Tear Jerker / Kiyoshi Tamura

• Tamura's first high level shootfight in RINGS, against Valentijn Overeem (Alistair's big bad brother), was a Tear Jerker itself in the vein of Nobuhiko Takada's one against Rickson Gracie. Just started the fight, Tamura gets caught in a guillotine choke and has to spent a rope escape. He goes for his expert leglocks, but then Overeem, showing a greater grappling ability than Tamura had ever imagined, reverses it and catches him in a rear naked choke for another escape. You can feel Tamura's increasing desperation at realizing that the fight is turning over its head, and that it had been just a delusion to think that a newbie like him, accustomed only to submit boxers and kickboxers, could best a freefigher much heavier and more experimented. He nonetheless tries harder, but only gets another guillotine choke for his efforts, and finally, after another scramble, the Dutch fighter locks a kneebar which Kiyoshi can't defend and makes him tap out. He is left on the ring lying under a celebrating Overeem, while the feeling of having screwed everything up comes down to him.
  • Seeing that their pro wrestling champion had been thrashed in front of a crowded arena, the bookers had to change all the plans and make Tamura lose the title the next event, as no promotion can afford having such a loser as their champion. His chance to become a star like his mentors Takada and Maeda had waned.
  • Another sad point: given that the bookers didn't want to risk Tamura for another loss, they made the rematch against Overeem a worked bout. Tamura never really got the revenge against the man who had crushed his reign.
• His rematch against Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, whose win over Tamura had left the latter bitter and obsessed over the years. After finally getting his chance in PRIDE, he went to the ring to make the Brazilian taste his revenge... and then he was taken down, hooked and armbarred to tap out in two minutes. Kiyoshi's post-fight interview is heartwrenching. He rambles a bit and actually looks like he is about to cry.
  "I have no words in any language to express my shame. I really wanted to take Nogueira. He was indelibly ingrained in my heart, since the first time we fought. But now I have lost the rights to be in the [PRIDE] GP. I... I only came here for Nogueira."