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Interview
CHAOS Promotion Director
CHAOS MADMAX Producer
Takeyuki Hayama |
--- Kancho, I’d like to begin by asking a fundamental question. Is the CHAOS MADMAX event about karate technique, a soft focus so to speak, or does it have a harder emphasis - focused on extreme rules fought bare fisted by participants with a background in either kickboxing or karate. This I believe will largely determine the future direction of the event. Which do you plan to emphasize?
Hayama:That's a very good question.
Chaos, the name of the tournament, means disorder or confusion, and with many forms of martial arts fighting in existence, the fighting martial arts community is in a state of confusion. It is unclear what forms are truly powerful in a real fight situation. Our motivation for CHAOS was to clarify this by having everyone fight bare fisted. When a karate fighter puts on gloves and gets into the ring and loses, we want to know if that is really because karate is less effective. Instead of doing this by ourselves we wanted to gather people from various fighting martial arts so we went for an entertainment style event. Last year (2006) on November 3 we held the first tournament, every match ended in a KO and everyone went home talking about the fight. This was when I became convinced that CHAOS could become a major martial arts fighting event.
--- I see. So the impetus was, like the slogan of the previous tournament, to reclaim karate's former mantle as most powerful, but at the same time you see CHAOS becoming a major martial arts fighting event.
Hayama: Exactly
--- Watching footage of the first tournament, with punches to the face allowed, CHAOS seems closer to kick boxing or K-1 than full contact karate. Do you intend to position CHAOS in direct competition with these “entertainment fighting sports”?
Hayama: No, we don't intend to compete with them but I think that through collaboration with various forms of martial arts fighting, CHAOS will appeal as an entertainment sport and contribute something exciting to the industry.
--- If you are positioning CHAOS as an entertainment sport it is important to consider rules, safety and so forth. Like the UFC experienced in its initial stages, this process can result in a drift from the original “extreme” nature of the fight. Do you think that this is likely to happen with CHAOS?
Hayama: From a technical perspective, while offensive techniques will evolve, defensive technique will evolve significantly. Even if the rules are adjusted, as fighters gain more match experience they will develop winning patterns. As a result the fights will be safe and CHAOS will retain its “extreme” nature. I believe we can provide spectators with a new form of professional martial arts fighting.
--- There is one more question I would like to ask in regard to CHAOS as an entertainment fighting sport. Do you have plans to create a title and hold a title match and do you have plans to hold tournaments?
Hayama: Of course. In the future we plan to establish a ranking system and an official champion title and we are also planning the 3rd CHAOS tournament for Japan. In the future it would be exciting to have not only fighters from a karate background, but to see fighters from a range of martial arts enter the tournament.
--- I would think though, that in the current martial arts fighting environment, there aren't many fighters who would be willing to fight bare fisted.
Hayama: No I don't think that is the case. We have a full contact karate Japan champion planning to enter the 3rd CHAOS tournament, and at the coming CHAOS event, after his full contact fight, the Uchida Juku Japan Games ace, Yamashita will announce his intention to enter the next tournament under CHAOS rules. Uchida Juku is run by former Japan Karate Federation three-time champion, Yorihisa Uchida.
--- If that happens it will be big news! It is possible that fighters from various backgrounds will participate but it appears that CHAOS tournaments will be centered around karate. You talked earlier of holding tournaments, but what about the issue of injury?
Hayama: Many people consider fighting bare fisted to be dangerous. I think that the main concerns are the hands and receiving attacks to the face. But there are ways of blocking, and ways of gripping and striking under theses rules that are safe so injury is absolutely not an issue!
-- So there will be no death in the ring then?
Hayama: In fact being punched with gloves shakes the brain so being punched by a bare fist is actually safer because the punch is more effective.
--- I am looking forward to the upcoming CHAOS tournament and the third CHOAS event as well. Thank you very much.
Hayama: For now it is enough that you appreciate the extreme nature of the event and enjoy the fights (laughs). Please be sure to look out for CHAOS in the future! Thank you.
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