Friday, 24 July 2009 10:17
by Dallas Winston

After a 1-3 trial stateside in the UFC, Ryo Chonan, one of the few men to soundly defeat Anderson Silva, will return to his roots by facing MMA stalwart Jutaro Nakao at DEEP 43rd Impact on August 23rd in Tokyo. The card features a host of other name fighters and two title fights.
Riki Fukuda has snatched away the MW belt formerly belonging to Chonan, and "The Piranha" will begin the quest to regain his title against seasoned MMA old schooler Nakao, who holds a win over top LW Shinya Aoki and always presents a tough challenge. Masakazu Imanari, the man who has won a third of his fights by leglock, defends his Bantamweight crown against Tomohiko Hori, and Featherweight champ Dokonjonosuke Mishima is matched up against former DREAM FW GP competitor Takafumi Otsuka for the strap.
In the most unusual contest of the card, K1 striker Bernard Ackah will face the reclusive Ryushi Yanagisawa, who has faced a plethura of known fighters in MMA, and has been off the radar screen since 2004. Yanagisawa made his name in Pancrase, with his first battle taking place in 1993 against Bas Rutten, and went on to face the likes of Masakatsu Funaki, Ken and Frank Shamrock, Guy Mezger, Oleg Taktarov, Semmy Schilt, Yuki Kondo, the late Evan Tanner, Randy Couture, and Fedor Emelianenko.

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