MMA Events in Japan 15-31 May

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

Here is a list of what is coming up:

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

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

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

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

23. May:

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

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

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

29. May:

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

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

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

This should be an awesome event!

30. May:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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