Official JMMA Discussion Thread Vol. 3 ~VEE-TEE-JAY~

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VTJ 8th is looking stacked after a few weaker VTJ cards. Lion Takeshi vs Yojiro Uchimura, Koshi Matsumoto vs Alex Ricci, Ryuto Sawada vs Anthony Do, and Hisho Takeda vs Yuki Yamamoto were just announced. Isao vs Yutaka Saito was previously announced.
 
Asurah said:
VTJ 8th is looking stacked after a few weaker VTJ cards. Lion Takeshi vs Yojiro Uchimura, Koshi Matsumoto vs Alex Ricci, Ryuto Sawada vs Anthony Do, and Hisho Takeda vs Yuki Yamamoto were just announced. Isao vs Yutaka Saito was previously announced.
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I hope this gets put on Fight Pass. Finally gonna get to watch Lion Takeshi fight. Sadly, at the twilight of his career :(
 
It's funny that Lion Takeshi and Ryuto Sawada are fighting on the same card. Both guys that Shooto really wanted to be their champions and poster boys, but who've kept falling short at the biggest moments that would've taken 'em to that point.
Lion Takeshi was technically the Shooto champion for a while twice, but he kept losing the fights that Shooto needed him to win. Akitoshi Tamura, his first title defense against a rival in a rematch of a very entertaining fight at the highest, most-hyped point of Lion Takeshi's career: a loss. Savant Young, a very important step on the road back to winning the Shooto world title: a loss. Hatsu Hioki, the fight that would've instantly taken him back to where he was before he lost against Tamura: a loss (and it was competitive, but less competitive than the split decision would suggest.)
And I really like Lion Takeshi, but I just find it kinda funny that they're putting two guys on the same card who Shooto wanted to be their new Rumina Satos and who ended up losing out each time they were at the fight that would've made 'em the new Moon Wolf. I'm speaking prematurely for Sawada, and if Lion's still serious, he could make a late-career return, but it's just a little funny. It's like if Bellator put Brennan Ward, Chris Honeycutt, Michael Chandler after he lost against Brooks twice, King Mo, Brandon Halsey, Joe Warren, and Marloes Coenen all on the same card, except not that obvious.

Lion Takeshi vs. Yojiro Uchimura's a great fight, though. It'd put Lion in a great position no matter what he decides to do next if he beats Uchimura. Especially if he knocks him out in classic Lion Takeshi fashion. It's been a few years, but Uchimura's still got some of that hype leftover from drawing with Marlon Sandro. And it's great that Matsumoto's getting a good foreigner to fight, as it is with Ryuto. It typically ends up doing a lot for a Japanese fighter's career when they beat a foreigner in Japan, especially if they're good.
 
Asurah said:
VTJ 8th is looking stacked after a few weaker VTJ cards. Lion Takeshi vs Yojiro Uchimura, Koshi Matsumoto vs Alex Ricci, Ryuto Sawada vs Anthony Do, and Hisho Takeda vs Yuki Yamamoto were just announced. Isao vs Yutaka Saito was previously announced.
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nice, lion vs. uchimura is a great fight.
 
Ryo Chonan's promotion tie in to his gym, Tribe Tokyo Challenge, announced their next event. It's a pretty solid card with Tatsuya Ando vs Jun Doi, Kiyotaka Shimizu vs Takahiro Furumaki, Shuichi Kanda vs Mamoru Uoi, Tateo Iino vs Tetsuo Nakanishi, Ayaka Miura vs Ye Hyun Nam, Takahiro Okoshi vs Nobuki Fuji, and Kintaro Masakiri vs Akira Enomoto.
 
That's a big step-up for Kanda. It's good that Kiyotaka's finally getting a lower-level fight to bounce back on, though. He needs it after his rough 2015.
I also like that Iino's fighting. He's become one of my favorite strawweights.
 
Jarred Brooks is fighting Jun Nakamura at Pancrase 281. There was some hype behind Nakamura after he ran through the 2011 Rookie Tournament but a combination of injuries and a car accident have kept him away from fighting the last few years.
 
A bunch of other fights have been added to the 281 card. I wrote things about some of them that I spoilered if you wanna take a look.
A lotta people also probably already knew this, but Hiromitsu Miura's challenging Akihiro Murayama for his welterweight King of Pancrase.
Miura, known best for his fight of the year contender against Carlos Condit in the WEC in 2008, made his return to shootfighting in 2015 after spending several years boxing, where he garnered a 9-1 record with four knockouts and challenged for the OPBF super-middleweight title in his last match. Since returning, he's gotten two knockout victories. He's known for his aggressive, entertaining striking style, and he's gotten 7 knockouts in his 11 victories.
Akihiro Murayama's one of the most accomplished Japanese welterweights currently competing today, having been a Shooto Pacific Rim champion and the current welterweight King of Pancrase, and garnering victories over fighters like Shingo Suzuki (twice), Yuki Kondo, Yoichiro Sato, Thiago Jambo Goncalves, UFC veteran Daniel Roberts, and former DEEP champion, Sengoku welterweight grand prix winner and current UFC fighter K-Taro Nakamura. The K-Taro victory was arguably at the highest moment of K-Taro's career after he won the Sengoku grand prix, too, so that was particularly good.
It might be a bit of a rushed title fight for Miura, but I'm excited for it.
Mamoru's fighting his second Brazilian in the last 10-years at Pancrase 281 in the undefeated 10-0 Rogerio Bontorin.
Known for his great striking and his afro, Mamoru Yamaguchi is one of the best flyweights ever and was known for producing a bunch of highlight-reel knockouts and knockdowns at a time when a lot of people knew not of flyweight and its greatness, and is responsible for helping to popularize the division before it became a part of the UFC. After starting out his career with a wrestling-based style, he developed one of the best striking games in the sports history and fell in love with Muay Thai, becoming a great counter-striker and one of the best clinch-strikers to ever come into this sport. There were a lot of interesting things he did in the clinch during his Shooto career, when Shooto disallowed elbows, but that's a discussion for another time.
He holds a lot of victories over great fighters like Junji Ikoma, Yusei Shimokawa, Fumihiro Kitahara, Daiji Takahashi, Jin Akimoto, Baret Yoshida, Setsu Iguchi, Yuki Shojo, Jesse Taitano, Kiyotaka Shimizu, Frank Baca, Yosuke Saruta, and Shooto champions Shuichiro Katsumura, Masaaki Sugawara and the great Yasuhiro Urushitani. A lot of those guys were in their primes and very good fighters when Mamoru fought them, too, and the manner in which he beat many of them-- either knocking them out or swelling up their faces in a decision-- was impressive. He most recently got a victory over Senzo Ikeda in his third Pancrase appearance.
His losses have also come against great fighters like Jussier Formiga, Shinichi BJ, Urushitani, Darrel Montague, Mikihito Yamagami, Yuki Yasunaga, Czar Sklavos, Masahiro Oishi, and BJJ great Robson Moura, almost all of whom he was very competitive with even in defeat (with the Urushitani, Montague and Yasunaga losses in particular having been close enough to arguably go his way.)
Rogerio Bontorin's 10-0 with 9 submissions and won the Immortal FC "Road to Pancrase" one-night tournament a few weeks ago, so he's gonna be tough. Especially since Mamoru ain't as fast and explosive as he used to be and since Rogerio's got 7 rear-choke submissions in his pro career (and Mamoru's had a tendency to give up his back in recent years.)
He can still pull it off, though, and it'll be a great victory for him if he can do it. He may even be able to justify a title shot against Ryuichi Miki-- there's no other real clear contender in Pancrase at flyweight right now, and Mamoru's a marketable guy and one of the best flyweights ever, and there's a legacy angle to it cuz' of their accolades in Shooto. Rogerio could also deserve a title shot if he manages to get the biggest victory of his career and defeat Mamoru.
Mamoru's striking's always real fun to watch, even at his old age and slower speed, so it's a great addition.
Former top-15 or 20 flyweight and current top~20-ish strawweight Takuya Eizumi's fighting Seiji "Oz" Ozuka.
Eizumi holds a 15-16-3 record, but he's a lot better than his record suggests, and a lot of his losses have come against great fighters like arguable-strawweight GOAT Mitsuhisa Sunabe, other-arguable strawweight GOAT Rambaa Somdet, Noboru Tahara, Hiroyuki Abe, Masakazu Utsugi, Shoko Sato, Kiyotaka Shimizu, Isao Hirose, Macho the Butterfly, and, most recently, Shinya Murofushi. Just about all of those guys have either been a Pancrase or Shooto champion or were ranked between the top-3 and top-15 at flyweight or strawweight at at least one point. He also holds solid victories over former-top-5 flyweight Yusei Shimokawa, Takehiro Ishii, Isao Hirose, 2008 Neo-Blood tournament winner Ryota Sasaki, and Takamasa Kiuchi. At 67%, he's got a high finishing rate for the lower weight-classes, but the real interesting thing is that he won 9 of his first 10 victories by knockout, so he's a strong fighter who has knockout power, which counts for a lot more at the lower weight-classes.
He's probably best known for the trollface gif that ciruclated around the Internet after his victory over Yusei in 2014.
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Oz is another fighter whose record (14-12-7) doesn't reflect his talent, especially considering how many of those fights took place at bantamweight and even featherweight early in his career. He's a veteran, having fought professionally for 15-years, and he's got a few very solid victories. Including over Luciano Azavedo, former top-10 bantamweight Daniel Lima, Isao Hirose, and Ayumu Shioda, and draws with Takafumi Otsuka, Junya Kodo, Kiyotaka Shimizu, and combat wrestling champion Daiji Takahashi. A lot of his losses have also come against good fighters; Daichi Kitakata, Ali Bagautinov, Mitsuhisa Sunabe, Kenji Osawa, Takeya Miz', Yuta Nezu, So Tazawa.
He'll be making his official strawweight debut in this fight, having fought previously in Pancrase's 120-lb junior flyweight division [or did they call it "flyweight" towards the end and call 125 "super-flyweight"?] against Mitsuhisa Sunabe in his most recent fight in 2015.
In a rematch and a fight of fighters hoping to rebound, UFC-fighter-for-a-second Alan Hiro's fighting another former UFC fighter in ZST veteran Shunichi Shimizu.
Alan holds a solid 13-5-4 record and had a 4-fight winning streak broken when he lost against Pancrase contender Victory Henry in his last fight. He was signed to the UFC for about a week in 2015 I think, when he was scheduled to be Kid Yamamoto's replacement opponent in Japan before Norifumi got injured and Alan's UFC contract was terminated.
Shunichi Shimizu, meanwhile, is a longtime ZST veteran who holds a fun grappling-based style and a 30-15-11 record, among those being a fight with his brother, Toshihiro Shimizu, in 2012, and he was the finalist in the never-completed Sengoku bantamweight Grand Prix. He submitted Alan in 2012, but he also holds victories over Manabu Inoue, an unofficial victory over Yusuke Ogikubo, Yuki Baba, and former ZST champion Keisuke Fujiwara. After signing to the UFC on the heels of a 5-fight winning streak, he's had a tough time, going 2-7-1 (1), losing in his UFC debut in a dominating performance by Kang Kyung-Ho-- where his only real moment of success was when the Referee questionably deducted two points from Kang in the first round-- dropping down to flyweight and moving back up to bantamweight, getting a decision victory overturned to a no-contest against Yusuke Ogikubo, and losing his last four fights, albeit the fight against Xian Ji was controversial as he got hit in the groin with a back-side kick and it was declared a KO.
Current DEEP lightweight champion, Pancrase Grand Slam tournament winner, former Sengoku champion, and longtime veteran Satoru Kitaoka's making his Pancrase return against 13-3 Brazilian and UFC veteran, Leonardo Mafra.
Kitaoka's a longtime veteran who needs no introduction for fans of the Japanese scene. He most recently defended his DEEP lightweight title against the 2010 Shooto rookie king, Kota Shimoishi, in June.
Mafra was a competitor on the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil at middleweight. He made his pro debut in the UFC in 2012 at UFC 147, losing by TKO, and began his second run in 2014 with an 11-1 record, this time at welterweight. He lost against Rick Story in his second debut, dropped to lightweight and went 1-1 in his next two fights before getting cut again. He got an impressive victory against Anthony Njokuani in his most recent fight in June.
With 8 knockouts in his 13 victories, he's gonna be a tough opponent for Kitaoka, but he's also gonna be a good victory for Kitaoka.
Another UFC veteran in Nazareno Malagerie is competing against GUTSMAN fighter Guy Delumeau.
Delumeau's been one of the more underrated guys on the Japanese circuit for a long time now. Holding a 21-11-3 record, he's been fighting on the Japanese circuit for just about his entire career, making his pro debut in 2006 and winning the 8-man, one-night DEEP Future King tournament in December of that year. He's got a handful of solid victories over former PXC champion Yusuke Yachi, current interim featherweight King of Pancrase Issei Tamura, current UFC fighter Ulka Sasaki, Jin Kazeta, Yo Saito, Yojiro Uchimura, Akitoshi Tamura, and he most recently got a twister submission.
Nazareno Malagerie is a Bellator and UFC veteran who holds a solid 25-4 record with 21 finishes. A giant featherweight, an interesting thing is that three of his losses have come against very good fighters like current top-10 featherweight- and Bellator featherweight champion Daniel Straus, and Bellator tournament runner-ups Marlon Sandro (who was a top-5 featherweight at the time and a former Sengoku champion) and Rad Martinez.
An interesting thing about this fight is that they both have a common opponent in Hiroyuki Takaya, with Delumeau having been knocked out by Takaya's patent left-hook and Malagerie having wrestlefucked him to a decision in his most recent fight. So it'll be cool to see if Delumeau can indirectly avenge that loss by defeating the Argentinian.
Former #1-ranked featherweight- and Shooto lightweight champion Akitoshi Tamura's looking to win his first consecutive fight since 2014 against AACC fighter Munehiro Kin.
 
It's a couple days old and most of you probably already know it, but the Vale Tudo Japan card's finished and Ryo Okada's fighting on it now.
Daichi Takenaka's the top bantamweight in Shooto (arguably the #2 bantamweight in Japan-- arguably) and the bantamweight-to-watch-out-for-in-Japan that's not named Go Kashiwazaki, but Ryo Okada's really another guy in that regard. He's probably the #2 guy in Shooto right now-- Shooto has Shoko Sato ahead of him right now, but it's understandable to have it the other way-- and he's 9-2-2 with a 7-fight winning streak with some pretty solid names in that time (Yo Saito, Takuya Ogura-- who fought Takenaka for the Shooto Pacific Rim title a few months ago-- Takeshi Maeda-- who drew with Takenaka-- and Hadairo most recently.) The real interesting thing about him is that he was the runner-up in the 2013 Shooto rookie tournament, losing against Daichi Takenaka, who ended up being that year's MVP. So he's already got some history with Daichi, who's probably gonna end up contesting for the Shooto featherweight world title soon (if another promotion doesn't offer him a deal worthy enough to make him abandon that goal), and he's improved a lot since the fight with Takenaka.
He's also getting a chance to follow in Japanese tradition and pop his Korean cherry, so the promoters have high hopes for him. He's really one of the guys fans of the Japanese scene will wanna pay attention to on the next Vale Tudo Japan card. Everyone's focused on Lion Takeshi and Matsumoto and Ryuto and Saito vs. ISAO, but Ryo Okada's another guy that you may wanna get excited about. Especially since he's getting debuting Korean to [hopefully] showcase his skills at their best.

Yuki Yamamoto's also fighting on the card. He's the guy that Aoki twister'd a couple years ago. He's better than his 8-8-4 record suggests, though, and he's knocked out his last two opponents in ~30-seconds and has a 100% finishing rate, so he'll be fun.

In some pretty cool Grachan news, Shigeki Osawa's rematching Toru Harai in his featherweight title defense.
Harai drew with Osawa after Osawa'd reached arguably his career-peak by KO'ing Caol Uno last year, he hasn't fought since then. Osawa's gone 1-0-1 since then, drawing with Motonobu Tezuka in a champion-vs.-champion Grachan bout and defeating a Cambodian Kun Khmer veteran with a handful of unsanctioned shootfighting experience in his most recent fight. Toru Harai's on a four-fight winning streak aside from the draw, as is Shigeki Osawa (aside from the draws), and it'll be a big fight for both guys. Osawa'll be able to take his career to another level if he can officially defend his Grachan belt and beat a guy who stole some of his thunder by drawing with him, and a Grachan belt and a victory over an accomplished wrassler like Osawa will do the same for Harai.
And Motonobu Tezuka's not the Grachan bantamweight champion anymore-- I think cuz' of contractual disputes-- and Shuhei Azuma's fighting Fumiya Sasaki for the bantamweight championship now. Shuhei's 8-2-1 with 6 finishes and on a 7-fight winning streak, most recently beating Kensaku Nakamura via decision in a pretty good victory. Becoming a Grachan champion will take his career a big step forward.
Fumiya Sasaki's best known for fighting Lion Takeshi in the fight that ended up breaking Lion Takeshi's four-year, five-fight losing streak, but he got a big knockout victory over Kensaku Nakamura (who was a solid 14-6-4, a former Grachan champion and 8-1-3 over his previous 12 fights at the time) right before that. He's gone 0-2-1 since the Lion Takeshi defeat, including a draw with Kensaku Nakamura and a TKO loss against Heili Alateng in ROAD FC a few months ago. He may be able to pull off another big upset, though, and with a Grachan belt on the line, he'll have a lot of motivation to do so.
Yusuke Kawaguchi's also fighting on the card.
 
Efrain Escudero replaces Alex Ricci vs Shooto World Champion Koshi Matsumoto at VTJ 8th. Ricci was signed by the UFC.
 
There're a couple cool fights in Shooto next week I thought I'd share.
Japanese wrassler Hiroshige Tanaka's making his return to Shooto at the Torao Nation States card next week against Kazumasa Majima.
Majima, who's 6-1 with a 100% submission rate in his victories, I think won the 2015 Shooto lightweight (143-lb) rookie king tournament. His loss was also a split decision against Tsuneo Kimura, who upset the great Joachim Hansen earlier this year, so the loss on his record's not a bad one.
I forget Tanaka's wrestling experience-- he's either a fairly accomplished collegiate wrestler or he won the Japanese Combat Wrestling tournament-- but his wrestling skill has come into play in his fights regardless, including that famous wrestler's punching power (he has six first-round knockouts in his career, one of them in under a minute and another in 13-seconds.) He's making his return to Shooto after signing with ONE Championship™ in 2013 or 2014 and going 0-2, where he lost competitive decisions against featherweight contenders in the promotion Herbert Burns and Eric Kelly. He has a 10-1 record outside of his ONE fights and an 8-1 record in Shooto-- the only place that matters-- which includes a lot of solid victories over Yo "Guillotine" Saito, the aforementioned Tsuneo Kimura, former Shooto Pacific Rim champion Junior Nakamura, and former Shooto world lightweight champion- and top-10 featherweight Hideki Kadowaki-- the latter three victories were all knockouts, by the way.

On the Border card, explosive former top-5 strawweight and the 2010 Shooto flyweight (115-lb) rookie runner-up Tadaaki Yamamoto's fighting better-than-his-record-says late-bloomer Taku Kajikawa in the next round of this year's Infiniti League Round-Robin-format tournament.
"Onibozu" began his career in 2009 and got to the finals of that years Shooto rookie tournament, losing a close decision against "Macho the Butterfly" Kato. He then rose to the top-5 of the division by consecutively (and impressively) beating former Shooto world champion- and longtime top-5 flyweight and strawweight Junji Ikoma, and longtime strawweight contender "Heat" Takeshi Sato. The real interesting thing about him is that he had six finishes in his first 8 victories, all at strawweight. That kind of a finishing rate is very impressive in a lower-weight division like strawweight. And even in his decision victories, he's often shown the kind of power that leaves him with several highlight-reel moments after the fight, including knockdowns, rockings, explosive takedowns, and various other things.

After suffering a defeat to flyweight great Yuki Shojo in Shojo's third fight at strawweight, he later avenged the loss to Macho the Butterfly, retaining his top-5 ranking in the process, before consecutive defeats to longtime strawweight ranker Junji Sarumaru and current #2-ranked strawweight, former Shooto flyweight (115-lb) world champion and current ONE strawweight world champion, Nobita Naito, sent him on a downward spiral that saw him move up to flyweight, lose another four fights in a row (bringing himself to a six-fight losing streak and an unfortunate 9-8-3 record), a good number of those upsets.
He rebounded towards the end of 2015 at a Tenkaichi Fight event by defeating underrated, better-than-his-record-says Okinawan, Tatsuya So by decision. He then got two very solid victories that've secured his status as the favorite to win the Infiniti League against, respectively, the 2013 and 2014 Shooto bantamweight (123-lb) Rookie Kings, Takaki Soya and Kazuki Fujita. Takaki Soya in particular was the 2013 Shooto Rookie MVP, and Fujita's a very explosive, dangerous fighter himself, making the victories even better.

Taku Kajikawa emerged on the scene in 2014 by upsetting former top-5 flyweight and one of the original Japanese shit-talkers, Setsu Iguchi in his first fight since announcing his retirement in 2007. He followed that up with another victory and he's remained a staple of the Shooto bantamweight division ever since. He may have an unspectacular 5-8-1 record, but the important thing to note is that all of his losses have been against very good fighters. Including Shooto Pacific Rim title challengers Keita Ishibashi and Takuya Ogura (Ishibashi in particular gave a FOTY-worthy performance in his challenge for the title), current ZST champion Seiichiro Ito, and Shooto Rookie champions Rambo Suzuki, Takaki Soya, Yosuke Saruta, and Fumihiro Kitahara (who was also once a top-10 flyweight.) He's been competitive in just about all of his losses, too.
He's also a pretty big flyweight, not even just by Japanese standards, and I think he has a background in kickboxing, but I'm not sure about that.

In some other cool fights on these cards, Tomohiro Hagino's fighting Nobutaka Naito in a fight that could send the winner into the top-10 of Shooto's bantamweight (123-lb) division. Hagino's on a four-fight winning streak with three knockouts in a row and Naito's on a three-fight winning streak with a victory over Shinichi Hanawa, who was a ranker in Shooto, and he has a draw with Tadaaki Yamamoto.
5-1 Ryuhei Nakamoto's fighting 1-0 Nori Nori in the semi-finals of this year's featherweight rookie tournament. Nakamoto's on a four-fight winning streak, all knockouts, and it'll be a real good upset for Nori if he can get to the finals off of him. If Nakamoto continues his streak of knockouts, he could end up being a shoe-in for this year's MVP.
Kento "Derricott" Yamamoto's fighting Akira Takano in the semi-finals of this year's lightweight (143-lb) rookie tournament.
The 2014 Shooto bantamweight rookie runner-up Seiji Takebe is having his first fight in almost a year against the 5-3-1 Musashi Nakasone.
Another runner-up is also returning in the 5-2 Akira Toritani, who lost in the 2013 welterweight (154-lb) rookie tournament against Yuki Kawana, who recently fought for the vacant Shooto welterweight world title.
Outsider veteran and Mach dojo fighter Tsubasa Akiyama's having his third fight in Shooto and hoping to get his first victory over 1-4-1 Shinpei Sugiyama. A lotta people like Outsider fighters, so that's why I mentioned him.
 
DEEP Flyweight, Iyori Akiba, has passed away in a traffic accident
Statement from his gym, Tribe Tokyo (in Japanese)
English source (gives more details)

He was 21 years old and had just won a fight this past weekend. He was one of Ryo Chonan's students and seemed to have some potential and a solid career ahead of him.

RIP
 
I'm not sure if it's co-promotion or just a promotional tool but DEEP is randomly holding an event in Mongolia and is marketing it as DEEP vs MGL-1
http://www.tapology.com/fightcenter/events/41554-mgl-1-vs-deep

It's good to see Mongolians get a little bit of a bigger stage to perform on. There's a lot of talent there but they are either inactive due to lack of MMA options or so far off the radar that they never gain momentum among fans.
 
A few big fights announced in the last few days:
Andy Main vs Issei Tamura to unify the Featherweight King of Pancrase title. Syuri Kondo and Rin Nakai also announced for the card, opponents TBA.

The next DEEP Cage Impact will see Yuki Motoya move up to BW to take on former champ DJ.taiki. Ken Hasegawa vs Yoichiro Sato in WW Grand Prix action, Yuki Ohara vs Hideki Kadowaki, and Oyama Kennosuke vs Nobita's fellow Doraemon cosplayer, Gian Takahiro, also announced
 
Asurah said:
Yuki Motoya move up to BW to take on former champ DJ.taiki.
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should be a good fight though. i still hold DJ in very high regard, and moving up to BW will be tough for motoya, so i expect a win from DJ.
 
GoForkYourself said:
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should be a good fight though. i still hold DJ in very high regard, and moving up to BW will be tough for motoya, so i expect a win from DJ.
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Yeah, idk who to root for. DJ.taiki should have a pretty large size advantage and has a cutting edge DDR training regimen but Motoya is the better skilled fighter.

Top Flyweight prospect, Naoki Inoue, is getting a huge step up. He is taking on former DEEP title challenger Yuya Shibata at DEEP Cage Impact in Osaka (not to be confused with the other Cage Impact scheduled around the same time).
monky.jpg
 
Former PXC Lightweight champ (never lost the title in competition, he vacated), Chuji Kato, will be returning from a 2 year hiatus at GRANDSLAM 5. He's one of Shu Katsumura's proteges and used to be a training partner of Michinori Tanaka. Sounds like he spent some time training at ATT during his hiatus.
 
Shooto Border: Season 8 - Second from earlier this month has been uploaded to YouTube

Main event between Koki Naito and Tomohiro Hagino


Onibozu vs Taku Kajikawa
Onibozu is a former top Strawweight who is now putting together a good streak at Flyweight and I believe has locked up this year's Infinity League title


Shooto Rookie Tourney semifinal, Ryuhei Nakamoto vs Nori


There's video for a few more fights on the channel but those are probably the 3 most notable fights from it.
 
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