TOKYO, Sept. 3 — DEEP held its 20th “Impact” show Saturday at the Differ Ariake live house, located in the artificial islands of Odaiba.
Glover, who trains at AMC Pankration under the tutelage of Matt Hume (Pictures) as well as City Boxing in San Diego, was one of three PRIDE U.S. auditions winners last November. With only three MMA fights under his belt, this was an important match-up for the American fighter, who needed a strong victory to show the brass at Dream Stage Entertainment that he’s ready to compete in a PRIDE ring.
Thomas, a veteran of the UFC and various other organizations, had a lot more experience, beating fighters such as Jens Pulver (Pictures) and Matt Serra.
This was an entertaining fight, with a good balance of stand-up and ground work. Glover dominated the wrestling portion of the match, executing several takedowns. Thomas displayed his impressive boxing skills throughout — his punches had a lot of snap to them and he was always moving his head and dodging the bombs that Glover threw.
Glover often fell into Thomas’s guard after completing his takedowns. From here he continued to fire shots at his opponent. On the ground, Thomas had some good submission attempts, including a guillotine choke and what looked like a rolling choke.
The fight went the distance and the judges awarded the victory to Glover.
Shootfighter Jutaro Nakao (Pictures) took on Eoh Won Jin from the CMA Korea camp. This was Nakao’s first fight since losing to Marcus Aurelio (Pictures) at PRIDE Bushido 8. Jin looked ripped and strong for this bout, often trying to suplex his opponent. While on his back, Nakao always tried to move his legs high, looking to apply an armbar or triangle.
Nakao didn’t do a lot of moving around while on his feet. Rather, he was quite stationary, waiting for to counter his opponent and time his strikes. Just as Jin was coming in for a punch, Nakao would throw a knee off his back leg — the sound from these powerful collisions echoed throughout the building.
The match turned into a real slugfest in the last 30 seconds, with both fighters giving and receiving some hard shots. In the end, the contest was ruled a draw.
SK Absolute fighter Hidehiko Hasegawa (Pictures) took on Seichi Ikemoto (Pictures) in a brilliant ground war. Hasegawa obviously wanted to keep this affair on the ground and was constantly going for the single-leg takedown. Both fighters were very active on the mat, moving through several positions.
Hasegawa got the mount twice and had some great kneebar and Achilles attempts. Ikemoto was able to take his opponent’s back and attempted a rear-naked choke in the third.
Ikemoto displayed some good striking throughout the fight. His long reach allowed him to score a lot of punches on Hasegawa. He also employed front kicks very effectively. Towards the end of the match Hasegawa looked a bit gassed on his feet and preferred to stay on the ground. The fight went the distance and Ikemoto got the unanimous decision.
Under the Grabaka vs. DEEP theme, which this event was promoted on, Grabaka jiu-jitsu ace Tekeshi Yamazaki faced off against the fighter called Barbaro44. Before this fight started, I could see Grabaka boss, Sanae Kikuta (Pictures), telling his fighter to stay on his feet and pound it out with his opponent. This is exactly what Yamazaki did at the start of the fight, throwing punches to both the head and body.
After several exchanges on their feet, the fight went to the ropes and Yamazaki was able to get behind his opponent and jump up onto his back. From here the Grabaka fighter sunk in a rear-naked choke for the submission victory.
Yamazaki’s teammate, Kazunori Yokota, faced Ken Hamamura in a very entertaining bout. Both Stephen Martinez and myself commented on how Yokota looked to be basically a clone of tough Grabaka fighter Kazuo Misaki (Pictures). They look (almost like twin brothers) and fight remarkably similar.
Yokota scored a tremendous judo hip toss on his opponent early on. On their feet, both fighters displayed some excellent striking, with Hamamura getting a slight advantage over his opponent in this area in the third round.
In the clinch, Yokota pounded his opponents legs with some hard knees and often scored the takedown. In the end, Yokota walked away with the unanimous victory.
Pancrase veteran and Grabaka fighter Keiichiro Yamamiya (Pictures) took on Jin O Kim from team CMA Korea. The basic pattern of this fight: Kim would step in with a hard cross, get the clinch, push into the corner and get the takedown. From inside Yamamiya’s guard, Kim continued to score with punches.
Yamamiya landed some solid shots and while watching I thought to myself that the Grabaka fighter should just let his hands go a little more. Yamamiya must have thought this too, because with about 30 seconds left in the final round, he just opened up on Kim, landing several hard shots to the head.
The impact of the punches sent sweat flying off the Korean. Kim looked like he was out on his feet, even having to turn and run to get away from the blows. If there had been a bit more time left, I’m certain Yamamiya would have knocked him out. In the end however, it was Kim who took the unanimous decision.