Big Fight In ZST! Nagata Vs. Kotani

A big fight was announced for ZST’s 6th anniversary show, ZST.18. DREAM Lightweight GP Quarterfinalist Katsuhiko Nagata returns to the ring for the first time since getting submitted by Shinya Aoki to take on UFC and PRIDE veteran Naoyuki Kotani. As this is normal ZST rules, strikes to the head on the ground are not allowed.

On the same card Masakazu Imanari and Hideo Tokoro will tag up to take on Takumi Yano and Daisuke Yokoyama in a 15 minute grappling match for the first ever GT-F Tag Team Titles.

Paul Daley To SENGOKU?! CroCop Vs. Overeem Article Translation

Paul Daley To SENGOKU?

From a new article on Sherdog:

“I am considering fights in December in Canada, the UK or Holland and I am 99% sure I’ll make a return to Japan in January 2009 for Sengoku,” Daley wrote in an e-mail to Sherdog.com. “As far as exclusive contracts go, I have nothing yet, as we are still trying to establish the legal jargon in my Pro Elite contract. But I hope to be fighting regularly in 2009 with a major U.S. promotion.”

SENGOKU New Year Event
Date: January 4th, 2009
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Possible Fights & Participants
SENGOKU Lightweight Title Fight: Takanori Gomi vs. SENGOKU LWGP Winner
SENGOKU Middleweight Title Fight: Kazuo Misaki vs. SENGOKU MWGP Winner
Hidehiko Yoshida
Roger Gracie
Pawel Nastula
Hiroshi Izumi
Paul Daley
Beijing 2008 Medalist

The Offers Continue! Chase Beebe To DREAM Or SENGOKU?

Chase Beebe To DREAM Or SENGOKU

From the MMA Insider Blog:

MMAInsider has learned that former World Extreme Cagefighting bantamweight champion Chase Beebe is weighing offers from Japanese promotions Dream and Sengoku.

“The Dream contract they offered me was pretty sweet,” Beebe said.

Beebe wants to fight around December, but said the K-1 Dynamite! New Year’s Eve card was not on the table. In that respect, Sengoku was a closer fit, with an event featuring a lightweight Grand Prix scheduled for Jan. 4.

Beebe says a decision will be made in the upcoming weeks.

It seems that DREAM are starting to make some moves for their rumored Featherweight GP in 2009.

SENGOKU Counters?! Athens 2004 Judo Silver Medalist To Debut On January 4th?

NikkanSports reports today that on the 29th the possibility of the professional turn of an Athens 2004 silver medalist in Judo, Beijing 2008 participant, and who will be 30 years old during the next Olympics became high.

He is now in final negotiations with SENGOKU. If everything goes smoothly he will announce his turn to MMA at the Judo Kodokan Cup on the 16th in November.

It’s obvious that this is Hiroshi Izumi who is the Athens 2004 U90kg Silver Medalist, lost in Beijing 2008, and is currently 26 years old.

Even though he lost in the quarterfinals in Beijing, he has still had good results in Judo recently. He won the Asian Championships in Jeju in April.

He has one Olympic silver medal, one gold world title, one gold and two bronze continental titles, and two gold medals, two silver medals, and one bronze medal in world cups.

Another young Judo player who might be entering MMA, interesting times are ahead…

SENGOKU New Year Event
Date: January 4th, 2009
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Possible Fights & Participants
SENGOKU Lightweight Title Fight: Takanori Gomi vs. SENGOKU LWGP Winner
SENGOKU Middleweight Title Fight: Kazuo Misaki vs. SENGOKU MWGP Winner
Hidehiko Yoshida
Roger Gracie
Pawel Nastula
Hiroshi Izumi
Beijing 2008 Medalist

Road To Dynamite!! 2008! CroCop Vs. Overeem II On NYE?

CroCop Vs. Overeem II On NYE?

According to mmajunkie.com, Mirko CroCop confirmed the rumored rematch with Alistair Overeem with Croatian site dnevnik.hr. The fight will take place at Dynamite!! on NYE.

Slice Vs. Petruzelli II On NYE?

From sun-sentinel.com:

Slice, who spent Thursday at one of his children’s school career day, is weighing his options with his agent Mike Imber. He may fight on the DREAM K-1 New Year’s Eve show in Japan, possibly a rematch with Petruzelli.

FieLDS Dynamite!!
Date: December 31st, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Possible Fights:
Mirko CroCop vs. Alistair Overeem
Kimbo Slice vs. Seth Petruzelli

Candidate Participants:
Most fighters in DREAM and K-1

Final Preparations! SENGOKU VI

This post will be on top until the event on Saturday, but there might be newer posts below.

#5: More Weigh-In Photos

(Photos By: Kamipro & Sportsnavi)

#4: Weigh-In Results

9. Takanori Gomi (69.9kg) vs. Sergey Golyaev (69.9kg)
8. King Mo (92.8kg) vs. Fabio Silva (92.8kg)
7. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (92.9kg) vs. Moise Rimbon (92.9kg)
6. Bang Seung Hwan (69.9kg) vs. Jorge Masvidal (69.9kg)
5. Joe Doerksen (82.7kg) vs. Izuru Takeuchi (82.9kg)
4. Satoru Kitaoka (70.0kg) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (69.9kg)
3. Mizuto Hirota (70.0kg) vs. Kazunori Yokota (69.9kg)
2. Kazuhiro Nakamura (83.0kg) vs. Yuki Sasaki (82.8kg)
1. Jorge Santiago (81.9kg) vs. Siyar Bahadurzada (83.0kg)

(Photos By: GBRing)

#3: SENGOKU VI Preview

Click here for a SENGOKU VI preview on Sherdog.com.

Ishii To DREAM?! Appearance At Dynamite!!

In a new article at the Sponichi website it says that it became clear on the 28th that Satoshi Ishii will enter DREAM and that he will greet the fans in the ring at Dynamite!! on NYE. Apparently he has already contacted DREAM in absolute secrecy. There is a celebration party by his support group/fan club on November 3rd in Osaka where people are predicting that Ishii might comment on this.

D&S Links! Nick Diaz To DREAM Or SENGOKU

Diaz On Dynamite!! or SENGOKU New Year Event Next

Gracie said representatives from Dream and Sengoku had approached him about using Diaz. Dream’s parent company, Fight Entertainment Group, is planning a K-1 Dynamite! event for New Year’s Eve, while Sengoku 7 is scheduled for Jan. 4.

“We’ll be on one of those two cards,” Gracie said. – MMAWeekly

Cyborg Hopes For January Return

“Thank God I won’t have to go under the knife. I just had an MRI, a few days ago, and I’m recovering well. I believe I’ll be ok again in January. I’ll start training again in about two weeks. I started physiotherapy on Monday. I want to be active again. In January I’ll be competing again,” stated Cyborg, who will be cleared for light training on November 17th. – GracieMag

Gomi Is Irritated! Good Show Of Respect

Takanori Gomi is irritated.

Mitsuoka said some stuff to the media about Gomi a few days ago.

“If Gomi doesn’t give me an overwhelming KO or submission win -it will be a problem/I will be troubled/I will worry-. If Gomi loses the theme of the tournament “Road to Gomi” will die.”

Gomi said that he remembers the “anger” of the Pride days when Kawajiri, Ishida and others made provocative comments. He also said that he will return to his original style.

This is from an open training session for the media on October 22nd and there are a couple of videos from it on Gomi’s site.

The first is him grappling a teammate and striking the heavy bag, and the second is him continuing striking the heavy bag.

There are also a couple of videos on his site from after his fight against Bang Seung Hwan where he waits for Bang before he’s leaving Japan and gives him a couple of shirts and talks with him through a translator. Part 1 & 2.

D&S Veterans Fighting Around The World! Kang Vs. Eastman

There are some fights with DREAM & SENGOKU veterans that have recently taken place and that are coming up in the near future.

Katsuyori Shibata and Yasuhito Namekawa fought to a draw at DEEP 38 which seems to have been a fair judgement according to reports. Good job by Shibata as Namekawa is a decent opponent.

Denis Kang and Marvin Eastman fought at Raw Combat in Canada yesterday and there is already a recording of the fight on YouTube.

DREAM veterans Hidetaka Monma and KTaro Nakamura will both fight at Cage Force EX Eastern Bound on November 8th.

SENGOKU Lightweight GP participant Bojan Kosednar will fight in Poland at KSW 10 against Maciej Gorski. I think the fight is on December 12th.