DEEP 44th Impact: Miku Wins 12th Straight, Saeki Announces First Caged Event

DEEP women's lightweight ace Miku Matsumoto extended her current win streak to a remarkable twelve straight in Tokyo today, battering veteran "Windy" Tomomi Sunaba from bell-to-bell despite competing at a catchweight of 115 pounds, nine above Miku's title weight.

Sherdog's Tony Loiseleur was on the scene:

With relentless forward momentum and cutthroat grappling and striking on the mat, Matsumoto plowed through Sunaba’s low kicks and punches, smashing up the Pancrasist in the corners. There, she dirty boxed with abandon, throwing punches over the top in the clinch. Whether whipping Sunaba to the mat with the "harai-goshi" or dropping her with her own stiff punches, Matsumoto invariably got the fight down on the mat. Once on the ground, she took Sunaba’s back and threatened with chokes and armbar attempts from behind.

Deep women’s rules do not allow for ground-and-pound, but Matsumoto had no trouble throwing strikes on the mat, as she slammed vicious lunging knees to the body of the less-ground-savvy Sunaba. Windy did her best to hang on and reverse into Matsumoto’s guard whenever the 106-pound champion got daring enough to dive for submissions, but it was clear Sunaba was merely trying to survive as Matsumoto swarmed all over her.

In the main event, DEEP's first "megaton" (heavyweight) champ, Yusuke Kawaguchi, returned from a 1-1 run in the M-1 Challenge and disposed of challenger Seigo Mizuguchi for a second time. Kawaguchi's M-1 teammates Hidehiko Hasegawa and Yuya Shirai also picked up wins, as did 155-pound prospect and former Outsider Tomoya Kato. Full results from the show are in the extended entry.

During intermission, DEEP boss Shigeru Saeki announced plans for "DEEP CAGE IMPACT 2009." When rumors began to surface earlier this year regarding DREAM's impending cage card, amongst them was word that the structure might first be tested out at a show from DEEP, which serves as a feeder promotion. Ironically, DEEP will now follow DREAM into the experiment, with the indy promotion utilizing a cage for the first time in its existence when it returns to Differ Ariake on December 19th.

No matches were announced, but participants will include DEEP bantamweight champ Masakazu Imanari (who'll likely face PXC 140-pound belt-holder Justin Cruz), the resurgent Bernard Ackah, Toshikazu "Ise" Iseno, Koichiro Matsumoto, Nobuhiro Obiya, and the returning Eiji Ishikawa. DREAM.11 participant and Spike 22 leader Melchor Manibusan was also on hand; he reiterated his desire to send Guam's top fighters over to compete in DEEP for the December show. Manibusan was there to corner pupil Hosea Ware, who was armbarred by Ryuta Sakurai on the evening's undercard.

DEEP 44th Impact - Results
October 10, 2009
Differ Ariake
Tokyo, Japan

Main Event - DEEP Megaton (Openweight) Title Fight
Yusuke Kawaguchi (10-1) def. Seigo Mizuguchi (6-5) via TKO (leg kicks) at 1:27 of round 3

Semi-Main Event
112 lbs: Miku Matsumoto (22-4) def. "Windy" Tomomi Sunaba (12-11-1) via unanimous decision (3-0)

Undercard
170 lbs: Hidehiko Hasegawa (18-12-6) def. Ryuki Ueyama (10-12-4) via unanimous decision (3-0)
185 lbs: Ryuta Sakurai (19-16-4) def. Hosea Ware (4-2) via submission (armbar) at 3:46 of round 1
192 lbs: Hiromitsu Kanehara (19-22-1) def. "Max" Tozawa (0-1) via TKO (punches) at 0:25 of round 1
170 lbs: Yuya Shirai (16-9) def. Shigetoshi Iwase (8-12-3) via unanimous decision (3-0)
145 lbs: Toshiaki Kitada (10-4-2) def. Kleber Koike (2-3) via submission (armbar) at 0:56 of round 2
136 lbs: Takashige "Crazy Hill" Hirukawa (1-1) def. Hiryu Okamoto (3-3-1) via majority decision (2-0)
145 lbs: Tatsunao Nagakura (1-0) def. Fuhito Hasegawa (3-2-1) via TKO (shoulder injury) at 1:19 of round 1

Future Fights
154 lbs: Tomoya Kato (5-1) def. Ryota Minawa (1-1) via majority decision (2-0)
139 lbs: Tatsuhito Satsuma (2-2) def. Hiroyuki Kobayashi (1-2) via unanimous decision (3-0)