There's no doubt about it, Tanaka is a great fighter, however.....
Is it the dog in the fight or the fight in the dog???
I tend to think that it's the latter in this case, BUT, he has also got the skill behind it (and the speed).
For those who watched Khan's fight last night (all 72sec. of it), again we saw that it was actually skill that put Earl on his backside and not the 'killer instinct' that certainly I believed would determine the outcome.
Compare these then, I mean have a look at Azzy and Huw breaking these boards; Azzy uses hip rotation for the mawashigeri, whilst Huw uses body weight in his gyakuzuki, both effective, but technically Azzy's is superior because he uses body dynamics.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwzb9lOaAVsNow take another look at this one,
http://s124.photobucket.com/albums/p26/andyjack64/karate%20vids/Tanaka/?action=view¤t=Tanakakumite2.flv Tanaka uses 'unorthodox' techniques to even the fight, technically, Oishi is the superior fighter, but for aggression and the ability to switch to grappling and throws, makes Tanaka an unpredictable opponent, which has an adverse effect on the mental attitude of his adversary. We all know that we'd rather fight a 4th or 5th Dan than a yellow belt because although the Dan grades are superior in skill, the yellow belts are unpredictable, and more often that not, we're the ones that get hurt (blocks on elbows etc).
