TOKYO, June 17 -- DEEP's double-header weekend wrapped up Sunday evening with the debut installment of its new grappling-only only series, DEEP-X.
One somewhat bizarre addition is that of the "audience decision." Large red and blue judgment cards are handed to random members of the audience before each bout. If the contest goes the distance and the fighters are close or tied on points, the audience members with the cards are asked to vote on the fighter they feel won the bout by holding up that fighter's corresponding color (blue card for the blue corner fighter, red for the red corner).
The audience vote is added to the judges' votes and a final decision is made. This system was used often, as many fights were close at the final bell.
The main event of this evening pitted Shooto 167-pound ace Shinya Aoki (Pictures) against Bonsai Jiu-Jitsu's Pedro Akira, who placed third in the 2003 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world championships.
This looked like it would be a competitive contest, but unfortunately for grappling fans it didn't last long. From the opening bell Aoki came out of his corner and quickly locked up in a clinch. The Paraestra Tokyo fighter jumped around to his opponent's back, dragging him to the floor and locking in the rear-naked choke in just 38 seconds.
Aoki is starting to look almost unbeatable on the mat. A rematch between him and Abu Dhabi champion Marcelo Garcia (Pictures) would no doubt have fans salivating, but at this point it seems unlikely that these two would meet in grappling or MMA as Garcia has aligned himself with K-1 HERO'S and is slated to debut in September.
The extremely unorthodox Masakazu Imanari (Pictures) squared off against 2007 ADCC Brazil winner Bruno Frazzato.
While Imanari has excellent MMA ground skills, he seems to have trouble translating them over to pure submission grappling.
Frazzato spent most of the first round on his Japanese opponent's back, looking to sink in the rear-naked choke. In the second, Imanari couldn't seem to get past the Brazilian's guard.
Going into the final set down 4-0 on points, Imanari again found himself in trouble as he struggled to escape an excellent triangle attempt from Frazzato. The final 10 seconds saw Imanari scrambling for ankle-locks, but he couldn't get anything secured before the final bell. The bout went to the judges and Frazzato walked away with the decision victory.
Hidehiko Hasegawa (Pictures) really had his hands full with Max Fernandez in the first round as the Brazilian jumped to his back and worked to sink in a rear-naked choke. The Japanese champion somersaulted twice with his opponent on his back in an effort to shake him loose. Fernandez finished out the round with a tight leg submission attempt.
Despite having a poor first stage, Hasegawa came back in the second, scoring a takedown and getting side-control. From here the SK Absolute fighter applied a solid Achilles lock. Fernandez twisted to escape the hold, but eventually got caught in an ankle-lock and was forced to tap.
Shooto contender Antonio Carvalho (Pictures) scored the first takedown in his bout against Grabaka ace Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures), but ran out of time before he could do anything with the position. In the second, Yamazaki answered back with a takedown of his own, but Carvalho managed to work back to his feet before the Japanese fighter could capitalize.
Going into the third round tied 2-2, Yamazaki displayed some good takedown defense against his opponent's shots. The round played out with neither fighter being able to bring down the other. After the full allotted time, the fight went to the judges and was ruled a draw.
Mauricio Souza was all over Hiroyuki Abe (Hiroyuki Abe' class='LinkSilver'>Pictures) in their bout. Souza quickly passed guard and worked to the mount. As Abe bridged to escape, Souza took his back, transitioning to an armbar and finishing with a triangle for the tapout victory at the 3:54 mark of the first.
Paraestra Matsudo's Sotoro Yamada was quite active off his back in his bout against Bonsai Ju-jitsu's Marcos Souza, often reaching for a Kimura and trying to pull rubber guard for a gogoplata attempt.
At the end of the time limit, Souza was ahead two points for the takedown he scored with in the first round, but as a result of the judge and audience decision, Yamada walked away with the win.
AACC's Aiko Ushizuka dominated Sachiko Yamamoto, going for several triangle and armbar attempts before taking her opponent's back and scoring the mount. The fight went to the judges and Ushizuka took the victory.
Paraestra Chiba's Takuya Kitade went the distance in scoring a win over "Ryota."