“Lion” Takeshi Takes SHOOTO Lightweight Title
Jason Nowe May 12, 2006
TOKYO, May 12 — Despite all the bumps and bruises along the way,
the SHOOTO Commission and popular Japanese fashion line ‘The
Devilock’ teamed up once again to put together a night of SHOOTO
MMA from the legendary Korakuen Hall.
The road to tonight’s event was a turbulent one for the promoters to say the least. Apparently many of the fighters who they planned on competing had to withdraw due to injuries. Because of this, the promoters offered a reduction in ticket price.
No doubt the promoters were looking to headline the event with a
lightweight title match between number-one contender Gilbert Melendez (Pictures) and champion Alexandre Franca
Nogueira (Pictures). This dream fell through however
when, amidst a seemingly endless sea of indecision and speculation,
Melendez finally opted to fight in the K-1 HERO’s Middleweight
tournament. Ironically, Melendez had to pull out of that tournament
just days before his match due to injury.
Upon losing Melendez, the Commission decided to let Canadian fighter Antonio Carvalho (Pictures), fresh off a victory against Rumina Sato (Pictures) in February, step up to the plate and challenge for the title.
Just days before the event, “Pequeno” was forced to withdraw due to a nagging knee injury, thus forfeiting the lightweight championship. Scrambling for a replacement, the SHOOTO Commission selected 2004 SHOOTO lightweight rookie champion “Lion” Takeshi Inoue (Pictures) to challenge Carvalho for the now vacant title.
These two faced each other last August, with Carvalho taking the decision victory. Who would have thought that just a mere nine months later these two would be meeting again for the title?
The opening seconds of the first round looked good for Carvalho, who landed a glancing high kick that staggered Inoue. But a second attempt saw the Canadian fighter slip and fall to the canvas with “Lion” in his guard.
On his back, Carvalho was active, constantly trying to hook the inside of his opponent’s leg to transition to an armbar. But it seemed that Focused on submissions, Carvalho failed to adequately deal with the punches that his 143-pound Japanese opponent rained down from within the guard.
After landing some hard shots that stunned Carvalho, Inoue stood up and really fired down strikes. With too many punches getting past Carvalho’s defense, the referee called a justified end to the bout at the 3:06 mark of the first.
To say that there was a heated rivalry between SHOOTO bantamweight champion Mamoru Yamaguchi (Pictures) and Demolition veteran Setsu Iguchi (Pictures) would be a huge understatement. The war of words between these two has been going on for nearly a year now. In fact, the sole reason Iguchi came to SHOOTO was to fight his arch nemesis Mamoru.
This fight was supposed to happen in March, but a broken thumb against Shinichi Kojima (Pictures) last December derailed those plans for Iguchi. As a result, tonight’s bout was not for the title.
After trading punches back-and-forth, the southpaw Iguchi faked a kick and tagged Mamoru with a hard punch, sending the champion back into the ropes. A clinch followed and after a brief scramble on the ground the fighters clinched again in the corner.
Here Mamoru opened up with punches and knees. Iguchi weathered the storm, trying to grab the champion’s knee strikes for a takedown, only to have one graze his forehead and open a nasty cut.
Iguchi couldn’t believe it once he realized he had been cut. After a prolonged doctor’s stoppage it was ruled that the Demolition veteran could continue.
Upon seeing the size and position of the cut, it seemed this fight was going to be short-lived. Mamoru once again got Iguchi in the corner and started to pound. Iguchi survived the onslaught, but sure enough blood started to flow uncontrollably, forcing the referee to call an end to the bout at the 2:45 of the first.
Shooting gym Yokohama’s owner and coach Kenji Kawaguchi was one of the people to answer the call when it looked like this event was in trouble. Kawaguchi, who made his SHOOTO debut way back in May of 1989, was the first ever SHOOTO light heavyweight champion. It had been seven years since his last bout against Carlos Newton (Pictures) back in May of 1999. Despite his age, Kawaguchi looked to be in very good shape.
Kawaguchi’s opponent for his triumphant return was 15 years younger than him, Lithuanian fighter Deividas Petrauskas.
To quote Sherdog.com’s infinitely wise Stephen Martinez: “Kawaguchi went Japan Vale Tudo 1996 on the Lithuanian.”
Petrauskas never got a chance to get into this one. Right off the bell, Kawaguchi came charging at him and took him down to the mat. Once on the ground, the Lithuanian fighter twisted to all fours, only to have Kawaguchi scramble to his back. The SHOOTO veteran held the position, looking for a choke while raining down punches to the side of his opponent’s head.
Eventually, after taking unanswered shots and seemingly having no hope of escape, the referee called a stop to this bout 2:05 after the opening bell.
In his fight against Mizuto Hirota (Pictures), Jin Kazeta (Pictures) relied too much on his kicks and not enough on his punches. As a result, Hirota peppered his opponent with his fists throughout. Hirota also scored double under hooks on Kazeta nearly every time the two fighters got close, scoring the takedown and ending up with mount in half-guard.
Despite coming alive with strikes in the final 30 seconds of the third round, it was too little, too late for Kazeta. The fight went to the judges and Hirota walked away with the unanimous decision.
The under card fight that I was really looking forward to featured Shooting Gym Yokohama’s Tenkei Fujimiya (Pictures) against SHOOTO and D.O.G. fighter Akitoshi Tamura (Pictures). Both of these guys know how to throw the leather and as a result I expected nothing less than a slugfest.
Both of these guys were trading some hard punches to the head and body when, out of nowhere, Fujimiya connected with a big right hand that sent Tamura crashing to the mat.
Tamura beat the count, but looking into the Japanese fighter’s eyes, the referee could tell that he was in no condition to continue and called an end to the bout at the 2:09 mark of the first.
In his match-up against Jesus Is Lord fighter David Padilla, AACC member Hiroyuki Abe (Pictures) basically dominated on the ground, having a nice armbar attempt from the mount and then a solid heelhook attempt just moments later.
The end came for Padilla shortly thereafter when he was in his opponent’s guard. Abe shifted his hips and threw his leg across Padilla’s face to apply an armbar from the bottom for the submission victory at the 3:15 mark of the first.
The road to tonight’s event was a turbulent one for the promoters to say the least. Apparently many of the fighters who they planned on competing had to withdraw due to injuries. Because of this, the promoters offered a reduction in ticket price.
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Upon losing Melendez, the Commission decided to let Canadian fighter Antonio Carvalho (Pictures), fresh off a victory against Rumina Sato (Pictures) in February, step up to the plate and challenge for the title.
But fate was not finished with SHOOTO.
Just days before the event, “Pequeno” was forced to withdraw due to a nagging knee injury, thus forfeiting the lightweight championship. Scrambling for a replacement, the SHOOTO Commission selected 2004 SHOOTO lightweight rookie champion “Lion” Takeshi Inoue (Pictures) to challenge Carvalho for the now vacant title.
These two faced each other last August, with Carvalho taking the decision victory. Who would have thought that just a mere nine months later these two would be meeting again for the title?
The opening seconds of the first round looked good for Carvalho, who landed a glancing high kick that staggered Inoue. But a second attempt saw the Canadian fighter slip and fall to the canvas with “Lion” in his guard.
On his back, Carvalho was active, constantly trying to hook the inside of his opponent’s leg to transition to an armbar. But it seemed that Focused on submissions, Carvalho failed to adequately deal with the punches that his 143-pound Japanese opponent rained down from within the guard.
After landing some hard shots that stunned Carvalho, Inoue stood up and really fired down strikes. With too many punches getting past Carvalho’s defense, the referee called a justified end to the bout at the 3:06 mark of the first.
To say that there was a heated rivalry between SHOOTO bantamweight champion Mamoru Yamaguchi (Pictures) and Demolition veteran Setsu Iguchi (Pictures) would be a huge understatement. The war of words between these two has been going on for nearly a year now. In fact, the sole reason Iguchi came to SHOOTO was to fight his arch nemesis Mamoru.
This fight was supposed to happen in March, but a broken thumb against Shinichi Kojima (Pictures) last December derailed those plans for Iguchi. As a result, tonight’s bout was not for the title.
After trading punches back-and-forth, the southpaw Iguchi faked a kick and tagged Mamoru with a hard punch, sending the champion back into the ropes. A clinch followed and after a brief scramble on the ground the fighters clinched again in the corner.
Here Mamoru opened up with punches and knees. Iguchi weathered the storm, trying to grab the champion’s knee strikes for a takedown, only to have one graze his forehead and open a nasty cut.
Iguchi couldn’t believe it once he realized he had been cut. After a prolonged doctor’s stoppage it was ruled that the Demolition veteran could continue.
Upon seeing the size and position of the cut, it seemed this fight was going to be short-lived. Mamoru once again got Iguchi in the corner and started to pound. Iguchi survived the onslaught, but sure enough blood started to flow uncontrollably, forcing the referee to call an end to the bout at the 2:45 of the first.
Shooting gym Yokohama’s owner and coach Kenji Kawaguchi was one of the people to answer the call when it looked like this event was in trouble. Kawaguchi, who made his SHOOTO debut way back in May of 1989, was the first ever SHOOTO light heavyweight champion. It had been seven years since his last bout against Carlos Newton (Pictures) back in May of 1999. Despite his age, Kawaguchi looked to be in very good shape.
Kawaguchi’s opponent for his triumphant return was 15 years younger than him, Lithuanian fighter Deividas Petrauskas.
To quote Sherdog.com’s infinitely wise Stephen Martinez: “Kawaguchi went Japan Vale Tudo 1996 on the Lithuanian.”
Petrauskas never got a chance to get into this one. Right off the bell, Kawaguchi came charging at him and took him down to the mat. Once on the ground, the Lithuanian fighter twisted to all fours, only to have Kawaguchi scramble to his back. The SHOOTO veteran held the position, looking for a choke while raining down punches to the side of his opponent’s head.
Eventually, after taking unanswered shots and seemingly having no hope of escape, the referee called a stop to this bout 2:05 after the opening bell.
In his fight against Mizuto Hirota (Pictures), Jin Kazeta (Pictures) relied too much on his kicks and not enough on his punches. As a result, Hirota peppered his opponent with his fists throughout. Hirota also scored double under hooks on Kazeta nearly every time the two fighters got close, scoring the takedown and ending up with mount in half-guard.
Despite coming alive with strikes in the final 30 seconds of the third round, it was too little, too late for Kazeta. The fight went to the judges and Hirota walked away with the unanimous decision.
The under card fight that I was really looking forward to featured Shooting Gym Yokohama’s Tenkei Fujimiya (Pictures) against SHOOTO and D.O.G. fighter Akitoshi Tamura (Pictures). Both of these guys know how to throw the leather and as a result I expected nothing less than a slugfest.
Both of these guys were trading some hard punches to the head and body when, out of nowhere, Fujimiya connected with a big right hand that sent Tamura crashing to the mat.
Tamura beat the count, but looking into the Japanese fighter’s eyes, the referee could tell that he was in no condition to continue and called an end to the bout at the 2:09 mark of the first.
In his match-up against Jesus Is Lord fighter David Padilla, AACC member Hiroyuki Abe (Pictures) basically dominated on the ground, having a nice armbar attempt from the mount and then a solid heelhook attempt just moments later.
The end came for Padilla shortly thereafter when he was in his opponent’s guard. Abe shifted his hips and threw his leg across Padilla’s face to apply an armbar from the bottom for the submission victory at the 3:15 mark of the first.
