Hisae Watanabe Retire!

Saturday 31 May 2008

Just to get on the plane back to Japan, and then I see this news on Gryphon's blog.

DEEP star and former champion, Hisae Watanabe has announced her retirement through her management. She will send a message to her fans in the coming days. She lost her championship belt last May to Miku Matsumoto.

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/gryphonjapan/20080531

Read more...

5/28 Shoot Boxing - RESULTS

Wednesday 28 May 2008

Main Event:
Kenichi Ogata Def. "Iron" Jusokku (??) by Decision 2-0

Daiki Shishido Def. Antonio Carvalho by Decision (after extention) 3-0
Kenji Kanai Def. Andy Ologun by Decision 3-0
Marfio Canoletti Def. Koichi Kikuchi by Decision 2-0
Akito Sakimura Def. Setsu Iguchi by Decision 2-0
Yasuhiro Motomura Def. Hiroaki Suzuki by KO Round 1 1:37
Koya Shimada Def. Noriaki Ninomiya by Decision 3-0
Tatsuya Kusakabe Def. Kazuyuki Fushimi by Decision (after extention) 3-0
Misato Tomita Def. Hitomi Sakamoto by Decision 3-0
Yuta Nogami Def. Tatsumi Yuda by Decision 3-0

Read more...

6/15 DREAM 4 - CroCop Grappling Fight Official

Well, it is official, Crocop will fight a grappling fight against Ralek Gracie. Will this be a highlight in this event? Probably not, will it be good practice for Crocop? Most definately. Then I guess the question is if people want to pay to watch... I have a feeling the Japanese fans will be happy to and the average UFC fan would probably not.

Also added to the card is the fight between Hideo Tokoro and Darren Uyenoyama who holds a win agaist Rambaa Somdet in his last fight in Japan.

Added:
Grappling Fight:
Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic vs. Ralek Gracie

Featherweight Fight:
Hideo Tokoro 19-13-1 vs. 4-1-0 Darren Uyenoyama

Priviously announced:
Middleweight Tournament:
Kazushi Sakuraba 24-10-1 vs. 21-4-1 Melvin Manhoef
Gegard Mousasi 21-2-1 vs. 4-4-0 Dong Sik Yoon
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza 8-1-0 vs. 21-5-0 Jason "Mayhem" Miller
Zelg "Benkei" Galesic 8-3-0 vs. 3-2-0 Taiei Kin

Lightweight Tournament:
Shinya Aoki 15-2-0 vs. 4-2-0 Katsuhiko Nagata

Read more...

5/28 Shoot Boxing

Tuesday 27 May 2008

Shoot Boxing is holding a very interesting event in Korakuen Hall this Wednesday. It starts at 6 and there is no doubt that I would have been there if I were in Japan.

On the card are some very good fighters including: Antonio Carvalho, Marfio Canoletti, Andy Ologun, Akito Sakimura, Kenji Kanai and Daiki Shishido.

Tatsumi Yuda vs. Yuta Nogami
Misato Tomita vs. Hitomi Sakamoto
Kazuyuki Fushimi vs. Tatsuya Kusakabe
Koya Shimada vs. Noriaki Ninomiya
Hiroaki Suzuki vs. Yasuhiro Motomura
Akito Sakimura vs. Setsu Iguchi
Marfio Canoletti vs. Koichi Kikuchi
Kenji Kanai vs. Andy Ologun
Daiki Shishido vs. Antonio Carvalho
Kenichi Ogata vs. "Iron" Jusokku (??)

Read more...

6/15 DREAM 4 - CroCop fighting

NoB has come across some interesting news on Crocop's site. It seems a grapplig fight between Crocop and Ralek Gracie will happen in DREAM 4. This will not be a MMA match, but a grappling rules fight. If it goes the distance it will be a draw.

Not sure if that is what the fans want to see, either way, very good practice for Crocop.

In the same article, it looks like Frank Trigg is set to debut for Sengoku.

http://nightmareofbattle.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/mirko-vs-ralek-in-grappling-match/
http://www.nokaut.com/?id=12&solo_news=1621
http://www.mma-id.com/CROCOP/?mod=blog&uid=35&blid=582

Read more...

2/11 Cage Force EX Eastern Bound - Change of Result

For those that remember, in the Cage Force EX Eastern Bound Norman Paraisy fought Hiroki Ozaki in a non-tournament fight.

The result at the time was a key-lock win to Ozaki. This has later been changed due to a complaint from Paraisy. For those that have seen the fight, it was clear that Paraisy never tapped. The result is therefore changed to a no-contest and Paraisy remains undefeated.

http://www.g-c-m.net/news/080517.html

Read more...

5/25 Shooto GIG North Vol 2 - RESULTS

Monday 26 May 2008

Tomonori Taniguchi Def. Daisuke Ishizawa by Decision 3-0
Kunio Nakajima Def. Hidekazu Asakura by Decision 2-0
Akihito Adachi Def. Nobuyasu Fujikawa by TKO Round 2 1:00
Fumihiro Kitahara Def. Hayato Sato by arm-bar Round 2 2:45

Shooto Rookie Tournament Flyweight:
Yusuke Sato Def. Tatsuya Yamamoto by TKO Round 1 0:56

“KG Shinto” Hiroki Kuga Def. Yoshiki Noguchi by Decision 3-0

Shooto Rooki Tournament Lightweight:
Mitsuru Kobayashi Def. Toshihiko Yokoyama “Yokosai” by TKO Round 1 3:48

Read more...

6/1 Pancrase Shining Tour 5 - Fight Order Announced

Pancrase has announced the fight order for their event next Sunday. There are some big Pancrase stars on this card and it should be a good event. Added to the card is exciting Brazilian Rafael Dos Anjos, who will make his Japan debut against Takaichi Hirayama. Also fighting is Yukio Sakaguchi, who is always fun to watch, even if his record is not the best.

Main-Event
Keiichiro Yamamiya 33-22-9 vs. 16-20-1 Hiromitsu Kanehara

Izuru Takeuchi 24-9-6 vs. 9-0-0 Junior
Takafumi Ito 33-26-10 vs. 5-3-2 Shinsuke Shoji
Takaichi Hirayama 7-9-6 vs. 9-2-0 Rafael dos Anjos
Seiya Kawahara 4-0-0 vs. 5-5-1 Masaki Yanagisawa
Yukio Sakaguchi 1-3-0 vs. 4-10-2 Masakazu Kuramochi
Tomoki Murayama 1-4-0 vs. 8-1-5 Ranki Kawana
Yuichiro Shirai "Yukito" 3-5-3 vs. 1-3-2 Toshihiro Shimizu

PancraseGate:
Yuki Yashima 2-4-1 vs. Wataru Yoshikawa

Read more...

5/25 Pancrase Shining Tour 4 - RESULTS

Not surprising, lots of fights ending spectacular fashion. Pancrase has put on some very good shows this year.

Daisuke Hanasawa13 Def. Takefumi Hanai by decision 3-0
Soyu Tanabe Def. Kenji Takeshige by KO Round 1 3:44
Masahiro Toryu Def. Shuji Morikawa by Guillotine Choke Round 1 3:36
Kenji Shimada Def. Takashi Hasegawa by KO Round 1 1:58
Kiichi Kunimoto "Strasser" Def. Yushi Shiori by Decision 3-0
Isao Hirose Def. Nobuhiro "Punch" Yamauchi by decision 3-0

PancraseGate fights:
Keiichi Funako Def. Koji Toyota by TKO Round 1 0:29
Takamasa Miki Def. Ryunosuke Yamamoto by KO Round 1 1:08
Yuki Uejima Def. Akinobu Furumi by TKO Round 2 2:10
Shinichiro Ryuno Def. Kosuke Oku by TKO Round 1 0:44
Toshiaki Kobayashi Def. Wataru Nakahara by arm-bar Round 2 2:47

Read more...

5/24 DEEP Megaton GP 2nd Round - RESULTS

Saturday 24 May 2008

DEEP held the 2nd round of the Megaton GP earlier today. This is an interesting concept and the fights finish early, none of the fights today made it to the 2nd round. The finals will be fought August 2.

There were also some ClubDEEP fights today, so a good day of DEEP fights.

Megaton GP:
Shunsuke Inoue (103 kg) Def. Wakaarashi (126.5 kg) by TKO Round 1 1:33
Yusuke Kawaguchi (106.5 kg) Def. Youichi Babakuchi (139 kg) by TKO Round 1 0:16

Shunji Kosaka (116 kg) Def. Katsuhiko Kumasato (150 kg) by TKO Round 1 0:10
Ken Orihashi (112 kg) Def. Mamoru Nakamura (106 kg) by TKO Round 1 4:36

Megaton Reserve Fights:
Kazuki Wakamusashi (114.5 kg) Def. Kose Matsumoto (130 kg)
IRO Seki (121 kg) Def. Itomo Ariyama (136 kg)

ClubDEEP:
Misaki Takimoto
Def. Naoko Omuro by Decision 3-0

Toshiaki Kitada vs. Ippo Watanuki DRAW
Yasushi Kitazaki Def. Sotaro Yamada by Decision 2-1
Takafumi Otsuka Def. Isamu Sugiuchi by TKO Round 1 3:51
Kazuya Hirose Def. Guy Delameau by KO Round 1 1:40
Sen Nakadai vs. Yoshitomo Watanabe DRAW

Read more...

7/18 Shooto - Tradition 02

Shooto has announced some fights for the 2nd Tradition event, this is to celebrate their 20th anniversary and they put on some very good fights in the first event. For this, the ticket prices are cheaper, but the fights announced look interesting. Personally I am looking forward to seeing Murofushi, I believe this will be his first Class A fight and I think he has been very good in his previous fights.

Shinji Sasaki 6-2-0 vs. 8-7-2 Jin Kazeta
Takehiro Harusaki 5-3-0 vs. 4-0-1 Shinya Murofushi
Teriyuki Matsumoto 5-2-0 vs. 4-4-1 Takahiro Hosoi

Rookie Tournament Round 2:
Daiki Tsuchiya 1-0-0 vs. 2-1-0 Naohiro Mizuno
Yuta Nezu 4-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Haruo Ochi

Read more...

6/15 DREAM 4 Middleweight Tournament Fights Announced

Friday 23 May 2008

DREAM have announced the match-ups for the 2nd round in the middleweight tournament. As I expected, Manhoef made it in. There are some very interesting fights in this round, I am really looking forward to Mayhem vs. Jacare.

Middleweight Tournament:
Kazushi Sakuraba 24-10-1 vs. 21-4-1 Melvin Manhoef
Gegard Mousasi 21-2-1 vs. 4-4-0 Dong Sik Yoon
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza 8-1-0 vs. 21-5-0 Jason "Mayhem" Miller
Zelg "Benkei" Galesic 8-3-0 vs. 3-2-0 Taiei Kin

Lightweight Tournament:
Shinya Aoki 15-2-0 vs. 4-2-0 Katsuhiko Nagata

Read more...

6/1 Pancrase Shining Tour - Korakuen Hall

Pancrase is holding 2 events in 1 week. The Osaka event is happening this Sunday then next Sunday we will have the Shining Tour in Korakuen Hall. I am not sure who "Junior" is, but the Pancrase site lists him with a 9-0 record, he is a Chute Boxe fighter and his fight with Izuru Takeuchi should be a good one. A good mix of experienced and talented fighters in this event.

Kanehara has not won a fight since 2001, lets see if he can get a win against KeiYamamiya.

I am not sure of the fight order.

Izuru Takeuchi 24-9-6 vs. 9-0-0 Junior
Yukio Sakaguchi 1-3-0 vs. 4-10-2 Masakazu Kuramochi
Yuichiro Shirai "Yukito" 3-5-3 vs. 1-3-2 Toshihiro Shimizu
Keiichiro Yamamiya 33-22-9 vs. 16-20-1 Hiromitsu Kanehara
Seiya Kawahara 4-0-0 vs. 5-5-1 Masaki Yanagisawa
Takafumi Ito 33-26-10 vs. 5-3-2 Shinsuke Shoji
Tomoki Murayama 1-4-0 vs. 8-1-5 Ranki Kawana

PancraseGate:
Yuki Yashima 2-4-1 vs. Wataru Yoshikawa

Read more...

7/7 K-1 World Max Final 8 - Fights

Thursday 22 May 2008

FEG has announced a number of Superfights for the Final 8 event to be held in Nippon Budokan on July 7.

One of the fighters that will be interesting to see is Dida, the fact that he is fighting in a K-1 event shows the advantage FEG has. They are able to use fighters in both their organizations, it will be interesting to see how long it takes before Mark Hunt is fighting in DREAM now...

Anyway, the card for July 7:

World Max - Quarter-Finals (Semi-final and Final Oct. 1):
Block A
Masato vs. Drago
Yoshihiro Sato vs. Buakaw Por. Pramuk

Block B
Andy Souwer vs. Warren Stevelmans
Yasuhiro Kido vs. Artur Kyshenko

Superfight (Tournament Reserve Fight):
Albert Krause vs. Mike Zambidis

Superfights:
Andre Dida vs. Remigijus Morkevicius
Haruaki Otsuki vs. David Douge
Susumu Daiguji vs. Konstantin Trishin
Daisuke Uematsu vs. Eddy Juozapavicius

K-1 Youth Fights:
Hirotaka Urabe vs. Denis Telitsa
Kizaemon Saiga vs. TBA

Opening Fight:
Alviar Lima vs. Mark Vogel

Read more...

5/25 Pancrase Shining Tour Osaka

Wednesday 21 May 2008

The Shining Tour is visiting Osaka this weekend. No big names on this card, but the fight between "Strasser Kichi" and Yushi Shiori looks very interesting. There are also some amateur fights, and I dont expect many decisions on this card.

Main Event:
Daisuke Hanasawa13 8-9-5 vs. 2-4-2 Takefumi Hanai

Kenji Takeshige 4-6-1 vs. 3-3-1 Soyu Tanabe
Masahiro Toryu 4-3-3 vs. 0-1-1 Shuji Morikawa
Takashi Hasegawa 3-5-3 vs. 3-2-0 Kenji Shimada
Kiichi Kunimoto "Strasser" 4-2-0 vs. 5-0-0 Yushi Shiori
Nobuhiro "Punch" Yamauchi 4-2-0 vs. 1-0-0 Isao Hirose

PancraseGate fights:
Koji Toyota vs. Keiichi Funako
Ryunosuke Yamamoto vs. Takamasa Miki
Yuki Uejima vs. Akinobu Furumi
Shinichiro Ryuno vs. Kosuke Oku
Toshiaki Kobayashi vs. Wataru Nakahara

Read more...

5/24 DEEP Megaton GP 2nd Round

Tuesday 20 May 2008

DEEP will hold the second round in their very popular Megaton GP later this week, the first event really turned some some heads. The participants in this GP are above average weight and does not have the grappling skills we are used to from the lightweights, but they make up for that in determination and strength. It is very exciting and there are some good non-GP fights as well.

Megaton GP Participants:
Mamoru Nakamura 1-1-0
Yusuke Kawaguchi 4-0-0
Youichi Babakuchi 1-3-1
Ken Orihashi 3-3-0
Katsuhiko Kumasato 1-0-0
Shunsuke Inoue 2-2-0
Wakaarashi 1-2-0
Shunji Kosaka 1-0-0

Non-Tournament Fights:
Misaki Takimoto 7-8-4 vs. 8-6-2 Naoko Omuro
Yasushi Kitazaki 7-4-1 vs. 5-3-0 Sotaro Yamada
Isamu Sugiuchi 7-6-2 vs. 5-2-1 Takafumi Otsuka
Sen Nakadai 4-8-0 vs. 6-7-1 Yoshitomo Watanabe
Toshiaki Kitada 7-3-1 vs. 7-6-1 Ippo Watanuki
Guy Delameau 6-3-0 vs. Kazuya Hirose
Toshiaki Saiki 0-2-0 vs. 1-3-2 Nobuhiro "MIKE" Hayakawa

Megaton GP Reserve Fight:
Kose Matsumoto vs. TBA

Read more...

6/29 K-1 World GP Fukuoka - Fights

K-1 will hold their Japan GP in Fukuoka. It is good to see K-1 back in Fukuoka (I think the last time was 2003), it's my "hometown" in Japan so I hope I can make it there.

Of course a one day tournament and inculdes starts such as Musashi and Yusuke Fujimoto.

Tournament Fights:
Block A
Musashi vs. Keijiro Maeda
Mitsugu Noda vs. Takumi Sato

Block B
Ewerton Teixeira vs. Hiraku Hori
Yusuke Fujimoto vs. Tsuyoshi Nakasako

Tournament Reserve Fight:
Tsutomu Takahagi vs. Keigo Takamori

Superfight:
Peter Aerts vs. Jan "the Giant" Nortje

Read more...

6/8 Sengoku III - Fights Announced

Sengoku has announced 3 fights today for their June 8 card. This is their first attempt at filling Saitama Super Arena, and the card has to live up to expectations. I have to say that the match-up between Misaki and Clark looks very interesting.

Fights announced:
Hidehiko Yoshida 7-6-1 vs. 12-12-0 Maurice Smith
Kazuo Misaki 19-8-2 vs. 11-1-0 Logan Clark
Choi Mu Bae 7-2-0 vs. 3-2-0 Marcio Cruz

Previously announced:
Kazuyuki Fujita 15-6-0 vs. 53-11-0 Travis Wiuff
Nick Thompson 35-9-1 vs. 9-3-0 Michael Costa

Participating:
Fabio Silva 9-4-0
Rodrigo Damm 7-1-0
Duane Ludwig 16-8-0

Read more...

5/19 DEEP 35 - RESULTS

Monday 19 May 2008

DEEP is holding an event in Korakuen Hall today, there were no less than 4 champions in action and 3 title fights!

At the end of the night, we had 3 NEW champions!!!

RESULTS:

DEEP Middleweight Tournament Final:
Yuichi Nakanishi Def. Riki Fukuda by Decision 3-0
DEEP Featherweight title fight:
Dokonjonosuke Mishima Def. Masakazu Imanari by Decision 2-0
DEEP Lightweight title fight:
Pang Sung Hwan Def. Kazunori Yokota by KO Round 1, 3:38
Hidehiko Hasegawa vs. Hiroki Nagaoka DRAW
Mai Ichi Def. Satoko Shinashi by decision 2-0
Jutaro Nakao Def. Shigetoshi Iwase by decision 3-0

Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
Ryuta Sakurai Def. Young “RYO” Choi by Decision 3-0

Middleweight Tournament Semi-Finals
Riki Fukuda Def. Yuya Shirai by Decision 2-1
Yuichi Nakanishi Def. Daijiro Matsui by Decision 3-0

Non-Tournament/Title fights:
LUIZ Def. Toshikazu Iseno “ISE” by KO Round 2, 0:41
Koichiro Matsumoto Def. Yuki Ito by Decision 2-0
イムヒョンギュ(CMA KTT) Def. Noboru Onishi “The Nob-Rock” by TKO Round 2 0:48

Read more...

Change of Domain Name

Just a minor change, I am sure you've noticed, but I have changed the domain name. The new domain is Japan-MMA.com.

The old link should still re-direct to the new one and there should be no need to update anything, I hope.

Read more...

Sengoku Holding a Lightweight Tournament?

SportsNavi has an article today on the plans to hold a Lightweight tournament on August 23. From the article it looks like it will be a 8-man 1-day tournament. The winner will fight Takanori Gomi for the Sengoku title. I would have liked to see Gomi in the tournament, but guess he has way too much influence for that.

WVR has already made space for Satoru Kitaoka and Eiji Mitsuoka in this PLANNED tournament.

It was also announced that Takanori Gomi will fight in the August 23 event.

For Sengoku III, they have announced the fight between Travis Wiuff and Kazuyuki Fujita.

Read more...

5/18 Shooto Grapplingman - RESULTS

Shooto also held an event yesterday. The Grappleman event in Hiroshima was without the big stars, but still some interesting match-ups. In particular, I always like to watch the Rookie Tournament fights

Kenichiro Togashi vs. Yutaka Ueda Draw
Kazuhiro Ito Def. Daisuke Matsumoto by rear-naked choke Round 2, 3:21
Takeshi Okada Def. Katsuhisa Akasaki by decision
Tatsuro Kamei Def. Jun Nagasoe by decision

Shooto Rookie Tournament:
Lightweight: Takumi Ota Def. Makoto Akazawa by rear-naked choke Round 2, 3:47
Featherweight: Keita Yoshida Def. Shunsuke Nomura by decision
Flyweight: 安芸 佳孝 Def. Masuda “Bull” Teppei by Guillotine choke Round 2 3:03

Read more...

Sengoku II - Videos

Just the videos from yesterday's event.

Josh Barnett vs. Jeff Monson



Roger Gracie vs. Yuki Kondo




Kevin Randleman vs. Ryo Kawamura


Sengoku II Kevin Randleman vs Ryo Kawamura
Uploaded by villleee




Yoshihiro Nakao vs. Jim York




Jorge Santiago vs. Yuki Sasaki




Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Kwang Hee Lee




Mike Pyle vs. Dan Hornbuckle




Satoru Kitaoka vs. Ian Schaffa

Read more...

5/18 ZST 17 - RESULTS

Sunday 18 May 2008

ZST also held their event in Ariake today, Okude won the main event and shared a bit of personal information in that he was bollied when he was younger and few of his older friends know that he is competing in MMA today. Either way, Mini-Hong Man Choi is doing very well in ZST.

Masayuki Okude Def. Maksim Nevolia by triangel-choke
Hideo Tokoro/ Noayuki Kotani vs. Takumi Yano/Erikas Petraitis DRAW
Shunichi Shimizu Def. Kenichi Ito by KO Round 2 4:44
Koji Iga Def. Tatsuhiko Nishizaka by decision
Keisuke Fujiwara vs. Hiroyuki Yamashiro DRAW
Kenji Nagai Def. Hiromu Nagato by rear-naked choke Round 1 3:49

Opening fights:
Hiroyuki Ota Def. Tetsuya Yamada by KO 6:19
Ichiro Kojima Def. Yoichiro Karsuyama by rear-naked choke 5:16
Daisuke Yokoyama Def. Masahiro Watanabe by ankle-hold 4:03
Ayumi Funakoshi vs. Miki Goniwa DRAW

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080518-00000026-spnavi-fight.html

Read more...

5/18 Sengoku II - RESULTS

Sengoku held their second event today. I havent been able to see the event yet, but from the results it looks like it has been an exciting event.

Results so far:
Josh Barnett Def. Jeff Monson by decision
Roger Gracie Def. Yuki Kondo by rear-naked choke Round 1
Kevin Randleman Def. Ryo Kawamura by decision
Yoshihiro “Kiss” Nakao Def. Big Jim York by KO round 2
Jorge Santiago Def. Yuki Sasaki by arm-bar Round 3
Eiji Mitsuoka Def. Kwang Hee Lee by rear-naked choke Round 1
Mike Pyle Def. Dan Hornbuckle by triangle choke Round 1
Satoru Kitaoka Def. Ian Schaffa by Guillotine choke Round 1

Source: http://www.sherdog.com/fightfinder/fightfinder.asp?search=yes&EventID=6993

Read more...

6/22 Cage Force 07 - Fights announced

Saturday 17 May 2008

Cage Force have announced 2 fights on their June 22 card. These are always very entertaining, even though the Cage Force 06 had some problems in the weeks before the event. I hope they dont have the same problems this time and the fights announced are looking really good.

Some interesting things about these fighters... Tatsu Suzuki, a new addition to the tournament, fought and won against Daichi Fujiwara in Cage Force 06. Suzuki has in his turn lost to Mizugaki in the past.

Both these fights are round 1 fights in the Bantamweight tournament.

Katsuya Toida 10-8-3 vs. 7-5-3 Tatsu Suzuki
Takeya Mizugaki 8-2- vs. 6-2-1 Daichi Fujiwara

Read more...

5/11 DREAM 3 - Ring-Girls Pictures

This time I thought I would do things a bit different and post the ring-girl pictures in a different post. So, here they are:



IMG_1515
Originally uploaded by japanmma







IMG_1619
Originally uploaded by japanmma





IMG_1703
Originally uploaded by japanmma





IMG_1707
Originally uploaded by japanmma





IMG_1708
Originally uploaded by japanmma





IMG_1769
Originally uploaded by japanmma





IMG_1838
Originally uploaded by japanmma





IMG_1845
Originally uploaded by japanmma





IMG_1874
Originally uploaded by japanmma





IMG_1876
Originally uploaded by japanmma

Read more...

5/11 DREAM 3 - Pictures

Its been almost a week since the event, but here are the pictures.



IMG_1479
Originally uploaded by japanmma
The night started with the belts on display.




IMG_1508
Originally uploaded by japanmma
The first fight of the night was between Yamazaki and Shoji, Yamazaki was the better fighter on the ground and he was able to get a clear decision.




IMG_1538
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Jason "Mayhem" Miller introduced himself to the Japanese audience with an intersting entry and some clowning in the ring. He was never really threatened in this fight and I am sure he won a few fans. Will be interesting to see how he performs in the Middleweight tournament.




IMG_1581
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Everyone expected a quick KO in the next fight, but Manhoef didnt go out as hard as usual and it took him over 4 minutes to dispose of Kim Dae Won. Still an impressive performance considering he was KO'd only 2 weeks before this.




IMG_1585
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Since this was a reserve fight for the Middleweight tournament, and with all the fighters that wants to pull out of that tournament (Sakuraba and Tamura) I expect to see him fight in the second round. But we will have to wait for confimation for that.




IMG_1589
Originally uploaded by japanmma
One of the big improvements since DREAM 1 were the stages. DREAM 1 there were 1 stage, now they had 2 (1 on each side) and they looked awesome.




IMG_1635
Originally uploaded by japanmma
I think a lot of people expected Bukyung Jung to handle Nakamura, but that was not to be... Nakamura was the better fighter.




IMG_1637
Originally uploaded by japanmma
And it ended with a KO victory to Nakamura. Jung is now 0-3.




IMG_1678
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Nick Diaz was a much better fighter than Inoue. It was an entertaining fight, with Diaz dominating.




IMG_1693
Originally uploaded by japanmma
TKO win to Diaz.




IMG_1772
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Kawajiri and Buscape got a re-match, but it looked pretty much like the first one... I think Kawajiri always end up in this position.. Decision win to Kawajiri.




IMG_1796
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Time for fight of the night! Hellboy entering the ring.




IMG_1814
Originally uploaded by japanmma
This was an amazing fight to watch. Hellboy was knocked down twice in the first round, but was able to get up. In the second he was very close to finishing the fight by an arm-bar.




IMG_1856
Originally uploaded by japanmma
After the fight both of these fighters showed great sportsmanship and respect for eachother. No everyone were equally graceful.




IMG_1882
Originally uploaded by japanmma
The main event was between Ishida and Uno. I expected to see Ishida take Uno down and GnP his way to another decision win, but Uno had other plans. Uno dominated the fight standing, he stuck to his game-plan, and when the fight went to the ground, Ishida was tired and Uno was able to get a rear-naked choke in. An awesome performance by Uno! Did he expose Ishida? Guess we will have to see, but I know what Ishida's next opponent will be looking to do.




IMG_1888
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Caol Uno very happy after getting the win.

Read more...

Slow updates

Thursday 15 May 2008

Sorry for the slow updates the last week... I have had a busy week at work and tomorrow I am leaving for Norway for 2 weeks. That does not mean that I wont update while in Norway though, it might actually get me more time...

One thing that will definitely be updated before the end of the weekend is the DREAM pictures.

Read more...

DREAM Lets you be the Match-maker!!!

Wednesday 14 May 2008

DREAM allows you to chose the fights you want for the next Middle- and Lightweight tournaments. Just to make it easier, here is how the names are written in Japanese:

Lightweight Tournament:
Caol Uno = 宇野 薫
Eddie Alvarez = エディ・アルバレス
Tatsuya Kawajiri = 川尻 達也
Winner of Aoki vs. Nagato = 青木 真也 vs. 永田克彦

Middlweight Tournament:
Kazushi Sakuraba = 桜庭 和志
Gegard Mousasi = ゲガール・ムサシ
Kiyoshi Tamura = 田村 潔司
Ronaldo Jacare = ホナウド・ジャカレイ
Zelg “Benkei” Galesik = ゼルグ“弁慶”ガレシック
Yoon Sik Dong = ユン・ドンシク
Taei Kin = 金 泰泳
Jason Miller = ジェイソン“メイヘム”ミラー

For this tournament, both Sakuraba and Tamura has said they will not compete in the next round. Keep in mind that Melvin Manhoef won the reserve fight, so he is likely to participate.
I am not sure if both these fighters will withdraw though, FEG has an ability to convince their Japanese fighters…

Well there you have it, no use complaining about match-making now! Make your vote count! Here is the link: http://www.dreamofficial.com/special/vote/

Read more...

5/18 ZST 18 - Card is final

Tuesday 13 May 2008

ZST has completed their card that will compete with Sengoku on May 18. ZST will hold their event in the arena next to Sengoku and I am sure that will impact their crowds. Anyway there are some intersting fights here, though the card is free of the really big stars (with the exception of Tokoro who is competing in a tag-team match).

Main-event:
Welterweight: Masayuki Okude 4-4-5 vs. 3-0-0 Maksim Nevolia

Lightweight Tag-team fight: Hideo Tokoro 19-13-1/ Noayuki Kotani 17-7-6 vs. Takumi Yano 9-8-3/ Erikas Petraitis 12-5-2
Featherweight: Kenichi Ito 3-2-2 vs. 8-3-4 Shunichi Shimizu

Lightheavyweight: Tatsuhiko Nishizaka 5-1-0 vs. Koji Iga
Bantamweight: Keisuke Fujiwara 4-1-2 vs. 1-2-0 Hiroyuki Yamashiro
Lightheavyweight: Kenji Nagai 4-6-1 vs. Hiromu Nagato

Opening fights:
Lightweight: Hiroyuki Ota 7-4-4 vs. 1-0-0 Tetsuya Yamada
Welterweight: Ichiro Kojima 3-5-2 vs. 1-1-1 Yoichiro Karsuyama
Bantamweight Grappling: Daisuke Yokoyama vs. Masahiro Watanabe
Female Grappling: Ayumi Funakoshi vs. Miki Goniwa (合庭?)

Read more...

5/11 DREAM 3 - RESULTS

Sunday 11 May 2008

Just came back from an amazing event!! This was really a level up from the two first DREAM events. I am really disappointed that Joachim lost, but it was a great fight and both fighters had their chances. I dont think any of them should be disappointed with their efforts.

Caol Uno pulled of the upset of the night and got a very good victory over Ishida. Disappointment of the night was Kawajiri acting like a spoiled brat after Uno's victory.

BTW, Nick Diaz and Jason Miller were very good and entertaining in their fights! This was a very good event!

Lightweight Tournament Round 2:
8. Caol Uno Def. Mitsuhiro Ishida by rear-naked choke Round 2, 1:39
7. Eddie Alvarez Def. Joachim Hansen by decision 3-0
6. Tatsuya Kawajiri Def. Luiz “Buscape” Firmino by decision 3-0

Welterweight Champion Eliminator:
5. Nick Diaz Def. Katsuya Inoue by TKO (towel thrown) Round 1 6:47

Non-Tournament Fight:
4. Daisuke Nakamura Def. Jung Bukyung Round 2 1:15

Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
3. Melvin Manhoef Def. Kim Dae Won by TKO (Knees and punches) Round 1 4:08

Middleweight Tournament Round 1:
2. Jason Miller Def. Katsuyori Shibata by TKO (punches) Round 1 6:07 dedicated his fight to Kato-san and his family.

Non-Tournament Fight:
1. Takeshi Yamazaki Def. Shoji Maruyama by decsion 3-0

Read more...

5/11 DREAM 3 - Fight order

Saturday 10 May 2008

Finally DREAM has annouced the fight order for tomorrow. I cant wait for this one, this is the best DREAM card yet.

Main event:
Lightweight Tournament Round 2:
8. Caol Uno 24-10-4 vs. 16-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
7. Joachim Hansen 17-6-1 vs. 13-1-0 Eddie Alvarez
6. Tatsuya Kawajiri 21-4-2 vs. 12-3-0 Luiz “Buscape” Firmino

Welterweight Champion Eliminator:
5. Nick Diaz 15-7-0 vs. 16-5-3 Katsuya Inoue

Non-Tournament Fight:
4. Jung Bukyung 0-2-0 vs. 13-9-0 Daisuke Nakamura


Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
3. Melvin Manhoef 20-4-1 vs. Kim Dae Won


Middleweight Tournament Round 1:
2. Jason Miller 20-5-0 vs. 2-3-0 Katsuyori Shibata

Non-Tournament Fight:
1. Takeshi Yamazaki 13-7-2 vs. 6-2-1 Shoji Maruyama

Read more...

5/11 DREAM 3 - Predictions

Friday 9 May 2008

If you don't know it yet, HDNet is showing this LIVE! It is a very good card, and I can't wait for this event! Now there is one problem, NO Play-By-Play this time!!! I will be there supporting my fellow Norwegian Joachim Hansen!

Anyway, I started writing it out, and I agree way too much with
Sherdog... That's probably not good, so I just put my predictions on here.

As far as I know, the fight order is not announced so the order here is random...

Lightweight Tournament Round 2:
Caol Uno 24-10-4 vs. 16-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida

Ishida by decision

Tatsuya Kawajiri 21-4-2 vs. 12-3-0 Luiz “Buscape” Firmino
Kawajiri by decision

Joachim Hansen 17-6-1 vs. 13-1-0 Eddie Alvarez
Hellboy by rear-naked choke round 2 (or late round 1)


Welterweight Champion Eliminator:
Nick Diaz 15-7-0 vs. 16-5-3 Katsuya Inoue

Nick Diaz by sumission. Katsuya Inoue is hard to get down though, he proved that against Kitaoka.

Middleweight Tournament Round 1:
Jason Miller 20-5-0 vs. 2-3-0 Katsuyori Shibata

Jason Miller, quick, by whatever submission he choses...

Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
Melvin Manhoef
20-4-1 vs. Kim Dae Won

Manhoef, KO in the first 2 minutes.

Non-Tournament Fights:
Jung Bukyung 0-2-0 vs. 13-9-0 Daisuke Nakamura

Jung Bukyung by armbar round 1

Takeshi Yamazaki 13-7-2 vs. 6-2-1 Shoji Maruyama
Takeshi Yamazaki by decision

And then a promo vid. (if you have a thing against Bon Jovi, TURN OFF THE VOLUME! Maybe put on a CD or something...)


Read more...

5/19 DEEP 35 - Satoko Shinashi fighting!

This card is looking very good! Now Satoko Shinashi is added and for me, thats a huge boost. She is one of the better female fighters out there, but she is very small. In this fight she is giving up 10 kilo to her opponent, but I still think she will win it. Saeki basically created the DEEP Female Flyweight title for her, she is very popular and I think it was a good move by DEEP. Satoko also maintains a blog http://blog.shinashi.com/ unfortunately all in Japanese, but she adds lots of pictures and updates regularly. Also check out her web-site http://www.shinashi.com/e_index.html

In her DEEP 35 fight, she is facing Pro-Wrestler Mai Ichii.

Added:
Satoko Shinashi 28-1-2 vs. 0-1-0 Mai Ichi

The full card:


DEEP Featherweight title fight:
Masakazu Imanari 14-5-1 vs. 17-6-2 Dokonjonosuke Mishima

DEEP Lightweight title fight:
Kazunori Yokota 6-0-3 vs. 2-1-0 Pang Sung Hwan

Middleweight Tournament:
Yuya Shirai 12-5-0
Daijiro Matsui 10-18-4
Yuichi Nakanishi 7-7-3
Riki Fukuda 9-3-0

Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
Ryuta Sakurai 15-14-4 vs. 9-4-0 Young “RYO” Choi

Non-Tournament/Title fights:
Hidehiko Hasegawa 14-9-4 vs. 11-13-7 Hiroki Nagaoka
Satoko Shinashi 28-1-2 vs. 0-1-0 Mai Ichi
Koichiro Matsumoto 3-1-0 vs. 6-1-3 Yuki Ito
Katsunori Kikuno 6-1-1 vs. 3-2-1 Seigo Inoue
Jutaro Nakao 20-13-4 vs. 7-9-3 Shigetoshi Iwase
LUIZ 6-6-2 vs. 5-3-2 Toshikazu Iseno “ISE”
Noboru Onishi “The Nob-Rock” 1-1-1 vs. イムヒョンギュ(CMA KTT)

Future fight:
Muneyuki Sato 1-1-0 vs. Yasuhiro Kawasaki

Read more...

5/11 DREAM 3 - Card Complete (?)

Thursday 8 May 2008

It looks as though the DREAM 3 card it complete, still a small question mark over Nick Diaz but it looks as though he is fighting too. There is a lot to look forward to on this card! I am planning a preview of all the fights tomorrow, hopfully I can finish it. Either way, the last fighter added to the card is Pancrase title holder, Shoji.

Shoji is a fighter with lots of talent, but he is yet to fight on this level. His biggest win to date was his KO win over Artur Oumakhanov in January, that victory earned him the Pancrase title. He should have a good battle against the veteran Takeshi Yamazaki.

Added:
Takeshi Yamazaki 13-7-2 vs. 6-2-1 Shoji Maruyama

The complete card:
Lightweight Tournament Round 2:
Caol Uno 24-10-4 vs. 16-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri 21-4-2 vs. 12-3-0 Luiz “Buscape” Firmino
Joachim Hansen 17-6-1 vs. 13-1-0 Eddie Alvarez

Welterweight Champion Eliminator:
Nick Diaz 15-7-0 vs. 16-5-3 Katsuya Inoue

Middleweight Tournament Round 1:
Jason Miller 20-5-0 vs. 2-3-0 Katsuyori Shibata

Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
Melvin Manhoef 20-4-1 vs. Kim Dae Won

Non-Tournament Fights:
Jung Bukyung 0-2-0 vs. 13-9-0 Daisuke Nakamura
Takeshi Yamazaki 13-7-2 vs. 6-2-1 Shoji Maruyama

Read more...

6/8 Sengoku 3 - Fighters Announced

Sengoku has had a lot of momentum behind them lately, and today they have started announcing the fights for their 3rd event.

It was announced perviously that Kazuyuki Fujita would appear on this card, added today are 4 more fighters in addition to 1 fight.

It will be espcially intersting to see Rodrigo Damm on this card. I have not heard about him before but he holds victorys over Kultar Gill and Ryan Bow so he should be very good.

Announced:
Nick Thompson 35-9-1 vs. 5-2-0 Michael Costa

Participating:
Hidehiko Yoshida 7-6-1
Marcio Cruz 3-2-0
Fabio Silva 9-4-0
Rodrigo Damm 7-1-0
Kazuyuki Fujita 15-6-0

Read more...

5/28 Shoot Boxing - Antonio Carvalho fighting!

Shoot Boxing has announced 2 fights for their May 28. card. And there are some big names on it.

Shoot Boxing is very good for spectators that like K-1 but get sick of fighters just holding on to eachother. Because Shoot Boxing allowes (and rewards) throws the fights are more open.

The event is being held in Korakuen Hall.

Fights announced:
Andy Ologon vs. Kenji Kanei
Antonio Carvalho vs. Hiroki Shishido

Participating:
Kenichi Ogata

Read more...

5/18 Sengoku - Roger Gracie's opponent announced

Monday 5 May 2008

Sengoku has announced Roger Gracie's opponent for May 18, and its not a can! Yuki Kondo is a very merited Pancrase fighter (middleweight King of Pancrase), and recently lost the title fight for the Lightweight King of Pancrase. I would question if they are in the same weight class, but Kondo is a very good fighter.

Added:
Yuki Kondo 48-21-6 vs. 1-0-0 Roger Gracie

Previously announced:
Josh Barnett 21-5-0 vs. 24-7-0 Jeff Monson
Kevin Randleman 16-12-0 vs. 8-2-2 Ryo Kawamura
Eiji Mitsuoka 12-5-2 vs. 5-0-0 Kwang Hee Lee
Satoru Kitaoka 19-8-9 vs. 7-4-1 Ian Schaffa
Yuki Sasaki 21-13-1 vs. 16-7-0 Jorge Santiago
Yoshihiro “Kiss” Nakao 6-1-0 vs. 9-1-0 Big Jim York
Mike Pyle 15-5-1 vs. 15-1-0 Dan Hornbuckle

Read more...

DREAM Lightweight Tournament - Rumor Confirmed

It is official, Aoki is still in the tournament! His fight with Nagata will take place on June 15 in DREAM 4. I have to say that this is a good decision by FEG and I hope he is able to get through that fight uninjured. It is also the first fight announced for the June event.

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080505-00000015-spnavi-fight.html

Read more...

DREAM Lightweight Tournament - Aoki still in??

Sunday 4 May 2008

Rumor now is that the Aoki Nagata fight will be puched back to DREAM 4. A very good decision in my mind, it gives Aoki time to recover and he has deserved the spot. Nothing is official on this and we will have to wait and see, but to me that seems like a much better option that getting another fighter into the second round without fighting...

Read more...

5/3 Shooto - Road to 20th Anniversary - Live Play-by-Play ***Spoiler***

Saturday 3 May 2008

I will do a live Play-by-Play from the Shooto event today. The card is looking awesome and I am very excited about this event!

The fights start at 5PM Japan.

The broadcast has started.

Fighters are being presented. BJ Kojima is presented and confirms that he will fight July 18. Joachim Hansen is also in attendence.

Official attendence 3,200

RESULTS:

Takashi Nakakura vs. Ganjo Tentsuku by decision
David Baron Def. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai by guiliotin Round 1
Akitoshi Tamura Def. Rumina Sato by North-South Choke Round 3 2:37
Savant Young Def. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue by decision.
Ryuichi Miki vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani DRAW
Yusuke Endo Def. Vince Ortiz by rear-naked choke.
Bendy Casimir Def. Shinji Sasaki by decision 3-0
Shinpei Tahara Def. Katsuya Murofushi by TKO Round 2 0:46
Hayate Usui Def. Sakae Kasuya by decision 2-0


Play-by-Play

Takashi Nakakura 9-2-1 vs. 9-2-2 Ganjo Tentsuku
Time for the main event!
Round 3:
Ganjo is more agressive, Nakakura is picking his punches. Ganjo puches Nakakura back into the corner. Nakakura gets on and the fight is on again. Non stop punches, but Ganjo is the agressor. No one doing more damage than is already done, but will it be enough for Nakakura? Still no takedowns in this fight, and Nakakura looks comfident. Round is over, both fighters raise their hands.

I think this is a draw. Nakakura gets the decision!!!

Round 2:
Nakakura needs to get this to the ground to get an advantage. They are trading punches and Ganjo puches Nakakura to the corner, some Japanese dirty boxing now (not as dirty as American). Ganjo needs a doctor check for a cut on his right eye. Nakakura hits with a hook to the cut eye. On the feet, Ganjo seems to be the one hitting more, but there are a lot of punches that find nothing but air. Nakakura is aiming for the cut eye and it is looking worse now. Round is over. Ganjo is working on his punches, Nakakura is just working on the cut now.

The round to Nakakura, but its very close.

Round 1:
Its on! Both fighters kind of careful in the opening. Trading punches then Ganjo goes for a takedown, Nakakura is pushed into the corner. He gets out and they are trading punches again. Both fighters are punching and hitting, but no clear advantage. Ganjo gets a few good punches in now. Nakakura tries some low-kicks and then goes for a takedown, but Ganjo gets back up. Round over and it was very close.

David Baron Def. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai by guiliotin Round 1.
Fighters entering now. This one will be HUGE!
Round 1: Its on, I am very excited about this one! Sakurai takes Baron down with a Takedown/punch. Baron ahs guard now. Sakurai stands up. Baron takes Sakurai down now. Sakurai has guard, but Baron gets some good punches in. Sakurai gets up. Baron hits with some good punches. This is close. Baron has a cut, but its nothing serious. Some good exchanges in this fight. Baron with a guilliotin. Sakurai taps with 12 seconds left!!!


Akitoshi Tamura Def. Rumina Sato by North-South Choke Round 3 2:37
Fighters are entering the ring.
Round 3: Final round, Tamura's eye is looknig very bad. Tamura with a high kick that takes Rumina down. Rumina has an inverted triangel, and that stops the attack. Tamura with side control. Rumina gets some knees to the body. Tamura is trying a North-south choke and it looks deep, Rumina taps and Tamura gets the win in a very good fight! Time 2:37, Tamura's eye is totally closed.
Round 2: Rumina looks way more comfident on his feet, this time he gets the take down and is on top. In Tamura's guard now. A very good punch from the guard. Tamura is not able to use his rubber guard so far. Tamura is trying his rubber guard, but Rumina is too strong so far. One of Rumina's punches have really hit Tamura's right eye. After a doctor check its on again. Some good punches and then Tamura takes Rumina to the ground. Rumina has Tamura in his guard now. Rumina continues to hit Tamura's right eye from the bottom. and Tamura hits with some good GNP. Round to Rumina, one round a piece now.
Round 1: Fight has started, Rumina looks comfident as the fight starts. Tamura is going for the takedown, Rumina on the back now. Rumina has half guard. Then mount before Rumina turns around and Tamura has his back now. Tamura is gonig for a rear-naked choke, but Rumina defends well. Rumina standing up now, with Tamura on his back. Tries a strange arm-bar, using his neck to bend Tamura's arm. Tamura is still stuck on Rumina's back and the time is running out. Tamura got round 1.

Savant Young Def. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue by decision.
Fighters are entring the ring.
Round 2: This is the final round. Young using his boxing skills with a few jabs in the start of the round. Young gets behind Takeshi and puches him to the ropes. He is not able to take advantage and the fight is re-started in the middle. Takeshi is pushed back into the corner, he tries a takedown but is not successful. The ref breaks it up. Young puches Takeshi to the to the ground as he gets up Young sinks in a guilliotin. It is very deep and Takeshi "jumps" out of the ring, good escape and should punished. The ref starts them standing in the middle. Young tries a take down, but Takeshi ends up in mount. Young gets him into his guard before the bell sounds. I am guessing a draw. Savant Young gets the decision!
Round 1: its on. Lion wants to stand and so far Young is happy with that. Both fighters looking for the KO, but thing hitting so far. Young presses Takeshi to the ropes and it might go to the ground. But looks like the fighters are happy to stay on their feet. Young tries an overhand that looks powerful, but it does not hit. Takeshi takes Young down. Takeshi is in Young's guard. He hits with a few punches and the round is over. Round to Takeshi.

Ryuichi Miki vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani DRAW
Fighters are in the ring.

Round 3: Urushitani is close with a knee. Both fighters are trying punches, nothing hitting again. Then Miki tries another takedown, that Urushitani resists again. The small punches are starting to damage Miki, but he gets back with some good punches himself. Miki is chasing Urushitani now. THen Urushitani hits with some very good punches. Both fighters are tired and looking for the finishing blow. This is very close!! And its a DRAW!
Round 2: Lets hope for more action. Urushitani tries his spining fist too. but doesnt hit that well. Miki is trying some leg-kicks, but dont know if it does any damage. The fight still has not gone to the ground and it is pretty even standing up. Miki goes for a takedown, but Urushitani is able to resist. Another spinning back fist that hits from Miki. Urushitani signals that it does no damage. Miki is the more agressive fighter now. He tries another take down, but again Urushitani gets out of it. At the end of the round Urushitani looks like he is more in control, but this is close.
Round 1: Fight has started. Feeling eachother out. A few punches and kicks, but nothing really hitting... Miki hits with a spinning back fist, that seems to fire up both fighters. Lots of puches again, but no real damage done. The round is over without going to the ground. I dont know who won this round, but it was close...

Bendy Casimir Def. Shinji Sasaki by decision 3-0

Bendy entering now.
Round 3: Bendy hits with a few punches, then his mouthpiece goes flying. After a short break, Sasaki gets the take down and is on top in Bendy's half guard. Bendy turns it and is in Sasaki's guard now. Tries some punches, but not doing much damage. Then he gets side control. Not able to work any submissions, tries to get a mount, but Sasaki gets him off. Bendy then tries for a choke. Sasaki works out of it and is able to get Bend back into a omoplata that looks very tight. Sasaki is working on a rear-naked choke while Bendy's arm is caught in the omoplata, just when the bell rings. The 2 last rounds were very close, but Bendy gets the deceision 3-0!

Round 2: Slow start, Sasaki trying a high-kick, but doesnt hit the target. Sasaki has Bendy in his guard, the rubber guard looks dangerous again. Bendy moves to north-south positino and then goes back into Sasaki's guard. Very technical fight, not many punches thrown. Bendy almost has mount, but Sasaki pushes him back in his guard. Not much happening, until Sasaki tries an omoplata again, but Bendy escapes as the bell rings.

Round 1: Its on! Starts a bit slow, then Bendy goes for the takedown. Sasaki gets it, and is on top. Bendy turns it and is on top now. Sasaki defents well and Bendy is in his guard. Sasaki seems to control an arm, will see if that leads to anything, trying rubber guard. Sasaki almost had an arm-bar, twice. Then a omoplata. Sasaki on top now. Not able to do anything before the bell rings. Round to Sasaki because of the submission attempts.

Yusuke Endo Def. Vince Ortiz by rear-naked choke.
Fighters are in the ring.
Round 1: Will be interesting to see Ortiz, I know nothing about him, except he is a wrestler. Endo looks like he wants this fight standing. Punches are thrown, but not much hits. Oritz goes for a takedown, but Endo squashes it. Then Ortiz hits witha well placed punch and Endo takes count. THen Endo punishes Oritz who is not aware of the count in Shooto. Endo sinks in a deep rear-naked over the ropes and the ref wants to move it. When they start up Endo chokes Ortiz out. Bad decision by the ref to move int that position...

Undercard:
Katsuya Murofushi 3-2-0 vs. Shinpei Tahara
Hayate Usui 8-6-1 vs. 3-2-3 Sakae Kasuya

Read more...

5/11 DREAM 3 - Aoki Out!

Well, not unexpected, but now its official!Aoki is out of the DREAM tourament. Why am I saying its not unexpected?? Well, he said in an interview before the fight that he would not fight in round 2 of this tournament, even if he won. This is very dissapointing but, like I have said in touraments like this injuries will happen.

This really sucks, for a couple of reasons... JZ has said he would not take Aoki's place, which means 2 of the best fighters are out. And Nagata, who is the weakest link, might not have to fight in order to get to the next round...

Let's see if DREAM can find an opponent for Nagata in the last week. And let's pray its not a can.

Read more...

5/11 DREAM 3 - "Hellboy" Hansen T-Shirt

For DREAM 1, one of the more popular T-Shirts were the Hellboy Hansen shirts, they actually sold out. Now they have posted the design for the shirts for DREAM 3 on his blog. They are looking awesome! His guys have done a great job designing these ones.

http://my.opera.com/JoachimHansen/blog/t-dream-3

Read more...

5/3 Shooto - Road to 20th Anniversary - Warm-Up

Friday 2 May 2008

Tomorrow Shooto will hold a BIG event, it is huge! The first evet to be held in the new JCB Hall in the Tokyo Dome area.

I have also decided to do a live Play-by-Play, if you are in Japan you should be watching on SkyPerfect (PPV).

The event provides some very interesting match-ups and here are some videos of some of the fighters participating:

Takashi Nakakura
vs. Jani Lax (very good fight!)
vs. Yusuke Endo (rd 1)
vs. Yusuke Endo (rd 2)
vs. Yusuke Endo (rd 3)

Ganjo Tentsuke
vs. Emmanuel Fernandez

Hayato Sakurai
vs. Hidetaka Monma
vs. Haroldo Bunn
vs. Caol Uno
vs. Jens Pulver
Highlights
vs. Olaf Alfonso
vs. Ronny Rivano
vs. Frank Trigg

David Baron
vs. Dan Hardy
Highlights

Akitoshi Tamura
vs. Hayate Usui
vs. Masaomi Saito
vs. Sakae Kasuya

Rumina Sato
Highlight
vs. Erikas Petraikis
vs. Alan Fried
vs. Bao Quach
vs. Augusto Fronta

"Lion" Takeshi Inoue
vs. Jin Kazeta
vs. Marc Duncan
vs. Hayate Usui
vs. Antonio Carvalho

Shinji Sasaki
vs. Michiyuki Ishibashi
vs. Paulo Milano

Bendy Casimir
Highlight
vs. Chris Stringer
vs. Ian Jones
vs. Juri Ivlev

Yusuke Endo
vs. Koumei Okada
vs. Clay Guida
vs. Seiki Uchimura

Ryuichi Miki
vs. Kenji Hosoya (pt. 1)
vs. Kenji Hosoya (pt. 2)

Yasuhiro Urushitani
vs. Lorenzo Coca
vs. Daniel Lima
vs. Shinichi Kojima (pt. 1)
vs. Shinichi Kojima (pt. 2)
vs. Mamoru Yamaguchi (pt. 1)
vs. Mamoru Yamaguchi (pt. 2)

Sakae Kasuya
vs. Takumi Ota

Read more...

5/11 DREAM 3 - Fights Added

DREAM has had their fair share of problems with the tournaments. Its been well documented and I don't want to spend too much time on it. NoB has summarized the problems here. There are a couple of reasons I don't want to dwell on these things too much, but basically if you have a tournament it happens. Just think of the problems Cage Force had with their tournament.

I think the 2 first events has suffered because FEG rushed into them. For DREAM 3 things are looking WAY better. They are setting up reserve fights for the tournaments and also a welterweight championship eliminator fight! This is stuff I really like and I think DREAM 3 is showing signs that DREAM are serious. Add to that the possibility of a live broadcast on HDNet (I hope they can make that happen) and things are looking up!
Rumor is that the winner of Diaz vs. Inoue will take on Hayato Sakurai for the welterweight championship belt.

Anyway, today there were 5 fights announced:
Nick Diaz 15-7-0 vs. 16-5-3 Katsuya Inoue
Jung Bukyung 0-2-0 vs. 13-9-0 Daisuke Nakamura
Jason Miller 20-5-0 vs. 2-3-0 Katsuyori Shibata
Melvin Manhoef 20-4-1 vs. Kim Dae Won

Takeshi Yamazaki 13-7-2 vs. TBA

That gives us this card:

Lightweight Tournament Round 2:
Caol Uno 24-10-4 vs. 16-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri 21-4-2 vs. 12-3-0 Luiz “Buscape” Firmino
Joachim Hansen 17-6-1 vs. 13-1-0 Eddie Alvarez
Katsuhiko Nagata 4-2-0 vs. Shinya Aoki


Welterweight Champion Eliminator:
Nick Diaz 15-7-0 vs. 16-5-3 Katsuya Inoue

Middleweight Tournament Round 1:
Jason Miller 20-5-0 vs. 2-3-0 Katsuyori Shibata

Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
Melvin Manhoef 20-4-1 vs. Kim Dae Won

Non-Tournament Fights:
Jung Bukyung 0-2-0 vs. 13-9-0 Daisuke Nakamura
Takeshi Yamazaki 13-7-2 vs. TBA

Read more...

5/19 DEEP 35 - Fights added

DEEP has added another couple of fights to their DEEP 35 card. It is looking like a very good card, and I expect more good cards from DEEP throughout 2008. I have feeling their close relationship with DREAM will result in some interesting fighters stoping by.

Anyway, the DEEP 35 card (BTW, I think "The Nob-Rock" has to be one of the funnies nicknames I have come across):

DEEP Featherweight title fight:
Masakazu Imanari 14-5-1 vs. 17-6-2 Dokonjonosuke Mishima

DEEP Lightweight title fight:
Kazunori Yokota 6-0-3 vs. 2-1-0 Pang Sung Hwan

Middleweight Tournament Participants:
Yuya Shirai 12-5-0
Daijiro Matsui 10-18-4
Yuichi Nakanishi 7-7-3
Riki Fukuda 9-3-0

Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
Ryuta Sakurai 15-14-4 vs. 9-4-0 Young “RYO” Choi

Non-Tournament/Title fights:
Hidehiko Hasegawa 14-9-4 vs. 11-13-7 Hiroki Nagaoka
Koichiro Matsumoto 3-1-0 vs. 6-1-3 Yuki Ito
Katsunori Kikuno 6-1-1 vs. 3-2-1 Seigo Inoue
Jutaro Nakao 20-13-4 vs. 7-9-3 Shigetoshi Iwase
LUIZ 6-6-2 vs. 5-3-2 Toshikazu Iseno “ISE”
Noboru Onishi “The Nob-Rock” 1-1-1 vs. イムヒョンギュ(CMA KTT)

Future fight:
Muneyuki Sato 1-1-0 vs. Yasuhiro Kawasaki

Read more...

5/3 Shooto - Road to 20th Anniversary - Fight Order Announced

Thursday 1 May 2008

Shooto has released the fight order for their awesome card on Saturday. I am not going, but have ordered this on PPV so if the SkyPerfect gods are with me, I will be able to do a PBP of this event. It is Golden Week in Japan, so I am expecting a decent crowd in for this event.

7. Takashi Nakakura 9-2-1 vs. 9-2-2 Ganjo Tentsuku
6. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. 13-2-0 David Baron
5. Akitoshi Tamura 11-6-2 vs. 24-11-2 Rumina Sato
4. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue 14-2-0 vs. 8-7-0 Savant Young
3. Shinji Sasaki 6-1-0 vs. 13-4-2 Bendy Casimir
2. Yusuke Endo 10-2-1 vs. Vince Ortiz
1. Ryuichi Miki 6-2-2 vs. 14-3-5 Yasuhiro Urushitani

Opening fights:
Hayate Usui 8-6-1 vs. 3-2-3 Sakae Kasuya
Katsuya Murofushi 3-2-0 vs. Shinpei Tahara

Read more...

Followers

Read about this blog here.

If you have any suggestions for improvements, event we should cover etc.

Please contact me on japanmma@gmail.com
*I am not able to arrange or set up fights, for this please contact the organizations directly.

For Gyms in Japan see here

For purchasing tickets in Japan see here


  © Blogger template On The Road by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP