Hifumi Abe vs Joshiro Maruyama was worthy of all the hype, and then some

With all the buzz on the internet, I hesitate to write anything, because there isn’t a whole lot I can contribute at this point. Labeled the Ganryujima of the Reiwa Era, this match went above and beyond the buildup.

First of all, not that either of them are ever going to read this, but THANK YOU. THANK. YOU. When my 2.5 year-old son is old enough to appreciate the magnitude of this event and what it meant for judo, I will be sure to tell him about the sacrifices you both made to being the best in your sport and reaching a level in judo that few will ever reach. The match was a beauty to watch, but even more beautiful than that, were the stories you brought with you onto the tatami that evening.

Here are some thoughts on the match:

Abe was totally jacked for this fight. Abe came into the match in the best shape we have ever seen him in. Ryo Kawabata (All Japan Champion, 2-0 vs Takato), one of the color commentators of the event mentioned that he has never seen Abe in the physical shape he was in that night. His facial features indicate he took on a massive weight cut, likely due to the added muscle mass he put on in preparation for this match.

Amano Sensei was the co-champion of the night. I mentioned this in my interview with Dave Roman on the Judo Chop Suey Podcast, where I said the hardest job for the night would be that of the referee. Amano Sensei did a superb job officiating the match. I said on the podcast that there was no way this would be decided on penalties, and I am glad she let them scrap it out until the end. If this was an IJF event, she would have officiated it differently, but this wasn’t and she had to juggle a lot of variables when making the calls she did. In my opinion, she is the best referee in the world right now.

Abe was the rightful winner. There has been some disagreement on the internet about who should have won and whether the format created the proper context to choose an athlete for the Olympics, but I think Abe deserved the win in every way possible. Here is why:

1. He never deviated from the plan: The gameplan for Abe from the outset was that he wouldn’t let Maruyama get his lapel and surely wouldn’t let Maruyama get two hands on the gi for any length of time. For 24 minutes, he frustrated Maruyama and though he wasn’t 100% successful, especially in the latter portion of the match, Maruyama had very little time to take the match into his comfort zone, where he can throw with one hand on the lapel and one hand on the sleeve. Abe did a great job of adjusting his tactics from previous matches. His use of ashiwaza to keep Maruyama from gaining enough balance to improve on his grip or setup an attack was clearly something he planned and it worked with great efficiency.
2. His confidence was on full display. Perhaps I am reading too far into this one, but one of the first things I noticed was that the coach he elected to have in the coach’s box was none other than Naohisa Takato’s training partner, Naoki Itami. I would have thought it would have been either Hidehiko Yoshida, his Park 24 head coach, or perhaps Masaru Tanabe, head coach of the Nippon Sports Science University where Abe is an alumnus and frequently trains. Instead, it was a friend of his, similar in age, who lacks extensive coaching experience and has never competed at an international level. Someday I hope to ask why he chose Itami to corner him at the biggest match of his life, but at the moment I really have no solid guesses. What I do know is that it shows that Abe is supremely confident in himself to make such decisions, and it was the right choice as he came out the winner.
3. He didn’t gas this time: One of the problems that Abe had in previous matches was that when he would start to tire, he would actually turn up the gas and increase his attack rate, partially hoping that he could win on penalties. This would inevitably lead to losing some focus and getting countered. This time, he maintained his concentration throughout the entire match. Sure, the breaks in between were advantageous, but those things happen in judo and are part of the game. Whether he could or couldn’t have kept this amount of gas in the tank if it were a tournament is irrelevant. Both prepared for one match, and Abe had better preparation.
4. He won the grip fighting contest. This is similar to point number one, but worth a quick mention. Abe has a great tsurikomigoshi and can throw with both sleeves. He can also throw immediately off of the grip and in a scramble. Maruyama is much less comfortable in these situations and Abe did a great job of keeping the match on his terms in a realm that he is most comfortable in. Maruyama rarely established the inside grip on the lapel and had to settle for going around towards the back of the shoulder. Though he started to improve later in the match, Abe still won the gripping sequences the majority of the time.

There are other reasons, but I think those are the ones I noticed for the most part. Under the circumstances, Abe figured out how to win, and I personally think that his preparation and strategy was the better of the two. His improvements in certain areas really showed in the contest.

Joshiro Maruyama just lacked that extra 1%. Let me state my bias upfront, but even after that match, I still think Joshiro Maruyama has the best judo technique in the world. He has such a huge range of throws; he can throw left and right, he has good sutemi waza and excellent newaza (though we rarely get to see it). While Abe sometimes shows his own range of techniques in lesser matches, when the pressure is on, Maruyama has more arrows in his quiver.

This was the equivalent of the Olympic finals and if he were to be selected for the Olympics, he would likely come home the champion. Let’s not forget that this match was unbelievably close and really could have gone in several different directions depending on who was refereeing. I think he just lacked that final 1% that would have put him over the top. I think it was clear that he prepared well physically, and showed some new techniques that we hadn’t seen in previous matches. I also think he was the better of the two for most of the golden score period, but he never figured out how to beat Abe in the gripping department, and that was the deciding factor. Without the grips, he couldn’t get his uchimata going and was perhaps a bit too cautious to go for more risky gripping sequences.

He has said he would continue, and I hope he does because I think he still has one more world championship to win before he hangs it up.

Kosei Inoue, the Kodokan and AJJF staff deserve a lot of recognition. A match like this would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. I doubt the Kodokan would have ever allowed the made-for-tv atmosphere, let alone the blue judogi. In the end though, this was a huge win for judo. It put judo on a stage that I have never seen in Japan. The buildup was bigger than anything I could have imagined.

The one-match format was the correct format. The one-match format was criticized by lots of people, including athletes in Japan. At the end of the day though, having them fight more matches wouldn’t have changed anything. This format showed who would be able to better adjust and prepare for the given challenge and in my opnion, Abe came in the better prepared. Either way, the All Japan Judo Federation already knew they have the most likely gold medalist in the category regardless of the outcome and this was simply a formality to provide a fair and clear way to choose their athlete. They would have no problems going with Maruyama if he had won.

Finally, there has been a lot of comments from top level athletes in Japan, including Satoshi Ishii and Yuka Nishida (who herself lost a heartbreaking match to decide the -52kg representative in London 2012) which I hope to share later this week, so please check back in. This was probably the most fun I have had writing a post since I started this blog. Thanks again, Hifumi Abe and Joshiro Maruyama.