9/7 Pancrase Shining Tour Osaka - Card Complete

Saturday 30 August 2008

There has been a few additions to the card in Osaka. This event should be very good value, and a good event.

In an exciting addition, Pancrase veteran Daisuke Hanazawa will take on the Gracie trained Leandro Kusano. As far as I know, Leandro is makeing his MMA debut. He is an experienced BJJ fighter and I am looking forward to seeing what he can do in MMA.

Also making their debuts are Hirotaka Yoshioka and Hiroto Harai. Hirotaka Yoshioka is a Japanese Greco-Roman wrestler, he will face the experienced Kiichi Kunimoto. Yoshioka holds a 3rd place from the Japanese wrestling championships in 2007, so he is a very strong wrestler. Hiroto Harai is a karate and judo fighter, but I dont know much about him...

The fight order is like this:

Main event:
13. Bantamweight: Daichi Fujiwara 7-3-1 vs. 4-3-0 Nobuhiro “Punch” Yamauchi

12. Welterweight: Daisuke Hanazawa "13" 9-9-5 vs. Leandro Kusano
11. Welterweight: Kiichi Kunimoto "Strasser" 5-2-0 vs. Hirotaka Yoshioka
10. Featherweight: Kenji Takeshige 6-7-1 vs. 6-3-1 Motonobu Tezuka
9. Welterweight: Yu Shiori 5-1-0 vs. Hiroto Harai
8. Bantamweight: Takashi Hasegawa 4-6-3 vs. 1-1-0 Takahiro Goda
7. Flyweight: Takayuki Hirayasu 0-2-0 vs. Shinichiro Ryuno
6. Featherweight: Toru Harai 4-2-0 vs. 0-4-2 Hideo Matsui

Pancrase Gate: 2x5 min
5. Lightweight: Koji Namamura vs. Yoichi Kosumi
4. Featherweight: Koji Tomita vs. Keiichi Funako
3. Bantamweight: Takamasa Miki vs. Kensei Nishida
2. Bantamweight: Masao Fujii vs. Kojima-man
1. Flyweight: Wataru Nakahara vs. Yuya Ono

The event is being held in Osaka Azeria Hall doors open at 15:00.
Ticket-prices: SS ¥6,000- A ¥5,000-
As you can see, this should be GREAT value!

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9/23 DREAM 6 - CroCop vs. Overeem Definitely ON!

Sherdog has an article where they are saying Oveereem has confirmed the fight is on.
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news/cro-cop-overeem-definitely-happening-14231

This comes after it was reported in Croatian media earlier this week.
http://www.japan-mma.com/2008/08/923-dream-6-rumor-crocop-vs-overeem.html

This should be a very good fight, there has been a lot of hype and I cant wait for this one. Overeem has been in great shape lately, lets just hope Crocop has been able to recover 100% and is back to his old self. It should be a very good fight!

Thanks. bestrafer7

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10/13 Shooto - Kitazawa Townhall

Shooto have announced some fights for their event in Kitazawa Townhall. Looks like the main event will be 38 year old veteran Ikoma taking on 27 year old Shimokawa, it should be a very good fight. Otherwise, as always on the Kitazawa Townhall cards, lots of talent.

Bantamweight: Junji Ikoma 10-9-3 vs. 5-3-0 Yusei Shimokawa
Welterweight: Shinobu Miura 1-3-3 vs. 1-2-1 Koichi Taguchi
Featherweight: Masumi Tozawa 0-1-2 vs. Ken Numajiri

Rookie Tournament Round 2:
Lightweight: Takumi Ota 4-1-1 vs. 1-0-0 Issei Tamura
Welterweight: Kazuya Satomoto 4-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Ikuo Usuda

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10/5 Shooto - Shooting Disco 6 - Fights Added

Shooto have annouced a couple more fights for their Shooting Disco 6 in Shinjuku Face. Added to the card is the Rookie Tournamet fight between Haruo Ochi and Kosuke Eda. Ochi was being dominated in the previous round, but managed to get a choke in and get the win. Will be interesting to see how he does against the much more experienced Eda.

Added:
Middleweight: Taisuke Okuno 5-2-1 vs. 1-0-1 Yoichiro Sato
Lightweight: Daisuke Matsumoto 3-4-0 vs. 1-1-0 Daiki Tsuchiya

Shooto Rookie Tournament Round 2:
Featherweight: Haruo Ochi 2-0-0 vs. 5-2-2 Kosuke Eda

Previously announced:
Bantam: Ryuichi Miki 6-2-3 vs. 10-11-4 Jin Akimoto
Bantam: Ayumu "Gozo" Shioda vs. 2-3-0 Kenji Hosoya
Light: Sakae Kasuya 3-3-3 vs. 1-2-1 Hidenori Nishino
Bantam: Nozomi Otsuka 1-0-0 vs. 0-2-0 Tatsuya "Nakashi" Nakashima

Shooto Rookie Tournament Round 2:
Bantam: Fumihiro Kitahara 2-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Hiroaki Ijima
Fly: Mikiyomi Yamagami 1-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Yusuke Sato

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8/27 Pancrase Shining Tour - PICTURES


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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Time for some pictures from the Pancrase event on Wednesday. As always a good event, Pancrase has of course gotten a new sponsor and I think we will see even further improvements over the next few events. This picture is from the fight between Isao Hirose (standing) and Takuya Eizumi in the Neo-Blood bantamweight final. Suzuki clearly won the 1st round with GnP, Narita the second. An awesome and close fight, in the end a Hirose came out on top.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Hirotoshi Saito tries to choke out Yasutomo Tanaka in the dying seconds of the fight. Tanaka survived until the end, but lost a tooth during this choke. Saito won a deserved victory.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Steve Magdaleno was much better than Hiroki Aoki in the Neo-Blood lightweight final. Winning the fight by TKO and being awarded the MVP, all up a good night for Steve.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
The winners of the Neo-Blood finals, from left: Hirotoshi Saito, Steve Magdaleno and Isao Hirose.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Maximo Blanco realizes that he result of the fight might not be what he wanted, as the judges discuss the outcome.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Masahiro Toryu (blue) and Tomoyoshi Iwamiya had a close fight. Iwamiya finished the fight better, but Toryu got a close decision.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Eriya Matsuda had Satoru Kitaoka in his corner, but it did not help in this fight. Even though he got out of this mount against Yuichi Ikari...



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Even though he escaped the mount position, he soon found himself on the ground again. Ikari was efficient with the GnP and opened up a cut that lead to a TKO win. After the fight, Kitaoka went over to Ikari to offer some advise on how to improve his ground skills. Very interesting to see the sportsmanship there.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Seiya Kawahara, like always, on the offensive against Kentaro Imaizuimi. A quick win for him, again the ref had to stop this fight due to cut.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Kenji Arai got a decision win against Manabu Inoue.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Ryuji Ohori sustained a cut in his fight against Yuki Kondo. The win was officially called a KO though.

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Sengoku and DREAM DVD Sales

When I am going around Tokyo, I make a point of checking if shops have the Sengoku and DREAM DVDs. In the Pride days, most shops had some DVDs. These days its a bit different...

What is a but surprising is that I see the Sengoku DVD more than the DREAM DVDs. In fact, I have not seen the DREAM DVD on sale anywhere. DREAM have released 3 DVDs now, and the only place I have seen them, have been for rent. If you want to rent these DVDs, the Tsutaya in Roppongi (close to Wendy's) have all 3, map here: Tsutaya Roppongi

Once you are there, you can head over to the Tsutaya in Roppongi Hills, they have Sengoku 1 on sale: Tsutaya Roppongi Hills otherwise, I have seen the Sengoku DVD at HMV shops as well.

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9/28 Sengoku 5 - Fights announced

Friday 29 August 2008

Sengoku have announced the first few fights for Sengoku 5 in Yoyogi Gynasium. This will also be the first round in their Middleweight tournament.

Yuki Kondo is confirmend as a participant and we have the first half of the Middleweight 1st round ready.

Confirmed today:
Middleweight GP:
Yuki Kondo 49-22-6 vs. 21-14-1 Yuki Sasaki
Evangelista Santos "Cyborg" 16-11-0 vs. 13-3-1 Siyar Bahadurzada

Non-GP Fights (Winner will be in the LW reserve fight):
LW: Jorge Masvidal 13-3-0 vs. 20-10-1 Ryan Schultz

Participants:
-Xande Ribeiro
-Roger Gracie 2-0-0

Middleweight GP:
-Kazuhiro Nakamura 11-8-0
-Jorge Santiago 17-7-0

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8/27 Pancrase Shining Tour - RESULTS

Wednesday 27 August 2008

Pancrase Neo-Blood finals NEVER disappoint! An awesome event again. There were lots on new exciting fighters on the card (Kawahara in addition to the Neo-Blood finals) and add to that established Pancrase names like Yuki Kondo and Kenji Arai and its a good night of fights.

Tonight was all about the Neo-Blood finals though (the main-event got cancelled). Fight of the night IMO went to Isao vs. Eizumi. An awesome fight were Isao dominated round 1 and Eizumi was the better in round 2.

Neo-Blood Tournament MVP went to Lightweight champion Steve Magdaleno! I have already said that I have been impressed by him, and this is someone most organizations should look at now! I hope to have an interview with him in the next couple of weeks (my second!!!!), send me questions if you have something you want to know about him (my e-mail is top right).

Yuki Kondo was undamaged after his fight and will most likely be in the Sengoku Middleweight GP next.

The Sengoku "sponsered" (not sure what it means) Maximo Blanco spoiled his chances to get an easy win by head-butting (accidental), then not breaking, THEN stomping his opponent. IMO he was lucky not to get a DQ in this fight. A very talented guy though.

***UPDATE***
Just on my comment on Maximo Blanco there, the head-butt happened during a takedown, TOTALLY accidental. It was this that lead to a cut, that in turn lead to the no-contest. It does not excuse the rest though, but it needs to be put straight. My original comment on this could be misleading.

There will be pictures shortly.

9. MW: Yuki Kondo Def. Ryuji Ohori by KO Round 2 2:41
8. FW: Kenji Arai Def. Manabu Inoue by Decision 3-0
7. BW: Seiya Kawahara Def. Kentaro Imaizumi by TKO (Cut) Round 1 2:09
6. LW: Yuichi Ikari Def. Eriya Matsuda by TKO (Cut) Round 2 4:09
5. WW: Masahiro Toryu Def. Tomoyoshi Iwamiya by Decision 2-0
4. LW: Maximo Blanco vs. Yuki Yashima No-Contest

Neo-Blood Finals:
3. Lightweight: Steve Magdaleno Def. Hiroki Aoki “AB” by TKO Round 1 4:47
2. Featherweight: Hirotoshi Saito Def. Yasutomo Tanaka by Decision 3-0
1. Bantamweight: Isao Hirose Def. Takuya Eizumi by Decision 3-0

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9/23 DREAM 6 - CroCop vs. Overeem Official!?

Croatian media is reporting that Crocop will fight Overeem at DREAM 6. They are also saying this is official and confirmed by DREAM.

Thanks to Robert from MMA Betting for the news and this link: http://dnevnik.hr/sport/cro-cop/sluzbeno-uskoro-okrsaj-cro-copa-i-alistera-oferima.html#video

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9/12 Shoot Boxing - Fight Order

Tuesday 26 August 2008

The card for Shoot Boxing Sept. 12 is ready. The 3 last fights should be very exciting, the main event is between the Shoot boxing veterans Shishido (SB Japan Welterweight Champ) and Kanai (SB Japan Super-Welterweight Champ) in a non-title fight. It will also be interesting to see how Australian Jason Scerri does against the 2006 S-Cup winner Ogata. Then there is the SB Japan Title fight between Phanton Shinya and Noriyuki Enari.

Should be a good event.

10. Main Event: 70Kg S-Cup Rule 5x3min (Unlimited Extention)
Hiroki Shishido vs. Kenji Kanei
9. Expert Rule 3x3min (Unlimited Extention)
Kenichi Ogata vs. Jason Scerri
8. SB Japan Super-Bantam Title-fight 5x3min (Unlimited Extention)
Phantom Shinya (champ) vs. Noriyuki Enari
7. Expert Class Rule 3x3min 60kg (Unlimited Extention)
Takeshi (or Tsuyoshi) Ishikawa VS Crazy Hill
6. Expert Class Rule 3x3min 72kg (Unlimited Extention)
Takaaki Umeno vs. Tsuyoshi Torii
5. Freshman Class Rule 60kg 3x3min (2 rounds extention)
Takanori Fujiwara vs. 島田Kouya (?) Shimada
4. Starting Class Rule 51kg 3x2min (1 round extention)
Misato Tomita vs. TBD
3. Starting Class Rule 55kg 3x2min (1 round extention)
Kazuyuki Fushimi vs. Hideo Iwasaki
2. Starting Class Rule 65kg 3x2min (1 round extention)
Hiroaki Suzuki vs. Yoshiki Harada
1. Starting Class Rule 55kg 3x2min (1 round extention)
Tomonori Suzuki vs. 豊慶 (?) Osawa

Jason Scerri Highlights:

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8/30 DEEP - ClubDEEP Kyoto

Monday 25 August 2008

Deep is holding ClubDEEP in Kyoto on August 30. The arena is Kyoto Terrsa Hall. On the card is an exhibition fight between the two newly crowned DEEP Champions Mishima and Ikemoto.

Fights announced:
Tomoyuki Fukami 7-1-4 vs. 9-8-3 Takahiro Kajita
Exhibition: Seichi Ikemoto vs. 18-6-2 Dokonjonosuke Mishima
Yoshiyume Chodo 4-2-2 vs. 0-1-0 Miyamonta
Makoto Kamaya 8-5-1 vs. 6-1-0 Hiroto
Hiroki Tanaka “Goodman” 14-4-3 vs. 督 Kondo (?)

Participating:
Ken Hamamura 14-5-4
Yasuaki Kishimoto 2-2-0
Takayuki 栗納 (SFK) (?)
...and more

Tickets:
RRS 10,000
RS 6,000
A 4,000

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8/24 ZST Douple Header - Results

There wasn't only Sengoku happening in Japan yesterday, ZST put up no less than 2 cards in Shinjuku Face. On the cards were the finals in the Genesis Lightweight and Featherweight tournament

The early event:
ZST SWAT! In FACE Vol. 1

12. Hiroshi Tsuruya Def. Tomohiko Yoshida by Choke Round 2 2:22
11. Ichiro Kojima vs. Ryo “Toraji” Nakajima DRAW
10. Final Featherweight: Takeaki Miyagawa Def. Kei Sato by Heel-Hook Round1 1:38
9. Final Lightweight: Hirota Okazawa Def. Hiroyuki Ota by Decision
8. Ryosuke Tanuma Def. Yuichiro Yajima by arm-lock Round 1 1:00
7. Grappling Tag-Team 1x10min:
Ayumi Funakoshi & Miki Aiba vs. Ikuko Tamada & Yuki Sugiura DRAW
6. Kendo Kouda (?) Def. Yuichiro Toriyama by Heel-Hook Round 1 3:15
5. Tokuaki Ninomiya vs. Hiroaki Okuwa DRAW

Genesis Tournament Lightweight GT-F rule Semi-Finals:
4. Hirota Okazawa Def. Shunichi Shimizu by arm-bar Round 1 4:50
3. Hiroyuki Ota Def. Hiro Toyama by arm-bar Round 1 4:38

Genesis Tournament Featherweight GT-F rule Semi-Finals:
2. Kei Sato Def. Hiryu Okamoto by KO Round 2 0:14
1. Takeaki Miyagawa Def. Keizo Hisamoto by Decision


The late event:
ZST BATTLE HAZARD 03
ZST vs. DEEP Featherweight fights (ZST-Rule)
10. Masanori Kanehara Def. Isamu Sugiuchi by KO Round 1 0:47
9. Wataru Inatsu Def. Tatsumitsu Wada by Heel-hook Round 1 0:46

8. SB-X Rule: Nobutatsu Suzuki Def. Yojiro Uchimura by KO (3 knockdowns) Round 2 1:53
7. Tag-Team fight: Masayuki Okude/Tatsuya Yamada Def. Kenichi Ito/Yuki Ito
6. RX-Rule: Osami Shibuya Def. Kenji Nagai by Kimura Round 1 5:07
5. ZST VT-Rule: Seishi Takeda vs. Tatsuhiko Nishizaka DRAW

Opening Fights:
4. GT-F Rule: Daisuke Yokoyama vs. Ichiro Sugita DRAW
3. ZST-Special Rule: Hiroyuki Yamashiro Def. Goro Kobayashi by TKO (doctor stop) Round 1 1:23
2. ZST-Rule: Yutaka Inada vs. Tetsuya Matsuzaki DRAW
1. GTF-Rule: Yuhei Oshita Def. Naohiro Hasegawa by armbar Round 1 2:04

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Sengoku 4 - Some Thoughts

After digesting yesterday's Sengoku event a few thoughts.

Japan has many stars, and most of them are now fighting in DREAM. But what is easy to forget is that these are mostly stars from the Pride era. Japanese MMA has not been inactive, even though Pride died (lacking a better word). It has been hard to measure the development of guys like Mitsuoka, Hirota, Yokota and Kitaoka. They are very experienced guys, but until yesterday I think they were relatively unknown for the average global MMA fan (they might still be).

Hirota had upset of the night, but it was not the only upset. For me, Yokota and Kitaoka were not big upsets they are very good Japanese fighters, but I didn't know much about their opponents. Mitsuoka choking out Damm, I was not expecting. So what did we see yesterday? The start of a tournament that will draw Japanese fans, or the end of it? I have a feeling it would have been better to get some foreign fighters going through as well, just someone for the Japanese "underdog" (they like that).

At the end of the day though, there will be a Japanese Lightweight champion in Sengoku.

Still cant shake the question though... How would these guys do in the DREAM tournament?

With regards to the Nastula stoppage, I felt that it was wrong... He should have been given a warning to get up, he was slow in getting up and a yellow card might have been in place. It was a mistake in my eyes, but the ref was clear afterwards. He called break and Natsula did not stand up.

Takahashi has 3 KO losses (all by knees) in a row now... Just cant be good...

This was IMO the best Sengoku event so far, and they have more fighters coming in. Sengoku has momentum, lets see if they are able to get a TV deal going now...

I also want to thank the guys making comments to me during the PBP, both where very constructive and helpful. I am a one man show and I don't have all the answers, so always good to get help!

Wanna watch the fights? Check out this site: http://www.mmascraps.com/

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8/24 Sengoku 4 - Live Play-by-Play

Sunday 24 August 2008

I will have the live PBP here starting at 4PM Japan time.

Looks like it should be a good event, for referance:
-Betting odds
-Results of my Poll
-Hwan Sung Pang and Mizuto Hirota videos
-Satoru Kitaoka Videos

The broadcast has started, expect there is a bit of talk before the fights start. Akihiro Gono is guest commentator (the first one, they keep changing). The GP is called "The Road to Gomi" during the intro.

Fighters are being introduced now, and we should be a few minutes away from the first fight. The place is looking kind of empty, but its not really started yet. Kitaoka looks ready, I think him vs. French might be fight of the night.

Very cool entry for the fighters of the main event, through a traditional Japanese gate. The intro for the first fight has started.

Xavier Ribeiro is presented as a Sengoku fighter. His Sengoku debut will be in Sengoku 5.


9. LW: Takanori Gomi vs. Hwang Seung Bang
Bang is in the ring. Both fighters are ready now.

Round 1.
Bang is good, but is he as good as Gomi? We will find out now. Good leg-kicks from Gomi, otherwise both fighters careful in the start. Bang swings, but is unable to hit. Gomi jabs well. but no big hits hitting any target yet. Both fighters get a punch in, but looks like Bang is the one getting damage, not from one punch rather small punches that are accurate (on his nose). Good round for Gomi, no takedowns this far.

Round 2.
starts much like the first. Gomi moving forward, Bang mostly back. Bang's left leg and area around his nose is read from the hits, but no real damage yet. The leg kicks are starting to show now. Bang has a takedown attempt, but turns into nothing. Bang with another takedown attemp, he is also trying some leg-kicks. Eventually Bang goes to the ground and Gomi follows, Gomi starts pounding and it looks like it might be over, but Bang gets up. Flying knee attempt from Gomi, but Bang blocks. The round is over.
Both rounds so far for Gomi.

Round 3.
Final round! Bang was very tired after the last round and he is backing at the start fo this round. Gomi tries some leg-kick again. The fight continues much like the first rounds, standing action. Bang has hit with a couple of punches, but Gomi hits much more. Bang is cut over his right eye. and he is looking very tired now. Gomi is going in for the big finish, but Bang defends well. There are some wild punches from both fighters in the last seconds, but it goes to decision. Bang is very tired. This should go to Gomi though. Gomi by decision 3-0


8. MW: Frank Trigg vs. Makoto Takimoto
Fighters are in the ring.

Round 1. Trigg comes out with a leg-kick. Takimoto gets the takedown. Takimoto in Trigg's guard. Trigg gets up and looks like he is much better while standing (as expected). Takimoto pulls Trigg down and Trigg is in Takimoto's guard. Sidecontrol for Trigg. He tries to mount but Takimoto turns and almost falls out of the ring. The ref stands them up, and Takimoto comes out swining. Nothing seems to hit Trigg who takes him down. Takimoto is able to get half guard. Round is finished, clearly in favor of Trigg.

Round 2. ROund has started. Trigg comes out with kicks, Takimoto with punches, wild start. Trigg takes Takimoto down and gets side control. T-ing off with knees then Trigg gets mount, but is pushed back to half guard then up in standing. Some heavy punches from Trigg on Takimoto who is trying upkicks (unsuccessfully). Takimoto gets up and hits with a good right, Trigg gets him to the ground, but Takimoto catches an arm and goes for a kimura. It is very close and Trigg is fighting to defend. Trigg gets out. and goes in Takimoto's guard. The round is over. Close round to Takimoto.

Round 3. Trigg takes the fight to the ground. Takimoto has half guard. Trigg is trying anything to change position, but Takimoto defends well. Takimoto goes for a leg and gets the right one, but Trigg gets out and Takimoto has guard again. The ref stand them up and both fighters start swinging. No punches seem to do really damage until Takimoto hits with a left hook. Trigg struggles, but takes Takimoto down again. Takimto as half guard, the round finishes. Trigg gets the decision.


7. Satoru Kitaoka vs. Clay French
For those who have been watching my site for a while know that I used to have a favorite fighter list. On that was Satoru Kitaoka, of course I think he will get this. It is his debut as this level though, and French is a very strong oppnent. The Japanese have done well today though.

Round 1. Its on. Kitaoka goes straight for a takedown ad gets it. Clay taps, achilles hold. One of the quickest sbmissions I have seen! 31 seconds. Kitaoka points to the fact that it has been said that the Japanese fighters are not that good anymore, but tonight might have proven otherwise.


6. Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Rodrigo Damm
Dont underestimate Mitsuoka, but Damm is a very strong fighter too. Fighters going to the ring now. Caol Uno is in Mitsuoka's corner.

Round 1. The fight has started. Fighter are measuring eachother before Mitusoka goes for a takedown. Damm in Mitsuoka's guard, trying to pass. He is almost past, but Mitsuoka is able to get back in control. The fighters stand up, and there are some wild punches. Mitusoka knocks Damm down and gets his back. Rear-naked choke for Mitsuoka. Damm taps! Like I said... Dont underestimate the Japanese in this GP, they have got some fighters with great talent! Even if they are not the biggest names in the business.


5. Kazunori Yokota vs. Bojan Kosednar
Fighters are in the ring.

Round 1. The fight has started. Bojan goes for a takedown and Yokota hits with lots of small punches, then Yokota gets the take down. Bojan gets up, and we are back to the standing fight again. Bojan goes for the takedown again, but Yokota gets his back. Not able to utilize and the fight is back up. Both fighters scamblig for the takedown, but Yokota gets it and is in Bojan's half guard. Bojan holds Yokota's head down and Yokota is unable to take advantage. The round ends like that. I would give the round to Yokota.

Round 2. Its started. Yokota looks better standing up, but Bojan is moving forward and is agressive. Bojan hits with a good right and goes for a takedown. Lowblow on Yokota in the clinch, and we have a short break. Bojan gets the takedown and almost Yokota's back. Yokota turns around and is in Bojan's guard now. Yokota is unable to do anything in Bojan's guard. Yokota gets some pounding in, but not much hits. The ref stands them up. Bojan gets a yellow card for not being agressive. Yokota gets the takedown, and Bojan's back. Bojan is abot to turn and is in mount. The round ends, and the yellow card probably makes this one go to Yokota as well. I dont agree with the card...

Round 3. First fight to go to the 3rd round. Yokota goes for the takedown, Bojan has a deep guilliotine that the ref breaks up!!! The ref gives Yokota a yellow card and probably saved him... The fight continues and Yokota hits with some good punches. Then there is a hard low blow. Bojan is in serious pain! I doubt this will continue. I am actually not sure who would go on in the GP... Looks like Bojan will continue, in pain though. Yellow to Yokota too. Bojan goes for takedown and Yokota eventually gets mount. Yokota gets Bojan's back, but Bojan just stands up, and we are back to a standing fight. A knee attempt from Yokota looks close, but Bojan defends well. Yokota is the better fighter now. Yokota gets the takedown, and Bojan looks a bit tired. I think Yokota will get this decision. Yokota by decision 3-0

4. Mizuto Hirota vs. Ryan Schultz
In my poll, Schultz was the CLEAR favorite, lets see how the IFL champ does against the Cage Force champ.


Round 1. Its on. Hirota is agressive in the start, but Schultz is up for the challenge. This will be war. Hirota is the one moving forward, but Schultz seems more in control. Low-kick from Hirota is answered with twice the power from Schultz. Hirota got a good punch in, but Schultz recovers. The low-kicks are hurting Hirota. It goes to the ground. Schultz in Hirota's guard. Hirota hits with an upkick and gets up. Schultz was in trouble, but gets Hirota to the ground again. This round should go to Schultz, but Hirota had a good end to it.

Round 2. This is developing into a very good fight. Schultz straight for the take down, but Hirota gets up easily. Schultz has good leg-kick, but seems like he wants the fight on the ground. Fighters trading punches, noone getting a real upper hand. Schultz continues to go for takedowns, but Hirota defends well. Lots of punches in this fight, Schultz goes for the big takedown, but ends up outside the ring. They stand up again. KO by Hirota!!!Schults goes for a big punch, and Hirota clocks him with a right superman punch. Schultz folds. The BIG favorite is OUT! Dont underestimate Hirota!

3. HW: Yang Dong Yi Def. Pavel Nastula
I have to say, from this point on, it picks up. 2 spectacular fights to start us off though. Yang's background is wrestling (just a note from the commentators).

Round 1. The return of Nastula... The fight has started. Natsula goes for the takedown. Yang defends and it is a careful start here. Yang moves forward and Nastula goes for takedowns. A kick from Yang hits the cup of Natsula and we have a short break. The first kick to hit anything in this fight... A BIG knee to the cup of Natsula AGAIN! Yellow card to Yang. It should be about 1:30 left of round 1. It started again. Wild swings/slaps from Yang, nothing hits and Natsula goes into clinch. Round is up, and it goes to Natsula.

Round 2. 2nd round has started. Yang gets Natsula to the ground. Nastula gets up but looks in trouble. He recovers, but Yang takes him down again. Yang in Natstulas guard now. Armbar attempt by Natula, but Yang escapes. Natstula is complaining of pain in the groin. and the ref calls it!!! WORST DECISION EVER!!! Ref is saying Nastula did not stand up when he called "Break" hence a TKO for Yang. To me, it looks like the nuts of Natsula was still hurting from round 1 and he got one caught up during the armbar attempt... Natsula will he back!
A very controversial stoppage,

2. HW: Moise Rimbon vs. Peter Graham
Rolling Thunder (Graham) says he has added ground game, lets see... Moise is making his way to the ring.

Round 1.The fight has started, looks like the crowd has come in too. Peter hits with the first punch and Moise goes for the take-down. Graham avoids it and the fight is still standing. Graham goes forward swining, but Rimbon is able to avoid by backing up. Rimbon is going for takedowns, Graham is able to step away for the time being. Finally Rimbon gets Graham down, mounts with ease, but the round is over before he can do any damage.Very close round. I give it to Rimbon based on the last 10 seconds...

Round 2. big overhand punch by Rimbon and Graham goes down. It goes to the ground, Rimbon t-ing off. He gets Graham's back and chokes him until Graham taps. Rimbon by rear-naked choke.

1. HW: Valentijn Overeem vs. Kazuo Takahashi
The traditional Japanese gates are used for the fighter entrances, a very nice way to enterance.

Round 1: The fight has started. Takahashi goes for the takedown and gets it. Overeem tries a guilliotine, but Takahashi gets out. Is in Overeems half-guard now. Overeem gets up and is much better in the stand-up. BIG knee by Overeem and the fight is over. BIG KO win to Overeem.

Results:
1. HW: Valentijn Overeem Def. Kazuo Takahashi by KO round 1
2. HW: Moise Rimbon Def. Peter Graham by Rear-naked Choke Round 2
3. HW: Yang Dong Yi Def. Pavel Nastula by TKO Round 2 (controversial)

Lightweight GP:
4. Mizuto Hirota Def. Ryan Schultz by KO round 2
5. Kazunori Yokota Def. Bojan Kosednar Decision 3-0
6. Eiji Mitsuoka Def. Rodrigo Damm by Rear-naked Choke Round 1
7. Satoru Kitaoka Def. Clay French by achilles hold Round 1 0:31

8. MW: Frank Trigg Def. Makoto Takimoto by Decision 3-0
9. LW: Takanori Gomi Def. Hwang Seung Bang by decision 3-0

Read more...

Results of the Poll "Who Will Win the Sengoku GP"

Saturday 23 August 2008

It's past mid-night in Japan, which means its Sunday 24 August, in other words the day of the Sengoku Lightweight Tournament.

I have had a poll going for about 2 weeks, and there have been 204 votes. This is how the votes went:

Ryan Schultz 81 (39%)
Rodrigo Damm 42 (20%)
Satoru Kitaoka 39 (19%)
Eiji Mitsuoka 17 (8%)
Bojan Kosednar 13 (6%)
Clay French 8 (3%)
Kazunori Yokota and Mizuto Hirota 2 (0%)

If you are of the betting kind, the odds are here.
The weigh-in results and pictures are here on MMA Weekly.com.
They are in Japanese here, with a picture of the belt too.

From Sherdog.com the belt:
Sengoku lightweight championship belt
Get more pictures like this from SHERDOG.COM

Cage Force champion Mizuto Hirota is an outsider in this GP. He is a great guy, very friendly and I am sure he does better in this GP than the votes here indicate. Here are some pictures from Cage Force 06, where I saw him win the Cage Force title and hanging out outside the ladies toilet.

There are a couple of new aquitences in this GP for me, one of them is the clear winner of my poll, Ryan Schultz. I deceided to search a bit and found this fight. This is the IFL title fight against Chris Horodecki where Schultz claims the IFL Lightweight title.



With that, just a reminder that the event starts at 4:00 PM Japan time. If you have problems with time zones, I like this site: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
I will be doing a live PBP.

Read more...

"HellBoy" - Highlights

Found this highlight video of Joachim Hansen. It is recent and includes the DREAM tournament, so really enjoyed watching this. Really got me thinking ahead and comparing to the Sengoku event tomorrow. DREAM had the bigger start, I think there is no doubt about that.

Anyway, DREAM had a great GP. Lets hope Sengoku has the same.

The DREAM Lightweight Champion:

Read more...

8/24 Sengoku 4 Betting Odds

Bookmaker.com have announced the odds for tomorrow's Sengoku event. No surprise that Gomi is favorite in his fight, but I actually think Pang is underrated. Will be interesting to see.

http://www.bookmaker.com/sportsbook.aspx

I will get a live Play-by-Play going, so check in tomorrow for the results, if you're not able to watch the event.

Sung Hwan Pang +600
Takanori Gomi -1100

Frank Trigg -430
Makoto Takimoto +350

Clay French -105
Satoru Kitaoka -125

Eiji Mitsuoka +175
Rodrigo Damm -215

Bojan Kosednar +115
Kazunori Yokota -145

Mizuto Hirota +255
Ryan Schultz -315

Read more...

10/26 Shooto - Gig Central Vol. 16

Shooto have announced the main event for their October 26 event in Nagoya already. So far there is no Hatsu Hioki on the card (I am a bit surprised, he normally turns up on these cards), but the main event should be a good one. It is the Pacific Rim Title Fight between #1 ranked Yoshitaro Niimi and #3 ranked Xavier Lucas. The Pacific Middleweight title is currently available.

Also returning in Mutsumi Kasai, from Sherdog it looks like her last MMA fight was in 2003... I am not sure if it is the same girl, but it looks like it (a bit unusual name).

Main-Event - Pacific Rim Middleweight Title Fight:
Yoshitaro Niimi 6-2-2 vs. 4-1-1 Xavier Lucas

Welterweight: Masato Fujiwara 5-10-5 vs. 5-3-3 Kenichi Hattori
Bantamweight: Hiroshi Sakamoto 3-3-0 vs. 2-4-0 Hiroharu Matsufuji

Flyweight: Kenichi Sawada vs. Teppei Masuda

Rookie Tournament
Lightweight: Naohiro Mizuno vs. Mitsuru Kobayashi

Rookie Tournament 2nd Round Light-Heavyweight:
Makoto "Chomoranma 1/2" Maeda 1-1-1 vs. 2-0-0 Naoji Mikoshiba

Female Class C -58kg: Kinuka Sasaki 1-6-0 vs. 2-0-0 Mutsumi Kasai

Tickets:
SRS ¥10,000
RS ¥8,000
S ¥7,000
A ¥6,000
B ¥5,000

Read more...

Tanigawa on the DREAM TV-Deal

For those who remeber, Tanigawa (DREAM Producer) httsaid in an interview earlier that DREAM could not continue with the current TV-Ratings. There was of course a lot of feedback in relation to that interview, and Kamipro have interviewed him again in relation to the future of DREAM and Pride.

Gryphon posted a short summary and for those who read Japanese, here is a small part of the interview. The complete interview is in the paper edition of Kamipro.

Among the things said:
-Tanigawa looks back on the success of Pride, it is clear that Fuji TV was a big part of that success. Pride was not just a hit with MMA fans in Japan, but also with the normal Japanese TV crowd.

-They have looked into the possibility of surviving on pure PPV income, like the UFC have done. But there is a huge difference between the US and the Japanese market in relation to the income one can expect from PPV.

Thats just a quick summary, and not directly translated. Let's hope the ratings improve and DREAM survives.

Read more...

10/5 Shooto - Shooting Disc 6

Friday 22 August 2008

Shooto have announced some fights for their Shooting Disc 6 event in Shinjuku Face. I am sure there will be more fights announced, but so far it looks as though the main event will be the fight between Ryuichi Miki and Jin Akimoto (ranked #5 and #10 bantamweights), I am sure they both would like to improve on their ranking and it should be a good fight.

Bantam: Ryuichi Miki 6-2-3 vs. 10-11-4 Jin Akimoto
Bantam: Ayumu "Gozo" Shioda vs. 2-3-0 Kenji Hosoya
Light: Sakae Kasuya 3-3-3 vs. 1-2-1 Hidenori Nishino
Bantam: Nozomi Otsuka 1-0-0 vs. 0-2-0 Tatsuya "Nakashi" Nakashima

Shooto Rookie Tournament Round 2:
Bantam: Fumihiro Kitahara 2-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Hiroaki Ijima
Fly: Mikiyomi Yamagami 1-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Yusuke Sato

Read more...

8/27 Pancrase Shining Tour - Main Event Cancelled!

Thursday 21 August 2008

A shocking developement in front of the Neo-Blood Tournement Finals. The main event is cancelled! Even more surprising is the reason, Shinsuke Shoji is retiring from professional MMA just a week before his title fight! There is no other expaination given in his e-mail than, he is retiring for personal reasons...

Pancrase have tried to find a replacement, but been unable to in the short time.
They are offering ticket refunds: TEL 03-5792-0815(11:00~20:00)
http://www.kamipro.com/news/?id=1219236244

A related rumor, Yuki Kondo might compete in the Sengoku Middleweight Tournament. His participation would depend on him not getting injured in this event.

Cancelled:
10. King of Pancarase LW: Koji Oishi 16-7-5 vs. 6-3-2 Shinsuke Shoji

The remaining card:
9. MW: Yuki Kondo 48-22-6 vs. 3-2-0 Ryuji Ohori
8. FW: Kenji Arai 12-12-2 vs. 6-4-1 Manabu Inoue
7. BW: Seiya Kawahara 5-0-0 vs. 9-6-5 Kentaro Imaizumi
6. LW: Yuichi Ikari 9-4-3 vs. 6-4-0 Eriya Matsuda
5. WW: Masahiro Toryu 5-3-3 vs. 4-6-0 Tomoyoshi Iwamiya
4. LW: Maximo Blanco vs. 2-4-1 Yuki Yashima

Neo-Blood Finals:
3. Lightweight: Steve Magdaleno 4-0-1 vs. Hiroki Aoki “AB”
2. Featherweight: Yasutomo Tanaka 5-1-3 vs. 1-0-0 Hirotoshi Saito
1. Bantamweight: Takuya Eizumi 1-0-0 vs. 2-0-0 Isao Hirose

Pancrase Gate 2x5min.:
Middleweight: Shingo Suzuki vs Kenji Narita
Lightweight: Shigetomo Takahashi vs. Yuichi Inafuku
Featherweight: Takeshi Egami vs. Junro Kubota

Read more...

Sengoku Fighter Wins Bronze in the Olympics

Sengoku fighter Georgi Gogshelidze won Olympic bronze medal today in the Freestyle Wresling 96kg event. A very good achievement, and it will be excinging to see if he can translate that Olympic glory into something special in the MMA arena.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrestling_at_the_2008_Summer_Olympics_-_Men%27s_freestyle_96_kg
http://nightmareofbattle.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/georgi-olympic-bronze-medalist/

Read more...

Sengoku V Participants Added

Sengoku 5 (or V) have also received some updates to the card. Xande Ribeiro will make his MMA debut, he is an extremely experienced BJJ fighter and I am really looking forward to seeing what he can do in MMA. Will they pit him against Roger Gracie? I would be surprised, but would be awesome. Either way, Sengoku is really getting some good fighters in.

Xande Ribeiro
Roger Gracie 2-0-0
Jorge Masvidal 13-3-0

Middleweight GP Participant
Yuki Sasaki 21-14-1

Previously Announced:
Middleweight GP Participants:
Kazuhiro Nakamura 11-8-0
Evangelista Santos "Cyborg" 16-11-0
Siyar Bahadurzada 13-3-1
Jorge Santiago 17-7-0

Read more...

8/24 Sengoku - Fight Order

Sengoku have announced the fight order for Sunday's event, I have been sick for a couple of days and it is of course when they decided to publish this.

It should be a very good card and an interesting event. I will most likely do a play-by-play live on Sunday, so check then and you will know.

Main-event (Non-GP):
9. LW: Takanori Gomi 28-3-0 vs. 5-1-0 Hwang Sung Pang
8. MW: Makoto Takimoto 4-4-0 vs. 16-6-0 Frank Trigg

Lightweight GP:
7. Satoru Kitaoka 20-8-9 vs. 16-2-0 Clay French
6. Eiji Mitsuoka 13-5-2 vs. 8-1-0 Rodrigo Damm
5. Kazunori Yokota 6-1-3 vs. 6-1-0 Bojan Kosednar
4. Mizuto Hirota 9-2-0 vs. 20-9-1 Ryan Schultz

Non-GP Fights:
3. HW: Pavel Nastula 1-3-0 vs. 2-0-0 Yang Dong Yi
2. HW: Peter Graham 0-1-0 vs. 12-7-3 Moise Rimbon
1. HW: Kazuo Takahashi 28-23-3 vs. 25-22-0 Valentijn Overeem

If you're not familiar with the Japanese fighters, I have posted a couple of video's over the last few weeks:

Hwan Sung Pang and Hirota Mizuto
Satoru Kitaoka

Nightmare of Battle have also introduced Hirota Mizuto

Read more...

8/17 DEEP 37 - Results

Sunday 17 August 2008

DEEP is holding DEEP 37 in Korakuen Hall now. On the card are 2 title fights, and the card is looking very good.

I will update the results as they become available here. If you are impatient, and read Japanese, thats the place to get them.

Main Event:
DEEP Bantamweight Title-Fight:
15. Masakazu Imanari Def. Hiroshi Umemura by heel-hook Round 1 0:29

DEEP Female Lightweight Title Fight:
14. Miku Matsumoto Def. Misaki Takimoto by KO Round 2 4:40

13. Daiki Hata (D.J. Taiki) vs. Kim Jong Man DRAW
12. Ryuta Sakurai Def. Sojiro Orui by arm-bar Round 1 3:22
11. Yasuhito Namekawa Def. Claudio Silva by arm-bar Round 1 2:59
10. Katsunori Kikuno Def. Yoshihiro Tomioka "Barbaro44" by TKO Round 2 2:34
9. Eiji Ishikawa Def. Kousei Kobuta by TKO Round 2 0:55
8. Riki Fukuda Def. Hiroki Ozaki by Decision 3-0
7. Koichiro Matsumoto Def. Seigo Inoue by TKO Round 2 1:32
6. Yusaki Tsukumo Def. Yasushi Kitazaki by rear-naked choke Round 1 3:04
5. LUIZ vs. Shinobu Miura DRAW
4. Hama (?) Def. Jun Soo Lim by achilles hold Round 1 3:08

Future Fights:
3. Muneyuki Sato 1-2-0 vs. 4-2-1 Yuya "Jacare" Osugi
2. Makoto "Mako Dragon" Kawawa 1-2-0 vs. Kenta Takagi
1. Tomohiro Ishii vs. 1-0-0 Teppei Hori

Read more...

8/27 Pancrase Shining Tour - 14th Neo-Blood Finals

Pancrase have added some Pancrase Gate fights to the card since I lost posted the card. I am really looking forward to this event, it was great last year and I am sure this year will be no different.

This is the 14th time Pancrase is holding the Neo-Blood tournament, and you can see the complete list of champions here.

This year's card looks like this:
10. King of Pancarase LW: Koji Oishi 16-7-5 vs. 6-3-2 Shinsuke Shoji
9. MW: Yuki Kondo 48-22-6 vs. 3-2-0 Ryuji Ohori
8. FW: Kenji Arai 12-12-2 vs. 6-4-1 Manabu Inoue
7. BW: Seiya Kawahara 5-0-0 vs. 9-6-5 Kentaro Imaizumi
6. LW: Yuichi Ikari 9-4-3 vs. 6-4-0 Eriya Matsuda
5. WW: Masahiro Toryu 5-3-3 vs. 4-6-0 Tomoyoshi Iwamiya
4. LW: Maximo Blanco vs. 2-4-1 Yuki Yashima

Neo-Blood Finals:
3. Lightweight: Steve Magdaleno 4-0-1 vs. Hiroki Aoki “AB”
2. Featherweight: Yasutomo Tanaka 5-1-3 vs. 1-0-0 Hirotoshi Saito
1. Bantamweight: Takuya Eizumi 1-0-0 vs. 2-0-0 Isao Hirose

Pancrase Gate 2x5min.:
Middleweight: Shingo Suzuki vs Kenji Narita
Lightweight: Shigetomo Takahashi vs. Yuichi Inafuku
Featherweight: Takeshi Egami vs. Junro Kubota

Read more...

8/16 Gladiator - Results

Saturday 16 August 2008

The only place I have seen the results are on Nightmare of Battle, so here are the results from their site. http://nightmareofbattle.wordpress.com/2008/08/16/gladiator-results-korea-crushes-japan/

Don Frye returned to Japan to face Minowaman, but did not manage to get the win...

Ikuhisa Minowa def. Don Frye by Kneebar Round 1 3:56
K-1-Rule: Hiromi Amada def. Gary Goodridge by Decision 3-0
K-1-Rule: Jan Nortje def. Tom Erikson by KO Round 1 1:05

CMA KPW Open-Weight Title Match:
Eun Soo Lee def. Daijiro Matsui by Decision 3-0

K-1-Rule: Tsuyoshi Yokoyama def. Marcelo Nascimento by Decision 3-0

Japan vs. Korea
Sang Su Lee def. Shamoji Fujii by TKO Round 1 4:36
Jutaro Nakao def. Yong Fun Lee by TKO Round 2 2:26
Jong Jang Song(?) def. Michihiro Omigawa by Decision 3-0
Min Suk Heo def. Hikaru Sato by TKO Round 1 1:08
Kim Tae Kyung(?) def. Akihiko Mouri by Decision 3-0

K-1-Rule: Keigo Takamori def. Bernard Ackah by KO Round 1 1:30
K-1-Rules: Yuki Tanaka def. Perushan Mos(?) by Decision (Split)
Yusuke Sakashita def. Minoru Kato by TKO Round 2 4:43

Read more...

Baroni calls out Sakurai - DREAM 6 Possible?

We all know that Sakurai was meant to fight Nick Diaz for the DREAM welterweight championship belt at DREAM 6. This fight was later taken off/moved due to Nick Diaz's Elite XC commitments.

On Sherdog's discussion board today, Baroni has said it would be "an honor to face Sakurai". I normally would not make a big deal out of fighters calling each other out, it happens all the time and its part of the game. BUT I really hope DREAM makes this happen! Baroni vs. Sakurai would be an awesome fight and it would be good to see Baroni back in Japan!

Read more...

CroCop answers Overeem - CroCop in DREAM 6

Friday 15 August 2008

Well, no one really thought the Overeem remark would go unanswered... And CroCop has answered. He does not want to answer Overeem directly, but still have a few words "But Alistair, you should save your strength for a real fight, because it's coming. When I see you in the opposite corner, then I'll talk." http://www.mma-id.com/CROCOP/?mod=blog&blid=840

The good news is that CroCop has recovered and is ready to fight on September 23. Like him, I dont really care who it is against. DREAM will deceide that one, but one thing is for sure, they need the ratings!

Nightmare of Battle have seen the DREAM 6 poster, on it is Sergei Kharitonov... How about Kharitonov vs. CroCop? Also on the poster are Akiyama and Jason Miller, could be the reserve fight...

Read more...

Great Fights - Cage Force 04 Welterweight Tournament Semi-Finals

Ok, I admit it... I am restless, and want to post something.

BUT, the Cage Force tournaments last year really did offer some great fights. In the welterweight tournament both the finalists have now signed with the UFC. The reason is clear, they are great fighters. Unfortunately, the final was disappointing and I am sure Dan Hardy would love a re-match in the UFC.

For those who missed the semi-finals, here they are.

First Dan Hardy vs. Hidetaka Monma.
Dan Hardy is scheduled to fight Japanese star Akihiro Gono at UFC 89.


Cageforce 4 Monma Hidetaka vs Dan Hardy - fightway.fr
Uploaded by kaelito

The other semi-final in last year's Cage Force tournament was Yoshiyuki Yoshida vs. Akira Kikuchi. Yoshida is already signed with the UFC and won his first UFC fight at UFC 84. He is scheduled to fight Karo Parisyan at UFC 88 on September 6.

I hope there will be more things to write about soon... The results for the DEEP events will be here, at least.

Read more...

DEEP 37 - Warm Up Videos

It's going to be a big DEEP weekend!

DEEP Gladiators is happening tomorrow and on Sunday, DEEP Impact 37. News have been really slow lately, mixed with me being extremely caught up in work "issues" (those who know me has an idea), so I feel guilty for not posting.

Anyway, thought I would get some videos out today, then be back with some results (hopefully) tomorrow.

For the record (a LOT of people are asking me about this), I dont know how to watch DEEP Gladiators EVEN in Japan... I guess you have to go to the event...

Anyway, for some videos.

Miku Matsumoto is defending her title. I really like this girl, very hard working.This highlight video was created to promote her titlefight (she was the challenger) against Hisae Watanabe.

Sherdog has done an interview with here. Before her fight this Sunday.



The other title fight on the card includes the VERY experienced Masakazu Imanari. Fighting Imanari for the new Bantamweight title is Umemura who is on a 8 fight winning streak. Still Imanari would go into this fight as a favorite. Before Umemura started on his current streak he was a 3-7-3 fighter.

Imanari lost his title to Dokonjonosuke Mishima at DEEP 35 May 19. I think most fans have seen this fight, but Mishima and Imanari has fought once before, in DEEP 11. Imanari came into that fight undefated, here is the fight.

Read more...

Sengoku Fighter Ramaz Nozadze's Olympic Dream Over

Thursday 14 August 2008

Sengoku fighter Ramaz Nozadze's attempt at Olympic glory failed in the quarter-final today. He won his first fight against Greek Theodoros Tounousidis, but in the quarter final Czech Marek Svec was too strong. Ramaz had one final hope for a medal and that was if Svec reached the final, however he lost in the semi-final, so Ramaz Nozadze leaves Beijing without a medal.

You can see the official results here:
http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/INF/WR/C75/WRM196000.shtml#WRM196513
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrestling_at_the_2008_Summer_Olympics_-_Men's_Greco-Roman_96_kg

Nightmare of Battle were covering the event live, and you can read their opservations here:
http://nightmareofbattle.wordpress.com/2008/08/14/live-updates-nozadze-in-beijing/

Read more...

8/24 ZST Douple Header

Wednesday 13 August 2008

On August 24 (same day as the Sengoku event), ZST is putting on a double header in Shinjuku Face Arena. First up, in the early afternoon is ZST SWAT in FACE Vol. 1, followed by Battle Hazard 03 later in the day.

Part of the early card with be semi' and finals in 2 of the Genesis Tournaments, in addition to a main event between Tomohiko Yoshida and Hiroshi Tsuruya, a fight that looks very interesting. On the later card, you have some very familiar ZST names and a main event between Masanori Kanehara and Isamu Sugiuchi. The Pancrase veteran Osami Shibuya also makes an apperance.

ZST SWAT! In FACE Vol. 1
Shinjuku Face Open: 12:30 fights start 13:00


12. Welterweight: Tomohiko Yoshida 5-0-1 vs. 6-2-3 Hiroshi Tsuruya
11. Welterweight: Ichiro Kojima 4-5-2 vs. 4-5-1 Ryo “Toraji” Nakajima
10. Genesis Tournament Featherweight Final (Winners of Semi-finals)
9. Genesis Tournament Lightweight Final (Winners of Semi-finals)
8. Flyweight: Yuichiro Yajima 6-5-1 vs. 1-1-0 Ryosuke Tanuma
7. Grappling Tag-Team 1x10min:
Ayumi Funakoshi & Miki Aiba vs. Ikuko Tamada & Yuki Sugiura

6. Welterweight: Yuichiro Toriyama vs. Kendo Kouda (?)
5. Bantamweight: Tokuaki Ninomiya vs. Hiroaki Okuwa

Genesis Tournament Lightweight GT-F rule Semi-Finals:
4. Shunichi Shimizu vs. Hirota Okazawa
3. Hiroyuki Ota vs. Hiro Toyama

Genesis Tournament Featherweight GT-F rule Semi-Finals:
2. Kei Sato vs. Hiryu Okamoto (?)
1. Takeaki Miyagawa vs. Keizo Hisamoto


Ticket:
VIP 12,000円
VIP (Counter) 12,000円
SRS 8,000円
A 6,000円
Free seat 5,000円
At the door +500円
500 yen drink coupon included



ZST BATTLE HAZARD 03
Open 17:30 Start (main-card) 18:30

ZST vs. DEEP Featherweight fights (ZST-Rule)
10. Masanori Kanehara 9-4-5 vs. 7-7-2 Isamu Sugiuchi
9. Wataru Inatsu 2-3-1 vs. 0-3-0 Tatsumitsu Wada

8. SB-X Rule - Light Heavy: Nobutatsu Suzuki 4-0-2 vs. 5-2-0 Yojiro Uchimura
7. Tag-Team fight - Lightweight: Masayuki Okude/Tatsuya Yamada vs. Kenichi Ito/Yuki Ito
6. RX-Rule Middleweight: Osami Shibuya 34-32-15 vs. 4-6-1 Kenji Nagai
5. ZST VT-Rule – Light Heavyweight: Seishi Takeda vs. 5-1-0 Tatsuhiko Nishizaka

Opening Fights:
4. GT-F Rule Bantamweight: Daisuke Yokoyama vs. 6-2-4 Ichiro Sugita
3. ZST-Special Rule Welterweight: Hiroyuki Yamashiro 1-2-0 vs. 3-3-4 Goro Kobayashi
2. ZST-Rule – Welterweight: Yutaka Inada vs. Tetsuya Matsuzaki
1. GTF-Rule Featherweight: Yuhei Oshita vs. Naohiro Hasegawa

VIP 12,000円
VIP (Counter) 12,000円
SRS 8,000円
A 6,000円
Free Seat 5,000円At the door +500円
Includes 500円 Drink Coupon

Read more...

9/7 Pancrase Shining Tour - Osaka

Tuesday 12 August 2008

The Pancrase card for September 7 in Osaka looks just about complete. There are 4 Pancrase Gate fights added, and we just have to wait and see if that completes the card.

Main-card
Bantamweight: Daichi Fujiwara 7-3-1 vs. 4-3-0 Nobuhiro “Punch” Yamauchi
Featherweight: Kenji Takeshige 6-7-1 vs. 6-3-1 Motonobu Tezuka
Bantamweight: Takashi Hasegawa 4-6-3 vs. 1-1-0 Takahiro Goda
Flyweight: Takayuki Hirayasu 0-2-0 vs. Shinichiro Ryuno
Featherweight: Soyu Tanabe 4-3-1 vs. 0-4-2 Hideo Matsui

Pancrase Gate: 2x5 min
Bantamweight: Masao Fujii vs. Kojima-man
Bantamweight: Takamasa Miki vs. Kensei Nishida
Featherweight: Koji Tomita vs. Keiichi Funako
Lightweight: Koji Namamura vs. Yoichi Kosumi

Read more...

Overeem vs. CroCop NOT On!

There has been hope that Overeem would fight Crocop at DREAM 6, and it has looked like that was going to happen, but Overeem has had an interview with InTheGuard.TV, and it looks like that fight is no longer on... He goes on to have a few choice words for CroCop.

Either way, Overeem has been in good shape lately and I would love to see him back in Japan soon. CroCop needs to recover for the injuries he has had, and hopefully Overeem will get this fight eventually. For now though, it looks like it is off the DREAM 6 card.

http://intheguard.tv/site/1/newsNews.php?id=214
http://blog.thesavagescience.com/2008/08/12/overeem-cro-cop-wont-fight-at-dream-6

Read more...

9/28 Shooto Tradition 3 - Rambaa Somdet's Opponent Announced

Shooto have announced Rambaa Somdet's opponent for the September 28 event in Korakuen hall. To be honest, I was hoping for someone a bit more hig-profile, but Tahara is a very good fighter and his last fight was awesome. This should be a very good fight and a very good event.

Announced:
Noburo "Shinpei" Tahara 5-2-0 vs. 4-2-0 Rambaa "M-16" Somdet

Previously announced:
Featherweight World Title Fight:
Masakatsu Ueda 8-0-1 vs. 6-2-0 Marcos “Louro” Galvao

Tenkei Fujimiya 7-3-2 vs. 5-1-2 Shintaro Ishiwatari
Yasuhiro Urushitani 14-3-6 vs. 7-4-2 Yuki Shoujou
Masaaki Sugawara 6-3-0 vs. 5-2-0 Takuya Mori

Rookie Tournament:
Naoki Hirayama 1-0-0 vs. 1-2-2 Takuya Sato
Horishige Tanaka 1-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Atsushi Kobayashi
Kota Funaki 1-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Kentaro Watanabe
Junji Ito 2-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Yoshitaka Aki

Read more...

8/17 DEEP 37 - Fight Order

Monday 11 August 2008

Not much happening in Japan right now, DEEP have a couple of very interesting cards coming up, other than that it is mainly Obon holidays and the Olympics people care about.

DEEP 37 looks like a very good card though. With 2 title-fights on the card and fighters like Ryuta Sakurai and Riki Fukuda I am sure it will be entertaining.

Main Event: DEEP Bantamweight Title-Fight:
15. Masakazu Imanari 14-6-1 vs. 11-7-3 Hiroshi Umemura

DEEP Female Lightweight Title Fight:
14. Miku Matsumoto (Title-holder) 17-4-0 vs. 8-8-4 Misaki Takimoto

13. Daiki Hata (D.J. Taiki) 8-5-2 vs. 3-5-2 Kim Jong Man
12. Ryuta Sakurai 16-14-4 vs. 5-2-4 Sojiro Orui
11. Yasuhito Namekawa 23-16-3 vs. 4-2-0 Claudio Silva
10. Yoshihiro Tomioka "Barbaro44" 12-5-4 vs. 7-1-1 Katsunori Kikuno
9. Eiji Ishikawa 15-15-2 vs. 24-27-10 Kousei Kobuta
8. Riki Fukuda 10-4-0 vs. 3-1-0 Hiroki Ozaki
7. Koichiro Matsumoto 4-1-0 vs. 4-3-1 Seigo Inoue
6. Yasushi Kitazaki 8-4-1 vs. Yusaki Tsukumo
5. LUIZ 7-6-2 vs. 1-3-2 Shinobu Miura
4. Hama (?) vs. 0-3-0 (1NC) Jun Soo Lim

Future Fights:
3. Muneyuki Sato 1-2-0 vs. 4-2-1 Yuya "Jacare" Osugi
2. Makoto "Mako Dragon" Kawawa 1-2-0 vs. Kenta Takagi
1. Tomohiro Ishii vs. 1-0-0 Teppei Hori

Read more...

Hideo Tokoro Date Auction

Sunday 10 August 2008

During the ZST event on August 10 (tomorrow) in Gold's Gym South Tokyo Annex, Hideo Tokoro is adding to the entertainment. There wil be the possibility for 2 lucky girls (sorry, no guys) to win a date with the DREAM fighter.

You can buy tickets for 3500, and they will draw 1 winner and auction off the second date. The dates will be in Tokyo or Yokohama in October and will be shown on GAORA.

http://gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_08/0808_zst.htm

Read more...

14th Neo-Blood Finals Coming Up, Time to Look Back

Saturday 9 August 2008

This year is the 14th time Neo-Blood Finals are being held.

In the past this tournament has produced some very good fighters, and I would like to look back at past winners. Going back we see some fighters that have grown to become very big starts including fighters like Ikuhisa Minowa ('99), Evan Tanner ('98) and Kazuo Misaki ('01).

Those were just some of the past winners, but I want to create a more complete list of all the finalists, so here you go:

2007 Tournament Finals:
Middleweight: Rikuhei Fujii def. Tomoyoshi Iwamiya
Welterweight: Tadasuke Yoshida def. Takadaya Satoru
Lightweight: Yuichi Ikari def. Koichiro Matsumoto

2006 Tournament Finals:
Light-Heavyweight: Ryo Kawamura def. Sumio Koyano
Welterweight: Asaki Honda def. Shinya Kumazawa
Lightweight: Eriya Matsuda def. Tashiro Nishiuchi
Featherweight: Ryusuke Uemura def. Tatsuya So

2005 Tournament Finals:
Welterweight: Shinsuke Shoji def. Asaki Honda
Lightweight: Sotaro Yamada def. Minoru Chujo
Featherweight: Manabu Inoue def. Masaki Yanagisawa

2004 Tournament Finals:
Lightweight: Yuji Oba def. Ippo Watanuki
Featherweight: Atsushi Yamamoto def. Naoji Fujimoto

2003 Tournament Finals:
Middleweight: Yuichi Nakanishi def. Masakatsu Okuda
Welterweight: Naoki Seki def. Takahito Iida
Featherweight: Yoshiro Maeda def. Miki Shida

2002 Tournament Final: Hidetaka Monma def. Satoru Kitaoka (5 sec KO)
2001 Tournament Final: Kazuo Misaki def. Hiroki Nagaoka
2000 Tournament Final: Yuji Hoshino def. Daisuke Watanabe
1999 Tournament Final: Ikuhisa Minowa def. Minoru Toyonaga
1998 Tournament Final: Evan Tanner def. Justin McCully
1997 Tournament Final: Keiichiro Yamamiya def. Satoshi Hasegawa
1996 Tournament Final: Yuki Kondo def. Peter Williams
1995 Tournament Final: Takafumi Ito def. Ryushi Yanagisawa

Use the links to get a better view of how the tournament has evolved.

Read more...

Sengoku Olympians

Sengoku signed a couple of Olympic wrestlers earlier this year.

Now George Gogshelidze and Ramaz Nozadze are preparing for their chances in the Beijing Olympics. Needless to say, Olympic glory would lead to increased attention around their MMA debut.

George Gogshelidze is qualified for the Wrestling Freestyle event at 96kg. His Olympic profile can be viewed here.
Ramaz Nozadze is qualified for the Greco-Roman wrestling at 96kg. His profile can be seen here.

George Gogshelidze will be in action on August 21.
Ramaz Nozadze will be in action on August 14.

I will try to keep you up to date on how they do in the Olympics.

Read more...

8/24 Sengoku - Card Complete?

With everything happeneing yesterday, I missed an additional fight being added to Sengoku's August 24. card. This fight sees Valentijn Overeem return to Japan to face Kazuo Takahashi. I have a feeling that completes the card, with 9 fights. There are some good fighters in there, but will it draw the crowds?

Added:
Kazuo Takahashi 28-23-3 vs. 25-22-0 Valentijn Overeem

Previously announced:
Main-event:
Takanori Gomi 28-3-0 vs. 5-1-0 Hwang Sung Pang

Lightweight GP:
Satoru Kitaoka 20-8-9 vs. 16-2-0 Clay French
Eiji Mitsuoka 13-5-2 vs. 8-1-0 Rodrigo Damm
Kazunori Yokota 6-1-3 vs. 6-1-0 Bojan Kosednar
Mizuto Hirota 9-2-0 vs. 20-9-1 Ryan Schultz

Non-GP Fights:
Peter Graham 0-1-0 vs. 12-7-3 Moise Rimbon
Makoto Takimoto 4-4-0 vs. 16-6-0 Frank Trigg
Pavel Natula 1-3-0 vs. 2-0-0 Yang Dong Yi
Kazuo Takahashi 28-23-3 vs. 25-22-0 Valentijn Overeem

Read more...

9/28 Sengoku Middleweight GP Participants

Sengoku have announced the first 4 participants in their Middleweight GP starting in September. I had a poll about a 2 months ago at that time DREAM won a clear victory. I have a feeling it would be closer today. Either way, Sengoku is slowly building their organization, where as DREAM went out with a bang.

Anyway, these participants were announced yesterday:
Kazuhiro Nakamura 11-8-0
Evangelista Santos "Cyborg" 16-11-0
Siyar Bahadurzada 13-3-1
Jorge Santiago 17-7-0

Nightmare of Battle is also reporting what Xande Ribeiro has signed with Sengoku. I think there will be some very interesting times ahead.

Read more...

8/16 DEEP: Gladiators - Card Final

Saeki has announced the final card for the August 16 event in Okayama. As usual (I am starting to think there are a bit too many for these) there is a Japan vs. Korea thing happening.

The main event is a fight I cant wait to see! Don Frye vs. Minowaman should be very entertaining! If you also include Gary Goodridge and Tom Erikson to that list, this is looking very interesting.

Main-Event:
13. MMA: Ikuhisa Minowa 39-28-8 vs. 19-6-1 Don Frye

12. K-1: Gary Goodridge vs. Hiromi Amada
11. K-1: Jan Nortje vs. Tom Erikson

CMA KPW Open-Weight Title Fight:
10. Daijiro Matsui 10-19-4 vs. 10-2-0 Eun Soo Lee

9. K-1 70 kg: Tsuyoshi Yokoyama vs. Marcelo Nascimento

Japan vs. Korea MMA
8. Open-Weight: Katsuhisa Fujii 9-15-1 vs. 7-4-0 Sang Soo Lee
7. 77 kg: Jutaro Nakao 21-13-4 vs. 0-1-0 Yong Fun Lee
6. 70 kg: Michihiro Omigawa 4-6-0 vs. Jong Chang Son(?)
5. 88 kg: Hikaru Sato 17-18-4 vs. 2-5-0 Min Suk Heo
4. 70 kg: Akihiko Mouri vs. Kim Te Kyung(?)

3. K-1: Bernard Ackah vs. Keigo Takamori

Opening Fights (Start at 15:30)
2. K-1: Perushan Mos(?, From Iran) vs. Yuki "Strike" Tanaka
1. MMA: Yusuke Sakashita 4-1-0 vs. 1-4-0 Minoru Kato

Ticket Prices:
VIP 30,000円
SRS 23,000円
RS 18,000円
S 12,000円
2Fl. Special seat 18,000円
2Fl. Reserved seat 12,000円
Free seat 8,000円
At the door +500円

Read more...

More Sengoku Participant Videos...

Thursday 7 August 2008

I have sort of started to post videos of the fighters participating in the upcoming Sengoku event, and why stop now.

A few of these Japanese fighters would be relative unknown to overseas fans, so I am trying to educate and entertain.

The first video includes 2 fighters that are participating. This fight took place May 19 and is for the DEEP Light-Weight championship belt. Hwan Sung Pang is taking on champion Kazunori Yokota.


Pang Sung Hwan vs Kazunori Yokota Deep 35
Uploaded by anjelon

The second video is from Cage Force in February, Hirota Mizuto is taking on Frenchman Johnny Frachey.


Read more...

9/23 DREAM 6 - Middleweight Tournament Finals

DREAM have announced the semi-finals for their Middleweight tournament. In addition to that, Hideo Tokoro will get another fight, his 3rd in DREAM. This is undoubtebly because of the popularity he has been gaining, his DREAM fights have been awesome and I am sure they are looking for him to deliver again. Tokoro is undefeated in DREAM so far.

DREAM Middleweight Semi-Finals:
Melvin Manhoef 22-4-1 vs. 22-2-1 Gegard Mousasi
Zelg Galesic 9-3-0 vs. 9-1-0 Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza

Featherweight:
Hideo Tokoro 21-13-1 vs. 11-5-1 Atsushi Yamamoto

Read more...

8/17 DEEP 37 - Card complete ?

Tuesday 5 August 2008

DEEP have announced some additional fights to their DEEP 37 card. The card looks final now and it looks very good. I have no idea who the Russian fighter Hama is, so fill me in if you know anything.

Due to injury, there has been a change to Ryuta Sakurai's opponent, he is no longer fighting Sojiro Orui but Kozo Urita instead.

Announced:
Yasuhito Namekawa 23-16-3 vs. 4-2-0 Claudio Silva
Hama (?) vs. 0-3-0 (1NC) Jun Soo Lim
Koichiro Matsumoto 4-1-0 vs. 4-3-1 Seigo Inoue

Future Fights:
Tomohiro Ishii vs. 1-0-0 Teppei Hori
Muneyuki Sato 1-2-0 vs. 4-2-1 Yuya "Jacare" Osugi
Makoto "Mako Dragon" Kawawa 1-2-0 vs. Kenta Takagi

Previously Announced:
DEEP Bantamweight Title-Fight:
Masakazu Imanari 14-6-1 vs. 11-7-3 Hiroshi Umemura

DEEP Female Lightweight Title Fight:
Miku Matsumoto (Title-holder) 17-4-0 vs. 8-8-4 Misaki Takimoto

Riki Fukuda 10-4-0 vs. 3-1-0 Hiroki Ozaki
Yasushi Kitazaki 8-4-1 vs. Yusaki Tsukumo
LUIZ 7-6-2 vs. 1-3-2 Shinobu Miura
Daiki Hata (D.J. Taiki) 8-5-2 vs. 3-5-2 Kim Jong Man
Ryuta Sakurai 16-14-4 vs. 5-2-4 Sojiro Orui
Eiji Ishikawa 15-15-2 vs. 24-27-10 Kousei Kobuta
Yoshihiro Tomioka "Barbaro44" 12-5-4 vs. 7-1-1 Katsunori Kikuno

Read more...

Satoru Kitaoka - Videos

One of the fighters in the Sengoku Lightweight GP is Satoru Kitaoka. He might be a bit of an unknown fighter for those unfamiliar with Japanese MMA, but those who are know he is a very strong grappler. He is also an awesome corner-man, I have seen him make the difference there as well. He was cornering Shinya Aoki in the DREAM GP.

Satoru Kitaoka is one of my favorite Japanese fighters, and I was looking forward to seeing him in the Pride Lightweight GP. Unfortuanately that never happened, but Kitaoka was the only fighter that was already officially announced for that GP (that I know of).

This video is from the Pride GP qualifying fight against Fabricio "Pitbull" Monteiro.



His Sengoku Debut against Ian Schaffa:

Read more...

8/24 Sengoku - Pawel Natsula's Opponent announced

Sengoku have announced the opponent for Pawel Nastula's fight on August 24. The opponent is Korean Yang Dong Yi. Accourding to N.O.B he is a wrestler, his current MMA record is 2-0-0. Both his previous fights were in DEEP and this is a big step up in opponent. Nastula has not fought for nearly 2 years, Yang Dong Yi is coming off a 1 year break.

Announced:
Pavel Natula 1-3-0 vs. 2-0-0 Yang Dong Yi

Previously announced:
Main-event:
Takanori Gomi 28-3-0 vs. 5-1-0 Hwang Sung Pang

Lightweight GP:
Satoru Kitaoka 20-8-9 vs. 16-2-0 Clay French
Eiji Mitsuoka 13-5-2 vs. 8-1-0 Rodrigo Damm
Kazunori Yokota 6-1-3 vs. 6-1-0 Bojan Kosednar
Mizuto Hirota 9-2-0 vs. 20-9-1 Ryan Schultz

Non-GP Fights:
Peter Graham 0-1-0 vs. 12-7-3 Moise Rimbon
Makoto Takimoto 4-4-0 vs. 16-6-0 Frank Trigg

Read more...

Some Videos - Rambaa Somdet

Monday 4 August 2008

There is not really a lot going on lately... Deceided to pass the time by looking at some videos.

Even though there is not much happening now, there are lots of things to look forward to. One of the fighters I cant wait to see is Rambaa "M16" Somdet. If you havent heard of him, you should check out these videos:

Being a Thai Boxer, you would expect strong kicks.



His last fight was in Shooto "Back to our roots 6", it was an awesome fight and I was really impressed by how good his guard was against Masaaki Sugawara.



Another fun highlight video I have posted before. This guy is entertaining and fun to watch. I have posted this before, but in case you missed it.

Read more...

8/3 Shooto - Gig Central Vol. 15 - RESULTS

Sunday 3 August 2008

The results from tonights Shooto event in Nagoya. The main event had home-town favorite Hatsu Hioki against Hiroshi Nakamura. Hioki is not going to be happy with this result, and it wont do him any favors in the rankings either...

Also worth a mention, Teppei “Bull” Masuda got his first win in the only fight of the night that didnt go the distance.

Hatsu Hioki vs. Hiroshi “Iron” Nakamura Draw 0-1
(Grappling) Daisuke “Amazon” Sugie vs. Max Fernandez No result available yet
Takahiro Kajita Def. Komei Okada by decision 3-0
Akira Kibe Def. Takeshi Okada by decision 3-0
Kenichi Hattori Def. Hisaki Hiraishi “Kotobukimaru” by decision 3-0
Hiroshi Sakamoto Def. Keisuke Kurata by decision 3-0
Teppei “Bull” Masuda Def. Kenya Kato by TKO Round 1 0:25

Rookie Tournament:
MW: Takesuke Kume vs. Yoichiro Sato Draw
WW: Yukinari “Hibiki” Tamura Def. Kunio Nakajima by decision 3-0
FeatherW: Keita Yoshida Def. Yasuaki Nagamoto “Aki” by decision 3-0
FlyW: Mikiyomi Yamagami Def. Run by decision 2-0

Read more...

8/2 DEEP - MegaTon GP Finals - RESULTS

DEEP held their MegaTon finals yesterday, not unexectedly Kawaguchi took home the championship belt. Sherdog has more on the night here.

8. MegaTon Final: Yusuke Kawaguchi Def. Shunsuke Inoue by Decision 2-1
7. Mika Hayashi vs. Yoko Takahashi Draw
6. Sotaro Yamada vs. Ryoji Suzuki Draw
5. Grappling-Rule: Samio Kimura Def. Shinichiro Eguchi by armbar Round 2 4:44
4. MegaTon Reserve: Wakaarashi Def. Mamoru Nakamura by TKO Round 1 5:00
3. Semi-Final 2: Yusuke Kawaguchi Def. Shunji Kosaka by TKO Round 1 0:45
2. Semi-Final 1: Shunsuke Inoue Def. Ken Orihashi by armbar Round 1 4:44
1. Kohei Yasumi/Naoya Uematsu Def. Daichi Fujiwara/Takushi Hasegawa by Decision 2-0

Read more...

Shooto August Rankings

Saturday 2 August 2008

Bantamweight:
Champ: → Shinichi “BJ” Kojima (From October 14 2006, Defended 2 times)
1. ↑ Yasuhiro Urushitani
2. ↑ Yuki Shoujou
3. ↓ Mamoru Yamaguchi
4. → Masatoshi Abe
5. → Ryuichi Miki
6. → Junji Ikoma
7. → Shimokawa Yusei
8. → Yasuhiro Akagi
9. → Homare Kuboyama
10. → Jin Akimoto

BJ retains his title after submitting Mamoru Yamaguchi on July 18. Mamoru moves down to #3.

Featherweight:
Champ: → Masakatsu Ueda (From March 28 2008, Defended 0 Times)
1. → Marcos “Louro” Galvao
2. → Eduardo Dantas
3. → Daniel Lima
4. → Koetsu Okazaki
5. → So Tazawa
6. → Atsushi Yamamoto
7. → Kenji Osawa
8. ↑ Hiromasa Ogikubo
9. ↓ Tetsu Suzuki
10. ↓ Takeya Mizugaki

In to the ranking after this win at Shooto Tradition 2, at #8: Hiromasa Ogikubo
Out of the ranking: Ryota Matsune

Lightweight:
Champ: → Hideki Kadowaki (From March 28 2008, Defended 0 times)
1. → Akitoshi Tamura
2. → Antonio Carvalho
3. → Savant Young
4. →“Lion” Takeshi Inoue
5. → Hatsu Hioki
6. → Rumina Sato
7. → Bao Quach
8. → Katsuya Toida
9. → David Lejenas
10. ↑ “Wicky” Akiyo Nishiura

After beating Matteus Lahdesmaki at Shooto Tradition 2, “Wicky” Akiyo comes in to the ranking at #10 at the expense of Hiroyuki Takaya.

Welterweight:
Champ: → Takashi Nakakura (from May 3 2008 Defended 0 times)
1. → Yusuke Endo
2. → Ganjo Tensuku
3. → Bendy Casimir
4. ↑ Grzegorz Trendowski
5. ↓ Jani Lax
6. ↓ Brian Cobb
7. ↓ Mizuto Hirota
8. ↓ Willian Chiqueirinho
9. ↓ Eiji Mitsuoka
10. ↓ Giovani Diniz

Grzegorz Trendowski (I am not 100% sure on the spelling) has moved from Middleweight to Welterweight and comes in at #4, out of the ranking goes Tatsuya Kawajiri.

Middleweight:
Champ: → Shinya Aoki (From February 17 2006, defended 1 times)
1. → David Baron
2. → Scott Henze
3. → Wim Deputter
4. ↑ Niek Tromp
5. ↑ Zelim Felican
6. ↑ Roemer Trumpert
7. ↑ Hernani Perpetuo
8. ↑ Tommy Depret
9. ↓ Ronald Jhun
10. ↓ Brent Weedman

Trendowski moves to welterweight, Niek Tromp moves up to #4. In to the ranking comes Hernani Perpetuo with a 5-0 record and Tommy Depret with a 3-0 record. Out of the ranking goes “K-Taro”.

Light-Heavyweight:
Champ: → Siyar Bahadourzada (From July 15 2007, defended 0 times)
1. → Leandro Silva
2. → Akihiro Murayama
3. → Shiko Yamashita
4. → Grazhuydas Smailis
5. → Masashi Yozen
6. → Nathan Schouteren
7. → Petras Morkevicius
8. → Rolandas Agrba
9. → Edward O’Daniel
10. → Dustin Denes

Read more...

8/24 Sengoku - Pawel Natsula is Back!

Friday 1 August 2008

Pawel Natsula has been gone from the MMA Scene since Pride went away, now he has resurfaced in Japan and will fight in Sengoku on August 24! His opponent is yet to be determined.

The main-event is also announced, no surprise there, Gomi will fight in that.

Participating:
Pavel Natula 1-3-0

Main-event:
Takanori Gomi 28-3-0 vs. 5-1-0 Hwang Sung Pang

Lightweight GP:
Satoru Kitaoka 20-8-9 vs. 16-2-0 Clay French
Eiji Mitsuoka 13-5-2 vs. 8-1-0 Rodrigo Damm
Kazunori Yokota 6-1-3 vs. 6-1-0 Bojan Kosednar
Mizuto Hirota 9-2-0 vs. 20-9-1 Ryan Schultz

Non-GP Fights:
Peter Graham 0-1-0 vs. 12-7-3 Moise Rimbon
Makoto Takimoto 4-4-0 vs. 16-6-0 Frank Trigg

http://gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_08/0801_sengoku.htm

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9/27 Cage Force 8 - Semi-Finals Announced!

Cage Force have announced the semi-finals for their tournaments. There has already been a few surprises, not to mention changes due to the fianancial problems they are having. But the semi-finals are looking awesome!!! I was a bit dissapointed last time, but otherwise the Cage Force events have been very good. As this is on a Saturday, I think there is a good chance I will make my way to Differ Ariake again this time.

For those who didnt know Yamazaki before his DREAM fight with Hideo Tokoro, he is in this semi-final (he also fought in DREAM 3 btw). There are some really big Japanese names in these semi-finals!

Announced today, the tournament semi-finals:
Bantamweight Semi-Finals:
Takeya Mizugaki 9-2-2 vs. 10-6-0 Taiyo Nakahara
Masahiro Oishi 18-9-7 vs. 8-5-3 Tetsu Suzuki

Featherweight Semi-Finals:
Yuji Hoshino 14-7-7 vs. 14-8-2 Takeshi Yamazaki
”Wicky” Akiyo Nishiura 8-2-1 vs. 5-2-0 Fanjin Son

Read more...

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Please contact me on japanmma@gmail.com
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