Jordan Breen does a good job of really getting me excited about the upcoming Shooto Tradition 1 card.
Now, as we head toward the 20th anniversary of Sayama's blessed invention, leading Shooto promoter Sustain serves us Shooto Tradition 1 this Saturday from the new and spiffy digs of JCB Hall in Tokyo. The show will be the first MMA event to grace the ring at the freshly opened JCB Hall and figures to kick things off right for the new venue, which was designed to become a sibling to Japan's Mecca of combat sports, Korakuen Hall.
Here we take a look at the first five of nine bouts on the bill, with MMA's most diminutive ladyboy, unlikely underdogs, anonymous Mexicans and, of course, top-notch lightweights -- all par for the course.
Shooto is one of those promotions where I tend to forget that they have a big show upcoming and then end up not tracking down the fights until a month or two after it ends. I'm a little ashamed to admit that, but we live in a bizarre world now where you can catch MMA anywhere from 3-6 days a week on television. So a lot of times the overseas shows that aren't the potential new "big boys on the block" (i.e. DREAM or WVR) can get a little overlooked.
Props to Mr. Breen for giving me a slap across the face to remind me of this show. I'll try my best to track down videos and post them after the show completes this weekend.