6/26 Shooto - Kitazawa Townhall

Thursday, 12 June 2008

Shooto is holding an event in Kitazawa Townhall June 26. There are a couple of rookie tournament fights on the card, but no big stars. Should still be a good event.

8. Bantamweight: Homare Kuboyama 6-6-1 vs. 4-6-1 Shinichi Hanawa
7. Flyweight: Kenichi Sawada 3-8-2 vs. 3-1-0 Hiroyuki Abe
6. Welterweight: Shinobu Miura 1-3-1 vs. 5-3-0 Paolo Milano
5. Rookie-Tournament Featherweight: Yuki Baba vs. 4-2-2 Kosuke Eda
4. Rookie-Tournament Lightweight: Yasuhiro Kanayama 1-3-3 vs. Issei Tamura
3. Featherweight: Tatsuya Nakashima 0-1-0 vs. Makoto Yamauchi
2. Class C Female: Ikuko Tamada vs. Kaio Nagayasu
1. Class C Female: Yasuko Shigeki vs. Ayumi Takeuchi

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6/15 DREAM 4 - Fight added

FEG has managed to save the situation a bit. They have had 2 fighters withdraw this week and have been lucky in that the 2 remaining fighters have agreed to face eachother.

Ralek Gracie will take on Gadzhiev Alavutdin, in a fight added to the DREAM 4 card today. Gracie was meant to fight CroCop in a special rules grappling match, and Gadzhiev Alavutdin was fighting Cacareko. Unfortunately both these fights were cancelled and now they are fighting each other. It should be an interesting fight, Gadzhiev Alavutdin has been very good in his Pancrase fights and I am really looking forward to him getting his DREAM debut.

I will give live result update from this, but since most of you hopefully are able to catch the HDNet or SkyPerfect broadcast, I am not planning a play-by-play.

The card:
Alavutdin Gadzhiyev 7-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Ralek Gracie
Hideo Tokoro 19-13-1 vs. 4-1-0 Darren Uyenoyama
Alistair Overeem 26-11-0 vs. 1-1-0 Tae Hyun Lee


Lightweight Tournament:
Shinya Aoki 15-2-0 vs. 4-2-0 Katsuhiko Nagata

Middleweight Tournament:
Kazushi Sakuraba 24-10-1 vs. 21-4-1 Melvin Manhoef
Gegard Mousasi 21-2-1 vs. 4-4-0 Dong Sik Yoon
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza 8-1-0 vs. 21-5-0 Jason "Mayhem" Miller
Zelg "Benkei" Galesic 8-3-0 vs. 3-2-0 Taiei Kin

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6/15 DREAM 4 - Cacareco out?

Wednesday, 11 June 2008

Sherdog is reporting that Cacareco will not be making his DREAM debut on Sunday due to visa issues. This is a blow to DREAM who just a few days ago had CroCop pull out.

This is disappointing, I was looking forward to seeing the 2 debutants battle it out. Hopefully they are able to find a replacement on short notice... I would like to see Alavutdin Gadzhiyev make his debut.

The card still looks good though:
Kazushi Sakuraba 24-10-1 vs. 21-4-1 Melvin Manhoef
Gegard Mousasi 21-2-1 vs. 4-4-0 Dong Sik Yoon
Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza 8-1-0 vs. 21-5-0 Jason "Mayhem" Miller

Zelg "Benkei" Galesic 8-3-0 vs. 3-2-0 Taiei Kin
Hideo Tokoro 19-13-1 vs. 4-1-0 Darren Uyenoyama
Alistair Overeem 26-11-0 vs. 1-1-0 Tae Hyun Lee

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Hong Man Choi has Operation

Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Hong Man Choi has had an operation for his brain tumor today. Let's hope he makes a full and speedy recovery.

***Update***
FightOpinion has found an article in Nikkan Sports saying that the surgery was successful, not only that he has been excempt from the military service and is due to return to the ring 9/27.

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080610-00000142-jij-spo.html
http://www.fightopinion.com/2008/06/10/choi-hong-man-has-successful-surgery-to-remove-tumor/

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DREAM vs. Sengoku

Seems DREAM 4 was a clear winner in the poll I had, I stopped it early as it was a bit one sided. But lets look further into this.

Sengoku announced the signing of some very interesting fighters at Sengoku III. This should make the future more interesting. Which organization do you think will be the leading the way going forward?

If we look at it, I think they both look very interesting. DREAM still have the finals in both their tournaments left, Sengoku will have their lightweight tournament and the new signings. I am sure DREAM will counter with the signing of some big name fighters this Sunday. What do you think? DREAM vs. Sengoku.

Oh, by the way... If you are in the States and wanted to watch DREAM 4rather than Sengoku III, you're in luck!
HDNet is showing DREAM 4 live!

DREAM on HDNet: http://hdnetfights.com/mmaonhdnet.php

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6/22 Cage Force 07 - More Fights Announced

GCM have announced 4 more fights for Cage Force 07. We will finally get to see Antonio Carvalho fight in Cage Force, I am sure I am not the only one that have been looking forward to that. Carvalho is taking on Yuji Hoshino, who he was suppose to fight on April 5, this should be a very good fight. The other fight in the featherweight tournament is completely changed...

If we look back at the Welterweight and Lightweight tournament last year, the finalists from there have done very well:

Welterweight (will the UFC set up a re-match?)
Yoshiyuki Yoshida --> Signed with UFC, won his first fight
Dan Hardy --> Recently signed with UFC

Lightweight:
Koutetsu Boku --> Fought in DREAM
Artur Oumakhanov --> Fought in DREAM

Will this year's tournament be as successful? They got off to a shakie start, but lets hope that is behind them now.

Fights added to June 22 card:
Featherweight Tournament Round 1:
Antonio Carvalho 10-3-0 vs. 13-7-7 Yuji Hoshino
Fanjin Son 4-2-0 vs. 7-2-2 Tomohiko Hori

Preliminary Fights (3x3min):
Koji Ando vs. Naoto Miyazaki 0-1-0
Tekaji vs. 1-0-0 Wataru Suzuki

Previously announced:

Bantamweight Tournament Fights:
Katsuya Toida 10-8-3 vs. 7-5-3 Tatsu Suzuki
Takeya Mizugaki 8-2- vs. 6-2-1 Daichi Fujiwara

Non-Tournament fights
Shiko Yamashita 10-3-3 vs. 3-0-0 Motoki Miyazawa
Akihiro Murayama 9-2-4 vs. 2-2-0 Rikuhei Fuji

Preliminary Fights:
Daisuke Hoshino vs. Junichi Ota
Saito (?) vs. Nobutaka Hiyoshi

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Breaking my rule....

Monday, 9 June 2008

Ok, I have a rule not to discuss too much about MMA outside of Japan, it would just be too much work for me.

But I have mentioned before that I believe Simeon Thoresen to be one of the biggest talents in MMA today. Now he is on the new Cage Warriors card, not only that, the card looks awesome!

My knowledge of the European scene is not that good, but even I know fighters on this card. Who hasn't heard of Paul Daley? Also a couple of fighters I know from their fights in Japan are on the card: Paul McVeigh and Fabricio Nascimento.

If I only were in Europe, I would be at this event.... http://www.cagewarriors.com/event.21.htm

Anyway, I broke my rule and it won't be a regular thing....

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Sengoku Fighters Announced

Yesterday's event was not the best, but at the event they announced a Lightweight tournament, the winner will face Takanori Gomi on either NYEor the first Sengoku event next year.

The participants announced yesterday:
-Satoru Kitaoka (20-8-9)
-Eiji Mitsuoka (13-5-2)
-Kazunori Yokota (6-1-3)
-Duane Ludwig (16-8-0)
-Rodrigo Damm (8-1-0)

The first round will take place in Sengoku 4, August 24.

They also announced were some additional very exciting fighters:
-Frank Trigg (16-6-0)
-Eldari Kurtanidze (0-1-0) (Atlanta 96 and Sydney 00 bronze medalist Free-stylewrestling)
-Georgi Gogchlidze (Free-style wrestling world championships 2001 gold and 2006 silver medalist)
-Ramaz Nozadze (2004 Athens Olympic silver medalist greco-roman wrestling 96kg)
-Zurab Zviadauri (2004 Athens Olympic Gold medalist 90kg Judo)

As we can see, Sengoku seems to be looking more at adding Olympic athletes more than the usual experienced MMA fighters. I think thefuture looks very bright with these new additions. Does this mean that the momentum has turned back to Sengoku? Lets wait and see, Sengoku 4 definitely looks like it will be an interesting event though.

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6/29 K-1 World GP Fukuoka - 2 Title-Fights Added

FEG have added no less than 2 title fights to their card in Fukuoka, this card is looking very good and I wish I had a chance to get down there!

Added today:
Super-Heavyweight Title Fight
Semmy Schilt (champion) vs. Jerome Le Banner

Heavyweight Title Fight
Badr Hari (champion) vs. Glaube Feitosa

Previously announced:
Tournament Fights:
Block A
Musashi vs. Keijiro Maeda
Mitsugu Noda vs. Takumi Sato

Block B
Ewerton Teixeira vs. Hiraku Hori
Yusuke Fujimoto vs. Tsuyoshi Nakasako

Tournament Reserve Fight:
Tsutomu Takahagi vs. Keigo Takamori

Superfight:
Peter Aerts vs. Jan "the Giant" Nortje

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6/8 Sengoku III - Live Play-by-Play ***SPOILERS***

Sunday, 8 June 2008

Sengoku holds their 3rd event today, this might be the "weakest" card so far, in the biggest arena, but lets wait and see. There are some exciting fighters on the card, and it should be good event.

The broadcast has started, the event is being shown on SkyPerfect, if you are in Japan. I am not aware of it being shown anywhere else.

There are not a lot of people so far, still early though. Let's hope the audience is stil making their way in. Looks like there are more people now, but far from full.

The fighters are now being presented.

Some new fighters are being presented in the break, Zurab Zviadauri, Georgi Gogchelidze, Eldari Kurtanidze, Ramaz Nodzadze (silver medal 2004 Olympics), Frank Trigg,

Lightweight Tournament Participants: Duane Ludwig, Rodrigo Damm, Yokota Kazunori, Mitsuoka Eiji, Satoru Kitaoka


Over all, this was this was probably the weakest Sengoku event so far... Fight of the night was Thompson vs. Costa, without a doubt!

RESULTS:
1. Fabio Silva Def. Kazuo Takahashi by KO Round 2.
2. Rodrigo Damm Def. Jorge Masvidal by TKO Round 2
3. Marcio Cruz Def. Choi Mu Bae by Triangle choke Round 1
4. Sanae Kikuta Def. Chris Rice by arm-bar Round 1.
5. Nick Thompson Def. Michael Costa by Kimura Round 2
6. Kazuo Misaki Def. Logan Clark by decision 3-0
7. Travis Wiuff Def. Kazuyuki Fujita by TKO Round 1.

8. Hidehiko Yoshida Def. Maurice Smith

8. Hidehiko Yoshida Def. Maurice Smith
The fighters for the main event are entering the ring!
Round 1: The fight has started. A careful start from both fighters. Yoshida has said before the fight that he wants to win by KO. But from how this looks, Smith wants this standing and Yoshida wants to take this to the ground. The first take down attempt is unsuccessful. But then Yoshida gets the fight down. Yoshida on top now. Yoshida chokes him out with a head-lock. I did not see a tap, but the result was clear.

7. Travis Wiuff Def. Kazuyuki Fujita by TKO Round 1.
They have changed the ring announcer. And the fighters are entering now.
Round 1: Fujita the more agressive initially. Wiuff hits with a left cross and KO's Iron-head Fujita! It is a TKO, the ref jumped in and saved Fujita from the bombs Wiuf were dropping after Fujita fell. It was close to the first punch Wiuff hits with and I am sure he will be pleased with this victory.

6. Kazuo Misaki Def. Logan Clark by decision 3-0
Fighters in the ring.
Round 3: The first fight that makes it to the 3rd round. Clark moves more forward initially, but not able to hit. Finally, Clark hits with a good right. Misaki goes down, but is able to recover. THe fight goes to the ground for the first time, Clark on the botton with Misaki in half guard. Misaki stands up, and the ref asks them both to stand. Clark is more in the fight now, but it might be too late. CLark has to move forward now, 1 minute left. The fight goes to the ground again, Misaki on top. Misaki is trying stomps, but that should be illegal... I dont know what he is thinking! Misaki should win this by decision, but deserves to be close to a diqualification or point loss in the last 10 seconds.
Round 2: Misaki hits with a high-kick. this round start much more agressive. Clark throws a low kick that hits illegal. But Misaki recovers quickly. Misaki hits with a straight right. Then Clark hits. They are trading punches and the fight has still not gone to the ground. Clark is unable to get the right distance and it looks like Misaki is in control. Misaki starting to hit more now. Clark is mostly in the middle with Misaki controling the distance. Round finishes with Misaki taking this one.
Round 1: The fighters are starting carefully. Some punches from Clark that hits air. Clark chasing Misaki, but not able to hit him. Misaki moves back and hits with some punches, but no damage. Fight has not gone to the ground yet, and no damage done. Both fighters hit with a hook, but they are both ok. The fighters look more comfortable now. No fighters hitting and the round ends. Misaki is constantly backing up, but he has hit the most. I would give the round to Misaki, but its very close.

5. Nick Thompson Def. Michael Costa by Kimura Round 2
The ring announcer is starting to annoy me (a matter of taste), but otherwise the show has been good. The fighters are making their way now.
Round 2: Fighters trying some kicks and punches now. Costa continuing on Thompson's left leg. Costa is very close with an overhand right. Costa hits with a punch and is knocked down. Thompson really looked damaged for a second. So far this is the best fight. Thompson gets on top, Costa with triangle attempt. Thompson gets on top again and gets an arm-lock. Costa taps. Round 1: Costa immidiately takes the fight to the ground. Thompson immidiately starts working on a Kimura. It changes to an arm-bar and its looking close, for now Costa is able to hold on and escapes. Costa in Thompson's guard now. A few punches, but no damage done from the top. The ref moves them to the middle, but Costa still in Thimpson's guard. less than 1 minute left. Thompson with a rubber guard attempt, but time will run out. Costa stands up and kicks Thompsons left thigh as the round finishes. Round to Thompson.

4. Sanae Kikuta Def. Chris Rice by arm-bar Round 1.
Chris Rice is in the ring, Kikuta making his way now.
Round 1: Kikuta dives in, but Rice escapes. Again, Kikuta jumps in and Rice goes for a guilliotine. Kikuta escapes and goes to half guard. Then he gets mount, lets see what he can do, he has not done any damage so far. Rice tries to escape and Kikuta tries an arm-bar. Kikuta gets the arm-bar and the fight is over.

3. Marcio Cruz Def. Choi Mu Baeby Triangle choke Round 1
Round 1: Looks like Choi is stunned by some punches early on, but he recovers and they hit the ground. Cruz on top. Choi has half guard. Choi gets up. Cruz has Choi to the ropes, and they go down. Cruz is able to punch Choi and gets his back. He is high for a rear-naked and is unable to finish. Still on Choi's back, Crus is getting a lot of unanswered punches in. It is a question of how long before the ref stops this, but for now they can continue. Cruz is going for a triangle choke from the back. He is able to secure it, total domination by Cruz.

2. Rodrigo Damm Def. Jorge Masvidal
This is the fight I am looking forward to the most on this card. 2 exciting fighters that I have not seen much of so far. Fighters are making their way to the ring now.
Round 2: Second round has started, again fighters are careful. Both fighters looking for openings on their feet, but nothing hitting the target. American fans would be boo'ing at this stage. Masvidal has hit with a few legkicks, but that's all... Then suddenly out nowhere a right that KO's Masvidal. A pre-mature stoppage in my eyes...
Round 1: Fight has started. Damm starts with a leg kick. Fighters are standoffish in the start. Nothing hit som far. Masvidal is throwing kicks, while Damm is trying to close the distance with punches. Damm goes down from a punch and the fight goes to the ground. Some scrappy takedown attempts and they go out of the ring, the ref stands them up. Interesting developement, Damm seems to get the better of the fight on the feet, almost hits with a high-kick. Round is over, with no real damage done. Round to Damm (in my book).

1. Fabio Silva Def. Kazuo Takahashi by KO Round 2.
Round 2: (news flash, a person has gone crazy in Akihabara and killed 6, 12 are injured) Fabio Silva has knocked Takahashi out in the opening seconds, while I was checking the other news. He KO'ed him with a right knee while he had him puched back in the corner.
Round 1: Intense staredown to open. Fabio Silva throws a kick that hits the sore spot. Takahashi is ready again. Fighters are in the ring for the opening fight of the night! Fighters are throwing punches, and Fabio knocks Takahashi down. Silva on top in Takahashi's guard. Takahasi turns and is on top now. He is not able to do much in Silva's guard. Takahashi has sidecontrol and triesl a arm tirangle. Silva gets up and its slugfest. No real damage, except for a knee from Silva. Silva takes the fight down again and the round finishes.

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