FINALLY FOOTAGE OF IMADA / SOUWER FROM THIS YEAR'S S-CUP!

This was supposed to be an easy win for the 2005 K-1 MAX Champion. Originally Souwer’s opponent would have been MMA’s version of Ol’ Dirty Bastard (R.I.P.), Charles “Krazy Horse” Bennett making his Shootboxing debut. Unfortunately Krazy Horse couldn’t make it, so they called upon World MMA Awards 2009 Submission of the Year winner, Toby Imada. With all due respect to Imada, he isn’t known as a threatening striker in MMA, let alone elite Kickboxing. He has some world class BJJ as you should know and he is also a Judo black belt. If this was K-1, I couldn’t see the fight ending up the way it ended. Luckily for Imada, Shoot Boxing doesn’t use traditional Kickboxing rules as seen in K-1 or It’s Showtime.

For those that don’t know Shoot Boxing is “Standing Vale Tudo”. What that means for fighters is, not only is it necessary to have an elite striking background, it’s also important to have some standing grappling skills! Things like sleeper chokes, the rare arm bar, Muay Thai clinches, Sanshou throws, and Judo sweeps are encouraged. Also add the fact you are allowed to use elbows! I loooooovvveeee Shoot Boxing! Basically it takes the best of all the stand up arts (grappling and striking) and we get some of the most exciting fights ever seen. I’m hoping one day a North American provider like HD Net can pick up Shoot Boxing and we can get the fights down here! That would be much better than waiting for the promotion or someone from Japan to upload to Youtube. After a week of waiting for this footage, we finally get to see how exactly a world class MMA grappler beat a world class striker in the standing arts! Hopefully our boy Andy can bounce back and have a good showing against Pajonsuk at It’s Showtime on December 11th!