Deep has announced that former SRC lightweight champion Satoru Kitaoka has been added to the upcoming Deep 53 Impact card. He will face former Deep welterweight champion Seichi Ikemoto, which takes place on April 22 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

Last year, Kitaoka pieced together back-to-back wins in Pancrase. He began 2009 with a quick submission victory over Takanori Gomi to win the SRC belt. Then, he finished the year with two-straight defeats against Mizuto Hirota and Jorge Masvidal.

Ikemoto dropped to lightweight after dropping three-straight fights at welterweight and losing the Deep title in the process. In his lightweight debut at Deep Cage Impact 2010, he took a majority decision over Naoki Matsushita. He also holds career victories over Hidetaka Monma, Hidehiko Hasegawa and Seung Hwan Bang.

In the featured bout of Deep 53, Akira Shoji will take on Kazuo Misaki in his official retirement bout. “Mr. Pride” was a stale of early Pride FC events. Despite being significantly undersized, he faced several top fighters in the open-weight era. His list of opponents includes Renzo Gracie, Guy Mezger, Mark Coleman, Dan Henderson and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

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