Japanese K-1 media rep Kazunori Shibata recently shared the full card for DEEP 57th Impact on Facebook and when he posted it I started to weep uncontrollably. Not because of the card, but because I’d also just finished watching Pay It Forward. Oh Hayley Joel Osmond, why must you make me cry so much? Still, the DEEP card is so fantastic that you’d be forgiven for shedding a tear. I mean, five titles on the line in one night isa thing of legend but this card is sailing under the radar of so many people that I just had to let you all know.
While you are welcome to hit me up on Twitter to wax lyrical about the whole card, there are two fights I’m particularly pumped for. In the first is Mizuto Hirota who didn’t fight at all in 2010 after this horrible hammerlock loss to Shinya Aoki. His sole fight in 2011 was a win over Katsunori Kikuno in which he took the DEEP 155lb strap he will now defend for the first time against Seichi Ikemoto (20-17-5). The second features 20 year old Choi Doo Ho who will challenge for the featherweight title riding an eight-fight win streak like the triumphant South Korean that he is. His opponent Kazunori Yokota won his last fight with an intensity rarely seen outside London and a soccer kick that punted the hyperbole right out of my mouth, leaving me to direct you to the video instead.
The full card for DEEP 57th Impact (February 18th) is as follows:
DEEP Lightweight championship: Mizuto Hirota vs. Seichi Ikemoto.
DEEP Featherweight championship: Kazunori Yokota vs. Choi Doo Ho.
DEEP Bantamweight championship: Takafumi Otsuka vs. Yoshiro Maeda.
DEEP Megatonweight championship: Levan Razmadze vs. Ryuta Noji.
DEEP Female Openweight championship: Amanda Lucas vs. Yumiko Hotta.
Daisuke Nakamura vs. Akihiro Gono.
DJ. Taiki vs. Yusaku Nakamura.
