Ishii Drama Thickens; Pancrase Aims for 'Change'

Sustain adds Ishiwatari-Omigawa, Tazawa-Toida to Jan. 18 Shooto

Leading Shooto promoter Sustain has continued to build its 2009 kickoff card, adding another trio of bouts to its Jan. 18 lineup at Differ Ariake in Tokyo.

The card, already slated to feature a sterling lightweight bout between Kotetsu Boku and Yusuke Endo, now boasts a 143-pound clash between fast-rising prospect Shintaro Ishiwatari and UFC veteran Michihiro Omigawa. In a 132-pound contest, the ever-game So Tazawa will meet offbeat veteran Katsuya Toida.

The 23-year-old Ishiwatari began 2008 with a brutal face-first slam KO of Kazuhiro Ito, which turned him into a minor viral video celebrity despite his relative anonymity in the MMA world. However, the Gutsman Shooto Dojo product followed up his brutal February win with a rousing first-round stoppage of Tenkei Fujimiya in September.

Omigawa, who will make his pro Shooto debut in the bout, had an unspectacular run stateside in the UFC, dropping bouts to Matt Wiman and Thiago Tavares, and has now set his sights on campaigning as a featherweight.

Curiously, the always stringent Japanese Shooto Association have awarded Omigawa only a Class B Shooto license despite his experience, meaning that the clash with Ishwatari will be just two rounds.

Tazawa and Toida, who will contest their bout over three rounds, have both shared a gatekeeper's role within the confines of Shooto.

Tazawa, 26, had a successful 2008, submitting Shooto world 123-pound champ Shinichi "BJ" Kojima in Kojima's aborted bantamweight run, and fighting to a close draw with talented former rookie champion Hiromasa Ogikubo in November.

After dropping bouts to talented featherweights "Lion Takeshi" Takeshi Inoue and Hatsu Hioki, Toida abandoned the featherweight division for the bantamweight class, but was brutalized in his divisional debut, as he was pounded out by Tetsu Suzuki in just 16 seconds this past June.

Also announced in a 143-pound affair, Rumina Sato pupil Sakae Kasuya will take on Hayato "Mach" Sakurai pupil Tomonari Taniguchi.

Pancrase aims for change in '09

With the 2008 Shining Tour now over and done with, Pancrase has christened its upcoming 2009 effort.

Pancrase is one of the few organizations that has always maintained the tradition of naming its annual tours. As each year winds down, the promotion opens up a contest to fans to name the tour series for the following year. The guidelines are simple: the tour names must be a single word, supplemented by a one-sentence explanation of the name.

For the third straight year, following the 2007 Rising and 2008 Shining tours, the Pancrase brass has gone with a gerund, announcing the 2009 Changing Tour.

The title was suggested by Tokyo's Eiichi Matsuda, who was inspired by Pancrase light heavyweight champion Ryo Kawamura's in-ring speech about the progress of the promotion following his Oct. 1 title capture over Keiichiro Yamamiya. Matsuda explained the Changing moniker, stating "A Pancrase which continues toward a new age."

The 2009 Changing Tour will begin Feb. 1 at Differ Ariake in Tokyo. Thus far, three bouts have been announced, pitting free-swinging featherweight Kenji Arai against ZST rep Masanori Kanehara, veteran Kosei Kubota against Asaki Honda, and Sakuraba understudy Takenori Sato against Ryuji Ohori.

Mishima, Miku headline; Imanari foe hunt begins at Deep Protect Impact 2

Deep will wrap up its 2008 campaign on Dec. 22 with the second edition of Protect Impact, boasting the return of champions Dokonjonosuke Mishima and Miku Matsumoto, and beginning the search for a challenger to Masakazu Imanari.

The event is on the exact same date as the first hook-up between Deep and sponsoring company Protect was last year, although this year's installment will be at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo instead of in Osaka, where it was staged last year.

There will still be a pronounced Osakan flavor to the evening, as Deep featherweight champion Dokonjonosuke Mishima, one of Kansai's favorite fighting sons, will face the tough but unheralded Toshiaki Kitada in a non-title affair. The match will be Mishima's first since dropping to the featherweight class and defeating then-divisional champion Masakazu Imanari in May. Deep's 106-pound female champ Miku Matsumoto will meet flamboyant femme Hikaru Shinohara, who she previously defeated in May 2005 in her fifth pro bout.

The card will also feature the beginning of the Protect Bantamweight Cup, which will serve as a bantamweight eliminator tournament to determine the first man to meet Imanari in his inaugural title defense.

The eight-man tournament field will feature Tomohiko Hori, Isao Terada, Seiji Akao, Ippo Watanuki, Toru Harai, Tatsumitsu Wada, Masaki Yokoyama, and ZST representative Toshihiro Shimizu.

As has been Deep's recent custom, the tournament bouts will be decided via in-ring lottery on the night of the event, as was employed for its middleweight championship tournament and novelty Megaton tournament earlier this year. The semifinals and finals of the tournament will take place the same night on a yet-to-be-scheduled Deep card in early 2009.

Correction notice:
Edited on Dec. 24 at 9:54 p.m. EST.
Sherdog.com incorrectly reported that Sergey Golyaev was a sparring partner for a handful of Finnish boxers. Dec. 24's edit removed this false information.