King of Purebred 2009: Photos

King of Purebred 2009

Christmas in Kyoto and the pros and blackbelts were out. This year amateur Shooters took on guys from around the gym in an annual festival of grappling and madness.

Bracket:


Okabe vs. Kouki


Fujii vs. Aleku


Wes vs. Ruya


Ozaki vs. Doi


Kouki vs. Aleku


Doi vs. Ryuya


Kouki vs. Doi (Finals)



Special Bonus Match- Last year's champion Eda vs. this year's champion Doi

Random Notes: Post Powergate

Kanayama Yasuhiro, coming off of his victory over Yokosai and his subsequent request for a title match will apparently get his wish. The deal isn't final, but Kanayama looks to face amateur shooter Ozaki from Tottori.

Kanayama's opponent Yokosai, was hospitalized with damage to his eye after their fight, although he had no concussion.

Sakashita Yusuke, better known around the gym as "Jurassic Armbar", or "Jurassic" + whatever he is doing at the moment, will be leaving Kyoto and Purebred for Grabaka in Tokyo. He is a trainer at Gold's Gym so can transfer to any location in the country. He has a pretty good record so wants to take this chance to see how far he can go. Good luck to him.

Kaneshima Yoshikazu from Purebred will be fighting in Rings: The Outsider on March 15th. That event looks nuts. Apparently you have to have a body check to get in.

Both Eda Kosuke and Sugimoto Hiroshi, from Purebred will be fighting on the March 8th Shooto Border 1 card in Osaka. I am working on passes for this one. Eda has a chance to get ranked with a victory over Tanaka and Sugimoto will be facing Gypsy Taro, whose fights I find entertaining. Shooting Gym Osaka and Paraestra Osaka are large presences on this card.

Powergate: Overcoming 2009 -Intro

Bad things happen at the harbor. I am from a harbor town. Down at the docks guys with one arm called "Lefty" splice rope with a marlin spike, a cigarette dangling out of their teeth and wrap-around sunglasses. Old dogs run around with one eye missing because they fought a pack of cats over fish scraps. Fisherman hide both pornography and shotguns under their reeking mattresses. Reeking of cigarette smoke, no showers and fish goo. Osaka's harbor is too dirty to enjoy and too clean to be interesting. It is a lifeless streetscape of concrete and cargo containers. It is where you switch trains and wait for a bus. I have always thought they should infuse every neighborhood with outdoor basketball courts and make all of he schools in the district magnets for basketball. Try to turn Minato-ku into Coney Island Asia. But that would make it interesting and the harbor has no momentum in that direction. It looks like they could hold fights on one of the rusted, brown, useless barges lining the river. However, at the end of a charmless street, under an elevated highway lies a small theater that looks like a large jazz club. The Sekaikan is attractive in all the ways the usual non-Tokyo Shooto matches, held in rec-rooms and community centers are spiritless.



Out back the Purebred crew were getting very Rocky. Eda, fresh off driving to Tokyo and back to corner Sato Takuya, was warming up Kanayama.




Shiba Hiroshi showed up to run some sprints.


The room and ring were small, but pretty much the right size for this type of affair. Anything more would have seemed unfriendly. Anything less would have been a punk show.

Powergate: Overcoming 2009

A buttload of photos and coverage coming soon.





Eda Kosuke warming up Kanayama Yasuhiro.

Thursday at Purebred Kyoto

Ueta Yu works on the heavy bag.



Sato Takuya gets his hair cut correct like Anthony Mason.



And works his takedown defense in preperation for his January 31st clash with Taisuke Okuno at Shooting Disco 7.



Eda Kosuke and Kawakatsu Saburo go for leg-locks.



Eda stalks Kawakatsu. Eda will face Pacific 10th ranked Tanaka Hiroyuki on March 8th at Shooto Border Season 1.



Shiba Hiroshi shadowboxes in preperation for his Powergate fight Sunday agaonst Hoshiko, February 1st in Osaka.



Eda's gold gloves from his Shooto rookie championship.



Kaneshima works on his bridges.