if you look closely you can see a big vein swelling at the side of Enson Inoue’s head. This is the internal hemorrhage. It almost brings tears to my eyes to write this because that should not have happened. I love Pride fighting but only when it is done in a responsible manner.
Enson Inoue is foolish for not tapping out. This fight is so one-sided it’s not entertaining. It gives MMA a bad image. Modern MMA is usually more sensible at stopping fights.
Igor could have just stood up and walked away and Enson would have never gotten up. That’s not Igor’s responsibility to do that though, it is the ref’s job to stop the fight.
And yet there is still 50 seconds left in the fight and Enson is completely not defending himself and taking more damage. This is savage in a bad way.
It is very difficult to watch that last minute. Finally the bell rings and you see the aftermath of the horrendous beating.
Enson cannot stand up. The side of his head is swollen and he looks completely out of it. He finally gets helped up by his trainer and can barely stumble back to his corner.
He collapses onto the floor in the corner and lots of doctors start looking at him. It sends a chill down one’s spine. The announcer (not Quadros) said great fight but it was total bull shit to let that go on. That was not entertaining, but disturbing.
Enson is even yelling “no” in protest of stopping the fight and that is totally retarded, which he literally was from all those punches. He cannot stand under his own power. There is a serious risk that once he goes to sleep he may never wake up. He staggers up and collapses again in the middle of the ring and can’t get up again. It’s like being really drunk. After the camera cuts he is eventually carried out to the locker room and rushed to a hospital.
Enson Inoue almost died. He spent weeks in the hospital after this fight with brain swelling from the hemorrhage, a broken jaw, a burst ear drum, and a concussion. Enson said he didn’t understand how hurt he was at the time.
Was it worth it? All of that so he can say he was man enough not to tap out? That means as much as the soldier who gets blown to pieces to die with honor. You have honor but you’re dead. Some people respect it, some are more practical.
Enson wasn’t man enough to admit he was beat and should have tapped out earlier in the fight. And fuck that referee for doing a horrible job at not stopping it. Then Enson wouldn’t have spent weeks in the hospital. And the slow stoppage also disturbs us, the viewers. People don’t want to watch that where a guy takes more damage than necessary and gets seriously injured.
But Pride had some shady aspects to it, and this was one of them: The refs always leave the Japanese fighters in too long and they take a ton of damage in hopes they somehow mount a comeback. The Japanese fighters suffer tremendously in the ring because of it and I don’t get that.
Enson also had a reputation as having a never quit (tap out) persona so Pride may have wanted to test him. And Enson may have had connections to yakuza which didn’t help.
This is the worst, most prolonged and sustained beating in the history of any major MMA organization, but it's because the ref did not stop the fight on multiple occasions earlier. I think the ref was Yuji Shamada and he must have been sadistic or incompetent in this fight. Granted this was in the year 2000 and the TKO rules weren’t well defined, but still. Enson took easily around 50 big punches to the head. Not counting the little punches.
They had to drain fluid from Enson's head during the ambulance ride to save him...
Pride became more sensible about stopping fights in later years.
Incredibly Enson recovered, and four months later he fought in Pride again, losing to Heath Herring. Crazy. He never developed into a top fighter and only fought a few more times. He seems like a good person and I hope he is doing well financially. He openly admits a connection with the yakuza now and I hope that pays his bills.
Igor Vovchanchyn is one of the early legends in MMA. He’s a true badass and has historical importance. He helped make Pride popular in the early days and was considered one of the best fighters in the world having the heaviest hands. It wasn’t until the next era of great fighters came through a few years later that he would have to step aside. I have nothing but respect for him. He retired relatively young at age 32, but he already had 66 MMA fights and 63 kickboxing matches by then, a crazy stat. He has stated he has long term damage in his hands and his nose from all those fights, which sucks. I hope he made plenty of money in his career and is living a healthy, comfortable life.
Igor Vovchanchyn and Enson Inoue, thank you for fighting in Pride.
Written: August 2013
Intro:
Enson Inoue is Japanese-American who grew up in Hawaii but lived in Japan during the time of this fight. He had beaten MMA legend Randy Couture in a vale-tudo match but lost to Mark Kerr in his first Pride match before this. The crowd is decidedly in favor of him. He doesn’t have even half the experience of his opponent, but seemed respected in MMA at the time.
Igor Vovchanchyn is from Ukraine and at 5’8”, 228 lbs you would think this guy is obese. But looking at him he is solid and packs some power. He already had a fearsome reputation as a puncher and was one of Pride’s premier fighters. This was already his 46th MMA match, most of which were under vale-tudo rules and having to fight multiple times in one night. So Igor Vovchanchyn is an ice cold badass.
Staredown:
During the opening staredown the fighters shake hands right away and are very respectful to each other. They don’t scowl or even look at each other much. Both nod to the ref a few times before going back to their corner. This does not foreshadow at all what was about to happen…
The fight:
The fight begins and immediately both fighters try swinging for the fences. It gets wild right away and they’re throwing bombs. Most are missing, but it looks crazy. Enson lands the first big shot in the beginning, but Igor starts going off, getting the best of the exchange and Enson goes to his back.
Igor is bleeding from a cut right away and is in Enson’s guard. In all his fights Igor gets cut and bleeds easily (due to his skin type?). The fight does not slow down as Igor is landing shots from the top and Enson looks close to getting an arm bar. Enson’s head is banging off the mat from some of those punches…
Igor is doing a sit-up type guard, which is not used enough by fighters. It gives you great leverage to throw power punches. Meanwhile it looks like a bad cut around Igor’s left eye and it’s bloody.
Enson is keeping his legs high going for a submission and I don’t know why he’s not trying any up-kicks.
Igor is doing a great job punching Enson in the body a few times and then going for a big head shot. It is doing tremendous damage. This is the beginning of the slaughter and it starts to get hard to watch.
Enson is taking huge shots to the head but still looks coherent. He even says he is okay to the referee who checks on him, but it looks bad.
The fighters get too close to the ropes and the ref moves them to the center of the ring. Enson puts his arms up and two referees drag him towards the center of the ring. His head is dragging against the mat. He does not move under his own power. They could have stopped the fight here.
Everything that happens after this is just a horrible destruction of a mostly defenseless fighter.
However, Enson does look like he is intelligently defending himself when they continue action, but only at the bare minimum. Igor has a lot of power punching from the top. He has full posture when throwing them, so these aren’t your typical punches most guys throw when in the guard.
After at least 4 more monster punches, Enson takes another big one and stops defending himself, rolling to his side and wincing in pain. They should have stopped the fight right here! You can hear the crowd react to how bad it was.
A few seconds even go by with Enson just lying there and Igor stopped punching. And still the ref did not stop the fight. The ref maybe didn’t know how to tell when a fight is over when a guy is getting punched on the ground, and that is utter incompetence.
This starts to piss me off to watch this. I don’t want to see guys get seriously injured because a fight is going on longer than it should. I don’t understand what the hell Pride or the ref were thinking to let this go on.
Moments go by and it does look like Enson is defending himself again slightly, but he looks rocked.
Enson has taken at least 30 big punches from Igor now, not counting smaller ones. Minutes go by with Enson in the same position but not taking as big of punches.
At one minute left Igor gets almost full mount and unleashes some huge back fists to Enson’s head. This is just an utter one-sided beat down.
Enson is in turtle position and the fight should have been stopped here!
This is extremely graphic, but if you look closely you can see a big vein swelling at the side of Enson Inoue’s head. This is the internal hemorrhage. It almost brings tears to my eyes to write this because that should not have happened. I love Pride fighting but only when it is done in a responsible manner.
Enson Inoue is foolish for not tapping out. This fight is so one-sided it’s not entertaining. It gives MMA a bad image. Modern MMA is usually more sensible at stopping fights.
Igor could have just stood up and walked away and Enson would have never gotten up. That’s not Igor’s responsibility to do that though, it is the ref’s job to stop the fight.
And yet there is still 50 seconds left in the fight and Enson is completely not defending himself and taking more damage. This is savage in a bad way.
It is very difficult to watch that last minute. Finally the bell rings and you see the aftermath of the horrendous beating.
Enson cannot stand up. The side of his head is swollen and he looks completely out of it. He finally gets helped up by his trainer and can barely stumble back to his corner.
He collapses onto the floor in the corner and lots of doctors start looking at him. It sends a chill down one’s spine. The announcer (not Quadros) said great fight but it was total bull shit to let that go on. That was not entertaining, but disturbing.
Enson is even yelling “no” in protest of stopping the fight and that is totally retarded, which he literally was from all those punches. He cannot stand under his own power. There is a serious risk that once he goes to sleep he may never wake up. He staggers up and collapses again in the middle of the ring and can’t get up again. It’s like being really drunk. After the camera cuts he is eventually carried out to the locker room and rushed to a hospital.
Enson Inoue almost died. He spent weeks in the hospital after this fight with brain swelling from the hemorrhage, a broken jaw, a burst ear drum, and a concussion. Enson said he didn’t understand how hurt he was at the time.
Was it worth it? All of that so he can say he was man enough not to tap out? That means as much as the soldier who gets blown to pieces to die with honor. You have honor but you’re dead. Some people respect it, some are more practical.
Enson wasn’t man enough to admit he was beat and should have tapped out earlier in the fight. And fuck that referee for doing a horrible job at not stopping it. Then Enson wouldn’t have spent weeks in the hospital. And the slow stoppage also disturbs us, the viewers. People don’t want to watch that where a guy takes more damage than necessary and gets seriously injured.
But Pride had some shady aspects to it, and this was one of them: The refs always leave the Japanese fighters in too long and they take a ton of damage in hopes they somehow mount a comeback. The Japanese fighters suffer tremendously in the ring because of it and I don’t get that.
Enson also had a reputation as having a never quit (tap out) persona so Pride may have wanted to test him. And Enson may have had connections to yakuza which didn’t help.
This is the worst, most prolonged and sustained beating in the history of any major MMA organization, but it's because the ref did not stop the fight on multiple occasions earlier. I think the ref was Yuji Shamada and he must have been sadistic or incompetent in this fight. Granted this was in the year 2000 and the TKO rules weren’t well defined, but still. Enson took easily around 50 big punches to the head. Not counting the little punches.
They had to drain fluid from Enson's head during the ambulance ride to save him...
Pride became more sensible about stopping fights in later years.
Incredibly Enson recovered, and four months later he fought in Pride again, losing to Heath Herring. Crazy. He never developed into a top fighter and only fought a few more times. He seems like a good person and I hope he is doing well financially. He openly admits a connection with the yakuza now and I hope that pays his bills.
Igor Vovchanchyn is one of the early legends in MMA. He’s a true badass and has historical importance. He helped make Pride popular in the early days and was considered one of the best fighters in the world having the heaviest hands. It wasn’t until the next era of great fighters came through a few years later that he would have to step aside. I have nothing but respect for him. He retired relatively young at age 32, but he already had 66 MMA fights and 63 kickboxing matches by then, a crazy stat. He has stated he has long term damage in his hands and his nose from all those fights, which sucks. I hope he made plenty of money in his career and is living a healthy, comfortable life.
Igor Vovchanchyn and Enson Inoue, thank you for fighting in Pride.
Written: August 2013