FEG officials have announced a featherweight bout between former Shooto world champion Takeshi Inoue and current Deep champion Koichiro Matsumoto. The fight has been added to Dream 17 “Fight for Japan.”

The event takes place May 29 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Inoue, a Shooto favorite, had a tough end to his 2010 campaign. He dropped his title to the world-ranked Hatsu Hioki and then finally received a shot outside of Shooto, but dropped his Dream debut to Kazuyuki Miyata.

He returned this year and scored a TKO victory over Shooto Pacific Rim champion Taiki Tsuchiya at Shooto Tradition 2011. “Lion” also holds victories over Alexandre Franca Nogueira, Rumina Sato and Cole Miller.

At Deep 48, Matsumoto defeated Takafumi Otsuka via split decision to claim the Deep featherweight title. Since then, he has claimed a TKO victory over Shoji Maruyama.

Dream 17 will feature first two rounds of the Japan Bantamweight Grand Prix. The top-three finishers will earn spots in the upcoming world tournament.

One thought on “Takeshi Inoue-Koichiro Matsumoto added to Dream 17”
  1. Lion has also win over KOTC champ, Gerald Lovato. He is though favourite. he has sharp stand up game and not bad ground game. Matsumoto is not good striker as Hioki, and Takeshi should smash him as he wants to.

    I can’t wait for Dream event, especially that it starting at 10 AM in Poland :D It is 3 AM in some parts of USA :)

Leave a Reply