The MMA season is already in full swing and the outlook for JMMA has never looked better. Professional Shooto will be doing their first card in 2018 on January 28th at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
The planned main event on the card was to have Yokosuke Saruda 15-7-3 (Win-Loss-Draw) vs. Yoshiro Maeda 35-16-5 (Win-Loss-Draw), Saruta, the world strawweight class champion wanted to fight Maeda who is on a 1 fight winning streak since his recent win in Osaka against Yong Hwan Kim in :54 seconds of the first round. Unfortunately, Maeda has suffered a back injury in training and will not be able to compete until it heals. He is not happy and expressed regret for not being able to compete for this time around.
Don’t worry, this is JMMA we are talking about, this is just a bump in the road! Hence Kiyotaka Shimizu 19-13-3 (Win-Loss-Draw), who trains with TRIBE TOKYO M.M.A. immediately stood up like a warrior and said he would take the fight. Shimizu is the 2nd flyweight King of Pancrase and is a force of nature in this weight class with a great defense. His participation takes this card into the stratosphere for excitement for us JMMA fans.
Kiyotaka Shimizu has this to say about competing in Professional Shooto:
“In Shooto, I broke my fist in October last year and I really wanted to make a return given that I had missed my chance earlier. Saruda is a good fighter but I will show you a KO with a left fist that broke last year. ” (Translated from Japanese)
By the sounds of this statement from Shimizu there is no doubt that this will be a fight to remember. If you are in Japan you can go see it live at Korakuen Hall. The ticket prices are as follows:
[Ticket Fee] SS 8,000 yen (Only a few left) / S 6,000 yen / A 5,000 yen (Only a few are left)
Full Card: (Special thanks to Jeffery James @FightTimes for contributing to this article.)
