Top SRC prospects are matched with opponents

On Tuesday, World Victory Road announced opponents for both Shigeki Osawa and Ikuo Usuda. Osawa will take on Shooto veteran Katsuya Toida, while Usuda will take on South Korea’s Kyung Ho Kang at SRC 13. The card will take place June 20 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo.

Osawa is probably one of the brightest prospects to come out of Japan in a long time. Prior to coming to MMA, he had competed extensively in freestyle wrestling. He won the World University Championships and the All-Japan Championships in 2007. Since then he has signed on to train with Yoshida Dojo and has gone 5-1 as a professional MMA fighter.

His opponented, Toida, has fought for a variety of smaller Japanese shows and K-1 Hero’s. In his most recent outing he scored a victory over Yusuke Yachi. The win moved his record to 12-9-3.

Many hardcore fans are extremely excited about the progression of Usuda. Although he is only 6-0 he has shown some great power and athleticism (see below). He recently defeated the Korea Segoku Gold Cup winner.

His opponent Kyung Ho Kang made his SRC debut at SRC 12 and dropped a hard fought decision to Shigeki Osawa. The 5-3 fighter has also competed against “Kid” Yamamoto’s understudy Atsushi Yamamoto.

The main event of SRC 13 will feature a featherweight title fight between champion Masanori Kanehara and King of Pancrase Marlon Sandro.

Ikuo Usuda vs Kazuya Satomoto 10/13/2008