Japan-MMA.com: March 2009

5/24 Shooto Spirit 2009 - Sendai

Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Shooto will hold an event in Sendai on May 24. It is a good chance to watch some good fights if you are in the area.

The event so far is mainly about the rookie tournament, but there will be an interesting female fight and a grappling match on the card. There should be more fights to come.

Making a return to the ring is Sendai native Takamaro Watari, this will be his first fight in 2 years. He will be taking on Yuki Yasunaga, who will enter the ring for only his 2nd professional fight (he is 3-1 in amature).

Feather: Takamaro Watari 2-4-2 vs. 0-1-0 Yuki Yasunaga
Female Fly: Masako Yoshida 15-14-5 vs. 4-3-0 Yasuko Mogi

Rookie Tournament:
Fly: Yusuke Sato 1-1-0 vs. 0-2-0 Kazuyuki Yoshida
Bantam: Nozomi Otsuka 1-1-1 vs. 0-1-0 Nariyasu Fujita

Participating:
Toshiaki Hayasaka 0-2-0

5/2 Sengoku 8 - Featherweight 2nd Round Announced!

WVR have announced the match-ups for the 2nd round in the featherweight GP. Opinions were split on how entertaining the fights were in Sengoku 7, but I thought it looked very promising.

The BIG fight here is Hatsu Hioki against Ronnie Mann. Hioki proved why he is coming in as the favorite in the 1st round, but Mann is very experienced and Hioki has proved that he is not unbeatable.

Marlon Sandro is my personal favorite for the title, he will take on Nick Denis in his quarter final. This fight will be between 2 undefeated fighters, and I am willing to bet that it will go the distance, even if Denis has a habit of finishing fights early.

2 of the big positive surprises for me in the 1st round will square off in the 2nd. Nam Phan impressed me when he finished Kadowaki in the 1st round, and Omigawa was very impressive when he fought his way to a decision win.

3/28 HEAT 9 - RESULTS Tournament Champions Crowned

Monday, 30 March 2009

Heat held 2 tournament finals and the heavyweight tournaments semi-finals on Saturday. The main event was the welterweight final and title fight between 2 very talented fighters in Justin Holdaas and Max Fernandes. In the middleweight Kick-rule final, Thai Fabiakato "RS Promotion" Lukafa took on Kinji.

The heavyweight tournament had some big semi-finals as well. Ryuta Noji was a late replacement for Dong Yi Yang, and was taking on Pride veteran Sentoryu. The other semi-final saw Christiano Kaminishi take on Sang Soo Lee.

4/16 DEEP 41 - Miyata Returns!

Saeki has announced that Kazuyuki Miyata is set to make his return at DEEP 41 taking place in Korakuen Hall April 16. Miyata has not fought since his loss in the DREAM lightweight tournament last year. It is over a year since Miyata lost to Luiz "Buscape" Firmino. Since then, he has opened his own gym.

He is taking on the very young (20) Jae Hyun So, in a fight neither fighter wants to lose. Jae Hyun So is a veterean of Korean organization Spirit MC, and though his record is not good there are lots of Korean fighters coming up.

Miyata promised me to go for a KO in his next fight, he has been working hard on his striking so look for an even more agressive Miyata to enter the ring this time! This fight will be at 67kg, and Miyata is hoping to get down to featherweight at 65kg.

Also announced is the fight between Naoki Matsuchita and Korean Baek Won Sik (?)

DREAM 9 - Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou

Saturday, 28 March 2009

Though not officially announced, it is confirmed by several sources that Sokoudjou will return to Japan in May. He had a very rapid rise to fame in Pride, knocking out Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Richardo Arona in 2007. When the UFC bought Pride, he went to the UFC and has not been able to replicate his success there.

Now he is released from the UFC and DREAM has picked him up, on his return he will face DREAM middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi, who is on an 11 fight winning streak.

The fight will be fought at light-heavyweight.

Light-Heavy: Gegard Mousasi 24-2-1 vs. 5-4-0 Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

3/28 K-1 World GP in Yokohama - LIVE Results

It is going to be a great night of fights in Yokohama today. K-1 is bringing out their biggest stars, with the exception of Badr Hari who was forced to withdraw (not without controversy).

The main event had a great buildup on the press conferance yesterday, as Alistair Overeem called his girlfried on stage to hand Bonjasky a Oscar for his acting against Badr Hari in the World GP final last year. Bonjasky answered by saying that Overeem should get off the drugs, and this fight got personal. It is MMA against K-1, and Bonjasky does not want to loose this.

There will be spoilers if you read on, for the opening fights, I have only one result the main card is about to start.

3/28 K-1 World GP 2009 in Yokohama - Fight Order

Friday, 27 March 2009

K-1 will get a new heavyweight champion tomorrow, fighting for the belt stripped from Badr Hari are:
-Melvin Manhoef
-Gokhan Saki
-Keijiro Maeda
-Tyrone Spong

It will be interesting to see how this plays out, the main event will be Remy Bonjasky against Alistair Overeem. And his fight here is probably the reason we wont see Overeem on the DREAM card.

K-1 World GP Ring-Girls

My piece on the Sengoku Ring-girls was one of the more popular post that I have made (no kidding)... If you missed it, its here.

From that we learned that the ring-girls normally do more than carry signs around, and hopefully we get to learn a bit more about what the K-1 girls does as well.

From left: Saki Akai, Maki Issou, Eri Sakai and Eriko Fujimoto.

4/5 DREAM 8 - Kharitonov to take on Monson!

Thursday, 26 March 2009

DREAM has finalized the card for their 8th event, and I think it should be an interesting event. FEG have signed some interesting talent and there will be good fights also outside the GP.

In particular, it is interesting to see that Jeff Monson is now fighing in DREAM after fighting in Sengoku earlier. Add to that his legal problems and I am very happy to see him back in Japan.

For the welterweight GP FEG have picked up some every talented fighters and mixed with the experienced fighters already in, it should be good. In particular I am looking forward to seeing Andre Galvao in this GP, a fight between him and Sakurai should be very good. Galvao is taking on the veteran John Alessio, both making their DREAM debuts.

There might be another fight added, making it a 9-10 fight card. As has been reported, Zelg Galesic is off the card, and Andrews Nakahara is taking on Shungo Oyama instead.

4/16 DEEP 41 - Fights Announced

Deep 41 should be another good DEEP event. It was announced yesterday that DEEP 52kg champion Miku Matsumoto will take on an American fighter in Nicdali Calanic. Japanese media is very interested in this fight, despite it being a non-title fight. Miku is on a 9 fight winning streak and have also done well in Shoot Boxing lately.

There is also a lightweight title fight announced, the new champion will be deceided between Katsunori Kikuno and Koichiro Matsumoto. These are 2 fighters that have been in great shape lately, and it should be a good fight.

Announced as a participant is Hiromitsu Kanehara, the veteran of Pancrase, Pride and Rings will be making his DEEP debut. And he will be hungry, having only won 1 of his last 15(!) fights.

I am also hearing rumors of a big name Japanese fighter maybe being added to this card.

4/21 K-1 World Max Final 16 - Fights Announced

Wednesday, 25 March 2009

FEG have announced some fights for the K-1 World Max Final 16 event that wil take place in Fukuoka April 21.

This looks like it will be a very good event, and if you are in Fukuoka it should be a good one to go to.

It was announced today that the excentric and entertaining "Jienotsu" Nagashima will take on Albert Kraus in the tournament. Nagashima went out of the Japan Tournament after suffering a cut in his round 1 fight, a cut that opened up in his round 2 fight and forced a stoppage. He clearly made a good impression though, and now he will be back.

What to expect from him? He will enter the ring dressed like a girl...

Other fights in the Tournament will see Andre "Dida" finally getting his K-1 fight, he was due to fight in 3 days, but visa issues forced him to push it back. He will be part of the tournament here, and his opponent will be none other than 2 time champion Buakaw Por Pramuk.

Also scheduled to participate is Japanese star Masato and Russian Artur Kyshenko.

5/2 Sengoku 8 - Takimoto Fighting Costa

Sengoku have announced 3 fight for Sengoku 8 over the last few days, this event will take place in the Yoyogi 2nd Gymnasium.

So far it looks like it should be a very good event, it will feature the 2nd round fights of the featherweight GP. But there have been some interesting additions outside the GP over the last couple of days.

The latest announcement is that Makoto Takimoto will be fighting at welterweight, and competing for a place in the Sengoku welterweight GP that is to be held later this year. His opponent will be Chute Boxe's Michael Costa. As for other fighters in the Sengoku welterweight GP, fighters mentioned where: Josh Thompson, Mike Pyle and Fabricio Monteiro.

Of course Sengoku would like to see stars like Ryo Chonan and Akihiro Gono to return to Japan. As faith has it, I have a feeling both, but Ryo Chonan in particular is on his way out of the UFC... Maybe they would like to keep him now...

Previously it was announced that grappling star Leonardo Santos will take on Kazunori Yokota in a lightweight fight that should determine the #1 conternder for Kitaoka's belt. Kitaoka on his had is set to fight for the Pancrase belt in June.

Another grappling star returning is Xande Ribeiro. He will take on Pancrase Super-veteran Keiichiro Yamamiya, Yamamiya was the first Pancrase Light-Heavyweight champion. His last fight was a Pancrase title fight in October, a loss to Ryo Kawamura. He will be a tricky opponent for Ribeiro as he is very hard to get to the ground.

3/28 HEAT 9 - Fights Announced

Tuesday, 24 March 2009

A few of the fights on this card have been ready for a while, but there have been some additions outside the tournaments too. With 4 days left, this card shoule be just about final.

If you are in Nagoya, I would strongly suggest going out to this one! There are some really good fighters on the card and it should be a fun event. The event is taking place in Nagoya.

There has been a major change to the heavyweight tournament, Dong Yi Yang, who defeated Ryuta Noji in the previous round is out due to an injury sustained during practice. Noji is stepping in to take his spot against Sentoryu, though I think the loss of Yang is bad for the tournament, Sentoryu vs. Ryuta Noji will be a very entertaining match-up.

A bit of the history of the tournaments here.

UPDATES: DREAM and Sengoku sign Fighters

I am finally back in Norway, and there were some big updates from DREAM and Sengoku while I was in the air. I thought I would just group them together here.

DREAM
GracieMag is reporting that Murilo Ninja has signed for DREAM and will fight on the DREAM 8 card scheduled for April 5. He is currently in training in Brazil, where he is working with his brother (sherdog has an article on the preparations here). "Ninja"'s opponent for his return to Japan is said to be a Korean fighter.

Of course DREAM 8 will feature the 1st round of the DREAM 8-man welterweight GP, still 4 spots open in that.

Sengoku
-The signing of the very talented grappler Leonardo Santos is not news, but Sengoku have now announced his first fight. It will take place at Sengoku 8, May 2. The opponent is the very experienced Kazunori Yokota.

-Also announced for the event is Xande Ribeiro against Keiichiro Yamamiya.

Narita Airport Accident

Monday, 23 March 2009

Another post unrelated to MMA... As faith has it, today I am flying out of Narita, and this morning there was an accident here. This is causing major delays, and a runway is closed.

My thoughts go to the families. It was a transport flight from FedEX (I think), and from what I have heard, there are fatalities.

As far as I know the cras happened at 6:48 AM Japan time, other than that, I have very little information.

I was at Fukuoka Airport about to depart just as this accident happened. As usual, they had the news on there so I got to see the reason for the delay (not a fun feeling)

I was able to take these shots. Guess its been an eventful, but not fun day so far...

5/10 Shooto The Final Tradition - Gomi to make a Return to Shooto

Saturday, 21 March 2009

Shooto will hold the final event in their Tradition series (celebrating 20 years of Shooto), in May. The event will take place in JCB Hall, where also the first "Tradition" event took place.

This card will be a solid one, the fights announced holds some of the biggest Shooto profiles, and there is more to come.

Former champion Takanori Gomi will return to Shooto and it is going to take on the current champion Takashi Nakakura in what should be an awesome fight. Gomi is coming off 2 straight losses and will be eager to get back on the winning track. It is 6 years since Gomi fought in Shooto, that time he lost a decision to the current DREAM champion Joachim Hansen. Nakakura on the other hand, is on a 5 fight winning streak and has not lost since August 2005 when he fought Mitsuhiro Ishida.

Other fights announced were Koutetsu Boku vs. the Shooto prospect from Kyoto, Yutaka Ueda. Ueda is undefeated in Shooto, but will still come in as the underdog agianst the former Pacific champion and DREAM veteran.

The current lightweight champion "Lion" Takeshi is taking on the veteran Rumina Sato. The popular Rumina really needs a win here, having only 1 win in his last 6 fights. But the champion is not going to make it easy for him to get back on the winning track.

3/20 Shooto Tradition 6- Results

Friday, 20 March 2009

Shooto Tradition 6 starts at the same time as the Sengoku event today. I will be updating the results as they become available here.

2 title fights on the card and lots of interesting talent, it should be a good event in Korakuen Hall.

3/20 Sengoku 7 - RESULTS

It is Sengoku's turn to kick off the featherweight GP, DREAM started their earlier this month and I will call it a bit disappointing. Lets hope the Sengoku GP lives up to expectations.

I will be posting the results live, or close to it here.

Spoilers for those who read on (starting 5PM Japan time). This event should air LIVE on HDNet!

3/20 Shooto Tradition 6 - Hiromasa Ogikubo

I was going to write up something on both the Sengoku and the Shooto events going on today, but with all the moving and stuff going on there has just been no time.

1 fight feature a guy from my gym, and I spoke with him just over a week ago. Hiromasa Ogikubo is facing the grappling specialist Haidairo. This should be a very good fight. The winner should be close to a title shot, Ogikubo's previous opponent (So Tazawa) is fighting for the title on the same card.

I think most fight fans are familiar with Hadairo, especially since he has competed in ADCC. Hadairo has very good ground skills, but Katsuya Toida will tell you that he can punch too (if you stand still and smile at him).

Ogikubo won the 2007 Rookie Tournament in the featherweight division, and has gone on to be ranked #7 in that division. He is still undefeated and this could be seen as his biggest fight so far in his career. Ogikubo likes to go for takedown and in top position rain down punches and in many cases get the chance of finishing by rear naked choke.

4/5 DREAM 8 - "Mach" will take on Aoki!

Thursday, 19 March 2009

FEG has announced a big fight for round 1 in the welterweight GP. Both Aoki and Sakurai have expressed an interest in this re-match. In 2005 "Mach" defeated Aoki by decision in Shooto, and Aoki has expressed that he would like a chance for a rematch. When I met with Sakurai, he also expressed an interest in this match-up and it should be a very good one.

There are still 4 spots open in this GP, with no foreign fighter announced yet.

3/20 Shooto Tradition 6 - REMINDER

***REMINDER***
This card has been ready for a while and it is very good. Personally, I am looking forward to the Ogikubo fight, but there are 2 title fights on as well. Also, look out for Yamagami, who always seems to be a hit with the crowd.

***

The Shooto Trandition series have been awesome, as you would expect as Shooto is celebrating its 20th anniversary with this.

The latest event, #6 in the series, will have 2 title fights on the card. The main-event will be the bantamweight title fight between "BJ" Kojima and Yuki Shoujou. "BJ" is coming off a draw with Jesse Taitano at Tradition 5. Shoujou defeated Shooto veteran Yasuhiro Urushitani in this last fight, and this should be a very good fight.

The co-main event is the other title fight on the card. The undefeated Masakatsu Ueda is taking on So Tazawa. Tazawa is coming off a draw with Ogikubo in Tradition 4. So Tazawa have not lost since his last fight with Ueda, that almost exactly 2 years ago and Ueda won by Brabo choke in round 3.

Also on the card are some very interesting fights. Ogikubo, who is unbeaten in his Shooto career, will take on the grappling specialist "Hadairo".

There was one fight added with the announcement of the fight order. The veteran Takayuki Okochi will take on Michiyuki Ishibashi. Okochi have not tasted victory in over 6 years, and should be very determined to get one here. Ishibashi is not far behind, his only professional win was back in 2007, or 4 fights ago.

Shooto March Rankings

Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Only minor changes this month, mainly due to the fights at the first Gig Tokyo event in Shinjuku Face.

Most notably, flyweight ranked #2 Shinya Murofushi suffered his first loss.

The welterweight division saw unranked Kenichiro Togashi defeat #3 ranked Ganjo Tentsuku.

4/5 DREAM 8 - Shirai Qualifies for DREAM GP

Tuesday, 17 March 2009

This is news from Saturday, but I forgot my laptop in the hotel and I am just now able to catch up on news...

Anyway, DEEP held a DREAM welterweight GP qualifier in the ClubDEEP event on March 14. The winner was Yuya Shirai, and he is therefore the 4th confirmed participant in this 8-man tournament.

Caol Uno Announced for UFC 99

I have been without a computer for a few days, so this might be old news. It has also been rumored for a while, but Caol Uno is making a return to the UFC in June.

UFC 99 is taking place in Germany, that is the first UFC event to take place there (to my knowledge).

Caol Uno did well in the DREAM GP last year, but lost out to Shinya Aoki in a fight he was mostly on the defensive. The fight before that he showed how good he is by submitting Mitsuhiro Ishida, something that was never done before.

Caol Uno makes his return against Spencer Fisher.

3/20 Sengoku 7 - Fight Order

Saturday, 14 March 2009

A week before the event WVR have announced the fight order for Sengoku 7. Sengoku also has a feeatherweight GP this year, and unlike DREAM all the round 1 fights seems to take place at this event.

King Mo's profile is now high enough to warrant him taking on Ryo Kawamura in the main event. These are 2 fighters that are popular with the Japanese fans, and it should be a good fight.

The featherweight GP has a good mix of new and very talented fighters and some very experienced fighters.

This event also signals the return of James Thompson to Japan!

4/5 DREAM 8 - Fights Announced

Thursday, 12 March 2009

FEG have announced 2 non-GP fights today. Zelg "Benkei" Galesic will be taking on Brazilian Andrews Nakahara in a middleweight fight.

Also announced is a fight that should please the Japanese crowd, Ikuhisa Minowa will take on fellow prowrestler Katsuyori Shibata in a fight that is sure to be very entertaining.

Of course, already announced is a fight in the featherweight GP between DJ Taiki and Hideo Tokoro.

DREAM 8 Poster

Tuesday, 10 March 2009

This is the DREAM 8 Poster (I have a feeling there will be a more artistic one too).

As you can see, a few fighters are revealed: Ronaldo Jacare and Katsuyori Shibata.

The other fighters were already announced: Hideo Tokoro, DJ Taiki, Hayato "Mach" Sakurai and Shinya Aoki.

Less Updates the Coming Week

The time has come for me to pack up my things and head back to Norway to search for a job. I will continue this blog and give you the Japanese news, hopefully add some European news as well.

But this week I am packing up the things here in Japan, I will also be spending a week on the road going from Tokyo to Fukuoka (a well deserved holiday). So I expect less updates, but I will be making posts if something big comes up.

3/8 Shooto BORDER- Season 1 - RESULTS

Monday, 9 March 2009

The "other" event last night took place in Osaka. This one was sold out, and I am sure the crowd enjoyed it. Most of the fights went the distance, and that shows that there were some competitive fight here.

The main event saw veteran Junji Ikoma come out on top against last years rookie tournament champion and the previously undefeated Fumihiro Kitahara.

The co-main event saw another rookie tournament champion, Kosuke Eda draw his fight with Hiroyuki Tanaka.

DREAM 7 Ratings SUCKED!

I have no other words for it... They aired it late at night, and there were not too many stars on the card. BUT a rating of 2.4% is not good.... Shinya Aoki vs. David Gardner drew the biggest crowd with 4%. Good thing Gardner got to say hello.

The attendance is reported to have been 19,528, which is much higher than I thought it would have been...

Source:
SportsNavi

4/5 DREAM 8 - Participants So Far

DREAM 7 is just over and all I am thinking is that DREAM needs the next few events to be a bigger success than it was last night. There were some ok fights, and I think hard-core fans enjoyed the event, but this was not the kind of event that would draw the average person into watch DREAM next time. Some sections in the arena looked empty as well.

The main attraction for DREAM 8 will be the welterweight GP, and they have Hayato "Mach" Sakurai and Shinya Aoki in that. In addition to the 2 stars, DEEP champion Seichi Ikemoto will participate.

It is also announced that, in a now familiar way, Yuya Shirai and Korean Yoon Young Kim will fight for a spot in the GP. This fight will take place in ClubDEEP March 14.

Welterweight GP Participants:
Hayato "Mach" Sakurai 34-8-2
Shinya Aoki 19-3-0
Seichi Ikemoto 18-14-5
Winner of Yuya Shirai 14-7-0 vs. 9-3-0 Yoon Young Kim

Featherweight GP:
Hideo Tokoro 21-15-1 vs. 10-5-3 Daiki "DJ Taiki" Hata

Non-GP Participant:
Ikuhisa Minowa 41-29-8

3/8 DREAM 7 - LIVE Results

Sunday, 8 March 2009

I will be posting results and some short comments here. Am at home, enjoying the event live on SkyPerfect.

For play-by-play, Sherdog will do the honors, that means that I can sit back and relax with a few friends and beers.

If you have some questions relating to the event, please feel free to leave a comment (if you get an error message, click the "Post Comment" button again).

It should be a very good and exciting event, and it will start a couple of hours after the UFC event finishes (4PM Japan time).

Some background reading:
My preditions
Some Betting Odds (so many sites out there for this..)
Presenting the Featherweights (Sengoku and DREAM

Other sites to follow the event on:
Sherdog PbP
BloodyElbow

Spoilers if you read on!

3/8 Shooto -BORDER- Season 1 - The complete card Reminder

Saturday, 7 March 2009

***REMINDER***
Thought it would be useful just to remind you that its not only DREAM taking place tomorrow. This Shooto event is also taking place in Osaka, and is nearly sold out. There is still standing room available, those tickets are JPY4,000.
**************************************

TK Promotion and Shooto Japan is putting on what should be a very interesting card in Hirano City center on March 8. Already the card is finalized, so they cant be blamed for not being properly prepared.

There are 7 fights on the card, and the last 2 should be very interesting. In addition to that, there is of course some Rookie Tournament fights on as well.

The main event is Shooto veteran Junji Ikoma against 2008 rookie tournament winner, the unbeaten Fumihiro Kitahara. Ikoma finished 2008 ranked #4, but he didnt have the best of years. Though he didnt lose any fights, he only managed to win 1 of 4 (2 draws against Jin Akimoto).

The co-main event sees the Pacific ranked #10 Hiroyuki Tanaka take on another 2008 Rookie Tournament champion in Kosuke Eda. So, 2 of last years Rookie Tournament champions get a chance to improve their rankings early in 2009. I am sure that will give the fighters who are in this year's tournament some extra inspiration when they have their first round fight in this card.

DREAM 7 - Predictions

I normally don't do this, but I am seeing that some fans think this is the weakest DREAM card yet. These things are always subjective, but I would wait until after the event to judge. The fact that you don't know the fighters doesn't make them bad... I see fighters on this card that I know nothing about, and that makes me more interested. FEG has seen them worthy of a spot, and I want to see if they can live up to that.

The real reason some fighters are lesser known is that few featherweights have, up until now, fought overseas. Also keep in mind that this GP is at 63.5kg, which might actually make it closer to a bantamweight GP (depending on what you are used to watching).

It is a long time since I have done this, but I will give you my predictions.

A word of warning: I suck at predicting fights, and you might do better going with the opposite picks of mine. I never put money on the fights and if you do, please base that on your own predicitions.

4/25 Valkyrie 02 - Valkyrie is Still Alive!

Friday, 6 March 2009

Its been a very long time since the first Valkyrie event, and it lead me to believe that we would not see another event. Luckily, I was wrong! Valkyrie is alive and will hold their second event 25 April in Differ Ariake.

On the card will be some very good fighters, Yuka Tsuji and Roxanne Modafferi are 2 of the fighters announced today.

Participants:
Yuka Tsuji 21-1-0
Naoko Omuro 8-7-3
Kyoko Takabayashi 8-3-0
Roxanne Modafferi 13-4-0

3/8 DREAM 7 - Fight Order

FEG have announced the fight order for Sunday's Featherweight GP Round 1. The main event is the fight between Masakazu Imanari and Atsushi Yamamoto, and I cant see it going the distance.

The night will be kicking off with a fight that I think might be fight of the night, Otsuka vs. Bibiano. It should be a close fight and I think it will be very entertaining.

This event is all about the featherweights, but there will be other big names on the card as well, including Tatsuya Kawajiri, Shinya Aoki and Mitsuhiro Ishida.

3/8 DREAM 7 - Betting Odds

Here are the betting lines from Sportsbook.com. I have never used any betting company, so if you have experience, good or bad, it would be good to hear about it.

Anyway, the odds seem ok. Kawajiri and Aoki are going in as huge favorites, but thats probably to be expected. If I were looking for value, I would go for Otsuka.

Presenting the Featherweights

Thursday, 5 March 2009

Samurai Fighting TV had a 2 hour special they called "Featherweight Best Fighters". Of course it was mainly the Japanese fighters, or showing fights they had the rights for. It was a great 2 hour show, and I have tried to "recreate" it here.

I think there are lots of fans out there that dont know what to expect from the Japanese fighters in these GPs. This might be a good way to introduce them, fighters like Shintaro Ishiwatari, Atsushi Yamamoto and Takafumi Otsuka are just some examples of fighters you should look out for.

I wasnt able to find all the fights shown in the Samurai TV program, but there should be a lot to watch here anyway. Unfortunately, it just covered fighters that have fought in Japan so there will be some new fighters for me too in these GPs. Also worth noting that this is NOT specific to any of the GPs, fighters from both Sengoku and DREAM are included and it is a LONG post.

Shooto Disco 4 Shintaro Ishiwatari vs Kazuhiro Ito
Uploaded by KebabHunter

vs. Tenkei Fujimiya (Shooto Tradition 3)

Seiya Kawahara

vs. Yuki Yamasawa (Pancrase Shining Tour 1)

vs. Masaki Yanagisawa (Pancrase Shining Tour 5)

Hideki Kadowaki

vs. Rumina Sato

Rumina Sato vs Hideki Kadowaki
Uploaded by torihada

Marlon Sandro

vs. Miki Shida (Pancrase Shining Tour 2)

Highlight video

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