Shooto

Fight of the Day: Hatsu Hioki vs Rumina Sato

From Shooto’s “Tradition 4” event in November 2008, here’s former TKO featherweight champion Hatsu Hioki going up against longtime Japanese veteran Rumina Sato.

Fight Announcements: Aldo Added to WEC 39, Saunders Injured & More

Fresh off of his first-round stoppage of Rolando Perez at WEC 38 on January 25, fast-rising featherweight contender will reportedly take on WEC newcomer Chris Mickle in a bout that will likely be added to WEC 39, which takes place on March 1 in Corpus Christi, Texas.

According to MMA Junkie, the fight will partially take the place of the canceled WEC welterweight title fight between Carlos Condit and Brock Larson, who are both now headed to the UFC due to the rumored demise of the WEC’s 170 lb. division.

Aldo has won his first three fights in the WEC and another win under his belt could vault him to the top half of the featherweight division. Mickle, who has spent the majority of his career fighting in small shows in the midwest, will come into the bout with a two-fight winning streak.

 

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Hioki Signs to Fight Sato in November Shooto

Reigning TKO featherweight champion Hatsu Hioki has signed to take on longtime Japanese veteran Rumina Sato in what will likely be the main event of Shooto’s scheduled “Tradition 4” card on November 29 at Korakuen Hall in Japan. The organization officially announced the bout earlier today.

After losing consecutive fights in the middle of last year, Hioki has bounced back to go on a five-fight undefeated streak. He most recently submitted Thierry Quenneville in the first round to retain his TKO featherweight title at TKO 35 on October 3. Hioki’s last Shooto bout saw him fight to a draw against Hiroshi Nakamura in August.

Sato will be competing in his 35th Shooto fight at the event. “Moon Wolf” has struggled as of late, losing four out of his last five bouts. He was last submitted by Akitoshi Tamura at Shooto’s 20th anniversary show in May. His last victory inside the promotion came against Augusto Frota at Shooto’s “Back to our Roots 2” event in March of last year, where Sato stopped Frota early in the first round due to a cut.

HT: Japan-MMA

Inoue-Young Set for Shooto in May

Shooto featherweight title contender Takeshi Inoue will be back in action next month as he takes on International Fight League veteran Savant Young at the Japanese organization’s upcoming “Road to 20th Anniversary” show on May 3rd.

The promotion announced the fight over the weekend.

Inoue has won eight out of his last nine bouts and is currently riding a two-fight winning streak. His last loss came at the hands of rival Akitoshi Tamura last May. Inoue’s most recent fight was a unanimous decision win over Katsuya Toida in November.

Young will fight for the first time since spending a year as a member of the IFL’s Tokyo Dragons, with whom he racked up a record of 2-2. The California native has not fought since August of last year, losing a unanimous decision to Deividas Taurosevicius.

Hayato “Mach” Sakurai will attempt to keep his current five-fight winning streak intact when he takes on fellow PRIDE veteran David Baron in another featured fight at the event.

The current card for the show looks like this:

Hayato Sakurai vs. David Baron
Akitoshi Tamura vs. Rumina Sato
Takeshi Inoue vs. Savant Young
Takashi Nakakura vs. Ganjo Tentsuku
Ryuichi Miki vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani
Hayate Usui vs. Sakae Kasuya
Katsuya Murofushi vs. Shinpei Tahara

HT: MMA Man Japan

Tamura-Sato Added to Shooto in May

Former Shooto featherweight champion Akitoshi Tamura will jump right back into action just over a month since losing his title when he takes on longtime veteran Rumina Sato at Shooto’s upcoming “Road to 20th Anniversary” show on May 3rd.

The promotion announced the bout at a press conference yesterday.

Tamura was upset by Hideki Kadowaki at Shooto’s Back to Our Roots 8 event in March, costing Tamura his featherweight belt after losing a majority decision. It was Tamura’s second career loss to Kadowaki and his first loss inside the confines of Shooto since May of 2006.

Interestingly enough, Sato’s last loss came at the hands of Kadowaki as well. Kadowaki submitted Sato with a rear naked choke last September. Sato has fought sparingly in recent years and has lost three out of his last four bouts.

Hayato “Mach” Sakurai will attempt to keep his current five-fight winning streak intact when he takes on fellow PRIDE veteran David Baron in another featured fight at the event.

HT: MMA Man Japan

Kadowaki Upsets Tamura; Grabs Shooto Title

Hideki Kadowaki earned a razor close majority decision and scored a huge upset over Shooto 143. lb champion Akitoshi Tamura at the organization’s Back to Our Roots 8 event earlier today in Tokyo, Japan.

Kadowaki used superior striking and cruical takedowns to squeak out the decision on the judges’ scorecards. Bantamweight phenom Masakatsu Ueda won a unanimous decision over challenger Koetsu Okazaki to take home the vacant Shooto 132. lb title.

TKO featherweight champion Hatsu Hioki made quick work of famed grappler Baret Yoshida, stopping the Hawaiian with strikes with less than ten seconds left in the first round. The fight was Yoshida’s first since he was knocked out by Yoshiro Maeda in November 2003.

Complete event results are as follows:

Hideki Kadowaki def. Akitoshi Tamura - Majority Decision
Masakatsu Ueda def. Koetsu Okazaki - Unanimous Decision
Hatsu Hioki def. Baret Yoshida - TKO (Strikes)
Hiroshi Nakamura def. Tenkei Fujimaya - Majority Decision
Mamoru Yamaguchi def. Masaki Sugawara - Unanimous Decision
Tetsu Suzuki def. Hiroyuki Tanaka -Unanimous Decision
Hiroshige Tanaka def. Kenichiro Marui - KO (Punch)

Yamaguchi Decisions Shoujou in Shooto

Mamoru Yamaguchi used superior striking skills to out-point fellow flyweight sensation Yuki Shoujou and take a unanimous decision win at Shooto’s “Shooting Disco 4: Born in the Fighting” event Saturday.

Shoujou scored early and often at the start of the first round, connecting with a number of leg kicks. Yamaguchi returned fire with a crisp combination. Continuing to find success with punches in bunches, Yamaguchi added body kicks to his attack and clearly pulled ahead of his opponent on the judge’s scorecards.

With no answer for Yamaguchi’s attack, Shoujou clinched up with his opponent and attempted a takedown with a little over two minutes left in the first stanza. Yamaguchi’s takedown defense prevented the fight from going to the canvas and allowed him to connect with solid knees to the body, a sequence of events that repeated itself until the end of the round.

The remainder of the fight saw much of the same. While Shoujou started to land shots during the second and third rounds, it still was not enough to counteract Yamaguchi’s constant attack and all three judges saw things unanimously for the former Shooto bantamweight champion.

Budding middleweight Akihiro Murayama put on a clinic against Hiroki Sato in the show’s co-main event, using impressive ground skills to control Murayama from start to finish and win an extremely one-sided decision.

Complete event results are below:

Haruo Ochi def. Masumi Tozawa - KO (Slam)
Naoji Mikoshiba def. Taijiro Iseki - Majority Decision
Yuki Baba def. Tatsuya Nakajima - Unanimous Decision
Daiki Tsuchiya def. Hidenori Nishino - KO (Punch)
Noboru Tahara def. Takehiro Ishii - Unanimous Decision
Masatoshi Kobayashi def. Tomonori Taniguchi - TKO (Cut)
Shintaro Ishiwatari def. Kazuhiro Ito - KO (Slam)
Ryuichi Miki def. Kenji Hosoya - Unanimous Decision
Akihiro Murayama def. Hiroki Sato - Unanimous Decision
Mamoru Yamaguchi def. Yuki Shoujou - Unanimous Decision

Shooto:  Back To Our Roots 7 Results

Kota Funaki def. Yosuke Saruta - TKO (Corner Stoppage)
Junji Ito def. Kazuyuki Yoshida - KO (Punches)
Takuya Mori def. Ayumu Shioda - Unanimous Decision
Hayate Usui def. Daisuke Ishizawa - Unanimous Decision
Junji Ikoma vs. Jin Akimoto - Draw
So Tazawa def. Shinichi Kojima - Submission (Armbar)
Masakatsu Ueda def. Atsushi Yamamoto - Unanimous Decision
Hatsu Hioki def. Katsuya Toida - Submission (Armbar)

Akira Kikuchi Announces Retirement

Shooto has announced that it will hold a retirement ceremony for former world middleweight champion Akira Kikuchi at it’s Korakuen Hall tomorrow.

A retirement ceremony? Isn’t Kikuchi only 29? Yeah, I don’t understand either.

Kikuchi hasn’t given a specific reason as to why he is hanging up the gloves as of yet but one can only expect that he will be addressing the topic at the event.

After finding much success as an amateur, the Tokyo native turned pro in 2002, where he won his first six fights before coming out on the wrong end of a unanimous decision courtesy of Jake Shields in the summer of 2003.

Kikuchi rebounded to win his next three fights and then avenged his loss to Shields by decisioning him. The win over Shields gave Kikuchi his first Shooto world title. Kikuchi held the belt until he lost it to slick grappler Shinya Aoki in 2006. After defeating Ronald Jhun, Kikuchi lost a razor close decision in a rematch against Aoki and failed to regain his title.

The former top ranked welterweight was last in action in September, where he was stopped by Yoshiyuki Yoshida in the finals of Greatest Common Multiple’s welterweight tournament. Kikuchi had defeated Ju Pyo Hong and Ultimate Fighter 5 cast member Jared Rollins before losing to Yoshida.

Hioki-Toida Headlines Shooto’s First Event in ‘08

Hatsu Hioki will try to shake off a disappointing 2007 when he takes on fellow featherweight Katsuya Toida at Shooto’s first event of the year on January 26th.

Shooto announced the fight along with six others earlier this month.

After knocking off Jeff Curran at PRIDE Bushido 12 in August 2006, Hioki solidifed his status as one of the top featherweights in the world. His ten-fight undefeated streak continued with wins over Byon Sho Kim and Mark Hominick but was put to a sudden stop when Hioki lost a close split decision to Antonio Carvalho at Shooto: Back To Our Roots 3 this past May.

Hioki was then upset by journeyman Jong Man Kim at a Shooto show in October. The TKO veteran bounced back with a win over former Ultimate Fighter 5 cast member Brian Geraghty at a Heat event in November.

Toida is coming off of a unanimous decision loss to Takeshi Inoue at Shooto: Back To Our Roots 6 in November. Toida defeated Gustavo Franca and drew with Adrian Pang in 2007.

The fight card for the event is currently looking like this:

Hatsu Hioki vs. Katsuya Toida
Shinichi Kojima vs. So Tazawa
Junji Ikoma vs. Jin Akimoto
Daisuke Ishizawa vs. Hayate Usui
Takuya Mori vs. Ayumu Shioda
Kota Funamoto vs. Yosuke Saruta
Junji Ito vs. Kazuyuki Yoshida