HEAT - Tournaments Breakdown

I know a lot of you are not too familiar with HEAT, or the tournaments they are currently putting on. It actually includes myself, so I deceided to do a bit of research to educate myself and maybe some of you will find this interesting too.

Currently, HEAT is holding 4 tournaments there are 2 MMA-rule and 2 Kick-rule (all 8 man tournaments). The price for the winner of each tournament is JPY1,00,000 or about US$10,000, so there is a lot at stake here.

MMA-Rule Tournaments:
-Heavyweight (open weight) Tournament
Participants: Christiano Kaminishi, Minoru Kato, Sang Soo Lee, Amazon Juninho, Henry Miller "Sentoryu", Junpei Hamada, Dong Yi Yang, Ryuta Noji.
*As always with tournaments, these are subject to change.

Schedule:
Round 1: 2 fights in HEAT 7 (July 13) and 2 fights in HEAT 8 (December 14).
Semi-Finals: Planned for March 2009
Final: Planned for July/August 2009


Results update:
Round 1:
Christiano Kaminishi Def. Minoru Kato by Decision 3-0
Sang Soo Lee Def. Amazon Juninho by Decision 3-0
Henry Miller "Sentoryu" vs. Junpei Hamada fighting December 14 2008
Dong Yi Yang vs. Ryuta Noji fighting December 14 2008


-Welterweight Tournament (77.1kg)
Participants: Hyong Yo Im, Hiroshi "Butch" Masabuchi, Max Fernandez, Naoki Kimura, Yoshitaro "Buffalo" Niimi, Jun Kito, Justin Holdaas, Pedro Akira

Schedule:
Round 1: 2 fights in HEAT 6 (March 30) and 2 fights in HEAT 7 (July 13)
Semi-Finals: December 14
Finals: Plannced for March 2009

Results Update:
Round 1:
Hyong Yo Im Def. Hiroshi "Butch" Masabuchi by TKO Round 1 3:47
Max Fernandez Def. Naoki Kimura by arm-bar Round 1 1:11
Yoshitaro "Buffalo" Niimi Def. Jun Kito by Rear-naked choke Round 1 2:49
Justin Holdaas Def. Pedro Akira by TKO Round 2 4:34

Semi-Finals (December 14):
Yoshitaro Niimi 6-2-2 vs. 1-1-0 Justin Holdaas
Max Fernandez 2-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Hyong Yo Im


Kick-Rule Tournaments:
-Heavyweight (100kg) Tournament
Participants: Moon Bo Ram, Nobutaka Baba, Makoto Uehara, Sun Wu, "Prince" Ali, Hiromi Amada, Jason Suttie, Goutoku Onda

Schedule:
Round 1: 1 fights in HEAT 7 (July 13) and 3 fights in HEAT 8 (December 14).
Semi-Finals: Planned for March 2009
Final: Planned for July/August 2009

Result update:
Round 1:
Goutoku Onda Def. Jason Suttie by Decision 2-0

Fighting December 14:
Moon Bo Ram vs. Nobutaka Baba
Makoto Uehara vs. Sun Wu
"Prince" Ali vs. Hiromi Amada

-Middleweight (70kg) Tournament
Participants: Danilo Zanolini, Fabiakato "RS Promotion" Lukafa (?), Jotaro Usui, Junichi Maruyama, Park Eun Seok, Kinji, Nathan Willet, Yuso Matsumoto

Round 1: 2 fights in HEAT 6 (March 30) and 2 fights in HEAT 7 (July 13)
Semi-Finals: December 14
Finals: Plannced for March 2009

Result Update:
Round 1:
Fabiakato "RS Promotion" Lukafa Def. Danilo Zanolini by TKO
Jotaro Usui Def. Junichi Maruyama by Decision 3-0
Kinji Def. Park Eun Seok by KO Round 1 1:28
Yuso Matsumoto Def. Nathan Willet by Decision

Semi-Finals (December 14, 2008)
Jotaro Usui vs. Fabiakato "RS Promotion" Lukafa (?)
Yuso Matsumoto vs. Kinji

Hopefully that should give you some background behind the HEAT Tournament fights coming up on Sunday. The card and fight order is here.