Four Advance to December’s DEEP Semifinals

Yasuhito Namekawa had “The Piranha” Ryo Chonan (Pictures) in his corner for his bout against Korean Jong Hyuk Moon. This one didn’t last long. Namekawa scored a takedown quickly and then got to side-control where he rained down punches. Moon spent most of his time trying to shrimp away, but to no avail. Namekawa took side-position on the Korean and squeezed a choke to force a tapout at 1:33 of the first round.

Japanese fighter Takahiro Oba (Pictures) put on a display of escapes worthy of the great Harry Houdini in his contest against Axis Jiu-jitsu fighter Cristiano Kaminishi. This one was a mile a minute, with both guys (especially Oba) pulling off some slick reversals and submission attempts.

Oba quickly escaped three times from under the mount before his opponent could do any damage. Kaminishi had a good chance at an armbar, only to have his slippery opponent escape and go for a kneebar attempt of his own.

Somewhere in all of this back-and-forth mat work, Oba took a shot to the eye while the fighters traded on their feet. His eye started to swell and by the time he got back to his corner at the end of the first round, it was almost completely closed up. The ring doctor wouldn’t allow Oba to continue into the second round and Kaminishi was declared the winner.

Brazilian Top Team member Milton Vieira (Pictures) maintained dominate positions such as mount, side- and back-control when he squared off against Hiroki Nagaoka (Pictures). But the Japanese fighter really turned it on towards the end of the second, connecting with a hard punch that sent the sweat flying from Vieira’s head. Nagaoka followed up with more punches, causing the Brazilian fighter to shoot to get away from the strikes. The fight went the distance and Vieira was awarded the unanimous decision.

R-Gym fighter Ryuhei Sato (Pictures) was doing well in the opening moments of his bout against Yoshida dojo fighter Ryuichi Murata (Pictures), scoring a takedown and taking the mount. But the floor caved in for Sato when he fell to his back after missing a kick. Murata, standing in Sato’s guard, came down with a big punch to the head that badly rocked his foe.

Murata continued to rain down punches with his right against a defenseless Sato until the referee broke it up at the 3:51 mark of the first. Sato was totally out; his head was trapped between the mat and his opponent’s fists. And he needed to be helped out of the ring by his corner.

Yuya Shirai (Pictures) had fast hands and hard kicks, but lost by doctor’s stoppage due to a cut under his right eye at 4:38 of the first round in his fight against Ryuji Ohori.

Hirohide Fujinuma (Pictures) defeated Wataru Takahashi (Pictures) by referee stoppage due to punches.

Naoki Seki defeated Yutaro Miyamoto (Pictures) by unanimous (2-0) decision.