Lithuanian fighter Marius Liaukevicius made his Japan debut against Purebred Omiya’s Ganjo Tentsuku (Pictures).
From his back the Lithuanian really used his reach. Rather than letting Tentsuku come all the way into his guard, Liaukevicius essentially closed his knees together to prevent close contact to his hips. From here the Lithuanian fired hard right hands, connecting on most of them. Tentsuku tried to fire back, but his arms were not long enough to reach Liaukevicius’s face.
Liaukevicius continued to use this unorthodox tactic quite effectively through the rest of the fight. It got to the point were Tentsuku, the man on top, was force to tie up the arms of the man on the bottom, rather than the other way around.
The rest of the fight was pretty balanced on the feet, with both fighters landing some decent strikes. The Japanese fighter scored all the takedowns and not once was he on his back.
This fight went to the judges and Tentsuku was awarded the victory, though Sherdog.com had it a draw. Rarely has a fighter landed as many hard, effective punches from his back as Liaukevicius.
Scramble Shibuya’s Fanjin Son displayed some excellent boxing skills in his bout against Shooting Gym Yokohama’s Kyotaro Nakao (Pictures). In the first he landed a hook that sent Nakao falling back into the corner. In the second he landed a hard counter-punch, forcing Nakao to take a standing-eight count.
A lot of this fight took place in the clinch, and both fighters scored decent punches to the head and body. But in the end Son’s boxing was just too sharp and crisp for Nakao, allowing him to walk away with the unanimous decision.
ZST and Rings veteran Mindaugas Smirnovas basically got trapped in the corners in his fight against Yoshiyuki Yoshida (Pictures). The Lithuanian was doing well at the start of the bout, getting behind his opponent and piggybacking him while looking for a rear-naked choke. Eventually, however, Smirnovas slid off and Yoshida scored a takedown in the corner, taking side position then mount.
This was the beginning of the end for the Lithuanian. The problem with being on the mat in the corner of the ring is that you can’t effectively bridge to get your opponent off of you — the ropes essentially help your opponent to kill the momentum of your bridge. With a cage you have the fence to push against to avoid getting stacked. The configuration of a ring doesn’t allow for this.
Unable to shake his opponent, Mindaugas twisted to his stomach. From here Yoshida sat up on the Lithuanian’s back and continued to fire unanswered shots to the sides of Mindaugas’s head. The referee eventually stopped the fight at the 4:00 mark of the first, with Yoshida picking up the victory.
Paraestra Sendai’s Takamaro Watari (Pictures) scored several takedowns in his fight against Seiji Ozuka, scoring mount twice. Ozawa, however, really turned it on with fast, snappy punches.
This was an up-and-down battle, with Ozuka doing most of his damage on his feet. The fight went the distance and Ozuka took the unanimous decision.
In his first MMA bout, Brazilian jiu-jitsu competitor Mateus Irie Nekio showed that he could stand and strike with Tomokazu Yuasa. This one was a real slobber knocker with both guys taking a lot of shots. Yuasa had a good sprawl and avoid many of Nekio’s shot attempts.
Nekio, not surprisingly, rolled quite nicely on the ground, taking Yuasa’s back and transitioning for an armbar attempt. The fight went the distance and Nekio was awarded the decision.
In a grappling-only match, newly crowned SHOOTO middleweight (167 pounds) champion and Paraestra Tokyo fighter Shinya Aoki (Pictures) squared off against Paraestra Matsudo instructor Hiroshi Tsuruya.
Aoki displayed world-class jiu-jitsu prowess by dominating his fellow Paraestra network member. The middleweight champion scored several judo trips and throws and attempted a heelhook in the first that Tsuruya managed to escape.
Aoki led the bout 9-0 when he eventually scored the mount again in the second and applied a triangle from the top to get the tapout victory at the 1:04 mark.