7/21 DREAM 5 - Mark Hunt confirms Opponent

Ok, have to get it right this time! Mark Hunt has confimed in an interview with MMA Weekly that he is fighting Jerome Le Banner in DREAM 5. As Nightmare of Battle points out, it is not the first time these to K-1 veterans fight it out, and this is a much more interesting fight than what I feared. I still have my doubts since its so close after LeBanner fought Schilt, but looks like its a done deal.

***Update***
The MMA Weekly article is updated and it is still tbd who Mark Hunt will face. There should be an announcement in the next few days.

They have fought no less than 4 times and here are some highlights:

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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

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7/21 DREAM 5 - Finally Some Fights Announced!

I have been waiting for this for a very long time! Finally, DREAM have confirmed that Joachim Hansen is fighting in the tournament reserve fight. His opponent will be Kultar Gill, who I thought was impressive despite the loss to Kawajiri in the opening round.

Just an interesting note, Minowa is moved from this card to the DEEP Gladiators card. To me it seems that DEEP and Dream is building the same/similar sort of relationship that Pride and DEEP used to have. It will be very interesting to see how the DEEP cards will look going forward.

That gives us this card:
Lightweight semi-finals:
Eddie Alvarez 14-1-0 vs. 22-4-2 Tatsuya Kawajiri
Shinya Aoki 16-2-0 vs. 25-10-4 Caol Uno

Tournament Reserve Fight:
Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen 17-7-1 vs. 9-7-0 Kultar "Black Mamba" Gill

Non-tournament:
Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto 17-1-0 vs. 7-0-0 Joseph Benavidez
Yoshihiro Akiyama 10-1-0 vs. 2-4-0 Katsuyori Shibata
Motoki Miyazawa 4-0-0 vs. 11-5-0 Kuniyoshi Hironaka

Participating:
-Mark Hunt 5-3-0

***Update***
I know some of you noticed that I managed to spell Mark Hunt's name wrong, again! Thanks to Five Ounce of Pain I caught this in the office and had to wait all day to make the correction. It is not on purpose and there is no excuse...

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MMA-Week Shattered! SmackGirl Event Postponed

It is still going to be a very busy time for MMA in Japan, and in general... But for me, it is no longer a MMA-Week... It's more like a long-weekend.

SmackGirl today announced that the ReMix finals are postponed! This is very disappointing for both fighters and fans, but hopefully they will be able to hold the event in September (that is the new plan). Sherdog is speculating that there are financial problems that is the cause of this, but whatever it is I hope they will work it out. SmackGirl is a unique concept and this year's tournament has been very exciting!

http://www.gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_07/0710_smack.htm
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=13616

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8/16 DEEP: Gladiators - Fights Added

The Gladiator card has also had some fights added. Also, there is one change to the previously announced fights, Hwang Sung Pang is no longer on the card. Hwang Sung Pang is now rumored to be Takanori Gomi's opponent in Sengoku 3, a match-up I think will be very exciting.

I am confused by one of the fights announced, will try to get some clearification around the 2nd fight in the Japan vs. Korea competition.

Added:
K-1 Rule: Jan "the Giant" Nortje vs. Tom Erikson
K-1 Rule: Tsuyoshi Yokoyama vs. Marcelo Nascimento

5 fight Competition Japan vs. Korea:
Jutaro Nakao 21-13-4 vs. 0-1-0 Yong Fun Lee
Michihiro Omigawa,Katsuhisa Fuji, Hikaru Sato vs. ジョン・チャン・ソン（ＣＭＡコリア）
Katsuhisa Fujii 8-14-1 vs. 6-4-0 Sang Su Lee
Hikaru Sato 17-18-4 vs. 2-5-0 Min Suk Heo
Akihiko Mouri 5-4-1 vs. キム・テキュン（ＣＭＡコリア）

Previously announced:
Ikuhisa Minowa 39-28-8 vs. 19-6-1 Don Frye
Daijiro Matsui 10-19-4 vs. Eun Soo Lee

K-1 Rule: Gary Goodridge vs. Hiromi Amada

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8/17 DEEP 37 - Participants announced

Saeki also presented the first 2 fights of DEEP 37, which will take place August 17 in Korakuen Hall. On the card, Miku will defend her title. DEEP's female lightweight division undoubtebly got a bit weaker with the retirment of Hisae Watanabe, but it will be interesting to see if there are any new stars coming up.

Also, by looking at the participants it is clear that this too will be a good event. With Imanari on the card, this will get some attention. I expect that "Barbaro44" vs. Katsunori Kikuno also should be a good fight.

DEEP Female Lightweight Title Fight:
Miku Matsumoto (Title-holder) 17-4-0 vs. 8-8-4 Misaki Takimoto

Yoshihiro Tomioka "Barbaro44" 12-5-4 vs. 7-1-1 Katsunori Kikuno

Participating:
Masakazu Imanari 14-6-1
Ryuta Sakurai 16-14-4
Yasuhito Namekawa 23-16-3
Kim Jong Man 3-5-2
Eiji Ishikawa 15-15-2
Sojiro Orui 5-2-4
Kousei Kobuta 24-27-10
Jin Kitazaki
LUIZ 7-6-2

Ticket Prices:
VIP 15,000円
SRS 12,000円
A 8,000円
B 6,000円
C 5,000円
At the door +500円

Tickets go on sale July 15

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7/27 DEEP 36 Impact Osaka - Fights added

Saeki held a pressconference today and that means LOTS of updates to DEEP cards. I hope I have time to go through them all...

DEEP 36 has had no less than 10 fights added! That means that the card (including the Next Level fights) has 18 fights. Should be a good event in Zepp Osaka.

Added:
Seigo vs. 1-1-0 Nobuyoshi Takahara
YABU vs. 0-1-0 Masanori Tonooka
Yoshinobu Kawamura 2-3-1 vs. Junzo Tokunaga
Young Choi "RYO" 9-5-0 vs. 5-4-4 Takenori Sato
Hiroshi Shiba 4-3-0 vs. 0-5-1 Yasunori Kanehara
Fukuko Hamada 4-2-0 vs. 7-4-2 Yasuko Tamada
Yuya Aikawa 0-1-0 vs. Miyamonta
Nobuhiro Yoshitake 0-3-1 vs. 5-1-0 Hiroto
Yasuaki Kishimoto vs. 1-0-0 Reisyo Shoda
Makoto Kamaya 8-4-1 vs. Yuki Kamijima

Previously Announced:
DEEP Welterweight Title Fight:
Hidehiko Hasegawa 14-9-5 vs. 16-14-5 Seichi Ikemoto

Tomoyuki Fukami 7-1-4 vs. 4-1-0 Koichiro Matsumoto
Isao Terada 4-5-4 vs. 3-2-0 Toru Harai

NEXT LEVEL Fights:
James Low vs. Kareem “Sugarbear” Byron (?)
Hasu Takeno vs. Takashi Murakami
Jin Hirayama vs. Katsuki Ishida
Shohei Fujita vs. NakagawaΩJien乙ΩKoki
Suzuna Nakamura vs. Kumiko Nanba

Tickets:
Stage VIP 15,000円
VIP 12,000円　
RS 8,000円
A 6,000円　
2nd Floor 6,000円
At the door +500円

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8/27 Pancrase Shining Tour - Fights added

Pancrase have added another 2 fights to the Neo-Blood Finals card. Shinsuke Shoji is fighting Koji Oishi in what will be a King of Pancrase title fight (this confuses me, but its what it says).

LW: Koji Oishi 16-7-5 vs. 6-3-2 Shinsuke Shoji
FW: Kenji Arai 12-12-2 vs. 6-4-1 Manabu Inoue
MW: Yuki Kondo 48-22-6 vs. 3-2-0 Ryuji Ohori
LW: Yuichi Ikari 9-4-3 vs. 6-4-0 Eriya Matsuda
WW: Masahiro Toryu 5-3-3 vs. 4-6-0 Tomoyoshi Iwamiya

Neo-Blood Finals:
Bantamweight: Takuya Eizumi 1-0-0 vs. 2-0-0 Isao Hirose
Featherweight: Yasutomo Tanaka 5-1-3 vs. 1-0-0 Hirotoshi Saito
Lightweight: Steve Magdaleno 4-0-1 vs. Hiroki Aoki

Participating:
Seiya Kawahara 5-0-0

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7/7 K-1 World Max Final 8 - RESULTS

Finally, the K-1 results from yesterday, sorry for being so late with them!

There were some very interesting results! I was expecting Remigijus to be too strong for Dida, but Dida proved me wrong. And who would have expected Buakaw to lose? Either way, good wins for Dida and Sato. That leaves these Semi-Finals:

Masato vs. Yoshihiro Sato
Andy Souwer vs. Artur Kyshenko

The results:
Block A: Masato Def. Drago by Decision 3-0
Block A: Yoshihiro Sato Def. Buakaw Por. Pramuk by KO Round 3 1:50
Andre Dida Def. Remigijus Morkevicius by KO Round 1 1:43
Haruaki Otsuki Def. David Douge by KO Round 3 2:59
Konstantin Trishin Def. Susumu Daiguji by Decision 2-0
Daisuke Uematsu Def. Eddy Juozapavicius by KO Round 1 2:52
Block B: Andy Souwer Def. Warren Stevelmans by Decision 3-0
Block B: Artur Kyshenko Def. Yasuhiro Kido by Decision 3-0
Albert Krause Def. Mike Zambidis by TKO Round 3 3:00
Hiroyuki Owatari Def. MASAKI by TKO Round 1 1:53

Alviar Lima Def. Mark Vogel by TKO Round 2 3:00
Kizaemon Saiga Def. Tyron Van Wyk by KO Round 2 1:39
Denis Telitsa Def. Hirotaka Urabe by KO Round 2 1:16

For those of you that still havn't seen the event, here is Yoshihiro Sato vs. Buakaw.



And Andre Dida vs. Remigijus Morkevicius

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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.

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