FEG and WVR Press Conference

FEG and WVR have held a joint press conference today. Not unexpectedly it was announced that they will hold a joint event on NYE, the Ishii vs. Yoshida fight will be part of this.

The card will have 18-19 fights and the matchups are being worked on.

Fighters present: Kazushi Sakuraba, Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, Katsuyori Shibata, Hideo Tokoro, Hiroyuki Takaya, Shinya Aoki, Hidehiko Yoshida, Kazuo Misaki, Hiroshi Izumi, Sanae Kikuta, Akihiro Gono, Kazunori Yokota, Mizuto Hirota, Masanori Kanehara, Eiji Mitsuoka, and Yoshihiro “KISS” Nakao.

Gono asked to fight Sakurai and Tokoro wants "Kid". Hirota would like to fight Alvarez.

Sengoku are planning to contiune putting on events next year, but I am guessing they need the blessig from sponsors to do this.

Fights Official:
K-1: Masato vs. Andy Souwer
MMA: Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida

Super-Hulk Final: Ikuhisa Minowa vs. 7-5-0 Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

K-1 Koshien (Highschool) Tournament Finals:
Final: Winner of SF 1 vs. Winner of SF 2
Reserve: Ryuya Kusakabe vs. Tsukasa Fuji
SF 1:Hiroya vs. Masaaki Noiri
SF 2: Katsuki Ishida vs. Shota Shimada

Discuss in the FORUM

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Sengoku - Satoshi Ishii Debut Set!

WVR have today announced that Satoshi Ishii will take on another judo gold medalist in his MMA debut. Not unexpectedly, his first opponent will be Hidehiko Yoshida.

The fight will take place on their NYE card, the date is yet to be deceided, but it should be announced later this month.

This is a fight that will be a breakthrough of sorts for Sengoku, it will be a huge fight in Japan and I am sure it will get a lot of casual fans that have not watched MMA since the Pride days back to the arena.

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Satoshi Ishii/Sengoku Public Signing

Thursday June 4th Sengoku will formally announce Judo Olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii as a fighter for the organization. A lot of people have been saying that they would like to see a top martial artist in his prime try his hands at MMA, and Ishii could be considered just that.

At the signing event will be a lot of Sengoku stars: Satoshi Ishii, Hidehiko Yoshida, Makoto Takimoto, Sanae Kikuta, Kazuo Misaki, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Yuki Kondo, Yoshihiro Nakao, Satoru Kitaoka, Mizuto Hirota, Michihiro Omigawa, Masanori Kanehara, Eiji Mitsuoka, Yuki Sasaki, Kazunori Yokota, Ryo Kawamura
Tetsuya Yamada, Shigeki Osawa, Maximo Blanco.

Nightmare of Battle is specualating at a fight announcement, in addition to that it will be interesting to see if there are any plans for Ishii to fight soon.

The event will take place at Shinjuku Station Square, which is across from the Studio Alta building and has NOTHING to do with Times Square (this might make no sense if you're not going there or have never been there).

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Satoshi Ishii signs for Sengoku!

Another huge signing for Sengoku, Bejing Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii has signed a 2 year multi fight contract. The contract also allows him to fight in organisations overseas.

This is a HUGE deal for Sengoku, and Ishii will be their biggest draw in Japan.

Ishii caused a lot of controversy when he right after winning the olympic gold said he would like to fight Fedor. Initially he was rumored to have been offered a $5,000,000 contract wth DREAM, then it looked like he was more likely to be heading to an American organization.

It should have been a sign when he entered the Sengoku ring on their new year's show, but even then he showed his intentions by wearing a UFC shirt.

It is good to see him fighting in Japan now, it will give MMA in Japan a much needed boost! No date has yet been set for his debut.

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Olympic Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii: "I Want to Fight in the UFC"

Olympic gold medlist Satoshi Ishii was meant to be the next big signing for FEG and DREAM. His value to them in Japan would have been huge, but yesterday the Ishii deceided to speak again. Everytime he does, its controversial...

“I’m only thinking of joining UFC. If I can’t join the UFC then my having quit judo was meaningless." He said. Zuffa on their side is saying they have not had any concrete negotiations with Ishii.

Everyone knows that the UFC contracts are exclusive and currently they dont hold events in Japan. You might think that Ishii would be a way for them to come back in to the Japanese market. Well, ishii has another golden nugget "The UFC that they hold here in Japan is a fake. I’m only shooting for America."

It looks like Ishii will debut in an MMA ring some time after next fall. Where, I think we have to wait and see. If you ask me, he is a matchmaker's dream and nightmare in one... Fact is that if not matched properly, he will end up on Jake Rossen's list.

Source:
SportsNavi

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Izumi confusion/Ishii to MMA

I felt like it was confirmed earlier that Hiroshi Izumi (Judo Olympic Silver medalist from 2004) was going to MMA and Sengoku. Today there is confusion again... He is saying he did NOT receive an offer from Sengoku and is concentrating on Judo. He is compating in a Judo competition later this month.

Satoshi Ishii (olympic Judo gold medalist from Beijing) confirmed yesterday that he is quitting Judo and will be competing in MMA. But he did not confirm any organization yet.

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20081104-00000002-spnavi_ot-fight.html
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20081103-00000015-spnavi-fight.html

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Ishii Offered $5,000,000 to sign with DREAM

Satoshi Ishii might be the most sought after fighter in Japan today... SportsNavi is reporting that he has been offered $5 Mil. to sign with DREAM. There will be an announcement on Monday.

The plan would be for him to make on appearance on NYE (Dynamite), but looks like this would not be a fight.

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Satoshi Ishii Clearifies

Yesterday I and several other blogs and web-sites reported on the comments Olympic Judo gold medalist, Satoshi Ishii made regarding switching to MMA.

The stir he caused resulted in a pressconferance today, and it is clear that Ishii caused something he did not intend.

In his press-conferance today I will just give the quick note of what he said, as it might be clearer that way.

-He wants to fight MMA in the future, HOWEVER, his thoughts are currently on graduating university.

-He is currently injured, and can not compete in the upcoming world championships. To qualify for the London Olympics there is a point system in Judo, and because he is not competing and hence might not be able to qualify.

Ok, so that is just a very quick summary of what was said. Keep in mind that this is a 21 year old and his comment probably had much bigger impact than he imagined. IF he changes to MMA it will be huge! We have seen that the last few days, everyone knows about these news in Japan.

But when that day comes I would also be concerned about how that is managed... Putting up a debut against Fedor might not be the best idea.

http://www.gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_10/1007_news_02.htm

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Olympic Judo Gold Medalist Ishii Makes the Change

There has been a lot of speculation around whether Satoshi Ishii will fight Fedor on NYE. There is no word on that, but he has gone out today and said that he is not planning to participate in the London Olympics in 4 years. The reason, he wants to try MMA.

DREAMs Sasahara has gone out and said Ishii will NOT fight on NYE, so I guess that leaves it open for even more speculation. Will he fight with Sengoku or DREAM? If you look at the organizations, Sengoku definitely has more Judo fighters... But Ishii seems to be more connected with DREAM...

Ishii is currently injured and will not compete in the Judo world championships

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20081006-OHT1T00285.htm
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20081006-00000008-spnavi_ot-fight.html
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20081006-00000009-spnavi_ot-fight.html
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20081006-00000152-jij-spo.html

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