Last Week of 2007 - Preview

Thursday 13 December 2007

Ok, I am having some problems with my blog, mostly, updating the upcoming- and recent events. Also, as you can see, all my posts come up with the same date. If anyone has some idea of how to fix this, plaese let me know.

Anyhow, since my upcoming events are screwed up now, I have decided to put up a schedule for the last few days of 2007 here. Without a doubt, a very exciting time to be a MMA fan in Japan.

Today, December 22. there are 2 events.
Pancrase Rising Tour, Differ Ariake.
-Most notably on this card, Josh Barnett will fight Hikaru Sato with catch wrestling rules. The main event Light Heavyweight Champion Keiichiro Yamamiya will fight Ryo Kawamura.

DEEP Protect Impact Osaka, Stellar Hall Umeda city Osaka.
-I did have tickets for this event, but wont be able to make it. This should be a very exciting event. The main event is the fight between Yoshiro Maeda and Jong Man Kim. Kim inflicted a loss on home favorite Hatsu Hioki in Nagoya earlier this year. Until then, he was basically unknown. Now he has a chance to build in that, and give Korea one win in the 3 match tournament between Japan and Korea. Also on the card, Miku Matsumoto will cap an amazing year for her.

December 23.
MARS, Gold Gym South Tokyo
-MARS will hold their finals in the Genesis tournament tomorrow. This is a starting ground for a lot of MMA fighters in Japan, an some of the fighters in action tomorrow will undoubtebly more on to greater things.

December 26.
SmackGirl, Korakuen Hall
-This event is the 7th annaversary event for the female fight promotor SmackGirl. This will be the main card of the year for SmackGirl, and they are pulling out all their stars. The main event is SmackGirl champion Yuka Tsuji against Korean Su Hi Ham. Ham dominated Hisae Watanabe in a non-championship fight in DEEP 28 and is no easy fight. Also on the card is Megumi Fujii, Satoko Shinashi, Megumi Yabushita and Lana Stefanac.

December 31
This is THE day for MMA fans in Japan. We have 2 events:
K-1 Dynamite!, Osaka.
-As always, FEG is playing to the Japanese public in this event. This is why fights like Bob Sapp vs. Bobby Ologun is on the card. I dont like the addition of these fights, but the public likes it. For me, fighters like Joachim Hansen, Minowaman (even if the opponent could be better), Miyata, Manhoef and of course "kid" Yamamoto are the the real stars of this event, and it will be the event of the year in Osaka.
The fights are:

HEROs Rules
Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto 16-1-0 vs. 11-3-0 Rani Yahya
Sakuraba 22-10-1 vs. 38-11-1 Masakatsu Funaki
Joachim Hansen 15-6-1 vs. 5-5-0 Kazuyuki Miyata
Minowaman 38-26-8 vs. 3-3-0 "Zulu" Wagner da Conceicao Martins
Yusuke Nishijima 0-4-0 vs. 18-4-1 Melvin Manhoef
Hideo Tokoro 19-12-1 vs. 16-10-0 Kiyoshi Tamura

K-1 Rules
Musashi vs. Bernard Ackah
Masato vs. Yong Soo Choi

K-1 Rules U/18 tournament
HIROYA vs. Tsukasa Fuji
Kenji Kubo vs. Yudai

Yarennoka, Saitama Superarena
-Of course the event of the year (assuming everyone has forgotten the Pride events of early 2007). This is the return of Fedor, and many other great fighters. The fights are:

Fedor Emelianenko 26-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Choi Hong Man
Kazuo Misaki 18-8-2 vs. 10-1-0 (1NC) Yoshihiro Akiyama
Shinya Aoki 11-2-0 vs. 14-1-1 J.Z. Calvan
Hayato Sakurai 30-7-2 vs. 14-8-4 Hidehiko Hasegawa
Gilbert Melendez 13-0-0 vs. 14-3-1 Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri 19-4-2 vs. 11-6-0 Luiz Azeredo
Murlio Bustamante 14-6-1 vs. 3-3-0 Makoto Takimoto

Now for some rumors, I have seen speculations that Aoki vs. Calvan will not happen... I REALLY hope this is not true, it is the one of the very best match-ups here.

Also, I am expecting a few more fights to be added to this card, but time is running out.

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Followers

Read about this blog here.

If you have any suggestions for improvements, event we should cover etc.

Please contact me on japanmma@gmail.com
*I am not able to arrange or set up fights, for this please contact the organizations directly.

For Gyms in Japan see here

For purchasing tickets in Japan see here


  © Blogger template On The Road by Ourblogtemplates.com 2009

Back to TOP