K.O.K. (King of Kings) was Akira Maeda's answer to the world in regards to the rapid invasion of "The Black Ship" named Gracie Jiu-jitsu and Vale Tudo in the Japanese fight sports community.
The public was definitely shifting towards "real fight." The fans were hungry, anxious to see, who truly is the strongest.
And no striking to the head on the ground was Maeda's answer.
The fans, especially those hardcore well-informed types, were thrilled with Maeda's invention.

This was back in 1999 when everyone was still debating, regarding both the sports and entertainment aspects, and which would be the most suitable rules for MMA. PRIDE was experimenting with different rules such as 60 minutes (Renzo vs. Kikuta) and 30 minutes (Kimo vs. Severn) matches so Maeda believers in Japan thought, hey, these K.O.K. rules could turn out to be the more interesting to see as a spectator sport!

TK (right) was the first Japaense fighter to achieve the status of "a regular" in the UFC. Photography by Hideto Ida

This, also, was a historical conversion for RINGS because it meant that they had finally decided to just concentrate on the competition.
The era was thirsty for real fighting, and this was no longer just indispensable. In order for them to stay competitive in the Japanese professional sports market, this decision was unavoidable.

Maeda however wanted to make sure of one thing before committing to this transition. He wanted to make sure that RINGS would have, at least, one Japanese heavyweight who could square off against the best in the world. Sort of like how Luca Brasi or Al Neri always protected Don Corleone, RINGS had to have a real muscle, the gatekeeper, who can guard the main castle in Japan.
Tsuyoshi TK Kosaka, for Maeda and RINGS, was the man who could solve this last assignment.

TK joined RINGS in September of 1993 after leaving the prestigious Toray Corporation's Judo team due to a knee injury crucial for a Judo-ka. TK, who had been walking on the path of elite amateur athletes, in RINGS, restarted his fight career at the bottom of the totem pole within the world of MMA.
Maeda, back then, was telling the media, "I am working on this very interesting guy, who just came in from Judo. In three years or so, no one will be able to beat him."

TK, in his debut fight on August 20th, 1994, at Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, showed more then glimpse of what Maeda implied in his prediction.
This fight, against Nobuhiro Tsurumaki, went all the way to the fifth round but TK was tearing up the opponent - He had tremendous rushing power, and hit with heavy strikes, unexpected from a Judo-ka, he dominated and KO'd this veteran from S.A.W. (Submission Arts Wrestling)

Then the next year, TK caused a "big incident" that captured the attention of every MMA media in Japan.
In October of 1995, TK entered the "Lumax Cup: Tournament of J 95" promoted by Wajiu-tsu Keishu-kai. This tournament was quite experimental - rules were basically MMA, with open finger gloves, but it required every competitor to cover their upper body with a gi.

K-1 first danced with Inoki Office then switched to Maeda (left) and now he is the supervisor of Hero's. Sort of like a big brother of every Japanese fighting in Hero's show including Caol Uno (right). Photography by Yoshinori Ihara

This was actually quite revolutionary for RINGS, the organization always insisted on professional shows, to allow one of their fighters to compete in the ambit of amateur sports. Back in 1995, in Japan, a professional fighter competing in an amateur event, was considered very risky in terms of one's professional career. If you lose, it can be crucial, and if you lose badly it could also result in harming the reputation of fighter‚s association, sometimes, in a traumatic manner.
However, TK, in the first round, breezed through Hiroyuki Yoshioka, current head of the YMC, in just a little over a minute, with a lightning quick heel lock.

Then TK overpowered Susumu Yamazaki, a top fighter from Daido-juku, and went on to the finals to face the probable winner of the tournament, Eagan Inoue. In this final match, TK nipped and tucked against one of the world's top jiu-jitsu men and won a decision in the extra round. A rookie from RINGS, who just made a professional debut a year ago, conquered the MMA tournament.
This TK win, perhaps, assured the RINGS management that with a couple more years of ring experiences, they would have a legitimate world-class heavyweight competitor in their dugout.

After Maeda's retirement match on February 1999, RINGS started to experiment with K.O.K. rules in the "World Mega-Battle Tournament" which opened on October 28th 1999.
Maeda began implementing his invention with a 5-minutes-per-round-for-2-round system in this 32-man tournament.

No striking to the head and no stalling.
These two points were the backbone of K.O.K. rules. Maeda and RINGS wanted to create a sports-like MMA show without any smell of street fighting. So Maeda first got rid of elbow shots and in the next, he took out kicking to a grounded opponent. Then finally, and most importantly, Maeda took out all strikes to the head on the ground.
Then he came up with something very revolutionary and that is the concept of "no stalling" which was applied to refereeing under K.O.K. rules.

TK captured the King of Pancrase title (super heavyweight division) in November 7th, 2004 defeting Ron Waterman in decision. Photography by Hideto Ida

Back in 1999, the athletes who occupied MMA's top spots were the ones with backgrounds in amateur wrestling - Dan Severn, Mark Kerr, Mark Coleman, Don Frye, and Randy Couture. Even though Royce Gracie, in the UFC, had already exhibited various lethal techniques from the guard position, many people, especially the Japanese general public, were still keeping the emphasis on who took whom down and who kept the top position on the ground, and this is partly because these ex-wrestlers with great take down skills were winning the game. There was a tendency among all fighters to try to keep the top position instead of going for finishing holds, and Maeda knew this trend, this style of fighting, could create a series of boring spectacles with two big men holding onto each other on the mat, so he did something very fair.
Maeda declared catching an opponent in the full-guard and not going for a submission is stalling, same as staying on the top and not trying to improve positioning or attempting submission holds or striking.

The hardest part of these K.O.K. rules was this "no stalling" concept. The referee kept stepping in and standing the fighters back up once one fighter stopped attacking.
In the opening round of the World Mega-Battle Tournament, fans even saw the referee breaking fighters up even when one of them had achieved a mount position.
Once you stopped, then the referee would stand you up.
These K.O.K. rules created a fight sport where all competitors where forced to keep moving or attacking, and this was very entertaining for spectators.

This match, happened in RINGS, was one of the best technical bouts in the history of MMA. Yes, this is Andrei Kopylof vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Photograph by Hideo Ida

The first 16 combatants, in Block A of the tournament, fought in the opening show in October at Yoyogi No.2 Gymnasium. In this bracket, fighters like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Dan Henderson, Jeremy Horn, Alistair Overeem, Renato "Babalu" Sobral, Mikhail Illoukhine, Hiromitsu Kanehara, Yoshihisa Yamamoto, and Brad Kohler tested their skills under these newly invented
rules by Maeda.

On December 22nd of the same year, in Osaka, the other 16 competitors in the other bracket such as Renzo Gracie, Gilbert Yvel, Maurice Smith, Tsuyoshi TK Kosaka, Andrei Kopylof, Dave Menne, Tim Lajcik, Tariel Bitsadze, and Kiyoshi Tamura also tasted this new fruit called K.O.K. rules.

It seems though that all fighters, both grapplers and strikers, liked this new set of rules. Grapplers now could enjoy a chess game on the ground, and strikers could get more opportunities to fight on their feet. One take down is no longer super crucial on the judges‚ scorecard.
However as tournament progressed into the finals, RINGS saw one problem and that was, too many fights going to a decision. After all, fans prefer a clear-cut win - KO or tap out - but when two highly skilled fighters encountered each other with these K.O.K. rules, 5 minutes for 2 round (with 1 extra round) it was just not long enough. However, 5 minutes for 5 rounds would be a little too long as a tournament bout, and 3 minutes is too short of a round in MMA.

Maeda however knew, the revision he needed to make to resolve this obstacle, and he immediately implemented the changes after the finals of this tournament.

Vol. 06 Coming Soon!

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