Shooto Middleweight Title on the Line Saturday
Nakakura vs. Hirota
Jordan Breen Feb 16, 2007
Takashi Nakakura (Pictures) vs. Mizuto Hirota (Pictures)
While I typically try to find snappy ways to introduce these fights, there is little I can say for this bout, except that it is an outstanding matc,, h-up.
One hundred fifty four pounds has long been Shooto's hallmark
weight class, and fights like this will ensure that it stays en
vogue. The fight has serious potential to be fireworks, and while
it is for the Pacific Rim title, which was recently vacated by
Mitsuhiro Ishida
(Pictures), Tatsuya Kawajiri (Pictures)'s relinquishing of the Shooto
world welterweight championship means that in a way, there is more
than one title opportunity at stake in this bout.
Neither Takashi Nakakura (Pictures) nor Mizuto Hirota (Pictures) are names that most MMA fans are going to recognize, and with perhaps with good reason. Despite making his professional debut four and a half years ago, Nakakura has fought sparsely, usually fighting only twice a year. He was absent for nearly all of 2006, before making a late return in October, where he was originally slated to face Hirota before a crowd at Pacifico Yokohama. After a broken metacarpal forced Hirota from the card, Nakakura met Ganjo Tentsuku (Pictures) and put on his best performance to date.
It is difficult to say exactly what contributed to Nakakura's elevated performance against Tentsuku. Maybe the 14 months he spent away from the ring recharged his batteries. Maybe he has successfully been able to negotiate serving as Shooting Gym Osaka's head trainer, while preparing himself to fight. Maybe his striking training under former Shootboxing champion Hiromu Yoshitaka has improved his overall game. Whatever the cause, Nakakura had finally looked downright impressive against a solid opponent.
Looking impressive has never been an issue for Mizuto Hirota (Pictures). Undefeated through his first six fights, Hirota has positively mauled every fighter he's faced thus far. He blitzed through the 2005 Shooto welterweight rookie tournament bracket, and in addition to his tournament victory, was awarded the Rookie Fighting Spirit prize. Shooto authorities made the right choice, as it is rare to see a fighter as naturally tough and scrappy as Hirota who also clearly has the technical acumen to become a great fighter.
In his first Class A bout, Hirota thrashed Brazilian Danilo Cherman (Pictures), who recently made a big impression in Cage Rage with his victory over Jean Silva (Pictures). He had no such luck against Hirota, who mauled him from top position for the entire bout, repeatedly rocking the very gutsy Cherman with heavy ground-and-pound.
In his last bout against Jin Kazeta (Pictures), Hirota opted to stand and strike with the veteran Muay Thai marksman rather than take him down — despite Kazeta's reputation as being largely inadequate on the mat. Unlike many fighters who choose to take on dangerous strikers in their domain and suffer the consequences, however, Hirota blew Kazeta out of the water, out-striking him from the start and knocking him to the mat several times en route to a lopsided decision. The only thing that prevented Hirota from stopping Kazeta was that pesky knockdown rule, which stopped him from diving on Kazeta to continue the smashing when he repeatedly sent him to the floor.
Given the emergence of Nakakura's striking skills, and his willingness to trade with Ganjo Tentsuku (Pictures), he should have no problem trading, at least early on, with Hirota. However, he may quickly rethink that strategy, as the striking style he showed against Tentsuku was not one particularly compatible for fighting Hirota. If there is one thing that Naoki Sakuraba does it is instill in his pupils strong fundamentals. Hirota, despite being a young prospect, has the poise and ring control of a consummate veteran.
On the feet, he is able to use kicks and punches effectively, while maintaining distance, and both effectively scoring with combinations, and counterstriking. His hand speed and technique should give him the ability to counter if Nakakura becomes lazy with his punches or low kicks.
Tentsuku, meanwhile, was able to fairly liberally score with high-volume punch combinations against Nakakura, and while Hirota may not be able to throw in the same machine gun fashion as Tentsuku, he is a more accurate and heavy puncher. While Nakakura appeared to deal with Tentsuku's strikes, there are still some concerns about his chin, as many Shooto enthusiasts remember him getting shook up from some heavy leather courtesy of Takumi Nakayama (Pictures). Yes, that Takumi Nakayama (Pictures).
Hirota has the skills to keep it standing. While Nakakura is a decent wrestler, Hirota's takedown defense has looked very solid in the past, and again, given how Naoki Sakurada trains his fighters, I find it extremely hard to imagine that if he did end up on his back, he wouldn't be able to find a way back up.
If he chooses, Hirota should be able to take the fight to the canvas from the clinch. While closing the distance on Nakakura could give him an opportunity to score with some of the great knees he showed against Tentsuku, Hirota has looked very strong in the clinch, and has great upper-body takedowns. If he assumes top position, he should be able to pound Nakakura fairly effectively.
Nakakura has an active and fairly technical guard game, but a Nova Uniao-bred fighter like Danilo Cherman (Pictures) was able to do absolutely nothing to Hirota from his back and was consistently bashed.
If Nakakura was to take a win he would have to mimic the Tentsuku fight to an extent by scoring potent offense in spurts to earn the judges' favor. The style clash does not lend itself to Nakakura being the more consistent fighter on the feet, so he'll have to land big shots, which seems very unlikely.
Likewise, it seems doubtful he could submit Hirota from his back, or maintain top position throughout the bout. Hirota is always able to create the pace and tempo of his bouts, and it should continue here. Hirota should solidify his status as one of the next big things from Shooto's 154-pound class and take the Pacific Rim title with an impressive decision, which will also position him as a potential candidate for a shot at the vacant Shooto world title in the not-so-distant future.
While I typically try to find snappy ways to introduce these fights, there is little I can say for this bout, except that it is an outstanding matc,, h-up.
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Neither Takashi Nakakura (Pictures) nor Mizuto Hirota (Pictures) are names that most MMA fans are going to recognize, and with perhaps with good reason. Despite making his professional debut four and a half years ago, Nakakura has fought sparsely, usually fighting only twice a year. He was absent for nearly all of 2006, before making a late return in October, where he was originally slated to face Hirota before a crowd at Pacifico Yokohama. After a broken metacarpal forced Hirota from the card, Nakakura met Ganjo Tentsuku (Pictures) and put on his best performance to date.
Yes, that sounds weird, given that the Tentsuku fight was an
unfulfilling draw. Nakakura holds wins over solid competitors like
Kenichiro Togashi
(Pictures) and Ray Cooper (Pictures), too. So why the Tentsuku fight?
For starters, the Togashi fight was merely an exploitation of
Togashi's flimsy wrestling. The fight with Cooper was a weak cut
stoppage, and Nakakura's best offense was a barrage of shoulder
strikes. Even though he didn't come out in victory against
Tentsuku, Nakakura looked to be in great physical shape and showed
a nice blend of skills. The most impressive offensive displays of
the fight belonged to Nakakura, who took Tentsuku's back and fought
for rear-naked chokes. He also landed a series of crushing knees in
the clinch that stunned the rock-headed Tentsuku.
It is difficult to say exactly what contributed to Nakakura's elevated performance against Tentsuku. Maybe the 14 months he spent away from the ring recharged his batteries. Maybe he has successfully been able to negotiate serving as Shooting Gym Osaka's head trainer, while preparing himself to fight. Maybe his striking training under former Shootboxing champion Hiromu Yoshitaka has improved his overall game. Whatever the cause, Nakakura had finally looked downright impressive against a solid opponent.
Looking impressive has never been an issue for Mizuto Hirota (Pictures). Undefeated through his first six fights, Hirota has positively mauled every fighter he's faced thus far. He blitzed through the 2005 Shooto welterweight rookie tournament bracket, and in addition to his tournament victory, was awarded the Rookie Fighting Spirit prize. Shooto authorities made the right choice, as it is rare to see a fighter as naturally tough and scrappy as Hirota who also clearly has the technical acumen to become a great fighter.
In his first Class A bout, Hirota thrashed Brazilian Danilo Cherman (Pictures), who recently made a big impression in Cage Rage with his victory over Jean Silva (Pictures). He had no such luck against Hirota, who mauled him from top position for the entire bout, repeatedly rocking the very gutsy Cherman with heavy ground-and-pound.
In his last bout against Jin Kazeta (Pictures), Hirota opted to stand and strike with the veteran Muay Thai marksman rather than take him down — despite Kazeta's reputation as being largely inadequate on the mat. Unlike many fighters who choose to take on dangerous strikers in their domain and suffer the consequences, however, Hirota blew Kazeta out of the water, out-striking him from the start and knocking him to the mat several times en route to a lopsided decision. The only thing that prevented Hirota from stopping Kazeta was that pesky knockdown rule, which stopped him from diving on Kazeta to continue the smashing when he repeatedly sent him to the floor.
Given the emergence of Nakakura's striking skills, and his willingness to trade with Ganjo Tentsuku (Pictures), he should have no problem trading, at least early on, with Hirota. However, he may quickly rethink that strategy, as the striking style he showed against Tentsuku was not one particularly compatible for fighting Hirota. If there is one thing that Naoki Sakuraba does it is instill in his pupils strong fundamentals. Hirota, despite being a young prospect, has the poise and ring control of a consummate veteran.
On the feet, he is able to use kicks and punches effectively, while maintaining distance, and both effectively scoring with combinations, and counterstriking. His hand speed and technique should give him the ability to counter if Nakakura becomes lazy with his punches or low kicks.
Tentsuku, meanwhile, was able to fairly liberally score with high-volume punch combinations against Nakakura, and while Hirota may not be able to throw in the same machine gun fashion as Tentsuku, he is a more accurate and heavy puncher. While Nakakura appeared to deal with Tentsuku's strikes, there are still some concerns about his chin, as many Shooto enthusiasts remember him getting shook up from some heavy leather courtesy of Takumi Nakayama (Pictures). Yes, that Takumi Nakayama (Pictures).
Hirota has the skills to keep it standing. While Nakakura is a decent wrestler, Hirota's takedown defense has looked very solid in the past, and again, given how Naoki Sakurada trains his fighters, I find it extremely hard to imagine that if he did end up on his back, he wouldn't be able to find a way back up.
If he chooses, Hirota should be able to take the fight to the canvas from the clinch. While closing the distance on Nakakura could give him an opportunity to score with some of the great knees he showed against Tentsuku, Hirota has looked very strong in the clinch, and has great upper-body takedowns. If he assumes top position, he should be able to pound Nakakura fairly effectively.
Nakakura has an active and fairly technical guard game, but a Nova Uniao-bred fighter like Danilo Cherman (Pictures) was able to do absolutely nothing to Hirota from his back and was consistently bashed.
If Nakakura was to take a win he would have to mimic the Tentsuku fight to an extent by scoring potent offense in spurts to earn the judges' favor. The style clash does not lend itself to Nakakura being the more consistent fighter on the feet, so he'll have to land big shots, which seems very unlikely.
Likewise, it seems doubtful he could submit Hirota from his back, or maintain top position throughout the bout. Hirota is always able to create the pace and tempo of his bouts, and it should continue here. Hirota should solidify his status as one of the next big things from Shooto's 154-pound class and take the Pacific Rim title with an impressive decision, which will also position him as a potential candidate for a shot at the vacant Shooto world title in the not-so-distant future.
