TOKYO, Feb. 5 — The brass at Dream Stage Entertainment must be feeling pretty good right now because DEEP just keeps getting better and better. The featherweight tournament finals last December were absolutely awesome and Sunday’s event promised to be just as good.
Sakurai too has not fared well in Bushido, with losses against Yushin Okami (Pictures), Murilo Bustamante (Pictures) and Paulo Filho (Pictures). The stakes were high and no doubt both of these fighters wanted to put out a strong performance tonight to get on track for 2006.
Chonan came to the ring wearing wrestling shoes so I wondered if takedowns were going to be the name of the game for the Japanese fighter. The first round started with both guys coming out swinging. After a heated exchange of fists, the fighters came to a clinch. From here Sakurai pulled off a nice Greco-Roman takedown and fell into the guard.
From this position, with both fighters thrashing around and throwing punches, a huge trail of blood started to run from Sakurai’s nose. This thing was like a faucet — you get used to seeing blood at MMA events but this was ridiculous.
The referee paused the fight and sent Sakurai to the ring doctor. Chonan looked like he was on the set of a Friday the 13th, absolutely covered with his opponent’s blood.
It took the doctors a few minutes to control the bleeding but eventually Sakurai returned to the center of the ring. The match was started again and the slugfest continued. In the clinch both fighters wrestled for control, but it was Sakurai who once again pulled off a Greco-Roman takedown.
After a few shots on the ground, Sakurai’s nose began to bleed again, this time even worse than before. The referee realized that the bleeding could not be controlled and called an end to the fight at the 1:57 mark of the first round. Chonan was declared the winner and new DEEP middleweight champion.
In his address to the fans, Chonan said that he wasn’t the champ and that Sakurai would have to fight one more time to settle it.
This was a fight that I really wanted to see and it’s a shame that it ended the way it did. For the brief time that they were fighting, these two guys were going full-throttle. Hopefully DSE will put this match back together soon.
The co-main event saw tough Grabaka fighter Kazuo Misaki (Pictures) face off against PRIDE veteran Akira Shoji (Pictures). Misaki is a striking ace and he certainly put his skills on display tonight, feinting with his body to set up his shots, particularly left hooks to the body.
Despite having Matt Hume (Pictures) in his corner, Shoji didn’t seem to get the opportunity to really get into this one, merely reacting to the barrage of strikes thrown by his opponent. At one point Shoji did tag the Grabaka fighter with a one-two combo and followed up with a shot, but he ended up falling to the mat with Misaki taking mount.
From here Misaki instantly squeezed on a guillotine from the top, forcing Shoji to tap at the 2:32 mark of the first.
In a grappling-only bout, DEEP featherweight champion Masakazu Imanari (Pictures) squared off against Paragon Ju-jitsu member Jeffery Glover. With no strikes allowed this contest at times looked a bit more like a comedy act than a grappling match. The Japanese “master of leglocks” pulled off his usually theatrics of standing in bizarre stance and playing to the crowd. Glover, too, played up for the fans. The referee often called for more action from the fighters.
Glover went for an arm drag several times, often linking it with a single-leg takedown attempt. To his credit, he was fast as lightning with his techniques, but the constantly relaxed Imanari seemed to be ready for everything.
The Japanese fighter only attempted his patented “diving corkscrew baseball slide takedown” once in the second. The match got a lot more active in the final 30 seconds, but after two five-minute rounds the judges ruled this one a draw.
SK Absolute fighter Hidehiko Hasegawa (Pictures) was all about the standing Kimura in his bout with SHOOTO veteran Shigetoshi Iwase (Pictures).
Iwase got around to Hasegawa’s back several times when they were standing. From here Hasegawa would apply the Kimura and fall backwards to the mat with the technique still on. Iwase went with the technique and was able to escape once they both hit the ground.
Iwase pounded the SK Absolute fighter from the guard in the second. Later Hasegawa attempted both an omoplata and leg submission, but his opponent escaped. The fight went the distance and Hasegawa walked away with the decision.
In a real back-and-forth slugfest, Yoshihiro “Barbaro 44” Tomioka took on Pancrase and DEEP veteran Hiroki Nagaoka (Pictures). On their feet, the action was non-stop with both guys staggering each other several times.
As they got more tired towards the end of the second, both ate a lot of shots. On the ground, Tomioka dominated position, getting a slick pass and taking side-, mount- and back-control. Nagaoka opted to pound when in his opponent’s guard. The fight went to the judges and Tomioka took the split decision.
DEEP fighter Hirohide Fujinuma (Pictures) faced off against U-File Camp’s Daisuke Nakamura (Pictures) in a short but entertaining fight. I’ve seen Fujinuma fight a couple of times before and this guy is a real brawler, often rushing in on his opponents with big haymakers.
Nakamura, accompanied by U-File boss Kiyoshi Tamura (Pictures), wore old-school wrestling boots reminiscent of the early days of Pancrase.
As usual, Fujinuma came out swinging for the fences. Nakamura moved to avoid the bombs and landed a hard punch of his own that knocked his opponent down to the mat. From here Nakamura basically jumped over his opponent to apply a keylock. He transitioned to an armbar from which Fujinuma stood to try to pull away from, and then moved to an omo plata to force a tapout victory at the 52-second mark.
Canadian fighter and AMC Pankration member Nick Ring had Matt Hume (Pictures) in his corner for his fight against Yoshida dojo member Ryuichi Murata (Pictures). On their feet, Ring really made this one look like a Thai kickboxing match, firing strong knees to his opponent’s legs from the clinch.
The wheels really fell off for Murata in the second round, with Ring scoring a Greco-Roman takedown and then getting and maintaining the mount.
From here Ring rained down punches and though Murata tried to escape the bad predicament, he could not. Ring eventually transitioned to armbar, which Murata escaped, only to fall into a triangle. Murata held on until the end, but the judges awarded Ring with the unanimous victory.
Takada dojo fighter Tomoyoshi Iwamiya had some pretty good takedown attempts against DEEP and Pancrase fighter Yuya Shirai (Pictures). I was really impressed with Iwamiya’s ground game, a non-stop style that saw him always looking for submissions.
Shirai showed a good sprawl and was able to inflict damage after his opponent’s failed takedowns. The fight went the distance and Shirai took the unanimous decision.
Grabaka fighter and Misaki clone Kazunori Yokota scored a big right hand in the opening moments of his fight with Kosuto Umeda (Pictures), knocking the DEEP fighter to the ground. Umeda weathered the storm and recovered to tag Yokota with some shots of his own.
The second round saw the slugfest continue. Yokota scored a trip from the clinch and took the mount. From here he rained down punches before the before stepped in to stop the fight at the 4:05 mark.