4/25 SmackGirl - ReMix Tournament

SmackGirl has another awesome event coming up in April, they are bringing out one of their biggest stars. In addition to bringing back an old veteran.

Megumi Fuji made it through to the second round in the ReMix Tournament (not surprisingly), and will now face Korean Thai boxer Su Hi Ham. This will be a good fight, Su Hi Ham holds a win against Hisae Watanabe and should not be underestimated.

Also confirmed for this event is Windy Tomomi, who returned after a long injury break to demolish Emi Tomimatsu's career in her last fight.

confirmed so far:

World ReMix Tournament Lightweight Fights:
Megumi Fujii 14-0-0 vs. 3-2-0 Sec Hee Ham
Lisa Ward 11-3-0 vs. 6-2-0 Michelli Tavares

Non-Tournament fight:
Windy Tomomi 10-8-0 vs. AZUMA

Discovery Fights:
Asami Kodera 2-2-0 vs. 0-1-0 Mika Nagano
Megu vs. 0-1-0 Hitomi Sakamoto

ReMix Openweight Tournament Participants:
Hitomi Akano
Atsuko Emoto

http://gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_04/0402_smack.htm

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

K-1 has today announced which fighters will meet in the quarter finals to be held in Nippon Budokan July 7. The finals will be held October 1.

Masato vs. Drago
Buakaw Por. Pramuk vs. Yoshihiro Sato
Andy Souwer vs. Warren Stevelmans
Yasuhiro Kido vs. Artur Kyshenko

That's right, Yoshihiro Sato gets another shot at Buakaw. For those who remember, their fight in Feb. was very close. Sato almost KO'ed Buakaw in the final seconds of the extention, but Buakaw took a close decision.

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/k1/headlines/20080410-00000022-spnavi-fight.html

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Random Bits 4/10

Just some things that have happened and small things I have discovered today.

-Sengoku has announced their first participant for their June 8 event. The participant is Kazuyuki Fujita. It will be interesting to see who they put him up against this time. I have to say that Sengoku is looking very promising at the moment, the first event had good fights and the second is looking good too.
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080410-00000016-spnavi-fight.html

-Cage Force 06 is going to be showed on free to air TV in the Tokyo area, TV Tokyo is showing this April 27 at 2:40-3.35 AM. Hopefully someone stays up and makes sure it hits YouTube as well.
http://www.g-c-m.net/medhia/index.html

-Ever wondered what a ring-girl audtion/competition looks like? No need to wonder any more... Follow the link and see how the DEEP audition went. Click on the links on the side. Unfortunately, you nee to sign up to see Part 2 and on. The links on top will also bring you to other GBR videos. This page is one of the best MMA pages in Japan.
http://www.gbring.com/roundgirl/movie/20070915_deep.htm

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5/19 DEEP 35 - Fights added

DEEP has revealed more fights for their DEEP 35 card. On it, 2 title fights and 4 title holders! This will be an exciting event and I am not happy that I will not be in Japan at that time!

DEEP Featherweight title fight:
Masakazu Imanari 14-5-1 vs. 17-6-2 Dokonjonosuke Mishima

DEEP Lightweight title fight:
Kazunori Yokota 6-0-3 vs. 2-1-0 Pang Sung Hwan

Middleweight Tournament:
Yuya Shirai 12-5-0
Daijiro Matsui 10-18-4
Yuichi Nakanishi 7-7-3
Riki Fukuda 9-3-0

Middleweight Tournament Reserve Fight:
Ryuta Sakurai 15-14-4 vs. 9-4-0 Young “RYO” Choi

Hidehiko Hasegawa 14-9-4 vs. 11-13-7 Hiroki Nagaoka
Koichiro Matsumoto 3-1-0 vs. 6-1-3 Yuki Ito
Katsunori Kikuno 6-1-1 vs. 3-2-1 Seigo Inoue

Participating:
Jutaro Nakao 20-13-4
Seichi Ikemoto 16-14-5
Satoko Shinashi 28-1-2

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4/13 K-1 World GP

Ok, just so I don't forget about this one. K-1 this Sunday in Yokohama! This will be a HUGE event!!

The main event, and of course the highlight of the evening. Super-Heavyweight title fight between Mark Hunt and Semmy Schilt. Schilt has looked unbeatable, but Mark Hunt has always done well as an underdog. He is now back in K-1 and this is huge, even if it might just be for one fight. If he wins, I guess we will see more of him in K-1.

Anyway, the card:
K-1 Super Heavyweight Title Match : K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R
Semmy Schilt vs. Mark Hunt

K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ex.2R
Ewerton Teixeira vs. Yusuke Fujimoto
Junichi Sawayashiki vs. Musashi
Badr Hari vs. Ray Sefo
Glaube Feitosa vs. Alex Roberts
Mighty Mo vs. Keihiro Maeda
Mitsugu Noda vs. Petr Vondracek
Chalid “Die Faust” vs. Aleksandr Pichkunov

K-1 Rules 3min. x3
Takashi Tachikawa vs. Hiroyuki Enokida

Opening Fights:
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Takumi Sato
Kyoung Suk Kim vs. Tsutomu Takahagi

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4/9 K-1 WorldMax-World Championship Final 16 - RESULTS

Well, I kind of missed the boat on this one... Anyway, here are the results. An awesome event, rare to see so many top fighters in an event outside of Tokyo and Osaka (event was in Hiroshima).

I will update the results as they become available (I am watching this on delayed TV broadcast).

Unfortunately I have been unable to find the remaining results, so they will have to wait until tomorrow.

World Championship Tournament FINAL 16 : K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ext.1R
Masato Def. Virgil Kalakoda by KO Round 0:22
Buakaw Por. Pramuk vs. Albert Kraus by decision after extention
Artur Kyshenko vs. Jordan Tai by decision after extention
Andy Souwer Def. Mike Zambidis by KO, ext. round 2:05
Yoshihiro Sato Def. Murat Direcki by decision 3-0
Warren Stevelmans Def. Saro “The Sicilian Don” Presti by KO Round 2 1:06
Yasuhiro Kido Def. Chi Bin Lim by KO Round 1 0:40
Drago Def. GORI by KO Round 3 2:56

K-1 World Youth fight:
HIROYA Def. Tsukasa Fuji by decision 3-0

Opening fights:
Yuya Yamamoto Def. Marfio “The Warrior Tiger” Canoletti by decision 3-0
Shota Takiya Def. Vitalij Lisnyak by decision 2-1

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Random Bits

Ok, K-1 is just starting on TV and I will update the results later. But there are a couple of things I want to get off my chest first.

-Dan Hardy has set up his own web-site, hopefully there will be regular updates to this. He is one of my favorite fighters and I hope he is coming back to Japan soon. I have seen small indications on discussion forums, but nothing official yet.

For the latest updates on where he is fighting, make sure to check out his site.
http://www.danhardymma.com/

-Samurai Fighting TV will be showing ClubDEEP Tokyo and the MegaTon GP from March 29. The MegaTon GP got a lot of attention and this means it is possible that it will be on YouTube or DailyMotion. For those in Japan, it will be on April 16 at 23.00.
http://www.samurai-tv.co.jp/index.html?date=20080416

-Don Frye is featuring in Japanese noodle commercials for UFO. It is also confirmed today that Josh Barnett is fighting "The Predator" in IGF Prowrestingling in Osaka. I am not sure that "The Predator" = Don Frye, but it would not surprise me. I also think this is a sign he is making his way back to Japan. This is excellent news for fans here, Don Frye is always entertaining and very popular over here.
*** UPDATE*** The Predator was definately NOT Don Frye, just so that's corrected...

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4/5 Cage Force 06 - PICTURES

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Very sorry its taken so long to get these pictures up. But its better late than never and I know people have been waiting for them...

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Unfortunately the cage makes it harder to get good pictures of the fights, but I managed to get some of the ring girls. And there was a lot of ring girls!

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This is from the fight between Tsurumaki and Meada, Tsurumaki on the left going for his 10th straight loss.

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The best thing about that fight was that we got to see the ring girls.

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From the fight between Ueyama and Nezu. Ueyama in red.

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Tetsuya Suzuki was a very late but good replacement against Fujiwara. It looked for a little bit that Fujiwara was going to take it.

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But in the end Tetsuya Suzuki showed that he was better on the night.

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Suzuki took the fight.

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James Doolan came out fighting and was very aggressive early on. He wanted the fight standing, but eventually Uematsu got him to the ground.

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I had very high expectations to Ryota. He did not deliver, probably due to an eye injury early on. His fight with Nakahara was a little disappointing.

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Paul McVeigh entered the ring against the veteran Oishi.

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The first round was all McVeigh, and I thought he was going to take it.

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But in the second round things changed, didn't get any pictures of it, but Oishi got McVeigh's back and the Irishman was unable to shake him off.

I think the picture describes this beautifully...

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A show of sportsmanship after the fight.

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I didn't get any pictures of the main event, but as I predicted, Hirota took this. It lasted only 1 minute, I was not expecting that...

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On the way out I had time for some group shots...

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...And found the new champion, Hirota hanging out by the ladies toilet...

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Paul McVeigh was also posting for the photographers.

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5/3 Shooto - Road to 20th Anniversary - "MACH" Fighting

Hayato "Mach" Sakurai is today confirmed on this card. Shooto is putting on something special here to celebrate their 20th anniversary, and this card is looking awesome.

Sakurai is taking on Frenchman David Baron in what will surely be one of the highlights on this card.

Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. 13-2-0 David Baron

Previously confirmed:
Takashi Nakakura 9-2-1 vs. 9-2-2 Ganjo Tentsuku
Ryuichi Miki 6-2-2 vs. 14-3-5 Yasuhiro Urushitani

Participating:
Rumina Sato 24-11-2
"Lion" Takeshi Inoue 14-2-0

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4/5 Cage Force 06 - RESULTS

Apologies for being late with these. It was a very good event, even though there were lots of last minute changes they put together a very good card.

Paul McVeigh didn't win his fight, but the first round was definitely his. Oishi is a very good and experienced fighter and managed to defend himself well in that round. James Doolan was the better fighter as long as the fight was standing. He didn't want the fight to go to the ground, but Uematsu caught a leg an manged to get a quick submission.

In the main event, Hirota was the stronger and he is now the new Cage Force Lightweight champion.

Just so its mentioned, Tsurumaki is now 0-10. It was not a very good fight and easy to see why he has that record, but one of these days he will get a victory...

Lightweight Title fight:
Mizuto Hirota Def. Tomonari Kanomata by TKO Round 1 1:00

Bantam Tournament:
Masahiro Oishi Def. Paul McVeigh by TKO Round 2 3:13
Taiyo Nakahara Def. Ryota TKO Round 2 5:00

Non-Tournament/Title Fights:
Yoshihiro Koyama Def. Wataru Miki by Decision 3-0
Naoya Uematsu Def. James Doolan by Heel-Hook Round 1 2:26
Tetsuya Suzuki Def. Daichi Fujiwara by Kimura Round 2 4:06
Yuta Nezu Def. Tomoaki Ueyama by TKO Round 3 1:48
Keitaro Maeda Def. Nobuhiro Tsurumaki by decision 3-0

Preliminary fights:
Yuta Nakamura Vs. Shuji Morikawa Draw
Nobutaka Hiyoshi Def. Tomoyuki Miyaji by KO Round 1 0:11
Junichi Ota Def. Naoto Miyazaki by DQ (Low Blow)
Yasutaka Shimizu Def. Kenji Ikeda by TKO Round 1 1:15

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