On a busy weekend for MMA in Tokyo, last night Shooto put on one of their smaller shows in Shinjuku Face. This was an entertaining event and gave some of the promotion’s less established fighters the chance to make a name for themselves.
In the main event, Tomoya Hirakawa certainly managed this, making short work of Yosuke Ebihara. He finished the fight with a hard knee and follow up punches inside two minutes before calling out top bantamweight Tatsuya Ando.
In the night’s only other three-round fight, Tribe Tokyo MMA’s Kunihisa Sasa took on Takahiro Ichijo. After an evenly contested first round, Sasa opened up a huge gash on on his opponent’s forehead. Following this, the doctor stopped the fight before the second round could begin.
Prior to this, powerful welterweight prospect Taichi Taguchi domintated Yuki Ueno before getting a rear naked choke halfway through the first round. This was a big win for the 24 year old, who will look to work his way into bigger fights over the next year or so.
Also, in the first round of the Straw-weight Infinity league, Yohei Komaki gained a first round victory (1.16) by triangle choke over Tomoharu Umezawa. Eleswhere on the card was a brutal, dominant decision victory for Kazuma Kuramoto, and an excellent KO victory for Yuto Sekiguchi. At only 20 years old, Sekiguchi is certainly an exciting prospect to keep an eye out for.
Full results:
Tomoya Hirakawa def. Yosuke Ebihara (KO, 1.36, Round 1)
Kunihisa Sasa def. Takahiro Ichijo (TKO, 0.01, Round 2)
Taichi Taguchi def. Yuki Ueno (Submission, RNC, 2.33, Round 1)
Yohei Komaki def. Tomoharu Umezawa (Submission, Triangle choke, 1.16, Round 1)
Kenji Kato def. Yusuke Yamashita (KO, 4.23, Round 1)
Kazuma Kuramoto def. Guts Takato (UD)
Yuto Sekiguchi def. Yoshiaki Kiryu (KO, 0.58, Round 1)
Yoshizumi vs. Max Leali (Draw)
Takanori Takahashi def. Koji Onigami (UD)
Iwaki vs. Kengo Fujita (Draw)
