NYE Rumors! Who Will Sakuraba’s Opponent Be?

Kazushi Sakuraba

From Gryphon’s twitter:

Annonimous post “SAKU vs MISAKI in NYeve(Dynamite!)”.news source is”anonimous fighter said”..It is nothing but rumor,rumor,and rumor but …

this is from kamipro—-SAKU’s NY eve opponent is list uped two japanese.”A” is it looks not serious for usualfan,but for mania,very serious

Kazuo Misaki announced that he has left Grabaka two days ago so if WVR has some kind of contract with the whole gym and not Misaki himself, he could be out of the contract. Though that is just speculation for now. Misaki did say though that he will “start from zero”, is that in regards to his training or something else?

Gegard Mousasi

Possible participation on the Dynamite!! card.

Andrei Arlovski

Andrei Arlovski might participate at either Dynamite!! or SRC 12 on NYE.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski is looking to fight by the end of the year and could be competing at Strikeforce: Evolution on Dec. 19 or in Japan with Sengoku or Dynamite!! 2009 on New Year’s Eve.

Kazunori Yokota

WVR PR Kokuho thinks that Yokota will be the challenger for Hirota at SRC 12.

Marlon Sandro

Sandro reveals to GracieMag that he will most likely fight on NYE:

So you already have a fight scheduled for the end of the year?
It’s almost 100% done. They told me that, if I win, I’ll be back on the 31st. It would be for the title or to line me up to challenge for the title. But my managers want it to be for the title.

I think that he deserves the title shot but don’t know if that’s the best move for the promotion.

SRC Damashii! Episode 5

Success For W! “Tornado” Storms Through His Opponent

Success - mfight.co.kr

The first ever W event took place this past Saturday. The new organization did an experiment by allowing elbows, which aren’t popular in all countries, and according to reports, the experiment was a success. With a Korean fighter having trained in Thailand and foreign fighters, the excitement of the fights seemed to go up with elbows.

In the most important fight of the night for MMA fans, Un Sik “Tornado” Song, returned to combat sports competition as he stormed through his opponent with a TKO victory in the second round after dropping his two times, once by punches and once with a knee.

Song currently has 1 year and 2 months left of his mandatory military service. Song chose desk work so that he could guarantee a training environment and is allowed to fight in Korea on his days off. After the fight Song said that he is planning to participate in BJJ, Wrestling, and Boxing separately and after another Kickboxing fight, he wants to fight for a W championship title.

K-1 MAX veteran Kim Se Ki also won on Saturday as he defeated his opponent by TKO in the 3rd round. In the main event of the night, undefeated in K-1 Heavyweight Hyun Man Myung won a unanimous decision in a 5-rounder to become the champion of some Muay Thai organization and get a spot at “The Khan 2″ against Kaoklai Kaennorsing.

Sources: Kamipro, mfight.co.kr

Sheathing The Sword! SENGOKU XI

The final SENGOKU event before becoming Sengoku Raiden Championship is in the books and while the fights were competitive, I thought many of the fighters didn’t put 100% effort into their fights and WVR really needs to revamp their scoring system, if it wasn’t obvious after last year. Way too many 10-10 rounds, even though I like 10-10 rounds.

An exciting signing was announced at the event. Chinese Greco-Roman wrestler Liu Deli, who placed 9th at the 2008 Beijing Olympics 120 kg class, appealed for an MMA debut at SENGOKU XI. He is 208 cm tall (he is probably shorter) and weighs 125 kg.

Just 3 weeks ago he won the 11th Chinese National Games Greco-Roman 120 kg contest and the 27 year old (29 according to WVR) announced after the tournament that he’s getting married next year as well. Here is some footage from his National Games victory.

WVR PR Kokuho says that Liu just started training MMA so NYE might be a little too early for him. Kokuho also said that no TV deal for NYE can be announced right now. It seems to be chaos dealing with those things with the current state of Japanese MMA.

DREAM-Side Dynamite!! Card Announcement This Week?! Confidence

DREAM EP Sasahara, DEEP Boss Saeki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, and Katsuyori Shibata were present at the 6th Kakuto Treasure House (a martial arts talk with different guests each volume) yesterday.

Kawajiri appealed for a fight with Shinya Aoki on NYE. Receiving this, Sasahara said that on one hand he wants to make Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri in a pure DREAM event, but on the other hand a lot of people will be watching on NYE, so that is the current situation. He thinks that they’ll be able to announce if this fight happens on NYE or not soon.

About Shibata, Sasahara definitely wants him on the NYE card, and the strong direction they’re going for is another fight below Middleweight, similar to last years fight against Sakurai.

Shibata says that he would like to have a go at a fighter with red tights. Is he looking for a fight with Kiyoshi Tamura?

Sasahara said that at the earliest he wants to make a card announcement next week (this week). He can’t say anything right now but he thinks that he can announce an unbelievable card. Saeki next to him is also confident, saying that people had better buy tickets and that he has one hundred million percent confidence. It’s that kind of a card.

Aoki To America Early 2010?! Ninja In Dynamite!!?

Sherdog reports that Shinya Aoki could make his debut in a cage in early 2010:

“He’s fought for Dream and we’re hoping he’s one of the guys that we can bring over to our stable in the first quarter,” said Coker.

Coker mentioned Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson and interim champion Gilbert Melendez as two potential opponents for the fighter known for his colorful leggings and pretzel-bending submissions.

Aoki will be present at today’s Strikeforce event.

In other DREAM-related news, Tatame reports that Murilo “Ninja” Rua might fight in DREAM in December, which would mean a fight on the Dynamite!! NYE card.

The Khan 2! Min Soo Kim Vs. Sentoryu

The Khan 2 - mfight.co.kr

On November 27th, The Khan will return for their second ever event which will feature some big names.

Popular Korean female figher Su Jeong Lim will be in a 4-women one-night tournament.

K-1 MAX veteran Su Hwan Lee (advanced to the final of this years Korea MAX GP event) will face another K-1 veteran in Min Seok Kwon (young kid who had a really gutsy performance against Chi Bin Lim at the Korea MAX GP this year).

Jae Gil No (the guy who crushed the Japanese blond haired guy in an opening fight in this years MAX FINAL8 event) will take on Virgil Kalakoda.

Kaoklai Kaennorsing will battle the winner of the Hyun Man Myung vs. Nae Chul Kim fight which takes place in today’s W event.

Min Soo Kim will finally return to competition after getting out of his FEG contract to take on Sumo Wrestler turned MMA fighter, Sentoryu.

The best Korean K-1 fighter Chi Bin Lim will return against a yet to be named opponent.

K-1 World GP 2009 Finals! Aerts In Reserve Fight

Two reserve fights, one superfight, and a couple of opening fights have been added to the K-1 World GP 2009 Finals on December 5th.

In the first of the reserve fights, FINAL16 participant Peter Aerts will take on Gohkan Saki, and in the second one the impressive Daniel Ghita will get another chance when he faces Chalid “Die Faust”.

In the announced superfight, K-1 Heavyweight champion Kyotaro will take on top Kickboxer Tyrone Spong.

In the opening fights, Kyokushin Karateka Jan Soukup will battle Tsutomu Takahagi and J-Network Super Lightweight champion Keiichi Samukawa will fight Krush LW GP 2009 quarterfinalist Ryuji Kajiwara in a K-1 LW (60 kg) fight.

Gilbert Melendez! Fight In Japan On The Horizon?

Strikeforce Interim Lightweight Champion Gilbert Melendez was recently interviewed by Japanese magazine and website Kamipro for their Special December issue. A part of the interview has been posted on Sportsnavi.

When asked about a third fight with Mitsuhiro Ishida, Melendez said that the first fight was a questionable/delicate decision so he wanted to settle the dispute. However, he thinks that he was able to win very clearly the second time, so his answer to a third fight is no.

About the cooperation between DREAM and Strikeforce, Melendez thinks that it’s a wonderful thing. He says that he’s looking forward to fighting top ranked fighters in front of the Japanese fans again.

Also in the interview, Melendez talked about Shinya Aoki, who he is very motivated/eager to fight.

RISE 60! HAYATO’s Retirement

Another Kickboxing event in Japan that is close to FEG is RISE. Many fighters in K-1 MAX, such as TATSUJI and Keiji Ozaki, originally got there through this event.

On November 22nd RISE 60 will take place at the JCB Hall and it has a few very good fights to be aware of.

HAYATO will have his retirement fight when he takes on 2005 RISE Dead Or Alive Tournament winner TATSUJI in a 3×3 minute fight with a possible extension round.

MAX veteran and 2006 RISE Dead Or Alive Tournament winner Keiji Ozaki has moved down to 60 kg and will look to grab the RISE 60 kg title as he faces champion Kan Itabashi in a 5 round fight.

In a fight which will decide the 2nd generation RISE 70 kg champion and give the winner a spot in next years K-1 World MAX Japan Tournament, 2007 RISE Dead Or Alive Tournament winner RYUJI will take on Yasuhito Shirasu.

Both have fought in K-1 MAX previously with RYUJI having lost both his fights by decision and Shirasu going 3-2, with two good wins in a row.

In a Heavyweight superfight, K-1 and MMA veteran Kin Taiei will return from his unfortunate fight against Morosanu at the FINAL16 event this year to take on Magnum Sakai.

Check out Magnum Sakai vs. Nathan Corbett from a few years ago, awesome fight:

70kg, 3×3 mins, 1×3 ext: HAYATO vs. TATSUJI
HW, 3×3 mins, 1×3 ext: Magnum Sakai vs. Kin Taiei
70kg, 3×5 mins, 1×3 ext: RYUJI vs. Yasuhito Shirasu
60kg, 3×5 mins: Kan Itabashi vs. Keiji Ozaki