Kyochi Horigichu Claims Shooto Featherweight Belt, Pancrase 246 Marred By Series of Debatable Decisions

Kyoto Horiguchi showed why he is rated as one of the top prospects at 135 pounds last Friday night (March 15) when he won the Shooto World Featherweight Title with a second round submission win over reigning champion Hiromasa Ogikubo. The 22 year old improves to 10-1 and ONE FC and Bellator veteran Masakatus Ueda remains the only man to ever defeat him.

In the co-main event, Horiguchi's Krazy Bee team mate Yusuke Yachi also won a title, defeating Yuji Hoshino by unanimous decision in a fight for the vacant Shooto Lightweight Pacific Rim Championship. Yachi was 15 years the younger of his veteran opponent and improved to 9-3 with his fifth consecutive win.

Now aged 37 Caol Uno is probably coming to the end of his fighting career but he snapped a two fight losing streak with a first round submission win against Kyu Ha Kwim. The Korean came into this contest with only one win to his name but survived for almost an entire round, eventually succumbing to a rear naked choke.

The win was only Uno's second in his last nine fights and improves his record to 27-16-5. Other notable winners at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo were bantamweight Kenji Yamamoto whose unanimous decision win over Manabu Inoue takes him to 6-1-1 and featherweight Hiroshige Tanaka who knocked out Hideki Kadowaki inside a minute to move up to 10-1.

Pancrase 246 took place at Differ Arake on Sunday night and was notable for the sheer number of contentious decisions. 12 of the 21 fights on the card went the distance and there were three draws, including the main event and co main event, with two fighters winning by split decision and one by majority decision.

The event was headlined by two veterans with 39 year old Takumi Nakayama going toe to toe with 35 year old Koiju Oshi for three rounds. The outcome was a majority decision draw which leaves Nakayama at 17-3-6-1 and unbeaten in six fights and sees Oshi move to 23-9-10 after seeing a two fight win streak snapped.

The most interesting fight of the night, on paper at least, was between lightweights Jorge Patino and Isao Kobayashi. Both had a lot of momentum going into the contest with the American having won his last six and the Japanese fighter his previous seven, but the contest finished with both pairs of hands raised after all three judges ruled it a draw.

Japanese based American Jon Shores was one of the fighters on the wrong end of a majority decision as he suffered a second successive loss at the hands of Yojiro Uchimura. Shores drops to 11-3 while Uchimura improves to 11-5-2.

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