Masakazu Imanari

From CageWiki

1 Profile
2 Early Career
3 DEEP
4 DREAM
5 Mixed martial arts record
6 Gallery
7 External links

Profile

Masakazu "Ashikan Judan" Imanari (born February 10, 1976) is a Japanese professional mixed martial artist and brown belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu.

He stands 5 ft. 5 in. tall and fights in the featherweight and bantamweight divisions.

Imanari is the current Cage Rage featherweight champion, a former DEEP featherweight champion and current DEEP bantamweight champion. He currently fights as a featherweight (139 lbs.) for DREAM.

His nickname, "Ashikan Judan" translates to "10th Dan of Leglocks" or roughly to "The Master of Leglocks".

Early Career

Masakazu Imanari made his professional mixed martial arts debut on May 6, 2002 at a Premium Challenge event. He faced and submitted opponent, Tokusaburo Iwama with a heel hook in the first round.

In September of that year, Imanari faced Yuji Oba in Pancrase and defeated him via majority decision after two rounds.

For his next two bouts, Imanari fought in the Japan based, ZST promotion where he defeated Erikas Petraitis and Danny Batten via decisiona and armbar respectively.

In July of 2003, Imanari made his DEEP debut when he faced future UFC veteran, Dokonjonosuke Mishima. Imanari suffered his first professional loss as he was stopped on strikes from Mishima midway through the second round.

A little over four months later, Imanari returned to the ZST promotion where he scored a heel hook submission win over Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt and future TUF 2 and UFC competitor, Jorge Gurgel.

That win was followed by his second defeat, this time to another future UFC veteran and Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt in Marcus Aurelio. After two close rounds, Imanari went down via split decision.

With a mixed start to his career, Imanari was called up for a bout at PRIDE: Bushido 5 against Luiz Firmino. Imanarai suffered his second successive defeat as he went down in a unanimous decision to Firmino after two rounds.

DEEP

After his unsuccessful debut in PRIDE, Imanari began to fight primarily in what was considered PRIDE's feeder organization, DEEP.

In December of 2004, at DEEP: 17th Impact, Imanari got his first win in the promotion with a heel hook submission win over Renato Tavares midway through the second round.

A draw with the tough Yoshiro Maeda in February of 2005, was followed by his second appearance in the PRIDE Fighting Championships. Imanari faced Joachim Hansen at PRIDE: Bushido 8 and was knocked out with a knee at the 2:34 mark of round 1.

Imanari bounced back from the knockout defeat with a decision victory over Fabio Mello at DEEP: 21st Impact.

At DEEP: 22nd Impact on December 2, 2005, Imanari entered a one night, four man tournament which was to crown the DEEP featherweight champion. In the opening round, Imanari faced future WEC featherweight champion, Mike Brown. A little over halfway through the second round, Imanari caught Brown in a kneebar which had the American Top Team product tapping quickly.

In the final, Imanari faced Yoshiro Maeda in a rematch from their earlier drawn bout for the championship. Imanari came out on top this time, claiming the DEEP featherweight crown with a toe hold submission in the third round.

At DEEP: 25th Impact, Imanari went down in a non-title bout to Brazilian jiu jitsu black belt, Fredson Paixao via majority decision.

Things played out different however in Imanari's first official defense of his title however as he KO'd challenger, Takeshi Yamazaki with an upkick in the third round to successfully retain his title.

Imanari's first bout outside of the DEEP promotion came at Cage Rage 20, when he fought Robbie Olivier for the Cage Rage featherweight championship. Imanari added another belt to his collection as he submitted Olivier with a flying armbar at :27 of round 1.

At DEEP: 31st Impact, Imanari defended his title again successfully against Jong Man Kim before submitting Hiroyuki Abe in a non title bout with a toe hold.

In March of 2008, Imanari defended his Cage Rage featherweight belt with a heel hook submission of Brazilian, Jean Silva.

On May 19th, 2008, Imanari's DEEP featherweight title was put on the line when he was put in a rematch with the first man to beat him, Dokonjonosuke Mishima. The bout took place at DEEP: 35th Impact and was a dull affair. After three tedious rounds, Mishima prevailed with a majority decision to snatch Imanarai's championship away from him.

Instead of staying at featherweight in pursuit of regaining his championship, Imanari instead decided to drop a weight class to the bantamweight division and fight for the title there. He was immediately granted a title shot at DEEP: 37th Impact and submitted opponent Hiroshi Umemura with a heel hook to gain the championship.

DREAM

Imanari will next compete as one of 15 participants in the 2009 DREAM Featherweight (139 lbs.) Grand Prix. He will face Atsushi Yamamoto in the first round of the tournament at DREAM 7 on March 8, 2009.