Sauer spoils Inoue's Honolulu debut

By Dayton Morinaga
Advertiser Staff Writer

Tom Sauer of Florida has the upper hand against Enson Inoue in their Super Brawl 35 bout. Sauer beat Inoue, who was making his Hawai'i fighting debut. Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

A crowd of around 5,000 at the Blaisdell Center Arena watched the 10-bout card, and jeered the outcome of the final bout.

Sauer worked his way into the "mount" position on top of Inoue and then unleashed a series of unanswered punches, prompting Daine Agbayani to stop the bout with 46 seconds remaining in the five-minute round. The fight was scheduled for three rounds.

"It may look like I took a lot of damage, but I'm OK," Inoue said. "Hat's off to Tom for hitting me enough to make the referee stop it, but I don't think it should have been stopped."

Super Brawl promoter T.Jay Thompson said: "In any other fight, I would say it was the right move to stop it. But because of the way Enson is known to fight and not give up, and because the fight was promoted that way, I would say it was an early stop."

One of Inoue's corner men rushed into the ring and pushed Agbayani after the bout, but order was quickly restored.

Inoue, who dropped to 11-8, is a superstar mixed martial arts fighter in Japan. He has been living in Japan since 1990, and last night was his first bout in Hawai'i.

Sauer, who improved to 15-6, offered Inoue a rematch after the bout.

Japanese competitors from Inoue's Purebred schools went a combined 4-3 on the undercard.

Preliminary bouts

• 130 pounds: Jyoji Yamaguchi (1-0) of Japan defeated Billy Kidd (2-2) of Indiana by knockout 7 seconds into the third round.
• 155: Bart Palaszewski (8-3) of Indiana defeated Hiroaki Okada (2-2) of Japan by TKO 3:02 into the third round.
• 150: Makoto Ishikawa (10-5-1) of Japan defeated Antoine Skinner (4-4) of Indiana by unanimous decision.
• 160: Tetsuji Kato (17-5) of Japan defeated Jason Dent (3-2) of Indiana by unanimous decision.
• Heavyweight: Kerry Schall (15-6) of Ohio defeated Ray Seraille (3-6) of Hawai'i by TKO 2:15 into the first round.
• 160: Ryan Bow (11-5) of Japan defeated Deshaun Johnson (5-7) of Hawai'i by submission 2:01 into the first round.
• 205: Joe Doerksen (26-6) of Canada defeated Riki Fukuda (0-1) of Japan by unanimous decision.
• 138: Jeff Curran (12-6-1) of Iowa defeated Kimihito Nonaka (6-7) of Japan by choke submission 4:35 into the third round.
• 205: Rich Franklin (13-1) of Ohio defeated Leo Sylvest (4-13) of Indiana by TKO 1:13 into the first round.