Full Circle for Rumina Sato and Alexandre “Pequeno” Nogueira
Stephen Martinez Mar 14, 2005
TOKYO, March 11 – “A man exists for a generation, but his name
lasts to the end of time.”
These words can be found in Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai, a compilation of the philosophies of Yamamoto Tsunetomo, an old Samurai from the old Edo era of Japan. They remind me of what I thought after witnessing the last SHOOTO show and fighters like Rumina Sato and Alexandre “Pequeno” Nogueira performed in the same ring in front of a full house gathered at Korauken Hall.
To describe with words the feeling of actually being there live is
a difficult thing. But I really hope the pictures taken by Masa
Fukui and myself can provide a feeling how special it was to see
some of the greatest fighters in the world reach the top and the
glory to the be included in the books of history of this young but
exciting sport.
Longtime champion and probably one of the most dominant pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Alexandre “Pequeno” Nogueira was set to face his Brazilian countryman jiu-jitsu specialist Joao Roque in his sixth official title defense since winning the belt back in 1999.
The fight restarted in the ring with Roque trying to score punches. Pequeno secured the clinch and lifted Roque once again to score another slam. Pequeno kept working for a guillotine but Roque escaped just to see Pequeno stand up to repeat the formula from early in the round after another leg lock.
Roque escaped but Pequeno kept the top position with punches from inside the guard. The action continued with Pequeno scoring another slam-takedown after catching Roque coming in with a punch. Pequeno kept working from inside the guard, diving from time to time with punches, standing up to kick or striking from inside the guard.
Throughout the rest of the fight Pequeno used the same game plan to dominate and outscore Roque with takedowns, slams and hard work from inside the guard with punches and kicks. During the last minutes of the third round Pequeno scored a pass to half guard, followed with small punches to secure the win and keep his title by unanimous decision, 30-27 on all scorecards.
The best fight of the night pitted SHOOTO charisma and legend Rumina Sato against hard puncher Makoto Ishikawa, from Purebred Omiya. Sato came to work quickly with a takedown, but Ishikawa scrambled and in the transition Sato secured a tight inverse triangle choke that put Ishikawa near the tap line.
After some seconds Ishikawa broke the triangle but Sato once again scrambled to get the back and work a choke while punching to finish the first round.
The second round had Sato outscoring Ishikawa in striking with back-to-back knockdowns. Ishikawa managed to regain composure and beat both counts, so Sato kept coming forward. Both fighters clinched while Sato tried a belly-to-belly suplex, but Ishikawa landed on top. Ishikawa stood to strike and kick while Sato defended from the guard with bicycle kicks.
One of these kicks landed on Ishikawa’s face. Under SHOOTO rules this is a penalty and the referee stopped the fight to check Ishikawa’s condition. Over Sato’s complaints the judges deducted one point from the scorecards due to the illegal move.
Around the last minute of the third round Sato scored a takedown but couldn’t manage any significant points from there. Ishikawa scrambled and reversed to get inside Sato’s guard, but the fight ended before he could do any damage.
The judges scored it three rounds to none (29-26, 29-26, 28-25) for Sato, who was awarded with the new Pacific lightweight champion belt. Sato broke down and cried in the middle of the ring, and after some words from longtime corner man and SHOOTO fighter Naoya Uematsu, the new champion regained his composure to get awarded with the title. The crowd gave Sato, who failed in three previous attempts to win a title, a standing ovation. After 10 years in professional SHOOTO, he finally saw his dream come true.
New lightweight sensation and Rookie of the Year 2004 Lion Takashi made his Class A debut against Muay Thai fighter Jin Kazeta, representing his own gym: Philoctetes Niigata. This fight was a stand-up war with Kazeta pushing forward and doing damage with knees from the clinch position. Takeshi, meanwhile, landed counterpunches and low kicks.
Kazeta’s strategy to push forward made him pay dearly after Takeshi caught him with a straight punch while coming in to score a knockdown. Finally, in the last minutes of the second round, with Kazeta landing knees inside the clinch, Takeshi managed to catch a leg and take Kazeta down. From there Takeshi start to pound away until the holes in Kazeta’s ground game showed up and he turned his back. Takeshi secured a rear-naked choke for the tap and win 4:17 of the second round.
After circling a little bit early in the first round, Hideki Kadowaki came forward with a punch to clinch against the ropes and take down Akitoshi Tamura. From there, Kadowaki worked his way to take Tamura’s back and start the attack with a rear-naked choke, which Tamura defended well.
Tamura scrambled to place Kadowaki inside the guard and secure a tight armbar seconds before the bell. The second rounds switched to Tamura taking down Kawadoki, who after some punches scrambled to get the top position and ride the round until the end with some rabid punches. It was enough for him to win by unanimous decision, 20-19 on each of the judge’s scorecards.
As part of the 2005 SHOOTO Rookie Tournament in the lightweight division, K'z Factory’s new prospect Keisuke Yamada faced Tenkei Fujimiya, from the longtime rival STG Yokohama gym. This match was basically a stand-up fight, with Fujimiya taking the best from Yamada in the first round with a knockdown.
From there Yamada was under pressure to do something since knockdowns are heavily scored against the fighters, especially in SHOOTO. Yamada fell short to mount any offense since his punches and attacks were countered, and any takedown attempts were basically blocked with good sprawls from Fujimiya.
At the end, following a unanimous two-round decision, a disappointed Yamada left the ring crying. Meanwhile, Fujimiya celebrated his moving on to the second round of the tournament.
Ryuhei Sato, fellow teammate of future PRIDE Bushido fighter and Murilo Bustamante’s next opponent, Ryuta Sakurai, came into this event to face Yoshinori Ashikawa as part of the light heavyweight 2005 SHOOTO Rookie Tournament.
Right from the start Sato shot for takedown, but Ashikawa made some adjustments from the guard to set an armbar. The muscular Sato basically overpowered the submission to break free and pound away from side position until the referee jumped in to stop the fight after Ashikawa was clearly out. Sato needed just 54 seconds to score the TKO.
These words can be found in Hagakure, The Book of the Samurai, a compilation of the philosophies of Yamamoto Tsunetomo, an old Samurai from the old Edo era of Japan. They remind me of what I thought after witnessing the last SHOOTO show and fighters like Rumina Sato and Alexandre “Pequeno” Nogueira performed in the same ring in front of a full house gathered at Korauken Hall.
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Longtime champion and probably one of the most dominant pound-for-pound fighters in the world, Alexandre “Pequeno” Nogueira was set to face his Brazilian countryman jiu-jitsu specialist Joao Roque in his sixth official title defense since winning the belt back in 1999.
Roque opened the first round with a low kick, but Pequeno caught it
and scored a huge slam. From there Pequeno stood up inside Roque’s
guard to quickly secure a leg lock that sent Roque rolling and
twisting away to escape. Both fighters kept rolling out of the ring
over the media and photo area, but neither was hurt.
The fight restarted in the ring with Roque trying to score punches. Pequeno secured the clinch and lifted Roque once again to score another slam. Pequeno kept working for a guillotine but Roque escaped just to see Pequeno stand up to repeat the formula from early in the round after another leg lock.
Roque escaped but Pequeno kept the top position with punches from inside the guard. The action continued with Pequeno scoring another slam-takedown after catching Roque coming in with a punch. Pequeno kept working from inside the guard, diving from time to time with punches, standing up to kick or striking from inside the guard.
Throughout the rest of the fight Pequeno used the same game plan to dominate and outscore Roque with takedowns, slams and hard work from inside the guard with punches and kicks. During the last minutes of the third round Pequeno scored a pass to half guard, followed with small punches to secure the win and keep his title by unanimous decision, 30-27 on all scorecards.
The best fight of the night pitted SHOOTO charisma and legend Rumina Sato against hard puncher Makoto Ishikawa, from Purebred Omiya. Sato came to work quickly with a takedown, but Ishikawa scrambled and in the transition Sato secured a tight inverse triangle choke that put Ishikawa near the tap line.
After some seconds Ishikawa broke the triangle but Sato once again scrambled to get the back and work a choke while punching to finish the first round.
The second round had Sato outscoring Ishikawa in striking with back-to-back knockdowns. Ishikawa managed to regain composure and beat both counts, so Sato kept coming forward. Both fighters clinched while Sato tried a belly-to-belly suplex, but Ishikawa landed on top. Ishikawa stood to strike and kick while Sato defended from the guard with bicycle kicks.
One of these kicks landed on Ishikawa’s face. Under SHOOTO rules this is a penalty and the referee stopped the fight to check Ishikawa’s condition. Over Sato’s complaints the judges deducted one point from the scorecards due to the illegal move.
Around the last minute of the third round Sato scored a takedown but couldn’t manage any significant points from there. Ishikawa scrambled and reversed to get inside Sato’s guard, but the fight ended before he could do any damage.
The judges scored it three rounds to none (29-26, 29-26, 28-25) for Sato, who was awarded with the new Pacific lightweight champion belt. Sato broke down and cried in the middle of the ring, and after some words from longtime corner man and SHOOTO fighter Naoya Uematsu, the new champion regained his composure to get awarded with the title. The crowd gave Sato, who failed in three previous attempts to win a title, a standing ovation. After 10 years in professional SHOOTO, he finally saw his dream come true.
New lightweight sensation and Rookie of the Year 2004 Lion Takashi made his Class A debut against Muay Thai fighter Jin Kazeta, representing his own gym: Philoctetes Niigata. This fight was a stand-up war with Kazeta pushing forward and doing damage with knees from the clinch position. Takeshi, meanwhile, landed counterpunches and low kicks.
Kazeta’s strategy to push forward made him pay dearly after Takeshi caught him with a straight punch while coming in to score a knockdown. Finally, in the last minutes of the second round, with Kazeta landing knees inside the clinch, Takeshi managed to catch a leg and take Kazeta down. From there Takeshi start to pound away until the holes in Kazeta’s ground game showed up and he turned his back. Takeshi secured a rear-naked choke for the tap and win 4:17 of the second round.
After circling a little bit early in the first round, Hideki Kadowaki came forward with a punch to clinch against the ropes and take down Akitoshi Tamura. From there, Kadowaki worked his way to take Tamura’s back and start the attack with a rear-naked choke, which Tamura defended well.
Tamura scrambled to place Kadowaki inside the guard and secure a tight armbar seconds before the bell. The second rounds switched to Tamura taking down Kawadoki, who after some punches scrambled to get the top position and ride the round until the end with some rabid punches. It was enough for him to win by unanimous decision, 20-19 on each of the judge’s scorecards.
As part of the 2005 SHOOTO Rookie Tournament in the lightweight division, K'z Factory’s new prospect Keisuke Yamada faced Tenkei Fujimiya, from the longtime rival STG Yokohama gym. This match was basically a stand-up fight, with Fujimiya taking the best from Yamada in the first round with a knockdown.
From there Yamada was under pressure to do something since knockdowns are heavily scored against the fighters, especially in SHOOTO. Yamada fell short to mount any offense since his punches and attacks were countered, and any takedown attempts were basically blocked with good sprawls from Fujimiya.
At the end, following a unanimous two-round decision, a disappointed Yamada left the ring crying. Meanwhile, Fujimiya celebrated his moving on to the second round of the tournament.
Ryuhei Sato, fellow teammate of future PRIDE Bushido fighter and Murilo Bustamante’s next opponent, Ryuta Sakurai, came into this event to face Yoshinori Ashikawa as part of the light heavyweight 2005 SHOOTO Rookie Tournament.
Right from the start Sato shot for takedown, but Ashikawa made some adjustments from the guard to set an armbar. The muscular Sato basically overpowered the submission to break free and pound away from side position until the referee jumped in to stop the fight after Ashikawa was clearly out. Sato needed just 54 seconds to score the TKO.
