Middleweights Advance in Deep Tourney

Deep 34 had no particular main event. Instead the first round of the middleweight tournament closed out the show, with a lottery earlier in the evening determining each matchup.

In the final middleweight tournament bout, Yuya Shirai (Pictures) fought tooth and nail against Sojiro Orui (Pictures) to win the decision. Neither man showed any significant pop in his strikes, and it appeared as if the standup exchanges were largely cancelled out despite both fighters landing hard body kicks and off-balancing hooks. When Shirai found himself in any kind of danger in the exchanges, his instincts led him to pressing his opponent up against the ropes in the clinch. Orui showed decent defensive skills in fending off takedowns and reversing position whenever on the bottom, but it was perhaps Shirai's constant forward pressure that impressed the judges to award him the bout on all three scorecards.

Longtime Japanese MMA vet Daijiro Matsui (Pictures) got back on the winning track against a game "Ryo" Young Choi, claiming a hotly contested spilt decision after three back-and-forth rounds. Surprisingly -- perhaps even comically -- Matsui attempted to armbar Choi's right arm from the bottom position four times in the first round. Each successive attempt led to Matsui eating huge shots as well as absorbing a slam.

After feigning injury from an imaginary low blow in the opening of the second round, Matsui looked to be in for a world of hurt. Choi took top position again and pounded him out until Matsui scrambled back up. With barely a minute left in the round, Matsui connected with two Hail Mary right hooks that momentarily turned the tables in his favor, allowing him to pound on the Korean for the rest of the round.

The third period saw Choi return to form when he took dominant position once again to score more damage with big punches and hammer fists, also managing three soccer kicks in the process. Miraculously, Matsui survived the onslaught and even managed to reverse one of Choi's back mounts to sit in his opponent's guard and look for some ground and pound of his own before dropping back for an ankle lock. The round still appeared to go to Choi, but the judges surprisingly announced Matsui the winner.

In the third tournament bout, Yuichi Nakanishi (Pictures) took a hard-fought win over Eiji Ishikawa (Pictures). Ishikawa's game plan primarily consisted of attempting to stifle his opponent in the clinch. Nakanishi defended as best as possible, returning with dirty boxing and knees while being stuffed against the ropes. Whenever Ishikawa would drop for a leg, Nakanishi was quick to reach down and foil the takedown attempts by setting up for a kimura on Ishikawa's exposed arm. This forced Ishikawa to think twice before executing single legs, as Nakanishi nearly finished him in the first period with the sub.

With Ishikawa looking only to smother his opponent now that takedowns were largely nullified, Nakanishi pulled ahead. He contributed the bout's most significant attacks, repeatedly kneeing and peppering his oncoming opponent to the body with short punches -- a tactic that impressed two of the evening's judges to rule the bout in his favor for the split-decision victory.

In a compelling opener to the middleweight tournament, Riki Fukuda (Pictures) bested Deep fan favorite Ryuta Sakurai (Pictures) on all three judges' scorecards in a three-round war. Despite Sakurai landing a number of hard, well-placed punches of his own in the bout's standup portions, Fukuda easily outclassed him on the feet, scoring with countless knees to the body in the Thai plumb.

The damage accumulated, dropping Sakurai to all fours midway through the second frame and opening up the opportunity for Fukuda to take his back in the side mount, where he unleashed with wide hooks to the head. Sakurai was not out of the game, however. Slowly he made his way to the feet and set up a surprise kimura that almost had the referee jumping in to call the bout, only to have Fukuda escape right into a close armbar.

Sakurai was not able to repeat in the third stanza, though. Fukuda returned to planting hard knees to the body in the Thai clinch, followed by vicious punches from just about every dominant top position possible. An illegal Fukuda knee to the head during one of these ground exchanges earned him a yellow card toward the end of the round, but with such a dominant performance overall, the penalty appeared to do little harm.

In a tournament constructed primarily as a platform for Satoko Shinashi (Pictures), the Deep starlet defeated semifinalist Sachi by armbar late in the first round to win Deep's one-day women's flyweight tournament. After both fighters measured each other for several long moments, Shinashi shot in for a takedown only to be stuffed by a sprawling Sachi. Sachi appeared not to know what to do next, then surprised Shinashi when she spun around to take her back and threaten with a rear-naked choke.

Shinashi was out of danger quickly enough, as she fished out a Sachi hook to reverse. Sachi jumped back to her feet quickly thereafter and was soon engaged with Shinashi in the clinch, where she curiously opted to pull guard for no apparent reason. In retrospect, the move cost her.

Shinashi immediately passed to side and attempted a close armbar before giving it up to take mount and pound to the body from top. After a few shots from above, Shinashi switched to side mount again and went for another armbar, prompting referee intervention at the 2:58 mark in the first.

Carlos Toyota (Pictures) didn't last long against Deep regular Yasuhito Namekawa (Pictures). After two successful takedowns, Namekawa surprised Toyota by dropping back for an Achilles lock. Toyota quickly postured up and tried to punch his opponent off with hard hammer fists to the face, but Namekawa wouldn't be denied, adjusting his hold under fire until he forced Toyota to tap at 2:58.

Seigo Inoue drew with Deep mainstay Yoshihiro Tomioka (Pictures) in an entertaining two-round scrap. While Inoue was able to pepper his foe with a barrage of multi-level kicks and stiff punches, they didn't appear to bother Tomioka much, whose own attacks apparently shocked Inoue with their force and bullied him about the ring. A particularly vicious left hook-right straight dropped Inoue to his rear-end in the first round. However, Inoue apparently scored enough hits to suggest he was at least equal to his opponent, and two judges ruled the bout a draw with one dissenting judge ruling the fight for Tomioka.

Akitoshi Kitada and Isao Terada (Pictures) fought a competitive bout that also ended in a draw after two rounds. While Terada looked to bang Kitada out on the feet, Kitada appeared to be waiting for an opportunity to shoot for the takedown. Terada stopped most of his opponent's takedowns, though, and Kitada ended up pulling guard often. Neither man's offense appeared to take any toll on the other, and all three judges ruled the bout a unanimous draw.

T-Blood's Shigetoshi Iwase (Pictures) also drew with opponent Ken Hamamura (Pictures) after two rounds that saw neither man gain significant advantage over the other. After escaping an early arm triangle attempt, Hamamura took the fight to Iwase on the feet, taunting his opponent as he pawed away with stiff jabs and low kicks to the lead leg. Iwase looked for an opportunity to take his opponent down, but Hamamura defended well and peppered Iwase with short, stiff punches. After two rounds of this, the bout was ruled a split draw, as two judges chose different winners and one judge ruled the bout a draw.

Though Yoshiyuki Nakanishi (Pictures) and Shunsuke Inoue (Pictures)'s heavyweight bout was not exactly the most sterling example of martial skill, it was at least an entertaining scrap that had fans on the edge of their seats for all two rounds. Nakanishi and Inoue mainly took the bout to each other on the feet, where both bloodied each other's noses with heavy punches. Inoue landed vicious inside leg kicks, but Nakanishi dropped him to a knee several times with heavy hooks. Since neither man had very solid ground skills, Inoue was able to sweep Nakanishi several times to drop punches of his own. All three judges scored the bout in Nakanishi's favor.

Before making it to the women's finals, Satoko Shinashi (Pictures) had to get through Fukuko Hamada. Though Shinashi initially had trouble taking her opponent to the ground, once she finally got the fight there, she ran the full gamut of positions on Hamada. All the while she dropped hard knees, hammer fists and short punches to the body. After two rounds, all three judges ruled the bout for Shinashi.

Before facing Shinashi in the finals, Sachi endured a round of Kayo Nagayasu (Pictures)'s persistent pressure before pulling out the win midway through the second period. Having taken the upper hand in the standup in the first round, Nagayasu was forced to take her opponent down when Sachi took the fight back early in the second. Nagayasu's takedown eventually gave way to a Sachi armbar from the bottom, however, that forced her to tap at the 2:01 mark.

In the evening's sole "Future Fight" preliminary bout, Ryoji Suzuki controlled Kenta Okuyama until a rear-naked choke put Okuyama away at 2:08 into the second round.