Issue 046

February 2009

Most modern MMA fans won’t recognize the name Rumina Sato, but those with longer memories will remember him as one of the most exciting fighters of the 1990s and early 2000s. Spending almost his entire career in the Japanese promotion Shooto, Sato started fighting professionally in 1994. His reputation as one of the sport’s most entertaining fighters was compounded by his six-second flying armbar submission over Charles Taylor in 1999, but the featherweight fighter has always enjoyed mixed success, and the last three years have been rough for Sato.  

December 2008 saw the 35-year-old Sato lose his third straight bout. The submission master’s age is catching up with him, and he hasn’t had a win since March 2007. Here we see the 25-year-old Hatsu Hioki (in the white trunks) landing a heavy knee to the face – Hioki ended the fight with a series of punches from mount in just over three and a half minutes.  

Photo by Daniel Herbertson/Shooto