The DEEP announcements continue to pour out, as a big new fight has been added to DEEP 95 Impact. This comes in the form of a featherweight contest that pits Michihiro Omigawa (16-14-1) against Daiki Hata (20-13-7), often referred to as ‘DJ Taiki’.
DEEP announced the bout on Wednesday.
A veteran of the UFC, Michihiro Omigawa has quietly strung together a six-fight win streak in MMA in recent years. This, of course, not counting his Ganryujima, Quintet, and Shoot Boxing outings. At 44-years-old, Omigawa appears to be in prime form. In terms of mixed martial arts competition, Omigawa has competed under the DEEP banner four times since his 2012 UFC release. Along the way he also fought for Grandslam, DREAM, ROAD FC, and WSOF Global Championship.
Following a four-fight skid a few years back, Michihiro Omigawa took a year-long hiatus before returning to competition in August of 2013. Here he quickly defeated a very green opponent before going on to pick up yet another submission win, this time against a formidable foe in Kosuke Umeda. In the following months, Omigawa managed to defeat the likes of Yoshifumi Nakamura and then-prospect Teddy Violet. Then, from late 2016 to early 2019, Omigawa competed exclusively in Quintet and Ganryujima before returning to MMA in June of last year. Again competing under the DEEP banner, Omigawa submitted Yuki Ohara before returning in October of 2019 and knocking out Akihiko Mori.
Seemingly out of nowhere, a 44-year-old Michihiro Omigawa has become a legitimate potential title-contender in DEEP. Opposite him in the coming months will be a man all-too-familiar with that position.
Former DEEP bantamweight champion DJ Taiki was a competitor on Road to UFC: Japan in 2015, losing to Mizuto Hirota after winning his preliminary fight against Tatsunao Nagakura. He entered the show as a DEEP title-holder, defeating Yoshiro Maeda for the championship in 2013 via knockout.
Hata didn’t dwell on this loss for too long thankfully, as he closed out 2015 by competing on the inaugural RIZIN show in a losing effort against Hiroyuki Takaya. In 2016, Hata returned to DEEP for the first time in three years and suffered two-straight losses to Yuki Motoya and Takahiro Ashida. Between those two outings, DJ Taiki was unsuccessful when he tried his hand at kickboxing under the KNOCK OUT banner. In 2018, Daiki Hata fought his way to a title opportunity by winning two-straight. Unfortunately, he lost to featherweight champion Satoshi Yamasu by way of knockout last year. He has since rebounded with a quick and near-effortless submission win over Yuki Ohara.
It is worth noting that this bout between Omigawa and Hata has heavy underlying title implications. In case that wasn’t already obvious.
DEEP 95 Impact is set to take place on May 6, live from the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The event will be one half a double-header alongside DEEP JEWELS 29. Speaking of which, the all female DEEP JEWELS card has added a few fights as well. Japanese idol Nanaka Kawamura returns against Rion Noda as KAI faces Otoha Nagao.