“Mega Megu” Racks Up Another Victory
TOKYO, Jan. 26 — After a quiet couple of weeks here in the Land of
the Rising Sun, the 2007 mixed martial arts scene kicked off with
G-Shooto’s latest card, BattleMix Tokyo 01, at the very cool and
retro-stylish Kinema Club in the city’s Ueno district.
While G-Shooto was originally intended to be a female-only event similar to Smackgirl, the promoters recently opted to allow for a mix of male and female bouts on the card.
Friday’s event was supposed to feature four female and four male
contests, but due to circumstances beyond the promoter’s control,
that number dropped to four and two respectively.
The main event on the female side of the card featured Abe Ani Combat Club’s Megumi Fujii (Pictures) against G-Shooto and Smackgirl veteran Masako Yoshida.
Right off the bell Fujii came charging out of her corner with punches and quickly got a takedown. After a brief ground-and-pound session, Fujii returned to her feet and peppered her downed opponent’s legs with hard low kicks.
With Fujii continuing to blast away, Yoshida spun on her back and attempted to catch an ankle of the Josh Barnett (Pictures)-trained fighter. Fujii defended and quickly answer back with an ankle-lock of her own.
“Mega Megu” had the submission on and cinched it up in a matter of seconds, leaving the tough veteran Yoshida no other option but to tap at the 51-second mark of the first.
The explosive and extremely talented Fujii has torn through the opposition, needing a total of 71 seconds to finish off her last two fights.
A truly great match-up would see Fujii pit her skills against the extremely tough DEEP women’s champion Hisae Watanabe (Pictures). Such a cross-promotional fight like this may be difficult to pull off, with both promotions fearful of losing face, but for fans of mixed martial arts this would be a must-see event.
Two branches of Yuki Nakai (Pictures)’s Paraestra network clashed in the main event of the men’s side of the card, as Paraestra Tokyo’s Atsushi “ATCH Anarchy” Takeuchi squared off against Paraestra Sapporo’s Kenichi Takeda.
On paper, Takeda, the 2005 Shooto flyweight rookie champion, had an edge over his fellow Paraestra opponent, but in fact it was Takeuchi who had the upper hand. Early on Takeuchi launched forward with some excellent running combinations that pushed Takeda into the corners.
Eventually the rookie champion found his groove and used his reach advantage to slow the attacking “ATCH Anarchy” with hard Thai kicks to the body, and at one point a flying knee attempt.
Rather than going for takedowns, the two Class B Shooto fighters opted to trade punches, with Takeuchi landing the first decisive blow during a crisp hand combination that sent Takeda to the mat for an eight-count.
The tough Paraestra Sapporo fighter beat the count, but Takeuchi could smell blood and came charging forward once the referee restarted the fight.
Takeuchi connected to Takeda’s head with a perfectly placed right hand, sending him to the mat for good at 4:42 of the first.
The semifinal of the men’s bracket saw Wajyutsu Keisyukai RJW’s Hayate Usui (Pictures) square off against Paraestra Tokyo’s Hiroki Kita. This was Kita’s first fight since current Shooto featherweight champion Akitoshi Hokazono (Pictures) stopped him three and a half years ago.
The entire opening round played out against the ropes and in the corners. Kita over-hooked his opponent’s arms, but it was Usui that took advantage of the situation, landing a succession of hard, thudding knees to the Paraestra Tokyo fighter’s body.
Eventually, Kita went for a single-leg takedown in the corner, but he couldn’t complete the technique, putting Usui in position to pound away with hammerfists to the head until the bell.
Kita did a good job of keeping Usui grounded for the first half of the second, but eventually he was reversed into the guard. After peppering away with ground punches, Usui applied a step-over triangle and an armlock submission. The RJW fighter really had it on, and with a submission victory seemingly only seconds away, the bell rang to call an end to the bout.
The fight went to the judges and Usui picked up the justified decision.
Three preliminary bouts before the Fujii-Yoshida final were all Class C+ affairs, meaning that although the combatants were not required to wear headgear, they were prohibited from punching on the ground.
Paraestra Tokyo’s Kayo Nagayasu did a good job of scoring takedowns and maintaining ground control in her bout against Maho Muranami. Despite the pressure, Muranami had some quality armbar attempts from the bottom.
The final moments of the second frame saw the Paraestra fighter pass guard to side-control and then score the mount. Nagayasu had a strong bridge attempt in the final seconds, but it was too little, too late, allowing Muranami to take the decision.
After some fairly even grappling during the first period, Eri Kaneya passed Emi Tomimatsu’s guard in the second before taking the Paraestra Matsudo fighter’s back. From here Tomimatsu worked hard to defend the choke, even coming close to bridging out of danger, but Kaneya repositioned and finally sunk in the choke at 3:46 of the second.
The fighter known as Chie totally out-boxed Nanako Yamazeki in their bout. The Gokita Gym fighter really turned it on in the corners with excellent combinations, which Yamazeki had no answer for. Chie knocked Yamazeki down for an eight-count, then poured on the punches after the restart to force a referee stoppage at the 3:03 mark of round two.
While G-Shooto was originally intended to be a female-only event similar to Smackgirl, the promoters recently opted to allow for a mix of male and female bouts on the card.
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The main event on the female side of the card featured Abe Ani Combat Club’s Megumi Fujii (Pictures) against G-Shooto and Smackgirl veteran Masako Yoshida.
Fujii, arguably one of the top female grapplers in the world today,
has made quite a name for herself since debuting in MMA back in
August of 2004. The chiseled Japanese fighter has yet to taste
defeat in competition, stopping her last opponent, tough Australian
kickboxer Serin Murray,
in a mere 20 seconds.
Right off the bell Fujii came charging out of her corner with punches and quickly got a takedown. After a brief ground-and-pound session, Fujii returned to her feet and peppered her downed opponent’s legs with hard low kicks.
With Fujii continuing to blast away, Yoshida spun on her back and attempted to catch an ankle of the Josh Barnett (Pictures)-trained fighter. Fujii defended and quickly answer back with an ankle-lock of her own.
“Mega Megu” had the submission on and cinched it up in a matter of seconds, leaving the tough veteran Yoshida no other option but to tap at the 51-second mark of the first.
The explosive and extremely talented Fujii has torn through the opposition, needing a total of 71 seconds to finish off her last two fights.
A truly great match-up would see Fujii pit her skills against the extremely tough DEEP women’s champion Hisae Watanabe (Pictures). Such a cross-promotional fight like this may be difficult to pull off, with both promotions fearful of losing face, but for fans of mixed martial arts this would be a must-see event.
Two branches of Yuki Nakai (Pictures)’s Paraestra network clashed in the main event of the men’s side of the card, as Paraestra Tokyo’s Atsushi “ATCH Anarchy” Takeuchi squared off against Paraestra Sapporo’s Kenichi Takeda.
On paper, Takeda, the 2005 Shooto flyweight rookie champion, had an edge over his fellow Paraestra opponent, but in fact it was Takeuchi who had the upper hand. Early on Takeuchi launched forward with some excellent running combinations that pushed Takeda into the corners.
Eventually the rookie champion found his groove and used his reach advantage to slow the attacking “ATCH Anarchy” with hard Thai kicks to the body, and at one point a flying knee attempt.
Rather than going for takedowns, the two Class B Shooto fighters opted to trade punches, with Takeuchi landing the first decisive blow during a crisp hand combination that sent Takeda to the mat for an eight-count.
The tough Paraestra Sapporo fighter beat the count, but Takeuchi could smell blood and came charging forward once the referee restarted the fight.
Takeuchi connected to Takeda’s head with a perfectly placed right hand, sending him to the mat for good at 4:42 of the first.
The semifinal of the men’s bracket saw Wajyutsu Keisyukai RJW’s Hayate Usui (Pictures) square off against Paraestra Tokyo’s Hiroki Kita. This was Kita’s first fight since current Shooto featherweight champion Akitoshi Hokazono (Pictures) stopped him three and a half years ago.
The entire opening round played out against the ropes and in the corners. Kita over-hooked his opponent’s arms, but it was Usui that took advantage of the situation, landing a succession of hard, thudding knees to the Paraestra Tokyo fighter’s body.
Eventually, Kita went for a single-leg takedown in the corner, but he couldn’t complete the technique, putting Usui in position to pound away with hammerfists to the head until the bell.
Kita did a good job of keeping Usui grounded for the first half of the second, but eventually he was reversed into the guard. After peppering away with ground punches, Usui applied a step-over triangle and an armlock submission. The RJW fighter really had it on, and with a submission victory seemingly only seconds away, the bell rang to call an end to the bout.
The fight went to the judges and Usui picked up the justified decision.
Three preliminary bouts before the Fujii-Yoshida final were all Class C+ affairs, meaning that although the combatants were not required to wear headgear, they were prohibited from punching on the ground.
Paraestra Tokyo’s Kayo Nagayasu did a good job of scoring takedowns and maintaining ground control in her bout against Maho Muranami. Despite the pressure, Muranami had some quality armbar attempts from the bottom.
The final moments of the second frame saw the Paraestra fighter pass guard to side-control and then score the mount. Nagayasu had a strong bridge attempt in the final seconds, but it was too little, too late, allowing Muranami to take the decision.
After some fairly even grappling during the first period, Eri Kaneya passed Emi Tomimatsu’s guard in the second before taking the Paraestra Matsudo fighter’s back. From here Tomimatsu worked hard to defend the choke, even coming close to bridging out of danger, but Kaneya repositioned and finally sunk in the choke at 3:46 of the second.
The fighter known as Chie totally out-boxed Nanako Yamazeki in their bout. The Gokita Gym fighter really turned it on in the corners with excellent combinations, which Yamazeki had no answer for. Chie knocked Yamazeki down for an eight-count, then poured on the punches after the restart to force a referee stoppage at the 3:03 mark of round two.
