Shooto Gig Tokyo 2
Shooto rookies were on display at Shinjuku Face on the 19th of April. Although it was a pretty weak card, there were a couple of people to watch for.
Shooto 2008 145lb Rookie Champion and Rookie MVP Issei Tamura ground out a fairly pedestrian decision against Hayate Usui. Not the most exciting fight ever but Tamura is a solid prospect getting a win over a solid journeyman like Usui isn’t a bad start to his career by any means.
Tamura threatens with an early armbar. Notice how the lights are all different colors and directly in my eyes? Wow I hate shooting at Face.
Tamura lands with the counter uppercut.
Usui pretty much gave as good as he got on the feet but you can see Tamura stepping in here. His aggressiveness was enough for the W.
The other guy that I was really interested in is Yuta Nezu. He will never be a world beater but he is super exciting, nearly always getting fight of the night honours. Is kind of vulnerable against wrestlers and submission guys but until now he has mostly managed to beat them up enough so it isn’t a problem for him. Definitely watch any fight you find of his.
Yuta Nezu doing what he does best. Punchin people.
This would be a great photo from the other side. Punches landing on both of the guys and spit flying out all over the place. Ahh well...
The normally insane Toshimichi Akagi lands a nice body kick.
More rookie goodness at Sherdog.
DEEP 41
Shigeru Saeki’s totally rockin DEEP returned to Korakuen Hall for their 41st instalment on the 16th of April.
Korakuen hall is probably the best place I regularly shoot in Japan. Nice bright, even lights, brilliant access around the ring and cool entrance lighting is a good combination.
The event was headlined by Katsunori Kikuno vs. Koichiro Matsumoto for DEEP’s lightweight strap. Both these guys have looked so good recently, totally outclassing most of their opponents that a lot of people were sure that the next great Japanese lightweight was going to come out of this match. Kikuno’s karate stylings completely dumbfounded Matsumoto and he just destroyed him totally. While people like Gryphon who call him the Japanese George St. Pierre are exaggerating, I can’t say that I am not excited about Kikuno’s career. His trademark frontkick is one of the best weapons I’ve seen in the ring lately and something I’ve been trying to do in my standup training too.
What Kikuno's front kick looks like when it lands (vs.Bu Kyung Jung). A KO generally follows.
Although I wasn't able to catch it as well- the same kick against Matsumoto.
The result. The kick drops the hands and then punches finished the job.
One of the best female fighters in the world, Miku Matsumoto had a non-title bout against Nicdali Calanic. Miku is running out of opponents, she is way too good. Although Calanic was a rookie, she had a bit of hype around her. Although they are friends, I’d love to see Megumi Fuji (my coach!) and Miku meet in a catchweight bout.
Miku Matsumoto entering the ring carrying her Deep Womens Lightwelt belt.
Miku's time in Shootboxing paid off. Devastating knees and front kick.
Calanic unable to breathe after 21 seconds with Miku.
Lots of good fights on this card, all of them ending inside the distance except one. Check out the event on YouTube or your local tracker if you ever see it around.
Guam prospect Joe Taimanglo ran head first into a choke against Toshiaki Kitada.
Shun Yagi's tattoo is most likely a Buddhist symbol but it still makes you look twice.
Won Sik Park slipping a punch against Naoki Matsushita.
Yuji Sakuragi en route to a KO over Minoru Kato.
Get even DEEPer with more photos at Sherdog.
Still working on getting flickr and SmugMug going again.
Shooting Disco 8
Shooting Disco 9 - We Are Tarzan! graced the photographically aweful but atmospherically awesome Shinjuku Face on the 10th of April.
I love watching fights here but absolutely loath shooting here. It’s one of the worst venues in Japan that I have shot at. I need to push the ISO, lower my shutter speed too much, lose lots of shots to the lights as they are way too low and close to the ring and its very inconstant lighting wise across the ring.
Case in point: This might be a decent photo if it wasn't for the lighting robbing it of its sharpness and contrast.
I’ve got shooting at this venue down but it’s very demanding. Its about one stop darker when they are on the mat rather than on the feet and about one stop darker again in the corners. The only way to get good photos is to adjust your shutter speed on the fly depending on where the fighters are or to just try and shoot the average and correct the best you can in post. I generally do a mixture of both, but still the photos are never brilliant here.
Not really any brilliant fights on this card but there were a couple noteworthy fights.
Ryuichi Miki has really transformed his striking lately. Very patient and accurate with his hands and fairly powerful for his weight. Hard not to be fan of Junji Ikoma after seeing his determination in the face of that punishment.
Ropes :(
Junji Ikoma collapsed as the final bell rung.
2008 Shooto Rookie Champ and the esteemed Kiguchi Dojo prospect Ikuo Usuda is one of the brightest rising stars in Japan. Although Guy Delameau was a great test, he was too much for him. Guy has suffered from a couple flash knockdowns in his last few fights and although he has previously recovered Usuda was all over him and ground out the win and never let him recover.
Ikuo Usuda - watch him.
Guy Delameau sporting a nice cut as a result of an illegal but unpunsihed knee.
Lots more photos spoiled by horrible lighting at Sherdog.
Dream 8 Post-Fight Presser
Post fight pressers are horrible. Going to one of these things after only a few hours sleep (for everyone) is just an unpleasant experience. No one is in the mood to talk, the fighters are either banged up or hungover and the press are exhausted. It does make for some great photos though.
DJ Taiki - I don't actually know what character this maestro thing is supposed to be. I really wish his eye would heal properly. He deservers to be in the tournament now.
Marius Zaromskis getting straight back into training (kinda) the day after one of the fights of the year.
The Dream 8 presser was held in a gym above a fighting gear store in Nagoya. It was a pretty horrible venue but the lighting wasn’t too bad and I got a couple few experiences out of it.
Looks like three stitches for Riki Fukuda.
One was chatting with the Shooto legend and very outspoken Noboru Asahi. He currently trains Yoshiyuki Yoshida and help Mach for his fight against Aoki. He talked some pretty funny trash at Yuki Nakai post fight that he probably wouldn’t want me to relay but take my word for it, this guy is one in a million. One of the best characters I’ve met over here.
The hilariously outspoken Noboru Asahi training Yoshiyuki Yoshida.
The second was watching Mach’s fight with Mach and his trainers. They hadn’t seen the fight yet as far as I was aware and they had a replay going on in the store downstairs from the presser. He was still ecstatic with his win and I think even he was pretty shocked at how brutal those knees were. The final was Shibata talking about a huge night he had and hangover only to reveal it was two beers in his hotel room.
Happy bunch of winners (not my choice for the crop...).
Lots more smiles at Sherdog.
Dream 8
For the first time in about 8 or so years a foreign photographer was granted ringside access by FEG! We’ve been working pretty closly with FEG over the past couple years and have developed a pretty good level of trust I think.
The production of Dream shows has always been amazing but the atmosphere at ringside is just incredible.
It was most likely due to the fact that we were in the Nippon Gaishi Hall down in Nagoya rather than Tokyo but it is awesome too see our efforts to get that trust pay off. I definitely appreciated the opportunity and hopefully we can get there again in the future.
Obviously, all eyes were on the main event with the two biggest stars of the welterweight tournament, Aoki and Sakurai - meeting in the first round.
It's actually hard to get the awesome screens in the background during the entrances as the catwalk is restricted to Dream photogs only.
Hopefully, those eyes didn’t blink. It was brutal, shocking and fast. I had a horrible angle but it was amazing. The awe and silence throughout the arena was just crazy. Kawajiri and Ishida were directly behind me and as I was diving over another photographer to try and get a better angle I caught a glimpse of them with their mouthes wide open and just staring at each other. Pretty funny stuff.
About the only 'action' that I managed to catch in this fight. The referee's ass was directly in my face and I was pinned by a camera man.
The aftermath.
Aoki recovering. I was really suprised how easily Mach swept him. Completely effortless.
Mach with some fan service. He was totally hillarious post fight. Really caught up in the moment and couldn't stop celebrating during everyone else's speeches.
Fight of the night was definitely Marius Zaromskis vs. Seichi Ikemoto. Not just fight of the night but one of the best fight’s I’ve ever shot. The photographers next to me were すごいぃ!ing the whole fight and the crowd was just mental. I’ve been shooting Ikemoto for years and he has really developed an exciting style. High kicks, stomps (although banned in Dream) and double fist punch KO’s are just amazing.
Marius Zaromskis gets major nerd points for the Akuma get up. His first kick was a jump spinning kick like in Street Fighter too. Brilliant.
Ikemoto started to fade in the second allowing Zaromskis to land some great punches.
Watch the nose...
... and there it goes!
Photographically, it wasn’t as good as I would have hoped. It would have been because of the venue but it was actually pretty dark ringside. Wasn’t able to get the ISO below 1250. Compare this to ISO 640 with the same settings in Saitama Super Arena. I didn’t get to edit these at all myself either. I would have liked to clean them up a bit more but I wasn’t able to.
Katsuhiko Nagata got dominated by Vitor Riberio and opened up with a nice knee.
Great to see Shaolin back. Still very popular. When shooting post fight, I try to position the spot lights behind the fighters. It gives them a cool halo effect and stops the light from washing out the image.
Kicks are really easy to time and look like a lava lamp when they hit. This was a great fight too, overshadowed by all the other stuff that went on though I guess.
I really love these kind of shots where I get under the ground and pount and try and frame it an any old angle the best I can. This one of Riki Fukuda isn't my best but it gives you a feeling of what it's like to be in there which is hard to get.
See the rest of the images at Sherdog.
Dream 8 Weigh-ins
Catching up on a couple weeks, had a lot of shows on recently and a corrupt BIOS and broken AC adapter has kept me from keeping things up to date. Until I get these problems fully sorted out, I’m going to be pretty slow getting stuff up to Flickr and SmugMug as all the batch processes were on my other computer.
FEG’s Dream 8 was held down in my Japanese hometown of Nagoya and for the first time in ages (maybe ever? I can’t remember) Dream held public “weigh-ins” .
I use the term weigh-ins loosely as the fighters actually weighed in at the hotel an hour before and they weren’t actually using the scales at all. If you look carefully you can see the official holding the scales with his finger.
Public weigh-ins are always fun and I wish they would hold them more often. From the perspective of a journalist and a photographer they are a lot more challenging but the mood is much better. Highlights for me included Shinya Aoki and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai’s face off where they did their best faux badass rapper impersonations (which didn’t make the cut on Sherdog for some reason) and of course Minowa and Shibata. Lowlight was definitely the weather.
DJ Taiki had a really hard cut and was clearly sick as a result. I had heard he was about 3kg over initially and had a difficult time cutting the rest. Hard to blame him though when he was giving so little time to recoverer after his brutal match with Shoji. Sherdog didn’t run any photos this either unfortunately. Ahh, the joys of editing.
The conditions for photography were pretty ordinary. The overcast sky was really bright and flat where as the actual weigh-in area and presser were held was comparatively dark. The only way I could get any detail in the sky and not get it to blow out would be to bring up the brightness of the stage with a couple flashes. As it was a public presser this wasn’t really possible as there was no barrier between the press and public.
See more of this gallery at: Sherdog
Yoshihiro Sato - iPhone Background
K-1 Japan MAX 2006, 2007 winner and World MAX 2008 third place getter, Yoshihiro Sato shadow boxing during a public workout at the FEG Akasaka Fight Festival in 2008.
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