List of Shooto champions

The following is a list of Shooto World champions at each weight class. Note that the weight classes in Shooto are different from the Association of Boxing Commissions recognised weight classes.

Title Histories

Flyweight Championship
Weight limit: 52 kg (114.6 lb)
NOTE: Shooto weight classes are different than the United States Association of Boxing Commissions, which is used by most MMA promotions. This is closer to the ABC-recognised Strawweight class.
Name: Date: Defenses:
Rambaa Somdet
(def. Noboru Tahara)		 November 23, 2009
Somdet vacated the title on April 16, 2011 due to a partially torn left biceps.[1]
Junji Ikoma
(def. Junji Ito)		 April 29, 2011
Mikihito Yamagami November 5, 2011
Yamagami vacated the title in December 2013 when he moved up in weight.
Shinya Murofushi
(def. Junji Ito)		 January 13, 2014
Yoshitaka Naito September 27, 2014
  • def. Ryuta Sawada on July 26, 2015
  • def. Junji Ito on November 29, 2015
Naito vacated the title on April 7, 2016 when he signed with ONE Championship.
Ryohei Kurosawa
(def. Ryuto Sawada)		 July 17, 2016
Kurosawa vacated the title on 2017.
Yosuke Saruta
(def. Ryuto Sawada)		 October 15, 2017
  • def. Itchaku Murata on May 13, 2018
Saruta vacated the title when he signed with ONE Championship.
Hiroshi Minowa
(def. Yohei Komaki)		 January 26, 2020

Bantamweight Championship
Weight limit: 56 kg (123.4 lb)
NOTE: Shooto weight classes are different than the United States Association of Boxing Commissions, which is used by most MMA promotions. This is closer to the ABC-recognised Flyweight class.
Name: Date: Defenses:
Mamoru Yamaguchi
(def. Yasuhiro Urushitani)		 December 14, 2003
Shinichi Kojima October 14, 2006
Kojima vacated the title on March 1, 2010 after suffering an ACL injury in his right knee which prevented him from defending his title in the mandatory time period per Shooto regulations.
Yasuhiro Urushitani
(def. Ryuichi Miki)		 May 30, 2010
Urushitani vacated the title on December 10, 2011 to compete in the UFC.
Ryuichi Miki drew with Yosuke Saruta for the vacant title on July 27, 2013.
Ryuichi Miki
(def. Yosuke Saruta)		 November 9, 2013
Masaaki Sugawara
(def. Ryuichi Miki)		 May 3, 2015
Hiromasa Ogikubo
(def. Masaaki Sugawara)		 April 23, 2016

Featherweight Championship
Weight limit: 60 kg (132.3 lb)
NOTE: Shooto weight classes are different than the United States Association of Boxing Commissions, which is used by most MMA promotions. This is closer to the ABC-recognised Bantamweight class.
Name: Date: Defenses:
Mamoru Yamaguchi
(def. Jin Akimoto)		 December 17, 2000
Masahiro Oishi November 25, 2001
  • drew w. Hisao Ikeda on September 16, 2002
Ryota Matsune August 10, 2003
  • def. Kentaro Imaizumi on November 12, 2004
Matsune vacated the title in February 2006 after suffering a knee injury which prevented him from defending his title in the mandatory time period per Shooto regulations.
Akitoshi Hokazono
(def. Kenji Osawa)		 July 21, 2006
Hokazono announced his retirement on January 26, 2008 and thus relinquished the title.
Masakatsu Ueda
(def. Koetsu Okazaki)		 March 28, 2008
  • drew w. Marcos Galvao on September 28, 2008
  • def. So Tazawa on March 20, 2009
  • def. Eduardo Dantas on July 19, 2009
Shuichiro Katsumura March 22, 2010
Koetsu Okazaki April 29, 2011
Hiromasa Ogikubo May 18, 2012
Kyoji Horiguchi March 16, 2013
Horiguchi vacated the title in December 2015 to compete in the UFC.
Shoko Sato
(def. Keita Ishibashi)		 November 15, 2017
  • def. Tristan Grimsley on July 15, 2018
  • def. Yo Saito on November 17, 2018
Ryo Okada
(def. Kazuma Kuramoto) for interim title.		 May 31, 2020

Lightweight Championship
Weight limit: 65 kg (143.3 lb)
NOTE: Shooto weight classes are different than the United States Association of Boxing Commissions, which is used by most MMA promotions. This is closer to the ABC-recognised Featherweight class.
Name: Date: Defenses:
Kenichi Tanaka
(def. Kazuhiro Sakamoto)		 September 8, 1990
Kazuhiro Sakamoto May 31, 1991
  • def. Hiroyuki Kanno on October 17, 1991
Noboru Asahi March 27, 1992
  • draw. Kenichi Tanaka on July 23, 1992
  • draw. Uchu Tatsumi on March 28, 1999
Alexandre Franca Nogueira September 5, 1999
  • def. Uchu Tatsumi on August 27, 2000
  • def. Tetsuo Katsuta on September 2, 2001
  • def. Katsuya Toida on December 16, 2001
  • def. Hiroyuki Abe on December 14, 2002
  • draw. Stephen Palling on August 10, 2003
  • def. Joao Roque on March 11, 2005
Nogueira vacated the title on May 7, 2006 after suffering a knee injury which prevented him from defending his title in the mandatory time period per Shooto regulations.
Takeshi Inoue
(def. Antonio Carvalho)		 May 12, 2006
Akitoshi Tamura May 18, 2007
Hideki Kadowaki March 28, 2008
Takeshi Inoue (2) November 29, 2008
Hatsu Hioki May 30, 2010
Hioki vacated the title on May 31, 2011 to compete in the UFC.
Yutaka Saito
(def. Yoshifumi Nakamura)		 January 11, 2016

Welterweight Championship
Weight limit: 70 kg (154.3 lb)
NOTE: Shooto weight classes are different than the United States Association of Boxing Commissions, which is used by most MMA promotions. This is closer to the ABC-recognised Lightweight class.
Name: Date: Defenses:
Yuichi Watanabe
(def. Kazuhiro Kusayanagi)		 March 29, 1991
Watanabe vacated the title in 1991 for unknown reasons.
Tomonori Ohara
(def. Yoshimasa Ishikawa)		 October 17, 1991
  • def. Yomohiro Tanaka on September 25, 1992
Ohara announced his retirement in November 1992 and thus relinquished the title.
Yuki Nakai
(def. Kazuhiro Kusayanagi)		 November 7, 1994
Nakai suffered an eye injury which forced him into retirement in April 1995.
Caol Uno
(def. Rumina Sato)		 May 29, 1999
Uno vacated the title on December 17, 2000 to compete in the UFC.
Takanori Gomi
(def. Rumina Sato)		 December 16, 2001
Joachim Hansen August 10, 2003
Vítor Ribeiro December 14, 2003
Tatsuya Kawajiri December 14, 2004
Kawajiri relinquished the title on January 23, 2007 after suffering a knee injury which prevented him from defending his title in the mandatory time period per Shooto regulations.
Takashi Nakakura
(def. Ganjo Tentsuku)		 May 3, 2008
Nakakura relinquished the title on September 21, 2009, declaring that he wasn't ready to properly defend it after losing a non-title fight to Takanori Gomi.
Willamy Freire
(def. Kenichiro Togashi)		 October 30, 2009
  • def. Yusuke Endo on May 30, 2010
Freire vacated the title on May 30, 2010 to compete in the UFC.[2]
Kuniyoshi Hironaka
(def. Kotetsu Boku)		 July 18, 2011
  • def. Giovani Diniz on May 18, 2012
  • def. Yoshihiro Koyama on September 29, 2013
Hironaka vacated the title in December 2015 for unknown reasons.
Koshi Matsumoto
(def. Yuki Kawana)		 April 23, 2016
Matsumoto vacated the title when he signed with ONE Championship.

Middleweight Championship
Weight limit: 77 kg (169.8 lb)
NOTE: Shooto weight classes are different than the United States Association of Boxing Commissions, which is used by most MMA promotions. This is closer to the ABC-recognised Welterweight class.
Name: Date: Defenses:
Yasuto Sekishima
(def. Yoshimasa Ishikawa)		 May 12, 1990
  • draw. Naoki Sakurada on November 28, 1990
Yoshimasa Ishikawa August 3, 1991
Ishikawa vacated the title in 1991 to compete as a lightweight.
Naoki Sakurada
(def. Yasuto Sekishima)		 October 17, 1991
  • def. Kazuhiro Kusayanagi on September 25, 1992
Sakurada announced his retirement on January 18, 1997 thus relinquishing the title.
Hayato Sakurai May 13, 1998
Anderson Silva August 26, 2001
Silva vacated the title on January 9, 2002 after signing with PRIDE.
Jake Shields
(def. Ray Cooper)		 July 9, 2004
Akira Kikuchi December 14, 2004
Shinya Aoki February 17, 2006
Aoki vacated the title on May 21, 2010 after years of not defending it, fighting for other promotions, and fighting primarily as a lightweight.
Luis Ramos
(def. Igor Fernandes)		 August 6, 2010
Ramos vacated the title on August 9, 2011 after signing with the UFC.
Hernani Perpetuo
(def. Tommy Depret)		 August 25, 2013

Light Heavyweight Championship
NOTE: Shooto weight classes are different than the United States Association of Boxing Commissions, which is used by most MMA promotions. This is closer to the ABC-recognised Middleweight class.
Weight limit: 84 kg (185.2 lb)
Name: Date: Defenses:
Kenji Kawaguchi
(def. Manabu Yamada)		 May 31, 1991
Erik Paulson May 7, 1996
Paulson retires, title vacant for 4 years.
Masanori Suda
(def. Lance Gibson)		 January 12, 2002
  • def. Egan Inoue on May 9, 2003
  • draw. Dustin Denes on July 9, 2004
Suda announced his retirement on February 26, 2006 thus relinquishing the title.
Shiko Yamashita
(def. Dustin Denes)		 April 22, 2006
Siyar Bahadurzada July 15, 2007
  • def. Leandro Silva on August 27, 2009
  • def. Carlos Alexandre Pereira on August 6, 2010
Bahadurzada vacated the title on April 14, 2012 after signing with the UFC.

Heavyweight Championship
Weight limit: Unlimited
Name: Date: Defenses:
Enson Inoue
(def. Joe Estes)		 October 12, 1997

By nationality

The following include championship title holders by nationality.

Country Titles
 Japan 40
 Brazil 6
 United States 3
 Afghanistan 1
 Thailand 1
 Norway 1

See also

References
  1. Nelson, Chris (2011-04-16). "Hioki Joins April 29 Shooto Card; 'M-16' Vacates Title". Sherdog.com. Retrieved 2011-04-16.
  2. Butterfield, Jon (2011-01-14). "411 Fighter Profile 01.14.11: Willamy Freire". 411Mania.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-07. Retrieved 2011-05-17.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.