11/23 ZST 18 - Kotani fighting Nagata

Friday 31 October 2008

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

Thursday 30 October 2008

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

Wednesday 29 October 2008

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)

Tuesday 28 October 2008

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.




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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Yukio Sakaguchi gets noticed

Monday 27 October 2008

Yesterday's Pancrase card was full of fights going the distance, there were a couple of exceptions though. Yukio Sakaguchi is son of former Japanese Pro-Wrestler Seiji Sakaguchi.

Yukio Sakaguchi's record might not be the best in the business, but there is one thing the record doesnt show. Yukio Sakaguchi ALWAYS puts up a great fight, win or lose. Yesterday he KO'ed Pancrase #4 ranked Yuichi Ikari, and he is sure to move up in those rankings (he was previously unranked).

He has said that he would like to participate in one of the New Year's shows, Dynamite or Sengoku. Will it happen? Who knows, but his application has gotten some attention in the media here. If he were to participate, dont underestimate him, his fight will not go the distance.

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10/26 Pancrase Shining Tour - RESULTS

Sunday 26 October 2008

An awesome card in Differ Ariake today! The main event was for the Featherweight King of Pancrase title between the undefeated Brazilian Marlon Sandro and the experienced Masaya Takita "J-Taro".

Also on the card was a Welterweight Tournament, the winner of which will get a shot at the Welterweight King of Pancrase title belt.

Other fighters on this card included the Pancrase favorite Kenji Arai, Takuya Wada, Takafumi Ito and Yukio Sakaguchi.

Main-Event: Featherweight King of Pancrase
Marlon Sandro Def. Masaya Takita "J-Taro" by Decision 3-0

Feather: Kenji Arai vs. Tashiro Akai DRAW
Welter: Takuya Wada vs. Masahiro Toryu DRAW
Light: Yukio Sakaguchi Def. Yuichi Ikari by KO Round 1 0:21
Light: Takafumi Ito Def. Takaichi Hirayama by Decision 3-0

Welterweight Tournament Semi-Finals
Hiroyuki Nozawa Def. Asaki Honda by Decision 3-0
Tomoyoshi Iwamiya Def. "Strasser" Kiichi Kunimoto by Decision 3-0

Fly: Takuya Eizumi Def. Takayuki Hirayasu by TKO Round 2 1:55
Feather: Wataru Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Tanaka DRAW

Pancrase Gate:
Light: Wataru Yoshikawa vs. Shigetomo Takahashi DRAW

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10/26 Shooto - Gig Central Vol. 16 - RESULTS

The results from Shooto GIG Central Vol. 16. Unfortunately, I had missed 2 fights on the card, but they are included here.

The main event was for the Pacific Rim Middleweight title, and we now have an Australian Shooto champion.

Other than that, we had some Rookie Tournament fights on the card.

Pacific Rim Title Fight:
Middleweight: Xavier Lucas Def. Yoshitaro Niimi by Decision 2-0
Welterweight: Kenichi Hattori Def. Masato Fujiwara by Decision 2-0
Bantamweight: Hiroharu Matsufuji Def. Hiroshi Sakamoto by Decision 3-0
Flyweight: Kenichi Sawada vs. Teppei Masuda DRAW

Rookie Tournament
Lightweight: Naohiro Mizuno Def. Mitsuru Kobayashi by Decision 3-0
Light-Heavyweight: Makoto "Chomoranma 1/2" Maeda Def. Naoji Mikoshiba by TKO Round 2 3:39

Female Class C -58kg: Mutsumi Kasai Def. Kinuka Sasaki by Armbar Round 2 3:53

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11/16 JEWELS - First Fights Announced

Saturday 25 October 2008

JEWELS, the "new" SmackGirl, have announced 4 fights for their first event. The event will take place in Shinjuku Face on November 16.

JEWELS have yet to announce a main event, but there is a Good mix of talent and experienced fighters. I am really looking forward to seeing what these new all female organizations can do.

The card will have 8 fights, which is the same as Valkyrie has as a goal.

52kg: Saori Ishioka 5-3-0 vs. 1-1-0 Mika Nagano
49kg: Misaki Takimoto 8-9-4 vs. 14-13-5 Masako Yoshida
48kg: Sachiko Yamamoto "SACHI" 4-3-1 vs. 2-5-0 Kazumi Kaneko
60kg: Harumi 0-8-0 vs. Shizuka Sugiyama

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Reminder: Events this weekend - Shooto and Pancrase

There are 2 events this weekend, Shooto and Pancrase.

The cards have been ready for a while, so that you dont forget, here is a reminder.

Shooto is in Nagoya: Tokai TelePia Hall: http://tokai-tv.com/event/telepia/
The card is here.

Pancrase is in Differ Ariake in Tokyo, looks like it will be an awesome event.
The card is here.

And for those who have missed it, Nightmare of Battle have found the main event from the last Pancrase on YouTube. This was an awesome fight and really worth a look.

The fight was between Ryo Kawamura and Keiichiro Yamamiya
Round 1
Round 2
Round 3

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10/23 DEEP 38 - Pictures

The main card opened with a fight between Ryan Bow and Koichiro Matsumoto. Matsumoto kept the fight standing and when the fight hit the ground was able to defend well.















Then it was time for the big boys. These fight often end up being brawls, and this was no different. Kosaka took it to Mizuguchi and he was able to earn a TKO win. One of the few fights that didnt go the distance on the night.














I was looking forward to seeing Masayuki Okude in action. He has created a niche for himself in ZST as a Hong Man Choi look alike. It was a good fight, but the DEEP representative "ISE" took the decision.
















The fight I was looking forward to the most, Simeon Thoresen vs. Eiji Ishikawa. Simeon has finished all of his fights and went out to finish this as well. Ishikawa on the other hand is used to going the distance and defended well. Most of the fight was spent like this, Ishikawa in Thoresen's guard. The only damage really being done was from Thoresen's hammer fists.

I wish there had been one more round in this fight.














In the other DEEP vs. ZST fight of the night, Otsuka won a close decision agianst Kanehara.
















The next fight was between Riki Fukuda and Jason Jones. I was expecting a very good fight, and it turned out to be one. IMO fight of the night. Fukuda was successful in taking Jones down, and got the win by being better there. Jones put up a good fight though, and got the uppper hand just at the fight ended, but it was too late. Cups with ice were already flying into the ring, and even though it is not the first time I have seen a fighter not stop, it is the first time I have seen cups fly into the ring.













In the female fight of the night, Satoko Shinashi was able to secure a quick armbar win over Yukiko Seki. Satoko is the DEEP champion at 48kg, she is an exciting fighter, but I cant really see her losing to anyone at that weight...














The second openweight fight of the night saw Mega-Ton champion Kawaguchi face Mongolian newcomer Seryu. It also turned into a brawl, Kawaguchi proving the better fighter. Seryu was tough though, and went the distance.






















Ryuta Sakurai got a split decision against Sojiro Orui.














The main event was the fight that had filled Korakuen Hall (cant remember seeing it this full). Namekawa and Shibata put on a good show in a close fight. Not likely to be fight of the year, but the crowd got into it.

It was a good way to end a good night of fights, the fight ended in a draw and some times that is a fair result.


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11/16 SmackGirl --> JEWELS

Friday 24 October 2008

Finally there is a decision of that becomes of SmackGirl. It is pretty much done, but will continue... Sound confusing? Its not really. SmackGirl becomes JEWELS, in essence.

JEWELS will pick up where SmackGirl left us, and hopefully put on awesome events. They have a new competitor though... GCM is putting on Valkyrie, and they are kicking off just 8 days before this.

JEWELS will cooperate with DEEP, and we can expect to see some of the DEEP girls participate in this. Saeki is involved in the management and this should be a very exciting venture. It is offical, SmackGirl is gone but JEWELS will try to fill that spot.

BTW, no word on the SmackGirl finals.

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11/8 VALKYRIE EX 01- Roxanne Modaferri Fighting!

Valkyrie have announced an additional 2 fights to their first event being held in Differ Arike November 8. I know lots of people (me included) will be happy to see that Roxanne Modafferi is getting a fight after the AFL cancelation.<

So instead of fighting Tara Larosa, Roxy will be fighting Chisa Yonezawa, the rules are Novice rule, i.e. not punches to the face on the ground.

Also added to the card is “Windy” Tomomi against Emi Fujino. Fujino is coming off her first loss and Windy Tomomi has been in awesome shape since returning from her injury in 2007.

Added:
Valkyrie (VR) Rule:
Featherweight: “Windy” Tomomi Sunabe 11-8-0 vs. 8-1-0 Emi Fujino

Novice Rule (NR):
Welterweight: Roxanne Modafferi 12-4-0 vs. Chisa Yonezawa (?)

Previously announced:
VR: Featherweight: Yuka Tsuji 19-1-0 vs. V 3-1-0 V Hajime

VR: Flyweight 3x 3min: Naoko Omuro 8-7-2 vs. 9-4-2 Yasuko Tamada
NR: Featherweight No Pound: Akiko Naito 4-6-0 vs. 2-1-0 Madoka Ebihara
NR: Featherweight No Pound: Mamiko Mizoguchi 1-3-0 vs. Sakura

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10/23 DEEP 38 - RESULT

Thursday 23 October 2008

First up, an apology. I was going to try to give live results today (told a few people on my favorite discussion board, the ONLY ONE)... and it didnt work. It sucks, but shows that an investment might be needed before I can provide that service.

Anyway, just got home from DEEP event of the year. This was very good, and I enjoyed every fight on the main card (I missed the future fights). I have to say, DEEP is back as I used to know it!!!

Thoresen had his toughest opponent yet, and it showed. He faced a guy that is VERY good at avoiding submissions, but very good at staying on top. The end result? Ishikawa got all the take downs and stayed on top all the fight... He also got most of the damage and the majority win. Simeon had most of the submission attempts, but was forced to work from his back.

Fight of the night was Riki Fukuda vs. Jason Jones in my eyes. Fukuda was the better fighter in the first round, but Jones came on strong in the second. Jones didnt hear the bell and continued his GnP a bit to long for the fans. One of which through ice across the ring. There are some rumors of trouble outside the arena (only involving one of these fighters, but I hope its not the case).

Otherwise a lot of fights went the distance, but this was not a boring event by any means. There were lots of close fights, and lots of celebrities for fans to take pictures with. It was a very good night of fights and a return of DEEP as I know it.

The only thing this event really left me missing was a 3rd round....

These are the results:

12. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yasuhito Namekawa DRAW

11. Ryuta Sakurai Def. Sojiro Orui by Decision 2-1
10. Yusuke Kawaguchi Def. Seryu (星龍) by Decision 2-0
9. Satoko Shinashi Def. Yukiko Seki by Armbar Round 1 1:32
8. Riki Fukuda Def. Jason Jones by Decision 3-0
7. Takafumi Otsuka Def. Masanori Kanehara by Decision 2-1
6. Eiji Ishikawa Def. Simeon Thoresen by Decision 2-0
5. Toshikazu Iseno "ISE" Def. Masayuki Okude by Decision 3-0
4. Shunji Kosaka Def. Seigo Mizuguchi by TKO Round 1 3:30
3. Koichiro Matsumoto Def. Ryan Bow by Decision 3-0

Future fights
2. Yasuaki Kishimoto Def. 徳久宜生 (マッハ道場)
1. Yasuhiro Kawasaki 1-0-0 vs. 0-1-1 Yuki Tokishige

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Rumor alert! Genki Sudo returning?

Wednesday 22 October 2008

Gryphon is reporting that there might be a possibility.

It would certainly be a boost for DREAM if he was to return on NYE, I have my doubts though... I thought part of his retirement was due to recurring injury. It would also be interesting if he has been able to maintain the same level.



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10/23 DEEP 38 - Weigh-in

DEEP has had weigh-in for their event tomorrow. No real drama. Fighters made weight (I dont know the result of the female weigh-in).

I am really looking forward to this event! There should be tickets available, so if you're in the area, get to Korakuen Hall round 5.

Fight 10 - 2x5min 86.0kg
Katsuyori Shibata 85.4kg
Yasuhito Namekawa 85.4kg

Fight 9 - 2x5min 83.9kg
Sojiro Orui 83.9kg
Ryuta Sakurai 83.9kg

Fight 8 - 2x5min Open weight
Yusuke Kawaguchi
Seryu (星龍)

Fight 7 - 2x5min 48.0kg (women weighed seperately)
Satoko Shinashi
Yukiko Seki

Fight 6 - 2x5min 83.9kg
Riki Fukuda 83.9kg
Jason Jones 83.6kg

Fight 5 - 2x5min 65.8kg
Masanori Kanehara 65.7kg
Takafumi Otsuka 65.3kg

Fight 4 - 2x5min 77.1kg
Simeon Thoresen 76.7kg
Eiji Ishikawa 77.0kg

Fight 3 - 2x5min 70.3kg
Toshikazu Iseno "ISE" 70.1kg
Masayuki Okude 69.7kg

Fight 2 - 2x5min Open-weight
Seigo Mizuguchi
Shunji Kosaka

Fight 1 - 2x5min 70.3kg
Ryan Bow 70.2kg
Koichiro Matsumoto 70.1kg

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11/29 Shooto Tradition 04 - Rumina vs. Hatsu Hioki Announced

Tuesday 21 October 2008

Shooto have added 2 fights to their Tradition 04 card. This will be held in Korakuen Hall November 29 and should be an awesome event.

The card is looking very good already and today they added the fight between Rumina Sato and Hatsu Hioki, two of their biggest stars, but also 2 fighters that need to get back to the sort of form we are used to seeing them in.

Despite having average form lately (winning "only" 4 of his last 7), Hioki coming off a win in TKO 35 and a draw in his last Shooto fight, and is still ranked #5. Rumina Sato has lost 4 of his last 5, but is still ranked #6. He has never been the Shooto world champion, but win the Shooto Pacific Rim belt in 2005. Rumina is definitely one of the biggest stars in Shooto.

In the other fight added today, Atsushi Takeuchi will take on Katsuya Murofushi. Both these fighters lost against Noboru Tahara in their last fight, Takeuchi in an awesome fight (worth a watch if you havent seen it). This should be a very good fight.

Already on the card is the Lightweight title fight between Hideki Kadowaki and "Lion" Takeshi.

Added:
Hatsu Hioki 16-3-2 vs. 24-12-2 Rumina Sato
Atsushi Takeuchi 4-4-2 vs. 3-3-0 Katsuya Murofushi

Previously announced:
Hideki Kadowaki 13-7-2 vs. 14-3-0 "Lion" Takeshi Inoue
So Tazawa 8-3-2 vs. 5-0-1 Hiromasa Ogikubo
Jin Kazeta 8-8-2 vs. 5-1-1 Yutaka Ueda

Participating:
Takashi Nakakura 10-2-1

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10/26 Pancrase Shining Tour - Fight Order Official

Pancrase have announced the fight order for their event October 26 in Differ Ariake (be careful not to go to Korakuen Hall!).

The main event, not unexpected, is the featherweight King of Pancrase fight between the undefeated Brazilian Marlon Sandro and “J-Taro”. Sandro won his last fight in spectacular fashion against Pancrase ledgend Miki Shida, who retired after the fight. Takita has fought agaist Shida himself, but that was back in 2004 and he lost. This should be an interesting fight, but I would pick Marlon Sandro to get out on top.

Otherwise, a good card. Kenji Arai has performed better lately, something that has improved his Pancrase ranking as well (currently #4).

There is a Welterweight Tournament on this card as well. The winners of these will fight in December. The winner there earns the right to face the intrim champion, Takuya Wada, for the title in the spring.

Ikari vs. Sakaguchi should also be a good fight. Sakaguchi always comes out strong, even though his record is not great, his fights have been very entertaining.

Main-Event: Featherweight King of Pancrase
10. Marlon Sandro 11-0-0 vs. 9-9-2 Masaya Takita "J-Taro"

9. Feather: Kenji Arai 13-12-2 vs. 9-5-7 Tashiro Akai
8. Welter: Takuya Wada 17-8-8 vs. 6-3-3 Masahiro Toryu
7. Light: Yuichi Ikari 10-4-3 vs. 2-3-0 Yukio Sakaguchi
6. Light: Takafumi Ito 33-26-11 vs. 7-10-6 Takaichi Hirayama

Welterweight Tournament Semi-Finals
5. Asaki Honda 4-2-1 vs. 5-3-2 Hiroyuki Nozawa
4. Tomoyoshi Iwamiya 4-7-0 vs. 5-2-2 "Strasser" Kiichi Kunimoto

3. Fly: Takuya Eizumi 2-1-0 vs. 1-2-0 Takayuki Hirayasu
2. Feather: Wataru Takahashi 6-10-3 vs. Hiroshi Tanaka

Pancrase Gate:
1. Light: Wataru Yoshikawa vs. Shigetomo Takahashi

Read more...

11/1 Sengoku - Nogueira Signing Confirmed

Monday 20 October 2008

Sengoku have announced the last fight on their November 1 card today, and it is "Minotoro" Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Moise Rimbon.

This should be a huge signing for Sengoku! Also a good addition to this card.

It looks as though Josh Barnett will not participate though, I am a little dissapointed about that. Still a very good card.

Added:
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira "Minotoro" 14-3-0 vs. 13-7-3 Moise Rimbon

The complete card:
Middleweight GP:
Final: Winner Sasaki/Nakamura vs. Winner Santiago/Bahadurzada

Semi-Finals:
Yuki Sasaki 22-14-1 vs. 12-8-0 Kazuhiro Nakamura
Jorge Santiago 18-7-0 vs. 14-3-1 Siyar Bahadurzada
Reserve Fight: Izuru Takeuchi 25-9-6 vs. 40-12-0 Joe Doerksen

Lightweight GP:
Final: Winner Kitaoka/Mitsuoka vs. Winner Yokota/Hirota

Semi-Finals
Satoru Kitaoka 21-8-9 vs. 14-5-2 Eiji Mitsuoka
Kazunori Yokota 7-1-3 vs. 10-2-0 Mizuto Hirota
Reserve Fight: Bang Seung Hwan 5-2-0 vs. 14-3-0 Jorge Masvidal

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

Read more...

DEEP 38 - Warm up

Sunday 19 October 2008

I am really looking forward to this event, and looking at the ticket sales, I am not the only one. The cheapest and the most expensive tickets are now sold out.

There is a mix of quality, but the event has a good mix of experience and talent. It should be a good event, and I expect it to sell out.

Some fighters they are all the videos I found, for others there were just too many.


Katsuyori Shibata
vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
vs. Ralek Gracie
vs. Jason Miller

Yasuhito Namekawa (the fights I found are very old (from Rings))
vs. Alistair Overeem
vs. Ryuki Ueyama Part 1
vs. Ryuki Ueyama Part 2

Ryuta Sakurai
vs. Ryo Chonan
vs. Murilo Bustamante
vs. Paulo Filho
vs. RYO Part 1
vs. RYO Part 2

Sojiro Orui
vs. Yuya Shirai Part 1
vs. Yuya Shirai Part 2
vs. Yuya Shirai Part 3

Yusuke Kawaguchi
vs. Nobuyoshi Takahara
vs. Babaguchi

Satoko Shinashi
Highlights, posted before but I really like this video
vs. Maiko Okada
vs. Kim Tae-Kyung

Jason Jones
vs. Daniel Weichel (be patient, not the best intro...)

Riki Fukuda
vs. Yuya Shirai Part 1
vs. Yuya Shirai Part 2
vs. Ryuta Sakurai Part 1
vs. Ryuta Sakurai Part 2
vs. Ryuta Sakurai Part 3
vs. Yuichi Nakanishi Part 1
vs. Yuichi Nakanishi Part 2

Takafumi Otsuka
vs. Isamu Sugiuchi

Masanori Kanehara
vs. Shunichi Shimizu

Simeon Thoresen
vs. Paul Jenkins
Chas Jacquier
vs. Clifford Hall

Eiji Ishikawa
vs. Yuichi Nakanishi Part 1
vs. Yuichi Nakanishi Part 2
vs. Hector Lombard

Masayuki Okude
vs. Masahiro Oishi
vs. Jerry Kvarnstrom
vs. Yojiro Uchimura

Seigo Mizuguchi
vs. Nobuyoshi Takahara

Read more...

10/26 Pancrase Shining Tour - Tanaka Out!

Yasutomo Tanaka has had to pull out of his fight with Wataru Takahashi. He will be replaced by Hiroshi Tomida.

This will be an exciting debut. Hiroshi Tomita has had 4 Pancrase Gate fights and won 3 (2KO/1TKO). He will be facing experienced Laughter 7 fighter Wataru Takahashi. Takahashi had a bad 2007 (1-4), but he is a good fighter and this year he is 1-0-1 against good opponents. This should be a tough debut for Tomita.

Changed:
Wataru Takahashi 6-10-3 vs. Hiroshi Tomita

The complete card:
Featherweight King of Pancrase
Marlon Sandro 11-0-0 vs. 9-9-2 Masaya Takita "J-Taro"

Welterweight Tournament Semi-Finals
Asaki Honda 4-2-1 vs. 5-3-2 Hiroyuki Nozawa
Tomoyoshi Iwamiya 4-7-0 vs. 5-2-2 "Strasser" Kiichi Kunimoto

Feather: Kenji Arai 13-12-2 vs. 9-5-7 Tashiro Akai
Light: Takafumi Ito 33-26-11 vs. 7-10-6 Takaichi Hirayama
Welter: Takuya Wada 17-8-8 vs. 6-3-3 Masahiro Toryu
Feather: Wataru Takahashi 6-10-3 vs. Hiroshi Tanaka
Fly: Takuya Eizumi 2-1-0 vs. 1-2-0 Takayuki Hirayasu
Light: Yuichi Ikari 10-4-3 vs. 2-3-0 Yukio Sakaguchi

Pancrase Gate:
Light: Wataru Yoshikawa vs. Shigetomo Takahashi

Read more...

FEG Dynamite Press Conference

Saturday 18 October 2008

I just got back from the press conference. Not a lot of surprises, and no match ups are ready, but some fighters were presented.

This is of course the biggest day on the calendar for any MMA fan in Japan, and this year should be very good.

The only foreign fighter present was Joachim Hansen, who also took the opportunity to promote Simeon Thoresen's fight on Thursday.

Joachim brought what everyone there wanted, the belt.



Of the Japanese fighters, the question is really who was not there...

Anyway, here is the list of who were present:
Joachim Hansen
Hayato "Mach" Sakurai
Yuichi Nakanishi (DEEP Middleweight champ)
Musashi
Kazushi Sakuraba
Shinya Aoki
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Masakazu Imanari
Atsushi Yamamoto
Takeshi Yamazaki
Minowaman
Seichi Ikemoto (DEEP Welterweight Champ)
Kiyoshi Tamura
Yoshihiro Sato
Yasuhiro Kido
Kuniyoshi Hironaka

Yoshihiro Sato wanted a re-match with Masato, Tanigawa (K-1 event producer) said that it would be a fight he would like to see, but no promises could be made at the time.


FEG is negotiating with Fedor. Mirko Crocop and Hong Man Choi are also considered as participants.

Both Aoki and Sakuraba were jokingly challenged Akiyama.




Musashi had been celebrating his birthday, and admited that he was still a bit drunk. He seemed to enjoy center stage with Sakuraba.




Other than Crocop, Fedor and Hong Man Choi, they also mentioned "Kid", Masato, Funaki and Mousasi. Add Badr Hari to that (I feel he was confirmed at DREAM 6).

As I said, this will be a huge event. It is said to contain 15-20 fights both MMA and K-1 rule.


Read more...

11/1 Sengoku - Secret Fight Revealed?

Friday 17 October 2008

Nothing official yet, but Nightmare of Battle has a scoop from Brazil. Is Lil-Nog on his way back to Japan? It certainly looks like it, Portal do Vale Tudo is saying its on. He will be fighting Moise Rimbon and that should complete the card.

With the FEG press-conference tomorrow, I would not be surpriced if the fight is confirmed tomorrow. Either way, I am expecting a Sengoku announcement tomorrow.

IF this is the fight, the card will look like this:

Middleweight GP:
Final: Winner Sasaki/Nakamura vs. Winner Santiago/Bahadurzada

Semi-Finals:
Yuki Sasaki 22-14-1 vs. 12-8-0 Kazuhiro Nakamura
Jorge Santiago 18-7-0 vs. 14-3-1 Siyar Bahadurzada
Reserve Fight: Izuru Takeuchi 25-9-6 vs. 40-12-0 Joe Doerksen

Lightweight GP:
Final: Winner Kitaoka/Mitsuoka vs. Winner Yokota/Hirota

Semi-Finals
Satoru Kitaoka 21-8-9 vs. 14-5-2 Eiji Mitsuoka
Kazunori Yokota 7-1-3 vs. 10-2-0 Mizuto Hirota
Reserve Fight: Bang Seung Hwan 5-2-0 vs. 14-3-0 Jorge Masvidal

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

Read more...

11/23 ZST 18 - Tokoro teams with Imanari

ZST have announced the first few fights for their event November 23. The event takes place in Differ Ariake, and will also be the debut for the new ring girls. They are currently accepting applicants and if you would like to apply, you can get information here.

Anyway, one of the fights is a tag-team final, where Hideo Tokoro is teaming up with Masakazu Imanari against Takumi Yano and Daisuke Yokoyama.

Also on the card is ZST veteran Yojiro Uchimura against Pancrase super veteran Osami Shibuya.

The fights announced so far are:

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. TBA
Featherweight: Shunichi Shimizu 13-3-4 vs. 4-1-3 Keisuke Fujiwara
GT-F (Grappling): Minoru Toyonaga vs. Hiroki Kotani

Participating:
Wataru Inasu 3-3-1
Masashi Takeda 10-4-1
Kenichi Ito 3-3-2

Read more...

FIELDs DYNAMITE!! Press Conference Tomorrow

It has been reported several places, FEG will have a press conference tomorrow relating to their NYE event.

There are lots of rumors... Hopefully we will get some answers tomorrow, we know Joachim Hansen is fighting. I think Badr Hari will have a DREAM opponent, and Fedor... Well, looks like he's off the card now.

What are the other rumors? Nick Diaz vs. KJ Noons? It could happen... Nick Diaz vs. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai? Nick Diaz not fighting for DREAM? We probably wont get any answers to that...

Another rumor is an event in 2 parts, one K-1 the other DREAM.

I hope we dont get to see Bobby Ologun running from his oppnent this year... But chances are that he will be on the card again.

Anyway, I will be at the conference tomorrow with a camera. If you are in Tokyo you should be there too!

It is in Akasaka, next to the TBS building. It is called Sacas, here is a map:
Sacas Map

Read more...

Gyms in Japan

Sam Caplan of FiveOunceofPain.com had a great article of how to chose a gym

It got me thinking that I should try to make a list of MMA gyms in Japan. It is a HUGE task, but it is a question I get a lot. The problem is that it takes me a lot of time to research and I rarely have time to get back to each person.

I will list gyms here that I know have produced fighters, I will also provide links to their web-sites. Unfortunately, their sites are in Japanese but I hope that if you live in Japan, you will be able to get around the site.

Regaring pricing, generally there is a joining fee about 10 - 20,000 yen and a monthly fee of 10-15,000 yen.

If you work out at a gym and I haven’t listed it, send me the link and I will add it on with your recommendation. Keep in mind that some gyms in Japan will unfortunately not allow foreigners (mainly due to language), it is also normal to ban people with tattoos. But I hope most gyms are open for people with common sense that wants to work out.

So for the gyms (and I hope there will be some additions to this list):

Tokyo Train – Map: http://www.u-bourgogne.fr/monge/g.dito/poisson2006/images/tokyo_trainmap.pdf


Tokyo Area Recommend:

AACC -Omori- This is a gym that has some top fighters. It has been recommended to me by lots of people.

Homepage: http://www.aacc-sports.com/english/
Map: http://www.goldsgym.jp/golds/ggsta/access/access.html


Krazy Bee -Magome- A new gym. Also been recommended to me. This is a gym with some very good fighters and it’s a good place to train, from what I am hearing.
A little more expensive joining fee, but they have top facilities. Not too far from AACC, but a different line.

The gym is located close to the Magome station, on the Toei Asakusa line.
Homepage: http://krazybee.jp/en/gym.html

Shizuoka, Hamamatsu - Recommended:
Bull Terrier MMA Gym
http://www.b-j-j.com/gym/

Ok, so that’s the gyms that have been recommended to me personally, that means being a foreigner is not a problem and they have good facilities.

For the rest of the gyms I will just look for reputable gyms. If you have personal experiences with any of these, let me know and I can move them up, depending on recommendations.

I am sure there are gyms I have forgotten/don't know about, so please let me know. Also ANY personal experiences with these gyms would be helpful.



Tokyo

DEEP impact Gym
Ookubo Station, Shinjuku –Staff includes Shinya Aoki and Masakazu Imanari
http://www.deep2001.com/gym/index.html

U-File (5 locations)
http://www.u-filecamp.com/

Mukogaoka
Odakyu Line – Mukogaoka Station
http://www.u-filecamp.com/gym/noborito_map.html

Machida
JR Line – Machida Station
http://www.u-filecamp.com/gym/machida_map.html

Chofu
Keio Line - Nishi-Chofu station
http://www.u-filecamp.com/gym/chohu_map.html

Akabane
JR Line – Akabane station
http://www.u-filecamp.com/gym/akabane_map.html

Oomori (looks like same location as AACC)
JR Line (Keihintohoku line) – Oomori Station
http://www.u-filecamp.com/gym/omori_map.html

Alliance Square
Chiyoda line – Nogizaka station
http://www.alliance-square.jp/
http://www.alliance-square.jp/access.html

Grabaka (2 locations)

Higashi-Nakano
Closest station is Tozai line – Ochiai station
http://www.grabaka.com/pc/gym_higashinakano.html#Anchor-47857

Okubo
JR Yamanote line – Shin Okubo station
http://www.grabaka.com/pc/gym_okubo.html

GutsMan
(I found this site very difficult to navigate)
Keio Inogashira Line – Meidaimae station
http://www.gutsman.jp/
http://www.gutsman.jp/access-map.htm

Mach Dojo (Hayato Sakurai “Mach”’s gym) (2 locations)
http://www.machdojo.com/index.html

Sugamo
http://www.machdojo.com/dojo_sugamo.html
http://www.mapfan.com/m.cgi?MAP=E139.44.34.0N35.43.42.7&ZM=11&CI=R

Ibaraki – Ryugasaki City
http://www.machdojo.com/dojo_ibaraki.html
http://www.mapfan.com/m.cgi?MAP=E140.8.55.5N35.55.18.1&ZM=9&s1=%A2%A9301%2D0041%20%20%B0%F1%BE%EB%B8%A9%CE%B6%A5%B1%BA%EA%BB%D4%BC%E3%BC%C6%C4%AE%A3%B3%A3%B0%A3%B1%A3%B6


Wajyutsu Keisyukai (5 locations)
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/index.html

Ochanomizu (Main location)
Marunouchi line – Ochanomizu station
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/hon/index.html
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/hon/access/index.html

Wajyutsu Keisyukai A-3
Tobu line – Wakoshi station
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/a-3/index.html
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/a-3/access/index.html

Wajyutsu Keisyukai RJW
Tozai subway line – Monzennakacho station
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/rjw/index.html
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/rjw/access/index.html

Wajyutsu Keisyukai Gods
Tokyu Iketami line - Senzoku-ike station
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/gods/index.html
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/gods/access/index.html

Wajyutsu Keisyukai Tiger Place
Nanbo line – Shitte station
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/tp/index.html
http://www.wk-net.co.jp/tp/access/index.html

Paraestra Tokyo
Toei Oedo line – Shinegota station (exit A2)
http://www.paraestra.com/

Paraestra Kasai
Subway Tozai line - Nishikasai station
Homepage: http://www.parakatsu.com/index.html
Map: http://www.parakatsu.com/access.html

Paraestra Koiwa
Homepage: http://www4.plala.or.jp/parakoi/index.html


KANAGAWA

Wajyutsu Keisyukai Tiger Place (see Tokyo section)

Shooting Gym Yokohama
(trainers include Mamoru and Lion Takeshi)
JR Yokohama station – West exit (15 min walk)
http://home.m06.itscom.net/shooto_y/
http://home.m06.itscom.net/shooto_y/html/stgyinfo.html

Roots Gym (Rumina Sato’s gym) - Odawara
Odawara station
Homepage: http://www.rootsgym.com/index.html


CHIBA

Paraestra Matsudo
JR Matsudo station
Homepage: http://www.parachiba.com/matsudo.php

Paraestra Chiba
Honchiba station
Homepage: http://www.parachiba.com/chiba.php

Paraestra Kashiwa
Kashiwa station
Homepage: http://www.parachiba.com/kashiwa.php


IBARAKI

Mach Dojo (see Tokyo section)

T-Blood (Tsuchiura)
Homepage: http://mmatblood.web.fc2.com/


R-Blood (Mito)
Homepage: http://www.native-groove.com/r-blood/index.htm
Map: http://www.native-groove.com/r-blood/access.htm


SAITAMA
Purebred Omiya
JR Utsunomiya line – Higashi Omiya station
http://www.purebred.co.jp/


SHIZUOKA

Hamamatsu
Bull Terrier MMA Gym
http://www.b-j-j.com/gym/

K.O Shooto Gym
http://www.kogym.net/index.html


AICHI
Barbosa
Handa city – Close to Nagoya
Meitetsu-line Narawa Station, go strait south first signal turn right, right side.
http://barbosajapan.com/english

Alive - Nagoya
Sakuradori Line - Fukiage station
http://www.aliveacademy.net/
http://www.aliveacademy.net/access/index.html


KYOTO

Purebred Kyoto
Kyoto subway line – Shijo station (K-09)
Homepage (click on the logo): http://purebred-kyoto.com/
Map: http://map.yahoo.co.jp/pl?lat=35.0.14.271&lon=135.46.2.727


OSAKA

Purebred Osaka
Homepage: http://www.ohta-gym.com/
Map: http://map.livedoor.com/map/?ZM=9&MAP=E135.37.42.9N34.43.16.9

Shooting Gym Osaka
Homepage: http://www.geocities.jp/shooto_osaka/
Map: http://www.geocities.jp/shooto_osaka/accees.html

FUKUOKA
Purebred Fukuoka
Homepage: http://pbf.purebredfukuoka.com/framepage1.html
Map: http://pbf.purebredfukuoka.com/tizu.html

Paraestra Hakata
Homepage: http://www.paraestra-hakata.com/
Map: http://www.paraestra-hakata.com/place.html


HAKODATE
Paraestra Hakodate
Homepage: http://www5.ncv.ne.jp/~masasai/main.html

Read more...

10/23 DEEP 38 - Fight Order Announced

Thursday 16 October 2008

DEEP has announced the fight order for DEEP 38 today. This will be a very good event, with some good talents and some very experienced veterans.

Seryu is a new face for most, I would think. He is a Mongolian sumo wrestler, and is said to be very good at that. I really dont know what to expect...

DEEP have put up a picture from the press conferance earlier:


I also remeber reading that he is friends with Asashoryu (one of 2 Yokozuna's in Sumo)

Also on the card, Norwegian Simeon Thoresen is putting his undefeated status on the line, and I am picking him to get a submission win, but Ishikawa is very hard to put away and very good at avoiding submissions. It might go to the 2nd round.

Other than that, this card features: Riki Fukuda, Katsuyori Shibata, Ryuta Sakurai and Jason Jones (called Mini-Manhoef in Japanese media). This is going to be a very good event!

Main-Event:
12. Katsuyori Shibata 2-5-0 vs. 24-16-3 Yasuhito Namekawa

11. Sojiro Orui 5-2-4 vs. 17-14-4 Ryuta Sakurai
10. Yusuke Kawaguchi 7-0-0 vs. Seryu (星龍)
9. Satoko Shinashi 28-2-2 vs. 4-13-0 Yukiko Seki
8. Riki Fukuda 11-4-0 vs. 7-3-0 Jason Jones
7. Masanori Kanehara 10-4-5 vs. 6-3-1 Takafumi Otsuka
6. Simeon Thoresen 9-0-0 vs. 16-14-3 Eiji Ishikawa
5. Toshikazu Iseno "ISE" 5-4-2 vs. 5-4-5 Masayuki Okude
4. Seigo Mizuguchi 3-3-0 vs. 2-1-0 Shunji Kosaka
3. Ryan Bow 17-8-2 vs. 5-1-0 Koichiro Matsumoto

Future fights
2. Yasuaki Kishimoto 2-2-0 vs. 徳久宜生 (マッハ道場)
1. Yasuhiro Kawasaki 1-0-0 vs. 0-1-1 Yuki Tokishige

Read more...

11/8 Cage Force - EX Eastern Bound - "K-Taro", Monma and Urusitani Fighting!

Wednesday 15 October 2008

Ok, I have had a rather boring week... But suddenly everything is happening at once. Cage Force has announced the card for the "other" event on November 8. This event will follow the Valkyrie event that is happening earlier in the afternoon. This is a "EX Eastern Bound" event, that means cheaper tickets but these events have provided some good fights in the past. This card looks very good though.

Participating is DREAM fighter and UFC veteran, Nakamura "K-Taro", Hidetaka Monma, Yasuhiro Urushitani and Kenji Osawa. Taken off the card is the Bantamweight semi-final between Takeya Mizugaki and Taiyo Nakahara. Nakahara is still injured and Mizugaki will advance to the final and meet Masahiro Oishi


I don't expect many more fights on this card (2, maybe 3), but it looks very good already.

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

Participating:
Keita Nakamura "K-Taro" 15-3-2

Read more...

11/1 Sengoku - Gomi Fighting!

It has been said that Gomi needed to be on this card in order to fill Saitama Super Arena, that might very well be true. Today it was announced that he is fighting, he is facing Sergey Golyaev, a new name for me (even though he fought Hellboy in 2004) and a guy that has not fought since December 2006 (according to Sherdog's fight finder). Most of his fights are in M-1 and it will be interesting to see if he poses a threat to Gomi. He was the Russian Muay Thai champion in 2000/2001 according to the Sengoku information.

Fabio Silva is returning to the ring, he is probably best known (depending on who you ask) as a Wanderlei Silva look alike, but he is a good fighter and against King Mo I would say that anything can happen. Silva has the experience, but the question is if that's enough... I would have favored Wiuff for the same reason... Silva is also giving away a bit of size in this one.

This event is looking very strong, and there is the possibility of an 11th fight. NoB is saying someone familiar to Japan and hasn't fought here (in Japan) for about 2years... There are lots of fighters that fall into that category and I don't want to speculate but there are a few names that stick out from the last couple of Pride events.

Announced today:
Takanori Gomi 29-3-0 vs. 10-6-0 Sergey Golyaev
Middleweight GP Reserve Fight: Izuru Takeuchi 25-9-6 vs. 40-12-0 Joe Doerksen
King Mo 1-0-0 vs. 11-4-0 Fabio Silva

That makes the card look like this:

Middleweight GP:
Final: Winner Sasaki/Nakamura vs. Winner Santiago/Bahadurzada

Semi-Finals:
Yuki Sasaki 22-14-1 vs. 12-8-0 Kazuhiro Nakamura
Jorge Santiago 18-7-0 vs. 14-3-1 Siyar Bahadurzada
Reserve Fight: Izuru Takeuchi 25-9-6 vs. 40-12-0 Joe Doerksen

Lightweight GP:
Final: Winner Kitaoka/Mitsuoka vs. Winner Yokota/Hirota

Semi-Finals
Satoru Kitaoka 21-8-9 vs. 14-5-2 Eiji Mitsuoka
Kazunori Yokota 7-1-3 vs. 10-2-0 Mizuto Hirota
Reserve Fight: Bang Seung Hwan 5-2-0 vs. 14-3-0 Jorge Masvidal

Non-GP Fights:
Takanori Gomi 29-3-0 vs. 10-6-0 Sergey Golyaev
"King Mo" Muhammed Lawal 1-0-0 vs. 11-4-0 Fabio Silva

Yesterday NoB posted some interesting rumors. I have not seen them confirmed anywhere, but would it would be interesting if they were true. KJ Noons vs. Nick Diaz in Japan… NoB is speculating that it will be in Sengoku, I would agree… DREAM would probably put Diaz against Sakurai, as they were intending first. But let’s see.

Read more...

11/8 Cage Force Valkyrie EX 01 - Poster

More info on Valkyrie, the all female organization starting up. As you all should know by now, their first event is due to be held November 8, and the poster is ready now:

The weight divisions were announced earlier, but I missed that, so here they are:

Welterweight =61.2 Kg (135Lbs)
Lightweight = 56.7 Kg (125 Lbs)
Featherweight = 52.2 Kg (115 Lbs)
Bantamweight = 48.5 Kg (107 Lbs)
Flyweight = 45.4 Kg (100 Lbs)

Also the poster for their first event is ready:



The card announced so far:
Main-Event - Featherweight:
Yuka Tsuji 19-1-0 vs. V 3-1-0 V Hajime

Flyweight 3x 3min: Naoko Omuro 8-7-2 vs. 9-4-2 Yasuko Tamada
Featherweight No Pound: Akiko Naito 4-6-0 vs. 2-1-0 Madoka Ebihara
Featherweight No Pound: Mamiko Mizoguchi 1-3-0 vs. Sakura

***UPDATE***
Sherdog is reporting that Roxanne Modaferri has had her rematch against Tara Larosa cancelled. She is trying to get on the card in this event, but it might be difficult to find an opponent. I really hope we get to her on this card, she should be prepared and its a great oppurtunity for Valkyrie to get another big name on the card.

Read more...

11/1 Sengoku - Fights added (Middleweight Semi's Announced)

Tuesday 14 October 2008

Sengoku have confirmed the Middleweight matchups today. Not a huge surprise that the 2 Japanese fighters will face off in the semi-final, but this is going to be an interesting event. The lightweight semi's were already announced, but this is a very good card.

In addition to the Light- and Middleweight GP finals, we will have a Lightweight Tournament Reserve fight between Bang Seung Hwan, who was just stripped of his DEEP belt and Jorge Masvidal.

King Mo is confirmed as a participant, Josh Barnett has said earlier that he would be on this card and there should also be a middleweight reserve fight. Joe Doerksen is reported to be heading to Japan, and he should be facing Pancrase veteran Izuru Takeuchi in the Middleweight GP Reserve fight. I saw Joe Doerksen in his last fight in Japan, an easy win in DEEP 29 and look forward to seeing him again. Takeuchi is on a 5 fight winning streak and it should be a good fight.

Anyway, this looks like a strong card and I am really looking forward to this event! This event will also have the final in BOTH the GPs.

Confirmed today:

Middleweight Semi-Finals:
Yuki Sasaki 22-14-1 vs. 12-8-0 Kazuhiro Nakamura
Jorge Santiago 18-7-0 vs. 14-3-1 Siyar Bahadurzada

Lightweight Reserve Fight:
Bang Seung Hwan 5-2-0 vs. 14-3-0 Jorge Masvidal

Participating:
"King Mo" Muhammed Lawal 1-0-0

Previously announced:
Satoru Kitaoka 21-8-9 vs. 14-5-2 Eiji Mitsuoka
Kazunori Yokota 7-1-3 vs. 10-2-0 Mizuto Hirota

Read more...

10/13 Shooto Kitazawa Townhall - RESULTS

Monday 13 October 2008

Not many events this month, but the Shooto card in Kitzawa Townhall had a lot of talent in the 6 fights on the card. The event has just finished and it looks like another strong performance by Usuda in the Rookie Tournament.

Also worth a mention, Numajiri debuts with a win.

Bantam: Junji Ikoma Def. Yusei Shimokawa by Triangle choke Round 1 2:23
Rookie Tourn Light: Issei Tamura Def. Takumi Ota by Decision 2-0
Rookie Tourn Welter: Ikuo Usuda Def. Kazuya Satomoto by TKO Round 1 1:05
Welter: Shinobu Miura Def. Koichi Taguchi by Decision 3-0
Middle: Shin Kochiwa Def. Taijiro Iseki by TKO (3 down) Round 1 2:55
Feather: Ken Numajiri Def. Masumi Tozawa by Decision 3-0

Read more...

Norways biggest news paper on MMA

Sunday 12 October 2008

Ok, there are virtually no news coming out of Japan this weekend... It is actually not a bad thing for me, feels like I have time to breath. :)

I was doing my normal news reading when I came across this article.
MMA is gathering speed and getting more press in general media. Norway's biggest newspaper (VG) have written an interesting article about the subject.

I have to first say that I am really happy that the sport is getting publicity in Norway, we have some fighters that are known globally, but not in Norway both Jaochim Hansen and Jon Olav Einemo are featured in this piece.

A great deal of effort goes into presenting the sport for the average Norwegian, and there is a great deal of emphasis on the fact that this is not training for street fighters, these are professional athletes. Jon Olav Einemo points out that performing MMA is Norway is extremely difficult, as arranging fights and events are illegal. This leads to a lack of sponsors and press. You can also factor in that they have to travel internationally to get experience, and it becomes very expensive to do MMA in Norway.

I really hope the Norwegian regulators gets their eyes open and sees that this is a sport and not violence. Hopefully Joachim Hansen is able to create enough publicity around this sport so we can see an improvement in the regulation for these fighters.

For this martial arts seminar in small Yttre Enebakk in Norway, they had also brought in the ADCC veteran Leozinho Vieira from Brazil.

A couple of videos:
See VG's journalist challenge Hellboy
Interview with Jon Olav Einemo and Joachim Hansen

Also a video of Leozinho Vieira against "Haidaro" Tetsu Suzuki from ADCC 2007


Read more...

11/8 Cage Force Valkyrie 01 EX

Saturday 11 October 2008

Valkyrie, the new all female fight organization, has announced 3 more fights for their first event on November 8. Since last time, more information is coming out regarding the rules and the type of fighting.

Fightlinker asked Roxy about it and to me it looks like her fears are realized (Tsujii will fight V Hajime). Jordan Breen has written
this article about the new organization for Sherdog.

So, here is what it will look like. It will have 2 classes of rules, one for "beginners" and one for more experienced fighters.

The basic rules (beginners) will be no punches to the face on the ground. There is no mention of a SmackGirl like 30 second rule. I have called it "No Pund" below (as it is consistent with the Japanese version).

For the experienced fighters, the rules are pretty much like the Cage Force rules, with one exception. No elbows.

With that in mind, half the promised card is announced now. Here are the fights:

Main-Event - Featherweight(-52.2kg):
Yuka Tsuji 19-1-0 vs. V 3-1-0 V Hajime

Flyweight(-45.4kg)3x 3min: Naoko Omuro 8-7-2 vs. 9-4-2 Yasuko Tamada
Featherweight(-52.2kg)No Pound: Akiko Naito 4-6-0 vs. 2-1-0 Madoka Ebihara
Featherweight(-52.2kg)No Pound: Mamiko Mizoguchi 1-3-0 vs. Sakura

Read more...

10/23 DEEP 38 Impact - Riki Fukuda's opponent/Fight Cancelled

Friday 10 October 2008

Riki Fukuda's opponent for DEEP 38 was announced today. It is a fighter who has been in Japan before. Jason Jones was very strong in his last fight in Japan, that time he was fighting on the Dutch team against Japan in the M-1 Challenge. The won a TKO win over Yuta Watanabe. This time he is taking on a stronger opponent in Riki Fukuda and this should be a very good fight as well.

I cant remember the last time DEEP had a card to rival this (have to go a couple of years back at least. Even considering that one fight was taken off today...

The fight that was taken off is this fight:
Daiki Hata "DJ Taiki" 8-5-3 vs. 15-7-2 Naoya Uematsu

Added:
Riki Fukuda 11-4-0 vs. 7-3-0 Jason Jones

Card so far:
Main-Event:
Katsuyori Shibata 2-5-0 vs. 24-16-3 Yasuhito Namekawa

Ryan Bow 17-8-2 vs. 5-1-0 Koichiro Matsumoto
Simeon Thoresen 9-0-0 vs. 16-14-3 Eiji Ishikawa
Riki Fukuda 11-4-0 vs. 7-3-0 Jason Jones
Yusuke Kawaguchi 7-0-0 vs. Seryu (星龍)
Toshikazu Iseno "ISE" 5-4-2 vs. 5-4-5 Masayuki Okude
Sojiro Orui 5-2-4 vs. 17-14-4 Ryuta Sakurai
Masanori Kanehara 10-4-5 vs. 6-3-1 Takafumi Otsuka
Satoko Shinashi 28-2-2 vs. 4-13-0 Yukiko Seki
Seigo Mizuguchi 3-3-0 vs. 2-1-0 Shunji Kosaka

Future fights
Yasuaki Kishimoto 2-2-0 vs. 徳久宜生 (マッハ道場)
Yasuhiro Kawasaki 1-0-0 vs. 0-1-1 Yuki Tokishige

Read more...

11/22 Shooto Gig North Vol. 3

Shooto have announced the first fights for their GIG North event in Sapporo. The event will be held in Zepp Sapporo and the fighters are mostly pretty inexperienced. There are a couple of debutants and a few fighters that is trying to get their first win.

As usual on these cards, Takuya Mori is set to participate.

Welter: Michiyuki "Aroi" Ishibashi 1-4-1 vs. Tsuneo "Jackknife" Kimura
Welter: Hidekazu "Aniki" Asakura 1-4-0 vs. 0-2-1 Taro Kusano
Light: Takashi Nikuni vs. Toshiaki Hayasaka
Fly: Takeshi Sato 0-1-0 vs. Atsushi Mochiduki
Welter: Yoshiki Noguchi 0-3-0 vs. 0-3-0 Junpei Chikano
Welter: Tatsuya Yamamoto 1-2-0 vs. 0-1-0 Kazuyuki Yoshida

Participating:
Takuya Mori 5-3-0

Read more...

10/13 Shooto - Kitazawa Townhall *REMINDER*

Just a reminder of this event. It is happening in Kitazawa Townhall on Monday (which is a public holiday in Japan) and it should be a good event.

One change has happened to the card though, this featherweight fight is taken off due to Yamauchi suffering a rib injury:
Makoto Yamauchi 1-0-0 vs. 1-4-2 Nobuhiro "Mike" Hayakawa
Which is a shame, but there is still good talent on this card.

The complete card and fight order:
Bantam: Junji Ikoma 10-9-3 vs. 5-3-0 Yusei Shimokawa
Rookie Tourn Light: Takumi Ota 4-1-1 vs. 1-0-0 Issei Tamura
Rookie Tourn Welter: Kazuya Satomoto 4-1-0 vs. 1-0-0 Ikuo Usuda
Welter: Shinobu Miura 1-3-3 vs. 1-2-1 Koichi Taguchi
Middle: Shin Kochiwa 0-1-1 vs. 0-1-0 Taijiro Iseki
Feather: Masumi Tozawa 0-1-2 vs. Ken Numajiri

Read more...

10/26 Pancrase Shining Tour - Another Fight Added

Wednesday 8 October 2008

You cant blame Pancrase for not putting on enough fights, they are adding yet another one on their October 26 card.

This one is between Laughter 7's Wataru Takahashi and SK Absolute's Yasutomo Tanaka. Both of these guys are young (25) and very experienced, but have had someone mixed luck. It should be a good fight though.

The card looks pretty much complete now, with the exception of some Pancrase Gate fights.

Added:
Wataru Takahashi 6-10-3 vs. 5-2-4 Yasutomo Tanaka

The card:
Featherweight King of Pancrase
Marlon Sandro 11-0-0 vs. 9-9-2 Masaya Takita "J-Taro"

Welterweight Tournament Semi-Finals
Asaki Honda 4-2-1 vs. 5-3-2 Hiroyuki Nozawa
Tomoyoshi Iwamiya 4-7-0 vs. 5-2-2 "Strasser" Kiichi Kunimoto

Feather: Kenji Arai 13-12-2 vs. 9-5-7 Tashiro Akai
Light: Takafumi Ito 33-26-11 vs. 7-10-6 Takaichi Hirayama
Welter: Takuya Wada 17-8-8 vs. 6-3-3 Masahiro Toryu
Feather: Wataru Takahashi 6-10-3 vs. 5-2-4 Yasutomo Tanaka
Fly: Takuya Eizumi 2-1-0 vs. 1-2-0 Takayuki Hirayasu
Light: Yuichi Ikari 10-4-3 vs. 2-3-0 Yukio Sakaguchi

Pancrase Gate:
Light: Wataru Yoshikawa vs. Shigetomo Takahashi

Read more...

Shooto October Ranking

I missed the September Rankings (was looking for it, but somehow it went unnoticed). Therefore, these are the moves for the 2 past months.

Most interesting is the move in the Bantamweight division where Shoujou beat Urushitani and moves up into the #1 spot.

Bantamweight:
Champ: → Shinichi “BJ” Kojima (From October 14 2006, Defended 3 times)
1. ↑ Yuki Shoujou
2. ↓Yasuhiro Urushitani
3. → Mamoru Yamaguchi
4. → Masatoshi Abe
5. → Ryuichi Miki
6. → Junji Ikoma
7. → Shimokawa Yusei
8. → Yasuhiro Akagi
9. → Homare Kuboyama
10. → Jin Akimoto

Yuki Shoujou moves up into the #1 challenger spot after his win against Urushitani in Shooto Tradition 3 on September 28.

Featherweight:
Champ: → Masakatsu Ueda (From March 28 2008, Defended 1 Times)
1. → Marcos “Louro” Galvao
2. → Eduardo Dantas
3. → Daniel Lima
4. → Koetsu Okazaki
5. → So Tazawa
6. → Atsushi Yamamoto
7. → Kenji Osawa
8. → Hiromasa Ogikubo
9. → Tetsu Suzuki
10. → Takeya Mizugaki

No change.

Lightweight:
Champ: → Hideki Kadowaki (From March 28 2008, Defended 0 times)
1. → Akitoshi Tamura
2. → Antonio Carvalho
3. → Savant Young
4. →“Lion” Takeshi Inoue
5. → Hatsu Hioki
6. → Rumina Sato
7. → Bao Quach
8. ↑ Hiroshi "Iron" Nakamura
9. ↓ Katsuya Toida
10. ↓ David Lejenas

Hiroshi "Iron" Nakamura moved into the rankings in August, after drawing his fight against Hatsu Hioki on August 3.

Out of the ranking: “Wicky” Akiyo Nishiura

Welterweight:
Champ: → Takashi Nakakura (from May 3 2008 Defended 0 times)
1. → Yusuke Endo
2. → Ganjo Tensuku
3. → Bendy Casimir
4. → Grzegorz Trendowski
5. ↑ Willamy Chiquerim "Chiqueirinho"
6. ↓ Jani Lax
7. ↓ Brian Cobb
8. ↓ Mizuto Hirota
9. → Eiji Mitsuoka
10. → Giovani Diniz

"Chiqueirinho" moves up in the ranking after a win on August 30 against Mateus Machado in Shooto Brazil 8.

Middleweight:
Champ: → Shinya Aoki (From February 17 2006, defended 1 times)
1. → David Baron
2. ↑ Wim Deputter
3. ↑ Niek Tromp
4. ↑ Zelim Felican
5. ↑ Roemer Trumpert
6. ↑ Hernani Perpetuo
7. ↑ Tommy Depret
8. ↓ Scott Henze
9. → Ronald Jhun
10. → Brent Weedman

Scott Henze is moved down in the rankings due to inactivity.

Light-Heavyweight:
Champ: → Siyar Bahadourzada (From July 15 2007, defended 0 times)
1. → Leandro Silva
2. → Akihiro Murayama
3. → Shiko Yamashita
4. → Grazhuydas Smailis
5. → Masashi Yozen
6. → Nathan Schouteren
7. → Petras Morkevicius
8. → Rolandas Agrba
9. → Edward O’Daniel
10. → Dustin Denes

Read more...

Pancrase Rankings Updated

Pancrase released their rankings yesterday.

There are a couple of changes to note. Of course, Ryo Kawamura moves up to claim the King of Pancrase title in the Light-Heavyweight division.

Rankings are taken from: http://www.gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_10/1007_pancrase_02.htm

The Pancrase rankings are much more difficult to get a grip on than the Shooto rankings, but this is what is looks like anyway:

Open - Weight (No Change)
10th Open-weight King of Pancrase: Josh Barnett

Heavyweight 93.0kg~120.2kg (No Change)
4th Heavyweight King of Pancrase: Available

Light-Heavyweight83.9kg~93.0kg
4th Light-Heavyweight King of Pancrase:Ryo Kawamura
1 → Keiichiro Yamamiya
2 ↑ Tatsuya Mizuno

Middleweight 77.1kg~83.9kg
7th Middleweight King of Pancrase: Izuru Takeuchi
Interim Middlweight King of Pancrase:Yuki Kondo
1 → Yuichi Nakanishi
2 ↑ Alavutdin Gadzhiyev
3 ↑ Ichiro Kanai

Ichiro Kanai comes into the ranking after an impressive win over Kanahara on October 1.
Fukuda Riki and Fabio Silva goes out of the ranking.

Welterweight 70.3kg~77.1kg
4th Welterweight King of Pancrase: Available
Interim Welterweight King of Pancrase: Takuya Wada
1 ↑ Jason Palacios

Bryan Rafiq goes out of the ranking.

Lightweight 65.8kg~70.3kg (No Change)
2nd Lightweight King of Pancrase: Available
1 → Yuji Hoshino
2 → Katsuya Inoue
3 → Koji Oishi
4 → Artur Oumakhanov
5 → Yuichi Ikari

Featherweight 61.2kg~65.8kg
Featherweight King of Pancrase: Available
1 → Marlon Sandro
2 → DJ.taiki
3 → Masaya Takita "J-Taro"
4 → Kenji Arai
5 → Manabu Inoue

Yoshiro Maeda vacates the title to move down to Bantamweight, Marlon Sandro will fight Masaya Takita for the title on October 26.

Bantamweight 58.0kg~61.2kg
Bantamweight King of Pancrase: Available
1 ↑ Seiya Kawahara
2 ↑ Yoshiro Maeda
3 ↓ Tatsuya So

Fujiwara is taken out of the rankings, Yoshiro Maeda moves into 2nd spot.

Flyweight -58.0kg (No Change)
Flyweight King of Pancrase: Available
1 - Mitsuhisa Sunabe

Read more...

Satoshi Ishii Clearifies

Tuesday 7 October 2008

Yesterday I and several other blogs and web-sites reported on the comments Olympic Judo gold medalist, Satoshi Ishii made regarding switching to MMA.

The stir he caused resulted in a pressconferance today, and it is clear that Ishii caused something he did not intend.

In his press-conferance today I will just give the quick note of what he said, as it might be clearer that way.

-He wants to fight MMA in the future, HOWEVER, his thoughts are currently on graduating university.

-He is currently injured, and can not compete in the upcoming world championships. To qualify for the London Olympics there is a point system in Judo, and because he is not competing and hence might not be able to qualify.

Ok, so that is just a very quick summary of what was said. Keep in mind that this is a 21 year old and his comment probably had much bigger impact than he imagined. IF he changes to MMA it will be huge! We have seen that the last few days, everyone knows about these news in Japan.

But when that day comes I would also be concerned about how that is managed... Putting up a debut against Fedor might not be the best idea.

http://www.gbring.com/sokuho/news/2008_10/1007_news_02.htm

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10/23 DEEP 38 Impact - AWESOME Fights Added

DEEP have added 4 fights to their event on October 23. There is a lot to be excited about here, but for me (as a Norwegian), I look forward to seeing Simeon Thoresen.

He is a great talent and now making a move into the Japanese Market. This is a huge opportunity and I cant wait to see him fight here. Thoresen has 9 fights, finishing all within the distance and only 3 have gone to the 2nd round. Eiji Ishikawa should be his biggest test by far, Ishikawa is a very experienced fighter with fights against opponents such as Ryo Chonan, Ryuta Sakurai, Satoru Kitaoka, Hidetaka Monma and Hector Lombard. My tip is still for Thoresen to finish this, but it should be a good fight. I wrote about Thoresen as a future prospect here, you can also see a highlight video.

Ok, so now that its mentioned… They have also added a main event. Katsuyori Shibata will take on Yasuhito Namekawa. This is something that should draw the crowd. Just a speculation from my side, but I have been expecting more cooperation between DEEP and DREAM, I think that is what we are seeing with this card.

Main event:
Katsuyori Shibata 2-5-0 vs. 24-16-3 Yasuhito Namekawa

Ryan Bow 17-8-2 vs. 5-1-0 Koichiro Matsumoto
Simeon Thoresen 9-0-0 vs. 16-14-3 Eiji Ishikawa
Yusuke Kawaguchi 7-0-0 vs. Seryu (星龍)

Previously announced:
Toshikazu Iseno "ISE" 5-4-2 vs. 5-4-5 Masayuki Okude
Sojiro Orui 5-2-4 vs. 17-14-4 Ryuta Sakurai
Daiki Hata "DJ Taiki" 8-5-3 vs. 15-7-2 Naoya Uematsu
Masanori Kanehara 10-4-5 vs. 6-3-1 Takafumi Otsuka
Satoko Shinashi 28-2-2 vs. 4-13-0 Yukiko Seki
Seigo Mizuguchi 3-3-0 vs. 2-1-0 Shunji Kosaka

Participating:
Riki Fukuda 11-4-0


Read more...

10/26 Pancrase Shining Tour - King of Pancrase Fight Added

Pancrase have added 2 more fights to this card, it is looking like another good card from Pancrase!

Added today is the featherweight King of Pancrase title fight between the #1 and 2 ranked Pancrase featherweights. This will most likely be the main event, and this be a good encounter between undefeated Marlon Sandro and the experienced "J-Taro".

Also added is a Pancrase gate fight.

Added:
Featherweight King of Pancrase:
Marlon Sandro 11-0-0 vs. 9-9-2 Masaya Takita "J-Taro"

Lightweight Pancrase Gate:
Wataru Yoshikawa vs. Shigetomo Takahashi

Card so far:
Featherweight King of Pancrase
Marlon Sandro 11-0-0 vs. 9-9-2 Masaya Takita "J-Taro"

Welterweight Tournament Semi-Finals
Asaki Honda 4-2-1 vs. 5-3-2 Hiroyuki Nozawa
Tomoyoshi Iwamiya 4-7-0 vs. 5-2-2 "Strasser" Kiichi Kunimoto

Feather: Kenji Arai 13-12-2 vs. 9-5-7 Tashiro Akai
Light: Takafumi Ito 33-26-11 vs. 7-10-6 Takaichi Hirayama
Welter: Takuya Wada 17-8-8 vs. 6-3-3 Masahiro Toryu
Fly: Takuya Eizumi 2-1-0 vs. 1-2-0 Takayuki Hirayasu
Light: Yuichi Ikari 10-4-3 vs. 2-3-0 Yukio Sakaguchi

Pancrase Gate:
Light: Wataru Yoshikawa vs. Shigetomo Takahashi

Read more...

10/5 ZST - SWAT 21 - RESULTS

ZST held an event in Golds Gym South Annex. These events are full of talent, but I dont know too much about these... Anyway, here are the results.

Shunichi Shimizu Def. Tetsuya Nishi by arm-bar Round 2 0:45
Kohei Kuraoka Def. 剛卓 (?) Abe by rear-naked choke Round 1 4:44
Ichiro Kojima Def. 賢道 (?) Kunifuda by rear-naked choke Round 1 4:49
Keigo Hirayama vs. Shingo Matsuda No Contest (low blow)
Toshihiro Shimizu Def. Tatsuya Fusano by rear-naked choke Round 2 1:32
Shinya Kurosawa Def. Kota Higashitani by arm-bar Round 1 3:21
Kazuhito Nakamura vs. Masaya Dohi Draw
Makoto Hikita vs. Shigeru Naruse Draw
Noriaki Ninomiya Def. Hiroyuki Naito by KO Round 1 3:57
Yusei Kawana Def. Yusuke Takeda by Heel-hook round 1 2:32
Yuji Komori Def. Yoichi Kaneko by arm-bar Round 2 0:46
Megumi Iwamoto Def. Miwa Ogiyama by arm-bar Round 1 4:46

Read more...

Olympic Judo Gold Medalist Ishii Makes the Change

Monday 6 October 2008

There has been a lot of speculation around whether Satoshi Ishii will fight Fedor on NYE. There is no word on that, but he has gone out today and said that he is not planning to participate in the London Olympics in 4 years. The reason, he wants to try MMA.

DREAMs Sasahara has gone out and said Ishii will NOT fight on NYE, so I guess that leaves it open for even more speculation. Will he fight with Sengoku or DREAM? If you look at the organizations, Sengoku definitely has more Judo fighters... But Ishii seems to be more connected with DREAM...

Ishii is currently injured and will not compete in the Judo world championships

http://hochi.yomiuri.co.jp/sports/etc/news/20081006-OHT1T00285.htm
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20081006-00000008-spnavi_ot-fight.html
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20081006-00000009-spnavi_ot-fight.html
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20081006-00000152-jij-spo.html

Read more...

Upcoming Events: October

I am always asked about upcoming events, especially people coming to Japan wants to know whats going on and if they can catch an event while they're here. This is something I really want to help people with, but dealing with on a one-on-one basis might not be the best way.

Therefore, I will make a monthly schedule like this. It will include more than the MMA events I write about, and I will not start covering the kickboxing events. But it might be helpful for someone wanting to watch these, so I will include them.

October is sort of a quiet month, but DEEP, Shooto, ZST and Pancrase are all holding events.

The events for this month:

10/1
-K-1 World Max 2008 in Nippon Budokan, Tokyo
-Pancrase Shining Tour in Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

10/3
-All Japan Kickboxing 2008 in Shinjuku Face, Tokyo open 17.30
-J-Network in Korakuen Hall, Tokyo open 17.45

10/5
-Shooto (Shooting Disco 6) in Shinjuku Face, Tokyo open 16.30
-New Japan Kickboxing (MuayThaiOpen5) in Differ Ariake open 15.30
-ZST (SWAT!21) in Omori Golds Gym South Tokyo Annex, Tokyo open 15.30
-RealDeal - ZeppFukuoka Open 12.00 (looks like fights start at 17.00 though)

10/12
-NKB Japan Kickboxing in Korakuen Hall, Tokyo open 17.00

10/13
-Shooto in Kitazawa Townhall, Tokyo

10/17
-All Japan Kickboxing 2008 in Korakuen Hall open 17.00

10/19
-Tenkaichi Fight in Okinawa, Tenkaichi Stadium open 16.00

10/23
-DEEP 38 in Korakuen Hall open 17.30

10/26
-Pancrase Shining Tour in Differ Ariake open 15.00
-Shooto GIG Central Vol. 16 in Tokai TV's Telepia Hall open 13:00

***Update***
There has been a question on events outside Tokyo. I have to say that my knowledge is somewhat restricted on the smaller events, but found one in Okinawa today.

Tenkaichi has a good English site as well. I know nothing about this organization, except the tickets are reasonable and you can watch a fight between "Caveman" and "The Goblin". Should be good.

The event is on October 19.

Read more...

Buying Tickets in Japan

***UPDATED***
Just before you read on, the easiest and ONLY place I know to buy tickets over the counter in Japan is in Korakuen Hall. It is on the 5th floor and they have people speaking English too!

***My Original post***

Had a bit of time today, it is really quiet so I thought I would take some time to do something I have been wanting to do for a while.

The most common question I get is how to buy tickets. I REALLY wish I was able to help with this, but previous attempts in doing so have left me out of pocket...

I really want to help with this, and have come to the conclusion that the best way is to let you arrange it yourself. Therefore, I have written this guide and hope it will be useful from some of you at least.

First off, buying a ticket in Japan without having any knowledge of the language can be a bit tricky. But with determination you will get there.

The easy way, if you are visiting for a short time:
If you're visiting here, you might have to rely on buying a ticket at the door. If you are here a week in advance you should be able to get the ticket in advance though. The shows are rarely sold out, especially if you want the more expensive tickets, but it does happen. Normally they start selling tickets at the door about 2 hours before the doors open (Some times 1 hour). For DREAM and Sengoku you might want to line up a bit before that, better safe than sorry.

That's the easy way…

What if you want to make sure you have the tickets before going to the arena? Here are a couple of ways to get tickets for the other organizations.

This is the way most tickets are sold:

-Go to the organization web-site and find the event you would like to watch. Like this link:
Shooto Tradition 4: http://www.x-shooto.jp/schedule/detail/2008/081129/index.html
Pancrase Oct. 26: http://www.pancrase.co.jp/tour/2008/1026/index.html

At the bottom of the page there are a list of phone numbers. These are ticket vendors.

-Call them up. You would be lucky to get a person that speaks English and this will most likely have to be done in Japanese. I would suggest asking the front desk at your hotel or a friend if they can be help. You will get a reference number, make sure you also know where you can pick up the tickets (most likely FamilyMart, AMPM or Lawson).

-Bring this reference number to the convenience store.

-Some shops require you to call again from a dedicated phone in the store. You will be able to do this with simple Japanese. If you don’t know any Japanese, ask for help. Hopefully there will be a nice store clerk that will help you out. It is helpful to bring a printout of the page in point 1.

-FamilyMart has a machine you enter the reference number in. It requires that you read Japanese, but a store clerk is much more likely to help you with this. The phone number for this is Ticket Pia (チケットぴあ) (get the hotel lobby to call for you). You can use Ticket Pia for most of the organizations.

-Pay and receive your tickets at the counter, notice that you don’t pay until here. If you are unsuccessful in the process before this, you lose nothing.

Another option:
-This might be easier depending on where you are. I have only used once myself, but it worked. If you go to Korakuen hall (I am planning to get directions posted later, might take me a while though). You can go to the 4th floor, there is a small ticket office there. They have tickets to some events, at least the Korakuen ones. It gives you the option to buy over the counter and you would also be able to look at a seating chart. I am not sure of the opening hours and I might have been lucky the one time I did it, but it might be worth a try.

Hopefully that answers some questions

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10/5 Shooto - Shooting Disco 6 - RESULTS

Sunday 5 October 2008

Today Shooting Disco 6 is happening in Shinjuku Face. As always, these cards are full of talents and in the main event we see the experienced Jin Akimoto as well.

Also making his return to the ring is Daiji Takahashi, after a 2 year layoff. He is taking on Saiji "OZ" Otsuka. Takahashi's last fight was August 2006 against Urushitani.

The event is happening now, and I will update the results as they become available.

11. Bantam: Ryuichi Miki Def. Jin Akimoto by Decision 2-0
10. Middle: Taisuke Okuno Def. Yoichiro Sato by Decision 3-0
9. Bantam: Daiji Takahashi vs. Seiji Otsuka DRAW
8. Light: Sakae Kasuya Def. Hidenori Nishino by decision 2-0
7. Bantam: Ayumu "Gozo" Shioda Def. Kenji Hosoya by Decision 3-0
6. Light: Daiki Tsuchiya Def. Daisuke Matsumoto by TKO (3down) Round 1 4:57
5. Bantam: "Heat" Takeshi Sato Def. Nozomi Otsuka by rear-naked choke Round 1 2:41
4. Welter: Guy Delameau Def. Hisaki Hiraishi "MaruKotobuki" by Decision 3-0

Shooto Rookie Tournament:
3. Fly: Mikiyomi Yamagami Def. Yusuke Sato by KO Round 2 0:18
2. Bantam: Fumihiro Kitahara Def. Hiroaki Ijima by Decision 3-0
1. Feather: Kosuke Eda Def. Haruo Ochi by Decision 3-0

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Inside MMA from Japan

Saturday 4 October 2008

After DREAM 6 HD Net filmed their weekly MMA show in Tokyo. Guests included stars such as DREAM lightweight Champion Joachim Hansen and his training partner Antonio Carvalho (who I really hope gets back in the ring soon!). Also joining were the newly crowned Middleweight champion Gegard Mousasi and his fellow dutchman Alistair Overeem.

I really enjoyed this one.

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10/1 Pancrase Shining Tour - Pictures

Friday 3 October 2008


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Shimizu vs. Ishii ended in a draw, but still a good fight












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The same thing with Tanaka vs. Ishii.














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Hiroki "AB" Aoki is wondering what happened after this fight with Maximo Blanco.



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Yuji Hisamatsu has a very excentric enterance.


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Hisamatsu lost the fight, but it was a very good fight that went all the way to decision.


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Kanehara fought a tough fight against Kanai.


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Kanai was the better fighter, but this was an AWESOME fighter.


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The main event, Ryo Kawamura kept coming at Yamamiya, but Yamamiya kept fighting back.


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It was a battle.


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But towards the end, it was clear that Yamamiya was taking most of the damage.


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Kawamura wasted no time in celebrating. He was out posing for pictures and signing autographs just minutes after being crowned the new light-heavyweight King of Pancrase.

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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


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