Japanese MMA and grappling legend Masakazu Imanari will be making his return to professional grappling in a superfight against Takuma Sudo that will serve as the main event of Level-G Pro on June 16th, 2024. It will be the first time that Imanari has competed in a grappling match in over two years, as the last time he did so was when he was submitted by Mikey Musumeci at ONE 156 at the beginning of 2022. The 48 year-old combat sports veteran hasn’t been completely inactive since then though, as he has continued his professional MMA career by taking fights in both DEEP MMA and RIZIN FF.
Imanari lost his next two MMA fights after the grappling match with Mikey Musumeci and after not competing at all in 2023, it seemed as though his extensive combat sports career might be coming to an end. Then he put on a vintage performance in his MMA comeback at RIZIN Landmark 8, winning the fight by submission and showing the world he still has what it takes. Not content with doing that, Imanari will now be returning to grappling as well and facing a very tough challenge in his first match back.
Imanari’s opponent is Takuma Sudo, the Level-G Grappling lightweight champion and a fellow leglock expert who will be all too happy to fight fire with fire. That’s not all that they have in common, as Sudo is also an MMA fighter and almost all of his wins have come by way of submission. The main difference between the two men is the stage of their career that they find themselves in, as Sudo is actually half Imanari’s age at just 24. Despite being young he’s already made a name for himself in several Asian MMA promotions and Imanari will definitely have his work cut out for him even with his advantage in experience.
Level-G Pro Full Card
Masakazu Imanari vs Takuma Sudo
Satoshi Oshima vs Masayuki Hamagishi
Emi Tomimatsu vs Kazuko Sakamoto
Senka Yanagi vs Tomoko Inoue
Takuya Wada vs Hayato Kida
Ryoichi Shiraishi vs Minatosuke Abe
The full Level-G Pro card, including the main event between Masakazu Imanari and Takuma Sudo, was announced in a post to the promotion’s official Instagram account: