11/23 ZST 18 - Kotani fighting Nagata

ZST is really pulling out some stars for this card, they had Kotani on the card, now they added his opponent. It will be Katsuhiko Nagata, who holds a 4-3 record from HEROs and DREAM fights. Nagata won silver medal in Sydney Olympics Greco Roman wrestling and is a good competitor. Kotani is a veteran of UFC, Pride and Rings. This should be a good fight.

Also added is a lightweight tagteam fight between the Alliance Square team (Ito/Ito) and the pairing of Okude/Sato

ZST have a bit different rules, you can read more on them here.

Added:
Lightweight: Naoyuki Kotani 17-8-6 vs. 4-3-0 Katsuhiko Nagata

Lightweight Tag-team:
Kenichi Ito 3-3-2/Yuki Ito 7-2-3 vs. Masayuki Okude 5-5-5/Shinya Sato 8-12-6

Card so far:
GT-F (grappling) Tag-Team Final:
Makazu Imanari/Hideo Tokoro vs. Takumi Yano/Daisuke Yokoyama

Middleweight: Yojiro Uchimura 6-3-0 vs. 34-32-16 Osami Shibuya
Lightweight: Naoyuki Kotani 17-8-6 vs. 4-3-0 Katsuhiko Nagata
Featherweight: Shunichi Shimizu 13-3-4 vs. 4-1-3 Keisuke Fujiwara
GT-F (Grappling): Minoru Toyonaga vs. Hiroki Kotani
Lightweight Tag-team:
Kenichi Ito 3-3-2/Yuki Ito 7-2-3 vs. Masayuki Okude 5-5-5/Shinya Sato 8-12-6

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Sengoku Signs Izumi

It is confirmed today that Sengoku has signed the Judo 90kg Olympic silver medalist from Athens. Hiroshi Izumi is a popular Judo fighter in Japan and now he will change to MMA.

It is really an exciting time in Japanese MMA these days! Izumi might make his debut in January.

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20081031-00000000-spnavi_ot-fight.html

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11/1 Sengoku - Odds

The Sengoku 6 odds are out, and there are some BIG favoties in this one. If you are looking for good value, Eiji Mitsuoka would be one. He will have a tough fight against Satoru Kitaoka, but deserves better odds than what he has at the moment. Other fights I think there might be good value is Jorge Santiago and Siyar Bahadurzada, I thi it will be tighter than that. The same goes for Jorge Masvidal and Hwan Sung Pang

Otherwise, Gomi and Nogueira are huge favorites (not unexpectedly). Even though I think Moise Rimbon might create an upset here.

Either way, it is only good value if you manage to pick a winner. Tomorrow we will see if there are any upsets.

Middleweight GP
Jorge Santiago -345
Siyar Bahadurzada +275

Kazuhiro Nakamura -345
Yuki Sasaki +275

Izuru Takeuchi +130
Joe Doerksen -160

Lightweight GP
Kazunori Yokota +175
Mizuto Hirota -215

Eiji Mitsuoka +175
Satoru Kitaoka -215

Jorge Masvidal -515
Hwan Sung Pang +365

Non-GP Fights
Sergey Golyaev +600
Takanori Gomi -800

Fabio Silva +215
Muhammed Lawal -275

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira -750
Moise Rimbon +550

Thanks to:
http://combat-hooligans.com/2008/10/30/sengoku-6-odds-and-latest-ufc-lines/
http://www.betwwx.com/ufc-odds/

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Ishii Offered $5,000,000 to sign with DREAM

Satoshi Ishii might be the most sought after fighter in Japan today... SportsNavi is reporting that he has been offered $5 Mil. to sign with DREAM. There will be an announcement on Monday.

The plan would be for him to make on appearance on NYE (Dynamite), but looks like this would not be a fight.

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11/8 Cage Force Eastern Bound EX - "K-Taro"'s Opponent Announced

GCM have announced 2 more fights for their event on November 8. Well, they have 2 events that day, kicking off with the debut of Valkyrie followed by Eastern Bound EX late in the afternoon.

The fights announced today are for the Eastern Bound card. And "K-Taro" now has an opponent. You should never underestimate a fighter, but I would be surprised if "K-Taro" lost to Jang Yong Kim…

Also added is an interesting fight between the Cage Force talent Daisuke Hoshino and Naoto Miyazaki. Miyazaki has not had much luck so far in his Cage Force career, his loss was a disqualification though, so he will be trying to get his first win this time.

I think that would complete the card for this event.

Added today:
Keita Nakamura "K-Taro" 15-3-2 vs. 1-2-0 Jang Yong Kim
Daisuke Hoshino 4-0-0 vs. 0-1-1 Naoto Miyazaki

The card:
Hidetaka Monma 13-8-4 vs. Andore Mafetoni (??)
Yasuhiro Urushitani 14-4-6 vs. 0-0-1 Kiyotaka Shimizu
Kenji Osawa 13-8-2 vs. 9-4-5 Tomoya Miyashita
Yukiya Naito 13-4-2 vs. 1-0-0 Alex Silva
Rikuhei Fuji 3-2-0 vs. 6-5-4 Takenori Sato
Keitaro Maeda 2-3-1 vs. 14-4-3 Hiroki "Goodman" Tanaka
Keita Nakamura "K-Taro" 15-3-2 vs. 1-2-0 Jang Yong Kim
Daisuke Hoshino 4-0-0 vs. 0-1-1 Naoto Miyazaki

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11/1 SENGOKU GP Finals - Fight order

This shoule be the best event so far by Sengoku. There are 11 good fights on the card, and the GPs should bring lots of excitement.

Other than the GPs, Antonio Rogerio's return to Japan will be a highlight and his fight with Moise Rimbon should be a good one. It will also be interesting to see if "King Mo" can follow up his impressive debut.

For the GPs, it is very hard to tell who is the favorite. Personally, I think Siyar Bahadurzada should have a good chance in the Middleweight GP, but I am not sure he is back to 100% after his injury.

The lightweights are almost impossible to tell. My personal favorites are Satoru Kitaoka and Mizuto Hirota. But Eiji Mitsuoka is probably the most rounded fighter of the semi-finalists. Kazunori Yokota is also very strong, so this GP I would not write off anyone.

GP Finals:
11. LW Final: Winner Fight 3 vs. Winner Fight 4
10. MW Final: Winner Fight 1 vs. Winner Fight 2

Non-GP Fights
9. LW: Takanori Gomi 29-3-0 vs. 10-6-0 Sergey Golyaev
8. LHW: "King Mo" Muhammed Lawal 1-0-0 vs. 11-4-0 Fabio Silva
7. LHW: Moise Rimbon 13-7-3 vs. 14-3-0 Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

GP Semi-Finals (Middle and Lightweight) and Reserve Fights
6. LW GP Res.: Bang Seung Hwan 5-2-0 vs. 14-3-0 Jorge Masvidal
5. MW GP Res.: Izuru Takeuchi 25-9-6 vs. 40-12-0 Joe Doerksen
4. LW GP: Satoru Kitaoka 21-8-9 vs. 14-5-2 Eiji Mitsuoka
3. LW GP: Kazunori Yokota 7-1-3 vs. 10-2-0 Mizuto Hirota
2. MW GP: Yuki Sasaki 22-14-1 vs. 12-8-0 Kazuhiro Nakamura
1. MW GP: Jorge Santiago 18-7-0 vs. 14-3-1 Siyar Bahadurzada

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11/24 Shoot Boxing (Saitama Super Arena) - Fights Announced (Andy Souwer, Chris Horodecki, Luiz Azeredo)

Shoot Boxing have announced the fights for their big event of the year. This time its in Saitama Superarena, and it will be HUGE. I went to the last one, and was really impressed by the atmosphere and the quality of the fights. For this card they are really bringing in the big stars though.

On the card is Andy Souwer, Chris Horodecki, Luiz Azeredo and Shoot Boxing star Hiroki Shishido. Last time, Megumi Fuji had a fight, this time they are giving Miku Matsumoto a shot.

This will be a tournament format, like K-1, with quarter finals --> final.



The Tournament set up is like this:
Quarter-Finals:
QF1: Andy Souwer vs. Edvin Kibus
QF2: Hiroki Shishido vs. Chris Horodecki

QF3: Denis Schneldmiller vs. Luiz Azeredo
QF4: Kenichi Ogata vs. TBA

Semi-Finals:
SF1: Winner QF1 vs. Winner QF2
SF2: Winner QF3 vs. Winner QF4

Final:
Winner SF 1 vs. Winner SF2

Reserve fights:
Kenji Kanai vs. Wei Shoulei
Greg Foley vs. Oh Ju-Suk (?)

Non-Tournament Fight
Miku Matsumoto vs. Lena

Participating:
Fuuka (Female Pro-Wrestler)

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12/10 DEEP Impact 39 - First Fight Announced/Obiya Returns!

The first fight was really announced on Thursday... The fight between DJ Taiki and Uematsu was ment to happen in DEEP 38 was moved to DEEP 39 due to injury. This should be a very good fight and I am happy they stay with it.

Also added as a participant (Ryo Chonan was there to announce it), is Nobuhiro Obiya. This will be a VERY welcome return for DEEP fans!! Obiya was 9-0 until be joined Pride, he proceeded to lose 3 in a row before "retiring". He has not fought in almost 2 years and it will be good to see him back. Any DEEP fan will remember his fight with Milton Vieira in DEEP 22.

Deep 22 - Milton Vieira vs Obiya
Uploaded by kreem

Added:
Daiki Hata "DJ Taiki" 8-5-3 vs. 15-7-2 Naoya Uematsu

Participating:
Nobuhiro Obiya 9-3-1

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12/13 Shooto Rookie Finals - Fights Announced

For me the Rookie tournament are a highlight every year. Pancrase finished their Neo-Blood tournament earlier this year, and as always it was an awesome event. The Shooto finals have some exciting fighters in it too.

There are so many good fighters and fights on this card already, add to that the ticket price and you should have a very good Saturday night in Shinjuku! I am definately not missing this one!

Flyweight Rookie Tournament Final
Mikitoshi Yamagami 2-0-0 vs. 3-1-0 Junji “Sarumaru” Ito

Bantamweight Rookie Tournament Final
Fumihiro Kitahara 3-0-0 vs. 2-0-0 Kentaro Watanabe

Featherweight Rookie Tournament Final
Kosuke Eda 6-2-2 vs. 0-1-1 Yoshihiko Oyama

Lightweight Rookie Tournament Final
Issei Tamura 2-0-0 vs. 4-1-0 Naohiro Mizuno

Welterweight Rookie Tournament Final
Yukinari “Hibiki” Tamura 8-1-4 vs. 2-0-0 Ikuo Usuda

Middleweight Rookie Tournament Final
Takesuke Kume 3-0-2 vs. 2-2-2 Takuya Sato

Light-Heavyweight Rookie Tournament Final
Takaaki Oban “C-Boy” 2-1-0 vs. 2-1-1 Makoto Maeda “Chomolangma ½”


Tickets:
RS 8,000円
S 6,000円
A 5,000円
At the door +500円
Includes 500円 drink coupon

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12/7 Pancrase Shining - Differ Ariake

In what looks like the main event, Katsuya Inoue will fight Koji Oishi for the Pancrase Lightweight title. They have fought once before, on that occation Inoue came out on top with a KO victory. Since that Oishi has been undefeated and he will be looking to revenge that loss.

Returning to Pancrase will be Daijiro Matsui. He has had 3 fights in Pancrase earlier, the last one being in 2006 agaist Yuki Kondo. Matsui has mainly fought in Cage Rage and DEEP the last couple of years, but his record has not been good winning only 2 of his last 9 fights.

On the card will also be the welterweight tournament final. This is not to determine any title, rather to set one fighter up for the title fight. The winner will meet interim titleholder Takuya Wada for the King of Pancrase title in the spring.

Pancrase really has the wind in their sails. It is another very strong card coming up in December. In addition to the fights mentioned, 4 participants have been announced. Among them 2 of the biggest talents in Japan today, Maximo Blanco and Seiya Kawahara. They are both undefeated and I hope Maximo Blanco controls himself this time. He is HUGE talent, but his lack of control after crushing his opponent might hold him back.

In addition to these talents, the newly crowned Light-Heavyweight King of Pancrase, Ryo Kawamura will be participating as well.

12/7-08 Differ Ariake
Open 15:00 Start 16:00

Lightweight King of Pancrase Title Fight
Katsuya Inoue 16-6-3 vs. 17-7-5 Koji Oishi

Welterweight Tournament Final 3x5min
Tomoyoshi Iwamiya 5-7-0 vs. 6-3-2 Hiroyuki Nozawa

Middle: Ichiro Kanai 8-9-3 vs. 10-20-4 Daijiro Matsui
Feather: Yuki Yashima 2-4-1 vs. 5-2-4 Yasutomo Tanaka

Participating:
Ryo Kawamura 9-3-2
Seiya Kawahara 6-0-0
Maximo Blanco 1-0-0 (1 NC)
Masayuki Kono 3-4-0

Ticket Prices:
SS ¥12,000-　
A ¥8,000-　
B ¥6,000-　
C ¥4,500-

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