Yamaguchi, Shoujou Square Off in Shooto
Yamaguchi, Shoujou Square Off
With a solid lineup from top to bottom, Gutsman Shooto Dojo has put
together a strong card for the fourth edition of its Shooting Disco
series on Saturday at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo. Better yet, the
card's main event is a true marquee bout, pitting two of the
world's top 123-pounders against each other: Mamoru Yamaguchi (Pictures) and Yuki Shoujou (Pictures).
At the first Shooting Disco card in June 2007, the afro-coifed Mamoru took a landslide decision over Yusei Shimokawa (Pictures) in what was his first fight back after an October 2006 title loss to Shinichi "BJ" Kojima. Mamoru is now coming off another tough loss, after dropping a razor-thin decision in September to rival Yasuhiro Urushitani (Pictures), whom he had defeated in December 2003 to become pro Shooto's first 123-pound champion.
Cruising in a different direction, Shoujou had a fantastic 2007 campaign. He went 3-0, including an upset submission in July over the highly regarded Masatoshi Abe (Pictures). Shoujou's year was capped on the last edition of Shooting Disco, where he owned the ring at Shinjuku FACE and took a commanding points victory over sturdy veteran Junji Ikoma (Pictures).
The 123-pound division may be among pro Shooto's most interesting in 2008. Divisional champion BJ Kojima has nearly committed career suicide recently. Since he took the title from Mamoru, he has made a disastrous attempt to compete at 132 pounds and had four-straight woeful performances. Meanwhile, Urushitani seems poised for a title rematch after being robbed of the belt last March. The number of 123-pound rookies continues to grow, and subsequent promotions to Class A Shooto have significantly deepened the division both numerically and competitively. Given this potential climate, a win for Shoujou or Mamoru would be huge while a loss could be an enormous setback.
Building on the 123-pound angle, unlikely rookie kings will meet when 2006 champ Ryuichi Miki (Pictures) takes on Kenji Hasoya (Pictures).
Although Miki and Hasoya won 123-pound rookie titles in successive years, both had been considerable underdogs. The 24-year-old Miki is undefeated in his last six bouts and is coming off an October win over Toshimichi Akagi (Pictures) that promoted him to Class A Shooto.
Hasoya started his career 0-2 and seemed bound for pushover status until a fortunate tournament draw saw him sneak into last year's rookie final against undefeated, highly touted amateur champ Tatsuro Kamei (Pictures). With his wrestling, Hasoya dominated the 10-minute bout, took a unanimous decision and now faces the task of validating himself as a legit fighter rather than a fluke.
The main card is further bolstered by a 183-pound bout between rookie champion Hiroki Sato (Pictures) and Akihiro Murayama (Pictures), and a 143-pound clash between Shintaro Ishiwatari (Pictures) and Kazuhiro Ito (Pictures).
Murayama is one of the few bright spots in Shooto's barren 183-pound division. He has gone undefeated in his last eight bouts, spanning over three years. His undefeated opponent, Sato, captured last year's 183-pound rookie crown and will attempt to solidify himself as a quality competitor in the weak division.
Kazuhiro Ito (Pictures) was last year's 143-pound rookie champion, where he morphed from a grappler to a brawler in the tournament to take the crown. His foe, Ishiwatari, just turned 23 on Thursday and is a crowd-pleasing puncher and pounder who has worked his way up the Class B ladder. A win for Ito or Ishiwatari would vault either very close to a Class A Shooto promotion.
The card will also feature clashes between Masatoshi Kobayashi (Pictures) and Tomonari Taniguchi, Takehiro Ishii (Pictures) and Noboru Tahara (Pictures), and also four 2008 rookie tournament bouts.
Vale Tudo, Standing Vale Tudo Bouts Set for ZST
Things will stay burning at Shinjuku FACE, as ZST punctuates the weekend of MMA in Nippon on Sunday.
In the main event, upstart Yojiro Uchimura will take on the highly unorthodox Masayuki Okude, with both fighters coming off submission victories. The rest of the main card provides seemingly more substance, featuring several Shoot Boxing rules bouts and some full ZST vale tudo rules bouts.
ZST announced an agreement with Shoot Boxing last month, hoping to foster better fighters for the promotion. Shoot Boxing, which is an offshoot from the same family tree as Shooto, promotes "standing vale tudo" events that feature the full complement of punches, kicks, elbows and knees in addition to throws and standing submissions.
In typical ZST fashion, the Shoot Boxing rules bouts will not use judges should the fights reach the time limit. The hope is that importing fighters from Shoot Boxing's in-house gym, Caesar's Gym, and other associated Shoot Boxing gyms to fight against ZST's MMA competitors will force better striking skills out of ZST's fighters, many of which are raw grapplers.
In addition to the Rings King of Kings, grappling and Shoot Boxing matches on the 14-bout card will be two contests under the aforementioned ZST vale tudo rules, which allow for strikes to the head of downed opponents.
In the first full rules contest, up-and-coming dynamo Masashi Takeda (Pictures) will take on Ryo "Toraji" Nakajima. Both are regulars of ZST's feeder SWAT series, and while Nakajima hasn't emerged as more than mediocre fodder, the well-rounded Takeda has won his last seven bouts. More impressively, he has nixed all of those seven opponents in the first round. In fact, Takeda is possibly the most promising of ZST's up-and-comers, save for Nobutatsu Suzuki (Pictures), who was forced to withdraw from this card due to injury.
In the other ZST vale tudo bout, Masanori Kanehara (Pictures) will take on Shunichi Shimizu (Pictures). Again, both have had considerable success in the SWAT series. Shimizu is coming off a first-round submission win over Masanori Hirada. Kanehara, another of ZST's better up-and-comers, was in far over his head in his last bout against ZST torchbearer Naoyuki Kotani (Pictures) but made it to the final bell and took advantage of the absence of judges in ZST.
At the first Shooting Disco card in June 2007, the afro-coifed Mamoru took a landslide decision over Yusei Shimokawa (Pictures) in what was his first fight back after an October 2006 title loss to Shinichi "BJ" Kojima. Mamoru is now coming off another tough loss, after dropping a razor-thin decision in September to rival Yasuhiro Urushitani (Pictures), whom he had defeated in December 2003 to become pro Shooto's first 123-pound champion.
Cruising in a different direction, Shoujou had a fantastic 2007 campaign. He went 3-0, including an upset submission in July over the highly regarded Masatoshi Abe (Pictures). Shoujou's year was capped on the last edition of Shooting Disco, where he owned the ring at Shinjuku FACE and took a commanding points victory over sturdy veteran Junji Ikoma (Pictures).
The 123-pound division may be among pro Shooto's most interesting in 2008. Divisional champion BJ Kojima has nearly committed career suicide recently. Since he took the title from Mamoru, he has made a disastrous attempt to compete at 132 pounds and had four-straight woeful performances. Meanwhile, Urushitani seems poised for a title rematch after being robbed of the belt last March. The number of 123-pound rookies continues to grow, and subsequent promotions to Class A Shooto have significantly deepened the division both numerically and competitively. Given this potential climate, a win for Shoujou or Mamoru would be huge while a loss could be an enormous setback.
Building on the 123-pound angle, unlikely rookie kings will meet when 2006 champ Ryuichi Miki (Pictures) takes on Kenji Hasoya (Pictures).
Although Miki and Hasoya won 123-pound rookie titles in successive years, both had been considerable underdogs. The 24-year-old Miki is undefeated in his last six bouts and is coming off an October win over Toshimichi Akagi (Pictures) that promoted him to Class A Shooto.
Hasoya started his career 0-2 and seemed bound for pushover status until a fortunate tournament draw saw him sneak into last year's rookie final against undefeated, highly touted amateur champ Tatsuro Kamei (Pictures). With his wrestling, Hasoya dominated the 10-minute bout, took a unanimous decision and now faces the task of validating himself as a legit fighter rather than a fluke.
The main card is further bolstered by a 183-pound bout between rookie champion Hiroki Sato (Pictures) and Akihiro Murayama (Pictures), and a 143-pound clash between Shintaro Ishiwatari (Pictures) and Kazuhiro Ito (Pictures).
Murayama is one of the few bright spots in Shooto's barren 183-pound division. He has gone undefeated in his last eight bouts, spanning over three years. His undefeated opponent, Sato, captured last year's 183-pound rookie crown and will attempt to solidify himself as a quality competitor in the weak division.
Kazuhiro Ito (Pictures) was last year's 143-pound rookie champion, where he morphed from a grappler to a brawler in the tournament to take the crown. His foe, Ishiwatari, just turned 23 on Thursday and is a crowd-pleasing puncher and pounder who has worked his way up the Class B ladder. A win for Ito or Ishiwatari would vault either very close to a Class A Shooto promotion.
The card will also feature clashes between Masatoshi Kobayashi (Pictures) and Tomonari Taniguchi, Takehiro Ishii (Pictures) and Noboru Tahara (Pictures), and also four 2008 rookie tournament bouts.
Vale Tudo, Standing Vale Tudo Bouts Set for ZST
Things will stay burning at Shinjuku FACE, as ZST punctuates the weekend of MMA in Nippon on Sunday.
In the main event, upstart Yojiro Uchimura will take on the highly unorthodox Masayuki Okude, with both fighters coming off submission victories. The rest of the main card provides seemingly more substance, featuring several Shoot Boxing rules bouts and some full ZST vale tudo rules bouts.
ZST announced an agreement with Shoot Boxing last month, hoping to foster better fighters for the promotion. Shoot Boxing, which is an offshoot from the same family tree as Shooto, promotes "standing vale tudo" events that feature the full complement of punches, kicks, elbows and knees in addition to throws and standing submissions.
In typical ZST fashion, the Shoot Boxing rules bouts will not use judges should the fights reach the time limit. The hope is that importing fighters from Shoot Boxing's in-house gym, Caesar's Gym, and other associated Shoot Boxing gyms to fight against ZST's MMA competitors will force better striking skills out of ZST's fighters, many of which are raw grapplers.
In addition to the Rings King of Kings, grappling and Shoot Boxing matches on the 14-bout card will be two contests under the aforementioned ZST vale tudo rules, which allow for strikes to the head of downed opponents.
In the first full rules contest, up-and-coming dynamo Masashi Takeda (Pictures) will take on Ryo "Toraji" Nakajima. Both are regulars of ZST's feeder SWAT series, and while Nakajima hasn't emerged as more than mediocre fodder, the well-rounded Takeda has won his last seven bouts. More impressively, he has nixed all of those seven opponents in the first round. In fact, Takeda is possibly the most promising of ZST's up-and-comers, save for Nobutatsu Suzuki (Pictures), who was forced to withdraw from this card due to injury.
In the other ZST vale tudo bout, Masanori Kanehara (Pictures) will take on Shunichi Shimizu (Pictures). Again, both have had considerable success in the SWAT series. Shimizu is coming off a first-round submission win over Masanori Hirada. Kanehara, another of ZST's better up-and-comers, was in far over his head in his last bout against ZST torchbearer Naoyuki Kotani (Pictures) but made it to the final bell and took advantage of the absence of judges in ZST.
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