DEEP: Obiya Crowned New Lightweight Champion
Villasenor makes Japanese debut
Stephen Martinez Apr 12, 2006
While Obiya is DEEP’s hot prospect at 155 pounds, Grabaka’s
Kazunori Yokota
(Pictures) is not so far behind. This
was shown tonight, though with a not so favorable result against
Brazilian Top Team fighter Milton Viera.
Viera has quickly became a regular for the DEEP promotion and a barometer to see where young Japanese prospects stand on the 155-pound ladder.
One of the main problems with Viera is after opponents survive his
initial submission onslaught he quickly switches into desperation
mode and tries to end the fight by submission at all cost. While
this is not a bad strategy, it leaves the Brazilian open for
counters and punches because he’s so focused on looking for a
tapout rather than position or defense.
Both men met in the middle of the ring and after a brief scramble Viera took Yokota’s back. From here the Brazilian went from piggybacking Yokota to a beautiful transition into armbar and then triangle choke.
Round two started and Viera continued to look for takedowns. However, Yokota defended well with knees and punches. Both fighters clinched in one of the corners and the Brazilian went for a guillotine choke. Yokota pulled out of the hold and started pounding from the top. The Brazilian then used his lanky legs and arms to stop Yokota’s punches before piggybacking Yokota one more time while looking for a choke.
Yokota decided to jump back and slam Viera. He reversed the position and punched from the top until the end of the round.
Following the closing bell, two of the three judges awarded each fighter the advantage. Meanwhile, a third judge declared the fight a draw and the fight ended in a rare split draw.
Yoshihiro Tomioka (Pictures) fought a one-sided bout against Brazilian Cicero Costa, with the two rounds playing out in similar ways. Costa was all about takedowns and he probably shot over 30 times, failing again and again.
Tomioka was most comfortable sprawling and brawling in an effort to take advantage of Costa’s absent striking abilities. The judges awarded a unanimous decision victory to Tomioka.
On February 28 DEEP held a press conference to announce they were accepting applications from female fighters to face Sambo queen and current SmackGirl lightweight champion Satoko Shinashi (Pictures) at either 44 or 46 kilograms. However when the March 11 deadline came there were zero applicants. DEEP president Shigeru Saeki then broadened the pool, stating he would accept someone Shinashi had previously fought.
Thankfully for DEEP, 20-year-old Shiyo Yamato, an All Chinese Martial Arts Karate-do silver medalist, answered their prayers. Training out of Zendokai Hiroshima, Yamato took the fight in short notice against one of the best female fighters in the world. Unfortunately, she faced someone who is out of her league.
From the beginning Shinashi was all over Yamato. After closing the distance Shinashi quickly took Yamato down and started running an ankle-lock clinic on the karate champion. Yamato kept composure and survived several leg attacks to escape the first round.
The second period was once again all Shinashi, who quickly went for her signature move (judo throw and transition to armbar). Yamato twisted her body and reversed the position but Shinashi kept the armbar tight until the breaking point, which was when the referee jumped to save Yamato from further damage.
The long-awaited Japanese debut of King of the Cage middleweight champion Joey Villasenor (Pictures) turned out to be a lackluster match against DEEP and Pancrase veteran Yuya Shirai (Pictures), mainly due to the Japanese fighter stalemating.
Most of the fight was stuck on the ground with Villasenor constantly gaining, reversing and improving position. On their feet both fighters engaged in some sloppy strike exchanges, as neither imposed a rhythm or produced much damage.
Villasenor took the victory by unanimous decision.
Dutch fighter Gegard Mousasi (Pictures) survived an early guillotine attempt from Hidetada Irie to turn the tables with punches from mount for the TKO victory at 1:29 of the second round.
Sambo stylist Hidehiko Hasegawa (Pictures) was all over South African kickboxer Quinton Alenza with heelhooks and punches from inside the guard. But surprisingly he couldn’t finish the fight against a less experienced opponent under the time limit. The judges awarded the fight to Hasegawa by 3-0 decision.
Grabaka’s lightweight ace Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures) didn’t find much trouble on the ground dealing with ZST veteran Hirotaka Miyagawa, scoring an armbar victory at 4:44 of round one.
Two Behemoths, Muscle Hiranuma and Soichi Nishida (Pictures), fought a short and uninteresting fight. Hiranuma took the victory by submission via rear-naked choke 1:02 after the opening bell.
The first match of the night saw the return of Noburu Nakadai to MMA competition against Genki Sudo (Pictures)’s teammate Yutaro Miyamoto (Pictures). Nakadai took home the victory by knockout via punches at 3:14 of the first period.
Viera has quickly became a regular for the DEEP promotion and a barometer to see where young Japanese prospects stand on the 155-pound ladder.
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Both men met in the middle of the ring and after a brief scramble Viera took Yokota’s back. From here the Brazilian went from piggybacking Yokota to a beautiful transition into armbar and then triangle choke.
The Grabaka fighter was close to being finished but somehow (more
out of guts and pride) managed to twist around and escape the
submission just to land on top and start punching Viera from inside
the guard and half-guard.
Round two started and Viera continued to look for takedowns. However, Yokota defended well with knees and punches. Both fighters clinched in one of the corners and the Brazilian went for a guillotine choke. Yokota pulled out of the hold and started pounding from the top. The Brazilian then used his lanky legs and arms to stop Yokota’s punches before piggybacking Yokota one more time while looking for a choke.
Yokota decided to jump back and slam Viera. He reversed the position and punched from the top until the end of the round.
Following the closing bell, two of the three judges awarded each fighter the advantage. Meanwhile, a third judge declared the fight a draw and the fight ended in a rare split draw.
Yoshihiro Tomioka (Pictures) fought a one-sided bout against Brazilian Cicero Costa, with the two rounds playing out in similar ways. Costa was all about takedowns and he probably shot over 30 times, failing again and again.
Tomioka was most comfortable sprawling and brawling in an effort to take advantage of Costa’s absent striking abilities. The judges awarded a unanimous decision victory to Tomioka.
On February 28 DEEP held a press conference to announce they were accepting applications from female fighters to face Sambo queen and current SmackGirl lightweight champion Satoko Shinashi (Pictures) at either 44 or 46 kilograms. However when the March 11 deadline came there were zero applicants. DEEP president Shigeru Saeki then broadened the pool, stating he would accept someone Shinashi had previously fought.
Thankfully for DEEP, 20-year-old Shiyo Yamato, an All Chinese Martial Arts Karate-do silver medalist, answered their prayers. Training out of Zendokai Hiroshima, Yamato took the fight in short notice against one of the best female fighters in the world. Unfortunately, she faced someone who is out of her league.
From the beginning Shinashi was all over Yamato. After closing the distance Shinashi quickly took Yamato down and started running an ankle-lock clinic on the karate champion. Yamato kept composure and survived several leg attacks to escape the first round.
The second period was once again all Shinashi, who quickly went for her signature move (judo throw and transition to armbar). Yamato twisted her body and reversed the position but Shinashi kept the armbar tight until the breaking point, which was when the referee jumped to save Yamato from further damage.
The long-awaited Japanese debut of King of the Cage middleweight champion Joey Villasenor (Pictures) turned out to be a lackluster match against DEEP and Pancrase veteran Yuya Shirai (Pictures), mainly due to the Japanese fighter stalemating.
Most of the fight was stuck on the ground with Villasenor constantly gaining, reversing and improving position. On their feet both fighters engaged in some sloppy strike exchanges, as neither imposed a rhythm or produced much damage.
Villasenor took the victory by unanimous decision.
Dutch fighter Gegard Mousasi (Pictures) survived an early guillotine attempt from Hidetada Irie to turn the tables with punches from mount for the TKO victory at 1:29 of the second round.
Sambo stylist Hidehiko Hasegawa (Pictures) was all over South African kickboxer Quinton Alenza with heelhooks and punches from inside the guard. But surprisingly he couldn’t finish the fight against a less experienced opponent under the time limit. The judges awarded the fight to Hasegawa by 3-0 decision.
Grabaka’s lightweight ace Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures) didn’t find much trouble on the ground dealing with ZST veteran Hirotaka Miyagawa, scoring an armbar victory at 4:44 of round one.
Two Behemoths, Muscle Hiranuma and Soichi Nishida (Pictures), fought a short and uninteresting fight. Hiranuma took the victory by submission via rear-naked choke 1:02 after the opening bell.
The first match of the night saw the return of Noburu Nakadai to MMA competition against Genki Sudo (Pictures)’s teammate Yutaro Miyamoto (Pictures). Nakadai took home the victory by knockout via punches at 3:14 of the first period.
