A Look at Tany's Labo

Monday, 10 December 2012 11:11

Written by Dave Walsh

Sadaharu Tanikawa is probably a name that you know pretty well if you've followed the fighting world in the past ten years. If not famous, he is infamous, which is both deserved and undeserved. Tanikawa has worn a lot of hats over the past few years, a guy who started out as a journalist and made some friends in high places, which somehow brought him to become one of the Producers of K-1. Tany was dealt a raw hand and anyone that acts otherwise is simply in denial. His Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) that took over K-1 took over a mess left by Kazuyoshi Ishii while still having to make Ishii happy. The fact that K-1 kept going after the shift to FEG was a miracle in its own right and a testament to how much Tanikawa worked to make fighting sports what they were in Japan. From there, working with former DSE members to produce DREAM events helped keep MMA alive in Japan.

I'm pretty sure that I don't have to explain what happened in 2010 onward, as the fall of K-1 and DREAM are well-documented and the ill-feelings towards the man known as "Tany" was everywhere. He has released a book, a part biography, a part explanation and a part apology to the combat sports world, but that isn't the end of his story. He has founded a project called "Tany's Labo" which has just recently launched. What exactly is Tany's Labo? It is part online community (subscription-based), part insider look into the fighting world and part crowdsourcing for his upcoming combat sports projects.

Watch the video below (there are English subtitles!) and take a look.

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