SHOOTO DISC 10: Las Grandes Viajes 2 (3/1/1998)

Back to SHOOTO! Its been awhile, but I'm now planning on watching at least one a week. Maybe more when I'm in a groove. I have two dates on this show - March 10th from the list I have which was created from the master list of Shooto created by Jeff Lynch, and another of March 1st from Sherdog. I went with Sherdog's date. Show opens with Enson Inoue talking about something. We are at Korakuen Hall.

1) Hiroki Kotani vs. Katenori Ito: Don't know either guy.

FIGHT: Ito Unanimous Decision. Only round 2 is seen in full. From what is seen, Ito is a top control grappler and not all that active inside the guard. Kotani keeps his guard closed almost the entire 5 minutes. We see Kotani catch a kick and get a takedown in the first, but it doesn't last long. (0)

2) Hiroyuki Kojima vs. Takaharu Murahama: Kojima is a Shootboxing guy. I think. Well, I don't know. I didn't pay enough attention.

FIGHT: Murahama KO Rnd 1. Huge KO. The fight starts with Murahama leaping with a flying knee that Kojima ducks under and promptly gets on top inside the guard during the resulting scramble. Murahama just sorta powers his way out from under the bottom - it wasn't like a technical sweep or anything. After doing so, they stand up and Kojima trades. Murahama lands a left hook flush to the chin and lays out Kojima hard. The ref starts a count but the doctor intercedes and its obvious he's not moving, much less getting up at the count of 10. Impressive KO. (0)

3) Masahiro Oishi vs. Yoshihiro Fujita: I've seen Oishi previously named Doishi and he threw an awesome suplex.

FIGHT: Oishi Submission Rnd 1. Technical submission, really. Fujita clearly is not well versed at submissions and possibly even grappling, and Oishi gets a judo takedown and passes half guard easily, locking in a kimura and cranking it until the ref is forced to call a halt. (0)

4) Caol Uno vs. Yuji Fujita: This is a good career fight for Uno at this point. Fujita is not any great fighter, but he's a decent grappler who might give Uno some issues.

FIGHT: Uno Unanimous Decision. First is seen only in highlights, and that is a tragedy. It looks positively riveting. Uno is getting some cool takedowns and Fujita is locking the armbar up and Uno escapes and man, it is good stuff. Lots of that. Uno springs off the ropes for a shot at one point. Second is nowhere near as good. (3)

Uno: Lots of good positives about the young Uno. He's got decent hands even here and his wrestling is a strong point. He leaves the arms in, but since its not that dangerous a guy he's fighting, he gets away with it. He times the shot well but you can see that someone who might feint him could throw off that timing.

Fujita: He is such a active bottom player that its a shame he can't finish or wrestle guys down. There's a lot of raw talent to build on but he never progressed in other facets and that's probably this would turn out to be his last fight.

5) Hisao Ikeda vs. Omar Salvosa: Ikeda is a poor grappler and Salvosa is here with Carlos Newton, so he might be better. Salvosa says he is happy to be here to display his skills in an arena where you can show your abilities regardless of where they lie in martial arts. Now MMA is barely about the martial arts. Crazy, huh?

FIGHT: Ikeda Submission Rnd 1. Salvosa takes down Ikeda immediately. There's not even the pretense of takedown defense from Ikeda. Its not clear what his gameplan is until about 3 and a half minutes of Salvosa as blanket has passed. He postures up from the half guard to throw shots and Ikeda starts to try and push for some separation. He gets it with a sort of butterfly guard and then grabs the leg. Ikeda submits Salvosa with an achilles hook and man, it is so beginner to go down like that. Ikeda in his post fight interview looks like a total nerd. (0)

6) Masanori Suda vs. Kenji Kawaguchi: Big time fight. Kawaguchi is a former champion that Paulson chased and defeated. Suda is a future champ.

FIGHT: Suda Submission Rnd 3. The stop actually comes with 28 seconds gone in the round, not 1:08.

Suda: You know, I expected Suda to dominate this fight. Won't lie. I didn't think Kawaguchi would win two round of the 3 that this went. But that is precisely what happened. Suda looked poor on his feet, being knocked down for a ten count in the second round's early parts. Grappling wasn't much better - Kawaguchi threw him a couple times and escaped his submissions in the first two stanzas. Suda learned from this, closed the distance instantly and powered Kawaguchi down out of the body lock, taking his back and transitioning to an armbar that forced the early tap.

Kawaguchi: Got a throw in the early stages of round one and never budged from top position on Suda. In round two, an early exchange ended with Suda on his back getting counted to 8. While Suda took another throw attempt to go for a heel hook, Kawaguchi skillfully maneuvered out of the hold and punched Suda a lot, then got dominant position. Round 3 was different. (3)

7) Carlos Newton vs. Kasuhiro Kusayanagi: Kusayanagi is the much smaller of the two men, and frankly he's not that great a fighter to watch. Newton comes in at 85KG? (187lbs)

FIGHT: Newton Submission Rnd 1. It looked like Newton tried for a belly to belly but Kusayangi ends up on top at the start. Doesn't matter since Newton gets back up. When they clinch again, we see a legtrip takedown from Newton and he's looking to pass guard in a weird way. Kusayangi goes for a straight armbar from the bottom and Newton just uses the bad positioning to pass through the open, pseudobutterfly guard, turn over the top of Kusayanagi, and get an armbar. Cool stuff as expected by Newton. Newton says in the post fight interview that he was able to overcome the newaza of Kusayanagi and that personally, he lacked "the fire" to punch hard. (3)

8) Rumina Sato vs. Joel Gerson: Gerson is another fighter from the camp Newton was then with (Survival Jiu-Jitsu). The Moon Wolf is his opposition for the night in this main event. Gerson claims that "anyone can punch" and that winning by submission is the ultimate. Gerson comes out to O Fortuna.

FIGHT: Gerson Submission Rnd 1. Really surprising result for a lot of reasons. Interesting contest for as long as it lasted with Gerson dodging Sato's wild submission attempts (including a flying armbar) and then being chased around with punches by Sato before taking him down into side control. As Sato flailed, he gave up the arm and Gerson knew exactly what to do. He grabbed it and extended into a straight armbar. The ref gave plenty of time for a tapout and instead was forced to make it a technical submission to keep Sato from being a cripple. Sato is clearly upset and in some level of disbelief. Gerson admits that he is surprised that Sato hit him as hard as he does. (4)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Suda/Kawaguchi

KO OF THE NIGHT: Kojima/Murahama

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Gerson/Sato

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 5 out of 10. You see a Sato loss, early wins for Uno and Suda, and some filler. But for the elite stuff that's there, hey, I'm not about to complain. Its a decent sorta stop gap show.

D&R Rating: 32% (13/40)