Shooto’s Best 143-Pounders on Display
Yozen vs. Adachi
Jordan Breen May 17, 2007
Masashi
Yozen (Pictures) (Shooting Gym Osaka) vs. Akihiko Adachi (Pictures) (Paraestra Matsudo)
Pop quiz: who is the current light heavyweight world champion of professional Shooto?
I'll give you a minute. …
What say you?
Just as I thought.
That's alright. If you couldn't instantly answer "Shikou Yamashita (Pictures)!" with an emphatic double fist pump, you're instantly forgiven. No hardcore Shooto nuts will hold it against you either. Plain and simple, it's hard to care about Shooto's 183-pound class. While some solid fighters have emerged from the division in the past, like Masanori Suda (Pictures) and Akihiro Gono (Pictures), it has more or less crawled to a halt in the last couple years.
Plain and simple, Shooto's homebase is in Japan, and there just aren't that many Japanese fighters in the higher weight classes. Moreover, many of Japan's standouts in the higher weight classes are converts from successful wrestling or judo backgrounds, who have typically foregone the fight foundations of Shooto, opting for bigger paydays in PRIDE and K-1.
After winning the 183-pound Shooto rookie tournament in 2005, Masashi Yozen (Pictures) looked like he may be part of the much-needed solution to rebuild the division. Entertaining, decently well-rounded, boasting KO power, and wearing an orange homage to Sakuraba as fight shorts, Yozen figured to be inside tracked to Class A Shooto by promoters. However, a disappointing loss to mediocre Akihiro Murayama was followed up by a foul-filled fight with Jun Kitagawa, in which a series of low-blows and point deductions kept Yozen from winning a fight he dominated.
Akihiko Adachi (Pictures) is the self-professed "middle-aged Shootor." At 41 years old, boasting a white collar job, Adachi's fight career serves largely as his hobby. After only one fight in three years, Adachi returned last October, cutting down to 183 pounds, and drawing against Akihiro Murayama. Perhaps motivated by UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture (Pictures), who Adachi considers a personal inspiration, he has seemingly dedicated more of himself to fighting, and a bout against Yozen may validate his efforts toward a late career surge.
Adachi is definitely the bigger and stronger of the two fighters, having formerly competed at 201 pounds in Shooto. However, he is far less dynamic than Yozen, as Adachi doesn't really stand out in any particular area. Adachi has decent takedowns and grappling ability. While his strong suit may be in the grappling department, Adachi is very much a macho dude, and is more than willing to trade strikes on the feet, which is where Yozen is at his best. While he is moderately well-rounded as stated above, Yozen excels on the feet, as he has good head movement, and some powerful punches.
While Adachi is competent on the feet, Yozen will definitely have the edge, and while Yozen isn't a slouch on the mat at all, Adachi's size and takedowns should give him the ability to be strong from the top position.
If both men pick shots methodically in the stand up, and neither accomplishes much on the mat, this bout has all the makings of an uninspired draw. Given that he has a greater skillset, Yozen should be able to best Adachi, dragging him into a stand-up fight based on bravado, but given his inability to realize any form of his potential in his last two fights, it is a major liability. While picking a draw sucks, given the present condition of Shooto's light heavyweight division, it is definitely apropos.
Pop quiz: who is the current light heavyweight world champion of professional Shooto?
Advertisement
What say you?
Hmmm?
Just as I thought.
That's alright. If you couldn't instantly answer "Shikou Yamashita (Pictures)!" with an emphatic double fist pump, you're instantly forgiven. No hardcore Shooto nuts will hold it against you either. Plain and simple, it's hard to care about Shooto's 183-pound class. While some solid fighters have emerged from the division in the past, like Masanori Suda (Pictures) and Akihiro Gono (Pictures), it has more or less crawled to a halt in the last couple years.
Plain and simple, Shooto's homebase is in Japan, and there just aren't that many Japanese fighters in the higher weight classes. Moreover, many of Japan's standouts in the higher weight classes are converts from successful wrestling or judo backgrounds, who have typically foregone the fight foundations of Shooto, opting for bigger paydays in PRIDE and K-1.
After winning the 183-pound Shooto rookie tournament in 2005, Masashi Yozen (Pictures) looked like he may be part of the much-needed solution to rebuild the division. Entertaining, decently well-rounded, boasting KO power, and wearing an orange homage to Sakuraba as fight shorts, Yozen figured to be inside tracked to Class A Shooto by promoters. However, a disappointing loss to mediocre Akihiro Murayama was followed up by a foul-filled fight with Jun Kitagawa, in which a series of low-blows and point deductions kept Yozen from winning a fight he dominated.
Akihiko Adachi (Pictures) is the self-professed "middle-aged Shootor." At 41 years old, boasting a white collar job, Adachi's fight career serves largely as his hobby. After only one fight in three years, Adachi returned last October, cutting down to 183 pounds, and drawing against Akihiro Murayama. Perhaps motivated by UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture (Pictures), who Adachi considers a personal inspiration, he has seemingly dedicated more of himself to fighting, and a bout against Yozen may validate his efforts toward a late career surge.
Adachi is definitely the bigger and stronger of the two fighters, having formerly competed at 201 pounds in Shooto. However, he is far less dynamic than Yozen, as Adachi doesn't really stand out in any particular area. Adachi has decent takedowns and grappling ability. While his strong suit may be in the grappling department, Adachi is very much a macho dude, and is more than willing to trade strikes on the feet, which is where Yozen is at his best. While he is moderately well-rounded as stated above, Yozen excels on the feet, as he has good head movement, and some powerful punches.
While Adachi is competent on the feet, Yozen will definitely have the edge, and while Yozen isn't a slouch on the mat at all, Adachi's size and takedowns should give him the ability to be strong from the top position.
If both men pick shots methodically in the stand up, and neither accomplishes much on the mat, this bout has all the makings of an uninspired draw. Given that he has a greater skillset, Yozen should be able to best Adachi, dragging him into a stand-up fight based on bravado, but given his inability to realize any form of his potential in his last two fights, it is a major liability. While picking a draw sucks, given the present condition of Shooto's light heavyweight division, it is definitely apropos.
