Video: Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Antonio Carvalho

From Shooto - Back to Our Roots 6. This was the fight of the night!! It played out almost like a K-1 fight. An awesome fight!



Part 2

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Video: Joachim Hansen vs. Eiji Mitsuoka

Shooto - Back to our Roots 6, this was Joachim Hansen`s return to the ring, unfortunately Mitsuoka spoiled the party. Hansen said after the fight that he felt rusty, I bet he will be stronger in his next fight! Anyway, good to see him back!!

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Video: Megumi Fujii vs. Kyoko Takabayashi

Another Shooto-Back to our Roots 6 video.

Megumi Fujii is without a doubt the best female MMA fighter in the world. She is also Japanese chamption in Sambo and BJJ. In addition she has 2 3rd place finishes in ADCC (05 and 07).

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12/01 Cage Force 05 - Tournament Finals

Cage Force will hold their tournament finals in December, this will be the event of the year for cage fighting fans in Japan. GCM has managed to get together a very good card this event.

Some of the hightlights:
-Urushitani, one of the world’s absolutely best flyweight fighters will return to the cage (he has not fought in a cage since 2005).
-Kenji Osawa, the Shooto standout was ranked #7 on Sherdog’s latest Bantamweight ranking.
-Pancrase veteran, Kitaoka returns to the cage, he has not fought in a cage since 2001. I will be interesting to see how he adjusts.
-Of course the highlight fights in this event are the tournament finals, Yoshida vs. Dan Hardy and Boku vs. Oumakhanov.

Mizuto Hirota 6-2-0 vs Sin Do Gi
Yasuhiro Urushitani* 14-3-4 vs 2-1-0 Jesse Taitano
*Urushitani was ranked #2 on Sherdog’s latest Flyweight ranking
Kenji Osawa* 12-7-1 vs 3-1-0 Nobuhiro “Punch” Yamauchi
*Osawa was ranked #7 on Sherdog’s latest Bantamweight ranking
Yukiya Naito 12-4-2 vs. 2-3-3 Takenori Sato
Hiroshi Arakawa 1-1-0 vs 2-0-0 Seiya Kawahara
Junichi Ota 0-1-1 vs 1-0-0 Hiroshi Takita
Toshikazu Iseno “ISE” 5-3-1 vs 10-8-1 Takahito Iida

Tournament Finals:
Welter weight:
Yoshiyuki Yoshida 8-2-0 vs 16-5-0 Dan Hardy

Light weight:
Koutetsu Boku* 13-3-1 vs 6-1-0 Artur Oumakhanov
*Boku was ranked #10 on Sherdog’s latest Lightweight ranking.

Also participating:
Takeya Mizugaki 7-2-2 vs. TBA
Kitaoka Satoru 19-7-9 vs. TBA

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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

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Video: Rambaa Somdet vs. Masaaki Sugawara

Shooto - Back to our roots 6. One of the best fights of the night.

This was in my opinion one of the best shows in Japan this year. I hoped for a Muay Thai victory, and got it. However, Somdet was a much more rounded fighter than I expected. He is one to keep your eyes on for the future!

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Video: Akiyama Yoshihiro vs Denis Kang

This is the HEROs fight between Akiyama and Denis Kang on 10/28. An amazing fight with a surprising result.

These are 2 fighters we will hear from in the future. Akiyama is likely to fight again on NYE this year.

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11/24 HEAT 5 - Nagoya

Hatsu Hioki steps into the ring again in Nagyoa. The last time the home fans expected a victory, but was disappointed. That streached his losing streak to 2. With 2 loses in a row he really needs to redeem himself. This time he faces the experienced Brian Geraghty, who has 1 UFC fight.

Also worth a mention is Chritiano Kaminishi, who holds a record of 4-0-0, I saw him against Sentoryu earlier this year and was very impressed. Osami Shibuya, Pancrase veteran, is also on the card.

The card is full of interesting fighters, so if you`re in Nagoya, this it the place to be on November 24. Check out the HEAT web-site for details (http://heatofficial.com/).

Hiroshi Umemura　10-7-3　vs。Nat Mclntyre
Hatsu Hioki　12-3-1　vs。17-10-1 Brian Geraghty
MAX Fernandes　vs。5-5-0 Yoshitomo Watanabe
Danilo Zanolini　vs。Syunsuke Ohishi
Cristiano Kaminishi 4-0-0　vs。1-0-0 Kazuhisa Tazawa
Atsuhiro Tsuboi 5-10-2　vs。Jyunichi Maruyama
Osami Shibuya 34 - 31 - 15　vs。4-1-0 Gil Freitas
Ryuta Noji 6-3-0 vs。Andrew Peck
Tatsufumi Tomihira　vs。2-2-0 Alex Roberts

Daiki Suzuki 0-1-0 vs。Kazuyosi Hioki
Gaku Sakai vs。Hiroaki Suzuki

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12/8 Shooto - Rookie Finals

The next shooto event, after the super-card is the rookie tournament finals. This will be held in Shinjuku Face arena and, as always for these type of events, there are lots of new and exciting fighters. Notably, Tomonori Kamei (won both his fights by triangle choke). Also Masakatsu Ueda is worth a special notice.

Either way, the fighters who reach the Shooto finals are fighters we are likely to hear from in the future.

1.Light-Heavy Weight Tournament Final:
Hiroki Sato 2-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Takaaki “C-Boy” Oban
2. Bantam Weight Tournament Final:
Tatsuro Kamei 2-0-0 vs. 1-2-0 Kenji Hasoya
3. Light Weight Tournament Final:
Tomonori Taniguchi 2-3-0 vs. 2-1-0 Kazuhiro Ito
4. Fly Weight Tournament Final:
Hiroyuki Abe 3-0-0 vs. 1-3-1 Hiroyuki Ikeda
5. Feather weight Tournament Final:
Hiromasa Ougikubo 3-0-1 vs. 1-2-3 Yasuhiro Kanayama
6. Middle weight Tournament Final:
Akihiro Yamazaki 8-2-1 vs. 2-1-1 Tomokazu Yuasa
7. Light weight Division:
Hiroshi Nakamura 3-3-3 vs. 5-5-2 Kyotaro Nakao
8. Welter weight Division:
Koumei Okada 5-6-1 vs 4-2-0 Paolo Milano
9. Middle weight semi-final 2 Rounds:
Taisuke Okuno 3-1-0 vs. 2-3-1 Hirosumi “C-Bozu” Sugiura
10. Feather weight 3Rounds:
Masakatsu Ueda 5-0-1 vs. 5-4-3 Tetsu “Hadairo” Suzuki

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11/11 Cage Force EX Eastern Bound - Results

The fights are just getting underway in Differ Ariake. I will post the results here as soon as they become avaliable.

The main event is the semi-final in the Light-weight tournament between Oumakhanov and Kanomata, which determines who will fight Boku in the final 12.1. But there should be other good fights here as well.

The fighters accidentally clash their heads and Oumakhanov goes to the light weight final after the doctor stops the main event at 2:54 in round 2. Kanomata leaves the ring with a broken nose.

Results
Artur Oumakhanov def. Tomonari Kanomata by TKO, Round 2, 2:54
Keita Nakamura “K- Taro" def. Takefumi Hanai by KO, round 1, 1:59
*The formerUFC fighter catches Hanai with a right hook and follows up with a kick that KOs Hanai. A solid performance in his return to Japan.
Yoshihiro Koyama def. Yasuyoshi Kanehara by decision 3-0
Koji Yoshimoto def Fanjin Son by decision 2-0
Keitaro Maeda ｖｓ Masahiro Toryu Draw
Yusaku Tsukkumo def 一慶 by decision 3-0
Wataru Miki Def. Kiyonobu Nishikataby decision 3-0
Naoko Ohmuro vs Misaki Takimoto Draw
Emi Fujino def. Yuko by decision 3-0

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