In this chapter, the rival picked by Sumisu during his time at Wakamoto’s dojo in the first chapter returns to serve as his second and tag team partner until the end of the game. As such, dialogue will change slightly depending on who the player picked.
Meeting Reiko was enough to break Sumisu’s resolve, and he returned to the US without training in Muay Thai, where he became a drunk. His old rival from Wakamoto’s Dojo then comes to get him, asking Sumisu to serve as his second in the MMA Vale Tudo tournament Gruesome Fighting Championship in Denver. Sumisu immediately regains his fighting spirit and instead decides to take part in the tournament, having his rival serve as the second instead.
The GFC is sponsored by Staycie Jiu Jitsu, with Voice Staycie being the standing champion. Sumisu fights his way through the tournament, defeating Arashiyama Taishi, General Voldow, and finally Staycie himself.
Emerging as the victor, Sumisu takes this chance to claim Martial Arts back from the Staycie family for all of Japan, and also to call out the bloodthirsty media soiling the world of martial arts.
As the curtain closes on Sumisu challenging the entire world, a lone girl is heard crying. This is likely Reiko, realizing that Sumisu’s fight will never end.
The Gruesome Fighting Championship (GFC) is based on the Ultimate Fighting Championship promotion, specifically on their yearly tournaments held in Denver, Colorado. The game’s release of December 1994 overlapped with the fourth UFC tournament, taking place in the same month, hence its depiction in Champion Road. The promotion was sponsored and ran by the Gracie family, renamed in FirePro as Staycie, who taught and popularized their brand of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, the Gracie Jiu Jitsu.
Sumisu’s claim that Jiu Jitsu was originally Japanese is also rooted in truth, as it was originally a form of judo (ju-jutsu) that was exported in Brazil by judoka Mitsuya Maeda.
The UFC had outstanding success through a lucrative partnership with pay per view titan Sports Entertainment Group (SEG), and through their Vale Tudo ruleset, which often resulted in gruesome fights, explaining Sumisu’s critique of the bloodthirsty media soling the world of martial arts.
The first challenger, Arashiyama Taishi, is based on Sumo Wrestler turned Pro Wrestler Isao Takagi, who made his Pro debut in AJPW and later moved to SWS and finally to Genchiro Tenryu’s WAR, where he had a brief stint as the masked wrestler Arashi in 1991.
His second challenger, General Voldow, is based on Gerard Gordeau, a dutch karateka and kickboxer. He was known for his violent fighting style, which ultimately resulted in his opponent Yuki Nakai losing an eye in 1995, the year after this game came out.
Voice Staycie, representative of the Staycie Family and three times champion of GFC, is based on Royce Gracie. His older brother, Jackson Staycie, is Rickson Gracie, though he does not appear in the game.
Unlike Voice, his real life equivalent only topped UFC1 and UFC2, while he had to withdraw from UFC3 due to injuries.
His rival, who tried to defeat him in two different GFC tournaments, Win Harlock, is based on Ken Shamrock. He took part in UFC1, held in May 1993, and UFC3, held in September 1994 (just two months before the release of the game). He was defeated by Gracie in UFC1, while he had to withdraw from UFC3 due to injuries. In the UWH storyline of Champion Road, Sumisu can actually meet with Win Harlock, who’ll reference this rivalry.