Former Sengoku Raiden Championship featherweight champion Masanori Kanehara will return to action against Doo Ho Choi at SRC 15 the promotion announced Thursday.Kanehara controversially won the featherweight belt after he took a narrow decision over a battered Michihiro Omigawa in the finals of the 2009 GP. Kanehara was soundly defeated by Hatsu Hioki in the semifinals of the tournament,. but Hioki sustained an injury along the way and so Kanehara was slotted into the final.
Kanehara went on to secure his top career victory over Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto at Dynamite!! on New Year's Eve, but his first title defense in SRC in June was disastrous as Marlon Sandro took only 38 seconds to KO Kanehara and claim the belt. After losing his strap, Kanehara returned to ZST for a grappling bout against Emerson Azuma where he was victorious by leg lock in the closing seconds.
A potentially overmatched Choi made his promotional debut at SRC 13 on short notice against one of Japan's hottest prospects in Ikuo Usuda. The 19-year-old took an impressive split decision over Usuda and has since followed that victory up with two first round knock-outs in regional events.
The final SRC event for the year will also feature the quarterfinals of the Bantamweight Asia Tournament and the semifinals of the Welterweight GP as well as a potential lightweight title elimination match between Maximo Blanco and Leo Santos.
Sengoku Raiden Championship 15 - Oct. 30, Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan
Hiroshi Izumi vs. James Zikic
Kazunori Yokota vs. Brian Cobb
Maximo Blanco vs Leo Santos
Masanori Kanehara vs Doo Ho Choi
Kazuo "Yoshiki" Takahashi vs. Chang Seob Lee
SRC Welterweight GP Series 2010 Semifinals
KTaro Nakamura vs. Takuya Wada
Yasubey Enomoto vs. Taisuke "Gouten" Okuno
SRC Bantamweight Asia Tournament 2010 Quarterfinals
Akitoshi Tamura vs. Shoko Sato
Manabu Inoue vs. Jae Hyun So
Taiyo Nakahara vs. Shintaro Ishiwatari
Shunichi Shimizu vs. Wataru Takahashi
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