Melendez, “Mach” Sakurai victorious in SHOOTO Event
Akira Fujimoto Aug 20, 2005
YOKOHAMA, Japan, Aug. 20 — In the sweltering heat of a Japanese
summer, SHOOTO held their August event at the Yokohama Cultural
Gymnasium. This was one of the biggest events of the year for
SHOOTO, with the main event pitting the Japanese legend Rumina Sato (Pictures) against Cesar Gracie Academy
protégé Gilbert
Melendez (Pictures).
The winner of this contest would gain the right to challenge Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures) for the Lightweight Championship.
After this fight, my Sherdog.com mate, Stephen Martinez, commented
that Rumina Sato
(Pictures) is the most tragic figure
in the history of SHOOTO. SHOOTO pushes him, but then when he gets
the big fights, something bad or unlucky always seems to happen.
Stephen will elaborate on this point more in the next Nippon Joho,
but all I can say is that the way this fight ended was certainly
tragic.
Both fighters started out cautiously. After some brief exchanges, the fighters ended up in a clinch. From here Melendez fired an excellent knee strike that connected with Sato’s head, sending him reeling back.
The crowd waited, hoping for the best, but the cut was too severe and the fight had to be stopped at the 1:32 mark. Sato was clearly devastated with this turn of events. It was a truly disappointing ending to what could have been an excellent fight.
Popular Japanese fighter Hayato Sakurai (Pictures) took on ju-jitsu ace Shinya Aoki (Pictures). It was perhaps a daring move for Sakurai to take this fight considering that he will be fighting in the PRIDE tournament in September and is getting married next week.
Before the event started, the Sherdog.com team was able to talk a bit with Matt Hume (Pictures). He said that Sakurai had trained with him in Seattle for this fight and that he was in great shape.
Sakurai found himself in an extremely dangerous position in the opening moments of the first round, with Aoki tripping him and applying a strong guillotine choke.
For a moment, myself, Masa Fukui and I’m sure the whole crowd thought that he was going to tap. Aoki really had this choke sunk in. Sakurai was able to eventually escape this precarious situation and ended up in Aoki’s guard.
The second and third rounds saw Sakurai and Aoki taking turns being on the bottom. Aoki was able to score a nice trip on Sakurai and briefly had the mount. Sakurai finished strong at the end with a series of strikes from the top. It was then that Sherdog.com’s Masa Fukui, noted that Sakurai was much more willing to go to the ground with Aoki as the fight went on.
This fight was close, a very even match-up that had me guessing as to what the decision would be. In the end, the judges went with Sakurai (30-28, 30-29 twice). Aoki was clearly disappointed with this decision. Sakurai simply said “I’m sorry” to the crowd when handed the microphone over.
Powerful fighter Joachim Hansen (Pictures) faced Kenichiro Togashi (Pictures) in what turned out to be an extremely exciting match-up. Hansen’s pre-fight video package mentioned the fact that a Japanese fighter has never beaten him.
This fight was a real slugfest. I was really impressed by Togashi’s stand up abilities. He was always moving, dodging punches and landing some excellent strikes on the Norwegian.
Hansen’s boxing technique looked a bit sloppy, often throwing big, loopy punches. But what he lacks in technique, he makes up for in power. This guy can hit like a ton of bricks. In addition to the power, his long arms and legs give him a great reach advantage against most of his opponents. He was able to use this reach to land some nice strikes on Aoki.
Togashi pulled Hansen into his guard twice in the first round. Throughout the rest of the fight, Hansen scored several single-leg takedowns with very little resistance from Togashi. On the ground, Hansen fired a lot of hard, thunderous punches to his opponent’s body. Togashi seemed to be interested in applying a Kimura most of the time.
Hansen had the habit of carrying his hands very high while on his feet, leaving his body open. Togashi kept up his great boxing throughout the match and landed and excellent body-head flurry towards the end of the third round.
This was another close fight, but despite Hansen looking a bit gassed near the end, the judges awarded the victory to the former SHOOTO welterweight champion (30-28, 30-27 twice).
Canadian fighter Antonio Carvalho (Pictures) faced Takeshi Inoue (Pictures) in what turned out to be another standing war. Both of these fighters were undefeated prior to this bout. Throughout the match, both fighters threw hard bombs at each other, often ending up in a standing clinch at the end of their exchanges.
Carvalho did a great job of blocking, always having his hands up when he punched and taking his opponents strikes off his forearms. Lion Takeshi had a strong flurry of punches towards the end of round one.
Not much time was spent on the ground during this slobber-knocker. When it did go down, the fighters pretty much took turns being in the guard and raining down punches. Carvalho got in trouble with the referee a few times for kicking at his opponents face from his back. (In SHOOTO this is not allowed if one fighter has a knee down.) The fight went the distance with Carvalho taking the decision.
Team TOPS fighter Mitsuhiro Ishida (Pictures) executed a textbook takedown during the opening moments of his fight with Takashi Nakakura (Pictures). Ishida continued his assault and took his opponent’s back. Nakakura, however, fended off the choke, eventually spinning out of this dangerous situation. Nakamura repaid Ishida by briefly taking his back towards the end of round one.
Ishida dominated most of this fight. He did a great job of catching his opponent’s kicks and scoring takedowns. From the guard he rained down a lot of strong punches and was able to briefly mount Nakakura. In the third, Nakamura sustained a cut around his right eye and fight was stopped, giving Ishida the victory.
Ryuhei Sato (Pictures) took on Osaka’s Masashi Yozen in a class B match-up. Yozen dominated most of this match-up, getting good positions and often ending up in side control. In the second round Yozen got the mount and had a great armbar attempt. Sato was able to work some reversals and fired punches from inside the guard. Yozen took the decision.
Yutaka Nishioka also won a B-Class bout, decisioning Kyotaro Nakao (Pictures).
The winner of this contest would gain the right to challenge Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures) for the Lightweight Championship.
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Both fighters started out cautiously. After some brief exchanges, the fighters ended up in a clinch. From here Melendez fired an excellent knee strike that connected with Sato’s head, sending him reeling back.
I could see that Sato was rocked the second after the knee landed,
but he was still on his feet. Then, just as Melendez was coming
forward to capitalize, a heavy trail of blood began to flow from a
very large cut on Sato’s forehead. Sato gave out a cry of
disappointment once he realized the severity of the cut and the
referee directed him to the corner for a doctor check.
The crowd waited, hoping for the best, but the cut was too severe and the fight had to be stopped at the 1:32 mark. Sato was clearly devastated with this turn of events. It was a truly disappointing ending to what could have been an excellent fight.
Popular Japanese fighter Hayato Sakurai (Pictures) took on ju-jitsu ace Shinya Aoki (Pictures). It was perhaps a daring move for Sakurai to take this fight considering that he will be fighting in the PRIDE tournament in September and is getting married next week.
Before the event started, the Sherdog.com team was able to talk a bit with Matt Hume (Pictures). He said that Sakurai had trained with him in Seattle for this fight and that he was in great shape.
Sakurai found himself in an extremely dangerous position in the opening moments of the first round, with Aoki tripping him and applying a strong guillotine choke.
For a moment, myself, Masa Fukui and I’m sure the whole crowd thought that he was going to tap. Aoki really had this choke sunk in. Sakurai was able to eventually escape this precarious situation and ended up in Aoki’s guard.
The second and third rounds saw Sakurai and Aoki taking turns being on the bottom. Aoki was able to score a nice trip on Sakurai and briefly had the mount. Sakurai finished strong at the end with a series of strikes from the top. It was then that Sherdog.com’s Masa Fukui, noted that Sakurai was much more willing to go to the ground with Aoki as the fight went on.
This fight was close, a very even match-up that had me guessing as to what the decision would be. In the end, the judges went with Sakurai (30-28, 30-29 twice). Aoki was clearly disappointed with this decision. Sakurai simply said “I’m sorry” to the crowd when handed the microphone over.
Powerful fighter Joachim Hansen (Pictures) faced Kenichiro Togashi (Pictures) in what turned out to be an extremely exciting match-up. Hansen’s pre-fight video package mentioned the fact that a Japanese fighter has never beaten him.
This fight was a real slugfest. I was really impressed by Togashi’s stand up abilities. He was always moving, dodging punches and landing some excellent strikes on the Norwegian.
Hansen’s boxing technique looked a bit sloppy, often throwing big, loopy punches. But what he lacks in technique, he makes up for in power. This guy can hit like a ton of bricks. In addition to the power, his long arms and legs give him a great reach advantage against most of his opponents. He was able to use this reach to land some nice strikes on Aoki.
Togashi pulled Hansen into his guard twice in the first round. Throughout the rest of the fight, Hansen scored several single-leg takedowns with very little resistance from Togashi. On the ground, Hansen fired a lot of hard, thunderous punches to his opponent’s body. Togashi seemed to be interested in applying a Kimura most of the time.
Hansen had the habit of carrying his hands very high while on his feet, leaving his body open. Togashi kept up his great boxing throughout the match and landed and excellent body-head flurry towards the end of the third round.
This was another close fight, but despite Hansen looking a bit gassed near the end, the judges awarded the victory to the former SHOOTO welterweight champion (30-28, 30-27 twice).
Canadian fighter Antonio Carvalho (Pictures) faced Takeshi Inoue (Pictures) in what turned out to be another standing war. Both of these fighters were undefeated prior to this bout. Throughout the match, both fighters threw hard bombs at each other, often ending up in a standing clinch at the end of their exchanges.
Carvalho did a great job of blocking, always having his hands up when he punched and taking his opponents strikes off his forearms. Lion Takeshi had a strong flurry of punches towards the end of round one.
Not much time was spent on the ground during this slobber-knocker. When it did go down, the fighters pretty much took turns being in the guard and raining down punches. Carvalho got in trouble with the referee a few times for kicking at his opponents face from his back. (In SHOOTO this is not allowed if one fighter has a knee down.) The fight went the distance with Carvalho taking the decision.
Team TOPS fighter Mitsuhiro Ishida (Pictures) executed a textbook takedown during the opening moments of his fight with Takashi Nakakura (Pictures). Ishida continued his assault and took his opponent’s back. Nakakura, however, fended off the choke, eventually spinning out of this dangerous situation. Nakamura repaid Ishida by briefly taking his back towards the end of round one.
Ishida dominated most of this fight. He did a great job of catching his opponent’s kicks and scoring takedowns. From the guard he rained down a lot of strong punches and was able to briefly mount Nakakura. In the third, Nakamura sustained a cut around his right eye and fight was stopped, giving Ishida the victory.
Ryuhei Sato (Pictures) took on Osaka’s Masashi Yozen in a class B match-up. Yozen dominated most of this match-up, getting good positions and often ending up in side control. In the second round Yozen got the mount and had a great armbar attempt. Sato was able to work some reversals and fired punches from inside the guard. Yozen took the decision.
Yutaka Nishioka also won a B-Class bout, decisioning Kyotaro Nakao (Pictures).
