Ueda Outpoints Suzuki; Rookie Winners Crowned
Tony Loiseleur Dec 8, 2007
TOKYO, Dec. 8 -- Shooto's 2007 rookie tournament series came to a
close Saturday in Shinjuku's red-light district of Kabuki-cho.
Headlining the 10-fight card, which was the last Shooto show of the
year, was Wajyutsu Keisyukai resident oddball "Hadairo" Tetsu Suzuki (Pictures) against technically dominating
Paraestra wrestler Masakatsu Ueda (Pictures).
After coming out with a Gollum mask, a la "Lord of the Rings," Suzuki was able to control a good deal of the first period. He caught Ueda with a trip takedown from the clinch before landing into half guard and later transitioning to side mount. From there, Suzuki delivered short punches and hammer fists to the face and body of his opponent.
As both men scrambled for position, it looked as if Ueda had
established himself in Suzuki's guard, only to soon after find his
head scissored between Hadairo's legs after another quick scramble.
Oriented in such a way that Suzuki was dangling headfirst over
Ueda's back, Ueda capitalized by standing and attempting to spike
his captor into the mat, which freed him from the head
scissors.
The second stanza saw more bottom-position scrambling from Suzuki as it started to become eminently clear that Ueda's wrestling skills were beginning to edge out Suzuki's wily unpredictability. Opening with a stuffed takedown that had Ueda sprawled over Suzuki, the fight soon went back to the feet, where both men engaged in brief striking exchanges that quickly gave way to the clinch. It was in the clinches that Ueda established control, muscling Suzuki up against the ropes, where he landed knees and body punches.
Ueda stuck close and controlled, passing from guard to side mount while peppering Hadairo throughout. By round's end, Ueda locked Suzuki in a modified crucifix from the side mount and delivered a number of hammer fists to the side of the head, a la Hughes-Penn II.
After he had dominated almost every moment of the fight, the judges awarded Ueda the unanimous decision: 30-28, 30-29, 29-28.
An errant up-kick from Taisuke Okuno prematurely ended what was looking to be an exciting semi-main event bout that pitted Okuno against "C-Bozu" Hirosumi Sugiura (Pictures).
With Okuno bullying Sugiura in and out of the clinch with hard, winging shots, Sugiura had little choice but to defend by putting his fists out whenever he could find purchase between Okuno's onslaughts. He scored with many of these counters and landed a counter hook that put Okuno on his knees for a knockdown.
Sugiura caught Okuno in the back clinch, though, where he sent several knees into the back of his legs before Okuno escaped and retook the center of the ring. There, both men proceeded to go toe-to-toe in a messy but crowd-pleasing exchange.
When it became apparent that Sugiura was landing more punches, Okuno countered with a high kick and several knees that forced Sugiura to backpedal. Sugiura then captured Okuno's back from the clinch and took him to the canvas. On the ground he transitioned to mount briefly before getting put back into Okuno's guard, all the while dropping heavy leather from above.
As Sugiura stood up to drop punches, however, Okuno's unfortunate up-kick opened a large gash on his opponent's forehead. The referee immediately stopped the bout at the 4:40 mark, awarding Okuno the TKO victory.
Height and distance aided Paulo Milano in defeating Koumei Okada (Pictures) in their lightweight bout. The Paraestra fighter used his advantages to score knees, high kicks and combinations on the feet before spending the remainder of the bout working alternately from the guard and rubber guard.
Unfazed by even Milano's hardest shots, Okada returned with strikes of his own that tagged the Italian. From the clinch, if Okada wasn't taking Milano to the mat, Milano was pulling guard. Milano's first rubber guard attempt allowed him to land repeated blows to the side of Okada's head, and another resulted in a close but ultimately failed gogoplata.
Despite spending the duration of the grappling portion on top in Milano's guard, Okada's offense apparently didn't impress the judges enough for him to earn the decision. A confused but relieved Milano took a close unanimous nod: 20-19, 20-19, 20-19.
Hiroshi Nakamura grappled his way to a unanimous decision over Kyotaro Nakao (Pictures), staying heavy on top of his opponent and dropping short hammer fists and punches to the face and body for two rounds.
Nakao, who was apparently looking to catch his opponent with a counter off of his takedown attempts, was otherwise unable to capitalize as Nakamura's takedowns proved largely successful. With the first round spent on his back eating punches, Nakao's fortunes looked to be turning when he managed to steal back position midway through the second. Again, however, Nakao was unable to capitalize.
Nakamura escaped out the back and proceeded to resume business as usual -- ground and pound -- for the unanimous decision: 20-19, 20-18, 20-18.
With the fight largely going Tomokazu Yuasa (Pictures)'s way in the first round, Akihiro Yamazaki surprised all in attendance with a miraculous comeback in the second round that resulted in him knocking out Yuasa.
Yuasa pounded Yamazaki throughout the duration of the first period, and things looked bleak for the Submit Shizuoka fighter as he wearily slumped in his corner between rounds. Yamazaki bounced back in the second, however, after eating a hard Yuasa straight left.
Yamazaki exploded then with a flurry of his own, first rattling his opponent with his punches only to finish him off with a barrage of knees to the face in the clinch, forcing the referee to call the bout at the 54-second mark. With this win, Yamazaki became Shooto's 2007 rookie tournament middleweight winner.
In the 2007 rookie tournament featherweight final, Hiromasa Ougikubo (Pictures) defeated Yasuhiro Kanayama (Pictures) by rear-naked choke in the second round after wearing down his opponent by dominating in the grappling department.
After slamming Kanayama to the mat in the first with a bodylock, Ougikubo shortly took back position, where he sent punch after punch to his opponent's head for the round's duration. The second period looked to be a repeat of the first with Ougikubo taking back position early and punching from behind. Before long, though, Ougikubo sunk in the arm for the choke, eliciting the tap at the 3:30 mark.
"Sannan" Hiroyuki Ikeda (Pictures) stopped Hiroyuki Abe in their flyweight rookie final. Ikeda defeated the K'z Factory fighter with good takedown defense and counters that eventually scored him two knockdowns before Abe's corner threw in the towel.
Sticking to the outside in the first round, Ikeda stuffed Abe's numerous takedown attempts followed by potshots on Abe who, perhaps unwisely, ate more counter jabs and kicks than he should have while in pursuit of the takedown. However, it wasn't until the final minute of the round that Abe eventually got his wish and dropped a number of hard punches to the face and body before the bell saved Ikeda.
A visibly frustrated Abe looked to engage more on the feet in the second frame. He paid for it when an Ikeda punch floored him for the knockdown. Upon answering the count, Abe quickly charged in for the takedown. Despite getting the fight back to the canvas, an Ikeda up-kick sent Abe into the ropes, where he limply lolled before his corner threw in the towel, awarding Ikeda the TKO victory.
In the lightweight final, Kazuhiro Ito (Pictures) defeated the tournament's sole remaining pupil of Hayato Sakurai (Pictures), Tomonori Taniguchi (Pictures), in an exciting slugfest that also ended all too soon -- in this instance, due to a cut on the left side of Taniguchi's forehead.
After accidentally head butting Ito early on, Taniguchi naturally looked to aim his punches for Ito's nose from that point forward. An exciting, crowd-pleasing game of tag resulted, with Taniguchi chasing and swinging for the fences on a retreating Ito, who defended with well-placed counter kicks and flying knees. It was one of these counter knees that apparently opened the cut above Taniguchi's eye, prompting the referee to step in to have the cut checked. After several moments that saw the referee conferring with the ringside physician, the bout was called, awarding Ito the TKO at 3:25 of the first round.
In the bantamweight final, Kenji Hosoya won a unanimous decision over Tatsuro Kamei (Pictures) by maintaining top position throughout the two rounds of their bout. With the simple game plan of taking the fight to the canvas where Hosoya would plant himself firmly in his opponent's guard, it was the accumulation of well-picked single punches from the guard that stood out in the judges' final decision: 20-19, 20-18, 20-18 for Hosoya.
Locked in the back clinch in the opening moments of the bout, Hiroki Sato (Pictures) lowered his weight and broke opponent "C-Boy" Takaaki Oban's grip. He then applied the fight-finishing kimura at 1:17 into the first round for the submission victory and the light heavyweight rookie tournament trophy.
In other news, a future bout between Hatsu Hioki (Pictures) and Katsuya Toida (Pictures) was announced for Jan. 26, marking the return of the Nagoya Shootor to regular Shooto competition after his loss to Antonio Carvalho (Pictures) in May.
Hioki is coming off of a unanimous decision over featherweight and "The Ultimate Fighter" alumnus Brian Geraghty (Pictures), and Toida is coming off of a unanimous decision loss to Shooto Pacific Rim lightweight champion, "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (Pictures).
After coming out with a Gollum mask, a la "Lord of the Rings," Suzuki was able to control a good deal of the first period. He caught Ueda with a trip takedown from the clinch before landing into half guard and later transitioning to side mount. From there, Suzuki delivered short punches and hammer fists to the face and body of his opponent.
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The second stanza saw more bottom-position scrambling from Suzuki as it started to become eminently clear that Ueda's wrestling skills were beginning to edge out Suzuki's wily unpredictability. Opening with a stuffed takedown that had Ueda sprawled over Suzuki, the fight soon went back to the feet, where both men engaged in brief striking exchanges that quickly gave way to the clinch. It was in the clinches that Ueda established control, muscling Suzuki up against the ropes, where he landed knees and body punches.
A frustrated Suzuki attempted to step up his own striking in the
third stanza. Instead, he walked into a number of oncoming punches
and mid-kicks before Ueda took him down with a single leg. Finding
no respite on the canvas either, Suzuki fell prey to a barrage of
small shots to the head and body.
Ueda stuck close and controlled, passing from guard to side mount while peppering Hadairo throughout. By round's end, Ueda locked Suzuki in a modified crucifix from the side mount and delivered a number of hammer fists to the side of the head, a la Hughes-Penn II.
After he had dominated almost every moment of the fight, the judges awarded Ueda the unanimous decision: 30-28, 30-29, 29-28.
An errant up-kick from Taisuke Okuno prematurely ended what was looking to be an exciting semi-main event bout that pitted Okuno against "C-Bozu" Hirosumi Sugiura (Pictures).
With Okuno bullying Sugiura in and out of the clinch with hard, winging shots, Sugiura had little choice but to defend by putting his fists out whenever he could find purchase between Okuno's onslaughts. He scored with many of these counters and landed a counter hook that put Okuno on his knees for a knockdown.
Sugiura caught Okuno in the back clinch, though, where he sent several knees into the back of his legs before Okuno escaped and retook the center of the ring. There, both men proceeded to go toe-to-toe in a messy but crowd-pleasing exchange.
When it became apparent that Sugiura was landing more punches, Okuno countered with a high kick and several knees that forced Sugiura to backpedal. Sugiura then captured Okuno's back from the clinch and took him to the canvas. On the ground he transitioned to mount briefly before getting put back into Okuno's guard, all the while dropping heavy leather from above.
As Sugiura stood up to drop punches, however, Okuno's unfortunate up-kick opened a large gash on his opponent's forehead. The referee immediately stopped the bout at the 4:40 mark, awarding Okuno the TKO victory.
Height and distance aided Paulo Milano in defeating Koumei Okada (Pictures) in their lightweight bout. The Paraestra fighter used his advantages to score knees, high kicks and combinations on the feet before spending the remainder of the bout working alternately from the guard and rubber guard.
Unfazed by even Milano's hardest shots, Okada returned with strikes of his own that tagged the Italian. From the clinch, if Okada wasn't taking Milano to the mat, Milano was pulling guard. Milano's first rubber guard attempt allowed him to land repeated blows to the side of Okada's head, and another resulted in a close but ultimately failed gogoplata.
Despite spending the duration of the grappling portion on top in Milano's guard, Okada's offense apparently didn't impress the judges enough for him to earn the decision. A confused but relieved Milano took a close unanimous nod: 20-19, 20-19, 20-19.
Hiroshi Nakamura grappled his way to a unanimous decision over Kyotaro Nakao (Pictures), staying heavy on top of his opponent and dropping short hammer fists and punches to the face and body for two rounds.
Nakao, who was apparently looking to catch his opponent with a counter off of his takedown attempts, was otherwise unable to capitalize as Nakamura's takedowns proved largely successful. With the first round spent on his back eating punches, Nakao's fortunes looked to be turning when he managed to steal back position midway through the second. Again, however, Nakao was unable to capitalize.
Nakamura escaped out the back and proceeded to resume business as usual -- ground and pound -- for the unanimous decision: 20-19, 20-18, 20-18.
With the fight largely going Tomokazu Yuasa (Pictures)'s way in the first round, Akihiro Yamazaki surprised all in attendance with a miraculous comeback in the second round that resulted in him knocking out Yuasa.
Yuasa pounded Yamazaki throughout the duration of the first period, and things looked bleak for the Submit Shizuoka fighter as he wearily slumped in his corner between rounds. Yamazaki bounced back in the second, however, after eating a hard Yuasa straight left.
Yamazaki exploded then with a flurry of his own, first rattling his opponent with his punches only to finish him off with a barrage of knees to the face in the clinch, forcing the referee to call the bout at the 54-second mark. With this win, Yamazaki became Shooto's 2007 rookie tournament middleweight winner.
In the 2007 rookie tournament featherweight final, Hiromasa Ougikubo (Pictures) defeated Yasuhiro Kanayama (Pictures) by rear-naked choke in the second round after wearing down his opponent by dominating in the grappling department.
After slamming Kanayama to the mat in the first with a bodylock, Ougikubo shortly took back position, where he sent punch after punch to his opponent's head for the round's duration. The second period looked to be a repeat of the first with Ougikubo taking back position early and punching from behind. Before long, though, Ougikubo sunk in the arm for the choke, eliciting the tap at the 3:30 mark.
"Sannan" Hiroyuki Ikeda (Pictures) stopped Hiroyuki Abe in their flyweight rookie final. Ikeda defeated the K'z Factory fighter with good takedown defense and counters that eventually scored him two knockdowns before Abe's corner threw in the towel.
Sticking to the outside in the first round, Ikeda stuffed Abe's numerous takedown attempts followed by potshots on Abe who, perhaps unwisely, ate more counter jabs and kicks than he should have while in pursuit of the takedown. However, it wasn't until the final minute of the round that Abe eventually got his wish and dropped a number of hard punches to the face and body before the bell saved Ikeda.
A visibly frustrated Abe looked to engage more on the feet in the second frame. He paid for it when an Ikeda punch floored him for the knockdown. Upon answering the count, Abe quickly charged in for the takedown. Despite getting the fight back to the canvas, an Ikeda up-kick sent Abe into the ropes, where he limply lolled before his corner threw in the towel, awarding Ikeda the TKO victory.
In the lightweight final, Kazuhiro Ito (Pictures) defeated the tournament's sole remaining pupil of Hayato Sakurai (Pictures), Tomonori Taniguchi (Pictures), in an exciting slugfest that also ended all too soon -- in this instance, due to a cut on the left side of Taniguchi's forehead.
After accidentally head butting Ito early on, Taniguchi naturally looked to aim his punches for Ito's nose from that point forward. An exciting, crowd-pleasing game of tag resulted, with Taniguchi chasing and swinging for the fences on a retreating Ito, who defended with well-placed counter kicks and flying knees. It was one of these counter knees that apparently opened the cut above Taniguchi's eye, prompting the referee to step in to have the cut checked. After several moments that saw the referee conferring with the ringside physician, the bout was called, awarding Ito the TKO at 3:25 of the first round.
In the bantamweight final, Kenji Hosoya won a unanimous decision over Tatsuro Kamei (Pictures) by maintaining top position throughout the two rounds of their bout. With the simple game plan of taking the fight to the canvas where Hosoya would plant himself firmly in his opponent's guard, it was the accumulation of well-picked single punches from the guard that stood out in the judges' final decision: 20-19, 20-18, 20-18 for Hosoya.
Locked in the back clinch in the opening moments of the bout, Hiroki Sato (Pictures) lowered his weight and broke opponent "C-Boy" Takaaki Oban's grip. He then applied the fight-finishing kimura at 1:17 into the first round for the submission victory and the light heavyweight rookie tournament trophy.
In other news, a future bout between Hatsu Hioki (Pictures) and Katsuya Toida (Pictures) was announced for Jan. 26, marking the return of the Nagoya Shootor to regular Shooto competition after his loss to Antonio Carvalho (Pictures) in May.
Hioki is coming off of a unanimous decision over featherweight and "The Ultimate Fighter" alumnus Brian Geraghty (Pictures), and Toida is coming off of a unanimous decision loss to Shooto Pacific Rim lightweight champion, "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (Pictures).
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