Rumina Sato

UFC Vets Ian Loveland, Carlo Prater, Kuniyoshi Hironaka Competing

By FCF Staff

One of MMA’s first organizations will promote its latest event on December 24th, as Vale Tudo Japan will head to the Yoyogi National Gymnasium to host a card that will feature several notable fighters. The event will be  broadcast on Skyperfect TV.

In the main event SHOOTO legend Rumina Sato will battle DREAM bantamweight Hideo Tokoro.

The 38 year-old Sato (26-16-2) hasn’t fought since last November when he was knocked out by Nico Verresen.

Tokoro (30-25-2) is also coming off a KO defeat, as the 35 year-old vet was stopped by Yusup Saadulaev at DREAM’s NYE event last year.

Some of the other bouts scheduled for the Christmas Eve event include Kuniyoshi Hironaka (20-8) taking on fellow UFC vet Carlo Prater (30-12-1) at lightweight, SHOOTO veteran Mamoru Yamaguchi (26-6-3) will battle flyweight Darrell Montague (11-2) and SHOOTO prospect Kyoji Horiguchi (8-1) will meet UFC veteran and current Tachi Palace Fight bantamweight champ Ian Loveland (16-9).

Additional fights include Takeshi Inoue (21-6) vs Kenji Osawa (18-10-2), Megumi Fujii (25-2) vs Mei Yamguchi (10-4-1), Keita Nakamura (24-5-2) vs Nobutatsu Suzuki (9-0-2) and Daisuke Hoshio (7-6) vs Kuntap Weerasakreck (0-1).

Vale Tudo Japan held its first event in 1994, which featured Rickson Gracie fighting his way to a tournament victory on July 29th.