"I wonder what should I do from now?"
These were the first words out of Hideo Tokoro after losing to his training partner, Shuichiro Katsumura, at the semi-final of ZST GT-F2.
GT-F2 is a professional grappling tournament hosted by ZST, and Tokoro was the winner of the inaugural tournament that took place back in March 2004, so he was in this tournament as a defending champion.
People around him were bit concerned about Tokoro's condition because he was KO'd by Black Mamba's knee shot just 24 days prior but he looked good in the first round against Kentaro Imaizumi from SK Absolute.

Katsumura and Tokoro (right) exchanged slaps after the fight. A strong bound. That's what this is all about.

Tokoro fought very hard for two five-minute rounds and won in an unanimous decision but in the semi-final, about five seconds before the end of first round, Tokoro was choked out cold by Katsumura's triangle.
Back in November 2004, in their first bout, Tokoro choked out Katsumura with a guillotine choke so after the fight, Katsumura went up to Tokokoro and told him, "This was the revenge." Then Tokoro slapped Katsumura's face, and Katsumura slapped him back and two of them promised to duke it out at least one more time before one of them retires.

Katsumura told reporters that he had fun in the ring tonight but for Tokoro, it was not exactly the same,"As a result, I lost so I can't say I had fun out there but I wanted to fight some more. The next time, I want to bang in ZST rules. Before retiring, I want to fight him one more time."
Tokoro is only 28 years old, just got out of the life of living in a bleak studio apartment with no bathtub but he is already mention "retiring."
However, at the same time, he also still has a desire to keep on fighting but understands where he belongs, "The pressure of being a defending champion? Well, I felt I had to produce some result but when you look at the fighters in this tournament, I know it would be stupid for me to act like a champion." And, he does have vague ideas of who he wants to fight next, "I would love to fight Baret in a title fight but since I lost in the second round, I don't know if I deserve that opportunity. Not only Baret but also I would love to fight Jiu-jitsu champ (Ruben) Charles."

Baret Yoshida from Hawaii was the one who conquered the tournament.
After edging out Rubens Charles in a close decision, Baret, in the final, took down a jumping Katsumura and submitted him with a Mata Leon, rear choke.
Back stage, Baret was modest, "I can't believe I won."
Then revealed that the toughest fight of the night was the semi-final against Charles, "He is strong, stamina was there, very aggressive. But I kept on attacking."
And when a reporter asked him if he would be interested in fighting under ZST rules, Baret's reply was, "I've never done that so I would like to try."

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