6/5 Pancrase Passion Tour 5 - Fight Order

Pancrase have announced the fight order for their upcoming event. Getting the event started will be the always entertaining Neo-Blood tournament semi-finals.

Making his debut is Thai fighter Narongchai (not sure of the spelling), in addition to that there are some other up and coming fighters.

Takuya Eizumi snapped his 3 fight losing streak in April, and the former King of Pancrase contender will be looking to add another win here.

Returning to Pancrase is the former Sengoku Champion, Satoru Kitaoka. And this time he has a very good opponent! He is facing Brazilian Jorge Rodriges in the co-main event.

Main-Event: Welterweight King of Pancrase title fight:
16. Kengo Ura 8-5-1 vs. 37-25-9 Keiichiro Yamamiya

15. Light: Satoru Kitaoka 25-10-9 vs. 20-4-0 Jorge "Jorjao" Rodrigues
14. Light: Eriya Matsuda 8-8-0 vs. 8-3-4 Kota Okazawa
13. Feather: Shigeyuki Uchiyama 9-1-0 vs. 9-12-2 Masaya "J-Taro" Takita
12. Fly: Takuya Eizumi 6-4-0 vs. 4-3-0 Ryosuke Tanuma
11. Bantam: Ryota Sasaki 5-3-1 vs. 8-11-6 Takumi Murata
10. Light-Heavy: Jason "Mutant" Symak 2-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Yuhei Fukuda
9. Fly: Narongchai vs. 10-11-1 Yuichiro Yajima

Neo-Blood Tournament Semi-Finals:
8. Light: Katsunori Takahashi vs. Junichi Ota
7. Light: Jyuntaro Ami vs. Keigo Hirayama
6. Feather: Kensaku Nakamura vs. Motoshi Miyaji
5. Feahter: Hiroshi Tomitavs. Masakazu Takafuji
4. Bantam: Shoko Sato vs. Yuki Uejima
3. Bantam: Motonobu Tezuka vs. Yuta Numakura
2. Fly: Yoshihiro Matsunaga vs. Go Yamanaka
1. Fly: Daichi Kitakata vs. Hiroyuki "Katsuo" Nakajima

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7/10 DREAM 15 - Press Conference

FEG held a press conference earlier today, the main topic was DREAM 15. Although it was announced that Minowaman will take part in the DREAM 14 card, against TBA.

For DREAM 15, it will take place in Saitama Superarena on July 10. Planned participants are:

-Shinya Aoki
-Tatsuya Kawajiri
-Gegard Mousasi
-Melvin Manhoef
-Alistair Overeem

The fans asked if there would be a fight between Aoki and Kawajiri, that was not confirmed, but it was hinted that it will be a card with fights between rivals.

There will also be 2 Light-Heavyweight fights on the card, the winners of which will be facing eachother on DREAM 16, which will be held in September and air on TBS on a "Golden time", meaning primetime.

The first fights for Dream 15 should be announced at Dream 14.

On that note, Kawajiri is posing as a samurai (Ryoma Sakamoto) on the cover of Kamipro.

HT: tastetherainbow and nelson

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5/30 The Way of SHOOTO 03 - T-Shirt Design

Of course there would have to be a shirt to go with this awesome event! The shirt will of course be on sale in JCB hall, as well as the Inspirit Japanese webstore.

Bantamweight World Title Fight:
Yasuhiro Urushitani vs. Ryuichi Miki

Welterweight World Title Fight:
Willamy "Chiquerim" Freire 15-2-0 vs. 13-3-2 Yusuke Endo

Lightweight World Title Fight:
"Lion" Takeshi Inoue 18-3-0 vs. 20-4-2 Hatsu Hioki

62kg: Rumina Sato 25-14-2 vs. 15-1-1 Ryota Matsune
Welter: Kotetsu Boku 16-6-2 vs. 14-3-1 Yoshihiro Koyama
Feather: Akitoshi Tamura 14-8-2 vs. 10-1-2 Masakatsu Ueda
Feather: Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas 8-2-0 vs. 6-1-2 Hiromasa Ogikubo
Light: Shintaro Ishiwatari 6-3-3 vs. 16-9-3 Wataru Miki

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6/20 SRC 13 - Fights Announced

WVR is putting on their 13th event in Ryogoku Kokugikan on June 20. And they are continuing the tradition of announcing the fights early (I like that).

Added to the card today was 2 fights, both with some very talented Japanese fighters. Shigeki Osawa will take on the experienced Katsuya Toida. The other fight announced today will see the former Shooto Rookie Tournament champion, Ikuo Usuda take on Kang Kyung Ho (Osawa's opponent on SRC12.

The main event will most likely be the featherweight title fight between Kanehara and Marlon Sandro, who was my personal favorite in the tournament last year. It should be a very good and tactical fight.

Added:
Feather: Shigeki Osawa 5-1-0 vs. 12-9-3 Katsuya Toida
Feather: Ikuo Usuda 6-0-0 vs. 5-3-0 Kang Kyung Ho

Previously Announced:
Sengoku Featherweight Title Fight (5×5min.):
Masanori Kanehara 16-7-5 vs. 16-1-0 Marlon Sandro

Non-Title Fights:
Light: Maximo "Maxi" Blanco 5-2-1 vs. 9-3-0 Rodrigo Damm
Light-Heavy: Hiroshi Izumi 1-1-0 vs. 3-4-0 Chang Seob Lee
Welter: Sanae Kikuta 28-6-3 vs. 3-1-0 Yasubey Enomoto
Light-Heavy: Ryo Kawamura 11-5-2 vs. 7-3-2 Hidetada Irie

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5/16 ClubDEEP Toyama - Results

DEEP put on a 15 fight card in Toyama's Event Plaza earlier today. The main event saw the home town favorite "Barbaro44" take on one of DEEPs biggest talents in Koichiro Matsumoto.

The card also included 3 kick-rule fights.

Read on for spoilers.

After winning the main-event, Koichiro asked for a title fight, and he could be heading for a title fight against Takafumi Otsuka next.

Main-Event:
15. 65.8kg: Koichiro Matsumoto def. Yoshihiro "Barbaro44" Tomioka by KO Round 1 1:29

14. 70.3kg: Yuichi Ikari def. Yuya Osugi by TKO Round 1 3:58
13. 65.8kg: Satoshi Watanabe vs. Yoshihiro Yamaniha Draw
12. 63kg: Yasuo Munakata def. Hirotaka Himeno by TKO Round 2 4:00
11. 53.5g: Sakura Nomura def. Rina Tomita by Decision 3-0
10. 63kg: Hiroshi Sato vs. Hiroyuki Suzuki Draw
9. 78kg: Yoshinobu Kawamura def. Daisuke Kanehira by Decision 3-0
8. 53kg: Jun Osawa Def. Akihiro Hasegawa by TKO Round 1 2:44
7. 53kg: Gen Ikeda Def. Kaname Mori by Triangle choke 2 3:39
6. 63kg: Harunari Shinogawa def. Daiki Nakahara by TKO Round 1 0:55
5. Kick-Rule - 68kg: Takeshi Sakai def. Yujiro Haraguchi by TKO Round 2 0:30
4. Kick-Rule - 63kg: Kazuhiro Konishi def. Kenichi Satake by Decision 3-0
3. Kick-Rule - 68kg: Carlos Osako def. Leo Mitsuhashi by Decision 3-0
2. 66kg: Ippei Takase def. Mattsun Mattsun by TKO Round 1 2:21
1. 63kg: Daigo Sawada def. Oya Takato by TKO Round 2 1:14

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5/23 Jewels 8th Ring

Next Sunday Jewels will hold their 8th event, and these events have been very popular with the fans. It is usually sold out.

This time it will be held in Shinkiba 1st ring and following this event will be a ClubDEEP event.

Jewles MMA Rule:
52kg: Saori Ishioka 8-4-0 vs. 3-2-0 Mai Ichii
Open: Hiroko Yamanaka 8-1-1 vs. 2-3-0 Atsuko Emoto
52kg: Mika Nagano 6-2-0 vs. 0-4-0 Celine Haga
52kg: Yuko Kagoshima 1-3-0 vs. 0-1-0 Miyo Yoshida
57kg: Yuko "Amiba" Oya 3-1-0 vs. 0-13-0 HARUMI

ShootBoxing Rule (3x2min. 1r ext.):
54kg: Ai Takahashi vs. Yukino Oishi
63kg: Cho Benkei vs. Kou Ozeki

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6/5 Pancrase Passion Tour 5 - Kitaoka facing Rodrigues

Pancrase have announced that one of their star fighters and former Sengoku Lightweight champion, Satoru Kitaoka will take on Brazilian Jorge "Jorjao" Rodrigues.

That should be an awesome fight on an already good card!

Announced:
Satoru Kitaoka vs. 20-4-0 Jorge "Jorjao" Rodrigues

Previously Announced:
Welterweight King of Pancrase title fight qualifier:
Kengo Ura vs. Kei Yamamiya

Fly: Narongchai vs. Yuichiro Yajima
Fly: Takuya Eizumi vs. Ryosuke Tanuma
Bantam: Ryota Sasaki vs. Takumi Murata
Light-Heavy: Jason "Mutant" Symak 2-1-0 vs. Yuhei Fukuda
Light: Eriya Matsuda 8-8-0 vs. Kota Okazawa
Feather: Shigeyuki Uchiyama vs. Masaya "J-Taro" Takita

Neo-Blood Tournament Semi-Finals:
Light: Katsunori Takahashi vs. Junichi Ota
Light: Jyuntaro Ami vs. Keigo Hirayama
Feather: Kensaku Nakamuravs. Motoshi Miyaji
Feahter: Hiroshi Tomitavs. Masakazu Takafuji
Bantam: Shoko Sato vs. Yuki Uejima
Bantam: Motonobu Tezuka vs. Yuta Numakura
Fly: Yoshihiro Matsunaga vs. Go Yamanaka
Fly: Daichi Kitakata vs. Hiroyuki "Katsuo" Nakajima

Participating:
Toryu Masahiro

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7/3 DEEP 48 Impact - Participants Announced

Deep boss, Saeki, has announced 14 fighters for their DEEP 48 Impact card to be held in Differ Ariake on July 3. There are a log of good names on the card, among them DEEP middle weight champion, Riki Fukuda and "Iron" Nakamura. Also announced is Korean Jung Hwan Cha, or the guy that KO'd Ryo Chonan at the Astra event.

Also look out for the young Yoshiki Harada fighting out of the "Mach" Dojo. This is a fighter "Mach" Sakurai himself told me he had high hopes for when I met him and Yoshiki has proven why in the ring. It will be good to see him get another fight under his belt.

For DEEP going forward, these are the plans: Ofcourse, in June there will be the Cage Impact event in Osaka. July there will be an event in Nagoya in addition to 48 Impact. DEEP 49 Impact will be in August, in KOrakuen Hall. The BIG one, celebrating 10 years of DEEP, DEEP 50 Impact will take place in October.

There will also be a cage event in Hamamatsu in September and in Tokyo in December.

Participants:
Riki Fukuda 16-4-0
Jung Hwan Cha 7-5-1
Shigetoshi Iwase 9-12-3
Tomoya Miyashita 17-7-8
Hiroshi "Iron" Nakamura 9-4-5
Seigo Mizuguchi 7-6-0
Eiji Ishikawa 19-16-2
Yuki Ito 8-5-9
Sadao Kondo 5-0-1
Kosuke Umeda 8-8-3
Yasuhiro Kawasaki 5-1-1
Tatsunao Nagakura 5-1-0
Yoshiki Harada 3-0-0
Tomoya Kato 8-2-0

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5/29 DREAM 14 - "Kid" Yamamoto Added

FEG have announced the addition of Japanese star "Kid" Yamamoto to Dream 14. His opponent will be Team Quest's Federico "Kiko" Lopez. This fight was supposed to be on the Strikeforce undercard, but has been moved to the Dream 14 event. Both fighters are coming of 2 straight losses, "Kid" losing to "Kiko"'s team-mate, Joe Warren. No doubt that "Kid" will be the crowd favorite here, but both fighters will be eager to start another winning streak. It will be interesting to see what Warren has been able to teach his team-mate.

Picture from GBRing.com


Added:
Feather: Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto 17-3-0 vs. 4-2-0 Federico "Kiko" Lopez

Previously Announed:
Feather: Joachim Hansen vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Feather: Hideo Tokoro vs. "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura
Feather: Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Takafumi Otsuka
Feather: Yoshiro Maeda vs. Kenji Osawa
88kg: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ralek Gracie
Welter: Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. Nick Diaz

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MMA Events in Japan 15-31 May

May is going to be a busy month of MMA in Japan, and there are some very good cards coming up.

Here is a list of what is coming up:

16th May:
-In Tokyo, this will be a day of kickboxing events. In Differ Ariake, Rise will hold their 65th event and in Korakuen Hall will be the New Japan Kickboxing event.

-DEEP is putting on a clubDEEP card in Toyama's Eventplaza. Of course, the Club Barbarian fighters come out in force and there are some good fights on the card. Including Yoshihiro "Barbaro44" Tomioka vs. Koichiro Matsumoto and Yuya Osugi vs. Kleber Koike. Missing from the card is the retired Miku Matsumoto, but I am sure she will be there watching over things.

-Shooto's Grapplingman 11 will be held in Hiroshima Industrial Hall. Headlining the event will be Kazuhiro Ito vs. Bae Yong Kwon. In addition to that there will be some Rookie Tournament fights on the card.

22. May:
-Tribalate vol. 28 will be in Shinjuku Face.

23. May:

-The female fighters of Jewels will be followed by ClubDEEP in Shinkiba 1st Ring. I am expecting a sold out event for JEWELS again, the card includes the popular Saori Ishioka vs. Mai Ichii and another crowd favorite in Mika Nagano will take on Team Hellboy's Celine Haga. Hellboy himself might be ringside for this one, and it should be a fight the crowd gets into. Being Norwegian I know who I am cheering for! I also know that Celine has had very good training leading up to this fight.

The ClubDEEP event will follow Jewels, and is headlined by Hiroki Sato vs. Shuji Morikawa.

27. May:
-Krush 7 in Shinjuku Face. This should be a good kickboxing (K-1 rule) event. On the card will be amoung others, the HEAT veteran Danilo Zanolini.

29. May:

-The month of May really finishes on a high! DREAM 14 is looking like a very very good event! Arguably some of the best featherweights in the world will square off in Saitama Superarena:

Joachim Hansen vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Hideo Tokoro vs. "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Takafumi Otsuka
Yoshiro Maeda vs. Kenji Osawa

Add to that the non-featherweight fights:
88kg: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ralek Gracie
Welter: Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. Nick Diaz

This should be an awesome event!

30. May:

-The DREAM event will be followed by a very awesome Shooto event in JCB Hall.

The card has 3 title fights:
Light: "Lion" Takeshi Inoue vs. Hatsu Hioki
Bantam: Yasuhiro Urushitani vs. Ryuichi Miki
Welter: Willamy "Chiquerim" Freire vs. Yusuke Endo

Some very good fighters will return:
62kg: Rumina Sato vs. Ryota Matsune
Feather: Akitoshi Tamura vs. Masakatsu Ueda

Then there are some other very solid fights:
Welter: Kotetsu Boku vs. Yoshihiro Koyama
Feather: Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas vs. Hiromasa Ogikubo
Light: Shintaro Ishiwatari vs. Wataru Miki

It looks like another very strong Shooto card, maybe the best in years.

-On the same day, MA Japan Kickboxing is holding an event in Differ ariake.
-And the J-Network has a double event in Shinjuku Face

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