This marked the first time in three years, that SHOOTO light heavy weight champion Masanori Suda fought at Korakuen Hall. His opponent, Brian Ebersole, trained out of San Jose, California’s American Kickboxing Academy and this was his SHOOTO debut.
When I looked at him before the fight, he seemed half relaxed, half nervous. Yeah, I understand that. He’s fighting the SHOOTO light heavyweight champion in his first SHOOTO experience. It’s like if 16-year-old Masa lost his virginity to Christy Canyon.
(Jeez, she was popular among my friends when I was a high school kid. My friend was making copy of her movies, and that’s how I studied English and full contact sports—Kanpai!)
So when the fight started, everything Ebersole did, Suda could do a bit better. So in rounds one and two, Suda mounted, swept and pounding his challenger. Even though Ebersole defended all of Suda’s attacks, the SHOOTO champion somehow controlled the entire fight.
But in the third round, Ebersole’s left hand connected on Suda! Suda went down, but he managed to stand back up before the 10 count and the referee restarted the fight. Then it was very clear what strategy Ebersole should follow: stand-up battle!
He was whacking Suda, connecting punches. Then Suda punched him back with his pride as a champion. But in the third round, Ebersole had more chances to finish. Suda tasted several punches and seemed pretty rocked.
The champion then changed his strategy from stand-up to takedown. The champ came for the shot and Ebersole sprawled, then Suda pulled him in his guard. The American’s corner was yelling, “Brian, stand back up! Stand back up!” But he couldn’t escape the champ’s ground game.
When the third round was half way finished, Suda took Ebersole’s back. Then Brian’s corner shouted loud, “Brian, you gotta do something!” As his corner shouted, Ebersole reacted, stood back up with a piggybacking Suda, and slammed Suda on the mat. But that did nothing but help Suda secure a rear-naked choke, which made Ebersole immediately tapout 2:59 of round three.
OK, guys, there’s no “what if” talk for any result of the fight, but I just can’t keep my mouth shut. If Ebersole could have just cruised through the third period he would have won this fight against a champion in his debut. There’s no comparison I can make—even with Christy Canyon. Ebersole was very close to winning the fight. Or even if he didn’t win, he would have been ranked pretty high in SHOOTO’s light heavy weight division.
Man, he lost the big, big fish. Big sigh for Brian.
At the same time, what’s happened to Suda? He is supposed to be one of the best in this weight class. He’s been beating up all other light heavy weight contender so far in SHOOTO society. Here’s interesting yet happy info about him. In the SHOOTO magazine, which you can get at the show, Suda talked a bit about his private life. He got married to his manager last October and his wife makes him fight to earn money for the baby they’re expecting in June.
The magazine also tells us that he’s been recommended to retire from his fight career by his wife. I think that story is half joke-half serious. But I think his marriage changed his fight style, or at least changed the importance of fighting in his life. Well, congratulations anyways.
This year, there’s a lot of ranked light heavyweight fights planned in the world. First, on March 12, Martijn De Jong (ranked No. 3) fights in Stockholm. On March 26 Jon Fitch (No. 8) fights in Vancouver. April 2 Scott Hengy (No. 4) competes in HnS, plus, Ryuta Sakurai, who is ranked No. 7, just became champion of DEEP.
I’d very much like to see Suda fight Sakurai because I’ve been kinda sick of seeing same old SHOOTO world light heavyweight rankings. So let’s shuffle this weight class this year. And this will make SHOOTO more attractive.
Until this fight, my evaluation of Mamoru wasn’t too high. I thought he’s just a wicked Japanese brother with “Under Cover Brother” hair. But after he defeated Junji Ikoma, ranked third in the world bantamweight division, I gave a lot of credit on Mamoru.
Yes, he won this fight by decision, but decisions happens a lot in lighter weight class. Also, Ikoma had such a tough heart. He got beat up, but never stopped fighting. Gotta take my hat off to him.
Anyway, let me explain this fight. This fight was like Mamoru had a big tank against Ikoma who was using water gun. For three rounds Mamoru just ran over “armed” Junji. Yeah, Ikoma still fired back to Mamoru on the ground and stand-up game, but a water gun doesn’t work on a tank, does it?
After this fight, only one question came to my mind: If Mamoru can so easily dominate this fight against the No. 3 ranked Junji, then how high is Mamoru’s limit? Who can beat him?
Robson Maura went the distance with Mamoru and it turned out a draw. Maybe that’s the limit of Mamoru? Then I want to see the fight in which both fighters reach their limit. That’s the Ultimate Fight, and I’m Ultimate Fight fan. I can’t wait to see that fight happen again—even though it’s kind of hard to see and write “Mamoru vs. Moura.”