New Champs Crowned at Shooto
Posted by Chad Edward on March 28th, 2008Chapter 8 of Back To Our Roots from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo Thursday night saw a couple of Shooto titles change hands.
At 132-pounds, Masakatsu Ueda (8-0-1) snatched the featherweight title vacated by Akitoshi Hokazono (6-0-2) from Koetsu Okazaki (5-1-1), Hokazono’s training partner, by three-round unanimous decision.
The wrestler Ueda kept the fight on the mat to control Okazaki for the “W” and new jewelry for his waist.
At 143-pounds, Hideki Kadowaki (13-7-2) took “Ironman” Akitoshi Tamura’s (11-6-2) Shooto trinket in an uninteresting majority decision.
Top ten featherweight Hatsu Hioki (15-3-1) finished “The Finisher” Baret Yoshida of Hawaii by TKO at 4:51 of round one.
In a 2008 Lightweight Rookie Tournament match-up, Hiroshige Tanaka (1-0) knocked out Kenichiro Marui (0-1) at 3:01 of round one.
123-pound Shooto veteran Mamoru Yamaguchi (2-4-3) took a unanimous decision over Masaaki Sugawara (6-3).
132-pound “Hadairo” Tetsu Suzuki (6-5-3) also won unanimously on the cards versus Hiroyuki Tanaka (6-4-1).
Finally, 143-pound Hiroshi Nakamura (5-3-3) won a majority decision over Tenkei Fijimiya (7-3-2).
