12/31 FEG Dynamite - Overeem's Oppenent Confirmed

FEG has confirmed today that Alistair Overeem will be taking on Todd Duffee in his fight. The recently crowned K-1 champion will then go back to MMA and face a very good opponent. This is tougher opponent than I expected Overeem to face.

Duffee has not fought since May and is coming in on short notice. Overeem's last MMA fight was in May as well, when he fought Brett Rogers in Strikeforce. Since 2007 none of his fights have gone past the first round and I am expecting fireworks here again.

Added:
Heavy: Alistair Overeem 33-11-0 vs. 6-1-0 Todd Duffee

MMA Rules:
Dream Featherweight title fight:
Bibiano Fernandes 8-2-0 vs. 14-8-1 Hiroyuki Takaya
Feather: Hideo Tokoro 26-23-1 vs. 0-0-0 Kazuhisa Watanabe
Welter: Hayato “Mach” Sakurai 35-11-2 vs. 11-3-0 Jason High
Open: Ikuhisa Minowa 47-31-8 vs. 3-1-0 Hiroshi Izumi
Heavy: Satoshi Ishii 3-1-0 vs. 3-1-1 Jerome Le Banner
Heavy: Tatsuya Mizuno vs. Sergey Kharitonov
Welter: Katsuaki Furuki vs. 2-1-0 Andy Ologun
Feather: Caol Uno 25-13-5 vs. 10-7-0 Kazuyuki Miyata
Light: Josh Thomson 18-3-0 vs. 26-6-2 Tatsuya Kawajiri
Welter: Marius Zaromskis 13-5-0 vs. 26-14-1 Kazushi Sakuraba

Other Rules:
K-1 rules: Kyotaro vs. Gegard Mousasi
IGF Special Rules: Shinichi Suzukawa vs. Bob Sapp
DREAM/K-1 Mixed rules: Shinya Aoki vs. Yuichiro Nagashima
K-1 Lightweight: Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura vs. Tetsuya Yamato


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12/30 SRC Soul of Fight - Fight Order

Here is the fight order for tomorrows SRC 28 fight card. There has been a change from my previous card. Dan Hornbuckle is not fighting (I am currently not aware or why) and has been replaced by Taisuke Okuno.

Main Event: SRC Featherweight title match (5min x 5):
28. Marlon Sandro 17-1-0 vs. 22-4-2 Hatsu Hioki

27. Middle 5min x 3: Kazuo Misaki 22-11-2 vs. 13-13-1 Mike Seal
26. KB 3min x 3 (70 kg): Buakaw Por Pramuk vs. Hiroki Nakajima
25. Female MMA 5min x 3 (53.5 kg): Megumi Fujii 22-1-0 vs. 9-4-0 Emi Fujino

SRC vs. Dream (5min x 3):
24. Feather: Masanori Kanehara 16-8-5 vs. 27-9-2 Yoshiro Maeda
23. Welter: Ryo Chonan 18-11-0 vs. 10-5-2 Taisuke ”Goten” Okuno
22. Light: Maximo Blanco 7-2-1 vs. 9-2-1 "Parky" Won Sik Park

SRC Welterweight GP Final:
21. Keita "K-Taro" Nakamura 20-4-2 vs. 6-1-0 Yasubey Enomoto
20. Light: Kazunori Yokota 11-4-3 vs. 3-2-0 Jadamba Narantungalag
19. Middle: Yuki Sasaki 22-18-1 vs. 20-4-2 Mamed Khalidov
18. Heavy: Yoshihiro Nakao 9-2-0 vs. 19-2-0 Dave Herman

SRC Bantamweight Asia Tournament Semifinals (5min x 2):
17. Akitoshi Tamura 15-9-2 vs. 11-6-0 Taiyo Nakahara
16. Manabu Inoue 11-5-1 vs. 18-6-9 Shunichi Shimizu

15. Female MMA 5min x 2 (61 kg): Roxanne Modafferi 15-6-0 vs. 16-8-0 Hitomi Akano
14. Female MMA 5min x 3 (Open 3x3min): Rin Nakai 9-0-0 vs. 6-23-1 Mika “Hari” Harigai
13. Female MMA 5min x 2 (48 kg): Amy Davis 1-1-0 vs. 12-11-4 Misaki Takimoto

12. Female MT 2min x 5 (47.62 kg): Erika Kamimura vs. Chiharu
11. MT 3min x 3 (86.18 kg): Fabiano Cyclone vs. Andrew Peck
10. KB 3min x 3 (86.18 kg): Kazuki Ozawa vs. Lee Chang Seob
9. MT 3min x 3 (73 kg): Musashi Miyamoto vs. Hiroki Komata
8. MT 3min x 5 (60 kg): Kanongsuk Weerasakreck vs. Genki Yamamoto
7. MT 3min x 5 (52 kg): Arashi Fujiwara vs. Mutsuki Ebata
6. KB 3min x 3 (70 kg): Yutaro Yamauchi vs. Gou Yokoyama
5. KB 3min x 3 (70 kg): Yusuke Ikei vs. Shintaro Matsukura
4. KB 3min x 2 (61.23 kg): Hironobu Ikegami vs. Yuji Tanaka

3. SRC Jacket match 5min x 1 (Light): Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Jung Jin Suk
2. SRC Jacket match 5min x 1 (59 kg): Kiyotaka Shimizu vs. Ichiro Sugita
1. SRC Jacket match 5min x 1 (Light): Sotaro Yamada vs. Kim Lee Sak

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Pancrase 2011 Tour Title

Pancrase has released their 2011 tour title, it will be "Impressive".

And the schedule up until April:
1/30 Golds Gym Tokyo South Annex (Neo-Blood fights)
2/6 Differ Ariake, Tokyo
3/13 Azalea Hall, Osaka

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12/30 SRC Soul of Fight

As tradition is in Japan, the main organizations need to put on a NYE card. SRC has been playing second fiddle to FEG and their Dynamite card, and they will again this year.

The SRC event is being held in Ariake Colosseum, which is next to Differ Ariake. If you are wondering how to there there, I did some directions a while back, you can read them here.

The card has no less than 28 fights, a mix of MMA, Muay Thai, Kickboxing and "jacket rule".

I have put the fights in the order the appear on the SRC web-site.

SRC Featherweight title match:
Marlon Sandro 17-1-0 vs. 22-4-2 Hatsu Hioki

Middle: Kazuo Misaki 22-11-2 vs. 13-13-1 Mike Seal
KB (70 kg): Buakaw Por Pramuk vs. Hiroki Nakajima
Feather: Masanori Kanehara 16-8-5 vs. 27-9-2 Yoshiro Maeda
Light: Maximo Blanco 7-2-1 vs. 9-2-1 "Parky" Won Sik Park
Welter: Ryo Chonan 18-11-0 vs. 22-3-0 Dan Hornbuckle
Middle: Yuki Sasaki 22-18-1 vs. 20-4-2 Mamed Khalidov
Light: Kazunori Yokota 11-4-3 vs. 3-2-0 Jadamba Narantungalag
Heavy: Yoshihiro Nakao 9-2-0 vs. 19-2-0 Dave Herman

SRC Welterweight GP Fianl:
Keita "K-Taro" Nakamura 20-4-2 vs. 6-1-0 Yasubey Enomoto

SRC Bantamweight Asia Tournament Semifinals:
Akitoshi Tamura 15-9-2 vs. 11-6-0 Taiyo Nakahara
Manabu Inoue 11-5-1 vs. 18-6-9 Shunichi Shimizu

Female MMA (53.5 kg): Megumi Fujii 22-1-0 vs. 9-4-0 Emi Fujino
Female MMA (Open 3x3min): Rin Nakai 9-0-0 vs. 6-23-1 Mika “Hari” Harigai
Female MMA (61 kg): Roxanne Modafferi 15-6-0 vs. 16-8-0 Hitomi Akano
Female MMA (48 kg): Amy Davis 1-1-0 vs. 12-11-4 Misaki Takimoto

SRC Jacket match (Lightweights): Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Jung Jin Suk
SRC Jacket match (Lightweights): Sotaro Yamada vs. Kim Lee Sak
SRC Jacket match (59 kg): Kiyotaka Shimizu vs. Ichiro Sugita

MT (86.18 kg): Fabiano Cyclone vs. Andrew Peck
KB (86.18 kg): Kazuki Ozawa vs. Lee Chang Seob
MT (73 kg): Musashi Miyamoto vs. Hiroki Komata
KB (70 kg): Yusuke Ikei vs. Shintaro Matsukura
KB (70 kg): Yutaro Yamauchi vs. Gou Yokoyama
MT (60 kg): Kanongsuk Weerasakreck vs. Genki Yamamoto
MT (52 kg): Arashi Fujiwara vs. Mutsuki Ebata
KB (61.23 kg): Hironobu Ikegami vs. Yuji Tanaka
Female MT (47.62 kg): Erika Kamimura vs. Chiharu

KB = Kickboxing
MT = Muay Thai

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12/26 Shooto Border Season 2

Shooto will hold their Border Season 2 event in Hirano Kumin Hall, Osaka. The card will feature a main event between Shooto veteran Junji Ikoma and Teppei Masuda.

Shooto will also be kicking off their 2011 rookie tournament here

8. Fly: Junji Ikoma 12-12-5 vs. 5-3-1 Teppei "BULL" Masuda
7. 67kg: Takumi Nakayama 13-13-4 vs. 6-3-0 "Jackknife" Tsuneo Kimura
6. Welter: Hiroshi Shiba 8-7-1 vs. 5-4-3 "Gypsy" Taro Kusano

Rookie Tournament:
5. Light: Motohiro Takenawa 4-5-0 vs. Shiro Stronger Amakusa
4. Fly: Toshio Mitani 0-3-0 vs. Satoshi Takeo
3. Welter: Tomoya "Russian" Suzuki 2-1-0 vs. Tatsuhiko Hirase
2. Bantam: Kouki Ota vs. Santouhei Yokoyama
1. Feather: Monjiro TK Hanareme vs. Naritoshi Kakuta

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Omigawa signs with the UFC

Japanese featherweight standout Michihiro Omigawa has signed a deal with the UFC. His debut is set for 2/5 at UFC 126, the opponent will be Chad Mendes.

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12/31 FEG Dynamite

True to tradition FEG is putting on a Dynamite event on New Year’s Eve. And like always it’s a stacked card, that should entertain and excite hard core fans as well as casual MMA fans.

The show aspect is taken toned down a bit this year, but an IGF special rules (no idea what that means) featuring Bob Sapp and former sumo wrestler Shinichi Suzukawa should keep the casual fans entertained. Suzukawa is a former sumo wrestler and went by the name of Wakakirin, and made it to the top of the Juryo division. His last sumo tournament was in January 2009, where he went 9-6. He was then thrown out of the sport after a big scandal where he was arrested for possession of cannabis. Suzukawa seems to be no stranger to controversy, and it should be no surprise therefore that is just about cheated (who really knows what heppened) his way into this fight, check out this Sherdog discussion (with video).

For the MMA fans FEG has lined up some very good fights, a title fight between champion Bibiano Fernandes and Hiroyuki Takaya should be a very good fight. Takaya has had a very good 2010 and he will be hoping to cap that off with a win here. This is a rematch of the final in the featherweight tournament, that time it ended in a very close decision win for Fernandes and Takaya will be looking for revenge here.

Personally I am really excited about 2 fights, Miyata vs. Uno and Kawajiri vs. Thomson.

Miyata will be looking to add a big win here over the UFC veteran. A win over Caol Uno would be one of the biggest in his career, and would extend his winning streak to 6. Uno on the other hand needs to get a win after 3 unsuccessful fights in the UFC’s lightweight division.

This year, the card is mainly MMA, but there are some K-1 and a mixed K-1 and MMA fight on the card.

Alistair Overeem’s opponent should be announced soon. There are unconfirmed rumors that this will be a Dream title fight.

MMA Rules:
Dream Featherweight title fight:
Bibiano Fernandes 8-2-0 vs. 14-8-1 Hiroyuki Takaya
Feather: Hideo Tokoro 26-23-1 vs. 0-0-0 Kazuhisa Watanabe
Welter: Hayato “Mach” Sakurai 35-11-2 vs. 11-3-0 Jason High
Open: Ikuhisa Minowa 47-31-8 vs. 3-1-0 Hiroshi Izumi
Heavy: Satoshi Ishii 3-1-0 vs. 3-1-1 Jerome Le Banner
Heavy: Tatsuya Mizuno vs. Sergey Kharitonov
Welter: Katsuaki Furuki vs. 2-1-0 Andy Ologun
Feather: Caol Uno 25-13-5 vs. 10-7-0 Kazuyuki Miyata
Light: Josh Thomson 18-3-0 vs. 26-6-2 Tatsuya Kawajiri
Welter: Marius Zaromskis 13-5-0 vs. 26-14-1 Kazushi Sakuraba
Heavy: Alistair Overeem 33-11-0 vs. TBA

Other Rules:
K-1 rules: Kyotaro vs. Gegard Mousasi
IGF Special Rules: Shinichi Suzukawa vs. Bob Sapp
DREAM/K-1 Mixed rules: Shinya Aoki vs. Yuichiro Nagashima
K-1 Lightweight: Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura vs. Tetsuya Yamato

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1/8 DEEP Mayhem in Macao!

Since its been a while since I have been posting, I have the privilage of being able to chose news that are a bit old. Here is one of them, DEEP is going to Macao in January. The venue will be the Macao Venetian Hotel Resort.

The main even for this one will be the DEEP Megaton title. Also on the card, in non-title fights are the DEEP bantamweight champion Masakazu Imanari and DEEP welterweight champion Yuya Shirai.

BJJ black belt, Marcos Souza will be making his MMA debut (as far as I know) but he should be no stranger to DEEP fans. Last year he took on and defeated Motoki Miyazawa in DEEP X 04.

Another familiar name on the card is TUF 5 veteran Andy Wang.

9. Main-Event: DEEP Megaton Title Fight:
Yusuke Kawaguchi 13-3-0 vs. 6-1-1 Kazuhisa Tazawa

8. Masakazu Imanari 21-7-2 vs. 0-1-0 Jae Hun Moon
7. Yuya Shirai 20-8-0 vs. 0-1-0 Jeong Gyo Park
6. Ryuta Sakurai 20-16-6 vs. 2-3-0 Yoann Gouaida
5. Saori Ishioka 11-5-0 vs. 1-0-0 Ann Wongkhamma
4. Yasushi Kitazaki 10-7-1 vs. 7-7-1 Andy Wang
3. Luiz Andrade I 12-8-3 vs. 4-3-0 Rodrigo Caporal
2. Marcos “Marquinhos” Souza vs. 0-1-0 Alex “Dragon Slayer” Niu
1. Quinton Arendse 1-1-0 vs. Ye Won Nam.

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12/18 Shooto Rookie Tournament Champions

Shooto have again crowned their Rookie tournament champions, and for the 3rd year running the MVP is coming out of the Krazy Bee gym. Koji Horiguchi deserved that after defeating two veterans, both Ranki Kawana and Seiji Akao lost to this newcomer out of “Kid” Yamamoto’s gym.
It is also worth noticing that “Rambo” Suzuki has notched up his 3rd straight win by KO, he also won the fighting spirit award.
Technique price winner was Yuta Sasaki.

The winners:
Fly: Masayoshi Kato
Bantam:　Kosuke ”Rambo” Suzuki
Feather:　Koji Horiguchi
Light:　Yuta Sasaki
Welter:　Kota Shimoishi
Middle: Yusaku Inoue

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Rin Nakai goes sexy

This will be my first post for a very long time, and what wakes me up from hypernation? One of my favorite female fighters, Rin Nakai has deceided to follow Mika Nagano and do some sexy pictures. There has already been some of those on the net, but she has now added to the collection.

The pictures were posted in relation to an interview she did with GBR, which of course you need to be a paying member to view. However, she has posted most of the pictures on her own blog

Personally I am torn in my opinons of female MMA fighters doing this to get attention. All publicity is good publicity, or so they say. But I wish the female MMA fighters could get attention for being the athletes they are, not the way they look.

Either way the pictures are nice and she didnt go as far as Hisae Watanabe once did in her acting career.

Of course there are more good news for Rin Nakai fans, the Valkyrie champion is taking on Hari in a MMA fight on SRC's New Year card.

Now for some pictures:

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Sayonara!

It's been a long time coming, and regular visitors have noticed a drop in my posting over the last few months. As it is now, there are not enough hours in the day for me to be able to keep it up. I have also moved from Japan, and its harder to keep on top of things.

I have met a lot of nice people through this blog over the close to 3 years I have been following the MMA scene in Japan. There are a lot of people I want to say a big thank you to (in no particular order): Joachim Hansen, Antonio Carvalho, Steve Magdaleno, Kazuyuki Miyata, "Mach" Sakurai, Paul McVeigh, Celine Haga, Koichi Pettas, Sean Frew and all my freinds that joined me at these events. Also everyone who has followed my blog, commented and sent me mails.

I've had a great time writing and going to events, and I will continue to write when I go to events, but the updates will be fewer and not as regular as it used to.

So for now, sayonara!

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6/19 Valkyrie 06 - Fight Order

GCM have announced the fight order for their 6th Valkyrie event. Unfortunately there are only 5 (!) fights on the card...

Considering that the men's card has 6 fights later, I dont know why they havent made this into one ticket event.

The Vakyrie card does have some good fights though, and I am really looking forward to seeing if Rin Nakai can extend her winning streak.

Main-Event - Flyweight (-45.4kg) Tournament Final:
5. Naoko Omuro 11-7-3 vs. 11-4-3 Yasuko Tamada

4. -61.2kg: Megumi Yabushita 19-16-0 vs. 6-0-0 Rin Nakai
3. -56.7kg: Mutsumi Kasai 4-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Ayame Miura
2. -48.5kg: Naho "Sugi Rock" Sugiyama vs. 1-0-0 Megumi Morioka
1. -52.2kg Novice-Rule: Kimie "Sakura" Okada vs. "Butterfly knife" Yuka

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6/20 SRC 13 - Fight Order

WVR have announced the fight order for SRC 13. The main event will be the title fight between Masanori Kanehara and challenger Marlon Sandro. SRC are using the 5 round title fight rule and this should be a good battle, I would not be surprised if it goes the distance.

This is another card where WVR are giving talented fighters a shot on a higher profile card along side some of the big stars in Japan.

Main Event - Sengoku Featherweight Title Fight (5×5min.):
10. Masanori Kanehara 16-7-5 vs. 16-1-0 Marlon Sandro

Light-Heavy: Hiroshi Izumi 1-1-0 vs. 3-4-0 Chang Seob Lee
9. Welter: Sanae Kikuta 28-6-3 vs. 3-1-0 Yasubey Enomoto
8. Light: Maximo "Maxi" Blanco 5-2-1 vs. 9-3-0 Rodrigo Damm

Welterweight Tournament Round 1 (Block A):
7. Keita "K-Taro" Nakamura 18-4-2 vs. 6-2-0 Omar de la Cruz
6. Takuya Wada 19-8-10 vs. 5-5-0 Jae Sun Lee

5. Feather: Shigeki Osawa 5-1-0 vs. 12-9-3 Katsuya Toida
4. Feather: Ikuo Usuda 6-0-0 vs. 5-3-0 Kang Kyung Ho
3. Light-Heavy: Ryo Kawamura 11-5-2 vs. 7-3-2 Hidetada Irie

Opening Fight:
2. Light: Kazuki Tokutome 4-1-1 vs. 2-5-0 Yuma Ishizuka
1. Middle: Ikkei Nagamura 3-2-1 vs. 3-1-0 Ye Won Nam

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7/10 DREAM 15 - JZ Calvan vs. Kikuno Announced

FEG have announced 2 additional fights for DREAM 15 to take place in Saitama Superarena on July 10. Returning is HEROs champion JZ Calvan, who will take on DEEP chamption Katsunori Kikuno. Sherdog's Tony Loiseleur made this interview with the DEEP champion (well worth a read).

FEG also announced a light-heavyweight fight, the very popular Melvin Manhoef will take on Tatsuya Mizuno.

At DREAM 14 FEG announced what will most likely be the main event as two of Japan's favorite fighters will battle for the title. Tatsuya Kawajiri will challenge for Shinya Aoki's belt.

Lightweight Dream title fight:
Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri

Light: JZ Calvan vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Light-Heavy: Melvin Manhoef vs. Tatsuya Mizuno

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6/5 Pancrase Passion Tour 5 - Results

Pancrase is currently holding an event in Differ Ariake and I will update these results as soon as I have the updates.

On the card are the Neo-Blood Semi-Finals, a welterweight title fight and Pancrase favorite Satory Kitaoka.

Sherdog has a Live PBP and chat up:

Read on for results!

Main-Event: Welterweight King of Pancrase title fight:
16. Kengo Ura Def. Keiichiro Yamamiya by MUST decision 2-1 (all judges score it 30-30)

15. Light: Satoru Kitaoka Def. Jorge "Jorjao" Rodrigues by Decision 3-0
14. Light: Eriya Matsuda Def. Yoshifumi Dogaki by TKO Round 1 3:34
13. Feather: Masaya "J-Taro" Takita Def. Shigeyuki Uchiyama by TKO Round 2 2:57
The doctor stopped the fight after, it sounds like part of Uchiyama's ear fell off!

12. Fly: Ryosuke Tanuma Def. Takuya Eizumi by Decision 3-0
11. Bantam: Takumi Murata Def. Ryota Sasaki by Decision 3-0
10. Light-Heavy: Yuhei Fukuda Def. Jason "Mutant" Symak by Armbar Round 1 4:44
9. Fly: Yuichiro Yajima Def. Narongchai by Armlock Round 1 2:15

Neo-Blood Tournament Semi-Finals:
8. Light: Katsunori Takahashi Def. Junichi Ota by KO Round 1 1:39
7. Light: Jyuntaro Ami Def. Keigo Hirayama by Decision
6. Feather: Motoshi Miyaji Def. Kensaku Nakamura by Triangle choke Round 2 0:42
5. Feahter: Masakazu Takafuji Def. Hiroshi Tomita by TKO Round 2 0:13
4. Bantam: Yuki Uejima Def. Shoko Sato by Decision
3. Bantam: Motonobu Tezuka Def. Yuta Numakura by Decision
2. Fly: Yoshihiro Matsunaga Def. Go Yamanaka by Decision
1. Fly: Hiroyuki "Katsuo" Nakajima Def. Daichi Kitakata by Decision

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7/4 SRC Asia Vol. 1

WVR have added some fights to their "SRC Asia Vol. 1" event to be held in Differ Ariake. With the addition of these type of events it will be interesting to see where SRC's future is.

Either way, they will be holding a bantamweight tournament and there will also be some interesting fights on this card.

Yesterday they announced 2 non-tournament fights, one of them a heavyweight fight with Team Tackler's Kanechika taking on Korean Sang Soo Lee.

Heavy: Koji "Takauji" Kanechika 5-2-0 vs. 13-8-0 Sang Soo Lee
Welter: Masahiro Toryu 7-5-4 vs. 1-1-0 Noah Villanueva

SRC Bantamweight Asia Tournament 2010
Participants:
Takuya Eizumi 6-4-0
Wataru Takahashi 10-13-4
Wataru Inatsu 6-6-2
Hiryu Okamoto 4-3-1
Kyu Jin Choi (?) 3-1-0

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6/19 Valkyrie 06 - Rin Nakai Fighting

GCM have added a fight to their Valkyrie event in Differ Ariake on June 19. This starts at 12.30 and will be followed by the Cage Force event.

Today they have announced the addition of the undefeated and very promising Rin Naka. She will be taking on the very experienced Megumi Yabushita.

Also on the card will be the Flyweight tournament final between Naoko Omuro and Yasuko Tamada.

Added:
-61.2kg: Megumi Yabushita 19-16-0 vs. 6-0-0 Rin Nakai

Previously Announced:
Flyweight (-45.4kg) Tournament Final:
Naoko Omuro 11-7-3 vs. 11-4-3 Yasuko Tamada

-56.7kg: Mutsumi Kasai 4-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Ayame Miura
-48.5kg: Naho "Sugi Rock" Sugiyama vs. 1-0-0 Megumi Morioka
-52.2kg Novice-Rule: Kimie "Sakura" Okada vs. "Butterfly knife" Yuka

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6/6 ShootBoxing - "V Hajime"s Opponent Announed

Shootboxing have announced "V Hajime"s opponent for June 6, it will be J-Girls fighter Ikue Tanimura.

Also announced is a fight between Yuji Sugahara and AACC's Ben Henry, who has had a few fights in Pancrase as well.

On the card is also a tournament with semi-finals and final. Should be a good one, and I am guessing the Korakuen Hall will be packed for this one.

Mei "V Hajime" Yamaguchi vs. Ikue Tanimura
Yuji Sugahara vs. Ben Henry

- YOUNG CAESARS TOURNAMENT 55 -
Super Bantamweight Tournament Finals
SF1: Kazuyuki Fushimi vs. Genki
SF2:Ryuya Sakabe vs. Masanori Ito

Final: Winner SF1 vs. Winner SF2

Previously Announed:
Hiroki Shishido vs. Virgil Kalakoda
Hiroaki Suzuki vs. Tenkei Fujimiya
Kenji Kanai vs. Satoru Suzuki
Takeshi Ishikawa vs. Taylor "Ninja" McCorriston

Rena vs. ☆MIKA☆
Hisae Watanabe vs. Sumie Yamada

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June Schedule Japanese MMA/Kickboxing

Coming up in the month of June are good events. No DREAM event, but there is an SRC event which should be very interesting and the highlight of this month. Also on the schedule is Pancrase, DEEP, Shooto, ShootBoxing and Cage Force, among others.

If I have missed something, feel free to add it in the comments.


6/5
- Pancrase Passion Tour - Differ Ariake


6/6
- M-1 Muay Thai - Differ Ariake
- ShootBoxing - Korakuen Hall
- Shooto "Shooting Disco 12" - Shinjuku Face
- ZST SWAT! 34 - Golds Gym Omori
- DEEP Cage Impact 2010 in Osaka - Zepp Osaka


6/12
- Krush (kickboxing) - Shinjuku Face


6/13
- Shooto Gig Centra Vol. 20 - Zepp Nagoya


6/19
- GCM Valkyrie 06 - Differ Ariake
- GCM Cage Force - Differ Ariake


6/20
- WVR SRC 13 - Kokugikan
- The Outsider 12 - Differ Ariake
- J-Network (kickboxing) - Korakuen Hall


6/27
- New Japan Kickboxing - Differ Ariake
- Rise 67 (kickboxing) - Golds Gym Omori
- Demolition West Project - Osaka
- Gladiator 7 - Sapporo Teisen Hall

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7/3 DEEP 48 Impact - Participants Announced

DEEP have announce 7 fights today for their 48 Impact event to be held in Differ Ariake. There are some very interesting fights between some talented fighters here.

In particular I like the Tatsunao Nakakura vs. Tomoya Kato matchup, but also Yoshiki Harada vs. Masato Kobayashi is a very good and interesting fight between 2 talented fighters.

Also participating at this event will be Eiji Ishikawa and Yusuke Kawaguchi.

Announced:
Shigetoshi Iwase 9-12-3 vs. Jung Hwan Cha
Seigo Mizuguchi 7-6-0 vs. 5-1-1 Kazuhisa Tazawa
Tomohiko Hori 11-8-5 vs. 9-4-5 Hiroshi "Iron" Nakamura
Tatsunao Nagakura 5-1-0 vs. 8-2-0 Tomoya Kato
Yuki Ito 8-5-9 vs. 5-1-1 Yasuhiro Kawasaki
Sadao Kondo 5-0-1 vs. 8-8-3 Kosuto Umeda
Yoshiki Harada 3-0-0 vs. 4-1-0 Masato Kobayashi

Participants:
Yusuke Kawaguchi 11-2-0
Eiji Ishikawa 19-16-2

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5/30 The Way of SHOOTO 03 - RESULTS

Shooto is putting on an awesome event in JCB Hall in Tokyo today. This is a new venue, and it looks as though they have built it without internet access creating some difficulties for the Sherdog live PBP. But they are still getting the message out there.

Right now they are in the last 3 fights, which are all title fights.

Read on for spoilers.

The fighters from Paraestra Matsudo have really not had a good day... First Koyama lost a close decision (Sherdog had him winning), then Ogikubo gets choked out on his way to a decision. Then the legend, "The Shooto Junkie", gets KO'ed in his first fight for 4 years. Not a good day.

So far the rest of the fights have gone the distance.

"Chiquerim" has JUST won the title when he returns it!! He informs the crowd that he has signed an exlusive contract with an organization that will stop him from defending it!

Lightweight World Title Fight:
8. Hatsu Hioki Def. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue by Decision 2-1

Welterweight World Title Fight:
7. Willamy "Chiquerim" Freire Def. Yusuke Endo by Decision 2-1

Bantamweight World Title Fight:
6. Yasuhiro Urushitani Def. Ryuichi Miki by Decision 3-0

5. 62kg: Rumina Sato Def. Ryota Matsune by KO Round 2 0:21
4. Feather: Masakatsu Ueda Def. Akitoshi Tamura by Decision 3-0
3. Feather: Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas Def. Hiromasa Ogikubo by Rear-Naked choke Round 3 1:21
2. Welter: Kotetsu Boku Def. Yoshihiro Koyama by Decision 3-0
1. Light: Shintaro Ishiwatari Def. Wataru Miki by Decision 2-0

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5/29 DREAM 14 - RESULTS

Dream has another one in the books. A strong card, but without any heavyweights or light-heavyweights (now that the GP was scratched).

Lots of strong featherweights on the card though. Add to that the legends of "Mach" Sakurai, Sakuraba and Minowa, what more can you ask for?

Spoilers if you read on.

Gracie broke the curse when he won the judges decision, he was simply the better man on the ground. Sakuraba had his chances though, and what the ref was thinking when he in the last round tried to pull up Ralek's pants I have no idea. Still a deserved victory.

Nick Diaz proved too strong on the ground for the legend "Mach" Sakurai, meaning that 2 of the really big Japanese stars lost on this card.

Other Japanese fighters made sure that the home crowd had plenty to cheer for though. "Kid" looks to be back on track with a quick KO win, and Minowa is staying on track with a submission win in the 1st round.

Hiroyuki Takaya has secured his spot at the #1 featherweight contender as he got a strong KO win over Joachim Hansen.

Osawa and Miyata edge out split decision wins

8. Welter: Nick Diaz Def. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai by armbar Round 1 3:54
7. 88kg: Ralek Gracie Def. Kazushi Sakuraba by Decision 3-0
6. Feather: Hiroyuki Takaya Def. Joachim Hansen by KO Round 1 4:27
5. Feather: Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto Def. Federico "Kiko" Lopez by KO Round 1 1:41
4. Feather: "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura Def. Hideo Tokoro by KO Round 1 2:10
3. Feather: Kazuyuki Miyata Def. Takafumi Otsuka by Decision 2-1
2. Feather: Kenji Osawa Def. Yoshiro Maeda by Decision 2-1
1. Open: Ikuhisa Minowa Def. Imani Lee by rear-naked choke Round 1 4:16

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5/29 DREAM 14 - Weigh-in

FEG held the weigh-in for the 14th DREAM earlier today, broadcast live on their website.

Lots of good fights on the card, and Minowaman is giving up 70kg in this fight! Can he do it again?

If you, like me, are wondering about the difference in weight for the featherweights. Nightmare of Battle has the answer:

"As you can see from the weigh-in results everything isn’t as it should. All Featherweight fights on the card are contracted at different weights.

KID/Lopez is at 60kg
Takaya/Hansen is at 65kg
Tokoro/Wicky is at 63kg
Miyata/Otsuka is at 64.5kg
Maeda/Osawa is at 61kg
Mach/Diaz is at 76.6kg

As you can see, it appears that Kiko Lopez missed weight, I am not sure if he weighed in again though. Also, I am sure the fight would still be on.

Main-event:
8. Welter: Hayato "Mach" Sakurai (76.5kg) 35-10-2 vs. 21-7-0 (76.0kg) Nick Diaz

7. 88kg: Kazushi Sakuraba (86.5kg) 26-12-1 vs. 2-0-0 (87.4kg) Ralek Gracie
6. Feather: Joachim Hansen (65.0kg) 19-9-1 vs. 12-8-1 (65.0kg) Hiroyuki Takaya
5. Feather: Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto (59.8kg) 17-3-0 vs. 4-2-0 (62.0kg?) Federico "Kiko" Lopez
4. Feather: Hideo Tokoro (63.0kg) 26-21-1 vs. 10-5-1 (62.8kg) "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura
3. Feather: Kazuyuki Miyata (64.2kg)8-7-0 vs. 10-4-1 (64.4kg) Takafumi Otsuka
2. Feather: Yoshiro Maeda (60.7kg) 26-8-2 vs. 15-9-2 (61.0kg) Kenji Osawa
1. Open: Ikuhisa Minowa (88.0kg) 45-30-8 vs. 1-2-0 (150.0kg) Imani Lee

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Celine Haga Interview

I've always thought female MMA fighters didn't get the attention and respect they deserve. When Smackgirl went under about 2 years ago, Jewels and Valkyrie both fought to fill space they left.

Jewels seems to have filled that spot the best. At SmackGirl's last event Mika Nagano was one of the new rising stars and Celine Haga was in the crowd.

Now Celine has just gotten her first win, stopping Mika Nagano's winning streak at 5. And I got a chance to ask her a few questions!

Make sure you check out her blog:
http://violentbydesign101.wordpress.com

Thank you for taking the time to answer a few questions, and congratulations with the win over Mika Nagano!

-First of, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

55kg of energy in motion, starting to get close to a purple belt in life experience now, love the feeling of being free and independent of others. I am cursed, or blessed? With an intensity that makes me give
101% to reach the goals I set. :D

-How long have you been doing martial arts, and how did you get into
MMA? How did you end up with fights in Japan?

I have been doing martial arts for 3 years now – MMA for a total of 1.5 years. Started MMA because if felt like the ultimate challenge both physically and mentally.

I had no experience earlier, just trained 1 year track and field and a year of strength (that I was forced to because I was so weak my doctor told me I needed to add some muscle).

I won a bit of money playing poker and decided to invest in a Japan trip (the money lasted 2 months). During my stay I got to know Megumi and the rest of AACC. I also fought my first fight (semi-pro) in an
underground event called "Smokers".

-How did you feel during the fight with Mika? What was your tactics
before the fight, and did it go to plan?

The tactics were just to aim and hit her. I knew she was southpaw and good at takedowns, so I wanted to keep to basic boxing. One or two punches and move, to avoid takedowns. If it went to the ground the plan was to work for the best possible position. The plan was to give it everything, fight smart, not stress and have fun.

I knew this was probably the last chance Jewels wanted to give me, they were cool and asked who I wanted to fight, if I could choose. I picked Nagano. I knew I had to win against a good opponent this time
for it to matter.

The plan worked, not a 100%, but good enough. :D

-You had 4 losses before this fight, what had you learnt in the
previous fights that helped you in this one? Did you change something
in your preparation?

I always overestimated my opponents, and underestimated myself and it showed in my performances. I might have been a bit too eager when I went to Japan to have my first pro fight after just 1 year of grappling and 3 months of MMA training. HAHA And tapping breeds tapping, that breeds low confidence
and depressions.

But I continued to prioritize training above everything else. I chose not to give up, continue to train hard but forgot the most important aspect of the sport… The mental aspect.

Before this fight I worked harder, focused more on conditioning and self esteem. I was focusing on what I knew and tried to improve that, I got help from Miyata’s coach Sean, some wrestling tips from Miyata, loads of
good training at AACC and not least from Roxanne and Kunioku.

A person I respect a lot told me that I have the technique and strength, but I lack self confidence and wasn’t fighting with my heart. And the last two things are more important than the former.


-I saw Joachim Hansen in your corner, did he give you some good advice?

I actually had Mohsen (Team Hansen) and Sean Frew in my corner during the fight.

Didn’t want any special advice this time, I just wanted positive energy and support. Joachim has given me loads of good advice over the last 3 years that are like tattooed in my brain forever. :D I have had many sparring partners and coaches, but it is first and foremost his style and advice that will be the fundamentals in my game.

-I know you have been training a bit in Japan, how it is to train
there compared to home in Norway? What are the biggest differences?

In Norway I only train with boys that are 15-20kg heavier. Joachim and the others at Team Hellboy have used a lot of time to help me. Sparring with them has made me stronger and given me better balance, and more tolerant to pain. hahaha

In Japan I train with girls. The biggest differences are that girls are a lot more flexible and agile/quick, that increases the stress factor a lot of times.

There are more training opportunities for me in Japan, since there are a lot of girls my size doing MMA/grapping.


-There is not a lot of non-Japanese fighting in Jewels on a regular
basis, you have had 4 fights there. How is it being the only
non-Japanese, do you get extra attention/support?

I think I mix well?? Don’t look typically Norwegian… hehe

I feel like Japan is my second home! Have lots of good friends here and enjoy it a lot.

I don’t receive more attention than the other fighters here. To fight in Japan is pretty special, the biggest have been jetlag, communication (very few speak English) and the culture. But when you settle in, it’s the martial arts’ Shangri-la in my opinion.

The support I have received is first and foremost from my friends here and from Team Hellboy (that have always supported me) I am so lucky and grateful for having such good teammates.


-What can we expect from you in the future? If you could choose, who
would be your next opponent?

I am going to continue training, and as always never give up!

This is the point of no return for me, I have finally won the battle inside, and I am ready to give my next opponent hell. My next opponent is anyone, hopefully at 52kg. I am ready!

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Fight Order for 5/29 DREAM 14 and 5/30 The way of Shooto 03

This weekend there will be 2 HUGE events in Japan! Shooto have put together an awesome card for Sunday, and of course the DREAM event on Saturday will be huge.

Lots of great fights on both cards, and here are the fight orders:

DREAM is putting on some awesome featherweight matchups, and add to that some true legends in Japan and this should be an interesting event. "Kid" will be desperate for a KO win here, and former lightweight champion Joachim Hansen will be looking to put his mark on the Dream featherweight division. Of course the crowd will be looking for a show and FOTN performance from Tokoro again.

Former olympic wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata will take on another wrestler when he faces DEEP champion Takafumi Otsuka.

Main-event:
8. Welter: Hayato "Mach" Sakurai 35-10-2 vs. 21-7-0 Nick Diaz

7. 88kg: Kazushi Sakuraba 26-12-1 vs. 2-0-0 Ralek Gracie
6. Feather: Joachim Hansen 19-9-1 vs. 12-8-1 Hiroyuki Takaya
5. Feather: Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto 17-3-0 vs. 4-2-0 Federico "Kiko" Lopez
4. Feather: Hideo Tokoro 26-21-1 vs. 10-5-1 "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura
3. Feather: Kazuyuki Miyata 8-7-0 vs. 10-4-1 Takafumi Otsuka
2. Feather: Yoshiro Maeda 26-8-2 vs. 15-9-2 Kenji Osawa
1. Open: Ikuhisa Minowa 45-30-8 vs. 1-2-0 Imani Lee

Shooto is putting on no less than 3 title fights! Not only that, but the return of Ryota Matsune. There are good fights from the opening bell on this one too!

Lightweight World Title Fight:
8. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue 18-3-0 vs. 20-4-2 Hatsu Hioki

Welterweight World Title Fight:
7. Willamy "Chiquerim" Freire 15-2-0 vs. 13-3-2 Yusuke Endo

Bantamweight World Title Fight:
6. Yasuhiro Urushitani vs. Ryuichi Miki

5. 62kg: Rumina Sato 25-14-2 vs. 15-1-1 Ryota Matsune
4. Feather: Akitoshi Tamura 14-8-2 vs. 10-1-2 Masakatsu Ueda
3. Feather: Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas 8-2-0 vs. 6-1-2 Hiromasa Ogikubo
2. Welter: Kotetsu Boku 16-6-2 vs. 14-3-1 Yoshihiro Koyama
1. Light: Shintaro Ishiwatari 6-3-3 vs. 16-9-3 Wataru Miki

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7/4 Pancrase Passion Tour - 1 Event, 3 Title Fights

Pancrase have announced another title fight to the July 4th event in Differ Ariake. And it is a rematch when Yuki Kondo faces Yuji Hisamatsu, 2 very experienced fighters and last time it ended in a draw.

Announced earlier are title fights in the Bantam- and Flyweight divisions.

Middleweight King of Pancrase title fight:
Yuki Konto 52-23-7 vs. 15-17-5 Yuji Hisamatsu

Bantamweight King of Pancrase title fight:
Manabu Inoue 9-5-1 vs. 9-2-0 Seiya Kawahara

Flyweight King of Pancrase title fight:
Kiyotaka Shimizu 5-3-1 vs. 8-1-0 Isao Hirose

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7/31 Jewels 9th Ring - Lightweight GP

Jewels have today announced that they are going to hold a 8-woman lightweight (52kg) tournament.

The participants announced so far are:
-Saori Ishioka 9-4-0
-Mika Nagano 6-3-0
-Seo Hee Ham 4-3-0

Saori Ishioka has faced both these fighters before, she won against Mika Nagano, but lost to Seo Hee Ham. I look forward to seeing the rest of the participants.

Round 1 fights will be at Jewels 9th Ring, then the semi-finals and final will be at the BIG year end event in Korakuen Hall 12/17.

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Pancrase Schedule August - December 2010

Pancrase have finally released the schedule for the second half of 2010.

The next Passion Tour event will be in Differ Ariake on June 5, and it looks like a good card.

The next event after that will be the Neo-Blood finals and Passion Tour 6 in Differ Ariake on August 8.

The rest of the year looks like this:
9/5 Passion Tour 8 - Differ Ariake, Tokyo
9/19 Pancrase Gate - Golds Gym Omori, Tokyo
10/3 Passion Tour 9 - Differ Ariake, Tokyo
11/3 Passion Tour 10 - Differ Ariake, Tokyo
12/5 Passion Tour 11 - Differ Ariake, Tokyo
12/19 Passion Tour 12 - Azeria Hall, Osaka

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6/6 Shooting Disco 12 "Stand by Me" - Fight Order

The popular Shooting Disco series is set to continue with their 12th event on June 6. As usual the event will take place in Shinjuku Face, and the card will focus around good matchmaking.

The main event will make a difference in the Shooto featherweight rankings as number 6 ranked So Tazawa takes on number 8 Teriyuki Matsumoto.

Main-Event:
10. Feather: So Tazawa 8-5-4 vs. 6-3-0 Teriyuki Matsumoto

9. Light: Komei Okada 6-10-2 vs. 8-8-1 Masaki Yanagisawa
8. Feather: Yuta Nezu 8-4-1 vs. 2-0-0 Keita Kono
7. Welter: Hisaki "Kotobukimaru" Hiraishi 7-4-2 vs. 2-4-5 Shinobu Miura
6. Fly: Takehiro "Tiger" Ishii 6-7-2 vs. 3-1-1 Yusuke "Tenkaze" Sato

Rookie Tournament:
5. Light: Koji Nakamura 4-4-1 vs. 3-3-2 Satoshi Inaba
4. Welter: Shotoku Suzuki 1-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Yoshikazu "Kotetsu" Fujishi

Non-Tournament:
3. Fly: Takafumi Ato 0-1-0 vs. 0-3-0 Takahiro Kobori
2. Bantam: Yuya Kaneuchi 0-4-2 vs. 1-2-0 Keiji Koizumi
1. Bantam: Hiroaki Ijima 3-2-1 vs. 1-0-1 Kosuke "Rambo" Suzuki

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5/23 Jewels 8th Ring - RESULTS

Jewels held their 8th event in Shinkiba 1st Ring earlier today. Saori Ishioka defeats Mai Ichii in the main event by armbar, and HARUMI's loosing streak extends to 14 as she suffers a loss to "Amiba".

Celine Haga upsets the home favorite Mika Nagano by decision, thereby stoping her winning streak at 5.

Main-Event:
7. 52kg: Saori Ishioka Def. Mai Ichii by Armbar Round 2 2:41

6. Open: Hiroko Yamanaka Def. Atsuko Emoto by Decision 3-0
5. SB-Rule 54kg: Ai Takahashi Def. Yukino Oishi by Decision 3-0
4. 52kg: Celine Haga Def. Mika Nagano by Decision 3-0
3. 52kg: Miyo Yoshida Def. Yuko Kagoshima by KO Round 1 3:30
2. SB-Rule 63kg: Cho Benkei Def. Kou Ozeki by TKO Round 2 1:36
1. 57kg: Yuko "Amiba" Oya Def. HARUMI by Armbar Round 1 3:45

Opening Fight - Grappling:
53kg: Megumi Murata vs. Akiko Takami

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5/23 Jewels 8th Ring - Weigh-in & Fight Order

More pics on the Jewels blog.

The weigh-ins are done, and here is what I think will be the fight order (I have seen 2 different fight orders and I am not 100% sure which is correct).

Main-Event:
7. 52kg: Saori Ishioka 8-4-0 (51.9kg) vs. (51.5kg) 3-2-0 Mai Ichii

6. Open: Hiroko Yamanaka 8-1-1 (n/a) vs. (n/a) 2-3-0 Atsuko Emoto
5. SB-Rule 54kg: Ai Takahashi (53.9kg) vs. (53.9kg) Yukino Oishi
4. 52kg: Mika Nagano 6-2-0 (52.0kg) vs. (51.2kg) 0-4-0 Celine Haga
3. 52kg: Yuko Kagoshima 1-3-0 (51.9kg) vs. (51.8kg) 0-1-0 Miyo Yoshida
2. SB-Rule 63kg: Cho Benkei (60.4kg) vs. (62.7kg) Kou Ozeki
1. 57kg: Yuko "Amiba" Oya 3-1-0 (56.0kg) vs. (56.6kg) 0-13-0 HARUMI

Opening Fight - Grappling:
53kg: Megumi Murata vs. Akiko Takami

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Shinya Aoki gives up his Shooto title

I dont believe it until I see it, but Boutreview is reporting that Shinya Aoki is giving up his Shooto Middlweight title.

Aoki has held this belt since February 17 2006, when he won the belt in a fight against Akira Kikuchi. Since then the belt has been in his possesion, only dusted off once, for a title defence a year later (February 17, 2007) also on that occation against Akira Kikuchi.

Even though I havent seen any big article about this, it looks official.

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6/6 ShootBoxing - Hisae Watanabe's Opponent Announced

From GBRing.com

ShootBoxing have announced 2 female fights for their event on June 6 in Korakuen Hall.

The event will include female S-Cup champion Rena vs. ☆MIKA☆.

Also making a return to the ShootBoxing ring will be the former DEEP champion Hisae Watanabe. This time she will take on J-Girls ranked #1 Sumie Yamada.

Added:
Rena vs. ☆MIKA☆
Hisae Watanabe vs. Sumie Yamada

Previously Announed:
Hiroki Shishido vs. Virgil Kalakoda
Hiroaki Suzuki vs. Tenkei Fujimiya
Kenji Kanai vs. Satoru Suzuki

Participating:
Mei "V Hajime" Yamaguchi

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6/20 SRC 13 - Welterweight GP Announced

WVR have announced the addition of a 8-man tournament to SRC13 and SRC14. The first 2 fights will take place at SRC13 and includes Japanese star "K-Taro" and King of Pancrase Takuya Wada.

The other round 1 fights will take place at SRC14 and will include: the winner of Yamamiya vs. Ura at Pancrase on June 5. Also participating will be Kenta Takagi and Taisuke Okuno.

Matchups announced for SRC13 are:
Welterweight GP Round 1:
Keita "K-Taro" Nakamura 18-4-2 vs. 6-2-0 Omar de la Cruz
Takuya Wada 19-8-10 vs. 5-5-0 Jae Sun Lee

Previously Announced:
Sengoku Featherweight Title Fight (5×5min.):
Masanori Kanehara 16-7-5 vs. 16-1-0 Marlon Sandro

Non-Title Fights:
Light: Maximo "Maxi" Blanco 5-2-1 vs. 9-3-0 Rodrigo Damm
Light-Heavy: Hiroshi Izumi 1-1-0 vs. 3-4-0 Chang Seob Lee
Welter: Sanae Kikuta 28-6-3 vs. 3-1-0 Yasubey Enomoto
Light-Heavy: Ryo Kawamura 11-5-2 vs. 7-3-2 Hidetada Irie
Feather: Shigeki Osawa 5-1-0 vs. 12-9-3 Katsuya Toida
Feather: Ikuo Usuda 6-0-0 vs. 5-3-0 Kang Kyung Ho

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6/5 Pancrase Passion Tour 5 - Fight Order

Pancrase have announced the fight order for their upcoming event. Getting the event started will be the always entertaining Neo-Blood tournament semi-finals.

Making his debut is Thai fighter Narongchai (not sure of the spelling), in addition to that there are some other up and coming fighters.

Takuya Eizumi snapped his 3 fight losing streak in April, and the former King of Pancrase contender will be looking to add another win here.

Returning to Pancrase is the former Sengoku Champion, Satoru Kitaoka. And this time he has a very good opponent! He is facing Brazilian Jorge Rodriges in the co-main event.

Main-Event: Welterweight King of Pancrase title fight:
16. Kengo Ura 8-5-1 vs. 37-25-9 Keiichiro Yamamiya

15. Light: Satoru Kitaoka 25-10-9 vs. 20-4-0 Jorge "Jorjao" Rodrigues
14. Light: Eriya Matsuda 8-8-0 vs. 8-3-4 Kota Okazawa
13. Feather: Shigeyuki Uchiyama 9-1-0 vs. 9-12-2 Masaya "J-Taro" Takita
12. Fly: Takuya Eizumi 6-4-0 vs. 4-3-0 Ryosuke Tanuma
11. Bantam: Ryota Sasaki 5-3-1 vs. 8-11-6 Takumi Murata
10. Light-Heavy: Jason "Mutant" Symak 2-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Yuhei Fukuda
9. Fly: Narongchai vs. 10-11-1 Yuichiro Yajima

Neo-Blood Tournament Semi-Finals:
8. Light: Katsunori Takahashi vs. Junichi Ota
7. Light: Jyuntaro Ami vs. Keigo Hirayama
6. Feather: Kensaku Nakamura vs. Motoshi Miyaji
5. Feahter: Hiroshi Tomitavs. Masakazu Takafuji
4. Bantam: Shoko Sato vs. Yuki Uejima
3. Bantam: Motonobu Tezuka vs. Yuta Numakura
2. Fly: Yoshihiro Matsunaga vs. Go Yamanaka
1. Fly: Daichi Kitakata vs. Hiroyuki "Katsuo" Nakajima

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7/10 DREAM 15 - Press Conference

FEG held a press conference earlier today, the main topic was DREAM 15. Although it was announced that Minowaman will take part in the DREAM 14 card, against TBA.

For DREAM 15, it will take place in Saitama Superarena on July 10. Planned participants are:

-Shinya Aoki
-Tatsuya Kawajiri
-Gegard Mousasi
-Melvin Manhoef
-Alistair Overeem

The fans asked if there would be a fight between Aoki and Kawajiri, that was not confirmed, but it was hinted that it will be a card with fights between rivals.

There will also be 2 Light-Heavyweight fights on the card, the winners of which will be facing eachother on DREAM 16, which will be held in September and air on TBS on a "Golden time", meaning primetime.

The first fights for Dream 15 should be announced at Dream 14.

On that note, Kawajiri is posing as a samurai (Ryoma Sakamoto) on the cover of Kamipro.

HT: tastetherainbow and nelson

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5/30 The Way of SHOOTO 03 - T-Shirt Design

Of course there would have to be a shirt to go with this awesome event! The shirt will of course be on sale in JCB hall, as well as the Inspirit Japanese webstore.

Bantamweight World Title Fight:
Yasuhiro Urushitani vs. Ryuichi Miki

Welterweight World Title Fight:
Willamy "Chiquerim" Freire 15-2-0 vs. 13-3-2 Yusuke Endo

Lightweight World Title Fight:
"Lion" Takeshi Inoue 18-3-0 vs. 20-4-2 Hatsu Hioki

62kg: Rumina Sato 25-14-2 vs. 15-1-1 Ryota Matsune
Welter: Kotetsu Boku 16-6-2 vs. 14-3-1 Yoshihiro Koyama
Feather: Akitoshi Tamura 14-8-2 vs. 10-1-2 Masakatsu Ueda
Feather: Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas 8-2-0 vs. 6-1-2 Hiromasa Ogikubo
Light: Shintaro Ishiwatari 6-3-3 vs. 16-9-3 Wataru Miki

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6/20 SRC 13 - Fights Announced

WVR is putting on their 13th event in Ryogoku Kokugikan on June 20. And they are continuing the tradition of announcing the fights early (I like that).

Added to the card today was 2 fights, both with some very talented Japanese fighters. Shigeki Osawa will take on the experienced Katsuya Toida. The other fight announced today will see the former Shooto Rookie Tournament champion, Ikuo Usuda take on Kang Kyung Ho (Osawa's opponent on SRC12.

The main event will most likely be the featherweight title fight between Kanehara and Marlon Sandro, who was my personal favorite in the tournament last year. It should be a very good and tactical fight.

Added:
Feather: Shigeki Osawa 5-1-0 vs. 12-9-3 Katsuya Toida
Feather: Ikuo Usuda 6-0-0 vs. 5-3-0 Kang Kyung Ho

Previously Announced:
Sengoku Featherweight Title Fight (5×5min.):
Masanori Kanehara 16-7-5 vs. 16-1-0 Marlon Sandro

Non-Title Fights:
Light: Maximo "Maxi" Blanco 5-2-1 vs. 9-3-0 Rodrigo Damm
Light-Heavy: Hiroshi Izumi 1-1-0 vs. 3-4-0 Chang Seob Lee
Welter: Sanae Kikuta 28-6-3 vs. 3-1-0 Yasubey Enomoto
Light-Heavy: Ryo Kawamura 11-5-2 vs. 7-3-2 Hidetada Irie

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5/16 ClubDEEP Toyama - Results

DEEP put on a 15 fight card in Toyama's Event Plaza earlier today. The main event saw the home town favorite "Barbaro44" take on one of DEEPs biggest talents in Koichiro Matsumoto.

The card also included 3 kick-rule fights.

Read on for spoilers.

After winning the main-event, Koichiro asked for a title fight, and he could be heading for a title fight against Takafumi Otsuka next.

Main-Event:
15. 65.8kg: Koichiro Matsumoto def. Yoshihiro "Barbaro44" Tomioka by KO Round 1 1:29

14. 70.3kg: Yuichi Ikari def. Yuya Osugi by TKO Round 1 3:58
13. 65.8kg: Satoshi Watanabe vs. Yoshihiro Yamaniha Draw
12. 63kg: Yasuo Munakata def. Hirotaka Himeno by TKO Round 2 4:00
11. 53.5g: Sakura Nomura def. Rina Tomita by Decision 3-0
10. 63kg: Hiroshi Sato vs. Hiroyuki Suzuki Draw
9. 78kg: Yoshinobu Kawamura def. Daisuke Kanehira by Decision 3-0
8. 53kg: Jun Osawa Def. Akihiro Hasegawa by TKO Round 1 2:44
7. 53kg: Gen Ikeda Def. Kaname Mori by Triangle choke 2 3:39
6. 63kg: Harunari Shinogawa def. Daiki Nakahara by TKO Round 1 0:55
5. Kick-Rule - 68kg: Takeshi Sakai def. Yujiro Haraguchi by TKO Round 2 0:30
4. Kick-Rule - 63kg: Kazuhiro Konishi def. Kenichi Satake by Decision 3-0
3. Kick-Rule - 68kg: Carlos Osako def. Leo Mitsuhashi by Decision 3-0
2. 66kg: Ippei Takase def. Mattsun Mattsun by TKO Round 1 2:21
1. 63kg: Daigo Sawada def. Oya Takato by TKO Round 2 1:14

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5/23 Jewels 8th Ring

Next Sunday Jewels will hold their 8th event, and these events have been very popular with the fans. It is usually sold out.

This time it will be held in Shinkiba 1st ring and following this event will be a ClubDEEP event.

Jewles MMA Rule:
52kg: Saori Ishioka 8-4-0 vs. 3-2-0 Mai Ichii
Open: Hiroko Yamanaka 8-1-1 vs. 2-3-0 Atsuko Emoto
52kg: Mika Nagano 6-2-0 vs. 0-4-0 Celine Haga
52kg: Yuko Kagoshima 1-3-0 vs. 0-1-0 Miyo Yoshida
57kg: Yuko "Amiba" Oya 3-1-0 vs. 0-13-0 HARUMI

ShootBoxing Rule (3x2min. 1r ext.):
54kg: Ai Takahashi vs. Yukino Oishi
63kg: Cho Benkei vs. Kou Ozeki

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6/5 Pancrase Passion Tour 5 - Kitaoka facing Rodrigues

Pancrase have announced that one of their star fighters and former Sengoku Lightweight champion, Satoru Kitaoka will take on Brazilian Jorge "Jorjao" Rodrigues.

That should be an awesome fight on an already good card!

Announced:
Satoru Kitaoka vs. 20-4-0 Jorge "Jorjao" Rodrigues

Previously Announced:
Welterweight King of Pancrase title fight qualifier:
Kengo Ura vs. Kei Yamamiya

Fly: Narongchai vs. Yuichiro Yajima
Fly: Takuya Eizumi vs. Ryosuke Tanuma
Bantam: Ryota Sasaki vs. Takumi Murata
Light-Heavy: Jason "Mutant" Symak 2-1-0 vs. Yuhei Fukuda
Light: Eriya Matsuda 8-8-0 vs. Kota Okazawa
Feather: Shigeyuki Uchiyama vs. Masaya "J-Taro" Takita

Neo-Blood Tournament Semi-Finals:
Light: Katsunori Takahashi vs. Junichi Ota
Light: Jyuntaro Ami vs. Keigo Hirayama
Feather: Kensaku Nakamuravs. Motoshi Miyaji
Feahter: Hiroshi Tomitavs. Masakazu Takafuji
Bantam: Shoko Sato vs. Yuki Uejima
Bantam: Motonobu Tezuka vs. Yuta Numakura
Fly: Yoshihiro Matsunaga vs. Go Yamanaka
Fly: Daichi Kitakata vs. Hiroyuki "Katsuo" Nakajima

Participating:
Toryu Masahiro

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7/3 DEEP 48 Impact - Participants Announced

Deep boss, Saeki, has announced 14 fighters for their DEEP 48 Impact card to be held in Differ Ariake on July 3. There are a log of good names on the card, among them DEEP middle weight champion, Riki Fukuda and "Iron" Nakamura. Also announced is Korean Jung Hwan Cha, or the guy that KO'd Ryo Chonan at the Astra event.

Also look out for the young Yoshiki Harada fighting out of the "Mach" Dojo. This is a fighter "Mach" Sakurai himself told me he had high hopes for when I met him and Yoshiki has proven why in the ring. It will be good to see him get another fight under his belt.

For DEEP going forward, these are the plans: Ofcourse, in June there will be the Cage Impact event in Osaka. July there will be an event in Nagoya in addition to 48 Impact. DEEP 49 Impact will be in August, in KOrakuen Hall. The BIG one, celebrating 10 years of DEEP, DEEP 50 Impact will take place in October.

There will also be a cage event in Hamamatsu in September and in Tokyo in December.

Participants:
Riki Fukuda 16-4-0
Jung Hwan Cha 7-5-1
Shigetoshi Iwase 9-12-3
Tomoya Miyashita 17-7-8
Hiroshi "Iron" Nakamura 9-4-5
Seigo Mizuguchi 7-6-0
Eiji Ishikawa 19-16-2
Yuki Ito 8-5-9
Sadao Kondo 5-0-1
Kosuke Umeda 8-8-3
Yasuhiro Kawasaki 5-1-1
Tatsunao Nagakura 5-1-0
Yoshiki Harada 3-0-0
Tomoya Kato 8-2-0

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5/29 DREAM 14 - "Kid" Yamamoto Added

FEG have announced the addition of Japanese star "Kid" Yamamoto to Dream 14. His opponent will be Team Quest's Federico "Kiko" Lopez. This fight was supposed to be on the Strikeforce undercard, but has been moved to the Dream 14 event. Both fighters are coming of 2 straight losses, "Kid" losing to "Kiko"'s team-mate, Joe Warren. No doubt that "Kid" will be the crowd favorite here, but both fighters will be eager to start another winning streak. It will be interesting to see what Warren has been able to teach his team-mate.

Picture from GBRing.com


Added:
Feather: Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto 17-3-0 vs. 4-2-0 Federico "Kiko" Lopez

Previously Announed:
Feather: Joachim Hansen vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Feather: Hideo Tokoro vs. "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura
Feather: Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Takafumi Otsuka
Feather: Yoshiro Maeda vs. Kenji Osawa
88kg: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ralek Gracie
Welter: Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. Nick Diaz

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MMA Events in Japan 15-31 May

May is going to be a busy month of MMA in Japan, and there are some very good cards coming up.

Here is a list of what is coming up:

16th May:
-In Tokyo, this will be a day of kickboxing events. In Differ Ariake, Rise will hold their 65th event and in Korakuen Hall will be the New Japan Kickboxing event.

-DEEP is putting on a clubDEEP card in Toyama's Eventplaza. Of course, the Club Barbarian fighters come out in force and there are some good fights on the card. Including Yoshihiro "Barbaro44" Tomioka vs. Koichiro Matsumoto and Yuya Osugi vs. Kleber Koike. Missing from the card is the retired Miku Matsumoto, but I am sure she will be there watching over things.

-Shooto's Grapplingman 11 will be held in Hiroshima Industrial Hall. Headlining the event will be Kazuhiro Ito vs. Bae Yong Kwon. In addition to that there will be some Rookie Tournament fights on the card.

22. May:
-Tribalate vol. 28 will be in Shinjuku Face.

23. May:

-The female fighters of Jewels will be followed by ClubDEEP in Shinkiba 1st Ring. I am expecting a sold out event for JEWELS again, the card includes the popular Saori Ishioka vs. Mai Ichii and another crowd favorite in Mika Nagano will take on Team Hellboy's Celine Haga. Hellboy himself might be ringside for this one, and it should be a fight the crowd gets into. Being Norwegian I know who I am cheering for! I also know that Celine has had very good training leading up to this fight.

The ClubDEEP event will follow Jewels, and is headlined by Hiroki Sato vs. Shuji Morikawa.

27. May:
-Krush 7 in Shinjuku Face. This should be a good kickboxing (K-1 rule) event. On the card will be amoung others, the HEAT veteran Danilo Zanolini.

29. May:

-The month of May really finishes on a high! DREAM 14 is looking like a very very good event! Arguably some of the best featherweights in the world will square off in Saitama Superarena:

Joachim Hansen vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Hideo Tokoro vs. "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Takafumi Otsuka
Yoshiro Maeda vs. Kenji Osawa

Add to that the non-featherweight fights:
88kg: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ralek Gracie
Welter: Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. Nick Diaz

This should be an awesome event!

30. May:

-The DREAM event will be followed by a very awesome Shooto event in JCB Hall.

The card has 3 title fights:
Light: "Lion" Takeshi Inoue vs. Hatsu Hioki
Bantam: Yasuhiro Urushitani vs. Ryuichi Miki
Welter: Willamy "Chiquerim" Freire vs. Yusuke Endo

Some very good fighters will return:
62kg: Rumina Sato vs. Ryota Matsune
Feather: Akitoshi Tamura vs. Masakatsu Ueda

Then there are some other very solid fights:
Welter: Kotetsu Boku vs. Yoshihiro Koyama
Feather: Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas vs. Hiromasa Ogikubo
Light: Shintaro Ishiwatari vs. Wataru Miki

It looks like another very strong Shooto card, maybe the best in years.

-On the same day, MA Japan Kickboxing is holding an event in Differ ariake.
-And the J-Network has a double event in Shinjuku Face

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5/30 The Way of SHOOTO 03 - "Shooto Junkie" Returns!!

I have been hoping this day would come for a long time! Ryota Matsune will return to the ring, against another Shooto legend, Rumina Sato. The fight was announced today at Shooto GIG Tokyo Vol. 4.

The card is shaping up to be one of the best Shooto cards in a while, even with the Vale Tudo card last year. There are 3 fights on the card, and they are all good fights too.

Also worth noting is that there are 3 fighters from Paraestra Matsudo, where Ryota Matsune is the MMA coach.

Bantamweight World Title Fight:
Yasuhiro Urushitani vs. Ryuichi Miki

Welterweight World Title Fight:
Willamy "Chiquerim" Freire 15-2-0 vs. 13-3-2 Yusuke Endo

Lightweight World Title Fight:
"Lion" Takeshi Inoue 18-3-0 vs. 20-4-2 Hatsu Hioki

62kg: Rumina Sato 25-14-2 vs. 15-1-1 Ryota Matsune
Welter: Kotetsu Boku 16-6-2 vs. 14-3-1 Yoshihiro Koyama
Feather: Akitoshi Tamura 14-8-2 vs. 10-1-2 Masakatsu Ueda
Feather: Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas 8-2-0 vs. 6-1-2 Hiromasa Ogikubo
Light: Shintaro Ishiwatari 6-3-3 vs. 16-9-3 Wataru Miki

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4/25 ASTRA - Yoshida's Farewell Event - Fighters missing weight

Astra is hosting the final fight in Hidehiko Yoshida's long career. The event will take place in Nippon Budokan, and it should be a perfect setting for this event. Yoshida will face Kazuhiro Nakamura, a team mate and friend in this fight. He also outweights his opponent with almost 20kg going in.

3 fighters missed weight in the weigh-in, but the fights will go as planned. Naoyuki Kotani managed to cut the 0.1kg and make weight on his second attempt, but Jorge Masvidal and Che Mills also missed weight.

Also on this card, Enson Inoue will return to the ring against Antz Nansen.

There are lots of good fights on this card, that can only be seen by the people in attendence or by ordering it on SkyPerfect PPV.

Main-Event - Hidehiko Yoshida Retirement Fight:
11. Open: Hidehiko Yoshida (113.0kg) 9-7-1 vs. 13-10-1 Kazuhiro Nakamura (95.7kg)

10. Feather: Michihiro Omigawa (65.0kg) 9-8-1 vs. 13-3-0 Micah Miller (65.0kg)
9. Light-Heavy: Enson Inoue (92.9kg) 11-8-0 vs. 1-0-0 Antz Nansen (94.5kg)
8. Welter: Ryo Chonan (76.8kg) 17-10-0 vs. 6-5-1 Jung Hwan Cha (76.1kg)
7. Light: Naoyuki Kotani (70.1kg→70.0kg) 20-9-7 vs. 19-5-0 Jorge Masvidal (70.5kg)
6. Light: Daisuke Nakamura (69.3kg) 20-12-0 vs. 9-4-2 Ganjo Tentsuku (69.5kg)
5. Welter: Yuya Shirai (76.9kg) 18-8-0 vs. 8-3-0 Che Mills (77.4kg)
4. Feather: Tatsunao Nagakura (64.8kg) 5-0-0 vs. 8-7-1 Akihiko Mori (64.8kg)

Opening Fight:　
3. Heavy: Seigo Mizuguchi 7-5-0 vs. 0-1-0 Baru Harn
2. Middle: Yusuke Sakashita 6-2-0 vs. 6-10-2 Kenji Nagai
1. Bantam: Ryosuke Komori 4-2-0 vs. 7-11-6 Takumi Murata

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Fernendes perseveres, defends featherweight title at DREAM 13....

Thanks to Kris Hartrum who has sent me this report from yesterday's event.

It was another solid event for FEG's DREAM as the promotion succeeded in delivering their 13th installment on Monday March 22, 2010 in Yokohama Japan.


Defending champ Bibiano Fernandes kept the championship belt after narrowly defeating former lightweight standout Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen by a close split decision in the night's headlining bout.

The first round clearly went to fast paced Fernandes who managed to dominate the former DREAM lightweight champ on the feet for the majority of the first. The Brazilian Jiu Jitsu ace impressed from the opening seconds of round 1, throwing an assorted arsenal of strikes including a head kick, followed by an aggressive double-leg take down, landing Hansen on his back. Hellboy managed to keep the distance with up-kicks and was quickly back to his feet, to the crowd's approval. Hansen, the more experienced of the two, seemed to have little to offer the 2009 DREAM featherweight GP winner in first period. Fernandes continuously took advantage of Hansen's lack of takedown defense, but failed to profit from the dominant position due to the Norwegian's ferocious up-kicks and quick recovery.

Round 2 saw more of the same with the champ taking Joachim down with relative ease only to find Hansen standing, but not before avoiding the lone submission attempt of the fight as Bibiano reached for a leg-lock to no avail. As the first minute rolled away it was clear that the Pride FC veteran Hansen was gaining the upper-hand in the striking game. The resilient Brazilian remained stalwart and did not take enough damage to sway judges Gen Isono and Matt Hume, both giving Bibiano Fernandes the win by split decision after 2 rounds of featherweight action.


In the only unfortunate happening of the evening, Josh Barnett defeated Siala-Mou (Mighty Mo) Siligia, in a surprisingly “at odds," groin smashing heavyweight competition that saw an effective Mighty Moe knock-down # 3 ranked Barnett in the first moments of Round 1.

After a pair of ineffective takedown attempts, the pro-wrestling veteran Barnett nearly crippled the American/Samoan K1 kickboxer when he landed a powerful, yet off target savate (which Barnett has been recently training) kick to Siligia's groin. The shot resulted in a excruciatingly long time-stop where it seemed that Mighty Moe would not be able to continue. To the crowd's delight a reluctant Siligia decided he was able to battle on only to be thrown to the mat with a double-leg and submitted by straight armlock at 4:41 in the first round.

Post fight, an apologetic Barnett spoke the crowd and allowed Mighty Moe a free shot to the groin of his own that sent Barnett down to a knee. He told the fans in Japanese that he would fight "Anyone...anywhere!"

In his anticipated comeback fight, Boxer K.J. Noons returned successfully in defeating striker Andre "Dida" Amade with superior hands in a lightweight 5th fight of the night. Brazilian banger Amade could do little to penetrate the game of K.J. Noons who used hard boxing combinations to punish the K1 fighter's midsection. Amade used the ring to his advantage circling and evading, but Noons ability proved to be too much as he continued to pepper the Brazilian with punches.


Round 2: Amade exploded from his corner with a flying knee from across the ring but it was easily evaded. Both fighters landed impressive blows, with Noons coming out the better man in the exchanges. Amade managed to stir up the crowd by edging Noons to come at him, all the while continuing to defend and circle, throwing a few wild punches along the way. Noons continued to stalk, screaming with every punch landed. In the last minute, both fighters went for broke unleashing a fury of hay-makers, but lacking the "finishing touch," with all three judges giving the nod to Noons after 2 rounds.


In the post fight presser, Noons expressed disappointment that he was not able to knock-out his opponent and was excited to be fighting for Strikeforce in Japan.

Other Bouts:

In a battle of the Karate fighters, Ryo Chonan worked his way to a unanimous decision after 2 rounds against Kyokushin fighter Andrews Nakahara. Chonan had the upper hand in first round staying on top of the Brazilian and chipped away with punches after transitioning to a crucifix.

The second round saw more of the same save a shinning moment where Nakahara shot for the stars, nearly putting away UFC and Pride FC veteran in Chonan with heavy strikes in the clinch. Chonan held on and dragged Nakahara to the ground once more where he sealed the deal punching to the back of the head and neck in full mount taking the unanimous.


Osaka born Yoshihiro Maeda lost to Cole Escoveda by way of the most terrifying KO of the night. Pride, WEC and Pancrase veteran Maeda dominated from the start using speed and overhand punches to break through Escovedo's reach advantage, but it did not last as Escovedo planted a leg kick followed by a devastating high kick to Maeda's chin, knocking Maeda through the air, only to be finished (for good measure) by a graceful falling punch, ending the featherweight match by way of KO at 2 mintues 20 seconds in the first. Maeda was visibly shaken after the fight, and even vomited. The American WEC veteran was thrilled and told the fans he had always dreamed of fighting for the Japanese fans.

Karate bad-ass and DEEP promotion champ Katsunori Kikuno entered the ring valiantly to We are the World to meet UFC veteran Kuniyoshi Hironaka in the second bout of the evening. In the first exchanges of the match, Kikuno jumped in, throwing his famous crescent-style front kick, Hironaka defending and opting for the safety of the clinch. After a 1 minute. Kikuno landed his dreaded kick to Kuniyoshi's midsection and then followed through with a right hook, KO-ing the recent shootbox victor at 1 minute and 20 seconds. Post fight, Kikuno told the crowd he hoped to move up further in the LW ranks.


"The pressure was great and I knew that if I lost I would lose a lot more than just the match," said Kikuno in the post fight interviews

In the first bout of the evening, Japan's favorite giant killing superhero Ikuhisa Minowa managed to brave the storm and submit former King of The Cage super heavy-weight champ Jimmy Ambriz by way of toe hold in 2 minutes 42 seconds in the second round. Amrbiz was successful in stuffing Minowaman's wrestling game in the first, but seemed exhausted after punching the Japanese Super Hulk champ into oblivion. At the post fight interview a happy Minowaman said Ambriz "...was able to meet me on my terms and I was able to grow as a result."

During the opening ceremony, DREAM stylistically plugged their 2010 DREAM /Strike Force inter-promotion deal, focusing heavily on Shinya Aoki and Strikeforce LW champ Gilbert Melindez's fight in mid April.

Yokohama Arena- March 22, 2010

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3/22 DREAM 13 - LIVE RESULTS

I will be putting up the live results here, discussion is in the forum.

Main Event - Featherweigth Title Fight:
7. Bibiano Fernandes (c) Def. Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen by Decision 2-1

6. Heavy: Josh Barnett Def. Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga by straight armbar Round 1

5. Light: K.J. Noons Def. Andre Dida by Decision 3-0

4. Welter: Ryo Chonan Def. Andrews Nakahara by Decision 3-0

3. Feather: Cole Escovedo Def. Yoshiro Maeda by KO Round 1
Inside legkick sets up the highkick and a BIG KO!

2. Light: Katsunori Kikuno Def. Kuniyoshi Hironaka by KO Round 1
Set up, as expected, by the cresent kick.

1. Open: Ikuhisa Minowa Def. Jimmy Ambriz by heel-hook Round 2

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3/22 Shooto "The way of Shooto 2"- Fight Order

With the big DREAM event tomorrow, it is easy to forget the Shooto event in Korakuen Hall. But Sustain is putting on an awesome card with 2 belts on the line.

There are 9 fights on the card, including 4 in the traditional Rookie tournament.

Shooto World Title Fight:
9. Masakatsu Ueda 10-0-2 vs. 10-7-3 Shuichiro Katsumura

Shooto Pacific Rim Middlweight Title Fight:
8. Jung Min Kang 1-0-0 vs. 6-2-1 Yoichiro Sato

7. Bantam: Yuki Shojo 9-5-2 vs. 7-6-2 Jesse Taitano
6. Light: Katsuya Toida 11-9-3 vs. 3-0-0 Yusuke Yachi
5. Welter: Paolo Milano 8-5-1 vs. 7-4-1 Hisaki "Kotobukimaru" Hiraishi

Rookie Tournament:
4. Bantam: Yoshiyuki Takano 2-2-0 vs. 0-0-1 Kosuke "Rambo" Suzuki
3. Welter: Fumihiko Kawamura 0-1-0 vs. Shotoku Suzuki
2. Fly: Shuichiro Okumura 1-0-0 vs. 1-1-0 Tomokazu "Kewpie" Sato
1. Light: Satoshi Inaba 3-3-1 vs. Kensuke Nakamura

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3/22 DREAM 13 - Fight Order and Weigh-in

DREAM held the weighin for their 13th event today. It should be a good one, but I wish there were a few more fights on the card.

The main event should be an awesome fight, and with "Hellboy" dropping to featherweight, it will be interesting to see how he handles the challenge of meeting the DREAM champion.

The fighters have made weight, and I can't wait for tomorrow!

Main Event - Featherweigth Title Fight:
7. Bibiano Fernandes (c) (62.9kg) 7-2-0 vs. 19-8-1 (63kg) Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen

6. Heavy: Josh Barnett (115kg )24-5-0 vs. 3-1-0 (115kg) Siala "Mighty Mo" Siliga
5. Light: K.J. Noons (71.8kg) 7-2-0 vs. 6-3-1 (71.5kg) Andre Dida
4. Welter: Ryo Chonan (75.8kg) 16-10-0 vs. 2-1-0 (75.4kg) Andrews Nakahara
3. Feather: Yoshiro Maeda (62.5kg) 26-7-2 vs. 15-4-0 (62.8kg) Cole Escovedo
2. Light: Katsunori Kikuno (70kg) 12-2-2 vs. 16-6-0 (70kg) Kuniyoshi Hironaka
1. Open: Ikuhisa Minowa (89kg) 44-30-8 vs. 14-12-1 (125kg) Jimmy Ambriz

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3/19 Jewels 7th Ring - RESULTS

Jewels had their 7th event in a packed Shinjuku Face today.

A few upsets, Hiroko gets her revenge in a close decision.

Main Event:
9. -65kg: Hiroko Yamanaka Def. Hitomi Akano by Decision 2-1

8. -52kg: Mika Nagano Def. Mai Ichii by Decision 3-0
7. -58kg: Miki Morifuji Def. Shizuka Sugiyama by Decision 3-0

ShootBoxing Rule:
6. -54kg: Ai Takahashi Def. ASAKO by TKO Round 2 1:08

5. Exhibition Fight: 5. Rena vs. Seo Hee Ham
4. -52kg: Hiroko Kitamura Def. Celine Haga by armlock Round 1 2:07
3. -48kg: Miyoko Kusaka Def. Kikuyo Ishikawa by Decision 2-1
2. -52kg: Sakura Nomura Def. Yuko Kagoshima by armbar Round 2 4:35

Opening Fight Grappling Rule:
1. -48kg: Shiho Yaginuma Def. Satoko Kameda by armbar Round 1 2:20

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3/19 Jewels 7th Ring - Weigh-in and Fight Order

Tomorrow Jewels will hold their 7th event, and again it is sold out. If you want to go, they will have some standing tickets on sale.

The main event will see StrikeForce veteran Hitomi Akano take on HIROKO in a rematch. Akano is the only loss on Hiroko's record, it will be interesting to see if she can get her revenge.

Lots of good promising fighters on the card, and it should be a good event.

Main Event:
9. -65kg: Hitomi Akano (64.7kg) 15-6-1 vs. 7-1-1 (64.2kg) Hiroko Yamanaka

8. -52kg: Mika Nagano (52.0kg) 5-2-0 vs. 3-1-0 (51.6kg) Mai Ichii
7. -58kg: Miki Morifuji (58.0kg) 8-6-0 vs. 6-1-0 (58.0kg) Shizuka Sugiyama

ShootBoxing Rule:
6. -54kg: Ai Takahashi (53.9kg) vs. (not available) ASAKO

Exhibition Fight:
5. Rena vs. Seo Hee Ham

4. -52kg: Hiroko Kitamura (52.0kg) 3-0-0 vs. 0-2-0 (51.9kg) Celine Haga
3. -48kg: Kikuyo Ishikawa (48.0kg) 2-1-0 vs. 0-1-0 (47.8kg) Miyoko Kusaka
2. -52kg: Yuko Kagoshima (51.6kg) 1-2-0 vs. (52.0kg) Sakura Nomura

Opening Fight Grappling Rule:
1. -48kg: Shiho Yaginuma vs. Satoko Kameda

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