Akira Kikuchi became a champion in December 2004 by defeating Jake Shields in a majority decision and Shinya Aoki has been publicly expressing his desire for the title fight since he dominated Kuniyoshi Hironaka in the Shooto Korakuen Hall show in November of last year.
In Shooto's ranking, Shields still ranks first, followed by Jutaro Nakao, Ronald Jhun, and then Aoki. Both Shields and Jhun are competing in the Rumble on The Rock GP (the final is in April) and Nakao is defending his DEEP welterweight title against Seichi Ikemoto in March so, rather smoothly, Aoki's wish was granted.
The signing ceremony and the press conference were held on January 22nd in Tokyo.

(front row) Hiroyuki Abe and Megumi Fujii. (back row, from left to right) Mitsuyoshi Ishda, Akira Kikuchi, Shinya Aoki, and Rumina Sato..

At the press conference, Kikuchi told reporters, "It has been a while since I fought in a Shooto show. I can hear Miles Davis ('Mystery,' Shooto's entrance music) again so I am looking forward to it."

While Kikuchi remained in his "school of cool" mode, a younger and always aggressive Aoki was obviously psyched up, "Openly and squarely, I am going to present what I learned from Mr. Yuki Nakai."

When a reporter asked Kikuchi about Aoki's judo background he simply said, "Sure he might have been a national class judo-ka but Shooto is a different athletic competition."
Aoki however showed his confidence, "In terms of takedown ability, I am better than anybody. I want to submit him fast. Maybe in 30 seconds."

Also, Aoki, for the first time in public, talked about his future after this title bout. Aoki is planning to join the police force this spring but apparently it doesn't mean he is going to retire from MMA, "I am not going to fight in any other promotions, I will definitely come back to Shooto."

Rumina Sato, who will face Antonio Carvalho, joined the press conference. Rumina had nothing but praise for his opponent, "He has no holes. He is the type of fighter who can do everything. His will keep getting stronger. He knows how to close in the range in both striking and grappling. It maybe plain but he has got a very valuable technique."
Carvalho first came to Japan in August 2005 and defeated Lion Takeshi. Rumina, for this, Shooto's biggest show of the year, actually wanted to fight a fighter who sits on a higher spot in the Shooto ranking but this time, he is going to have to face a young up and coming fighter so Rumina wants to, "Finish the fight by either KO or tapout."

The battle between Mitsuhiro Ishida and Kenichiro Togashi will decide a new Pacific Rim welterweight champion. This title has been vacant since Koutetsu Boku returned it before fighting in K-1 Hero's last year. Togashi, who resides in Hiroshima, was not able to attend the press conference but sent a message via Sustain office, "I will win by ippon or KO. My jab hurts, do you know that?"
Ishida was at the press conference so he quickly replied to Togashi's provocation, "I will win the fight in a decision. I don"t think you can sprawl out of my shoot."

If Ishida wins this championship match and Tatsuya Kawajiri defends his title against Joachim Hansen, Shooto's two welterweight belts will go back to T-BLOOD dojo. Ishida added, "We are both looking to make February 17th a very good day."

Also, both Hiroyuki Abe and Megumi Fujii from AACC were at the press conference. Abe talked about his opponent, 2005 Shooto lightweight rookie of the year, Tenkei Fujimiya, "He is young, on a roll. But I am looking to show my Shooto."
Fujii simply showed her great confidence, "Just like the other fight. I will not let my opponent do anything, and win."

(01/29/2006)

Suda with Shooto and Super Brawl belts.

Masanori Suda will return his professional Shooto license as of February 17th 2006. Yes, he is retiring from MMA.
Although he is only 32 years old, Suda has been implying about the possibility of retiring from MMA for a while. At the press conference of PRIDE Bushido GP back on August 19th 2005, Suda's comments regarding his first rounder against Murilo Bustamante was, "the loser of this bout probably will retire. Not only for Shooto's reputation but I am putting my career on the line."

In this fight, Suda landed a beautiful spinning back hand blow, and got on top but Bustamante, from the bottom, snapped on an armbar and it was all over before you could say BUSTA MANTE.

Not only is it this loss at the GP but Suda also has other reasons for retiring. He has two career interests, and that is training fighters and health welfare. Suda is an established care specialist in the field social and physical care and he is very passionate about this career as well as coaching fighters.
After the retirement, Suda is planning to move back to his hometown Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture to pursue these two careers.
Suda's last official Shooto fight now has become vs. Brian Ebersole back in January 2005.
Suda's retirement ceremony will be held at Shooto's biggest show of the year at Yoyogi No.1 Gymnasium on February 17th.

Suda (left) is also returning his Shooto light-heavyweight title as of February 17th.

In addition, Shooto announced three more bouts for this February 17th show.
Hiroyuki Abe, Shooto's tenth ranked lightweight who just defeated Joey Brown in the MFC 5 USA vs. Japan, will make a comeback to Shooto's ring to take on Tenkei Fujimiya, the winner of last year's Shooto lightweight rookie tournament.

2005 Shooto welterweight rookie of year Mizuto Hiroto is fighting Danilo Cherman from Nova Uniao. Hiroto was just promoted to Shooto's Class A in December and this is going to be his first international fight in his career.
Cherman first came to Japan back in November 2004 winning a close fight against Takeshi Yamazaki from GRABAKA. Last year, he won twice in Brazil.

At last, the star of Japanese women's MMA Megumi Fujii is also on the card.
This is going to be her second appearance in Shooto. This time, her opponent in Shooto's official flyweight bout is going to be a young grappler named Misaki Takimoto from Zendo-kai.
Fujii is a veteran who won eight straight national Sambo titles, who is currently undefeated in MMA. She is a target of every woman MMA fighter in Japan.
Takimoto, on the other side, lost to a current Smack Girl flyweight champion Satoko Shinashi twice in a row, so this fight could turn out to be a good yardstick to measure the strength of Fujii and Shinashi, two flyweight super stars in Japan. (01/18/2006)

Megumi Fujii is only 115 lbs but finished third in 2005 ADCC World Championships 132 lbs & under category.

Shoot announced three additional cards for their biggest show of the year at Yoyogi No. 2 Gymnasium. (01/15/2006)

Hiroyuki Abe vs. Tenkei Fujimiya

Megumi Fujii vs. Misaki Takimoto

Mizuto Hirota vs. Danilo Cherman

Normally the biggest show takes place in December at Tokyo Bay NK Hall, the site, for Japanese MMA fans, known as Shooto's sacred place. This concert hall by Tokyo Disneyland however, was shut down as of July 2004 therefore Shooto has chosen Yoyogi No.2 Gymnasium as its new holy land.
But, this gymnasium built for the Tokyo Olympics is almost fifty years old and it needed a restoration so Shooto has decided to postpone its biggest show until February 17th, 2006.

The Main Event of the show is going to be the welterweight (70 kg / 154.35 lbs) title bout between the champion Tatsuya Kawajiri and the challenger Joachim Hansen.
Both fighters have already signed a contract back in November 6th at Korakuen Hall.

Hansen was the titleholder till he lost to Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro at Tokyo Bay NK Hall in December 2003. Then Kawajiri, ground and pounded his way to take the belt away from Ribeiro on December 2004 at Yoyogi No.2 Gynasium.

Both Hansen and Kawajiri competed in the PRIDE Bushido Lightweight GP but neither of them made it to the finals but at 73 kg (160.97 lbs) & under, Hansen, against a naturally heavier Hayato "Mach" Sakurai, and Kawajiri, against "Undefeated in PRIDE" Takanori Gomi, both unfurled great fights, making their names recognizable in the national constituency.
After signing a contract Kawajiri stated, "I lost in the last fight. (vs. Gomi) I lost my credibility in the fight, so I will get my reputation back in the fight also."
It would be interesting to see if these two fighters, who fought in PRIDE Bushido, will help increase the gates for Shooto's show.

Also, Kawajiri changed his association to T-BLOOD from Team TOPS. With Mitsuyoshi Ishida, his sworn allies, as of September 30th, Kawajiri departed from TOPS and opened his own dojo "T-BLOOD" in the Tsuchiura, Ibaragi Prefecture.

(from left to right) Lion, Uematsu, Osawa, Ishikawa, and Rumina Sato.

On December 17th, Shooto announced that Rumina Sato will also be fighting in the show. His opponent will be announced at a later date.
At the press conference held at Shinjuku FACE, Rumina returned his Pacific Rim belt to the commissioner Noburu Urata.
Rumina explained, "I want to go for the world title. I want to take on fighters who rank higher than me."
Rumina currently ranks fourth in the world ranking of Shooto's lightweight category. The president of Sustain Kazuhiro Sakamoto mentioned number one ranked Gilbert Melendez, second ranked Hiroyuki Takaya, third ranked Joao Roque, and seventh ranked Jeff Curran as Rumina's possible opponents and added at the end, "I want to help Rumina's dream of becoming the world champion comes true."

Shooto also revealed that the February 17th show would be divided into two segments. Top fighters such as Kawajiri, Hansen, Rumina are going to fight in the second part of the show while, in the first part, young up and coming Class A fighters are competing.

On this day, Shooto announced two cards for the first part of the show.
Makoto Oishi vs. Lion Takeshi, and Kenji Osawa vs. Naoya Uematsu.

Ishikawa promised an intense striking battle, "I am only going to strike. That's it. My friends even tell me that they can't really see me when I am on the ground."

A relative newcomer to Shooto, Lion Takeshi was modest, "Since Rumina-san returned his belt, I would like to beat very tough Ishikawa-san, and get close to the belt."

Uematsu was determined, "I lost to Melendez in May, and in September, I had to step out due to an injury. I have been betraying my fans. This time, I am not going to think, 'well, there is a next time' and give everything I got. Recently Shooto's fights have had too much standing around so I want to go for the win."

His opponent, Osawa, also wants to fight aggressively, "I am going to fight in a way that the bell at the end of the third won't be necessary." (12/20/205)

Sustain 'Crymson Presents Professional SHOOTO: The Victory of The Truth'
Friday, February 17th, 2006
At Yoyogi No.2 Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan
Door Open: 15:30
Fight Start: Part 1 - 16:00 Part 2 - 19:00

Confirmed Cards (Subject to Change):

PART 2:

Main Event SHOOTO World Welterweight Title Bout 5 min / 3R

Tatsuya Kawajiri (Japan / T-BLOOD) vs. Joachim Hansen (Norway / Team Scandinavia)

SHOOTO World Middleweight Title Bout 5 min / 3R

Akira Kikuchi (Japan / KILLER BEE) vs. Shinya Aoki (Japan / Paraestra Tokyo)

Welterweight Bout 5 min / 3R

Mitsuhiro Ishida (Japan / T-BLOOD) vs. Kenichiro Togashi (Japan / Paraestra Hiroshima)

Lightweight Bout 5 min / 3R

Rumina Sato (Japan / roots) vs. Antonio Carvalho (Canada / Shah Franco)

Lightweight Bout 5 min / 3R

Makoto Ishikawa (Japan / PUREBRED Omiya) vs. Lion Takeshi (Japan / Shooting Gym Yokohama)

Part 1:

Lightweight Bout 5 min / 3R

Makoto Ishikawa (Japan / PUREBRED Omiya) vs. Lion Takeshi (Japan / Shooting Gym Yokohama)

Lightweight Bout 5 min / 3R

Hiroyuki Abe (Japan / AACC ) vs. Tenkei Fujimiya (Japan / Shooting Gym Yokohama)

Featherweight Bout 5 min / 3R

Kenji Osawa (Japan / Wajiu-tsu Keishu-kai) vs. Naoya Uematsu (Japan / Cross Point Kichijyouji)

Welterweight Bout 5 min / 3R

Mizuto Hirota (Japan / GUTSMAN Shooto Dojo) vs. Danilo Cherman (Brazil / Nova Uniao)

Women's Bout 5 min / 3R

Megumi Fujii (Japan / AACC) vs. Misaki Takimoto (Japan / Zendo-kai)

Ticket Prices:
SRS 20,000 yen, RS 15,000 yen, panorama seat 10,000 yen, stands 7,000 yen
*All seats are reserved seats. 500 yen more at the door.