Welcome Back Rani! KID Is Waiting On NYE

A new fight has been announced for FieLDS K-1 Premium 2007 Dynamite!! on NYE. Rani Yahya returns to Hero’s since his loss to J.Z. Calvan in the 2006 Hero’s Middleweight Tournament. Between that time and now he has gone 2-1 in MMA competition with two of those fights being at the WEC, one of them for the WEC Bantamweight title which he lost by unanimous decision.

His opponent will be 2005 Hero’s Middleweight Tournament Champion Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto who in his last fight defeated Bibiano Fernandes by unanimous decision.

Yahya is a very good grappler. He won the ADCC Tournament in the 66 kg class this year. Yamamoto had some trouble in his last fight with Bibiano who is also a very good grappler, but Bibiano is physically stronger than Yahya.

FieLDS K-1 Premium 2007 Dynamite!!
Date: 31/12-2007
Place: Osaka Dome in Osaka, Japan

Hero’s Rules ( 5 – 5 – 5 ):
Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Rani Yahya

K-1 Rules ( 3 – 3 – 3 – Ex3 – Ex3 ):
70 kg: Masato vs. Yong Soo Choi

Hero’s Rules ( 10 – 5 – Ex5 ):
85 kg: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Masakatsu Funaki

K-1 Rules U-18 Tournament:
60 kg: HIROYA (15) vs. Tsukasa Fuji (15)
60 kg: Kenji Kubo (18) vs. Yudai (16)
60 kg: HIROYA/Fuji vs. Kubo/Yudai

Rumored Fights:
Hero’s: Sergei Kharitonov vs. Mighty Mo
Hero’s: Hideo Tokoro vs. Minowaman

Scheduled Participants:
Yoshihiro Akiyama
Hong-Man Choi
Melvin Manhoef

Dream Fight Realized! Shinya Aoki Vs. J.Z. Calvan!!

The second Yarennoka! press conference was held today and two big fights were announced for the event.

The first fight is a dream match-up between Shooto Middleweight Champion Shinya Aoki and 2-time Hero’s Middleweight Tournament Champion, J.Z. Calvan.

The second fight is between DEEP Welterweight Champion Hidehiko Hasegawa and Japanese MMA Legend Hayato Sakurai.

Yarennoka!
Date: 31/12-2007
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Fights:
Shinya Aoki vs. J.Z. Calvan
Hayato Sakurai vs. Hidehiko Hasegawa

Participants:
Emelianenko Fedor
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Kazuo Misaki
Joachim Hansen
Luiz Azeredo
Ricardo Arona
Gilbert Melendez

Rumored Participants:
Aleksander Emelianenko
Roman Zentsov
Mark Hunt

Sengoku Revealed! Mark March 5th 2008 On Your Calendar

World Victory Road’s MMA event name was revealed today in a press conference. It will be called Sengoku. The first event will be held on March 5th 2008 at National Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.

Four fighters were announced for this first event. They are Hidehiko Yoshida, Makoto Takimoto, Sanae Kikuta and Pancrase Rising Star Ryo Kawamura.

Rules And Fight Durations

The rules in Sengoku are no elbows and no soccer kicks allowed. Knees to the head on the ground and stomps will be allowed, strange to allow stomps but not soccer kicks.

The fight durations are the same as in the UFC with three five minute rounds during normal fights and five five minute rounds during championship fights.

Weight Classes

There will be six weight classes:

60 kg – Featherweight
68 kg – Lightweight
76 kg – Welterweight
83 kg – Middleweight
93 kg – Light Heavyweight
93.1 Or More – Heavyweight

Official Website

Here is the official Sengoku website.

Sengoku I
Date: 05/03-2008
Place: National Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan

Participants:
Hidehiko Yoshida
Makoto Takimoto
Sanae Kikuta
Ryo Kawamura

Natural Bone Crusher Aoki Reveals! NYE Opponent Not Japanese

From Gryphon’s blog:

AOKI wrote in his blog(in kamipro handiphone site)

“My Opponent is….”this man”.

he can not speak japanese”

Sorry,only it.

We know Aoki’s opponent is not japanese.only it

Personally, I hope it is Gilbert Melendez. They wanted to fight in Pride last year and Melendez even called out Aoki after one of his (Melendez’s) fights, but the fight never happened. The other non-Japanese lightweights already scheduled to participate in the card are Joachim Hansen and Luiz Azeredo.

Mark Hunt Returns! Wants Two “Fights” On NYE

Yesterday was pro-wrestling event Hustlemania 2007. Mark Hunt made his Hustle debut there and after his match he said that he would like to fight twice on NYE, in Hustle which starts earlier during the day and in Yarennoka! which starts later in the evening. Both events are in the same arena (Saitama Super Arena) so he won’t need to go to another arena or something after the Hustle match is done.

Yarennoka!
Date: 31/12-2007
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Participants:
Emelianenko Fedor
Shinya Aoki
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Hidehiko Hasegawa
Hayato Sakurai
Kazuo Misaki
Joachim Hansen
Luiz Azeredo
Ricardo Arona
Gilbert Melendez

Rumored Participants:
Aleksander Emelianenko
Roman Zentsov
Mark Hunt

Yarennoka! Risen From The Ashes

A press conference was held today in Japan where it was announced by former DSE staff members that there will be a new years eve event in Saitama Super Arena called “Yarennoka!”. The event will be supported by M-1 Global Mixed Martial Arts and some of the names present at the press conference were Nobuhiko Takada, Lenny Hardt (the woman announcer), Shigeru Saeki (from DEEP) and Daisuke Sato (the man who made the Pride videos, theatrics and other visual stuff). They didn’t confirm anything about if there will be any future events after this.

Here is the website for the event and some big names are already announced. The event will be aired on SkyPerfecTV PPV in Japan.

Yarennoka!
Date: 31/12-2007
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Participants:
Emelianenko Fedor
Shinya Aoki
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Hidehiko Hasegawa
Hayato Sakurai
Kazuo Misaki
Joachim Hansen
Luiz Azeredo
Ricardo Arona
Gilbert Melendez

Rumored Participants:
Aleksander Emelianenko
Roman Zentsov

It Happens Once Every Four Years! The 9th World Open Karate Tournament!

Last weekend (November 16-18) the 9th IKO1 World Open Kyokushin Karate Tournament took place in Japan. This tournament only happens once every four years and it is an open weight tournament. I don’t know exactly how many fighters participated this year but there were many and the tournament consists of one big bracket with different blocks until the finals.

The rules in Kyokushin Karate are almost like in K-1 but in Kyokushin you fight with a gi on, you fight bare knuckle (no gloves) and you are not allowed to punch the head of an opponent (you can knee and kick though). Some famous fighters from Kyokushin are Andy Hug, Glaube Feitosa, Francisco Filho, Bas Rutten and Georges St. Pierre.

The reason I made this post is that on Nico Nico Douga (you can read about this site if you look to the right in one of the pages I made) there are videos from the tournament already uploaded. Here they are, Part 1 to 7:

【ニコニコ動画】【極真空手】第9回世界大会（松井派）　1
【ニコニコ動画】【極真空手】第9回世界大会（松井派）　2
【ニコニコ動画】【極真空手】第9回世界大会（松井派）　3
【ニコニコ動画】【極真空手】第9回世界大会（松井派）　4
【ニコニコ動画】【極真空手】第9回世界大会（松井派）　5
【ニコニコ動画】【極真空手】第9回世界大会（松井派）　6
【ニコニコ動画】【極真空手】第9回世界大会（松井派）　7

Fedor Vs. Hong Man Choi At NYE! Where?

On the Sherdog radio show the Savage Dog Show they said only minutes ago that Emelianenko Fedor will be fighting Hong Man Choi on new years eve. I am not listening to the show so I don’t know right now if they said where the fight will take place.

But I found something else, two days ago a thread was created on the sherdog forums where it says that Fedor will face Hong Man Choi in Saitama Super Arena on NYE. K-1 Dynamite!! is in Osaka. In Saitama that night there is an announced pro-wrestling event (Hustle) and a rumored MMA event that will be held by some of the ex-DSE (the company that ran Pride) staff.

Update: More information here.

Update #2: Fedor, Aleksander and Zentsov will fight in M-1 Global’s first event on new years eve in Saitama Super Arena. Press conference tomorrow in Japan. Source.