Hasegawa Keeps DEEP Title with Draw
TOKYO, Oct. 9 -- DEEP welterweight champion Hidehiko Hasegawa
(Pictures) met Dong Hyun Kim (Pictures) in a rematch this evening, this
time defending his title against his Korean nemesis after losing to
him in an Aug. 5 non-title bout.
Brutally defeated by Kim in their first fight and faced with the prospect of losing his title, a no-nonsense Hasegawa came out with guns blazing in the main event. He surprised Kim in the opening moments of the first period, charging in with a flurry of punches that forced Kim to clinch and take the champion down.
From the bottom Hasegawa controlled Kim's arms while attempting to
lock on the rubber guard, and he also scored with short punches. A
missed superman punch from Hasegawa after standing allowed Kim to
catch the champ in the back clinch and deliver knees to his legs
before eventually taking his back.
Hasegawa again controlled the challenger's arms well, however, nullifying choke attempts while he reached around and punched Kim in the face. As the round closed, Hasegawa spun his way into Kim's guard, where he punched from the top and attempted a leg lock before the bell.
With much of the same in the third frame, the round's highlight was Hasegawa's elusiveness, which allowed him to duck under a majority of Kim's standup while peppering the Korean with offerings of his own. Finishing out the round with a leglock attempt, tonight's Hasegawa was a far cry from the fighter who was stopped by Kim two months ago.
Kim still proved too tough to put away, however. Two judges ruled the bout a draw while one gave Hasegawa the nod, resulting in a draw. Though the match ended with no definitive decision, Hasegawa retained his DEEP welterweight title.
If a Japanese crowd is booing you, you must be doing pretty badly. It's also no good when the boos are reinforced by cheers when you receive yellow cards. Longtime Shooto veteran Hiroyuki Abe was on the receiving end of such audience disapproval in this evening's semi-main event.
With an unexpected display of inactivity, the AACC head instructor apparently gave up all pretenses of wrestling and brawling in favor of an extremely lackluster counter-striking game plan. His opponent, Masakazu Imanari (Pictures), would have none of that, though.
Throughout the three rounds, Imanari repeatedly smashed away at Abe's midsection with hard middle and side kicks that Abe could not counter.
After two yellow cards for passivity, Abe still refused to let his hands fly, forcing the wily grappler to resort to the baseball-slide-to-footlock move that has become Imanari's trademark. The tactic eventually paid off, as Imanari locked on a vicious toehold at the 4:32 mark in the third.
Fan-favorite Ryuta Sakurai (Pictures) defeated Eiji Ishikawa (Pictures) by way of doctor stoppage after the Grabaka fighter suffered what appeared to be a cut over his right eye.
With Sakurai putting on a dominant ground-and-pound performance for most of the first round, heavy punches and hammerfists seemed to have been the blows that cut Ishikawa. Things began to look up for him in the final moments of the round, though, as Ishikawa reversed and postured up in Sakurai's guard to deliver some punishing strikes of his own.
The damage was already done, however, and between rounds the doctor deemed Ishikawa unfit to continue.
Longtime Pancrase veteran and Japanese MMA forefather Kiuma Kunioku (Pictures) drew with Pride veteran Seichi Ikemoto (Pictures) after two hard-fought rounds that saw neither man gaining the definitive edge.
Kunioku pushed forward and engaged more. Yet Ikemoto largely nullified his opponent's offense with long, stiff jabs and good body kicks on the feet while employing good defensive grappling on the canvas. The judges ruled the bout a majority draw, with one dissenting judge giving the decision to Ikemoto.
Reigning Smack Girl flyweight champion Satoko Shinashi (Pictures) handily submitted Sachiko Yamamoto in the evening's sole women's bout. Yamamoto had a narrow positioning advantage on her opponent in the brief first round, but Shinashi's superior submission skills constantly put Yamamoto on the defensive. An armbar, a heel hook and a leg lock attempt kept Yamamoto scrambling, and 3:15 into the round Shinashi finally caught her in an armbar from the bottom.
Yasuhito Namekawa (Pictures) defeated Katsuhisa Fujii (Pictures) by majority decision, employing a combination of dirty boxing in the clinch and low kicks outside it. Despite scoring several good punches on the DEEP regular, Fujii had little answer for the oncoming Namekawa's clinch barrages and leg kicks.
Namekawa arguably did little visible damage on his opponent, and his constant pressure did little more than frustrate Fujii during the two round bout, but his strategy prompted two judges to rule in his favor while the other ruled the fight a draw.
Smacking about DEEP mainstay Yoshihiro Tomioka (Pictures), Seung Hwan Bang used his longer reach to control the center and test Tomioka's chin throughout the first round. Tomioka, to his credit, cannot be said to have a weak chin, as he was clocked with a number of good punches from his Korean opponent.
Having taking a one-sided shellacking in the first, the second period proved a little better for Tomioka, who took advantage of a tiring Bang and got in a few shots and takedown attempts of his own. It was to no avail, however, as Bang maintained his dominance by keeping Yoshioka on the defensive, both on the feet and on the canvas. After two dominant rounds, all three judges awarded Bang the unanimous decision.
Grabaka's Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures) won a competitive bout over Koji Yoshida (Pictures) after two rounds of threatening the rough-and-tumble fighter with his superlative grappling skill. Expending a great deal of energy by latching onto and holding Yoshida's arm in the first round, Yamazaki's fatigue allowed for his opponent to reverse multiple times and give Yamazaki his fair share of punishment from the top.
With his best efforts to pound out the Grabaka grappling coach otherwise foiled, though, Yoshida could not turn the decision in his favor. One judge declared the bout a draw, and two gave the nod to Yamazaki for the majority decision.
Yusuke Kawaguchi (Pictures) turned opponent Seigo Mizuguchi (Pictures) into a heavy bag on which the Blue Dog Gym rep worked his punches and knees. Stuffing a jab in his foe's face only to load up for an unexpected right hand that put Mizuguchi on Queer Street in the opening moments, Kawaguchi found himself supporting his opponent's weight when Mizuguchi fell into the clinch. Upon being broken up by the ref at the 2:07 mark, a dazed Mizuguchi unresponsively wandered about the ring, prompting the ref to call the bout.
Masashi Hiranuma overcome early adversity and slugged it out with Masamichi Hosaka to win via ref stoppage. Dropped by a Hosaka flurry, the fight looked over for Hiranuma, who received a fair bit of punishment under Hosaka's pounding punches.
A reversal from the mount allowed Hiranuma to get back on his feet to try his luck again. With both men shooting it out and tagging each other repeatedly, Hiranuma pulled ahead when he bowled over a tired and dazed Hosaka to deliver the fight-ending punches from half guard for the TKO at 3:47 in the first round.
Shunsuke Inoue attacked from the start in his bout, chopping Katsumi Yamada down with low kicks as Yamada came out with his hand extended to touch gloves. Moments later Inoue connected with a right hook that put Yamada on the floor in the turtle position. Inoue wailed away until the referee stopped the match at a mere 25 seconds.
Brutally defeated by Kim in their first fight and faced with the prospect of losing his title, a no-nonsense Hasegawa came out with guns blazing in the main event. He surprised Kim in the opening moments of the first period, charging in with a flurry of punches that forced Kim to clinch and take the champion down.
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Hasegawa again controlled the challenger's arms well, however, nullifying choke attempts while he reached around and punched Kim in the face. As the round closed, Hasegawa spun his way into Kim's guard, where he punched from the top and attempted a leg lock before the bell.
The second stanza saw both men largely repeating the patterns
established in the first round. Hasegawa came out slugging and
locking on the rubber guard to strike from the bottom. Kim's
offensive strategy primarily consisted of retreating from
Hasegawa's guard to stand up and drop punches when possible. He
also countered on the feet with hard shots to the head, marking up
the bullrushing champion quite a bit throughout.
With much of the same in the third frame, the round's highlight was Hasegawa's elusiveness, which allowed him to duck under a majority of Kim's standup while peppering the Korean with offerings of his own. Finishing out the round with a leglock attempt, tonight's Hasegawa was a far cry from the fighter who was stopped by Kim two months ago.
Kim still proved too tough to put away, however. Two judges ruled the bout a draw while one gave Hasegawa the nod, resulting in a draw. Though the match ended with no definitive decision, Hasegawa retained his DEEP welterweight title.
If a Japanese crowd is booing you, you must be doing pretty badly. It's also no good when the boos are reinforced by cheers when you receive yellow cards. Longtime Shooto veteran Hiroyuki Abe was on the receiving end of such audience disapproval in this evening's semi-main event.
With an unexpected display of inactivity, the AACC head instructor apparently gave up all pretenses of wrestling and brawling in favor of an extremely lackluster counter-striking game plan. His opponent, Masakazu Imanari (Pictures), would have none of that, though.
Throughout the three rounds, Imanari repeatedly smashed away at Abe's midsection with hard middle and side kicks that Abe could not counter.
After two yellow cards for passivity, Abe still refused to let his hands fly, forcing the wily grappler to resort to the baseball-slide-to-footlock move that has become Imanari's trademark. The tactic eventually paid off, as Imanari locked on a vicious toehold at the 4:32 mark in the third.
Fan-favorite Ryuta Sakurai (Pictures) defeated Eiji Ishikawa (Pictures) by way of doctor stoppage after the Grabaka fighter suffered what appeared to be a cut over his right eye.
With Sakurai putting on a dominant ground-and-pound performance for most of the first round, heavy punches and hammerfists seemed to have been the blows that cut Ishikawa. Things began to look up for him in the final moments of the round, though, as Ishikawa reversed and postured up in Sakurai's guard to deliver some punishing strikes of his own.
The damage was already done, however, and between rounds the doctor deemed Ishikawa unfit to continue.
Longtime Pancrase veteran and Japanese MMA forefather Kiuma Kunioku (Pictures) drew with Pride veteran Seichi Ikemoto (Pictures) after two hard-fought rounds that saw neither man gaining the definitive edge.
Kunioku pushed forward and engaged more. Yet Ikemoto largely nullified his opponent's offense with long, stiff jabs and good body kicks on the feet while employing good defensive grappling on the canvas. The judges ruled the bout a majority draw, with one dissenting judge giving the decision to Ikemoto.
Reigning Smack Girl flyweight champion Satoko Shinashi (Pictures) handily submitted Sachiko Yamamoto in the evening's sole women's bout. Yamamoto had a narrow positioning advantage on her opponent in the brief first round, but Shinashi's superior submission skills constantly put Yamamoto on the defensive. An armbar, a heel hook and a leg lock attempt kept Yamamoto scrambling, and 3:15 into the round Shinashi finally caught her in an armbar from the bottom.
Yasuhito Namekawa (Pictures) defeated Katsuhisa Fujii (Pictures) by majority decision, employing a combination of dirty boxing in the clinch and low kicks outside it. Despite scoring several good punches on the DEEP regular, Fujii had little answer for the oncoming Namekawa's clinch barrages and leg kicks.
Namekawa arguably did little visible damage on his opponent, and his constant pressure did little more than frustrate Fujii during the two round bout, but his strategy prompted two judges to rule in his favor while the other ruled the fight a draw.
Smacking about DEEP mainstay Yoshihiro Tomioka (Pictures), Seung Hwan Bang used his longer reach to control the center and test Tomioka's chin throughout the first round. Tomioka, to his credit, cannot be said to have a weak chin, as he was clocked with a number of good punches from his Korean opponent.
Having taking a one-sided shellacking in the first, the second period proved a little better for Tomioka, who took advantage of a tiring Bang and got in a few shots and takedown attempts of his own. It was to no avail, however, as Bang maintained his dominance by keeping Yoshioka on the defensive, both on the feet and on the canvas. After two dominant rounds, all three judges awarded Bang the unanimous decision.
Grabaka's Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures) won a competitive bout over Koji Yoshida (Pictures) after two rounds of threatening the rough-and-tumble fighter with his superlative grappling skill. Expending a great deal of energy by latching onto and holding Yoshida's arm in the first round, Yamazaki's fatigue allowed for his opponent to reverse multiple times and give Yamazaki his fair share of punishment from the top.
With his best efforts to pound out the Grabaka grappling coach otherwise foiled, though, Yoshida could not turn the decision in his favor. One judge declared the bout a draw, and two gave the nod to Yamazaki for the majority decision.
Yusuke Kawaguchi (Pictures) turned opponent Seigo Mizuguchi (Pictures) into a heavy bag on which the Blue Dog Gym rep worked his punches and knees. Stuffing a jab in his foe's face only to load up for an unexpected right hand that put Mizuguchi on Queer Street in the opening moments, Kawaguchi found himself supporting his opponent's weight when Mizuguchi fell into the clinch. Upon being broken up by the ref at the 2:07 mark, a dazed Mizuguchi unresponsively wandered about the ring, prompting the ref to call the bout.
Masashi Hiranuma overcome early adversity and slugged it out with Masamichi Hosaka to win via ref stoppage. Dropped by a Hosaka flurry, the fight looked over for Hiranuma, who received a fair bit of punishment under Hosaka's pounding punches.
A reversal from the mount allowed Hiranuma to get back on his feet to try his luck again. With both men shooting it out and tagging each other repeatedly, Hiranuma pulled ahead when he bowled over a tired and dazed Hosaka to deliver the fight-ending punches from half guard for the TKO at 3:47 in the first round.
Shunsuke Inoue attacked from the start in his bout, chopping Katsumi Yamada down with low kicks as Yamada came out with his hand extended to touch gloves. Moments later Inoue connected with a right hook that put Yamada on the floor in the turtle position. Inoue wailed away until the referee stopped the match at a mere 25 seconds.
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