TOKYO, March 30 — Young male and female Shooto fighters duked it out tonight as the Kinema Club once again played host to Battle Mix Tokyo.
This was the story with young Class B standout Toshimichi Akagi (Pictures) as he faced off in the main event with Shooto Class A veteran Junji Ikoma (Pictures). A win here would have pretty much guaranteed a jump up to Shooto's Class A Bantamweight Division for the Cobra-kai fighter.
Ikoma, on the other hand, has been in the ring with some of the bantamweight division's best fighters — Mamoru Yamaguchi (Pictures), Yasuhiro Urushitani (Pictures) and Masatoshi Abe (Pictures). Although lacking the knockout power of others in the division, the long and lanky veteran is well known for his sharp knees and decent grappling ability.
The first round played out totally on the feet as Ikoma used his long arms and legs to pepper his opponent from a distance. Akagi eventually got wise to the Class A fighters tactics, closing the gap by charging in with right hands and connecting with some well placed low-kick counters.
The fighters continued to trade in the opening moments of the second, with Akagi's low-kicks continuing to find their mark. When clinched at the ropes, Ikoma jumped up and pulled guard in an attempt to apply a submission, but Akagi managed to get back to his feet and proceeded to pound kicks into his downed opponent's legs.
Toward the end of the round it seemed like the damage Ikoma took from his opponent's well-placed low kicks was starting to catch up with him, as it was Akagi who was now in the driver's seat, pushing the pace of the fight and controlling the real estate of the ring.
The Cobra-kai fighter finished strong, landing a lot more than his opponent. Ikoma, on the other hand, looked like he was merely hanging on towards the end, totally gassed and discouraged at the final bell.
But as has been witnessed many times before in MMA, you can never be totally sure which way a fight will go when left to the judges. This time around fate smiled on Ikoma, as the judges awarded him with a highly questionable split decision.
The fight of the night definitely was to the battle between 154-pound Shooto All-Japan Amateur runner-up Guy Delameau and Purebred Omiya's Toshikazu Iseno (Pictures).
The bad blood between these two started early on when Iseno scored a knockdown off a right hand, yet refused to stop coming forward despite the referee pushing himself between them to administer an eight-count. Iseno continued to taunt his opponent, to which the Hawaiian native Delameau answered back by connecting a glancing punch to Iseno's face over the referee's shoulder.
Upon the restart after this little melee, Iseno managed to score the takedown from the clinch and proceeded to fire down strong punches from the guard. Delameau took a fair amount of damage here before scurrying to his feet, but returned the favor by connecting with a hard right hand in the corner just before the end of the round.
Both guys came out really fired up for the second, eventually getting drawn into a back-and-forth slugfest. Just as it seemed like one fighter had the upper hand, the other would rally back to inflict damage of his own.
These guys taunted one another and traded hard leather at a furious pace right until the final bell. The fight went to the judges and it was Iseno who walk away with the unanimous victory.
Both Takehiro Harusaki and Kenichi Sawada took their time and picked their shots in a flyweight battle. Both fighters were crisp and fast with their punches and scored some decent knees from the clinch.
Sawada nearly had a front choke after sprawling out from a Harusaki takedown attempt early in the second, but the Chokushin-kai managed to slip out of the technique and escape.
Later in the round, Harusaki found his mark and tagged his opponent with some good right hands and delivered more knees in the clinch.
The fight went the distance and it was Harusaki who was awarded the split decision.
Keisuke Sakai scored a fairly quick victory over Paulo Milano.
Milano looked pretty good on his feet, but unfortunately wasn't there for very long before his opponent got him to his back. From here Sakai easily passed to side and then took the mount. After raining down some punches, Sakai sunk in a keylock and scored the submission victory at the 2:26 mark of the first.
On the women's side of the bracket, former Smackgirl champion Megumi Yabushita (Pictures) had a really up-and-down battle with Wajyutsu Keishukai Tokyo's Mizuho Sato. Both displayed some impressive takedowns and hard punch combinations throughout the course of this fight. Sato took her opponent's back a few times, but Yabushita managed to defend and either escape or score a reversal.
Both fighter's continued to trade leather throughout the second, and in the final moments of the round Yabushita scored three powerful takedowns — a judo toss, a nice suplex, then another judo toss — just before the bell sounded.
This was a fairly even fight, but Yabushita pulled ahead a bit at the end. The fight went to the judges and Yabushita picked up the majority decision.
Revenge was no doubt on the mind of Kayo Nagayasu (Pictures) as she faced Ikuko Tamada. Last year, she and Tamada fought to a draw in the semifinals of the G-Shooto 106-pound tournament. But unfortunately for Nagayasu, it was Tamada who ended up winning the resulting lottery and moving on the finals.
Most of this fight took place on the mat, with both fighters scoring reversals and going for submission attempts. Leglocks seemed to be technique of choice towards the end of the second round, as Tamada went for a heelhook and Nagayasu defended by looking to apply an Achilles, but neither could find the sweet spot before the final bell.
The fight went to the judges and was awarded to Tamada via unanimous decision.
Kyoko Takabayashi displayed a superior ground game over Yuuko Yuuko, eventually catching her with an armbar at the 3:06 mark of the first.