Weekend Rundown: Hioki Takes Shooto Gold; ‘Ninja’ Rolls in Brazil

Hatsu Hioki defeated “Lion” Takeshi Inoue by split decision to capture the Shooto 143-pound championship in the Shooto “The Way of Shooto 3” headliner on Sunday at JCB Hall in Tokyo. Scores from the memorable three-round encounter were 30-27, 29-30 and 30-27, as Hioki won for the sixth time in seven fights.

The champion and challenger ended their duel with a wild flurry of fists. Two of the three judges gave Hioki all three rounds. The 26-year-old Sengoku veteran wobbled Inoue multiple times in the opening period and kept him at bay with a stiff jab throughout the match. Inoue, who entered the main event on a four-fight winning streak, still has never been finished.

Meanwhile, Willamy Freire retained his Shooto 154-pound title in a split decision victory over Yusuke Endo. The judges scored it 29-28, 28-29 and 29-27 for Freire, a 23-year-old Brazilian who has rattled off 11 consecutive wins and appears headed for greener pastures. Two of Endo’s four career defeats have come to Freire.

In the third of three championship fights at “The Way of Shooto 3,” Yasuhiro Urushitani won a unanimous decision from Ryuichi Miki and took home the promotion’s vacant 123-pound belt. All three judges sided with Urushitani by 30-27, 30-28 and 30-28 counts. He has defeated Miki twice in the last eight months.

Finally, the world-ranked Masakatsu Ueda rebounded from his March submission loss to Shuichiro Katsumura with a unanimous verdict against World Extreme Cagefighting veteran Akitoshi Tamura in a pivotal bantamweight bout. Scores were 30-28, 30-27 and 30-28 for the once-beaten Ueda.

Other winners at “The Way of Shooto 3” included Rumina Sato (second-round technical knockout against Ryota Matsune), Eduardo Dantas (third-round rear-naked choke submission over Hiromasa Ogikubo), Kotetsu Boku (unanimous decision against Yoshihiro Koyama) and Shintaro Ishiwatari (majority decision over Wataru Miki).

Ninja, Teixeira Shine at Bitetti Combat 7

Former EliteXC middleweight champion and Pride Fighting Championships veteran Murilo “Ninja” Rua submitted Arturo Arcemendes with a first-round arm-triangle choke in the Bitetti Combat 7 main event on Friday at the Fundicao Progresso in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Arcemendes met his demise 87 seconds into round one.

Rua -- the 30-year-old older brother of reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua -- has posted three straight wins, all of them finishes. He had not won by submission in more than two years.

Meanwhile, surging World Extreme Cagefighting veteran Glover Teixeira stopped Tiago Tosato on punches 1:27 into the first round. A longtime training partner of UFC hall of famer Chuck Liddell, the 30-year-old Teixeira will carry a string of seven straight wins into his next match.

Sajewski Outpoints Held

Lukasz Sajewski outdueled Marcin Held by unanimous decision in a showdown between unbeaten teen-aged European prospects at Angels of Fire 7 “Support for Haiti” on Saturday at the Plock Amphitheatre in Plock, Poland.

The 19-year-old Sajewski remains perfect in eight professional bouts. Based at the Akademia Sarmatia, the Pole finished his first six foes, four of them inside one round, but has gone the distance in his last two appearances. Held, who turned 18 in January, had won his first eight fights without a hiccup, four by submission.