For the rest of the card, Hiromasa Ogikubo-- the former Shooto 132-lb champion (also the former pacific rim champion), 2007 Rookie champion and the Vale Tudo Japan 125-lb grand prix champion [and VTJ champion? It's been reported that he's both the grand prix winner and the actual VTJ champion, but I'm not sure what's what]-- won his first fight in 14-months against the former title contender and 2009 rookie champion, Yosuke Saruta, by decision. It was apparently a competitive fight, but Ogikubo's wrasslin', which has always been very good, but seems to have gotten supercharged since dropping to 125, lead him to the decision.
The 2013 Shooto 132-lb rookie king, Daichi Takenaka, got the biggest victory of his now-9-fight career (and a gigantic victory in its own right) against the 41-fight veteran Shoko Sato, who was 6-1 in his last 7 fights and coming off a big upset victory over Tatsuya Ando going into the fight. Takenaka was already a very promising prospect, but he's a very legit prospect now and a contender for the Shooto 132-lb championship.
Tyson Osawa-- former Shooto Pacific Rim 154-lb champion and UFC: Road to Japan contestant-- got injured shortly before the event and his fight with Takumi Ota was canceled. Sadface.
Hiroki Aoki-- interestingly, both the winner of an 8-man, one-night Pancrase Neo-Blood tournament and runner-up in that tournament's later-date final-- submitted his second opponent in a row in the first round. He's also a pretty big 155-er for Japan.
Tatsuya Ando bounced back from a two-fight losing streak (including his exhibition loss in the Road to Japan tournament) and got a first-round knockout.
Taiki Tsuchiya-- former Shooto Pacific Rim champion who was on an impressive six-fight winning streak in 2011 (featuring victories over Shintaro Ishiwatari, Hideki Kadowaki, Issei Tamura, and Gustavo Falciroli)-- broke his Shooto losing streak by decision (however, he won a fight in DEEP against a debuting Korean a couple months ago.)
Tomoya Hirakawa, who trains under Takanori Gomi at RSCL, got a very good victory over Joji Mikami, and he may be a prospect to watch out for.
In 115-lb action, divisional darkhorse- and Hearts fighter Tateo Iino bounced back from his upset loss against Sho Nishida by wrestlefucking his opponent to a decision (one judge gave him a 10-8 round, even.) I like Iino; he's scrappy and he's improving.
In the opening fight on the card, Kazumasa Sugawara lost a decision against the Shooto 2009 183-lb rookie, Takehiro Suzuki. The fight apparently could've been a draw, but Sugawara had a point deducted for grabbing the ropes.
Also, Sarumaru's now officially the Shooto post-2008 Urijah Faber. Keeps getting title shots, but can't win 'em. He's got the potential to, though, unlike Faber, whose one-note striking keeps failing him.
For the Pancrase card in Hawaii that we all forgot about, Eric Prindle beat Mitsuyoshi Nakai [again] by finishing him [again...] in the first-round [quicker!] by submission [different!]. I still think he'd be the perfect opponent for Fedor at Rizin; he's physically imposing (so the Japanese could appreciate the spectacle), he's got some name-recognition, he's on a winning streak, and he's just in that sweet spot of being beatable- but still tough and skilled enough to not look passed.
In the main-event of the show, Yoshiaki Takahashi broke a 5-fight losing streak by submitting the now-3-2 Hawaii Elite [the gym that houses Russel Doane, Louis Smolka and Lowen Tynanes] member Ryan De La Cruz in the second round.
Taichi Nakajima also broke a losing streak (two fights) by decisioning Dan Ige.
Edward Thommes became 4-0 by submitting Kosuke Terashima, who lost against Masakatsu Ueda on short-notice at the beginning of the month.
Arnold Berdon-- who got KO'd by former ranker Tyson Nam a few months ago-- bounced back with a KO of his own over Kazuhisa Tanaka.
Makana Fronda got a pretty good victory in his sophomore professional appearance by decisioning the now-43-fight (19-16-8) Japanese veteran "Chris Man."
All in all, Hawaii went 3-2 against Japan in the five "Hawaii vs. Japan" matches.
In the opening bout, Nicole Upshaw KO'd Brianna Fissori in her first professional bout.
In some cool Pancrase news, Hiromitsu Miura's fighting again on the year-end Pancrase card, as is Will Chope, who's won four fights (finishes) since losing against ISAO in August- and since moving up to 155. Miura's fighting a 36-fight veteran and Chope's fighting Kenichiro Togashi, who's on a three-fight winning streak. On that same card, Sho Nishida's making his Pancrase debut against a Pancrase 115-er in Shingo Yakul, who's on a three-fight winning streak. Masatatsu Ueda-- a Pancrase Neo-Blood winner who had a competitive fight with the now-20-2 Rildeci Lima Dias at the last Pancrase card-- is also fighting on the card.
Jun Nakamura-- the forgotten 115-lb submission wizard-- is returning after three years on the Pancrase 273 show. He's fighting the 2010 Pancrase 125-lb Neo-Blood runner-up Yoshihiro Matsunaga. Nakamura was the 2011 Shooto 115-lb rookie champion and went 6-0 with 5 submissions before disappearing from the sport after 2012, so it's cool that he's back. Pancrase 273's really looking good.
Edit:
Motonobu Tezuka also got a 40-second knockout in his Grachan title defense against Yoji Saito, and Fumiya Sasaki drew with Kensaku Nakamura in a rematch of their fight from earlier this year. Sasaki-- who was 7-10 going into the first fight-- knocked out Kensaku in a big upset (Kensaku was the Grachan champion before Tezuka usurped him, and a Pancrase one-night-Neo-Blood-tournament winner, and, going into the fight, he was 12-2 since 2010), then he lost two against former #1-ranked 145-er Lion Takeshi and Yoji Saito. So it's easy to see how there could be some fluke-ish feelings about that fight. But Sasaki proved his worth (at least somewhat) by drawing with Kensaku in the rematch.
Yoji Saito beat both Sasaki and Kensaku en route to his title shot, so it was a good victory for Tezuka. This was also Tezuka's second sub-60-second knockout in a row.
