Tamura Yukinari vs. Satomoto Kazuya

I have seen this happen several times, but I am always slightly surprised by it; two Paraestra fighters squaring of against each other. True Tamura "Hibiki" Yukinari fights out of Paraestra Osaka and Satomoto Kazuya fights out of Paraestra Hiroshima, but you would think they might avoid these conflicts. I guess it really isn't a big deal. One thing I will say about Paraestra fighters, regardless of their gym, they seem to be very well trained and coached and fight much more in control of themselves than a lot of Shooto competitors. I always enjoy watching them at work. Hibiki Tamura is a long limbed fighter who can strike from range. Satomoto is much more compact. He come off as a little slow, but this could be a misreading of his deliberateness.




Hibiki (in the red tights) worked single punches and several kicks from range. Satomoto bided his time.

Satomoto's main method of attack in the 1st (and again I apologize for the quality of these photos) was to latch on to Hibiki's right arm Sakuraba style and try to implement the standing Kimura. It was an interesting strategy and kept the match tied up and awkward, but not unexciting.



As poor as the next shot is it communicates the speed with which the rounds last actions played out. Failing to get his Kimura, Satomoto fell to the ground with Hibiki. He immediately spun for an armbar.



It was a good struggle, but time was, ultimately, on Tamura's side and the bell rang out.



The 2nd round was a lot more of the same with Satomoto refusing to give up on the standing Kimura.



Hibiki worked the fight back to striking but Satomoto was game there. I am not sure what landed, but blood began to erupt from the middle of Hibiki's forehead. Satomoto's corner yelled, "It was that knee!" But someone asked me, "Did you get a shot of that punch?" I have evidence of neither so let's settle on it being... something.



The doctor called a stop to the fight. Neither Tamura or his corner seemed to object. Satomoto advances in the welterweight tournament.

Yoshida Keita vs. Kawamata "Geostar" Joji

I'm going to tell you from the beginning that this might be fight of the year. This match was insanely good and exciting in every moment. Great, great effort on both fighter's parts. No shame in the whole affair. Kawamata Joji, billed as George "Kawamata" Geostar, fights out of Paraestra Osaka and wore the black shorts. Yoshida Keita, in the blue shorts, fights out of Cobra Kai.

Kawamata is a south-paw who used the ropes well to escape. He is also the only fighter I have seen whose corner wore rash guards.

A good deal of the fight took place in Kawamata's corner. He was well coached.



Kawamata employed a technique that is fairly common in Shooto which is beating the stew out of someone who is in your guard while you are on the bottom. I like it. It is effective. He did a lot of damage to the right side of Yoshida's head. It was getting to Yoshida but he couldn't work out of it. Kawamata's corner kept shouting, "It's getting to him! He doesn't like it."



Yoshida worked to pass Kawamata's guard, but "Geostar" was the noticeably better grappler.





Yoshida was the more powerful striker, but Kawamata was cagey and careful. This fight had an awesome pace and alternated between standing and the ground.



Kawamata threatened with foot-sweeps through the first round.


Both fighters regrouped between rounds.




Kawamata seemed relaxed and was in control of the fight.



The second round saw lots of clinching against the ropes, especially in the corners.





Toward the end of the round Yoshida connected with a huge right kick to the body. Kawamata was visibly hurt. Yoshida, who had looked exhausted up to this point was energized and the momentum changed.



After the kicks, Kawamata's takedowns became desperate attempts to get out of stand-up exchanges. He ended up desperately clinging to Yoshida's ankle and taking a beating on the head.



The fight was accurately judged a draw with Yoshida advancing in the tournament. Kawamata had given all he had to give and left the ring sobbing. It was a truly great fight.

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: Gate 10 Kishimoto vs. Umezono

Umezono Fumihira wandered, tottered towards the ring with a heavily bandaged left knee. He was the crowd favorite, representing Paraestra Osaka. He looked like a man walking to his death. A man who would have rather been somewhere else. The crowds enthusiasm for Umezono was matched by Kishimoto Hideki's, out of Ground Core, enthusiasm for the upcoming lightweight clash. Although not as favored by the crowd, Kishimoto came in with the better record and the lightweight belt. Although they both stood 173cm, Umezono had a 6kg weight advantage. He looked around as if someone might come up and tell him he didn't have to go through with it. Kishimoto bounced off of the ropes.

At the bell Umezono's extended hand was met with a flying knee by Kishimoto. In the struggle Umezono ended up on the bottom.









And that's how the fight went down. Umezono, although having a cooler last name, was never in the fight. I am not sure how severe his knee injury was and how it effected his training but he brought nothing to the match, mentally or physically. After the fight he picked up the microphone and announced his desire to retire. A row of well dressed women in their late 30s occupying the front row shrieked in disbelief. Umezono said, "I want to retire, but there are those who will never forgive me. So I will take some time off and get my mind and my body right and try again. I don't really feel like it..." But then he called out Yamazaki. Hmmmm....

Back in Time: Shooto Gig West 9 - Tamura Hibiki vs Gypsy Taro

Tamura in the white trunks. Gypsy with the Mullet.





My write-up at the time:

Next up was Tamura Hibiki from Paraestra Osaka Vs. Gypsy Taro from Shooting Gym Osaka. Tamura is a south paw and fought very intelligently. He worked good kicks into his combos and threw in several back straight kicks. He was able to get several trip takedowns and had an interesting strategy of grasping his opponents lead hand with his lead right and throwing a straight left. It worked well for him. Gypsy Taro was able to get top position several times, but showed no ability to do anything from it. His punches were strong but always followed the same pattern of countering of Tamura's right kick. He worked his shoulders well from the clinch in the corner, both to create space, and to batter Tamura. In the end, Taro simply ran out of gas, and Tamura ran away with the fight.