The betting odds for Saturday's K-1 GP are up, these are from MMA Underdogs and Bodog.
Not sure why the Saki vs. Karaev betting is suspended, but anyway...
K-1 WORLD GP 2008 Quarter Finals:
Peter Aerts -170
Badr Hari +130
Remy Bonjasky -160
Jerome Le Banner +130
Gokhan Saki (Suspended) -210
Ruslan Karaev (Suspended) +170
Errol Zimmerman -250
Ewerton Teixeira +170
More odds here:
BetED.com
There is no doubt that November/December is a good time to be in Japan. Usually the weather is nice (even if its starting to get cold), but for MMA fans this is the time to be here.
Lately there has hardly been a week without an event, and the weeks coming up are promising to be the busiest yet! Not only are there lots of events, but since its the last event of the year for most organizations, they are really putting up good cards as well.
You don't need to look further than the "Upcoming Events" section to the right on my site to see what I mean.
But here is a quick breakdown:
December 6 - K-1 World GP Final - Always a highlight!
December 6 - Cage Force Tournament Finals - This is promising to be a very good event.
December 7 - Pancrase Shining Tour - The best Pancrase card this year?
December 10 - DEEP 39 - The return of Obiya!
December 13 - Shooto Rookie Tournament Final - The best talent in Japan.
December 14 - HEAT 8 - HEAT's first trip to Tokyo, they will make sure its good!
December 22 - DEEP Protect Impact
December 31 - DYNAMITE!
So if you are in Tokyo, you should have enough choices! Unfortunately, that is where most of the action is though...
There has been a change on this card. K-1 veteran Tatsufumi Tomihara has had to pull out due to injury. No doubt a loss, but they have found a worthy replacement.
Taking Tomihara's place in the tournament is another K-1 veteran, Hiromi Amada. Amada will be taking on Iranian "Prince Ali".
This is a very good card for HEAT's Tokyo debut. If you are in Tokyo, this event is being held at Differ Ariake. On the card are fighters like Sentoryu, Yoshitaro Niimi, Ryuta Noji and Dong Yi Yang.
HEAT Kick-Rule Middleweight Tournament Semi-Finals
Jotaro Usui vs. Fabiakato "RS Promotion" Lukafa (?)
Yuso Matsumoto vs. Kinji
HEAT MMA-Rule Welterweight Tournament Semi-Finals
Max Fernandez 2-0-0 vs. 1-0-0 Hyong Yo Im
Yoshitaro Niimi 6-2-2 vs. 1-1-0 Justin Holdaas
HEAT Kick-Rule Heavyweight Tournament 1st Round
Makoto Uehara vs. Sun Wu
"Prince" Ali vs. Hiromi Amada
Moon Bo Ram vs. Nobutaka Baba
HEAT MMA-Rule Heavyweight Tournament
Sentoryu 3-7-0 vs. 5-10-0 Junpei Hamada
Dong Yi Yang 3-0-0 vs. 7-3-0 Ryuta Noji
Non-Tournament Fights
Kick-Rule Open weight: Goutoku Onda vs. Yuuki
MMA Rule 88kg: Daiju Takase 7-12-1 vs. 1-4-1 Masataka Chinushi
I have had a run of luck lately, and today has turned out to be that sort of day. I woke up expecting to do nothing more than to return some Shooto and SmackGirl videos, when I get a call from a friend asking if I wanted to come along to watch Kazuyuki Miyata train. There is really just one answer to a question like that, so I packed up my bags and an hour later I was in the gym.
Miyata is one of the fighters that you don't really read too much about, and I don't know why... He is a super nice guy, and really have what it takes to be a top fighter. An Olympic class wrestler (competed in Sydney 2000), and since then he has worked hard to be a complete MMA fighter. He has a professional record of 5-7, and his list of opponets is impressive.
His losses have only come against top guys, but he always goes out hard. His MMA debut was against Royler Gracie, and he was very close to getting the upset win in that fight. 
Not only has he been in the ring with the best, but Miyata ALWAYS brings the fight and in my eyes he is one of the more entertaining fighters out there. Which is why very few of his fights go the distance (or even into the 2nd round).
I asked about his future plans, and he is hoping to be back in the ring in February/March but nothing is deceided yet. 
Right now, he is working on setting up his own gym. He has to come up with a name, and even though he has some good ideas, suggestions are welcome (you can post as comment)!
For now, he is working on improving every part of his game. The practice I was watching was striking (technique, light sparring and bags). Miyata is taking his fighting very seriously, and you can expect improvements. Last year he spent some time at Buakaw's camp in Thailand to improve on his Thai/Kick boxing. 
You will hear more about him in 2009, and I am sure whoever the opponent will be it will be an exciting fight. I found a highlight video on YouTube, you'll see what I mean.
I want to thank Sean and Miyata for letting me take some pictures of the training, I had a great time and will keep my eyes open for the next fight!
Next Saturday is one of the highlights of the year for me. I really like going to these kind of finals, whatever they call it... The Shooto tournament always produces some great talent, and this year should be no different. In addition to that, they have added a main-event to the card that should be really good!
Also scheduled is the retirement ceremony of Akihiko Adachi (4-4-2), winner of the rookie tournament in 2003.
Fight order:
8. Main-Event: Welter: Paulo Milano 6-3-1 vs. 7-4-0 Guy Delameau
Rookie Tournament Finals:
7. Flyweight: Mikitoshi Yamagami 2-0-0 vs. 3-1-0 Junji “Sarumaru” Ito
6. Lightweight: Issei Tamura 2-0-0 vs. 4-1-0 Naohiro Mizuno
Retirement ceremony of Akihiko Adachi.
5. Featherweight: Kosuke Eda 6-2-2 vs. 0-1-1 Yoshihiko Oyama
4. Light-Heavy: Takaaki Oban “C-Boy” 2-1-0 vs. 2-1-1 Makoto Maeda “Chomolangma ½”
3. Bantam: Fumihiro Kitahara 3-0-0 vs. 2-0-0 Kentaro Watanabe
2. Middle: Takesuke Kume 3-0-2 vs. 2-2-2 Takuya Sato
1. Welter: Yukinari “Hibiki” Tamura 8-1-4 vs. 2-0-0 Ikuo Usuda
THere have been 5 additions to the Cage Force card this weekend. I thought the card looked a bit thin for a Cage Force event, but it is defiantely a full card now. In the fights added we will see some experienced fighters going against some very good talent, and there have been more than a few upsets in Cage Force this year.
This event is of course mainly about the tournament finals, both the bantam- and the featherweight finals should be very good fights. Yuji Hoshino has surprised me in getting this far, and the 33 year old would be a slight underdog again this time (IMO). In the bantamweight final, there is a similar scenario... 40 year old Masahiro Oishi has impressed me, but I would have to favor the younger Takeya Mizugaki in this one. I am really bad at predicting the outcome so I will leave the rest...
It should be a good event, so if you're not going to the K-1 this should be a good alternative. It is being held in Differ Ariake and doors open at 16:00.
Added:
Feather: Wataru Miki 13-8-3 vs. 2-0-0 Masaaki Hasegawa
Welter: Keitaro Maeda 3-3-1 vs. 1-0-0 Kenta Takagi
Feather: Wataru Takahashi 6-10-4 vs. 2-0-0 Nobutaka Hiyoshi
Preliminary Fights:
Bantam: Hirokazu Nishimura 2-2-1 vs. 3-0-0 Shoko Sato
Bantam: Ryo Saito 0-1-0 vs. 0-2-1 Ryota Sasaki
Previously Announced:
Cage Force Tournament Finals:
Feather: "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura 9-2-1 vs. 15-7-7 Yuji Hoshino
Bantam: Masahiro Oishi 19-10-7 vs. 10-2-2 Takeya Mizugaki
Non-Tournament Fights:
Motoki Miyazawa 4-1-0 vs. 7-10-3 Shigetoshi Iwase
Takeyasu Hirono 8-15-4 vs. 0-2-0 Yoshihiro Matsunaga
Tomonari Kanomata 12-3-3 vs. 6-5-0 Eriya Matsuda
Shinpei Sotoyama 7-3-2 vs. 3-1-0 Yoshiaki "Bancho" Takahashi
Preliminary Fight:
Koji Ando 1-0-1 vs. 0-1-0 Masayoshi Ichikawa
Pancrase has a very big event coming up this weekend, as always there will be an oppurtunity to buy a t-shirt to remeber the event. The Pancrase shirts are good quality and they have bigger sizes too, the biggest one even fits me!
Kitaoka has also released a new shirt. His previous one his logo (the bear) getting a guy in a guillotine choke, but after his performance in Sengoku I am sure we all agree that a ankle lock is more appropriate.
The Kitaoka shirt is available in the Pancrase Store now, I expect the other will be there after this Sunday's event.
The easiest way to get these shirts is ofcourse to go to the event. I am not sure if they ship overseas and unfortuantely the site is all in Japanese...
But to get your Pancrase goods, if you're in Japan is here.
Saturday's Shooto event was awesome, I was there and took some pictures.
Hayakawa has an ability to get stuck in some submissions in the 2nd round. Here Nezu is close to ending the fight early, something that would have been a shame. Hayakawa was the better fighter in the 1st round, but Nezu took the second and it ended in a deserved draw.
Atsushi Takeuchi was better than Katsuya Murofushi standing, and got in some good punches.
When the fight hit the ground, he looked in control there too.
Eventually Takeuchi get a guiliotine choke in that ended the fight in the second round.
Ogikubo wanted to take Tazawa down, and he did that in all the rounds. Unfortunately, Tazawa defended well and it ended in a draw.
The last 3 fights on this card were awesome on paper, first out was Takashi Nakakura against Bendy Casimir. I had picked this as a very close fight, and was wrong... Casimir looked good once the fight was standing, but on the ground Nakakura proved to be the better grappler. Nakakura landed some heavy punches.
Casimir was forced to give up his back and Nakakura took full advantage. With just seconds remaining in the first round he sunk in a deep rear-naked choke.
I think Casimir thought he could last the round and did not tap. But with 2 seconds left the ref was forced to stop the fight and Casimir was left unconcious.
A very strong performance by Nakakura!
The next fight was between Rumina Sato and Hatsu Hioki. In this fight Hioki didnt take long to get Rumina on the ground, and once there he got mount. The ref had to step in, Hioki's gnp was too much for the veteran.
The main event was the title fight between Hideki Kadowaki and "Lion" Takeshi. I think everyone expected Kadowaki to take this to the ground. I was surprised that he didnt immediately do that though. He was able to land some good shots on the challenger and for a second it looked like "Lion" was in danger.
Unfortuantely for Kadowaki, the fight did not end that way. "Lion" took round 2 and 3. In the end he also get the decision and was crowned the new champion.
The upcoming weekend will be big in Japan, and it should be a fun one! Saturday there are 2 events (if you count this one), K-1 and Cage Force. Sunday we will have Pancrase.
I will sit out Saturday (probably catch K-1 on TV), then get to the Pancrase event.
But the K-1 World GP Finals are always big and this year you can watch it on HDNet (if you're in the states).
This year the big favorite Semmy Schilt was knocked out in the previous round, a very good performance by Peter Aerts saw him taking the decision. Aerts will take on Badr Hari, in my eyes the winner could very well come for this fight. It could also result in injury to both fighters, so as always, keep an eye on the reserve fights.
As for Semmy Schilt, I would expect to see him on NYE in the Dynamite event. Maybe even fighting MMA rules.
The fights on Saturday:
Main-Event - Final: Winner Semi-Final 1 vs. Winner Semi-Final 2
Semi-Final 2: Winner Quarter-Final 3 vs. Winner Quarter-Final 4
Semi-Final 1: Winner Quarter-Final 1 vs. Winner Quarter-Final 2
Reserve Fight (2): Paul Slowinski vs. Melvin Manhoef
Reserve Fight (1): Hong Man Choi vs. Ray Sefo
World GP Quarter-Finals:
#4 - Remy Bonjasky vs. Jerome LeBanner
#3 - Gokhan Saki vs. Ruslan Karaev
#2 - Errol Zimmerman vs. Ewerton Teixeira
#1 - Peter Aerts vs. Badr Hari
Opening Fights:
Mitsugu Noda vs. Tsutomu Takahagi
TAKERU vs. Taisei Ko
Nightmare of Battle is reporting that KamiPro is releasing a book about Pride secrets. From what I can see, it should go on sale December 1 (today).
What can we expect? Here are some things:
The true ambition of Lorenzo when he bought PRIDE.
DREAM was born from the PRIDE LW GP that was supposed to happen in 2008.
PRIDE.1 was Takada vs. Rickson and Sakuraba vs. Renzo.
The plan of Riki Choshu, Shinya Hashimoto and Masakatsu Funaki participating.
The other side of the termination of Royce vs Kerr.
Keisuke Kuwata (singer) vs. Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi (singer) realization by PRIDE?
Something about a sumo wrestler (KONISHIKI) acquisition of PRIDE.
A plan about a reality show.
Something about Holyfield.
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