DEEP First-Round Featherweight Tournament Matches Announced

TOKYO, Sept. 27 — DEEP and PRIDE Bushido president Shigeru Saeki announced the first round match-ups for the upcoming DEEP featherweight (65-kg / 143-lb.) tournament, scheduled to begin on October 28 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

Yoshiro Maeda (Pictures) (Pancrase Inagaki-gumi) fights fellow countryman TAISHO (Team Barbosa Japan). Kazunari Imanari (Team ROKEN) takes on Brazilian Fabio Mello (Brazilian Top Team). Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures) (GRABAKA) faces American Mike Thomas Brown (Pictures) (American Top Team). And Atsuhiro Tsuboi (Grappling Shooto Boxers Nagoya) faces Thai fighter Muangfahlek Kiawichean (Chuwanatta Gym).

The winner of this tournament will likely secure a shot to participate in an upcoming Bushido. Interestingly, four of these fighters — Imanari, Taisho, Mello and Maeda — all share PRIDE Bushido experience with negatives results since they fought in a division above their natural weight.

The rest of the card consists of single matches with an interesting mix of DEEP veterans:

Yasuhito Namekawa (Japan/Team M.A.D.) vs. Moon Jong Hyuk (Korea)

Takahiro Oba (Pictures) (Japan/Freelance) vs. Cristiano Kaminishi (Japan/AXIS Jiu-jitsu Academy)

Hirohide Fujinuma (Pictures) (Japan/Aramusha Sogo Kakutou-jitsu) vs. Wataru Takahashi (Japan/Takada Dojo)

Yutaro Miyamoto (Pictures) (Japan/Beverly Hills Jiu-jitsu Club) vs. Naoki Seki (Japan/Freelance)

Yuya Shirai (Pictures) (Japan/Team M.A.D.) vs. Ryuji Ohbori (Japan/R-GYM)

Also on this card, half Brazilian/Japanese fighter Cristiano Kaminishi is scheduled to make his second official MMA match against Bushido veteran Takahiro Oba (Pictures). Kaminishi, a jiu-jitsu brown belt under the famous AXIS Jiu-Jitsu academy in Japan is a veteran of several jiu-jitsu competitions in Brazil and trains with the likes of BTT and Nova Uniao while in Brazil. Close to a year ago he was picked following a PRIDE trial to make it into PRIDE and he's been under further development in DEEP.