SHOOTO’s Mamoru Wins at Shinjuku Face
Mamoru Wins at Shinjuku Face
Stephen Martinez Dec 17, 2005
TOKYO, Dec. 17 — Coming into the last show of the year for the
perennial SHOOTO promotion I was struggling with mixed
feelings.
One side of my hardcore SHOOTO fan’s heart was telling me, “What kind of joke it’s this? Where are all the big names that once before decorated SHOOTO’s end-of-the-year shows? Why are all this rookies fighting in the last show of the year? Non-title matches? What kind of sick mind at the SHOOTO commission is playing with my love for the promotion by pull this card together?”
Like many other times through my life I was wrong — this was in
fact the last show of year from SHOOTO and while it didn’t deliver
the usual names like Tatsuya Kawajiri (Pictures), Joachim Hansen (Pictures), Rumina Sato (Pictures) or Akira Kikuchi (Pictures), I was quick to find out like
many other times before that good shows can be pulled together
without use big names.
This time SHOOTO held its non-official “End of the Year” show” in the new Shinjuku Face in the popular red-light district of Kabukicho in the Tokyo area.
Before going into the main fights, let’s start with the special announcement of the night, courtesy of the SHOOTO commission.
Because the Yoyogi No.2 Gymnasium is closed these days due to renovation, SHOOTO was forced to move their big show to February 17, headlined by the welterweight title match between current champion Tatsuya Kawajiri (Pictures) and Viking nightmare Joachim Hansen (Pictures).
Other matches announced for the February show include former Rookie of the Year Lion Takeshi taking on Purebred’s heavy hitter Makoto Ishikawa (Pictures) in the lightweight division, while top-five featherweight gatekeeper Kenji Osawa (Pictures) will finally welcome Naoya Uematsu (Pictures)’s debut into the division after a postponed fight due to Uematsu’s hand injury. Another fighter scheduled to participate in the February card is SHOOTO charisma Rumina Sato (Pictures) against a yet-to-be determined opponent.
In other news both welterweight and lightweight Pacific Rim SHOOTO champions, Koutetsu Boku (Pictures) and Rumina Sato (Pictures), relinquished their respective belts due to not be able to defend the titles in the time limit dictated by the SHOOTO commission.
Sato told the press his main goal is to take on the winner of March’s Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures)-Gilbert Melendez (Pictures) 143-pound title match, therefore he can’t concentrate on defending his Pacific Rim belt.
In Boku’s case, he said he decided to return the belt because he’s suffering from a knee ligament injury suffered in his last K-1 MAX bout. Boku will need surgery and therapy and cannot meet the time limit dictated by the commission to defend his title.
Now onto Saturday’s fights. The main event of the night placed the colorful and entertaining SHOOTO bantamweight champion (123 pounds) — and proud owner of the best hairstyle in MMA competition — Mamoru Yamaguchi (Pictures) in a non-title match against tenth-ranked SHOOTO bantamweight Daiji Takahashi (Pictures) in a classic battle of wrestler versus striker.
Mamoru, who just recently came back from a training tour in Thailand, showed some new tricks inside the clinch since this battle was mainly fought inside this position. While Takahashi, an ex-Combat Wrestling All Japan champion was looking to close the gap with body locks. Trying to takedown Mamoru, the bantamweight champion worked inside with body shots and knees, breaking the holds to score with several middle and high kicks.
This pattern followed throughout the three-round fight, with the only setback being an early cut over Mamoru’s left eye that was quickly clear by the ring doctor. At the end, all three judges scored a unanimous decision (30-27,30-28,30-27) to Mamoru for the win.
The best fight of the night pitted ex-Kiguchi Dojo fighter Yusuke Endo against Enson Inoue’s Purebred heavy hitter Ganjo Tentsuku (Pictures) in a battle of SHOOTO welterweights (154-pound) fighters.
Endo started to push the fight by counter punching Tentsuku’s advances, rocking the Purebred prospect several times through the first round and early in the second. However, Tentsuku found an early opening in Endo’s game by clinching with tight a body lock to transition into takedowns.
From there and through brief moments in the first round, and more into the second and third, Tentsuku kept exploiting this weakness by taking advantage of Endo’s growing fatigue in the last rounds.
The Purebred fighter managed to score several punches to Endo’s body and face from inside the guard in the latest minutes of the third round, more than enough to go away with a 3-0 score with the judges.
Another interesting battle placed former Demolition and D.O.G. bad boy Setsu Iguchi (Pictures) against 123-pound sensation Shinichi Kojima (Pictures).
This match was all “BJ” Kojima from the very beginning. While Iguchi was playing around looking to score with power punches, BJ caught him coming in with a flurry of punches that sent Iguchi back to the ropes. From there “BJ” clinched and scored a beautiful takedown to start scoring with punches from inside Iguchi’s guard.
Iguchi tried to turn the tide with an armbar attempt followed by sweep, but BJ countered by taking his back. From here I noticed something was wrong with Iguchi since his face was showing signs of pain, but he still managed to survive the position until the end of the first round.
Right at the beginning of the second round there was some problems between the SHOOTO commission’s official doctor and Iguchi’s corner about stopping the fight. Iguchi refused and answered the second round just to get quickly cornered by Kojima. From here Iguchi kept showing signs of pain and the corner quickly threw in the towel to signal the referee to stop the fight.
At that moment, several members of the Japanese press and myself couldn’t figure out what happen with Iguchi and what was the real reason he gave up. But later we find out Iguchi broke his hand and the doctor recommend to stop the fight. Iguchi refused just to later give up to the pain.
One side of my hardcore SHOOTO fan’s heart was telling me, “What kind of joke it’s this? Where are all the big names that once before decorated SHOOTO’s end-of-the-year shows? Why are all this rookies fighting in the last show of the year? Non-title matches? What kind of sick mind at the SHOOTO commission is playing with my love for the promotion by pull this card together?”
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This time SHOOTO held its non-official “End of the Year” show” in the new Shinjuku Face in the popular red-light district of Kabukicho in the Tokyo area.
While this place holds nothing next to my beloved Korauken Hall, I
can’t complaint about this new venue. One thing I really liked was
the size of it — small and looking more like a nightclub —
therefore making the fights closer and personal to the fans
gathered tonight at Shinjuku Face.
Before going into the main fights, let’s start with the special announcement of the night, courtesy of the SHOOTO commission.
Because the Yoyogi No.2 Gymnasium is closed these days due to renovation, SHOOTO was forced to move their big show to February 17, headlined by the welterweight title match between current champion Tatsuya Kawajiri (Pictures) and Viking nightmare Joachim Hansen (Pictures).
Other matches announced for the February show include former Rookie of the Year Lion Takeshi taking on Purebred’s heavy hitter Makoto Ishikawa (Pictures) in the lightweight division, while top-five featherweight gatekeeper Kenji Osawa (Pictures) will finally welcome Naoya Uematsu (Pictures)’s debut into the division after a postponed fight due to Uematsu’s hand injury. Another fighter scheduled to participate in the February card is SHOOTO charisma Rumina Sato (Pictures) against a yet-to-be determined opponent.
In other news both welterweight and lightweight Pacific Rim SHOOTO champions, Koutetsu Boku (Pictures) and Rumina Sato (Pictures), relinquished their respective belts due to not be able to defend the titles in the time limit dictated by the SHOOTO commission.
Sato told the press his main goal is to take on the winner of March’s Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures)-Gilbert Melendez (Pictures) 143-pound title match, therefore he can’t concentrate on defending his Pacific Rim belt.
In Boku’s case, he said he decided to return the belt because he’s suffering from a knee ligament injury suffered in his last K-1 MAX bout. Boku will need surgery and therapy and cannot meet the time limit dictated by the commission to defend his title.
Now onto Saturday’s fights. The main event of the night placed the colorful and entertaining SHOOTO bantamweight champion (123 pounds) — and proud owner of the best hairstyle in MMA competition — Mamoru Yamaguchi (Pictures) in a non-title match against tenth-ranked SHOOTO bantamweight Daiji Takahashi (Pictures) in a classic battle of wrestler versus striker.
Mamoru, who just recently came back from a training tour in Thailand, showed some new tricks inside the clinch since this battle was mainly fought inside this position. While Takahashi, an ex-Combat Wrestling All Japan champion was looking to close the gap with body locks. Trying to takedown Mamoru, the bantamweight champion worked inside with body shots and knees, breaking the holds to score with several middle and high kicks.
This pattern followed throughout the three-round fight, with the only setback being an early cut over Mamoru’s left eye that was quickly clear by the ring doctor. At the end, all three judges scored a unanimous decision (30-27,30-28,30-27) to Mamoru for the win.
The best fight of the night pitted ex-Kiguchi Dojo fighter Yusuke Endo against Enson Inoue’s Purebred heavy hitter Ganjo Tentsuku (Pictures) in a battle of SHOOTO welterweights (154-pound) fighters.
Endo started to push the fight by counter punching Tentsuku’s advances, rocking the Purebred prospect several times through the first round and early in the second. However, Tentsuku found an early opening in Endo’s game by clinching with tight a body lock to transition into takedowns.
From there and through brief moments in the first round, and more into the second and third, Tentsuku kept exploiting this weakness by taking advantage of Endo’s growing fatigue in the last rounds.
The Purebred fighter managed to score several punches to Endo’s body and face from inside the guard in the latest minutes of the third round, more than enough to go away with a 3-0 score with the judges.
Another interesting battle placed former Demolition and D.O.G. bad boy Setsu Iguchi (Pictures) against 123-pound sensation Shinichi Kojima (Pictures).
This match was all “BJ” Kojima from the very beginning. While Iguchi was playing around looking to score with power punches, BJ caught him coming in with a flurry of punches that sent Iguchi back to the ropes. From there “BJ” clinched and scored a beautiful takedown to start scoring with punches from inside Iguchi’s guard.
Iguchi tried to turn the tide with an armbar attempt followed by sweep, but BJ countered by taking his back. From here I noticed something was wrong with Iguchi since his face was showing signs of pain, but he still managed to survive the position until the end of the first round.
Right at the beginning of the second round there was some problems between the SHOOTO commission’s official doctor and Iguchi’s corner about stopping the fight. Iguchi refused and answered the second round just to get quickly cornered by Kojima. From here Iguchi kept showing signs of pain and the corner quickly threw in the towel to signal the referee to stop the fight.
At that moment, several members of the Japanese press and myself couldn’t figure out what happen with Iguchi and what was the real reason he gave up. But later we find out Iguchi broke his hand and the doctor recommend to stop the fight. Iguchi refused just to later give up to the pain.
