TOKYO, Sept 8 — The theme of tonight’s Shooto event from the legendary Korakuen Hall was Japan versus Lithuania.
Shooto and RINGS Lithuania have been a proving ground for many skilled fighters, with guys such as Erikas Petraitis (Pictures) and Remigijus Morkevicius (Pictures) moving on to ZST and K-1 HERO’s.
This non-title event may have been somewhat overlooked, as its squished between last July’s card of featherweight and lightweight championship bouts and next month’s mega-card featuring three title bouts in Yokohama, but it still offered several quality fights.
The main event featured Shooto bantamweight champion Mamoru Yamaguchi (Pictures) squaring off against 18-year-old Lithuanian newcomer Erikas Suslovas.
The charismatic Mamoru always puts on a high paced and exciting show whenever he steps into the ring. The Japanese champion has very strong kickboxing skills and his knees from the clinch are some of the best in the business. While the young Suslovas does not have a record on the Sherdog Fight Finder, Shooto lists him as a judo and Sambo stylist with a record of 5-1.
The Lithuanian looked very green coming in against the experienced champion, and it showed throughout the course of this short fight. Early on Suslovas got the clinch and a guillotine-turned-headlock, but he couldn’t really do anything with it. Once in a better position, the champion began to fire his patented knees.
Once out of the clinch and standing across from each other, Suslovas held his hands high, exposing his ribs. This was a dangerous fighting stance to adopt against a fighter as well versed as Mamoru.
Just a few moments later, the bantamweight champion connected with a thudding kick to the left side of the Lithuanian’s body. The young Suslovas crumpled and turned from the Japanese fighter upon impact.
Mamoru followed with punches until the referee came in to stop the bout at the 2:14 mark.
Shikou Yamashita (Pictures), the man Sherdog’s Stephen Martinez has dubbed “The Most Obscure MMA Champion In History” made his first title defense against Lithuanian Grazhuydas Smailis.
Shooto’s light heavyweight division is nowhere near as active as its other divisions — they really have to dust off the belt whenever there’s a title bout. Many of those ranked in the division have never actually fought in a Shooto-sanctioned fight.
In fact, so obscure is this title that Yamashita actually won it outside of the promotion, at the AFC 16 event in Boca Raton Florida against Dustin Denes (Pictures) in April of 2006 (and that wasn’t even the main event of the card). It seemed like only the most hardcore Shooto fan even knew who the champion of this title was.
This was a real barroom brawl, with both fighters swinging wild haymakers and really going after each other. Yamashita proved his chin to all in attendance, eating a lot of hard flurries that the Lithuanian threw at him. Twice during the fight the action had to be stopped so doctors could check bleeding coming from the bridge of Yamashita’s nose and ear.
Watching this bout, one has to wonder if Shooto told Smailis the rules regarding grabbing the ropes before going in to fight. The first two times he grabbed the ropes to stop himself from going to the mat the referee gave him a warning. The next time the referee deducted a point. And then another. The fifth and final time the referee called for a disqualification, ending the bout at the 3:21 mark of the second round.
This certainly wasn’t the most gracefully or technical fight, and it seemed like the Lithuanian was winning the battle before the disqualification. Yamashita took a lot of shots to the head and really needs to work on his stand-up skills if he wants to keep this title.
In his fight against AACC’s Shinichi Kojima (Pictures), Yusei Shimokawa (Pictures) took his opponent’s back early after a scramble and held on, piggybacking him as Kojima stood up.
Shimokawa remained glued to the AACC fighter and threw down Donkey Kong style hammerfists from behind when pushed up against the corner post. Kojima had a tough time shaking his opponent, and was forced to throw punches behind him while defending against the choke.
On the mat in the second round, Kojima did a great job of being active on the top, constantly moving through positions. Eventually the No. 3-ranked Kojima got his revenge for the tough time Shimokawa gave him in the first, scoring back-control and sinking in the choke.
Shimokawa struggled to hang on but was eventually forced to tap at the 4:00 mark.
Daiji Takahashi (Pictures) had been on a bit of a skid as of late, going 0-3 in his last three fights — but these losses came against top ranked bantamweight competitors Shinichi Kojima (Pictures), Junji Ikoma (Pictures) and Mamoru Yamaguchi (Pictures).
His opponent tonight, Yasuhiro Urushitani (Pictures), had just come off a victory against Daniel Lima (Pictures) at the MARS World Grand Prix last May.
Fourth-ranked Urushitani really dominated this fight and made Takahashi look out of his league. The Wajyutsu Keisyukai RJW fighter out-boxed Takahashi, connecting with hard hooking punches. Urushitani’s left leg high kick and flying knees scored several times, as Takahashi was dropped early in the first and appeared rocked for the rest of the fight.
Takahashi really couldn’t get anything going, merely reacting to the bombs that Urushitani was laying on him. The fight went to the judges and Urushitani took the unanimous victory.
Kohei Yasumi (Pictures)’s fortunes continue to go south after his bout with Purebred Omiya’s Ganjo Tentsuku (Pictures).
After a good sprawl, Tentsuku began to rain down punches from the guard. Yasumi defended against the first few, but eventually the Purebred Omiya fighter’s punches found their mark, hurting Yasumi badly before the referee rushed in to stop the fight at the 2:46 mark of the first round.
Tsudanumura dojo fighter Akitoshi Tamura (Pictures) got back on the winning track after his devastating knockout loss at the hands of Tenkei Fujimiya (Pictures) last May.
His opponent, Sakae Kasuya (Pictures), got a clean double-leg takedown early, but from his back Tamura secured an armbar. Kasuya fought against the technique, but eventually Tamura rolled his opponent to the mat and got full extension on the technique, taking the submission victory at the 2:16 mark of the first round.
Scramble Shibuya’s Fanjin Son (Pictures) took the unanimous decision in his battle against Eiji Murayama (Pictures), 19-16 three times.
X-One Shonan Gym’s Yuki Shoujou defeated Takeshi Okada by unanimous decision, 20-19 three times.
Shinji Sasaki triangle choked Michyuki Ishibashi at 2:52 of the first in a 2006 Shooto Welterweight Rookie Tournament semifinal bout.
Teriyuki Matsumoto (Pictures) defeated Atsushi Asano by unanimous decision in a 2006 Shooto Featherweight Rookie Tournament semifinal contest.
Mitsuhiro Takeda submitted Seiji Furukawa via Kimura at 2:37 of the second round in a 2006 Shooto Light Heavyweight Rookie Tournament semifinal.