Shooto at Kitazawa Town Hall preview

Shooto returns to Kitazawa Town Hall on Monday October 13 in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan and will feature the semifinals of the Rookie Tournament as well as some other great match-ups.

In the main event, Junji Ikoma is set to collide with Yusei Shimokawa. Ikoma's last few fights have been disappointing for him to say the least, coming off two straight draws against Jin Akimoto. The first occurred back in January at Shooto 'Back To Our Roots 7' and the second was in June at Shooto 'Shooting Disco 5'.

Yusei Shimokawa will also be hoping to turn his luck around after coming up short in his unanimous decision loss to Mamoru Yamaguchi at Shooto 'Shooting Disco 1' in June 2007.

Could ring rust be a factor for Shimokawa?

Also on the card is a Welterweight (154lbs) bout which finds Shinobu Miura challenging Koichi Taguchi. Both fighters are looking to improve on past performances. Miura drew in his last fight against Luiz Andrade at DEEP 37 'Impact'. Taguchi is on a two fight losing streak with the most recent coming against Kenichi Hattori at Shooto 'Gig Central 14' last March.

Ken Numajiri will be making his mixed martial arts debut at this event. His opponent is Masumi Tozawa, who has yet to win a fight himself. Tozawa's last bout did not end well for him after being knocked out with a brutal slam at Shooto 'Shooting Disco 4' in February against Haruo Ochi.

I'm sure Numajiri is hoping to further add to Tozawa's dismal MMA record.

Last but not least the Shooto Lightweight and Welterweight Rookie Tournaments are in the semifinal stage with the winners facing off to determine who is the promotion's top rookie in each participating weight class.

The featherweight bout between Makoto Yamauchi (1-0) and Nobuhiro Hayakawa (1-4-2) has been cancelled due to Yamauchi suffering a rib injury.

Here is the official fight card for Shooto at Kitazawa Town Hall:

Main Card

Junji Ikoma (10-9-3) vs. (5-3) Yusei Shimokawa
Shinobu Miura (1-3-3) vs. (1-2-1) Koichi Taguchi
Shin Kashiwa (0-1-1) vs. (0-1) Taijiro Iseki
Masumi Tozawa (0-1-2) vs. (0-0) Ken Numajiri

Lightweight Rookie Tournament Semifinal

Takumi Ota (4-1-1) vs. (1-0) Issei Tamura

Welterweight Rookie Tournament Semifinal

Kazuya Satomoto (4-1) vs. (1-0) Ikuo Usuda

For more on Shooto click here.