4/25 ASTRA - Omigawa vs. Miller Announced

The Astra card will be all about Yoshida's farewell. But I am sure there will be some other big fights on the card too. Today one of them was announced.

Omigawa really turned his career around with his performance in the Sengoku featherweight tournament. In 2009 he went 5-1-1, making his MMA record 9-8-1. He will be taking on ATT fighter and DREAM, WEC and Shine veteran Micah Miller.

The other fight announced today will see the very promising Tatsunao Nagakura, who will take on the more experienced Akihiko Mori.

Added:
Michihiro Omigawa 9-8-1 vs. 13-3-0 Micah Miller
Tatsunao Nagakura 5-0-0 vs. 8-7-1 Akihiko Mori

Previously announced:
Yuya Shirai vs. 8-3-0 Che Mills

Participants:
Hidehiko Yoshida 9-7-1
Makoto Takimoto 6-5-0
Kazuhiro Nakamura 13-10-0
Denis Kang 32-12-1

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4/25 ASTRA - First Fight Announced, Denis Kang Added

J-Rock have announced their first fight for the Astra card on April 25. DEEP champion, Yuya Shirai will take on Che Mills in a welterweight fight.

Also announced as a participant is Denis Kang, who is returning to Japan after his disapointing loss in the Dream middleweight tournament in 2008. Kang will be eager to get back to winning here.

Announced:
Yuya Shirai vs. 8-3-0 Che Mills

Participants:
Hidehiko Yoshida 9-7-1
Makoto Takimoto 6-5-0
Michihiro Omigawa 9-8-1
Kazuhiro Nakamura 13-10-0
Tatsunao Nagakura 5-0-0
Denis Kang 32-12-1

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4/25 ASTRA - Yoshida's Farewell Fight

J-Rock have announced that they are holding an event on April 25. This will be Hidehiko Yoshida's last fight, and Yoshida Dojo is coming out in force. The fighters include Omigawa and Takimoto.

It will be interesting to see if this is a one time thing, or if there are bigger plans for "ASTRA". The event will take place in Nippon Budokan, and is priced similar to the Sengoku and Dream events.

Participants:
Hidehiko Yoshida 9-7-1
Makoto Takimoto 6-5-0
Michihiro Omigawa 9-8-1
Kazuhiro Nakamura 13-10-0
Tatsunao Nagakura 5-0-0

Discuss in the FORUM

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9/23 Sengoku 10 - The Fresh King of Pancrase fighting

The newly crowned King of Pancrase has been added to the upcoming Sengoku card, Maximo Blanco have always been a very talented fighter his problem has been containing his enthusiasm. This time he will take on the very talented Tetsuya Yamada, who was very impressive in his loss in the featherweight GP. He is still very young, and weight gain is natural he will move up to lightweight and his first fight will be a tough one.

There are also 3 opening fights added, these are the winners of the Sengoku G tournamnets in Japan and Korea taking eachother on.

This looks to be another very interesting event from Sengoku, to be held in Saitama Community Arena. They seemed to have settled on a format of very talented fighter forming the opening fights, and I think it is a very good way of giving these young fighters invaluable experience.

Added:
Maximo Blanco 3-2-1 vs. 3-1-0 Tetsuya Yamada
Kazunori Yokota 9-2-3 vs. 20-11-1 Ryan Schultz

Opening fights:
Light: Ikuo Usuda 5-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Baek Woo Hyun
Feather: Shigeki Osawa 3-0-0 vs. Kim Ki Hyun
Bantam: Ryosuke Komori 4-1-0 vs. So Jee Hyun

Participants:
Hiroshi Izumi (debut)
Makoto Takimoto 5-5-0
Antonio Silva 12-1-0
Joe Doerksen 42-12-0

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9/23 Sengoku 10 - Participants announced

Yesterday Sengoku had their 9th event, they also introduced a judging system where the judge can chose the fighter they like. I have to say I hate the way they developed the "must" system. It allowes the judge to chose the fighter, if they rule it a draw.

Anyway, the card was solid, Kanehara vs. Hioki was fight of the night, and Sengoku got their Japanese champion.

Anyway, looking forward to Sengoku 10, there are some very interesting fighters announced. I just hope they dump the "must" system. They have really signed some very good fighters, and managed well they can attract a lot of new fans.

Announced for this event are:
-Athen Olympics judo silver medalist, Hiroshi Izumi.
-Sydney judo gold medalist, Makoto Takimoto.
-The fighter that knocked the new Sengoku lightweight champion out of the tournament, Kazunori Yokota.
-Former EliteXC heavyweight champion, Antonio Silva.
-Former IFL lightweight champion, Ryan Schultz.
-Former WEC title contender, Joe Doerksen.

Participant:
Hiroshi Izumi (debut)
Makoto Takimoto 5-5-0
Kazunori Yokota 9-2-3
Antonio Silva 12-1-0
Ryan Schultz 20-11-1
Joe Doerksen 42-12-0

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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.

Featherweight GP 2nd Round:
Hatsu Hioki 18-3-2 vs. 17-1-1 Ronnie Mann
Masanori Kanehara 12-5-5 vs. 3-0-0 Jung Chan Sung
Michihiro Omigawa 5-7-1 vs. 15-5-0 Nam Phan
Marlon Sandro 13-0-0 vs. 7-0-0 Nick Denis

Non-Tournament Fights:
Welter: Makoto Takimoto vs. Michael Costa
Light: Kazunori Yokota vs. Leonardo Santos
Light-Heavy: Keiichiro Yamamiya vs. Xande Ribeiro

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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.

Non-Tournament:
Welter: Makoto Takimoto vs. Michael Costa
Light: Kazunori Yokota vs. Leonardo Santos
Light-Heavy: Keiichiro Yamamiya vs. Xande Ribeiro

Featherweight GP 2nd Round Participants:
Jung Chan Sung 3-0-0
Masanori Kanehara 12-5-5
Marlon Sandro 13-0-0
Michihiro Omigawa 5-7-1
Nam Phan 15-5-0
Hatsu Hioki 18-3-2
Ronnie Mann 17-1-1
Nick Denis 7-0-0

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8/24 Sengoku 4 Betting Odds

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

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

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

Sung Hwan Pang +600
Takanori Gomi -1100

Frank Trigg -430
Makoto Takimoto +350

Clay French -105
Satoru Kitaoka -125

Eiji Mitsuoka +175
Rodrigo Damm -215

Bojan Kosednar +115
Kazunori Yokota -145

Mizuto Hirota +255
Ryan Schultz -315

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8/24 Sengoku 4 - Takimoto vs. Trigg Official

The fight that has been rumored for a few days was made official today. Makoto Takimoto will face off against Frank Trigg. This should be good addition to a card that is looking promising. Keep in mind that we will see the first round of the Sengoku Lightweight Tournament in this one.

There are also plans of a Middleweight Tournament in Sengoku 5 (9/28). Kazuo Misaki would not participate in this tournament, maybe he will get a similar deal to what Gomi has?

Sengoku 4 looks like this, currently:
Makoto Takimoto 4-4-0 vs. 16-6-0 Frank Trigg
Peter Graham 0-1-0 vs. 12-7-3 Moise Rimbon

Participating:
Takanori Gomi (28-3-0)

Lightweight Tournament Participants:
-Satoru Kitaoka (20-8-9)
-Eiji Mitsuoka (13-5-2)
-Kazunori Yokota (6-1-3)
-Duane Ludwig (16-8-0)
-Rodrigo Damm (8-1-0)

http://gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_07/0715_sengoku_03.htm
http://gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_07/0715_sengoku_02.htm

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