Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Fedor Emelianenko, Dan Henderson, Ricardo Arona, "TK" Tsuyoshi Kosaka, Matt Hughes, Sanae Kikuta, Gilbert Yvel, Valentijn Overeem, Alistair Overeem, Alexander Otsuka, Peter Aerts, Genki Sudo, Mikhail Illoukhine, Renato Sobral, Bobby Hoffman, Andrei Kopylov, Hans Nijman, Hiromitsu Kanehara, Dave Menne, Ricardo Morais, Kiyoshi Tamura,…. they all fought in RINGS way before they stepped into PRIDE, UFC, or K-1.

In fact, RINGS is where everything began.
I'm not just talking about how many of today's stars were discovered by RINGS.
Brazil may have planted a seed called Vale Tudo but RINGS definitely is the one who provided a variety of fertilizers to make this into a full-blown professional sport, and I believe, this makes RINGS undoubtedly a cornerstone of today's MMA.

When we look at the very first poster of RINGS, it is apparent that Maeda was RINGS and RINGS was Maeda. The image of Maeda standing occupies half of it and on the other side, it says, "Akira Maeda, the first event." It is the first poster for RINGS' inaugural event but the word "RINGS" is printed almost apologetically, tiny, on the bottom.
That's right. Back in 1991, Akira Maeda started it all and Japanese fight fans were only interested in what Maeda was going to do, not "what the hell is this RINGS all about?"
Basically fans were wondering, "What can he do all alone?"

Akira Maeda was born 1959 in Osaka, and joined Antonio Inoki's New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) in 1977. There, he was told that "Pro-wrestlers must be strong therefore you need to learn submission moves. NJPW would further develop in the future and would begin, not show-wrestling but real fights."
Maeda believed it and simply followed this philosophy.
In 1984, Maeda left NJPW to form this new fight organization called UWF (Universal Pro-Wrestling Federations) but it collapsed in just a year so he went back to NJPW but in 1988, once again, he left NJPW and re-formed UWF to pursue what Inoki had taught him earlier.
(Actually, Maeda was forced out of NJPW for breaking the code – during a pro-wrestling match, he kicked a star wrestler's face from behind, causing a depressed fracture around the eye)

The theme of this newly re-formed UWF was "a return to the origin of pro-wrestling."
Maeda got rid of all the show aspects of pro-wrestling; running to the ropes, jumping off the corner post, fighting outside the ring hitting with chairs or some sort of "artilleries," three count pin, tag team match, etc.
It still was pro-wrestling but the matches were filled with real techniques from submission, grappling, wrestling, and karate. They were all so fast, quick, and powerful, and the form quite beautiful, that they were indeed very convincing. Convincing in the sense that you could tell that these guys are real tough motherfuckers.

The dangerous aura emanated by real tough guys like Gerard Gordeau from Holland made everything quite thrilling and with the use of, well, back then, a new lighting effect called laser beams along with rock music, UWF quickly became a major popular trend in Japanese society. Just as "sculptor" Dan Flavin picked up neon lights, Maeda, as a promoter, was keen on new toys and implemented them to his vision of amalgamating fight events with a rock concert atmosphere.
Maeda however was not satisfied with this success. Sure he wanted to do pro-wrestling with real techniques at first, then his plan was to slowly but surely make the transition into a real fight competition, but he began to see his Japanese fighters slacking off. Maybe fighters got the wrong idea from the success and Maeda started to see young fighters doing just a little bit of weight lifting and sparring. That was it! Fighters were loosing the hunger to acquire new skills, new power.

Maeda thought of bringing in new blood to stir things up, and the solution, he thought, was Chris Dolman from Holland. Dolman, just as Munich Olympic gold medallist William Ruska, is one of the most respected Judo players in Holland and he also has the experience of winning the world Sambo title.
Dolman already had his own dojo, but at the time was making his ends meet bouncing at the bar. Many tough guys in Holland however after hearing numerous heroic episodes by Dolman, came to his dojo, so he taught them free of charge and sometimes even got them jobs as bouncers.
Being a bouncer however is not exactly working in a safe environment and Dolman's wish really was to provide his fighters a safe way to make a living.
Maeda knew how tough these Dutch boys were and he was aware of the fact that if he brought them into the UWF, under real fight competition, the majority of his Japanese fighters were going to be dumped into the bin. In the real world of sports however this is very ordinary, indeed very natural. Maeda knew it so he was already thinking of a way to support the fighters who decided not to compete. I believe, Maeda knew, that in order for him to make this into a real fight competition, sometimes sacrifices had to be made.
Maeda also wanted to provide Dolman's fighters a path on how to make a living fighting without putting yourself in danger of getting stabbed in the eye or a gunshot to your stomach followed by two shots to the back of your head type of frenzy.

However, when UWF was just about make its transition into real competition, all of a sudden everything disintegrated. Till this date, no one knows the real truth is behind this but UWF was split-up into three groups. Nobuhiko Takada, a current PRIDE general director, with fighters like Yoji Anjo and Kiyoshi Tamura formed "UWF International" and Yoshiaki Fujiwara with fighters like Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki (co-founders of Pancrase) formed "Fujiwara-gumi." Maeda was left all alone and was forced to start from the scratch and that's the reason why fans were wondering back then, "What can he do alone, all by himself?"

The first thing Maeda did, after the disruption of UWF, was forming RINGS Holland. Maeda probably kept a promise he made with Dolman and this was the result of it, in the very first RINGS event held in May of 1991, out of eight competing fighters, six of them were Dutch. Immediately after the first event, Maeda flew to Russia and by drinking vodka all night long and sparring with top Sambo fighters and Judo players during the day, Maeda obtained the credibility of the Russians and successfully formed RINGS Russia and RINGS Georgia. In fact, the timing was perfect for both Russians and Maeda back in 1991. It was the time of Perestroika and under Mikhail Gorbachev's newly reformed political system, many top athletes in Russia lost a privilege of so-called "Sports Master Regime" where life long pensions were guaranteed.

The biggest haul from this Russian connection, I believe, was encountering "Commando Sambo" which ultimately ended up connecting RINGS with current PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko.
This "Commando Sambo" was indeed new to even the most discerning Japanese fight fans. Volk Han, in his first Japanese appearance, was invited to fight in the main card of a RINGS event in December of 1991, and proved it all. Han displayed a series of moves, submissions and choking holds never before seen and overwhelmed Maeda, showing Japanese fight fans a taste of truly dangerous but graceful ground techniques. This was indeed a genuine grass rooted art with very complicated geometry. Well, at least that's what I thought.
Yes, I believe it was Han and his "Commando Sambo" which first made Japanese fans realized of a fact now known as a common knowledge; submission and choking holds can be just as lethal as kicks to the temple or punches to the chin.
Interestingly enough, this fourth RINGS event was filled with fighters from different organizations; besides Han, there were Masaaki Satake and Nobuaki Kakuda from Seido-kaikan, Zaza "Grom" Tkeshelashvili from RINGS Georgia, and Koichiro Kimura, who later faced Rickson Gracie in Vale Tudo Japan Open, from SAW (Submission Arts Wrestling). The concept of RINGS, "Building Fighter's Network Throughout the World" I believe, has started to visibly take shape since this event.

The next year, Maeda did something very revolutionary.
For the first time in history, he successfully brought in a fighter from Kyokushin Kaikan Karate into RINGS. Back then Kyokushin was very strict, forbidding fighters to participate in other competitions. Maeda however after meeting Tariel Bitsadze at RINGS Georgia, personally wrote a letter to Masutastu Oyama, the founder of Kyokushin, and got an authorization for Bitsadze to fight in RINGS. (Later, Bitsadze became the second RINGS Open-weight champion)
Then in May of 1992, Peter Aerts came to Japan for the first time, and fought in a RINGS event.
Maeda was finally back into this orbit of creating a real world-class MMA competition.
Holland, Russia, France, South Africa, etc. By 1992, RINGS established this vast network of discovering and developing fighters, and it seems as though strong tailwinds are pushing them forward.
But everything changed when WOWOW, a cable television company airing the RINGS event, announced its budget cuts and matters got even worse when Maeda's right knee ligament injury from 1991 deteriorated.

Part 2 >>