Fresh from the finals of the Rookie tournament, the Tokyo faithful will receive their first dose of Shooto in the New Year with the Shootor's Legacy 1 event to be held at the fabled Korakuen Hall. With ruthless efficiency, the card is to feature several opening round bouts for the upcoming 2011 Rookie tournament, as a new generation of potential Japanese stars in the making try to earn accolades that have been held by such notable modern MMA samurai as Tatsuya Kawajiri, Mizuto Hirota, Hiroyuki Takaya, Lion Takeshi and more; men who sit at the top table of Japanese Mixed Martial Arts; home grown champions and JMMA royalty.
A wise man once said to me that watching the Shooto Rookie tournaments was like watching the future of JMMA. Whether or not the 2011 tournament shall play host to fighters talented enough to hold up to the golden names of the past is yet to be seen, but the Odyssey begins tomorrow at the Korakuen, and only time will tell.
The opening round bouts at Shootor’s Legacy 1 will be as such:
Flyweight bout:
Hiroshi Osato vs. Takeshi Saito (123lbs)
Lightweight bout:
Takuya Ogura vs. Satoshi Kogure (132lbs)
Headlining the card is a Shooto Pacific Rim Welterweight title fight, with former Rookie tournament alumni Shinji Sasaki and Yoshihiro Koyama scrapping it out in a rematch for Asian honours. The pair fought to a two-round decision during the 2006 Rookie tournament, and it was a case of wrestling defeating submission grappling, as Koyama stifled the catch-as-catch-can submission grappler Sasaki to earn a unanimous decision.
The rematch will be a turning point in either man’s career; with both the Pacific Rim AND world titles of Shooto vacant, the winner of this fight looks to benefit greatly given the void in the Shooto welterweight division. A Pacific Rim title would enhance the world title aspirations of either combatant, so expect fireworks in the main event.
Co-headline is a fight featuring the reigning Pacific Rim Lightweight (143lbs) champion. Taiki Tsuchiya holds the Asian divisional strap, and sits pretty in the #1 Shooto divisional rank, under the mercurial champion Hatsu Hioki (in Shooto, champions are above and exempt from rankings). He faces former King of the Cage Lightweight champion Tony Hervey, who drops down to featherweight to compete against a prominent star in Shooto. Hervey was a promising fighter with a 10-4 win/loss ledger, but an entertaining scrap with top 2 lightweight great Takanori Gomi began a horrendous decline that left the American with four losses and one win in his last five bouts.
The fight will be a non-title affair, given that Hervey is (rather obviously) not ranked by Shooto – not least in his new division – but a win will regardless help tide Tsuchiya over until the recently all-conquering Shooto world champion Hatsu Hioki returns to defend his Shooto belt, having just relieved Pancrase and Sengoku champion Marlon Sandro of his Sengoku belt to add to his own collection. A win for Hervey, on the other hand, would pose interesting problems for the Shooto committee.
Former Pacific Rim welterweight champion and Rookie Tournament 2004 winner Yusuke Endo will look to rebound from his world title challenge loss to Willamy Freire in May, when he takes on Daisuke “Amazon” Sugie. On paper, it should be one for Endo to rebound with a consolidate his #3 rank, and perhaps challenge the winner of the main event for his old Pacific Rim belt. But while Sugie has a mixed record, he holds wins over several solid Shooto fighters, and he is by no means outgunned or completely overmatched.
The non-tournament bouts of the card (with fighter weights) in full are as follows:
Yusuke Endo (154) vs. Daisuke Sugie (154)
Masakatsu Ueda (132) vs. Ralph Acosta (130.5)
Kotetsu Boku (154) vs. Yukinari Tamura (154)
Toshimichi Akagi (123) vs. Shinichi Hanawa (123)
Koji Matsumoto (154) vs. Norio Tokuhisa (154)
Daisuke Hoshino (154) vs. Koji Nishioka (154)
Masakatsu Ueda (132) vs. Ralph Acosta (130.5)
Kotetsu Boku (154) vs. Yukinari Tamura (154)
Toshimichi Akagi (123) vs. Shinichi Hanawa (123)
Koji Matsumoto (154) vs. Norio Tokuhisa (154)
Daisuke Hoshino (154) vs. Koji Nishioka (154)
Fletch
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