Josh Barnett is confirmed as a participants in the pro-wresting event IGF - Gnome 3 ～猪木 Ｍｅｍｏｒｉａｌ ６５～ February 16.
He will be fighting another Pride veteran, Naoya Ogawa.
Barnett is rumored to be a possible opponent for Hidehiko Yoshida for Sengoku, March 5. This means that he will be in Japan just a few weeks before this event.
http://www.fightopinion.com/2008/01/29/wvr-35-tokyo-show-rumors/
I will put comments and pictures in a different post.
Katsuya Inoue Def. Satoru Kitaoka by Decision 2-1
Shoji Def. Artur Umakhanov by KO, Round 2, 0:21
Gadzhiev Alavutdin Def. Yuji Hisamatsu by KO Round 1, 0:41
Shinsuke Shoji vs. Yuichi Ikari Draw
Daisuke Hanazawa13 vs. Wataru Takahashi Draw
WINDY Tomomi Def. Emi Tomimatsu by TKO Round 2, 5:00
Sotaro Yamada Def. Strasser Kichi by rear-naked choke, Round 1, 1:42
Seiya Kawahara Def. Yuki Yamasawa by KO, Round 1, 0:28
Well, I was going to stay late in the office tomorrow (as I do every day), but then Pancrase announced this card... I couldnt miss it. So for what its worth, should be posting some pictures tomorrow or Thursday.
Katsuya Inoue 15-5-2 vs. 19-7-9 Satoru Kitaoka
Artur Umakhanov 7-1-0 vs. 5-2-0 Shoji
Gadzhiev Alavutdin 5-1-0 vs. 10-13-4 Yuji Hisamatsu
Shinsuke Shoji 4-3-1 vs. 7-3-2 Yuichi Ikari
Daisuke Hanazawa13 7-9-4 vs. 5-10-2 Wataru Takahashi
WINDY Tomomi 9-8-0 vs. 2-3-0 Emi Tomimatsu
Sotaro Yamada 4-3-0 vs. 4-1-0 Strasser Kichi
Yuki Yamasawa 1-4-0 vs. 3-0-0 Seiya Kawahara
Fights starting at 18.10
Hirose Isao vs. Takuya 江泉
Akihiro Ono vs. Taketoshi Suzuki
DEEP has updated their card for February 22. This will be a very interesting event, of course most of the excitement is around the tournaments.
Yoshihiro Tomioka "Barbaro44" 10-4-3 vs. 3-1-1 Seigo Inoue
Yasuhito Namekawa 19-15-3 vs. 1-2-1 Carlos Toyota
Shigetoshi Iwase 7-9-2 vs. 12-4-3 Ken Hamamura
Toshiaki Kitada 7-3-0 vs. 6-1-2 Motoyuki Takinishi
Yoshiyuki Nakanishi 2-0-0 vs. 1-1-0 Shunsuke Inoue
Hisae Watanabe 19-6-0 vs. 6-4-2 Yasuko Tamada
Middleweight Tournament:
-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)
-RYO (ZERO-ONE MAX)
-Sojiro Orui (5-1-4)
Female Flyweight 1-Day tournament:
-Satoko Shinashi (26-1-2)
-SACHI (3-2-0)
-Fukuko Hamada (4-1-0)
-Kayoko Nagashima (0-1-0)
Just want to send a quick message to Fightlinker.com, my favorite site. And say that I hope you get well soon!
When it comes down to it, someones health is more important than anything else.
My first interview. Paul McVeigh is going to fight in the Cage Force bantamweight tournament this year, this will be his first fight in Japan and hopefully he will make an impact and it will be interesting to see what the Cage Warriors champion can do here.
Thanks to Paul for answering my questions and Ian for setting it up!
(All photos are copyright Robert Swann/Cage Warriors)
JM: Congratulations on making the Cage Force tournament! Have seen in interviews that you wanted to fight in Japan, and now you get a chance, what should the Japanese fans expect from you?
PM: An aggressive Irish midget with interesting hair attacking anyone he is locked in a cage with. Ill try not to attack the referee but I make no promises. 
JM: Have you been to Japan before?
PM: Yeah last year I was staying with a friend and was able to visit Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Miyajima. I have traveled a bit and Japan is my favourite place so far. The Japanese people like otaku, in Scotland they beat me up and steal my comics.
JM: Do you have any rituals you go through before a fight?
PM: I go through my usual warm ups and sports psychology stuff to prepare for battle. That and I usually eat my entire bodyweight in chocolate after weigh ins.
JM: Are you planning to train in Japan before/after your fights? Have you been in touch with anyone over here?
PM: I hope so I really enjoyed getting beat up in Purebred Omiya when I was there. Everyone was really cool and the showed me some stuff even though my Japanese is bad. I was only there for a week but id like to go back.
JM: Do you know anything about the other competitors in this tournament? Anyone in particular you want to fight?
PM: I know about all the guys who have been mentioned so far. I have been watching the bantamweight divisions all over the world in case a promotion pays them to attack me. Mizugaki looks good, his fight with Kenji Osawa a few years ago was awesome.
JM: Who would be your dream opponent?
PM: Koda Kumi in a naked wrestling match.
JM: How do you celebrate a victory?
PM: Mostly with beer. 10 weeks training and not drinking alcohol is super tough for Irish dudes.
JM: What has been your toughest fight to date?
PM: Fighting is the reward you get for training hard. Fighting is fun, getting up and being beaten up by guys who are better than me and usually bigger than me is hard. The training is the toughest part.
JM: What are your plans after 2008?
PM: I would like to win the Cage Force tournament and then beat Chase Beebe for the WEC bantamweight title. After that id like to move up to heavyweight and flying arm bar Fedor.
Next up I would start my singing career and end 2010 as the world favourite country and western artist. Using this universal popularity I would then move into the world of politics and turn my attention towards ending all world conflicts and ushering in an era of World piece with me, of course, as the King of the Earth.
That’s for starters anyway.
Cage Force has announced a few more fights for their Cage FOrce Eastern EX event.
Mizuto Hirota 7-2-0 vs. 7-5-0 Johnny Frachey
Yoshihiro Koyama 8-2-1 vs. 4-5-2 Isamu Sugiuchi
Hiroki Ozaki 3-1-0 vs. 4-0-0 Norman Paraisy
Previously announced:
Taiyo Nakahara 8-6-0 vs. 3-1-0 Motonobu Tezuka
Tetsuo Seto 4-1-1 vs. Toshinari Takahashi
Featherweight tournament fights
Takeshi Yamazaki 12-7-2 vs. 2-1-0 Daiki Ozaki
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura 6-2-1 vs. 3-2-2 Jong Man Kim
Also participating: Hidetaka Monma 13-7-3
MMAWeekly has interviewed Antoni Carvalho, in the interview he gives his reasons for fighting in the Cage Force tournament, and how this conflicted with a Shooto title fight with Tamura (a title fight which has now gone to Hideki Kadowaki)
Carvalho goes into the Cage Force tournament as a favorite in my eyes, but admits he has never fought in a cage.
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=5550&zoneid=13
I am really looking forward to this tournament!!!
Shooto had their first event of the year. The event will probably be mostly remembered as being the farewell for their star Akira Kikuchi. He has chosen to retire at the age of 29, without giving any reason (to my knowledge). The previous Shooto middleweight champion lost his title to Shinya Aoki in February 2006. He retires with a record of 11-4, 2 of the losses coming to Shinya Aoki.
The main event was the fight between Toida and Hioki, Hioki got a much needed victory and a boost up the rankings.
Another notable result, Tazawa submitted BJ in the 3rd round. BJ has been trying to make a transition to Featherweight but its not going that great...
For the results:
Hatsu Hioki Def. Katsuya Toida by arm-bar Round 2, 4:30
Masakatsu Ueda Def. Atsushi Yamamoto by decision 3-0
So Tazawa Def. Shinichi “BJ” Kojima by arm-bar Round 3, 3:32
Junji Ikoma vs. Jin Akimoto Draw
Hayate Usui Def. Daisuke Ishizawa by decision 3-0
Takuya Mori Def. Ayumu “Gozo” Shioda by decision 3-0
Junji Ito Def. Kazuyuki Tori by KO Round 1, 1:52
Kota Funemoto (changed his name to Aki Kota) Def. Tobizaru by TKO, Round 2, 2:22
MARS will have their first event of 2008 on February 11, this is also their 2nd anniversary. Their events always seems to have a lot of inexperienced fighters, but the quality is high and these are always good events.
Fights announced:
Parky 1-0-0 vs. 5-3-1 Hiroyuki NozawaSmackGirl is trying to renew themselves this year, updated rules (from last year), new web-site and an overall new image. It will be exciting to see if they are able to attract more attention. I certainly think they deserve it.
They are putting together an awesome lightweight tournament this year. Most notably, Megumi Fujii is putting her unbeaten record on the line.
Participants:
Lightweight
Megumi Fujii 13-0-0
Kyoko Takabayashi 8-2-0
Saori Ishioka 4-2-0
Anna Michelle Tavarez (?)
Ayumi Saito "EDGE" 8-4-0
Lisa Ward 10-3-0
Cindy Hales 1-0-0
Openweight
Hitomi Akano 11-5-0
Atsuko Emoto 1-1-0
The tournament schedule is as follows:
2/14 Opening round
4/25 Semi-finals
7/24 Finals
Roger Gracie has confirmed that he is in negotiations with Sengoku, the deal is nearly signed... The opponent? Hidehiko Yoshida. Nightmare of Battle has had this fight as a rumored fight for a while now, and it seems as if it will come true.
This fight will be a huge boost to the card, which looks great anyway...
The card now has 4 fights on it:
Sanae Kikuta 26-6-3 vs. 10-8-0 Phil Baroni
Makoto Takimoto 4-3-0 vs. 15-10-0 Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos
Kazuo Misaki 18-8-2 (1NC) vs. 13-1-1 Siyar Bahadurzada
Hidehiko Yoshida 7-5-1 vs. 1-0-0 Roger Gracie
Also participating:
-Fabricio Monteiro 16-6-0
-Ryo Kawamura 7-1-2
FEG has chosen their ring girls for 2008 (I have earlier posted the ring girls for K-1 Max).
Read more...
Read more...
Shooto have deceided on their tour name for 2008. Normally the Japanese organizations change this every year, but this year Shooto thought "why change a good thing?" and the name has remained the same.
The first stop is Back to Our Roots 07, being held this Saturday at Korakuen Hall. The main event for this is the fight between Katsuya Toida and Hatsu Hioki. There should be some good fights, but there is no title fight this time.
Katsuya Toida 10-7-3 vs. 13-3-1 Hatsu Hioki
Atsushi Yamamoto 11-4-1 vs. 6-0-1 Masakatsu Ueda
Shinichi “BJ” Kojima 8-2-4 vs. 6-3-2 So Tazawa
Junji Ikoma 10-9-1 vs. 10-11-2 Jin Akimoto
Hayate Usui 7-6-1 vs. 3-3-0 Daisuke Ishizawa
Takuya Mori 4-2-0 vs. 3-4-0 Ayumu “Gozo” Shioda
Junji Ito 1-1-0 vs. Kazuyuki Tori
Kota Funemoto (changed his name to Aki Kota) vs. Tobizaru
http://www.gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_01/0122_shooto_02.htm
Sengoku has announced two more fights for their March 5 card. This event is really shaping up, and it needs to in order to live up to expectations. I am mostly excited due to all the rumors surrounding it. Nightmare of Battle are on top of these, and Roger Gracie potentially steping into the Sengoku ring would be BIG news.
Anyway, the fights announced today:
Makoto Takimoto 4-3-0 vs. 15-10-0 Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos
Kazuo Misaki 18-8-2 (1NC) vs. 13-1-1 Siyar Bahadurzada
The fight that is most interesting is of course Misaki-Siyar. This looks like it will be an amazing fight! But Takimoto surprised a few peope with his performance in Yarennoka and I think Takimoto-Cyborg will be a good match-up as well.
Also participating:
-Fabricio Monteiro 16-6-0
-Hidehiko Yoshida 7-5-1
-Ryo Kawamura 7-1-2
Rumoured:
-Roger Gracie 1-0-0
The result of the Misaki vs. Akiyama fight was officially changed to No Contest today. This is of course a result of the illegal kick that Akiyama protested against.
I know... the kicks in the Yamamoto vs. Yahya fight should probably also be reviewed, however, I dont believe there has been any protests in this fight.
The card for DEEP 34 took a step towards being completed today. The last 2 names for the middleweight tournament are announced. This completes the fighters competing for the title vacated by Ryo Chonan.
The fighters announced today:
-RYO (ZERO-ONE MAX Pro-wrestler)
-Sojiro Orui (5-1-4)
Previously 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)
DEEP also announced the creation of a Flyweight title (45kg) for women. There will also be a 1-day tournament to determine the Flyweight champion.
The participants in this will be:
-Satoko Shinashi (26-1-2)
-SACHI (3-2-0)
-Fukuko Hamada (4-1-0)
-Kayoko Nagashima (0-1-0)
I will be very surprised if Satoko Shinashi is not the champion after this.
There has also been the addition of some non-tournament fights and fighters:
Hisae Watanabe 19-6-0 vs. 6-4-2 Yasuko Tamada
Yoshihiro Tomioka "Barbaro44" 10-4-3 vs. 3-1-0 Koichiro Matsumoto
Also participating:
-Carlos Toyota 1-2-1
-Yasuhito Namekawa 19-15-3
-Shigetoshi Iwase 7-9-2
-Toshiaki Kitada 7-3-0
-Motoyuki Takinishi 6-1-2
Been a bit bored today, so I have been spending some time on the net trying to find some of the fights for the participants in this tournament. The tournaments should provide some very good fights throughout this year.
Bantamweight tournament:
Takeya Mizugaki
vs. Takaro Watari
vs. Satoshi Yamashita
vs. Kenji Osawa
vs. Teruyuki Matsumoto
Taiyo Nakahara
vs. Fred Fernandez
vs. Hideo Tokoro
vs. Rani Yahya
Paul McVeigh
vs. Christian Binda
vs. Alex Owen (Part1) Part 2 Part 3
vs. Nayeb Ezam
Was not able to find anything for Daichi Fujiwara
Featherweght tournament
Antonio Carvalho
vs. Rumina Sato
vs. Takeshi Inoue
vs. Hiroyuki Takaya (very good fight)
vs. Hatsu Hioki(Round 3)
Adrian Pang
Highlight video
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura
vs. Hiroshi Nakamura
Jong Man Kim
vs. Hatsu Hioki
vs. Masakazu Imanari
Yuji Hoshino
vs. Eriya Matsuda
Not able to find anything for Daiki Ozaki, Takeshi Yamazaki and Armando Sanchez.
I see a lot of discussion around who has the best BJJ in MMA. More often than not, no one mentions Jon Olav Einemo. In my mind he at least deserves a mention. I know a lot of people will look at his record and say "Werdrum beat him". BUT Werdrum beat him by not going to the ground, Einemo also fought most of the fight with a broken nose unable to breath through it.
He is the only fighter to beat Roger Gracie (2003 taking the ADCC title). I would love to see Jon Olav back in the ring soon, he was one of the fighters suffering from the Pride purchase.
Anyway, here is his fight against Erka Sahlstrom in 2000. I know its old, but not that many Einemo fights out there and I have already posted Einemo vs. Fyeet.
K-1 will hold their Japan tournament on February 2. This will be the start of a busy month for them, as they will also hold their Asia tournament in Korea on the 24.
Also part of this event are 3 youth fights, between Japanese and Dutch fighters. Undoubtedly a way to further build the status of Hiroya.
Tounament Round 1 Fights:
Andy Olongun vs. Yuya Yamamoto
Keiji Ozaki vs. Yasuhiro Kido
TATSUJI vs. Hiroyuki Maeda
HAYATO vs. Ryuji
Reserve Fight:
Yasuhito Shirasu vs. Kozo Mitsuyama
Super Fights:
Buakaw Por. Pramuk vs. Yoshihiro Sato
Artur Kyshenko vs. Shingo Garyu
Youth Fights:
HIROYA vs. TBA Dutch fighter
Shota Shimada vs. TBA Dutch fighter
Kizaemon Saiga vs. TBA Dutch fighter
Also making their debuts here will be the K-1 World MAX ring-girls for 2008
Shoot Boxing will hold their first event of the year in Korakuen Hall February 3. The main event is a welterweight title fight between the #1 ranked Kikuchi and #3 ranked Kanei.
Main Event: Shoot Boxing Welterweight Title Fight:
Koichi Kikuchi vs. Kenji Kanei
Takashi Ono vs. Brian Lo-A-Njoe
Phantom Shinya vs. Akito (Akihito)Sakimura
Takeshi Ishikawa vs. Jun Byung
Alex Roberts vs. Keiichi Nishiwaki
Naguranchun Masa M16 vs. Akifumi Utakawa
Masahiro Iwashita vs. TBA
Shuhou Yamamoto vs. Daiki Kawakami
Takaaki Umeno vs TBA
Kubochunlena M15 vs. Misato Tomita
Tomonori Suzuki vs. Masanori Minato
Cage Force have announced the first fights for this event. Both fights are in the Featherweight tournament and should be really good fights. The bantamweight tournament, no fights have been announced yet but it looks as though all the round 1 fights in this will be held in this event.
Featherweight Tournament Round 1
Antonio Carvalho 10-3-0 vs. 13-7-7 Yuji Hoshino
Adrian Pang 13-5-1 vs. 9-5-0 Armando Sanchez
Both these fights should be very good. Carvalho is by many ranked in the top 10, and he deserves to be. Hoshino is somewhat underrated in my opinion, he has not lost since 2004. This will be a very good fight, and one of these fighters will be eliminated from the tournament.
Adrian Pang and Armando Sanchez are both fighters I am not familiar with, Adrian Pang has more Japan experience, but we will have to see if that counts for anything.
This is one event I will not miss out on.
Also fighting in this event:
Daichi Fujiwara 6-1-1
Taiyo Nakahara 8-6-0
Takeya Mizugaki 8-2-2
Paul McVeigh 12-4-0
http://www.g-c-m.net/schedule/cageforce06.html
This event will hold some of the first round fights of the Feather and Bantamweight tournaments, in addition to a few other fights.
"Wicky" vs. Jong Man Kim will be a very good fight. Jong went from an unknown to being ranked in the top 10 by many experts after his win over Hatsu Hioki. This tournament is a chance for him to show that he can perform like that consistently, but His first round fight will not be easy.
Featherweight Round 1 fight
Takeshi Yamazaki 12-7-2 vs. 2-1-0 Daiki Ozaki
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura 6-2-1 vs. 3-2-2 Jong Man Kim
Non-Tournament fights
Taiyo Nakahara 8-6-0 vs. 3-1-0 Motonobu Tezuka
Tetsuo Seto 4-1-1 vs. Toshinari Takahashi
Also participating:
Hidetaka Monma 13-7-3, Mizuto Hirota 7-2-0, Yoshihiro Koyama 8-2-1
Cage Force has announced the participants for this years tournament. Again, this looks like an awesome tournament. There are some exciting fighter that are new to Japan, and some experienced fighters making their debut in Cage Force. A very exciting mix of fighters and I cant wait to see how these tournaments turn out.
Featherweight Tournament Participants:
Antonio Carvalho 10-3-0
Armando (アルモンド・サンチェス) Sanchez 9-5-0
Adrian Pang 13-5-1
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura 6-2-1
Jong Man Kim 3-2-2
Daiki Ozaki 2-1-0
Yuji Hoshino 13-7-7
Takeshi Yamazaki 12-7-2
Bantamweight Tournament Participants:
Daichi Fujiwara 6-1-1
Taiyo Nakahara 8-6-0
Takeya Mizugaki 8-2-2
Paul McVeigh 12-4-0
+ 4 Fighters to be named later
Last years tournament was a huge success, this year seems to have the talent to follow that success. Cage Force is a great place for fighters to show their skills in the cage and it is a small step to the UFC.
Fighters to watch out for:
Paul McVeigh - He is undefeated at 61.2kg, and was undefeated in 2007. It will be interesting to see how he matches up against the Japanese fighters at home.
Antonio Carvalho - He would have to go into the tournament as a favorite, at least for my money. Having had only 2 fights last year, he will be very hungry going in to this. I am really looking forward to seeing him here.
Adrian Pang - An Australian fighter who has been to Japan on for a couple of fights already. Has a win over Nakahara who will compete in the bantamweight tournament.
For the Japanese fighters, there will be no easy fights here. "Wicky" and Mizugaki are 2 fighters I think can do very well here.
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080116-00000026-spnavi-fight.html
Pancrase have finalized their card for 1.30. This looks like it will be an awesome event.
As I have announced earlier, the planned lightweight tournament is cancelled, and I am a little confused about what will happen... The tournament is cancelled, yet the Oumakhanov vs. Shoji is said to be a semi-final. I can only assume that the winner here will face the #1 ranked Yuji Hoshino for the title in March.
Either way, this will be very good event, headlined by Kitaoka vs. Inoue. Returning to the ring is WINDY Tomomi, after spending most of 2007 sidelined by an ankle injury. I will be good to see her back in action.
Katsuya Inoue 15-5-2 vs. 19-7-9 Satoru Kitaoka
Artur Umakhanov 7-1-0 vs. 5-2-0 Shoji
Gadzhiev Alavutdin 5-1-0 vs. 10-13-4 Yuji Hisamatsu
Shinsuke Shoji 4-3-1 vs. 7-3-2 Yuichi Ikari
Daisuke Hanazawa13 7-9-4 vs. 5-10-2 Wataru Takahashi
WINDY Tomomi 9-8-0 vs. 2-3-0 Emi Tomimatsu
Sotaro Yamada 4-3-0 vs. 4-1-0 Strasser Kichi
Yuki Yamasawa 1-4-0 vs. 3-0-0 Seiya Kawahara
Tomoyoshi Iwamiya Def. Dai Moriyama by rear-naked choke, Round 2: 3:35
Yoshiyuki Nakanishi Def. Yoshiyuki Kato by TKO, Round 1, 0:56
Kintaro Tsurukame Def. Wakaarashi by TKO Round 1, 2:18
權代祐典 Def. Tomoichiro Iwakami by front-choke Round 1, 1:34
Yuki Ito Def. Nakano Hiroshi by KO Round 1, 1:01
Tomoya Miyashita Def. Masaaki Izena by front-choke Round 1, 0:41
Ippo Watanuki Def. Yasuhiro Kimura by heel-hold, Round 1, 1:55
Sadao Kondo Def. Daigo Ishijima by decision 3-0
Future King Tournament ◎Under 65kg Final
Seiji Akao Def. Makoto Akazawa by submission (punches) Round 1, 2:32
Future King Tournament ◎Under 70 kg Final
Seigo Inoue Def. Kenta Okuyama by KO Round 2, 0:50
Future King Tournament ◎under 76kg Final
Tetsuya Yoshioka Def. Hidenobu Koike by decision 2-1
Future King Tournament ◎under 82 kg Final
Yosiyume Chodo Def. Masaya Dohi by decision 2-1
Accourding to Sherdog Phil Baroni has not yet signed the Sengoku and is considering his options. I think Sengoku has given him a good offer, and Japan would be an attractive option for him. I really hope to see him back here.
In the same article, Sherdog is saying that they have confirmation that Fabricio Monteiro has signed will Sengoku and will appear on the March 5 card. Monterio is on a 2 match losing streak, but I would still say a very good addition to this card that is shaping up to be something special.
Current card:
Sanae Kikuta 26-6-3 vs. 10-8-0 Phil Baroni
Participating:
-Fabricio Monteiro 16-6-0
-Kazuo Misaki 19-8-2
-Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos 15-10-0
-Siyar Bahadurazada 13-1-1
-Hidehiko Yoshida 7-5-1
-Ryo Kawamura 7-1-2
-Makoto Takimoto 3-3-0
Shooto has put a really exciting fight on their January 26 card. The card had a few top fighters on it, but this will be a very good fight. Krazy Bee`s Yamamoto will take on the undefeated Ueda. This will be a very competative fight and one worth keeping an eye on.
Atsushi Yamamoto 11-4-1 vs. 6-0-1 Masakatsu Ueda
Also on the card:
Katsuya Toida 10-7-3 vs. 13-3-1 Hatsu Hioki
Shinichi “BJ” Kojima 8-2-4 vs. 6-3-2 So Tazawa
Junji Ikoma 10-9-1 vs. 10-11-2 Jin Akimoto
Hayate Usui 7-6-1 vs. 3-3-0 Daisuke Ishizawa
Takuya Mori 4-2-0 vs. 3-4-0 Ayumu “Gozo” Shioda
Junji Ito 1-1-0 vs. Kazuyuki Tori
Kota Funemoto vs. Tobizaru
For this card, I think BJ fights in the wrong weight class. I would have liked to see him back in bantamweight. Hioki did not have the best of years last year, he needs to improve on that here. Akimoto is on a 6 fight losing streak, streaching 4 years. Now he gets another chance to break that streak.
I am looking forward to seeing Usui, his fight in Back to Our Roots 6 was very good, despite the loss.
Here are the fights that are in the 2008 Rookie Tournament. The fights will be part of the Shooto events throughout the year, and I will try to update on them as they progress.
The winners of the 2 fights that are listed together will face each other.
Flyweight tournament
Mikio Yamakami vs。Winner of Run vs. Gou Sato
Yusuke Sato vs. 1-1-0 Tatsuya Yamamoto
Masuda “Bull” Teppei 0-1-0 vs. 安芸 佳孝（徳島/アンドレイオス）
vs.
Junji Ito 2-1-0 (Def. Kazuyuki Tori)
Bantamweight Tournament
Fumihara Kitahara 1-0-0 vs. Winner of
Fujita 成保（青森/T-Pleasure）vs. Hiroaki Ijima
Kentaro Watanabe vs. Jun Nakazoe
vs.
Aki Kota 1-0-0 (Def. Tobizaru☆No.02 (fighting 1.26))
Featherweight Tournament
Yuta Nezu vs. Winner of
Masumi Tozawa 0-0-2 vs. 越智 Haruo
Eda “塾長”Kosuke vs. Winner of
Yuki vs. Nakashi
蜉蝣（東京/和術慧舟會東京本部）vs. Winner of
George “Kawamata” Joestarジョースター vs. Ito 裕亮（愛知/ALIVE）
AKI vs. Winner of
Keita Yoshida vs. Shunsuke Nomura
Lightweight tournament
Gamon Chokugeki vs. Winner of
Daiki Tsuchiya vs. Hideki Nishino (fighting 2.23)
YOKOSAI vs. Mitsuru Kobayashi
Kenichiro Marui vs. Hiroshige Tanaka
Kasuhiro Kaneyama vs. Winner of
Issei Tamura vs. Hiroaki Nakayama
Takuya Ota vs. Winner of
Makoto Akazawa vs. Ono 虎眼 賢良（兵庫/総合格闘技ゴンズジム）
Welterweight tournament
中島 邦男（茨城/マッハ道場）vs. Winner of Gipsy Taro vs. Hibiki Tamura
Hiroshi Sugimoto vs. Yasuaki Kishimoto
Junpei Konno vs. 臼田 育男（東京/木口道場）
KG Shinto vs. Kazuya Satomoto
Middleweight tournament
Kume 鷹介（愛知/ALIVE）vs. Winner of
Youichiro Sato vs. Ishinaka 暢（京都/PUREBRED京都）
Takuya Sato vs. Winner of
Naoki Hirayama vs. 小知 和晋（東京/和術慧舟會東京本部）
Light-heavyweight tournament
Chomorama 1/2 vs. Winner of
Soujiro Iseki vs. 御子柴 直司（東京/極真会館）
℃-BOY vs. Winner of
Aberu Tanaka vs. Fujikawa 展康（福岡/TEAMバナナ）
http://www.x-shooto.jp/schedule/detail/2008/rookie/index.html
Pancrase have cancelled their Lightweight tournament. Instead there will be one fight the determine the Lightweight King of Pancrase. The final will be between Cage Force tournament champion Artur Oumakhanov and Pancrase veteran Shoji.
They have also added one more fight, in addition to this championship fight. This event looks awesome now! We have the Lightweight and Welterweight King of Pancrase fights.
For the lightweight King of Pancrase:
Artur Umakhanov 7-1-0 vs. 5-2-0 Shoji
Also announced:
Gadzhiev Alavutdin 5-1-0 vs. 10-13-4 Yuji Hisamatsu
Previously announced:
Katsuya Inoue 15-5-2 vs. 19-7-9 Satoru Kitaoka
Shinsuke Shoji 4-3-1 vs. 7-3-2 Yuichi Ikari
Daisuke Hanazawa13 7-9-4 vs. 5-10-2 Wataru Takahashi
Yuki Yamasawa 1-4-0 vs. 3-0-0 Seiya Kawahara
http://www.pancrase.co.jp/tour/2008/0130/index.html
I knew that as soon as I posted the fights, they would add a few more. Well, they did.
Bantamweight Rookie tournament round 1
Kota Funemoto vs. Tobizaru
Flyweight Rookie tournament round 1
Junji Ito 1-1-0 vs. Kazuyuki Tori
This is in addition to the previously anounced fights:
Katsuya Toida 10-7-3 vs. 13-3-1 Hatsu Hioki
Shinichi “BJ” Kojima 8-2-4 vs. 6-3-2 So Tazawa
Junji Ikoma 10-9-1 vs. 10-11-2 Jin Akimoto
Hayate Usui 7-6-1 vs. 3-3-0 Daisuke Ishizawa
Takuya Mori 4-2-0 vs. 3-4-0 Ayumu “Gozo” Shioda
This still looks like a pretty average event to me...
Sengoku have today confirmed that Kazuo Misaki and Phil Baroni will fight in their first event to be held March 5. Sengoku sorely needed some big name fighters, and Misaki will definately draw a crowd after his fight with Akiyama. The question now is who will he face?
Keeping with their promise of matching foreign fighters with Japanese, Sengoku also announced the first fight. It will be Sanae Kikuta 26-6-3 vs. 10-8-0 Phil Baroni
Other participants:
-Kazuo Misaki (19-8-2)
-Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos (15-10-0)
-Siyar Bahadurazada (13-1-1)
-Hidehiko Yoshida (7-5-1)
-Ryo Kawamura (7-1-2)
-Makoto Takimoto (3-3-0)
The event will be shown on SkyPerfect PPV in Japan.
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080111-00000021-spnavi-fight.html
A press conference for "Sengoku", to be held in the first Yoyogi gymnasium on March 5th, was held by the office of the World Victory Road (WVR) of Tokyo. WVR President Naoya Kinoshita who attended at the press conference, said “By all means I want Misaki, who fought in New Year’s Yarennoka!, and Gomi who didn’t appear in the New Year’s Eve tournament to participate in “Sengoku”. Kinoshita revealed that he has given them an offer and is already negotiating.
The tournament will be directed by the executive committee of Yarennoka!, which includes the staff of the former PRIDE. As for the tournament, the card is planned to include eight or nine matches of Japanese fighters VS foreigners. Tournaments are planned for odd months and a tournament for New Year’s Eve is also being considered.
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080108-00000000-spnavi_ot-fight.html
Add to that speculation that Sengoku has offered Baroni a contract and this might get interesting.
http://nightmareofbattle.wordpress.com/2008/01/07/sengoku-events-to-be-held-bimonthly-offer-sent-to-baroni/
MAIN CARD START 17.00
Dai Moriyama 0-2-0 vs. 2-6-0 Tomoyoshi Iwamiya
Yoshiyuki Nakanishi 1-0-0 vs. Yoshiyuki Kato
Wakaarashi vs. Kintaro Tsurukame
權代祐典 vs. Tomoichiro Iwakami
Nakano Hiroshi 3-1-0 vs. 3-1-3 Yuki Ito
Tomoya Miyashita 4-4-4 vs. 0-1-0 Masaaki Izena
Ippo Watanuki 5-5-1 vs. Yasuhiro Kimura
Daigo Ishijima 0-1-0 vs. Sadao Kondo
Future King Tournament ◎Under 65kg Final
Future King Tournament ◎Under 70 kg Final
Future King Tournament ◎under 76kg Final
Future King Tournament ◎under 82 kg Final
Future King Tournament START 14.30
Participants
◎Under 65kg
Tatsu Wada /Tokyo
Tsubasa Akiyama 1-0-0/Yamaguchi
Makoto Akazawa 1-0-0/Osaka
Seiji Akao 0-1-0/Hamamatsu
Takuya Ogura 1-0-0/Sendai
Masaki Yanagisawa 4-4-1/Kanezawa
【推薦】 Seeded fighters(?)
Kota Ishibashi 0-1-0, Makoto Kamaya 7-3-0
◎Under 70 kg
Seigo Inoue 1-1-0/Tokyo
Kazumasa Otani 1-1-0/Osaka
Yusuke Suzuki 1-1-0/Hamamatsu
Luiz 5-2-2/Sendai
Yuya Osugi 3-1-1/Kanezawa
【推薦】 Seeded fighters(?)
Kenta Okuyama 7-3-0
◎under 76kg
Yoshihiki Ishida 1-0-0/Tokyo
Masahiro Ono /Yamaguchi
Junzo Tokunaga 1-1-0/Osaka
ホベルトリママルコス (Roberto Lima Markos?)/Hamamatsu
Tetsuya Yoshioka 2-0-0/Kanezawa
【推薦】 Seeded fighters(?)
Hidenobu Koike 3-7-2, Norimasa Iwasaki 0-1-0
◎under 82 kg
Yuichi Kishino 1-0-0/Yamaguchi
Yosiyume Chodo 2-2-1/Hamamatsu
Masaya Dohi 1-0-0/Sendai
Ryuhei Arai 3-1-0/Kanezawa
【推薦】 Seeded fighters(?)
Teruhiko Kubo 3-6-1
Have been waiting to present this card, mainly because I think there will be a few more fights added. The card is not looking great so far, but some interesting fights.
The main fight, currently, looks like it is the fight between Katsuya Toida and Hatsu Hioki. Hioki had a below average, by his standards (2-2), 2007 and will be looking to start of 2008 with a win. Toida went 1-1-1 in 2007, nothing spectacular in other words and will be hungry for a jump up the rankings. This should be a good fight.
BJ Kojima is continuing fight at featherweight, this time against So Tazawa. Tazawa is 0-3-1 in his last 4 fights. Both fighters really need to win this.
Also, coming in to the event with a 6 fight losing streak, streaching 4 years, Jin Akimoto. I have a feeling it will continue...
Here is the fights currently announced:
Katsuya Toida 10-7-3 vs. 13-3-1 Hatsu Hioki
Shinichi “BJ” Kojima 8-2-4 vs. 6-3-2 So Tazawa
Junji Ikoma 10-9-1 vs. 10-11-2 Jin Akimoto
Hayate Usui 7-6-1 vs. 3-3-0 Daisuke Ishizawa
Takuya Mori 4-2-0 vs. 3-4-0 Ayumu “Gozo” Shioda
Lets hope they fill up with a couple more fights.
There are just a couple of things I wanted to mention, not really related to each other or upcoming events...
-First thing is regarding the Sherdog rankings... I am not a huge fan of rankings, basically because fighters match each other differently and therefore keeping a proper ranking is very difficult.
BUT... Josh Barnett is taken out of the Sherdog rankings, due to a policy they have relating to 12 months inactivity. However, Akitoshi Hokazono stays at number 1. He has not fought since July '06. Just proves how difficult it is to keep rankings up to date... Josh has had 4 fights since Hokazono last was in the ring.
http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=10708
Just thought Id mention it...
-Another thing I wanted to mention. Since Joachim Hansen now has committed to fighting in Japan and HEROs. He has also signed with a new sponsor, Opera. And with his sponsor he has set up a blog.
I have updated the link to his blog on my site, this will be a good place for fans to stay up to date with the latest information.
http://my.opera.com/JoachimHansen/blog/
Sherdog writes in an article that Yoshiyuki Yoshida has signed with the UFC. I have not seen this confirmed anywhere, but it would be interesting news it it were true. Yoshida won the Cage Force 170-pund tournament, and it was rumored before the conclusion of this that the winner would get a UFC contract. This rumor was later dismissed, but UFC would without a doubt have a close look at the winners here.
Cage Force are using the same rules as the UFC and the transition would be easier. From memory, both Yoshida and Boku stated before their finals that the would like to compete in the UFC. Now we just have to see if Yoshida actually will compete in UFC or not.
The discussion is already going in the Sherdog forums: http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?threadid=708292
UPDATE: I had further indications that Yoshida has signed with UFC, so then it will just be a matter of time before another Japanese fighter enters the UFC cage. Good luck Yoshida!
On the 1st of January. Akiyama was examined at a hospital in Saitama City, and he was diagnosed with a nasal bone fracture and an injury to his left knee lateral collateral ligament (LCL). Actually, the Akiyama camp protested that the soccer ball kick by Misaki on the 31st was a foul. A soccer ball kick in the four-point position is a foul, but the timing of Misaki’s kick is ambiguous. The producer of the event, Tanikawa, said “I don’t know all of the details, but I want to inspect the video.”
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080103-00000003-spnavi_ot-fight.html
Pancrase have announced some of the fights, including what I believe will be the main event, for their first event of 2008. There should be another few fights added to the event, which will be held in Korakuen Hall.
Welterweight King of Pancrase fight
Katsuya Inoue 15-5-2 vs. 19-7-9 Satoru Kitaoka
Shinsuke Shoji 4-3-1 vs. 7-3-2 Yuichi Ikari
Daisuke Hanazawa13 7-9-4 vs. 5-10-2 Wataru Takahashi
Yuki Yamasawa 1-4-0 vs. 3-0-0 Seiya Kawahara
Also participating:
WINDY Tomomi 9-8-0, she had sit out the 2007 season due to a broke leg suffered against Rosi Sexton in February 2007. This will be her return to the ring, so lets wish her a better 2008 and good luck no matter who the opponent turns out to be.
There has been mention of a Lightweight tournament staring in this event. To be honest, I am a bit confused about what it says on their we-site.
In Japanese it says:
1.30(水)、3.26(水)後楽園ホール大会の2興行で、ライト級新階級(70.3kg未満)のランカー4名による、初代ライト級王者決定トーナメントを開催致します。開催に伴い、初代ケージフォース ライト級王者・ウマハノフ・アルトゥール選手(SKアブソリュート・ロシア/2位)の参戦が決定しております。
Which translates to:
Jan. 30th(Wed.), Mar. 26th(Wed.) 2 tournaments at Korakuen Hall. the first tournament to decide the lightweight champion with the new lightweight class (less than 70.3 kg) four ranked fighters. Accordingly, the first Cage-Force lightweight champion Arthur Oumakhanov (SK absolute Russia / 2nd place ranked?) has decided to join the tournament.
The K-1 NYE card was as expected... I feel like 50% of the fighters spent their time running away from their oponent. Thats not what I expect to see when I sit down to watch top fighters battle it out.
However, some fights did live up to the expectations. KID dominated Rani Yahya, unfortunately, he too tried to finish the fight with an illegal kick (in his case it didnt hit). But over-all a good performance.
Joachim Hansen was very good in his fight. He took care of Miyata easier than I expected, and shows that he is back! In my mind, this was fight of the night and I look forward to seeing Joachim in the ring agian in 2008! There is no doubt that next time I will be in the crowd.
Tamura submitted Tokoro after a very hard fight. Minowa spent 2 rounds trying to make Zulu tired by running around him, something that didnt work as Zulu was standing in the middle waiting for him.
For the K-1 rules fights, the best fight was the Musashi vs. Ackah fight. Musashi won in the end, but Ackah put in a good effort.
Opening fights, K-1 rules
Ryo Murakoshi Def. Arata Fujimto by KO, Round 1, 2:00
Takashi Tachikawa Def. Yoshihisa Inoue by KO, Round 1 1:43
Main-card
1- K-1 U-18 semi-final: HIROYA Def. Kizaemon Saiga by decision 3-0
2- K-1 U-18 semi-final: Yudai Def. Kenji Kubo by decision 3-0
3- HERO’s: Joachim Hansen Def. Kazuyuki Miyata by Rear-naked Choke, Round 2 3:33
4- HERO’s: Melvin Manhoef Def. Yusuke Nishijima by KO, Round 1 1:49
5- HERO’s: Zulu Def. Minowaman by TKO, Round 3 2:13
6- HERO’s: Kiyoshi Tamura Def. Hideo Tokoro by arm-bar, Round 3 3:08
7- U-18 tournament final: Yudai Def. Hiroya by decision (after extention) 2-1
8- K-1: Musashi vs. Bernard Ackah by KO, Round 3 1:26
9- K-1: Nicolas Pettas vs. Kim Young-Hyun by TKO, Round 2 0:41
10- K-1: Masato vs. Choi Yong-Soo by TKO, Round 3 0:51
11- HERO’s: Bob Sapp Def. Bobby Ologun by KO, Round 1 4:10
12- HERO’s: Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto Def. Rani Yahya by KO, Round 2 3:11
13- HERO’s: Kazushi Sakuraba Def. Masakatsu Funaki by arm-lock, Round 1 6:25
I didnt have a chance to see the event yet, just the 2 fights that were showed on the K-1 broadcast here in Japan.
Just to throw myself into the discussion... I feel the kick to Akiyama was unessesary. You can argue that it was legal, I feel it was illegal. This is more about the safety of the fighers than anything.
The results however:
Mike Russow Def. Roman Zentsov by North/south choke Round 1, 2:58
Tatsuya Kawajiri Def. Luiz Azeredo by decision 3-0
Makoto Takimoto Def. Murlio Bustamante by decision 2-1
Mitsuhiro Ishida Def. Gilbert Melendez by decision 3-0
Kazuo Misaki Def. Yoshihiro Akiyama by KO, Round 1 8:12
Hayato Sakurai Def. Hidehiko Hasegawa by decision 3-0
Shinya Aoki Def. Bu-Kyung Jung by decision 3-0
Fedor Emelianenko Def. Choi Hong Man by arm-bar, Round 1, 1:54
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