The SHOOTO Association held its biggest event of the year last weekend.  Traditional held in December, promoters were forced to push things back until February to ensure that all the major players were available.  As such, two world titles were on the line with 154 lbs champion Tatsuya Kawajiri taking on former champ, Joachim Hansen, and 167 lbs Champ Akira Kikuchi versus Shinya Aoki.

The night openned with Sambo champion and top female fighter, Megumi Fuji scoring an armbar to defeat her opponent Miaki Takimoto. Fuji is undefeated at 5-0 with this win.

Then the disappointment for the Japanese fans started as a couple of long time rankers and fan favorites came up short, both losing by decision.  Naoya Uematsu who at one time was thought of as a future champion in the making has been plagued with inconsistency after his career was deraled by an illness a few years back.  He has performed well, but has never looked the same.  Uematsu lost a very close decision to the now 8-2-1 Kenji Osawa.

Along with Uematsu in the losers' column was Hiroyuki Abe.  Abe once KO'ed the 143 lbs SHOOTO World Champion and became the number one contender.  He lost the rematch for the title, and has gone on a horrible losing streak since then dropping 6 out of the next 7 fights including this one.  The veteran was simply outplayed by the relative newcomer Tenkei Fujimiya who moves to 5-0-1.

There were also a couple of international bouts that ended with mixed results.  Brazilian stand-out fighter, Danilo Cherman was undefeated in SHOOTO going into his bout with Mizuto Hirota but the Japanese fighter was as well.  One of these men would get their first SHOOTO loss, and it wold be Cherman.  The Brazilian found himself on the wrong end of a judges' decision.

All was not lost for the away team, as Canadian Antonio Carvalho dealt the crowd their next disappointment when he KO'ed SHOOTO superstar and MMA legend Rumina Sato.  Rumina had been a dominant player in the early days of MMA.  However, he hit a slump, where he lost 3 times in his quest for a SHOOTO World Championship and could not get things going.  He made a move from 154 lbs 143 lbs, and it seemed that he was back on track to be the SHOOTO super hero once again.  Carvalho had plans of his own, looking to get back on track after losing the SHOOTO Americas Championship belt to Jeff Curran.  This was a huge fight that would allow him to completely overshadow that loss.  And overshadow he did.  He kept pace with the wiley submission machine in the first round, and came out swinging in the second to get the TKO and the win.  Sato losses two in a row to North American fighters and will need to dig deep to make yet another return.

Then there was the clash for the SHOOTO Pacific-Rim Championship hat was vacated by Kotetsu Boku.  Stoic and hardworking SHOOTO veterans Mitsuhiro Ishida and Kenichiro Togashi were signed to challenge for the belt.  Ishida is a first rate grappler with superior strength and wrestling ability.  Togashi is a crafty submission fighter who excells at working from the bottom.  So at the outset, it appeared that both men played to each other strengths.

And the fight went as many predicted...  Ishida  easily executed the takedowns while Togashi worked his guard.  There was a scramble at one point with both men attacking with submission attempts, but they were just unable to clos the deal.  After a very tactical fight loaded with grappling postions, and a gopd dose of ground and pound, Ishida got the decision and captured the title.

Then in the mainevent, Kawajiri v. Hansen was a highly anticipated match-up, pitting two very aggressive fighters against each other in what should have been a classic...But it was not to be.  As the two men closed to engage, Hansen fired a low kick that impacted with incredible force into Kawajiri's groin.  It sent the champ to the mat in obvious pain, with only 8 seconds ticked off the clock.  After several minutes of discussion and appraisal from ring-side doctors, it ws determined that Kawajiri could not continue.  This resulted in disqualification of Hansen, and meant that the Champ retained his belt.  Even though Hansen's mistargetted kick was unintentional, it was indeed an illegal maneuver, and since it lead to the termination of the bout, the referee was required to call or the DQ...  so it says in the SHOOTO Regulatory Code.

The event promoter and former SHOOTO Champion himself, Kazuhiro Sakamoto stated that a rematch would be set, and you can bet everyone is hoping to see that come together.  Kawajiri tried to get up and continue, so his spirit is looking to fight...  and both men are coming off of losses in PRIDE Bushido, so this could have been a big opportunity to overshadow those loss with a Championship win here.  And of course the fans will be eager to see the rematch since they came out to pack the arena this time around.

The other SHOOTO World Championship belt that was on the line was the one that belonged to Akira Kikuchi.  The Olympic level Judoka won the title from Cesar Gracie student Jake Shields, so it seemed that this Judo master could not be defeated on the mat.  He was taking on Shinya Aoki who has proven to be one of the best submission grapplers in the SHOOTO circuit.  But submission is Akira's game, so Aoki wold be in for a long night...  right?

Source: MaxFighting.com