Happy New Year

Sunday 30 December 2007

Well, the last post for this year. I am about to jump on the Shinkansen to take me away from Tokyo and internet connection.


Anyway, enjoy the rest of the events for the year! I will be back in the new year when we will know who had the last laugh.


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Saturday 29 December 2007

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Cage Force on TV Tokyo tonight

If you are in the Tokyo area, TV Tokyo (channel 12 on most TVs) will be showing the cage force tournment finals at 1.30AM to 2.25 tonight. Tune in for an awesome event. This is a chance to see some of the best fighters in Japan at the moment free-to-air.

http://www.tv-tokyo.co.jp/program/detail/19380_200712292530.html

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New-Years Eve Events PreView

I will not be in Tokyo, or Osaka for that matter, for NYE. I have been kicking myself for that decision since these cards started evolving. However, sometimes family committments have to come first.

That means also that I will not be able to give live updates on these events (unless a miracle happens), but I should at least be able to see the K-1 Dynamite broadcast.

Anyway, to the real topic.
Sherdog has published a very good review of all the fights happening on the K-1 card. I will only go through the fights that I am excited about for the NYE. There are some fights with some real potential on both the K-1 and the Yarennoka cards.

K-1 Dynamite, this card is mostly for the general public in Japan. Like it or not, they want to see freakshows. As a consequense of this, I am only really excited about 3 fights. That being said, it will be fun to see Sapp kick some ass. And Sakuraba is always an highlight, but he is reaching the end of his career and this should not be a main-event.

Joachim Hansen 15-6-1 vs. 5-5-0 Kazuyuki Miyata
I believe this is a great match-up. I saw Miyata demolish Harvey Harra in his last fight, this guy should not be underestimated! He is very powerful and is an increadible wrestler. Joachim Hansen is one of my top 2 favorite fighters, if I was anywhere near Osaka I would be in the crowd. He has the experience, the better stand-up game and striking skills on his side.

I will be very surprised if this fight goes the distance. Miyata rarely goes past round 1, I think the trick for Hansen will be to get through the initial charge from Miyata. I would not be surprised if this ends with a KO win for Hansen. But this could be fight of the year, it has the potential.

Yusuke Nishijima 0-4-0 vs. 18-4-1 Melvin Manhoef
I am not sure if this will be a great fight, but I am still looking forward to it. This will end in a round 1 KO to one of the fighters, my house is on Manhoef. Nishijima has showed that he has a strong chin, but Manhoef will be too strong for him.

Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto 16-1-0 vs. 11-3-0 Rani Yahya
This is a very interesting match-up. KID is a wrestler that likes to KO opponents. Rani Yahya, from what I have seen, goes straight for the grappling. After his last fight, KID promised to win his next fight by KO. But this is a very similar opponent to what he faced last time.

My money would be on KID for a second round KO.

Yarennoka! This is a VERY good card. It is much harder to exclude fights for this event, but Roman Zentsov vs. Mike Russow, I dont know much about these fighters. The Fedor fight doesnt excite me, because of the opponent, the same goes for the Aoki fight...
I am a big fan of Aoki`s work, but think his opponent will be too light for him.

I will also leave out the Bustamante/Takimoto (Bustamante is old and Takimoto doesnt interest me) and Sakurai/Hasegawa (Sakurai acted like a spoiled 6-year old during the DEEP presentation, I am more interested in seeing Hasegawa) fight...

That leaves 3 fights. Keep in mind, all the fights on this card has potential and I am leaving some out based on my personal opinion.

Tatsuya Kawajiri 19-4-2 vs. 11-6-0 Luiz Azeredo
Two very experienced guys. This will be a ground fight, that means Azeredo on his back and Kawajiri in his element, most likely Kawajiri will win this by ground and pound. It will be interesting to see how rusty these fighters are... A year is a long time.

Gilbert Melendez 13-0-0 vs. 14-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
Melendez, the other unbeaten fighter on this card... Against Ishida, the home favorite. This will be a very tough fight. I am going to go with Melendez, he has not lost yet, and I dont think Ishida will be able to take this. It will be a very tough fight, but dont think it will be a very entertaining fight, one for the true fans.

Kazuo Misaki 18-8-2 vs. 10-1-0 (1NC) Yoshihiro Akiyama
This fight has a lot of potential. These are the only 2 fighters to beat Denis Kang since 2003.

If I was going to watch one fight this NYE, it would be between this and the Miyata/Hansen fight. It is worth the PPV fee alone, except they are showing this on free-to-air in Japan... Akiyama, the Judo guy with KO power. Has also proven to be a very respectful guy after his come-back earlier this year, and he has a lot of respect for Misaki.

Misaki is the more experienced of the two fighters, but he has not been in the ring since February. Akiyama was crushing in his come-back. My money is on Akiyama, I think he is stronger in just about any part of the game.

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K-1 Dynamite! and Yarennoka - Fight Set-Up Finalized

Friday 28 December 2007

Finally, the cards for NYE seems to be finalized. In addition, the fight order is now announced. For Japanese fans, this is THE day to watch fighting.

There were some rumors that the Misaki vs. Akiyama fight would be the main event, I wrote about this earlier. It really surprised me, however the rumors were wrong. Fedor will indeed fight in the main event. Lets just hope his return is a good fight.

First of, the K-1 Dynamite card:
Opening fights, K-1 rules
Ryo Murakoshi vs. Arata Fujimto
Takashi Tachikawa vs. Yoshihisa Inoue

Main-card
1- K-1 U-18 semi-final: HIROYA vs. Kizaemon Saiga
2- K-1 U-18 semi-final: Kenji Kubo vs. Yudai
3- HERO’s: Joachim Hansen 15-6-1 vs. 5-5-0 Kazuyuki Miyata

4- HERO’s: Yusuke Nishijima 0-4-0 vs. 18-4-1 Melvin Manhoef
5- HERO’s: Minowaman 38-26-8 vs. 3-3-0 "Zulu" Wagner da Conceicao Martins
6- HERO’s: Hideo Tokoro 19-12-1 vs. 16-10-0 Kiyoshi Tamura
7- U-18 tournament final
8- K-1: Musashi vs. Bernard Ackah
9- K-1: Nicolas Pettas vs. Kim Young-Hyun
10- K-1: Masato vs. Choi Yong-Soo
11- HERO’s: Bob Sapp 8-2-1 vs. 2-1-0 Bobby Ologun
12- HERO’s: Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto 16-1-0 vs. 11-3-0 Rani Yahya
13- HERO’s: Kazushi Sakuraba 22-10-1 vs. 38-11-1 Masakatsu Funaki



The Yarennoka card:

1- Mike Russow 6-1-0 vs. 16-11-0 Roman Zentsov
2- Tatsuya Kawajiri 19-4-2 vs. 11-6-0 Luiz Azeredo
3- Murlio Bustamante 14-6-1 vs. 3-3-0 Makoto Takimoto
4- Gilbert Melendez 13-0-0 vs. 14-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
5- Kazuo Misaki 18-8-2 vs. 10-1-0 (1NC) Yoshihiro Akiyama
6- Hayato Sakurai 30-7-2 vs. 14-8-4 Hidehiko Hasegawa
7- Shinya Aoki 11-2-0 vs. Bu-Kyung Jung
8- Fedor Emelianenko 26-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Choi Hong Man

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12/26 SmackGirl - 7th Anniversary - RESULTS

Thursday 27 December 2007

I am one of those that think there is not enough publisity for female MMA, I believe they should have room for at least one fight on the major cards like HEROs/Yarennoka. For now, you have to go to the DEEP/Shooto type events to see them. SmackGirl is going the opposite way, however, a card will all female fights.

The problem is generaly that there is not enough talent to fill regular cards. On this card SmackGirl brought out just about all the stars they have. The main event saw SmackGirl champion Yuka Tsuji against Su Hi Ham. Ham has proven that she is a worthy opponent when she dominated Hisae Watanabe earlier this year. Tsuji had however done her homework and took the fight to the ground, where she dominated without being able to finish the fight.

Satoko Shinashi was forced to fight a late replacement for An, who had visa issues. She won an easy vicory over Akemi Morihara.

The biggest star on the card, Megumi Fujii, was facing a rookie in the former wrestler Mika Nagano.

Yuka Tsuji Def. Su Hi Ham by decision 3-0
Shinashi Sato Def. Akemi Morihara by heel-hook Round 1, 4:17
Lana Stefanac Def. Megumi Yabushita by decision 3-0
Saori Ishioka vs. Thricia Poovey by arm-bar Round 1, 4:18
Emi Fujino Def. V Hajime by decision 2-1
Madoka Okada Def. Shawn Tamaribuchi by decision 3-0
Megumi Fujii Def. Mika Nagano by triangle-choke Round 1, 1:20
Kanako Takeshita Def. Benkei by Kimura, Round 1, 2:52
Yasuko Tamada Def. Maho Muranami by decision 3-0
Miki Morifuji Def. Hari by achillies lock, Round 1, 3:06

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20071227-00000002-spnavi-fight.html
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=10525

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12/31 Yarennoka - Aoki`s opponent set

Yarennoka has announced Aoki`s opponent. It is Jung Bukyung. Bukyung won a silver in the Sydney Olympics for Judo and could prove a worthy opponent. However, I am worried that Aoki is heavier than Bukyung. I am not sure how much weight Bukyung has out on since the Olympics, but according to Fight Opinion, he was fighting at 60kg. Aoki normally fights at 75-80 kg, so this could prove significant.

Aoki vs. Calvan would be a much better match-up, but can Bukyung provide another surprise this year? It is possible.

Nightmare of Battle has some interesting background information on Bukyung.
http://nightmareofbattle.wordpress.com/2007/12/27/aokis-opponent-confirmed-2000-olympic-silver-medalist-enters-mma/

Other sources:
http://www.yarennoka.com/
http://www.fightopinion.com/2007/12/27/thursday-trash-talk-everybody-has-a-price/

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TBS to show 2 Yarennoka fight on Free to air!

Tuesday 25 December 2007

TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting Station) has announced that they are going to show 2 of the Yarennoka fights in their K-1 Dynamite. They will air the Fedor vs. Hong Man Choi and the Akiyama vs. Misaki fights in their programming from 6PM on NYE.

This is great news for any fans in Japan without SkyPerfect, which in this case includes me (that also means no live updates from these events). I have family commitments over the New-Year holidays, but will try to update the results as soon as I can.

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12/31 Yarennoka - Fights Added (?)

Monday 24 December 2007


Gryphon is reporting the addition of a fight and a fighter today, now these are just rumors. Anyway, Gryphon is a reliable source and the Yarennoka card is in desperate need of some fights. The fight reported is the match-up between Sanae Kikuta vs. Kenichi Yamamoto. If this is true, it will be a good addition. Kikuta is confirmed to be a part of the Sengoku card in March, so this will mean the addition of another organization supplying a fighter to the Yarennoka event.

Also reported to be a part of the Yarennoka even it Don Frye, now, what is Don doing in this event? I have no idea, and dont care... We just have to see. I have always enjoyed watching Don Frye, even though I think he is past his best, I think this is needed on this card.

Anyway, these are not confirmed yet.

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12/23 Shoot Boxing Osaka - RESULTS

Shoot Boxing had their event in Osaka yeasterday. I was not tere, and have really only been able to find the results. So here they are:

Minato Masanori Def. Fujimoto Shouta by decision 2-0
Minato Masanori Def. Wakayama Masaharu by KO, Round 2, 1:12
Kubuchunarena M15 Def. Oka Kanako by decision 2-0
KY Youhei Def. Nogami Yuuta by decision 3-0
Takawaguchi Mantarou Def. Kawata Yasuhiro by decision 3-0
Hyakutake Masatoshi Def. Sasaki Makoto by TKO, Round 1.
福地翔太 vs. Matsumoto Tadashi by decision 3-0
Umeno Takaaki Def. Iga Hiroharu by decision 3-0
King 皇兵 Def. Kida Nakkuru Shouta by TKO Round 3, 2:40.
Iwashita Masahiro Def. King by KO, Round 3, 1:16.
Phantom Shinya Def. Kyoutani Hiroki by Submission (Front choke), Round 3, 0:49
Naguranchun Man M16 Def. Sakimura Akihito by decision, 3-0
Kikuchi Kouichi Def. Adam Hickson/Rickson by decision 3-0
Jon Byun Gu (?) Def. Oikawa Tomohiro by Decision

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Technical Problems

Sorry, have had technical problems for the last few days. They seem to have been fixed for now, so I am back. The result has been the creation of a back-up site, so its not all bad.Anyway, hopefully the problems are behind me now. Will continue to use this blog as long as it is working ok.

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12/31 Yarennoka - Fight Cancelled

Yarennoka announced today the the fight between Shinya Aoki and JZ Calvan will be cancelled. This is due to a knee injury JZ sustained during training Dec. 17. This is a huge dissapointement, but things like this happen… Hopefully we get to see this fight some time next year.
Now I would say that Yarennoka has some problems too, in my mind they need 2-3 more fights to make it a full card.

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12/22 DEEP Protect Osaka - RESULTS

DEEP held their Protect Osaka event yesterday. As expected, Japan won their 3 fight tournament against Korea, 2-0. Miku Matsumoto capped an amazing year for her, she has claimed the DEEP title, today she finished 2007 by going 5-0 for the year.
The grappling tag team tournament was won by Purebred Kyoto fighters were AKI and AGO.

Japan vs. Korea 3 Fights
Yoshiro Maeda vs. Jong Man Kim Draw
Seichi Ikemoto Def. Seo Do Wong by heel-lock, Round 1, 2:56
Ryuichi Murata Def. Kim Ho Jin (キム・ホジン) by arm-bar, Round 1, 3:38


Miku Matsumoto Def. Wenton Sakrungruang by arm-bar, Round 1, 0:43
Hiroki Nagaoka Def. Ken Hamamura by decision 3-0
Tomoyuki Fukami Def. Akihiko Mori by front choke, Round 2, 1:43
Yukinari Tamura Def. Naoki Matsushita by TKO, Round 2, 3:46
Motoyuki Takinishi Def. Toru Harai by decision 3-0
Yusuke Sakashita Def. Taiki Yonashiro by TKO, Round 2, 2:18
Takahiro Kajita Def. Hiroshi Shiba by decision 2-0
Isao Terada Def. Nobuhiro Yoshitake by KO, Round 1, 2:43
Kousuke Eda Def. Takashi Hasegawa by decision 3-0
Yabu Def. Junichi Nakahira by decision 3-0

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Artur Oumakhanov to fight in Pancrase

Thursday 13 December 2007

Pancrase annoucend today that Artur Oumakhanov, Cage Force champion, will participate in their 4 man light weight tournament. He is the first fighter to be confirmed.

Semi-finals are to take place in Korakuen Hall January 30. The finals will take place on March 26 in the same arena.

Other fighters confirmed for the January 30th event are:
-Yuki Kondo
-Katsuya Inoue
-Takuya Wada
-Shinsuke Shoji
-Asano Michihisa

This will be the first event on the Shining Tour.

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12/22 Pancrase Rising Tour - RESULTS

Pancrase held their last Rising Tour event today. The fight everyone was looking forward to was of course the return of Josh Barnett, even though this was a catch wresling fight, it was without a doubt one of the main fights in this event.

Hayato Shimizu was handed his first loss after being submitted by Tatsuya So in the second round. Kenji Arai, has returned to his winning form. He won the last fight by decision, today he showed the qualities he had before his loss to Jens Pulver by an easy victory over So Jin Kwo.

Keiichiro Yamamiya Def. Ryo Kawamura by Decision 3-0
Shoji Def. Takafumi Ito by Decision 3-0
Josh Barnett Def. Hikaru Sato by Choke, Round 1, 4:27
Kenji Arai Def. Sa Jin Kwok by arm-bar, Round 1, 1:17
Gadzhiev Alavutdin Def. Toryu Masahiro by TKO Round 1, 0:57
Miki Shida Def. Jameel“The Sergeant”Massouh by Decision 3-0
Yuichi Ikari Def.Takumi Yano TKO Round 1, 1:51
Tatsuya So Def. Shimizu Hayato by submission (choke) Round 2, 3:30

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Last Week of 2007 - Preview

Ok, I am having some problems with my blog, mostly, updating the upcoming- and recent events. Also, as you can see, all my posts come up with the same date. If anyone has some idea of how to fix this, plaese let me know.

Anyhow, since my upcoming events are screwed up now, I have decided to put up a schedule for the last few days of 2007 here. Without a doubt, a very exciting time to be a MMA fan in Japan.

Today, December 22. there are 2 events.
Pancrase Rising Tour, Differ Ariake.
-Most notably on this card, Josh Barnett will fight Hikaru Sato with catch wrestling rules. The main event Light Heavyweight Champion Keiichiro Yamamiya will fight Ryo Kawamura.

DEEP Protect Impact Osaka, Stellar Hall Umeda city Osaka.
-I did have tickets for this event, but wont be able to make it. This should be a very exciting event. The main event is the fight between Yoshiro Maeda and Jong Man Kim. Kim inflicted a loss on home favorite Hatsu Hioki in Nagoya earlier this year. Until then, he was basically unknown. Now he has a chance to build in that, and give Korea one win in the 3 match tournament between Japan and Korea. Also on the card, Miku Matsumoto will cap an amazing year for her.

December 23.
MARS, Gold Gym South Tokyo
-MARS will hold their finals in the Genesis tournament tomorrow. This is a starting ground for a lot of MMA fighters in Japan, an some of the fighters in action tomorrow will undoubtebly more on to greater things.

December 26.
SmackGirl, Korakuen Hall
-This event is the 7th annaversary event for the female fight promotor SmackGirl. This will be the main card of the year for SmackGirl, and they are pulling out all their stars. The main event is SmackGirl champion Yuka Tsuji against Korean Su Hi Ham. Ham dominated Hisae Watanabe in a non-championship fight in DEEP 28 and is no easy fight. Also on the card is Megumi Fujii, Satoko Shinashi, Megumi Yabushita and Lana Stefanac.

December 31
This is THE day for MMA fans in Japan. We have 2 events:
K-1 Dynamite!, Osaka.
-As always, FEG is playing to the Japanese public in this event. This is why fights like Bob Sapp vs. Bobby Ologun is on the card. I dont like the addition of these fights, but the public likes it. For me, fighters like Joachim Hansen, Minowaman (even if the opponent could be better), Miyata, Manhoef and of course "kid" Yamamoto are the the real stars of this event, and it will be the event of the year in Osaka.
The fights are:

HEROs Rules
Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto 16-1-0 vs. 11-3-0 Rani Yahya
Sakuraba 22-10-1 vs. 38-11-1 Masakatsu Funaki
Joachim Hansen 15-6-1 vs. 5-5-0 Kazuyuki Miyata
Minowaman 38-26-8 vs. 3-3-0 "Zulu" Wagner da Conceicao Martins
Yusuke Nishijima 0-4-0 vs. 18-4-1 Melvin Manhoef
Hideo Tokoro 19-12-1 vs. 16-10-0 Kiyoshi Tamura

K-1 Rules
Musashi vs. Bernard Ackah
Masato vs. Yong Soo Choi

K-1 Rules U/18 tournament
HIROYA vs. Tsukasa Fuji
Kenji Kubo vs. Yudai

Yarennoka, Saitama Superarena
-Of course the event of the year (assuming everyone has forgotten the Pride events of early 2007). This is the return of Fedor, and many other great fighters. The fights are:

Fedor Emelianenko 26-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Choi Hong Man
Kazuo Misaki 18-8-2 vs. 10-1-0 (1NC) Yoshihiro Akiyama
Shinya Aoki 11-2-0 vs. 14-1-1 J.Z. Calvan
Hayato Sakurai 30-7-2 vs. 14-8-4 Hidehiko Hasegawa
Gilbert Melendez 13-0-0 vs. 14-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri 19-4-2 vs. 11-6-0 Luiz Azeredo
Murlio Bustamante 14-6-1 vs. 3-3-0 Makoto Takimoto

Now for some rumors, I have seen speculations that Aoki vs. Calvan will not happen... I REALLY hope this is not true, it is the one of the very best match-ups here.

Also, I am expecting a few more fights to be added to this card, but time is running out.

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12/31 K-1 Dynamite - Fights added

FEG adds another 2 fights to their NYE card. Tokoro got the fight on NYE he was promised after his win in ZST 15. He will meet Pride veteran Kiyoshi Tamura in what will be a good match-up.

The other fight is between Musashi and Bernard Ackah. It is very hard for me to get excited about match-ups like these. Bernard Ackah is without a doubt talented, but in my mind he has not done enough in the ring to deserve a fight like this. It will either be a spectacular KO, or most likely, a very boring fight. FEG have a tradition for adding these kind of fights to their events... And I am sure they do draw a crowd in Japan.

HEROs Rule
Hideo Tokoro 19-12-1 vs. 16-10-0 Kiyoshi Tamura

K-1 Rule
Musashi vs. Bernard Ackah

Already on the card:

HEROs Rules
Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto 16-1-0 vs. 11-3-0 Rani Yahya
Sakuraba 22-10-1 vs. 38-11-1 Masakatsu Funaki
Joachim Hansen 15-6-1 vs. 5-5-0 Kazuyuki Miyata
Minowaman 38-26-8 vs. 3-3-0 "Zulu" Wagner da Conceicao Martins
Yusuke Nishijima 0-4-0 vs. 18-4-1 Melvin Manhoef

K-1 Rule
Masato vs. Yong Soo Choi

K-1 Rules Under 18 tournament
HIROYA vs. Tsukasa Fuji
Kenji Kubo vs. Yudai

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Yarennoka Adds Another Fight

Yarennoka is putting together an amazing card! They have now, according to Sherdog, added Murlio Bustamante vs. Makoto Takimoto. To me this looks like a very exciting fight, I think Takimoto is under-rated by many fans, and lets face it, Bustamante needs to get his career back on track.

Murlio Bustamante 14-6-1 vs. 3-3-0 Makoto Takimoto

Add this to the fights already on the card, and we will have one of the best cards in 2007:

Fedor Emelianenko 26-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Choi Hong Man
Kazuo Misaki 18-8-2 vs. 10-1-0 (1NC) Yoshihiro Akiyama
Shinya Aoki 11-2-0 vs. 14-1-1 J.Z. Calvan
Hayato Sakurai 30-7-2 vs. 14-8-4 Hidehiko Hasegawa
Gilbert Melendez 13-0-0 vs. 14-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri 19-4-2 vs. 11-6-0 Luiz Azeredo

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Pancrase 2008 - Tour Name

After the success of their 2007 Rising Tour, Pancrase have announced the tour name for 2008. They have decided to call the tour the "Pancrase 2008 Shining Tour".

Best of luck to all the fighters and to Pancrase! This weekend will be the last event on the Rising Tour.

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12/23 Shoot Boxing Osaka

Shoot Boxing will hold their next event in Osaka December 23. For those of you not familiar with this fighting format, have a look at their homepage http://www.shootboxing.org/en/index.html.

Basically, there is no fighting on the ground, but standing submissions are allowed. The card for the next event looks like this:

Standing Class Rule 3x2min round, 1 round extention
Fujimoto Shouta vs. Minato Masanori
ACT Yuusuke vs. Wakayama Masaharu
Kubuchunarena M15 vs. Oka Kanako
Nogami Yuuta vs. KY Youhei
Kawata Yasuhiro vs. Takawaguchi Mantarou

Freshman Class Rule 3x3min, 1 round extention

Hyakutake Masatoshi vs. Sasaki Makoto
Sasaki Makoto vs. Matsumoto Tadashi

Expert Class Rule 3x3min

Iga Hiroharu vs. Umeno Takaaki
Kida Nakkuru Shouta vs. King 皇兵
Iwashita Masahiro vs. King
Phantom Shinya vs. Kyoutani Hiroki
Naguranchun Man M16vs. Sakimura Akihito


Expert Class Rule 5x3min
Kikuchi Kouichi vs. Adam Hickson/Rickson
Oikawa Tomohiro vs. Andrew Belisch

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12/09 ClubDEEP Kanezawa - RESULTS

Time to catch up on some results again. ClubDEEP in Kanezawa had a few big name fighters in it, and one major upset. Carlos Toyota won his fight against Pride veteran Daijiro Matsui. Matsui will be in the DEEP middleweight tournament in February, after this I would not rank him as a favorite to take home the vacant title. This was Carlos Toyota`s first MMA victory.

KICK-RULE
Claudio Silva Def. Masayuki Fujita by KO Round 2, 0:42

MMA Rule
Miku Matsumoto Def. Yukiko Seki by kimura, Round 1 1:07
Carlos Toyota Def. Daijiro Matsui by TKO (punches) Round 1, 2:22
Satoshi Watanabe Def. Shinobu Aoyama TKO Round 1, 4:39

KICK-RULE
Mr. Takita TETUrou Def. Kenshiro Sekikawa by Decision 3-0
Inashiro 亮達 (?) Def. Noboru Yotani by decision 3-0

Oyaji DEEP Rule
Atsushi Wakui Def. Kattsuan* by decision
*Katsuhiko Sakamoto was listed as the fighter here. On the results the fighter is listed as Kattsuan, this might be a nickname.

MMA Rule
Masayuki Demise Def. Fuhito (Haruo on sherdog) Hasegawa by TKO Round 1, 0:32

KICK-RULE
Akira Hirai Def. Taxi 38 Sakai by decision 3-0
Tatsuya Oda Def. 今夜が山だ by decision 2-0
Tagawa Man Tarou Def. Shigeto Hayakawa by TKO (2 down) Round 1, 2:27
Yuuya Sawai Def. Tattaman by TKO (2 down) Round 1, 2:01
Kazuhiro Konishi Def. Jin Nakamura by TKO (2 down) round 1, 1:20


Future King Tournament:
At this event DEEP also arranged a future king tournament, as always, these are fighters to keep an eye on.

For 65kg the winner was Masaki Yanagisawa.
Beating Hideaki Onishi by decision 3-0 and Kosuke Dochi by gogopalata 1:13 into round 1.

For 70kg the winner was Yuya Osugi.
Beating Yuya Osugi by arm-bar 2:26 into round 1 and Mitsuhiro Okada by arm-bar 3:32 into round 1.

For 76kg the winner was Tetsuya Yoshioka.
Beating Katsuhei Harada by TKO 2:56 into round 2 and Yasuto Kimura by kimura round 1 4:44

For 82kg the winner was Ryuhei Arai.
Beating Takami Ono by TKO in round 1 and Tamotsu Kitada by heel-hook round 1 0:37

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12/22 Pancrase Rising Tour - Barnett returns

December 22 Barnett will return to the ring against Hikaru Sato, the fight will be a catch wrestling fight, but for many fans that will not matter. Barnett is back!


Also, keep your eyes on Hayato Shimizu, he will be trying to improve his record to 4-0 all of these fights in 2007. The main event is between Ryo Kawamura and the very experienced Keiichiro Yamamiya. Kawamura`s only loss came against Fabio Silva in May, and I have a feeling this will be a pretty easy fight for him.

Ryo Kawamura 7-1-2 vs. 31-22-9 Keiichiro Yamamiya
Takafumi Ito 32-25-9 vs. 4-2-0 Shoji
Hikaru Sato 17-17-4 vs. 20-5-0 Josh Barnett
Kenji Arai 11-11-2 vs. 3-2-2 Sa Jin Kwok
Toryu Masahiro 4-2-2 vs. 4-1-0 Gadzhiev Alavutdin
Miki Shida 12-4-2 vs. 14-2-0 Jameel“The Sergeant”Massouh
Yuichi Ikari 6-3-2 vs. 9-7-3 Takumi Yano
Tatsuya So 1-2-1 vs. 3-0-0 Shimizu Hayato


Also there, the Super Terrific Cuties, Rika and Yumi Irie. This is also the last installment of the Rising Tour, time to look forward to 2008.



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12/31 Yarennoka - Main Event is....

According to Gryphon It is announced, and it is Misaki vs. Akiyama. This is VERY surprising to me. I would have expected the Fedor fight would be the main event, as Fedor is without a doubt the most expensive fighter on the card. But I guess that means they are realising that it takes more than one great fighter to make a main event.

Gryphon also raises some interesting questions in this article:

-Will this be a one-off event? Will it be a way in to the Japanese market for M-1? In that case, they are much smarter about it than UFC was.
-What will fighters like Aoki, Ishida and Kawajiri do after this event? Who will they sign with?

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The Best MMA Fight ever?

I have seen people call this the best MMA fight ever. I am not sure if I agree, but this is without a doubt a very good fight. Its a fight I think a lot of MMA fans have never seen, so I deceided to post it.

From DEEP 22 12/2-05 Milton Viera vs. Nobuhiro Obiya.


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2/22 DEEP Impact 34

DEEP has announced their Middleweight tournement for next year. This is a tournament to determine the new middleweight champion after Ryo Chonan handed his title back earlier this week. It will be held February 22 in Korakuen Hall.

6 fighters are confirmed so far, another 2 will be announced later. Amoung them, former DEEP champion Ryuta Sakurai, Pride veteran with a very average record Daijiro Matsui and former King of Pancrase Yuichi Nakanishi.

Confirmed fighters are:
-Ryuta Sakurai (15-13-4)
-Yuichi Nakanishi (6-7-3)
-Riki Fukuda (8-3-0)
-Daijiro Matsui (9-18-4)
-Eiji Ishikawa (14-14-2)
-Yuya Shirai (9-5-0)

For now, my money is on Killer Bee`s Fukuda. He has showed a lot of promise, and I think he is a best fighter in this field.

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3/5 Sengoku - Fighters added

Sengoku has presented 2 more fighters for their March 5. event. The event will be held in the Yoyogi Gymnasium and it will be exciting to see what this card will look like.

The fighters added are:
-Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos (15-10-0)
-Siyar Bahadurazada (13-1-1)

The fighters already presented are:
-Hidehiko Yoshida (7-5-1)
-Sanae Kikuta (26-6-3)
-Ryo Kawamura (7-1-2)
-Makoto Takimoto (3-3-0)

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12/31 K-1 Dynamite!! - Fights added

In addition to the Yarennoka fights announced, FEG announced another fight for their Dynamite!! Card. Bob Sapp will take on comedian Bobby Ologun. This will most likely be portrayed as a freak-fight, but make no mistake about it, this will draw the Japanese to their TV sets. Personally, I would rather see Sapp fight a real fighter, and I am not too excited about this fight....

It is hard to get excited about this fight, but this card still has lots of good fighters on it.

Currently on the Dynamite!! Card:

Fights added to the card:
Bob Sapp 8-2-1 vs. 2-1-0 Bobby Ologun

Already on the card:
HERO's Rule
Joachim Hansen 15-6-1 vs. 5-5-0 Kazuyuki Miyata
Minowaman 38-26-8 vs. 3-3-0 "Zulu" Wagner da Conceicao Martins
Yusuke Nishijima 0-4-0 vs. 18-4-1 Melvin Manhoef
Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto 16-1-0 vs. 11-3-0 Rani Yahya
Kazushi Sakuraba 22-10-1 vs. 38-11-1 Masakatsu Funaki

K-1 Rule
Masato vs. Yong Soo Choi

K-1 Rules Under 18 tournament
HIROYA vs. Tsukasa Fuji
Kenji Kubo vs. Yudai

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12/31 Yarennoka - Fights Added

Yarennoka has made 2 more fights official today.

Previously announced fights were:
Shinya Aoki 11-2-0 vs. 14-1-1 J.Z. Calvan
Hayato Sakurai 30-7-2 vs. 14-8-4 Hidehiko Hasegawa
Gilbert Melendez 13-0-0 vs. 14-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri 19-4-2 vs. 11-6-0 Luiz Azeredo

Today these fights were announced:
Fedor Emelianenko 26-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Choi Hong Man
Kazuo Misaki 18-8-2 vs. 10-1-0 (1NC) Yoshihiro Akiyama

That's right, Fedor will fight Hong Man. I am not excited about this, especially after the performance Hong Man put in at the K-1 GP Finals. This should be an easy fight for Fedor, but you never know. Hong Man has a lot of power and cause some problems.

The other fight is a really exciting fight. Misaki holds wins over fighters such as Dan Henderson, Phil Baroni and Denis Kang. All these by decision, but he is a top quality fighter. Akiyama is of course the guy who Koed Denis Kang in his long awaited comeback in October. Akiyama's only loss came to Jerome LeBanner in 2005.

Still listed as a participant (despite saying he would not be able tocompete):

Ricardo Arona (?) 13-5-0

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Technical Problems

Wednesday 12 December 2007

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test

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New Site

I am having some technical issues with my blog, not able to post (luckily this one made it), as well as updating the lists on the right have been impossible lately. I have set up a new page, but seem to have some problems there too.

Getting Error "Please correct the errors on this form." If someone can help, I would be very grateful.

The new site is:
http://mma-japan.blogspot.com/

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Problems with the blog

I am having some problems getting posts on the blog. Its been an on-going issue that has become worse the last few days. I am working to fix it, or find alternatives.

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12/22 DEEP Protect Osaka - RESULTS

DEEP held their Protect Osaka event yesterday. As expected, Japan won their 3 fight tournament against Korea, 2-0. Miku Matsumoto capped an amazing year for her, she has claimed the DEEP title, today she finished 2007 by going 5-0 for the year.

The grappling tag team tournament was won by Purebred Kyoto fighters were AKI and AGO.


Japan vs. Korea 3 Fights
Yoshiro Maeda vs. Jong Man Kim Draw
Seichi Ikemoto Def. Seo Do Wong by heel-lock, Round 1, 2:56
Ryuichi Murata Def. Kim Ho Jin (キム・ホジン) by arm-bar, Round 1, 3:38

Miku Matsumoto Def. Wenton Sakrungruang by arm-bar, Round 1, 0:43
Hiroki Nagaoka Def. Ken Hamamura by decision 3-0
Tomoyuki Fukami Def. Akihiko Mori by front choke, Round 2, 1:43
Yukinari Tamura Def. Naoki Matsushita by TKO, Round 2, 3:46
Motoyuki Takinishi Def. Toru Harai by decision 3-0
Yusuke Sakashita Def. Taiki Yonashiro by TKO, Round 2, 2:18
Takahiro Kajita Def. Hiroshi Shiba by decision 2-0
Isao Terada Def. Nobuhiro Yoshitake by KO, Round 1, 2:43
Kousuke Eda Def. Takashi Hasegawa by decision 3-0
Yabu Def. Junichi Nakahira by decision 3-0

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12/22 DEEP Protect Osaka - RESULTS

DEEP held their Protect Osaka event yesterday. As expected, Japan won their 3 fight tournament against Korea, 2-0. Also, Miku Matsumoto capped an amazing year for her, earlier this year she claimed the DEEP title, now she improved her record for the year to 5-0.

The grappling tag team tournament was won by Purebred Kyoto, the fighters were AKI and AGO.


Other results:
Japan vs. Korea 3 Fights
Yoshiro Maeda Vs. Jong Man Kim Draw
Seichi Ikemoto Def. Seo Do Wong by Heel-lock, Round 1, 2:56
Ryuichi Murata Def. Kim Ho Jin (キム・ホジン) by Arm-bar, Round 1, 3:38

Miku Matsumoto Def. Wenton Sakrungruang by Arm-bar, Round 1, 0:43
Hiroki Nagaoka Def. Ken Hamamura by decision 3-0
Tomoyuki Fukami Def. Akihiko Mori by front choke, Round 2, 1:43
Yukinari Tamura Def. Naoki Matsushita by TKO, Round 2, 3:46
Motoyuki Takinishi Def. Toru Harai by decision 3-0
Yusuke Sakashita Def. Taiki Yonashiro by TKO, Round 2, 2:18
Takahiro Kajita Def. Hiroshi Shiba by decision 2-0
Isao Terada Def. Nobuhiro Yoshitake by KO, Round 1, 2:43
Kousuke Eda Def. Takashi Hasegawa by decision 3-0
Yabu Def. Junichi Nakahira by decision 3-0

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12/12 DEEP Impact 33 - RESULTS

Sunday 9 December 2007

One of the highlights during this event was the presentation of the Japanese participants in Yarennoka.

Ryo Chonan was also presented as the DEEP champion, however due to his commitments to the UFC, he handed this belt back to Saeki as he would not be able to defend this. There will be a tournament next year to determine the next Middleweight champion. This will be held February 22.

Hidetada Irie vs. Yuji Sakuragi Draw
Pang Sung Hwan Def. Jutaro Nakao by TKO, Round 2 1:15
Hisae Watanabe Def. Genkamu Rukchamupokam by arm-bar round 1 1:54
Yasuhito Namekawa Def. "Hollywood" Stoker Ichikawa by guillotine choke, round 1 2:20

Sojiro Orui vs. Masataka Chinushi Draw
Kintaro Def. Kosei Kubota by KO Round 1 0:37
Junpei Hamada Def. Shunske Inoue by KO Round 1, 0:41
Toshiaki Kitada Def. Isamu Sugiuchi by decision 3-0
A very dominant victory to Kitada, and his first MMA win (according to my research)

Yuta Watanabe Def. Min Suk Heo by decision 2-0
Koichiro Matsumoto Def. Koji Yoshida by TKO, Round 2, 2:04
Hirotaka Inoue Def. Yasushi Kitazaki by KO, Round 1, 0:05

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12/31 K-1 Dynamite - Fights added

3 fights have been added to the K-1 Dynamite NYE card.

One of them is a surprise, as Joachim Hansen was expected to be on the Yarennoka card. Instead he will return to HERO's and face Kazuyuki Miyata, this seems to indicate that Hansen has signed with HEROs and we are likely to see more of him in Japan in the future. Miyata is a former olympic wrestler, and was very impressive against Harvey Harra in his last fight, where as Hansen suffered from ring rustiness in his loss to Eiji Mitsuoka.

The excentric Minowaman will face Zulu, in a fight I hope to see a realy good show from Minowaman. He should be a clear favorite in this fight.

Also added to the card, former WBF titleholder, Yusuke Nishijima will face Melvin Manhoef in what I expect to be a very entertaining fight. I would however expect this to be a short fight as I think Manhoef is a far surperior all-round fighter to Nishijima.

Fights added to the card:
HERO’s Rule 3x5min rounds 70kg
Joachim Hansen 15-6-1 vs. 5-5-0 Kazuyuki Miyata

HERO’s Rule 3x5min
Minowaman 38-26-8 vs. 3-3-0 "Zulu" Wagner da Conceicao Martins

HERO’s Rule 1x10min, 2x5min 85kg
Yusuke Nishijima 0-4-0 vs. 18-4-1 Melvin Manhoef

Already on the card:
HEROs Rules
Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto vs. Rani Yahaya

HEROs Rules Round1 10min, Round 2 5min 85kg
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Masakatsu Funaki

K-1 Rule 3x3min 70kg
Masato vs. Yong Soo Choi

K-1 Rules Under 18 tournament
HIROYA vs. Tsukasa Fuji
Kenji Kubo vs. Yudai

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12/8 Shooto - Rookie Finals - RESULTS

Yesterday Shooto had their rookie tournament finals, this is the best place to spot the next Japanese stars. Hiromasa Ougikubo is a man to keep your eyes on for the future, improving his record to 4-0-1.

Shooto also announced the match-up between Hatsu Hioki and Katsuya Toida for their January 26 card.

1.Light-Heavy Weight Tournament Final:
Hiroki Sato Def. Takaaki “C-Boy” Oban by Arm-bar, Round 1 1:17
2. Bantam Weight Tournament Final:
Kenji Hasoya Def. Tatsuro Kamei by Decision 3-0
3. Light Weight Tournament Final:
Kazuhiro Ito Def. Tomonori Taniguchi by TKO (cut) round 1, 3:25
4. Fly Weight Tournament Final:
Hiroyuki Ikeda Def. Hiroyuki Abe by TKO, Round 2, 1:25
5. Feather weight Tournament Final:
Hiromasa Ougikubo Def. Yasuhiro Kanayama by rear-naked choke, Round 2, 3:35
6. Middle weight Tournament Final:
Akihiro Yamazaki Def. Tomokazu Yuasa by TKO, Round 2, 0:54
7. Light weight Division:
Hiroshi Nakamura Def. Kyotaro Nakao by decision 3-0
8. Welter weight Division:
Paolo Milano Def. Koumei Okada by decision 3-0
9. Middle weight semi-final 2 Rounds:
Taisuke Okuno Def Hirosumi “C-Bozu” Sugiura by TKO, round 1, 4:42
10. Feather weight 3Rounds:
Masakatsu Ueda Def. Tetsu “Hadairo” Suzuki by decision 3-0

For an extended review of the fights, click here: http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=10285

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12/8 K-1 GP Finals - RESULTS *Spoilers*

Saturday 8 December 2007

The fights have started. I will update the resluts as the fights happen.

Semmy Schilt goes in as the favorite.

Results:
FINAL: Semmy Schilt Def. Peter Aerts by KO, Round 1.
3 times champion Aerts will face 2 times champion Schilt in the all Dutch final.
Round 1 Aerts the most agressive early on. Schilt does not seem to take much damage. Aerts goes down he seems to have injured his knee. It was not a result of any kick.

Super Fight: Musashi Def. David Doncrade by KO, Round 1.
Round 1 Fighters feeling each other out, no fighter has an upper hand. Until the last second of the round, when Musashi KOs Dancrade with a kick to the body.

Semi Final 2: Peter Aerts Def. Remy Bonjasky by decision 3-0
Aerts had the easier quarter-final, and I would be surprised if he doesnt take this.
Round 3 Bonjasky fights his way back in. Both fighters look very tired and the last round is close.
Round 2 Both fighters come out hard. Aerts continue to work the leg kicks. Remy not giving much now. Remy gets Aerts on the ropes, and lands lots of punches, but Aerts stays up.
Round 1 The round starts off even, but then Aerts starts working on the legs. Remy is tired and clearly in pain. Bonjasky is told to be more active, he looks very tired at the end of the round, he tries a few kneees but doesnt hit.

Semi Final 1: Semmy Schilt Def. Jerome Le Banner by TKO (towel thrown) Round 2.
Round 2 Le Banner does not looks comfortable as he comes out. Seems to have hurt his leg and Schilt will have an easy fight. Towel throuwn from Le Banner corner.
Round 1 Le Banner is the more agressive and hits with a few punches. Schilt is close to a KO at the end of round 1. A close first round.

Quarter Final 4: Peter Aerts Def. Junichi Sawayashiki by KO punch, Round 1.
Round 1 Aerts goes for some leg kicks. THen hits with a kick to the head. Sawayashiki takes count, but get back up. Aerts dominates and wins by KO.

Quarter Final 3: Remy Bonjasky Def. Badr Hari by decision 2-0
Round 3 Remi comes out strong. Lots of punches throuwn, not much hitting. Both fighters looking tired. Remi probably looking the fresher.
Round 2 Again in this round, Hari is throwing more punches. Remi is defending well, but the round would probably go to Hari.
Round 1 Some very strong leg kicks from both fighters start off the round. Looks like Hari has done more damage with his kicks. Hari finishes stronger.

Quarter Final 2: Semmy Schilt Def. Glaube Feitosa by decision 3-0
Round 3 Schilt trying to set up a knee, both fighters are tired now. Schilt is the more active and will probably take this round too.
Round 2 Feitosa hits with a high-kick and Schilt is close to going down. But he fights back and gets the upper hand again. Feitosa is tired at the end of the round, Schilt is close witha few knees. Round to Schilt.
Round 1 Both fighters mixing it up with kicks and punches. Hard to tell who has the upper hand, but looks like Schilt is getting the better of the exchanges. End of the round its clear that Schilt is doing the most damage.

Quarter Final 1: Jerome Le Banner Def. Hong Man Choi by decision 3-0
Round 3 Le Banner starts the round better, hitting with some strong punches. Choi looks tired, but is still fighting back. Lots of punches from both fighters. Clear round to Le Banner.
Round 2 Banner hits with more punches in this round, but a close round.
Round 1 Fighters feeling each other out. Both fighters hitting with a few punches. Hong Man finishes the round stronger.

Paul Slowinski Vs. Mighty Mo TKO, Round 2 (leg Kicks)
Round 2 Slowinski continues with leg kicks. Mighty Mo goes down, and is unable to continue.
Round1 Mighty Mo goes straight for a KO and is close. Slowinski goes for leg kicks, but gets a cut that needs a doctor check. The leg kicks are hurting Mighty Mo, but he hits the target with a lot of punches. In my book, MIghty Mo takes this round.

Takashi Tachikawa Def. Ki Min Kim by KO (Leg kicks), Round 1

I am watching this live on TV. If your in Japan, that is Sky-Perfect channel 721.
Results can also be found here, in Japanese http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/k1/live/2007/2007120801/index.html

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12/09 ClubDEEP Kanezawa & MARS 10 - All-out war

Of course this weekend will be mostly about the K-1 GP finals, but there are another couple of events tomorrow.

Most interesting is the ClubDEEP card in Kanezawa, which holds a few very good fighters, but not interesting match-ups. Fighters to keep an eye on here is MIKU, the DEEP female champion will most likly improve her record to 5-0 for 2007. Also on the card is Pride veteran Dajiro Matsui.

The MARS card has only unknown fighters to me... Sherdog has included the event in their "Koubousen" article from yesterday. http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=10267

ClubDEEP Kanezawa

KICK-RULE
Masayuki Fujita VS Claudio Silva (?)

MMA Rule
Miku Matsumoto 15-4-0 vs 4-12-0 Yukiko Seki
Daijiro Matsui 9-17-4 VS. 0-2-1 Carlos Toyota
Satoshi Watanabe 1-2-0 vs. 5-2-0 Shinobu Aoyama

KICK-RULE
Kenshiro Sekikawa vs. Mr. Takita TETUrou
Inashiro 亮達 (?) vs. Noboru Yotani

Oyaji DEEP Rule
Katsuhiko Sakamoto vs. Atsushi Wakui

MMA Rule
Masayuki Demise 1-4-2 vs 1-0-0 Fuhito (Haruo on sherdog) Hasegawa

KICK-RULE
Akira Hirai vs. Takushi Sakai 38
Tatsuya Oda vs. Passion Nakamura
Shigeto Hayakawa vs. Tagawa Man Tarou)
Yuuya Sawai vs. Kisuke Sugimoto
Kazuhiro Konishi vs. Jin Nakamura

Exhibition
Yuuto Izumi vs TBA



MARS 10 - All-out war

Myeon Ho Bae 3-3-0 vs. 0-1-0 Anderson Sato
Parky 1-0-0 vs. 2-0-0 Hairan Nishimura
Shuya Arimura 1-1-0 vs. Vitor Toffaneri
Hiroshi Kobayashi 0-2-0 vs. 0-1-0 William Animal
Kim Jun Jong vs. 0-1-0 Hiroshi Masabuchi

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12/8 K-1 GP Finals - Updated

Friday 7 December 2007

Injury have forced Ray Sefo, Souleimane Konate and Chalid "de Faust" out of their fights. The updated card will look like this:

I will give live updates to the card tomorrow (it will be a new post and link). Results are updated here: http://mmamanjapan.blogspot.com/2007/12/128-k-1-gp-finals-results-spoilers.html

This is the card (All fights 3x3min, 1round extention):
FINAL: Winner of Semi Final 1 Vs. Winner of Semi Final 2

Super Fight: Musashi Vs. David Doncrade
Semi Final 2: Winner of Quarter Final 3 Vs. Winner of Quarter Final 4
Semi Final 1: Winner of Quarter Final 1 Vs. Winner of Quarter Final 2

Quarter Final 4: Peter Aerts Vs. Junichi Sawayashiki
Quarter Final 3: Remy Bonjasky Vs. Badr Hari
Quarter Final 2: Semmy Schilt Vs. Glaube Feitosa
Quarter Final 1: Hong Man Choi Vs. Jerome Le Banner
Reserve Fight: Paul Slowinski Vs. Mighty Mo

Undercard (3x3min):
Takashi Tachikawa Vs. Ki Min Kim
Jan “The Giant” Nortje Vs. Dong Wook Kim
Mitsugu Noda Vs. Noel Cadet

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12/31 Yarennoka - Fights Added


If you`re going to one event this year, which one would you choose?? For me, hands down, Yarennoka. Unfurtunately, I have family comittments on NYE and wont be able to go.

Yesterday 2 more fights were added, so now we have 4 fights confirmed, a list of very good fighters waiting for an opponent and of course, the rumored fighters. The fights were introduced by DEEP promotor Shigeru Saeki.

Confirmed Fights:
Shinya Aoki 11-2-0 vs. 14-1-1 J.Z. Calvan
Hayato Sakurai 30-7-2 vs. 14-8-4 Hidehiko Hasegawa
Gilbert Melendez 13-0-0 vs. 14-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri 19-4-2 vs. 11-6-0 Luiz Azeredo

Confirmed Participants:
Fedor Emelianenko 26-1-0
Kazuo Misaki 18-8-2
Joachim Hansen 15-6-1
Ricardo Arona (?) 13-5-0

For the rumored participants, I have thrown in Satoru Kitaoka. Why? He was meant to participate in last year`s Pride Middleweight tournament. He was actually the only fighter officially announced. His fight in Cage Force didnt happen last weekend, meaning that he`s fit. Also, the Pancrase director, Sakamoto, has thrown its support behind this event but is yet to contirbute any fighters. My guess is that the fighter they will contribute is Kitaoka.

Possible/rumored Participants:
Aleksander Emelianenko
Roman Zentsov
Mark Hunt
Hong Man Choi
Josh Barnett
Satoru Kitaoka

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12/01 Cage Force 05 - Pictures

The Cage Force finals produced a lot of good fights. Unfortunately the cage made taking pictures more difficult, but by the end of the night we managed to get some decent shots. Of course the ring-girls outside the cage was easier to document and no, they were not making wine or participating in any other grape related activities.


Anyway, first of some pictures from the fighting. In what I expected to be the best fight of the night Dan Hardy faced Yoshiyuki Yoshida. Unfortunately, the fight did not end as the fans and fighters wanted. Yoshida caught a kick to the groin and could not continue.

For Dan Hardy this meant the end to his 5 fight winning streak. For those of you in Nottingham, he will try to start a new one this weekend as he fight Manuel Garcia. The fight will take place in the Harvey Hadden Sports Centre.




In the other final of the night, Koutetsu Boku faced Artur Oumakhanov. This was a very close fight with Artur winning a deserved victory in the end. The deciding factor was his ability to make his punches hit the target.









As always in Japan, the ring-girls play an important part of these events. For those of you that have not been to an event in Japan, the ring-girls here have a pretty goo reputation and some have an active fan following. Either way, they add something extra to the events and as usual the girls at this event did a very good job.



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12/12 DEEP Impact 33 - Updated

Tuesday 4 December 2007

There has been a few changes to the card since I posted it. So here is the updated card for DEEP 33.

"Hollywood" Stoker Ichikawa will take part in a promotional fight,Ichikawa is normally a pro-wrestler fighting in the Promotion called"Dragon Gate". It will be exciting to see how he matches up against the very experienced Namekawa. Other exciting fighters on this card: Yuji Sakuragi, Jutaro Nakao,Sojiro Orui, Yuta Watanabe and dethroned champion Hisae Watanabe.

DEEP has had to spread their talent around a bit this month and it shows a bit on this card. With 2 big events 10 days apart, it would not be easy. However, there is lots of new talent getting a chance.

Hidetada Irie 3-3-1 vs 8-9-0 Yuji Sakuragi
Jutaro Nakao 20-12-4 vs 1-1-0 Pang Sung Hwan
"Hollywood" Stoker Ichikawa vs. 19-13-3 Yasuhito Namekawa

Middleweight Tournament qualifier: Sojiro Orui 5-1-3 vs 1-3-0 Masataka Chinushi
Hisae Watanabe 18-6-0 vs Genkamu Rukchamupokam (?)
Yuta Watanabe 6-1-3 vs 1-2-0 Min Suk Heo
Isamu Sugiuchi 4-4-2 vs 0-3-0 Toshiaki Kitada
Junpei Hamada 4-9-0 vs 1-0-0 Shunske Inoue
Sen Nakadai 4-8-0 vs 23-26-10 Kosei Kubota
Koji Yoshida 2-4-2 vs 2-1-0 Koichiro Matsumoto
Hirotaka Inoue vs 5-3-1 Yasushi Kitazaki

One fight is taken off the card, IRO was injured during DEEP X02 December 2 and will not be able to fight: Muscle Hiranuma 2-2-0 vs 0-3-0 (1NC) Iro Zeki

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12/26 SmackGirl - 7th Anniversary -Starting Over-

Monday 3 December 2007

SmackGirl has announced some of their fights for the anniversary card in December 12th. This proves to be a very exciting card.

The main event is a title fight between Yuka Tsuji and challenger Su Hi Ham. Korean Ham dominated Hisae Watanabe in a non-title fight earlier this year, and it will be very exciting to see her against the Champion.

Other big names on the card include Satoko Shinashi and Megumi Fujii.

Yuka Tsuji 18-1-0 vs. 2-1-0 Su Hi Ham
Shinashi Sato 25-1-2 vs. An
Megumi Yabushita 13-12-0 vs. 4-0-0 Lana Stefanac
Saori Ishioka (her blog:
http://blog.livedoor.jp/saori_i/) 3-2-0 vs. Trisha・プーブィ
Madoka Okada 3-1-0 vs. 0-2-0 Shawn Tamaribuchi
Mika Nagano
(http://mikarin7716.blog62.fc2.com/) vs. Megumi Fujii (http://blog.excite.co.jp/megulog/)

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12/01 Cage Force 05 - RESULTS

Appologies for the late update of these results. Hopefully I can make it up later this week with some good pictures.

Anyway, this was an event that did not disappoint. Normally, an event with so many fights going the distance is not always interesting. But here all the fighters gave it 100% and all the fights were very entertaining.

The highlight was of course Artur Oumakhanov’s victory in the main event, but there were other fights here that deserves a mention. Jesse Taitano was very impressive against an opponent that was expected to dominate him. Another fighter to keep an eye on: Kawahara.

The main disappointment was how the final between Dan Hardy and Yoshiyuki Yoshida finished. I really hope these fighters agree to (and Cage Force is able to put together) a re-match.

Main events:
Artur Oumakhanov Def. Koutetsu Boku by split decision
Artur Oumakhanov was impressive against the home favorite. Some (including me) thought this fight would come too close after his semi-final fight just 20 days earlier.

In a fight fought mainly on their feet, the Sambo fighter proved the stronger and took home a split decision victory.

Yoshiyuki Yoshida Def. Dan Hardy by disqualification, kick to groin. Round 2, 0:04.
This was the fight I was looking forward to the most. Unfortunately, due to an accidental low blow, we never got to see these fighters show their potential. The first round was close, but I thought there was a slight advantage for Yoshida.

I would however question this result… Going with consistency, I would like to remind everyone what Artur Oumakhonov won his semi-final after an accidental clash of heads... I don’t know the exact rules here, but it doesnt seem consistent to me.


Yasuhiro Urushitani vs. Jesse Taitano Draw
Jesse Taitano was by far the biggest surprise of the night. His tactics to keep the fight on his feet and keep distance proved to work as he very nearly won the match by a KO about mid way through round 1. Indeed, the previous fight was stopped in after a similar punch.

Jesse dominated round 1, then seemed to tire a bit through round 2. This fight was rightly judged a draw as Urushitani was the better fighter in the last round.

Jesse proved that he can match it with the best fighters in the world in this fight. I hope and expect to see a lot more from this fighter in the years to come. Hopefully he will get his chance to match up with some of the best bantamweight fighters in the world in Shooto. Either way, this is a fighter to watch for the future.

Mizuto Hirota Def. Sin Do Gi by KO, Round 1 0:16
In the quickest fight of the night, Mizuto Hirota defeated Korean Sin Do Gi by KO. In a fight that I thought was called off too early (Sin Do Gi seemed to agree). Either way, the results stands.
Kenji Osawa Def. Nobuhiro “Punch” Yamauchi
Kenji Osawa finally got back in the victory circle after 2 consecutive losses he won a convincing victory over the strawberry pants wearing, eccentric Yamauchi “Punch”.

Takeya Mizugaki Def. Seiji Ozuka* (Otsuka on Sherdog)
A convincive decision victory to Mizugaki. Seiji Ozuka continues to have his fights go the distance, but there was not much more he would take away from this fight.
Toshikazu Iseno “ISE” vs. Takahito Iida Draw
In a very close and action packed fight, all the judges saw this fight as a draw.

Yukiya Naito Def. Takenori Sato by TKO Round 1, 4:45.
Naito was dominating in this victory. Sato did have a chance early, when it looked like he had a solid guillotine choke, but except for that it was an easy victory for Naito.

Preliminary fights
Seiya Kawahara Def. Hiroshi Arakawa by decision 3-0
Kitaoka was not fighting in this event, however he was there to support Kawahara. Kawahara seemed to apprieciate the advise given from Kitaoka, who was very active from where he was seated ringside. A deserved victory and a fighter to keep your eyes on, the Pancrase fighter is now 3-0.

Junichi Ota Def. Hiroshi Takita by decision 3-0
Taiyoku Endo Def. Hiroyuki Kuwabara by TKO Round 1 2:52.

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