[derUbermensch]

From Complete Vale Tudo Access:

t will be a clash of grappling styles at DEEP's 25th Impact.

DEEP's executive office have announced that DEEP Featherweight Champion Masakazu Imanari's opponent for August 4th's 25th Impact card will be five time world Brazilian jiu-jitsu champion Fredson Paixao. Imanari has spent his past three DEEP appearances in grappling bouts, two of them tag-team grappling bouts, and will be back into the ring to fight mixed martial arts for the first time since his championship win over Yoshiro Maeda last December.

Paixao has also faced Maeda, and fought a grueling fifteen minutes with the Pancrase poster boy in only his second professional fight. Paixao showed a true grit and tenacity in his battle with Maeda, in which he was pelted with blow after blow, but was still pushing the action and looking take control of Maeda on the mat when the final bell went. Paixao will test his world class jiu-jitsu against arguably the world's premiere leglocker in Imanari, and hope for better success in his second trip to Japan.

Also, it was announced that the Brazil vs. Japan three-on-three series that Paixao vs. Imanari is a part of, will now only be a two-on-two series, as up-and-coming GRABAKA prospect Kazunori Yokota has been diagnosed with acute gastroenteritis.

DEEP Executive Office Presents DEEP: 25th Impact
August 4th, 2006
Korakuen Hall
Tokyo, Japan
Doors Open: 17:30
Fights Start: 18:30

Tentative Fight Card (Card Subject To Change):

2R 5M
Andre Nishino (INFIGHT) vs. Shigeyuki Uchiyama (Team GRABAKA)

2R 5M
LUIZ (Zendokai Yokohama) vs. Yuki Ito (A-Square)

2R 5M
Chikara Sato (SK Absolute) vs. Hiroshi Kobayashi (U-FILE Camp Noborito)

2R 5M
Tomohiko Hori (Freelance) vs. Kazutaka Omigawa (Mach Dojo)

2R 5M
Tomoyoshi Iwamiya (Takada Dojo) vs. Kim Dong Hyun (CMA KPW)

2R 5M
Anthony Netzler (TEAM Boon!) vs. Muscle Hiranuma (Club EDO)

3R 5M
Isamu Sugiuchi (Team ROKEN) vs. Takeshi Yamazaki (Team GRABAKA)

3R 5M
Hidehiko Hasegawa (SK Absolute) vs. Ryan Bow (Kaminari Dojo)

3R 5M
Daisuke Ishii (Freelance) vs. Roan Carneiro (Brazilian Top Team)

3R 5M
Masakazu Imanari (Team ROKEN) vs. Fredson Paixao (Gracie Barra Combat Team)

3R 5M
Kousei Kubota (Freelance) vs. Jutaro Nakao (Freelance)

For The Vacant DEEP Women's Lightweight Championship
48 KG, 2R 5M
Hisae Watanabe (Freelance) vs. Satoko Shinashi (Freelance)

3R 5M
Xavier Foupa-Pokam (TEAM Boon!) vs. Ryuta Sakurai (R-BLOOD)

Paixao/Imanari should be entertaining and a change of pace for Imanari. This time he's gotta deal with a strong BJJer who probably won't be ticked off by his antics.

More importantly, Shinashi/Watanabe II is finally going down. In their first fight, Hisae was able to take advantage of Smackgirl's 30-sec ground rule to escape the few times Shinashi got her down and went for the sub. Few because outside of that, Hisae was racking up points like a pinball machine smashing Shinashi in the face with punches. Shinashi, however, proved to be unKOable despite the force of blows she was taking along with a champion's heart, gritting out the first round. In the 2nd, she came flying acros the ring at warp speed to entangle Hisae, use her world-class sambo to get her down, then sub her with an armbar all in the opening minute.

Hisae had been training her ground with Yuka Tsuji for a bit, and she showed lots of improvement against 15 in January. Now I hear she's rolling with GUTSMAN, Mach's old gym during his prime days, in preparation. Since leaving AACC, I've no clue where Shinashi trains, but I still give her the edge on the ground if not an outright advantage since she's defeated every peak grappler @ -48kg. Hisae, however, will probably be well-trained for a sprawl n brawl strategy, and a KO finish here would go down in MMA history. Seriously, this is a big match folks.

[derUbermensch]

No Imanari love, even?

[edgerrin32]

i have more love for shinashi.

[Izanagi]

Kinda sad that so few people are going to realize the importance of Shinashi/Watanabe II. Come on people, I know it's DEEP but show some support.

[Hohenheim]

I´m looking forward to the rematch between Shinashi vs Watanabe, hopefully Satoko get the Deep belt at the end and continue being undefeated. I hope one day we can get a superfight match between Shinashi vs. Yuka Tsuji or even Megumi Fujii, or a Tsuji vs. Megumi fight, just to prove who is the best female mma fighter in the world. About Imanari vs. Paixao all I will say is that it should be interesting, but hopefully Imanari can retain his belt

[edgerrin32]

Originally Posted by Hohenheim

I´m looking forward to the rematch between Shinashi vs Watanabe, hopefully Satoko get the Deep belt at the end and continue being undefeated. I hope one day we can get a superfight match between Shinashi vs. Yuka Tsuji or even Megumi Fujii, or a Tsuji vs. Megumi fight, just to prove who is the best female mma fighter in the world. About Imanari vs. Paixao all I will say is that it should be interesting, but hopefully Imanari can retain his belt

Fuji = to big and to good.

shinashi should stay within her weightclass and fight tsuji like u said.

[DridenGX]

Few matches I want to see. August is a stacked month.

[paisano88]

does anyone know the wlaking around weight of hisae, because shinashi is tiny, if Hisae has been working on her sprawl and can avoid the sub it's all hers.

[MrCoffea]

does Deep have a television deal at all?

What are my chances of seeing this event?

There are some fights I really want to see

[derUbermensch]

Originally Posted by paisano88

does anyone know the wlaking around weight of hisae, because shinashi is tiny, if Hisae has been working on her sprawl and can avoid the sub it's all hers.

That's a big IF. Recall that Shinashi has aced, and I mean aced save for one round of one fight, every top grappler @ her weight class.