By Thinesh John
DEEP, an MMA promotion that’s based in Japan, has announced several details including a fight card for its upcoming event, titled ’59th Impact’. DEEP: 59th Impact, is set to down on August 18th at the Korakuen Hall situated in Tokyo, Japan.
The promotion’s 135-lbs title will be up for grabs, as Yoshiro Maeda looks to make his first title defense against Tatsumitsu Wada.
Maeda, a veteran of over 40 professional fights, has competed in famed organizations such as the WEC, DREAM and PRIDE. The 30-year-old veteran opened his MMA career with a record of 13-0-1, before suffering the first setback of his career against Charles Bennett at PRIDE Bushido 7. Maeda was last seen at DEEP: 57th Impact, where he won the Bantamweight strap against Takafumi Otsuka.
Tatsumitsu Wada, on the other hand, had to weather the heavy storm in the early days of his professional MMA career, where he was 0-5 before gaining his first win. Now, however, the Japanese fighter has turned the tides, an is currently riding high on a 5-fight winning streak and is 7-1-1(1) in his past 10 bouts. Interestingly, Wada last faced Takafumi Otsuka as well, where he won by Majority Decision.
Elsewhere, Japanese Superstar Masakazu Imanari will be looking to rebound from his defeat against Leandro Issa at ONE FC 4: Destiny of Warriors, when he takes on Masahiro Oishi. The latter recently snapped his 4-fight winless streak at Grachan 6, where he submitted Tomoaki Ueyama via Armbar. Known as the ‘Jackal’, Oishi has faced the likes of Jeff Curran, Hideo Tokoro and Gustavo Falciroli in his MMA career thus far.
Imanari, on the other hand, needs no introductions to non-casual MMA fans worldwide. After a 1-1 stint with the Singapore-based ONE Fighting Championship, the ‘Ashikan Judan’ returns to the promotion where he first made a name for himself. Imanari is 2-3 in his past 5 fights, falling short against the likes of Hideo Tokoro and Antonio Banuelos. A veteran of PRIDE and DREAM, the 36-year-old has held championship straps in DEEP and Cage Rage.
With that said, here’s the entire fight card for DEEP: 59th Impact:
– Yoshiro Maeda vs. Tatsumitsu Wada
– Masakazu Imanari vs. Masahiro Oishi
– DJ Taiki vs. Seiji Akao
– Doo Ho Choi vs. Kousuke Umeda
– Yusaku Nakamura vs. Hirotaka Miyagawa
– Seigo vs. Atsushi
– Yoshikazu Watanabe vs. Yuuta
– Hisataku Masahito vs. Yusuke Kagiyama
– Ken Hasegawa vs. Yamoto
– Yoichi Fukumoto vs. Luiz
– Yusaku Tsukumo vs. Yuki Okano