SHOOTO - THE MODEL FOR MODERN MMA

SHOOTO - THE MODEL FOR MODERN MMA

Shooto has been around since the mid '80's. Started by the former "Purureso" star, Satoru "Tiger Mask" Sayama, who was tired of worked matches. He wanted to make a legit "SHOOT" style event that utilized the kickboxing and catch-wrestling/submission grappling techniques of Japanese Pro Wrestling but, without predetermined outcomes.

Alas, "Shooto" was born!

Satoru "Tiger Mask" Sayama

Starting as early as 1985, early Shooto matches were purely Shoot style wrestling matches - with very little to no striking involved...though limited striking was allowed, just not often utilized by the fighters.

After its establishment New Martial arts was renamed "Shooting" which came from Shoot, a term of professional wrestling meaning "Serious match", but this changed to "Shooto" to avoid confusion with Shooting sports. Compared to the other professional wrestling organizations of the time, such as the New Japan Pro Wrestling and the Universal Wrestling Federation (Japan), Shooto was aimed at having no predetermined results. The first amateur event was held in 1986 and the first professional event in 1989.

The Shooto organization hosted the Vale Tudo Japan tournament in the summer of 1994. Previously to this tournament, Shooto did not feature punches to the face in a ground position, but after seeing effective usage of punching by foreign participants, Sayama decided to incorporate these striking techniques into shooto.

Three to fours years before the birth of the UFC, Shooto was already having organized MMA matches.

Some Shooto fighters already had their entire careers and even retired before the UFC ever existed...

Yoshimasa Ishikawa 4-5

152lbs (Shooting Gym Yokohama)

By looking at this early Shooto event (fought more than 3 years before the UFC started), you can see (fight #5), they had already established 5 round title fights...

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Shooto - Shooto

March 17, 1990

Korakuen Hall,

Tokyo, Japan

Match Winner Loser Method Round Time

1 Manabu Yamada Takashi Tojo Draw 3 3:00

2 Noboru Asahi Tomoyuki Saito Submission (Armbar) 1 2:54

3 Kenichi Tanaka Tetsuo Yokoyama Submission (Achilles Lock) 1 0:21

4 Kazuhiro Kusayanagi Kaoru Todori Submission (Armbar) 1 1:16

5 Kenji Kawaguchi Yasuto Sekishima Draw 5 3:00

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Shooto was brought to America in the late 1980s by top student of Satoru Sayama, Sensei Yorinaga Nakamura. He began teaching Shooto at the Inosanto Academy in 1991, and is the instructor of Erik Paulson, Ron Balicki, Dan Inosanto, Larry Hartsell, and many others.

There has been an ongoing effort to bring Shooto competition to the United States and Canada that has been spearheaded by Rich Santoro. He was officially named the Director of the International Shooto Commission - SHOOTO Americas division (the North American branch of the Shooto Association) in 2001. He has worked with both U.S. event promoters and state officials to spread the Shooto brand of competition throughout North America. As of 2006 Shooto has taken place in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Tennessee, Missouri, Nevada, Hawaii, and Vancouver, British Columbia. Promoters of Shooto events in North America have been HOOKnSHOOT, The Ironheart Crown, Midwest Fighting, Tennessee Shooto, RSF Shooto Challenge, TUFF-N-UFF, World Freestyle Fighting, SHOOTO Hawaii and Mannidog Productions. Previous to 2009, Shooto's rules included a knockdown rule giving knocked down fighters an eight-count to recover as well as allowing strikes to the back of the head. Shooto had argued that the potentential for a knocked out (and thus unconscious) fighter to receive unnecesarry damage while on the ground necessitated the rule, but with Shooto being one of the lone organizations still having the rule, consideration of the potential for injury allowing a knocked down fighter time to recover thus allowing additional blows, and with the original vision of Shooto's founder being a synthesis of striking, throwing and submitting - the rulechange was instituted in mid-2008. The disallowment of strikes to the back of the head was done for similar medical reasons.

Shooto has established events all over the globe.

Long before the UFC had even started having events in Europe, Shooto was already there.

Without a doubt, Shooto has had a strong influence on the sport, and has been an obvious role model for Zuffa's reorganization of the UFC...and the establishment of standardized rules for the regulating bodies and SAC's.

Too bad Mr.Sayama doesn't get enough credit.

Go to Part II of story:

SHOOTO - THE MODEL FOR MODERN MMA - Part 2