TOKYO, May 20 -- ZST, the offshoot of the former RINGS promotion, has seen quite a list of fighters develop their skills in its ring: Hideo Tokoro (Pictures), Remigijus Morkevicius (Pictures), Masakazu Imanari (Pictures), Erikas Petraitis (Pictures) and Naoyuki Kotani (Pictures) are just some of the names that come to mind.
While Swat rules are similar to those of amateur Shooto in that there are no strikes on the ground, the promotion also has another restriction that makes it quite different from any other promotion, namely the "no closed guard" rule. At no time can a fighter cross his legs around his opponent (except of course when said fighter has his opponent's back).
ZST's reasoning for this rule is that closing the guard amounts to holding, stalling the action in a fight until the referee is forced to call the fighter to their feet.
Whether ZST's assertion is correct or not is debatable, but they certainly are stringent on enforcing the policy. Another bizarre policy is that the fighter can choose whether or not to wear MMA gloves. Fighters who opt not to strap on the leather can't strike with a closed fist, but are allowed to use open handed strikes similar to those of old school Pancrase.
One thing that's hard not to notice is that ZST Swat fighters love leg submissions -- heelhooks, toeholds, ankle-locks, Achilles holds and kneebars. It seemed like in just about every match-up, the fighters were going after each other's legs. It's not a big mystery as to why -- open guard and no strikes on the ground make these normally difficult submissions much easier to go for.
Fourteen five-minute, two-round MMA fights and two grappling-only bouts filled the card at the spacious MMA gym in Gold's Gym Omori. The main event saw Yuichiro Kojima face off against a gloveless Keisuke Tamaru.
From the outset, Tamaru brought the action to the mat and worked his ground game, applying a reverse triangle while looking to put Kojima in quite a bit of trouble in the early stages. But Kojima weathered the storm, escaped the danger and working for a leg submission.
Eventually Kojima passed Tamaru's legs to get to the side and slapped on a deep Kimura from the top. He really had this thing on, reefing it back until the referee finally called for a stoppage about halfway through the first.
Keisuke Fujiwara connected with a hard kick that staggered Ichiro Sugita shortly after the opening bell. Sensing the end was near, Fujiwara came rushing in and finished off with a one-two combination that sent Sugita unconscious to the mat at the 0:29 mark.
Emerson Azuma and Ippei Kuramoto fought for positions and executed a lot of reversal in their match. Eventually Azuma managed to apply an omoplata and finally transitioned to a triangle to score the tapout victory towards the end of the first.
Shunichi Shimizu scored a takedown to side-control, then quickly slapped on a step-over triangle from the top to get the tapout victory at 2:26 of the first over Kei Tanigawa.
Tomohiko Yoshida displayed some very impressive kickboxing in his bout against Yusuke "Billy" Takahashi, peppering his opponent with kicks to the head and body. The talented striker also displayed his prowess on the ground, escaping the multiple submissions that his Hiroyuki Abe-trained opponent threw at him.
In the second round, Yoshida fired submissions back at his mat-savvy opponent, taking his back and transitioning to an armbar for the tapout victory.
After being peppered by knees from Takuma Ishii, Hiroshi Nakamura (Pictures) scored a takedown. During the ensuing scramble, Nakamura applied a nice armbar for the tapout victory in the first round.
Goro Kobayashi and Shin Katayama put on quite the grappling clinic in their bout. Both fighters moved through positions, worked escapes, reversal and submission attempts. The fight went the full two-round time limit and was called a draw.
Ichiro Kojima took side-control and mount fairly early in his battle against Shingo Mazda, eventually moving to the back and sinking in a rear-naked choke for the tapout victory at 2:35 of the first.
Yuki Baba really pounded Toshihiro Shimizu on the feet in the first round, but Shimuzu managed to take the fight to the mat and work his ground game. In the second, Baba scored the mount after a heelhook attempt. Shimizu bridged hard, but fell right into an armbar and was forced to tap.
Akira Ohmura had good triangle and kneebar attempts, but eventually Takayuki Kishi got to his back and sunk in a rear-naked choke for the victory early in the first round.
Toshiyuki Saito scored a kneebar at the 43-second mark of the first against Takahiro Futatsumori.
Yoshihiko Matsumoto took side-control and applied a choke on Takayuki Kanno 47 seconds into the opening round.
Kei Sato looked exactly like his trainer, Takumi Yano (Pictures), in his bout against Toshio Kuga, performing baseball slide shots and going almost exclusively for leg submissions.
Kuga managed to connect with quite a bit of leather, but in the second, when coming in to attack, Sato landed a well-timed spinning backfist which sent Kuga to the mat, giving Sato the TKO victory.