List of Shooto champions

The following is a list of Shooto World champions at each weight class. Also see List of Shooto rookie champions and List of Shooto Pacific Rim champions.

Title Histories

52.0 kilograms (115 lb) and below

Name:	Date:	Defenses:
Rambaa Somdet (def. Noboru Tahara)	November 23, 2009	def. Hiroyuki Abe on July 19, 2010
Title vacated	April 16, 2011	Shooto announced Somdet was vacating his title do to a partially torn left biceps.^[1]
Junji Ikoma (def. Junji Ito)	April 29, 2011
Mikihito Yamagami	November 5, 2011

52.0 to 56.0 kilograms (115 to 123 lb)

Name:	Date:	Defenses:
Mamoru Yamaguchi (def. Yasuhiro Urushitani)	December 14, 2003	draw. Robson Moura on September 26, 2004 draw. Shinichi Kojima on March 24, 2006
Shinichi Kojima	October 14, 2006	draw. Yasuhiro Urushitani on March 16, 2007 def. Mamoru Yamaguchi on July 18, 2008 def. Yuki Shoujou on March 20, 2009
Title vacated	March 1, 2010	Kojima suffered an ACL injury in his right knee which prevented him from defending his title in the mandatory time period per Shooto regulations.
Yasuhiro Urushitani (def. Ryuichi Miki)	May 30, 2010	def. Yuki Shoujou on July 18, 2011
Title vacated	December 10, 2011	Urushitani vacated the title to compete in the UFC.

56.0 to 60.0 kilograms (123 to 132 lb)

Name:	Date:	Defenses:
Mamoru Yamaguchi (def. Jin Akimoto)	December 17, 2000
Masahiro Oishi	November 25, 2001	draw. Hisao Ikeda on September 16, 2002
Ryota Matsune	August 10, 2003	def. Kentaro Imaizumi on November 12, 2004
Title vacated	February 2006	Matsune suffered a knee injury which prevented him from defending his title in the mandatory time period per Shooto regulations.
Akitoshi Hokazono (def. Kenji Osawa)	July 21, 2006
Title vacated	January 2008	Hokazono announced his retirement January 26, 2008 and thus relinquished the title.
Masakatsu Ueda (def. Koetsu Okazaki)	March 28, 2008	draw. Marcos Galvao on September 28, 2008 def. So Tazawa on March 20, 2009 def. Eduardo Dantas on July 19, 2009
Shuichiro Katsumura (def. Masakatsu Ueda)	March 22, 2010
Koetsu Okazaki	April 29, 2011

60.0 to 65.0 kilograms (132 to 143 lb)

Name:	Date:	Defenses:
Kenichi Tanaka (def. Kazuhiro Sakamoto)	September 8, 1990
Kazuhiro Sakamoto	May 31, 1991	def. Hiroyuki Kanno on October 17, 1991
Noboru Asahi	March 27, 1992	draw. Kenichi Tanaka on July 23, 1992 draw. Uchu Tatsumi on March 28, 1999
Alexandre Franca Nogueira	September 5, 1999	def. Uchu Tatsumi on August 27, 2000 def. Tetsuo Katsuta on September 2, 2001 def. Katsuya Toida on December 16, 2001 def. Hiroyuki Abe on December 14, 2002 draw. Stephen Palling on August 10, 2003 def. Joao Roque on March 11, 2005
Title vacated	May 7, 2006	Nogueira suffered a knee injury which prevented him from defending his title in the mandatory time period per Shooto regulations.
Takeshi Inoue (def. Antonio Carvalho)	May 12, 2006
Akitoshi Tamura	May 18, 2007
Hideki Kadowaki	March 28, 2008
Takeshi Inoue	November 29, 2008	def. Rumina Sato on May 10, 2009
Hatsu Hioki	May 30, 2010
Title vacated	May 31, 2011	Hioki vacated the title to compete in the UFC.

65.0 to 70.0 kilograms (143 to 154 lb)

Name:	Date:	Defenses:
Yuichi Watanabe (def. Kazuhiro Kusayanagi)	March 29, 1991
Title vacated	unknown	Watanabe vacated the title for unknown reasons.
Tomonori Ohara (def. Yoshimasa Ishikawa)	October 17, 1991	def. Yomohiro Tanaka on September 25, 1992
Title vacated	unknown	Ohara vacated the title for retirement.
Yuki Nakai (def. Kazuhiro Kusayanagi)	November 7, 1994
Title vacated	unknown	Nakai suffered an eye injury which forced him into retirement.
Caol Uno (def. Rumina Sato)	May 29, 1999	def. Rumina Sato on December 17, 2000
Title vacated	December 17, 2000	Caol Uno vacated the belt to compete in the UFC.
Takanori Gomi (def. Rumina Sato)	December 16, 2001	def. Dokonjonosuke Mishima on December 14, 2002
Joachim Hansen	August 10, 2003
Vitor Ribeiro	December 14, 2003
Tatsuya Kawajiri	December 14, 2004	def. Joachim Hansen on February 17, 2006
Title vacated	January 23, 2007	Kawajiri suffered a hand injury which prevented him from defending his title in the mandatory time period per Shooto regulations.
Takashi Nakakura (def. Ganjo Tentsuku)	May 3, 2008
Title vacated	September 21, 2009	Nakakura vacated the title due to feeling he wasn't ready to properly defend it after losing a non title fight to Takanori Gomi
Willamy Freire (def. Kenichiro Togashi)	October 30, 2009	def. Yusuke Endo on May 30, 2010
Title vacated	May 30, 2010	Freire vacated the title to compete in the UFC.^[2]
Kuniyoshi Hironaka (def. Kotetsu Boku)	July 18, 2011

70.0 to 76.0 kilograms (154 to 168 lb)

Name:	Date:	Defenses:
Yasuto Sekishima (def. Yoshimasa Ishikawa)	May 12, 1990	draw. Naoki Sakurada on November 28, 1990
Yoshimasa Ishikawa	August 3, 1991
Title vacated	unknown	Ishikawa vacated the title to compete in the Welterweight Division.
Naoki Sakurada (def. Yasuto Sekishima)	October 17, 1991	def. Kazuhiro Kusayanagi on September 25, 1992
Title vacated	January 18, 1997	Sakurada retired thus vacating the title.
Hayato Sakurai (def. Jutaro Nakao)	May 13, 1998	def. Tetsuji Kato on March 17, 2000
Anderson Silva	August 26, 2001
Title vacated	2001	Silva decided to leave Shooto thus vacating the title.
Jake Shields (def. Ray Cooper)	July 9, 2004
Akira Kikuchi	December 14, 2004
Shinya Aoki	February 17, 2006	def. Akira Kikuchi on February 17, 2007
Title vacated	May 21, 2010	After years of not defending the title, fighting for other promotions, and fighting primarily at Lightweight, Aoki relinquished the belt.
Luis Ramos (def. Igor Fernandes)	August 6, 2010
Title vacated	August 9, 2011	Title vacated after Ramos signed with the UFC

76.0 to 83.0 kilograms (168 to 183 lb)

Name:	Date:	Defenses:
Kenji Kawaguchi (def. Manabu Yamada)	May 31, 1991	def. Satoshi Honma on October 17, 1991 def. Manabu Yamada on July 23, 1992 draw. Satoshi Honma on November 27, 1992
Erik Paulson	May 7, 1996	def. Masanori Suda on August 29, 1998
Title vacated	December 2000	Paulson vacated the title and retired.
Masanori Suda (def. Lance Gibson)	January 12, 2002	def. Egan Inoue on May 9, 2003 draw. Dustin Denes on July 9, 2004
Title vacated	February 26, 2006	Suda vacated the title and retired.
Shiko Yamashita (def. Dustin Denes)	April 22, 2006
Siyar Bahadurzada	July 15, 2007	def. Leandro Silva on August 27, 2009 def. Carlos Alexandre Pereira on August 6, 2010
Title vacated	September 30, 2011	Bahadurzada vacated the title to compete in the UFC.

91.0 to 100.0 kilograms (201 to 220 lb)

Name:	Date:	Defenses:
Enson Inoue (def. Joe Estes)	October 12, 1997
Title vacated	2000	Inoue vacated the title and left shooto. Since then Shooto has disregarded the Heavyweight division.

The following include championship title holders by nationality.

Chan, Sam. The Japanese Pro-Wrestling: Reality Based Martial Art Connection. bjj.org. URL last accessed January 7, 2006.
Shootoamericas. SHOOTO: History and Overview. www.shootoamericas.com. URL last accessed January 7, 2006.

Mixed martial arts champions

Current champions for active organizations	UFC · Dream · Strikeforce · Pancrase · Shooto · Bellator FC · KOTC · Deep

Legacy champions for defunct organizations	Pride FC · IFL · EliteXC · Cage Rage · Hero's · WEC · SRC