Grom Zaza vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka (RINGS - 12/19/1995)

Hell of a gem from RINGS here. Sort of Tamura/Han part 0 in that it's the European leg lock wizard against the Japanese with shoot credentials, and I think it's right up there with those matches. Pretty much balls to wall action from the start with them pulling out all kinds of incredible submissions and counters from the beginning. I loved Kosaka's performance in selling the frustration. He showed a lot of heart, but it always seemed like Zaza was just one step ahead. There's a ton of breathtaking sequences here, but my favorite happened around the middle of the match with Kosaka hitting a beautiful rolling guillotine just for Zaza to reverse it into a calf crusher. I thought they did a great job milking all the submissions and building up tension so it didn't just feel like a matwork spotfest. Amazing finish with Zaza doing a judo throw and turning it into a brutal looking armbar. If you dig shoot-style, drop what you're doing and watch this. ****1/2



www.dailymotion.com/video/xvpau6