About three minutes missing from what’s already a rather short match here. First time watching Berto while scrubbing through the BattlArts footage, and he’s all right. Doesn’t immediately stand out compared to the other workers featured on the shows so far, especially as part of the Young Generations Battle tournament. He mostly uses his weight to ground Ikeda here, but he’s at his best in the back half using some neat kicks to get Ikeda on the ropes.
Ikeda’s not always the most interesting mat worker, which is why it’s fun when he compensates with something like striking to work his way out of stuff. Luckily, Berto’s able to play that game too and he throws some decent potatoes to liven up the mat portions of this.
Decent all around, but only perhaps most noteworthy for Ikeda reverse engineering how to defeat a kicker. All about catching that leg and clinging on for dear life. Takes one to know one.
Rating: ***
