5/9 M-1 Challenge Brazil 4th Edition - Pictures

Courtesy of M-1 I am happy to give you some action shots of the event in Brazil. I was able to stream it live here too, and it was a very good event!

For the results of this event, you can have a look here.

The next M-1 Challenge event will take place on 5th June in Kansas. The teams taking part will be: USA East vs. Finland, World Team vs. Turkey and France vs. UK.



Hacran Dias is still undefeated after an impressive showing against Amirkhan Mazikhov.


Leandro Silva fought his way to a tachtical win against Dmitry Samoilov.


Pamplona had some problems making weight, in the end he pulled of a very close decision win, and one that helped Brazil to a 5-0 win against Team Imperial.


De Leonardis looked like he had the upper hand against Yura Ivlev, but Ivlev was able to escape.




Gregor Herb secures Germany's only win against Russia Legion's Sergey Kornev.


Some moore pictures:

Read more...

Koichi Pettas - Training

I was able to go and watch Koichi Pettas work out at thee AE Factory earlier this month. He has had 2 K-1 fights, but ahead of him now is a slightly different challenge.



January 18 at MuayLok he is facing Keigo Takamori for the M-1 (Muay Thai, not MMA) heavyweight title.



The best facilities, training and coaches will make sure Koichi is ready for his next challenge.



K-1 and Muay Thai has 1 main difference, elbows. Koichi is making sure he is ready for any challenge.



Some of you will now realize I have a dilemma on January 18... Shooto is on the same day... There is no choice for me, I will be there to support Koichi this time.

If you want to go and check out this Muay Thai event, it is in Yoyogi 2nd Gymnasium in Tokyo. Doors open at 11AM fights start at noon.

Arena SRS 20,000円(Sold Out)
Arena RS　15,000円
Arena S　10,000円
Stand A 7,000円（Sold Out）
Stand B 5,000円
Stand Free seat 4,000円

Read more...

7/17 DEEP/M-1 - Challenge 5 - Fights Added

DEEP has added 5 non-M-1 Challenge fights to this card. The card now has a total of 15 fights and should provide some good Thursday night entertainment!

Non M-1 Challenge fights:
Edo Matsuura vs. Mitsuru Yamaguchi
Seigo Inoue 3-3-1 vs. 1-3-2 Nobuhiro "Mike" Hayakawa
Yuki Ito 6-2-3 vs. 4-3-0 Takaaki Aoki
Tatsuya Mizuno 3-3-0 vs. 3-0-0Yoshiyuki Nakanishi

Japan vs. Nederlands
70kg: Daisuke Nakamura 14-9-0 vs.4-2-1 Bogdan Cristea
76kg: Ken Hamamura 14-4-4 vs. 7-5-0 Romano delos Reyes
84kg: Yuta Watanabe 8-1-3 vs. 4-3-0 Jason Jones
93kg: Yuji Sakuragi 9-11-1 vs. 4-2-0 Kamil Uygun
＋93kg: Katsuhisa Fujii 8-14-1 vs. 4-1-0 Jessie Gibson

France Vs. USA
70kg: Samuel Judes 2-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Keith Perrigon
76kg: Farouk Lakebir 2-0-0 vs. 0-1-0 Vince Ortiz
84kg: Karl Amoussou 6-1-1 vs. 3-0-0 Jason Bukich
93kg: Christian Mpumbu Ndjoku vs. 5-0-0 Bryan Harper
93kg: Malick Ndiaye 1-1-0 vs. 2-1-0 James Jack

Read more...

MMA Week Coming up

Well, I guess its not officially MMA week, but for me it wil be. Between July 17-24 there are so many events happening that it is hard to choose what to go to. Anyway, here is the schedule:

7/17 - DEEP/M-1 Challenge in Korakuen Hall
7/18 - Shooto Tradition 2 in Korakuen Hall
7/20 - ZST - SWAT 19 in Gold's Gym South Annex
7/21 - DREAM 5 in Osaka Jo Hall (card not offical, this is what we have so far)
7/21 - GCM Demolition in Differ Ariake (card not announced)
7/21 - Shoot Boxing in Korakuen Hall (card not announced)
7/24 - SmackGirl ReMix Tournament Finals in Korakuen Hall(I will have something here shortly)

I have deceided to go to Shooto and DREAM for that week. I hope to get to DEEP and SmackGirl as well, but will see how the finances are doing :).

In regonition of MMA Week, I will give you some videos of fighters participating.

Joachim Hansen vs. Olof Inger (from Finn-Fight 5 2001). This is the early days of Joachim's career, a decision win (its not easy to make out the result in the video) in his 3rd fight. A video I havnt seen before and I am sure fans will appreaciate.



Mamoru Yamaguchi is fighting "BJ" Kojima in the main event of Shooto - Tradition 2. Should be a good event, here are some highlights.



Daisuke Nakamura is fighting in the DEEP/M-1 Challenge. Here he is tapping (or maybe that should be not tapping...) against Vitor Ribeiro.



Megumi Fujii is fighting Ana Michelle Tavares in the final of the ReMix Tournament. This is her opening fight against Cindy Hales. Mega-Megu is currently 15-0-0 in MMA, and in the final she will meet a very competent fighter in Ana Michelle Tavares, I will post one of her fights too.



Ana Michelle Tavares has fought Mega-Megu before and lost by decision. Can she win this time? Here she is in the opening round against Kyoko Takabayashi.



And of course we cant forget the DREAM finalists. This is a higlight video of Shinya Aoki. I am sure I will have more chances to post the rest of the fighters in this tournament.

Read more...

7/17 DEEP/M-1 - Challenge 5

Saeki announced earlier this week that DEEP will co-produce M-1 Challenge 5 in Korakuen Hall July 17. This is an event format where 2 countries are pitted against eachother and they fight 5 fights in different weight divisions.

There is no doubt that this will be an exciting night in Korakuen Hall. For those who want to stay there over night can watch Shooto Tradition 2 the following day as well!

Participating this time in Japan are:
Group A: France Vs. USA　5 Fights
Group B: Japan V. Nederlands　5 Fights

The fights will be fought like this:
Japan vs. Nederlands
70kg: Daisuke Nakamura 14-9-0 Vs.4-2-1 Bogdan Cristea
76kg: Ken Hamamura 14-4-4 Vs. 2-3-0 Mehemt Uygun
84kg: Yuta Watanabe 8-1-3 Vs. 4-3-0 Jason Jones
93kg: Yuji Sakuragi 9-11-1 Vs. 4-2-0 Kamil Uygun
＋93kg: Katsuhisa Fujii 8-14-1 Vs. 4-1-0 Jessie Gibson

France Vs. USA
Samuel Judes 2-1-0 Vs. 1-0-0 Keith Perrigon
Farouk Lakebir 2-0-0 Vs. 0-1-0 Vince Ortiz
Karl Amoussou-Guenou 6-1-1 Vs. 3-0-0 Jason Bukich
Christian Mpumbu Ndjoku Vs. 5-0-0 Bryan Harper
Malick Ndiaye 1-1-0 Vs. 2-1-0 James Jack
Bertland Amoussou－Guenou Vs. X

*I am not a 100% confident in all the records here, but I have done my best. I think most should be ok. Please leave a comment if you have more up to date information.

Ticket Prices:
VIP 10,000円　
Other 5,000円
At the door +500円

Read more...

12/31 M-1 - Saitama Superarena - The confusion is complete

Well, the rumors that were earlier dismissed by the M-1 management were confirmed yesterday. M-1 had on their web-site an official announcement that Fedor was going to fight in Saitama Superarena on NYE. This announcement is no longer on their web-site.

The rumors will continue, and the fans will wait. Japanese press has confirmed these rumors and it seems there will be an MMA event, but it seems there is no final decision yet.

The former Pride staff seems determined to make this happen, and also Aoki seems ready to fight.

http://d.hatena.ne.jp/gryphonjapan/20071114
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20071116-00000028-spnavi-fight.html

Read more...