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Battle for the Belts
The Blasidell Arena in Honolulu, Hawaii was the first venue to host Professional Shooto events in the United States. It was at Superbrawl back in 1999 and like this up-coming line-up set for July it also featured Hawaiian superstar Ray "Bradda" Cooper. It has long been Cooper's dream to work his way up the ladder with the Shooto rankings and capture the prestigious Shooto World Championship belt.
He has had his high points in that pursuit, such as in January thru April of 2003, where he held the number 1 contender spot... and he has had his lows, like when he dropped 3 Shooto bouts in a row from December of 2000 to July of 2001. But he has been on his game since then going 3-0 within Shooto and 4-1 overall since that period and now he finally at long last gets his shot to take home the title he has been targetting for so long.
Cooper's opponent for the title is his antithesis... With nearly a third as many Shooto bouts as Cooper, Jake Shields has followed a more direct but equally as challenging path to the Championship. He made his Shooto debut against Cooper in the very same arena that they are destined to cross paths in again. He lost that bout, but came back strong. He landed a bout against Shooto legend Hayato Sakurai on very short notice in a fight that hasd some polls having him as the 100% loser. He shocked everyone by getting the upset victory and lunching himself well into the Shooto rankings... That bout is a match long sought after by Cooper, but it was Shields who got to taste the spoils... The Californian followed that performance in Japan by defeating the exciting Brazilian, Milton Vieira and the dangerous Japanese submission specialist, Akira Kikuchi. He has positioned himself with those high profile wins as the number contender for the vacant title... Only Cooper stands in his way... on Shields in Cooper's.
Also on the card:
Shooto LHW World Championship - Masanori Suda vs. Dustin Denes
Rumina Sato vs. Bao Quach
Stephen Paling vs. Jens Pulver
Vitor 'Shaolin' Ribeiro vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida
Alexandre Nogueira v. TBA
And much more...
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