3/29 DEEP Megaton GP - RESULTS

Sunday 30 March 2008

I didnt get to the Megaton GP last night, but a lot of people did. The reported numer is 528 paying audience members and in Shinjuku Face, that equals a full house. So it is safe to say that this was a success. Like the name suggests, this is a tournament for BIG guys.




The result for round 1:


GP Fights:
Mamoru Nakamura Def. Muscle Hironuma by decision 3-0
Yusuke Kawaguchi Def. Nobuyoshi Takahara by TKO Round 1 0:40
Yoichi Babaguchi Def. Kintaro Tsurukame by TKO Round 1 1:22
Ken Orihashi Def. Wakamusashi☆Kazuki by decision 3-0
Katsuhika Kumano Def. Ariyama Iiitomo by Decision 2-1
Shunsuke Inoue Def. Ryosuke Kojima by Decision 3-0
Wakaarashi Def. Muneyuki Suzuki by TKO Round 1 0:37
Shunji Kosaka Def. Tadahiro Hosaka by decision 3-0

Opening fight:
Yoshihito Takahashi Def. Hiroshi Kiyohara by TKO Round 1 1:24

Read more...

5/19 DEEP 35

Saturday 29 March 2008

DEEP has announced their first fight for the DEEP 35 card, of course the middle weight semi-finals will be on this card. There will in addition to that be no less than 3 DEEP champions in action.

Here is what is announced so far:

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

Participating:
Hidehiko Hasegawa 14-9-4 (DEEP Welterweight champion)

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080329-00000026-spnavi-fight.html

Read more...

4/5 Cage Force 06 - Fights Cancelled, Card a mess

Well, some bad news regarding the Cage Force card. I am translating it now and will see if I can make some sense out of the news.

First off, it seems as though the Featherweight tournament fight between Adrian Pang and Armando Sanchez is cancelled due to the sponsors not being able to fulfil their financial commitments.

Then, Katsuya Toida and Yuji Hoshino has gotten injured during training. That means that Antonio Carvalho and Daichi Fujiwara are currently without an opponent. That leaves only 2 Bantamweight tournament fights on the card.

Antonio Carvalho and Daichi Fujiwara is hopeing to get a fight in this event. I will update the card and come back with how it looks.


As a comfort, they are adding 2 fights, but these are fighters I have not heard about.

I am sure this is a huge dissapointment to fighters, fans and promotor. But just to clearify, I have tickets and will be going to this event. I am really disapointed that they have taken a fight off the card, that leaves the featherweight tournament a semi-finalist down...


It should still be a good event and I am excited about the fights that are left on the card. I really hope they can get Antonio Carvalho an opponent!

Cage Force are offering ticket refunds. For refunds contact:

〒104-0061 東京都中央区銀座1-14-10松楠ビル9F
株式会社GCMコミュニケーション 4/5チケット払戻し係

[問い合わせ]:03-3538-5801

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080329-00000018-spnavi-fight.html

The card as it looks now:

Lightweight Title fight:
Tomonari Kanomata 11-2-3 vs. 8-2-0 Mizuto Hirota

Featherweight: Antonio Carvalho 10-3-0 vs. TBA
Bantamweight: Daichi Fujiwara 6-1-1 vs. TBA
Bantam Tournament: Masahiro Oishi 17-9-7 vs. 12-4-0 Paul McVeigh
Bantam Tournament: Ryota 2-0-0 vs. 8-6-0 Taiyo Nakahara

Bantamweight: Naoya Uematsu 14-7-2 vs. 6-1-0 James Doolan
Lightweight: Wataru Miki 12-7-2 vs. 9-2-1 Yoshihiro Koyama

Preliminary fights:
Featherweight: Tomoyuki Miyaji 2-0-0 vs. Nobutaka Hiyoshi
Lightweight: Junichi Ota vs. Naoto Miyazaki


Fights added:
Yuta Nezu 4-1-0 vs. Ueyama 知暁
Yasutaka Shimizu vs. Ikeda 賢治

Read more...

3/28 Shooto - Back to Our Roots 8 - PICTURES


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Originally uploaded by japanmma
I was a little late and got there just in time for the Hioki vs. Yoshida fight. Hioki was confident as he entered the ring.





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Hioki was never really threatened in this fight. He used his reach when standing.




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And on the ground he was too strong for Baret this time.



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He was able to mount Baret Yoshida several times



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On one occation he had an arm-bar attempt that looked like it would end the fight, but Baret Yoshida showed a lot of skill in getting out of it.



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Originally uploaded by japanmma
In the end, it was ground and pound that settled it for Hioki, an impressive TKO victory.



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Ueda vs. Okazaki was the first title fight of the night.



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Ueda was able to get the take downs, but unable to end the fight.



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In the end it was Ueda by decision.



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The main event saw champion Tamura take on Kadowaki.



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This was a very close fight.



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Kadowaki was able to get the take downs, but Tamura's guard was very good.



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On a couple of occations it looked as if Kadowaki was going to get caught in some kind of submission, but he was always able to escape.



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Kadowaki got the decsion and is the new Shooto Lightweight champion.



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And it was a very popular victory.

Read more...

5/18 Sengoku - Fights Confirmed

Sengoku has announced 2 fights for their second card. Their first event was a success, now they have to follow it up.

I know a lot of people were expecting Schaffa to fight in DREAM, but now he has appeared on a Sengoku card. It will be interesting to see how he does against Kitaoka.

Eiji Mitsuoka edged out Joachim Hansen in his last fight, now he returns to face the undefeated Korean Kwang Hee Lee.

Fights
Satoru Kitaoka 19-8-9 vs. 7-4-1 Ian Schaffa
Eiji Mitsuoka 12-5-2 vs. 5-0-0 Kwang Hee Lee

Participants
Roger Gracie 1-0-0
Yuki Sasaki 21-13-1
Yoshihiro “Kiss” Nakao 6-1-0

Read more...

3/28 Shooto - Back to Our Roots 8 - RESULTS

Friday 28 March 2008

Shooto put on a great event tonight. There were less fights on that card than I am used to, and unfortunately I missed most of it. But I was assured that this was a great event!

The main event was VERY close. Kadowaki pulled out a very thin decision honestly, I expected it to be a draw. However, for once the Japanese fans cheered on their favorite (I have never experienced anything like it in Japan). Kadowaki is the new camp!

In the fight that I was really looking forward to, Baret Yoshida never really got to use his guard. Hioki was just too strong and won a first round TKO.

Update: Totally forgot to mention when I wrote this, Rumina Sato is currently without an opponent for the May Shooto event. Yesterday he said he would like to fight Hatsu Hioki. That would be a great fight, lets see if Shooto can make it happen.

Hideki Kadowaki Def. Akitoshi Tamura by decision 2-0
Masakatsu Ueda Def. Koetsu Okazaki by decison 3-0
Hatsu Hioki Def. Baret Yoshida by TKO Round 1 4:15
Mamoru Yamaguchi Def. Masaaki Sugawara by Decision 3-0
Tetsu Suzuki Def. Hiroyuki Tanaka by decision 3-0
Hiroshi Nakamura Def. Tenkei Fujimiya by decision 3-0

Rookie Lightweight Tournament:
Lightweight: Hiroshige Tanaka Def. Kenichiro Marui by KO Round 1 3:01

Read more...

Randleman to Fight in IGF

Thursday 27 March 2008

Kevin Randleman is announced as a participant in IGF Gnome 4. This is a Pro-wresting organisation.

Also participating in this event is Josh Barnett.

The event will be held in Osaka April 12.

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/wrestling/20080327-00000031-spnavi-fight.html

Read more...

4/29 DREAM 2 - Fights Announced

DREAM has announced their first fights for the Middleweight tournament. I thought Sakuraba was out, but looks like they pulled him back in... He is facing Andrews Nakahara, a Brazilian Karate specialist.

Kazushi Sakuraba 23-10-1 vs. Andrews Nakahara
Kiyoshi Tamura 28-14-0 vs. 38-12-1 Masakatsu Funaki
Denis Kang 29-9-1 vs. 20-2-1 Gegard Mousasi


http://www.dreamofficial.com/news/detail.php?id=1206599249
http://www.dreamofficial.com/

Read more...

3/28 Shooto - Back to Our Roots 8 - Fight Cancelled

Fight 2 on the Shooto card for tomorrow is taken off. It seems Hayato Sato is carrying an injury and will not be able to compete. That leaves us with 7 fights. Still, the best fights are still on the card and this will be a good event.

Akitoshi Tamura 11-5-2 vs. 12-7-2 Hideki Kadowaki
Masakatsu Ueda 7-0-1 vs. 5-0-1 Koetsu Okazaki
Baret Yoshida 5-5-1 vs. 14-3-1 Hatsu Hioki
Mamoru Yamaguchi 19-4-3 vs. 6-2-0 Masaaki Sugawara
Tetsu Suzuki 5-5-3 vs. 6-3-1 Hiroyuki Tanaka
Tenkei Fujimiya 7-2-2 vs. Hiroshi Nakamura

Rookie Lightweight Tournament:
Lightweight: Kenichiro Marui vs. Hiroshige Tanaka

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080327-00000020-spnavi-fight.html

Read more...

3/23 Shooto - Hiroshima - RESULTS

Looks like I missed the results from the Shooto event in Hiroshima earlier this week. Not a lot of professional fights on the card, but there were some Rookie Tournament fights that is good to keep on top of.

Takeshi Okada vs. Nobuhiro “Mike” Hayakawa DRAW

Shooto Rookie Tournament:
Lightweight: Makoto Akazawa Def. Ono 虎眼 賢良 by rear-naked choke, Round 2
Bantamweight: Kentaro Watanabe Def. Jun Nakazoe by decision 3-0

Read more...

3/26 Pancrase - Shining Tour 2 - PICTURES


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Originally uploaded by japanmma
Some pictures from yesterday's Pancrase event, as always the Pancase sisters were there to cheer the fighters on and they always do a good job.



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Asano defeated Yukito by a close decision, Yukito looked a bit disappointed. It was a close one that could have gone either way.



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Kenji Arai entering the ring to face Krazy Bee fighter Shinsuke Shoji.



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This fight was not that close, but we still got to see the ring-girls at work.



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Shoji was going for takedowns and more often than not, he got them. But he was unable to finish the fight.



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Still, a comfortable decision to Shoji.



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Hacran Dias was the first of the undefeated fighters to take the ring. It was not a very exciting fight, Dias was aware of Ito's leg-locks and did everything he could to stay out of them. The fight ended in a draw, which was a correct reflection of how the fight went.



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Gadzhiev Alavutdin has been very good at ending fights early. He looked comfident as he entered the ring against the very experienced Hikaru Sato.



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Sato immediately took the fight to the ground.



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Mounted the Russian.



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And got KO'ed. I couldn't really see how, but he was out.



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For a while it looked as if a streacher was needed, be Sato eventually got back up and was able to walk out.



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Takeuchi entered the ring with some help from some young ladies.



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His fight was pretty boring though... He managed to get the decision, but I think it was a pretty close fight.



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Time for the main event, and Miki Shida started the fight Sumo style and ended it KO'ed style.



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Marlon Sandros again the victor, and now he gets a shot at the Pancrase title.



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After the event the Pancrase girls were busy posing for and with fans.

Read more...

3/26 Pancrase - Shining Tour 2 - RESULTS

Wednesday 26 March 2008

Just came home from an event I had very high expectations for. It didn't turn out as well as I thought... The fights were not as good as the names on the card, but that happens some times. In the mix though, were some fights that did live up to my expectations.

Alavutdin has cemented his reputation as a KO machine! This guy is ploughing through the Pancrase ranks. Again winning by KO in less than 90 seconds. Also Sandros were impressive in his win, extending his winning record to 11-0. He also earned his shot at the Pancrase title with that win. Kenji Arai vs. Shinsuke Shoji was also a very entertaining fight, this time Shoji came out a clear winner.

I was really looking forward to seeing Takeuchi fight, but the most exciting thing about his fight was the entry. I will post pictures tomorrow.

Marlon Sandro Def. Miki Shida by KO, Round 2 4:19
Izuru Takeuchi Def. Hiromitsu Kanehara by decision 3-0
Gadzhiev Alavutdin Def. Hikaru Sato by KO, Round 1 1:20
Takafumi Ito vs. Hacran Dias Draw
Shinsuke Shoji Def. Kenji Arai by decision 3-0
Michihisa Asano Def. Yuichiro ShiraiYukito” by decision 2-0
Ichiro Kanai vs. Takenori Sato Draw
Tomoyoshi Iwamiya Def. Asaki Honda by decision 3-0

Read more...

4/27 Pancrase - Shining Tour 3

Monday 24 March 2008

Pancrase have really been putting up some great cards so far this year. Shining Tour 3 looks very promising as well. Lightheavyweight champ Yuki Kondo is putting his title on the line against the number 1 challenger, KEI Yamamiya.

Also the newly crowned Lightweight champ, Shoji is fighting on this card. There will probably be a couple of additions to this card as well.

For me, I am looking forward to seeing fellow Scandinavian, Matti Makela. He is facing the experienced Hisamatsu.

Yuki Kondo 48-20-6 vs. 32-22-9 Keiichiro Yamamiya
Shoji 6-2-0 vs. 16-7-4 Koji Oishi
Bryan Rafiq 5-2-0 vs. 16-8-8 Takuya Wada
Yuji Hisamatsu 10-14-4 vs. 9-5-0 Matti Makela
Manabu Inoue 6-3-1 vs. 8-9-2 Masaya “J Taro” Takita
Daisuke Watanabe 17-27-4 vs. 2-2-0 Ryuji Ohori
Yukio Sakaguchi 1-2-0 vs. 5-10-3 Wataru Takahashi

Read more...

3/30 HEAT 6 - Tournaments Round 1

Sunday 23 March 2008

HEAT is holding the first round of their MMA and Kick rule tournaments in Nagoya March 30. This is block A for both the tournaments, block B is being held in July or August with semi-finals and finals in November and March next year.

If you're in Nagoya, this is a good event to go to.

They have a good site for the ring-girls too (been a while since I've had any of them, so here you go):
More pictures
here and here

Samantha Gonçalves

Carol Pontes


















The card for HEAT 6:

Kick-Rule: Tatsufumi Tomihira vs. Ii Yo Sep(イ・ヨセプ)
MMA-Rule: Ryuta Noji 6-3-0 vs. Ho Min Sok (ホ・ミンソク)
MMA-Rule: Kazuhisa Tazawa 2-0-0 vs. Ii San Su (イ・サンス)
MMA-Rule: Masataka Chinushi 1-3-1 vs. 5-1-0 Gil Freitas
Kick-Rule (MT): Jotaro Usui vs. Jyunichi Maruyama
MMA-Rule (WT): Naoki Kimura 4-1-2 vs. 1-0-0 Max Fernandes
Kick-Rule (MT): TBA vs. Fabikat RS Promotion
MMA-Rule (WT): Masu “Bucchi” Hiro vs. Imu Hyon Gyu(イム・ヒョンギュ)
Kick-Rule (MT Reserve fight): Shunsuke Oishi vs. King Kohei

New-Age Fights:
MMA-Rule: Daiki Suzuki vs. Yasutomo Katsuki
Kick-Rule: Gaku Sakai vs. Hiroaki Suzuki

(MT)=Middleweight Tournament
(WT)=Welterweight Tournament

Read more...

4/4 Shoot Boxing - Road to S Cup

Shoot Boxing will hold an event April 4 in Korakuen Hall. Shoot Boxing is an interesting concept, I have yet to get to one of this events, but really want to. The fights are kick-boxing, but standing submissions and throws are allowed.

You can read more about the rules here: http://www.shootboxing.org/en/rule/index.html and of course Wiki has more on this kind of fighting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoot_boxing

Anyway, the card for April 4:

Main-Event Japan Super-Featherweight Title Fight 3Min x 5R:
Tomohiro Oikawa VS. Takeshi Ishikawa

Expert Rule 3min x 3:
Fight 9: Daiki Shishido VS. Tsuan Hoi Kwan
Fight 8: Kenji Kanei VS. Kan Ien
Fight 7: Yuta Iwashita VS. Zen Kin Jun
Fight 6: Akifumi Utagawa VS. OZ
Fight 5: Noriyuki Enari VS. Setsu Iguchi
Fight 4: Yuki Umeshita VS. Seiji Akao

Starting Class Rule 2min x 3:
Fight 3: Daiki Kawakami VS. Hiroaki Okuwa
Fight 2 (Ladies fight): Rena VS. Yuka Okamura
Fight 1: Keisuke Nobata VS. Shunichi Shimizu

Read more...

Busy Week Ahead - Pancrase, Shooto, DEEP

Saturday 22 March 2008

Its been a couple of slow days since the DREAM event. We are still waiting for official word on who will advance (JZ or Aoki) and the last fighter to go into the 2nd round of the DREAM lightweight tournament will be.

Still, the week ahead has some very good events. I will try to get to 2 of these, but will have to see how much time I get.

3/26 Pancrase Shining Tour 2 - Korakuen Hall
http://mmamanjapan.blogspot.com/2008/02/326-pancrase-shining-tour-2.html

Pancrase is putting on a great card on Wednesday. There are fighters and fights on this card, 2 fighters are unbeaten, and it will be interesting to see if they remain that way after Wednesday.

Miki Shida 13-4-2 vs. 10-0-0 Marlon Sandro
Izuru Takeuchi 23-9-6 vs. 12-18-1 Hiromitsu Kanehara
Hikaru Sato 17-17-4 vs. 6-1-0 Gadzhiev Alavutdin
Takafumi Ito 33-26-9 vs. 7-0-0 Hacran Dias
Kenji Arai 12-11-2 vs. 4-3-2 Shinsuke Shoji
Michihisa Asano 5-4-2 vs. 3-4-3 Yuichiro Shirai “Yukito”
Ichiro Kanai 7-9-3 vs. 2-4-3 Takenori Sato
Asaki Honda 4-1-1 vs. 3-6-0 Tomoyoshi Iwamiya

3/28 Shooto - Back to Our Roots 8 - Korakuen Hall
http://mmamanjapan.blogspot.com/2008/03/328-shooto-back-to-our-roots-8-fights.html

This is also a great card from Shooto, "Lion" Takeshi was meant to be on this card, but it looks like he will get his chance in May instead. The return of Bare Yoshida is just one of the highlights on this card. There are in addition to that 2 title fights.

Akitoshi Tamura 11-5-2 vs. 12-7-2 Hideki Kadowaki
Masakatsu Ueda 7-0-1 vs. 5-0-1 Koetsu Okazaki
Baret Yoshida 5-5-1 vs. 14-3-1 Hatsu Hioki
Mamoru Yamaguchi 19-4-3 vs. 6-2-0 Masaaki Sugawara
Tetsu Suzuki 5-5-3 vs. 6-3-1 Hiroyuki Tanaka
Tenkei Fujimiya 7-2-2 vs. Hiroshi Nakamura
Junji Ito 2-1-0 vs. 1-4-1 Hayato Sato

Rookie Lightweight Tournament:
Kenichiro Marui vs. Hiroshige Tanaka

3/29 DEEP Megaton Tournament Round 1 - Shinjuku Face
http://mmamanjapan.blogspot.com/2008/03/329-deep-megaton-gp-match-ups.html

This is a tournament I thought would not get much attention at all, but it is proving to be very popular. There will be some heavy hitting in these fights and I expect them to go all out. It will be fun and very different than what you will see in Shooto.

Muscle Hironuma vs. Mamoru Nakamura
Yusuke Kawaguchi vs. Nobuyoshi Takahara
Yoichi Babaguchi vs. Kintaro Tsurukame
Ken Orihashi vs. Wakamusashi☆Kazuki
Katsuhika Kumano vs. Ariyama Iiitomo
Ryosuke Kojima vs. Shunsuke Inoue
Wakaarashi vs. Muneyuki Suzuki
Tadahiro Hosaka vs. Shunji Kosaka

Opening fight Oyaji MEGATON
Hiroshi Kiyohara VS Yoshihito Takahashi

Read more...

3/21 Shooto - Professional Shooto - RESULTS

One of the many shooto events of this month was held in Kitazawa Townhall yesterday.

With so many cards in 1 month, not all have very interesting fights. But there are some Rookie tournament fights here and they always have the potential to turn out to be good.

Katsuya Murofushi Def. Kenichi Sawada by arm-triangle choke, Round 1 1:53
Yuji Inoue Def. Kyotaro Nakao by decision 3-0
Shinichi Hanawa Def. Joji Shimada by decision 3-0
Hiroharu Matsufuji Def. Katsuhisa Akasaki by arm-bar, Round 2 3:04

Shooto Rookie Tournament:
Kazuya Satomoto Def. KG Shinto by arm-triangle choke, Round 1, 1:55
Youichiro Sato Def. Ishinaka Toru (暢) decision 3-0
Naoki Hirayama Def. Shin Kochiwa (小知和 晋) by decision 3-0

Read more...

Some Videos - News are slow

Friday 21 March 2008

News have been slow the last few days, so decided to share some videos with you.

First of, if you haven't seen Joachim Hansen vs. Koutetsu Boku from DREAM 1, do it now! A very good fight, and Hellboy is back! Definitely a chance at winning this tournament. Boku did a good job defending this.


Joachim Hansen vs. Koutetsu Boku - DREAM.1 LW GP 2008 1st R
Uploaded by moltisanti87

Also from DREAM 1, Eddie Alvarez vs. Andre "Dida" Amade. Most of the fighters thought this was fight of the night, for me its between the two fights I have posted here.



Andre Dida vs Eddie Alvarez
Uploaded by Princenino

Later this month Baret Yoshida will step back into the MMA ring. He will meet non other than Hatsu Hioki in what will be one the highlights of Back to Our Roots 8. Here is a highlight video of Baret.



Hideki Kadowaki is challenging Akitoshi Tamura for the Shooto Lightweight title, in his last fight he took on Rumina Sato.

Read more...

4/13 K-1 World GP - Fights

Wednesday 19 March 2008

There has been some additions to this card, most noticably for me, Alex Roberts will make his K-1 debut. He is no stranger to Japan having fought in Shoot Boxing. It will be interesting to see how he deals with the step up in level. Otherwise this card looks very good, the highlight is of course the return of Mark Hunt facing of against Semmy Schilt in the main event.

Just to make it clear, this is most likely not the fight order.

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

K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ex.2R
Glaube Feitosa vs. Alex Roberts
Chalid “Die Faust” vs. Aleksandr Pichkunov
Tsuyoshi Nakasako vs. Takumi Sato
Mitsugu Noda vs. Kyoung Suk Kim
Ewerton Teixeira vs. Yusuke Fujimoto
Badr Hari vs. Ray Sefo
Mighty Mo vs. Keihiro Maeda

Read more...

3/29 DEEP Megaton GP - Match-ups

DEEP has announced the match-ups for their Megaton GP. I expect the fighters going at it with a lot of heart and maybe not the best of skills in this event. All in all, should make for some exciting fights.

Also, audience members weighing in at over 100kg can expect a 500yen drink coupon.

GP Fights
Muscle Hironuma vs. Mamoru Nakamura
Yusuke Kawaguchi vs. Nobuyoshi Takahara
Yoichi Babaguchi vs. Kintaro Tsurukame
Ken Orihashi vs. Wakamusashi☆Kazuki
Katsuhika Kumano vs. Ariyama Iiitomo
Ryosuke Kojima vs. Shunsuke Inoue
Wakaarashi vs. Muneyuki Suzuki
Tadahiro Hosaka vs. Shunji Kosaka


Opening fight Oyaji MEGATON
Hiroshi Kiyohara VS Yoshihito Takahashi


Source:
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080319-00000021-spnavi-fight.html

***UPDATE***
I was going to give this one a miss, but seems a lot of people are excited by this concept. I might go and check it out.

Read more...

4/9 K-1 WorldMax - World Champtionship Tournament Final 16

K-1 will hold their tournament final 16 in Hiroshima April 9. If you are in the area, this is a good one. How often do you get to see fighters like this outside of Tokyo and Osaka?

Not only that, but some high profile fighters will be eliminated, as Buakaw fights Albert Kraus and Andy Souwer fights Mike Zambidis.

Personally, I am not a fan of the Youth Tournament thing they are doing, because I think Hiroya is way over exposed. Especially considering he didnt even win the one day tournament they held during Dynamite! Still, the fights are on occations competitive and exciting.

World Championship Tournament FINAL 16 : K-1 Rules / 3Min. 3R Ext.1R
Masato vs. Virgil Kalakoda
Buakaw Por. Pramuk vs. Albert Kraus
Andy Souwer vs. Mike Zambidis
Yoshihiro Sato vs. GORI
Saro “The Sicilian Don” Presti vs. Warren Stevelmans
Chi Bin Lim vs. Yasuhiro Kido

K-1 World Youth fight
HIROYA vs. Tsukasa Fuji


Opening fights:
Yuya Yamamoto vs, Marfio “The Warrior Tiger” Canoletti
Shota Takiya vs. Vitalij Lisnyak

Read more...

3/19 MMA Headlines

Its been a little out of controll lately, with all the news around Sengoku and DREAM in addition to everything else. I have therefore deceided that I will post just some headlines of that is happening in Japan.

-It is rumored that CroCop will face Sergei Kharitonov in DREAM 4. The arena for DREAM 4 is not yet set, but it is between a Korean venue and Yokohama Arena. Date is the middle of June.
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/story/2008/3/18/214345/017

-Gryphon has posted that Sengoku might be getting closer to a deal with Fuji TV. This would be a huge deal, if it were to come true. Initially, Sengoku will be the theme for their martial arts programme SRS March 21.
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/gryphonjapan/20080318/p3

-Old news, but HDNet is reportedly close to a deal with DREAM. This would be a big deal for both DREAM and HDNet. The US is the biggest MMA market right now, and DREAM needs reconition and viewers. A deal with HDNet would be very good for them financially. It would a huge deal for HDNet to get DREAM on as well. I am sure there are lots of fans in the US that want to watch these events.
http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2008/03/15/fight-entertainment-group-and-hdnet-nearing-television-deal
http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=11815

- Yosuke Nishijima might fight in K-1 4.13. No confirmation on this yet, but it is without a doubt a better fit for him. Now he just has to find out what to do about leg-kicks.
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/k1/headlines/20080319-00000005-spnavi_ot-fight.html

-As we all know by now, the ratings for DREAM 1 were not good (8.9%) the highest rated fight on that night was the CroCop fight at 12.7%. This would undoubtebly be higher if he met someone better...
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080318-00000000-spnavi_ot-fight.html

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4/29 DREAM 2 - Participants

Tuesday 18 March 2008

DREAM has announced (it was actually done at the DREAM event on Saturday) 7 participants for the Middleweight tournament. It is more a field designed to please the Japanese audience than the hard-core MMA fan, from what I can see. But still, it should be an exciting event and these are only half of the tournament participants.

After the dissapointing TBS results for the first event, I am sure they will have some Super-Fights that will draw more viewers.

The fighters announced for the Middleweight tournament:
Kazushi Sakuraba 23-10-1 (2 NC)
Yoon Dong Sik 3-4-0
Yoshihiro Akiyama 10-1-0 (2 NC)
Shungo Oyama 7-10-0
Taiei Kin 2-2-0
Masakatsu Funaki 38-12-1
Ikuhisa Minowa “Minowaman” 39-27-8

Rumored:
Kiyoshi Tamura 27-14-0
Denis Kang 29-9-1

I am putting in the rumored fighters, because the are, as NOB has pointed out, featured on the poster.

Also, just in case you are wondering, DREAM has said they will make an announcement this week with regards to the Lightweight tournament
and the controversy surrounding the Aoki vs. JZ decision.

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3/28 Shooto - Back to Our Roots 8 - Fights

Shooto has added 2 more fights to their Back to Our Roots 8 card. It looks like a very good card, only disappointment is that "Lion" Takeshi Inoue is no longer listed as a participant and I can only assume he is taken off the card.

The 2 new fights added today are:
Mamoru Yamaguchi 19-4-3 vs. 6-2-0 Masaaki Sugawara
Junji Ito 2-1-0 vs. 1-4-1 Hayato Sato


It will be very interesting to see what Sugawara can do against the much more experienced Mamoru.

The complete card looks like this:

Main Event: Lightweight Title Match:
Akitoshi Tamura 11-5-2 vs. 12-7-2 Hideki Kadowaki

Masakatsu Ueda 7-0-1 vs. 5-0-1 Koetsu Okazaki
Baret Yoshida 5-5-1 vs. 14-3-1 Hatsu Hioki
Mamoru Yamaguchi 19-4-3 vs. 6-2-0 Masaaki Sugawara
Tetsu Suzuki 5-5-3 vs. 6-3-1 Hiroyuki Tanaka
Tenkei Fujimiya 7-2-2 vs. Hiroshi Nakamura
Junji Ito 2-1-0 vs. 1-4-1 Hayato Sato


Rookie Lightweight Tournament:
Kenichiro Marui vs. Hiroshige Tanaka

Read more...

5/18 Sengoku - Fighters Confirmed

Sengoku has announced the first 4 fighters for their 2nd event. It will be very interesting to see Roger Gracie and I hope they are able to secure a worthy opponent for him.

Also on the card, Pancrase veteran Satoru Kitaoka. The very experienced Grabaka fighter Yuki Sasaki and the fighter most famous for kissing Heath Herring, Yoshihiro Nakao.

It is time for Sengoku to build on their first event, I thought it was a pretty good event so lets hope the second one is even better! With these fighters it has potential, just have to see how they match up.

Roger Gracie 1-0-0
Satoru Kitaoka 19-8-9
Yuki Sasaki 21-13-1
Yoshihiro “Kiss” Nakao 6-1-0


It is also worth noting that Sengoku has cut their VIP ticket price in half, also the RRS seats are 5,000 yen cheaper. I dont know why this is, I thought their attendence last time was pretty good...

Read more...

3/16 Shooto GIG Central Vol.14 - RESULTS

Monday 17 March 2008

With everything DREAM related going on, its easy to forget that Shooto held an event both Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday event in Osaka had better fighters, but still some interesting rookie tournament fights in this.

Yoshitaro Niimi vs. Hirosumi Sugiura “C-Bozu” DRAW
Yutaka Ueda Def. Takahiro Kajita by decision 3-0
Kenichi Hattori Def. Koichi Taguchi by arm-bar, Round 1 2:30
Takesuke Kume Def. Yoshifumi by TKO, Round 1 3:38
Kenya Kato Def. Tomohiko Yoshida by decision 3-0

Rookie Tournament:
Flyweight: Run Def. Gou Sato by decision 3-0
Featherweight: Ito 裕亮 Def. George “Kawamata” Joestar by decision 3-0

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DREAM - Planning CroCop vs. Fedor

The producers for DREAM has announced their dream for this years Dynimite show. The main event? Mirko Crocop vs. Fedor Emelianenko.

I know many people are expecting Fedor to sign with the UFC, but these negotiations have not gone well in the past. It will be interesting to see, but one thing is for sure, DREAM has thrown their name into the mix.

Source:
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080317-00000023-spnavi_ot-fight.html

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3/15 Shooto Gig West 9 - RESULTS

Sunday 16 March 2008

It is easy to forget with everything DREAM related going on, but Shooto had their "Gig West 9" in Osaka yesterday. On the card was a couple of interesting fights, the main event was between Shinji Sasaki and Paolo Milano, bot with very good records. Also on the card was the undefeated "Kodo" against Akira Kibe.

Shinji Sasaki Def. Paolo Milano by rear-naked choke, Round 2 0:59
Junya Kudou “Kodo” Def. Akira Kibe by TKO, Round 1 1:38

Rookie Tournament fights:
Welterweight: Hibiki Tamura Def. Gipsy Taro by decision 2-0
Welterweight: Hiroshi Sugimoto Def. Yasuaki Kishimoto by decision 2-0
Light-Heavy: Aberu Tanaka Def. Fujikawa 展康 by TKO, Round 1 2:00

Read more...

3/15 DREAM - Pictures


DREAM 023
Originally uploaded by
japanmma
Minowa was wondering where he was...



DREAM 025
Originally uploaded by
japanmma
Then he realized this was DREAM's first ever fight, and he was all business. The fight was, as expected, very quick.



DREAM 030
Originally uploaded by
japanmma
Monma entering the ring for his fight against crowd favorite Sakurai "Mach"



DREAM 032
Originally uploaded by
japanmma
Hayato "Mach" Sakurai making his way to the ring.



DREAM 036
Originally uploaded by
japanmma
"Mach" and Monma as the fight starts. As you can see, the disadvantage with the bigger organizations is the distance to the ring. It is very hard to get good action shots... As a consequence, there will be few good ones.



DREAM 049
Originally uploaded by
japanmma

Then it was time for my personal favorite. Hellboy was facing a very strong opponent in Boku. I have read an interview that Hansen was almost KOed. Just to put the record straight, he was never close to being KOed in this fight, and from where I was sitting, never threatened. This is most likely a translation issue, things can very easily get lost when translating from English to Japanese and back...

It was a question of how long Boku could resist the attack from Hellboy. He lasted the duration of the fight and should be credited for the defence.



DREAM 050
Originally uploaded by japanmma
A man on a mission!



DREAM 060
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Then it was time for "Buscape" to face the underrated Miyata.



DREAM 065
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Miyata has a lot of potential, but is yet to show too much. This time, "Buscape"'s ju jitsu skills were too much.



DREAM 067
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Miata vs. "Buscape"



DREAM 070
Originally uploaded by japanmma
"Buscape" was very happy to secure his place in the next round.



DREAM 072
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Artur Oumakhanov fought Katsuhiko Nagata, and he has lost 3 of his last 5. I am sure he was disappointed, and this was the weakest fight in the tournament (IMO).



DREAM 077
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Korean Bu Kyung Jung is a much better fighter than his record. It is a question of time before he upsets someone big. It was not to be this time though.



DREAM 082
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Ishida walked into the ring as one of the favorites for the tournament.



DREAM 085
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Ishida took the decision, and I hope we get to see more of Bu Kyung Jung in the near future.



DREAM 102
Originally uploaded by japanmma
The ring-girls went through their routine during the intermission.



DREAM 108
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Murilo Bustamante took time to sign some autographs and talk with fans.



DREAM 118
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Then it was time for the big one, CroCop's back!



DREAM 123
Originally uploaded by japanmma
The fight was more about his return to Japan than the result, but he got his win.



DREAM 134
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Eddie Alvarez has arrived in Japan!



DREAM 138
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Alvarez took on "Dida", who was full of confidence after his performance in HERO's last year.



DREAM 144
Originally uploaded by japanmma

Alvarez got an impressive win, and is definitely an outsider to this title.
At this point, I was running out of batteries, and wanted to make sure I got some pictures of Aoki vs. JZ. That meant that I didn't get any pictures of Kawajiri vs. "Black Mamba". I will check with friends and see if they have some good ones.

Anyway, it was time for the main event!


DREAM 145
Originally uploaded by japanmma
Aoki made his entrance. As always to "Baka survivor".



DREAM 154
Originally uploaded by japanmma
J.Z. made his entrance. The Japanese crowd was very excited about this fight.



DREAM 157
Originally uploaded by japanmma

The fight started good, but ended way to quick, the result was a No Contest... Hopefully these fighters get another chance to face each other.
As you saw by my post yesterday, I was a little disappointed. Now that I look back, it was unfortunate that it ended the way it did. But this was the beginning of something REALLY good!! For me, it was good to see Hellboy as we know him, entertaining the crowd, he was dominating and very agressive. But there are so many good fighters in this tournament! I can't wait to see how the fighters match up in the next round!



FightOpinion has put up an estimated paying attendence of 19,120.

DREAM 068
Originally uploaded by japanmma

Read more...

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