Hidehiko Yoshida announced at his VIVA JUDO class today that he will not retire and that he wants to win once at Light Heavyweight. A phone call from a drunk Sakuraba at night was also a big factor in his decision.
He has already begun light practice. However, it might take a while until he returns to the ring as he says that participation in March or May is impossible and he doesn’t know about July. So it looks like he will return in the summer or after. He wants to slowly lose weight this time and not drop all at once as he did against Sanae Kikuta.
FiveOuncesOfPain are reporting that John Alessio might (50-50 chance) be the opponent of Shinya Aoki in the first round of DREAM’s Welterweight GP which commences on April 5th.
Note that in the article it says that the GP is expected to include 16 fighters. However, the plan is an 8-man tournament (4 Japanese and 4 foreign).
In a new Tatame article, DREAM 2008 Middleweight GP runner-up Ronaldo Jacare says that the possibility of him fighting in DREAM in April is great. He also bets on his training partner Andre Galvao winning the DREAM Welterweight GP which also starts in April.
Meanwhile in Holland, the man who beat Jacare in 2008, Gegard Mousasi, tells Sherdog’s Loretta Hunt that he can’t stay at Middleweight anymore because of his body growing. He plans to participate in DREAM in March or April at Light Heavyweight and he will make his U.S. debut in June or July for Affliction if everything goes as planned. However, Light Heavyweight might not be his final stop as he is aiming at Heavyweight in the future.
OLYMPIA DREAM.8 Welterweight GP 2009 1st Round Date: April 5th, 2009 Place: Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan
The SENGOKU Featherweight GP participant who probably got the most attention when announced was 18 year old High School student Tetsuya Yamada. Tetsuya Yamada recently had an interview with Sportsnavi.com where he among other things talks about why he started martial arts.
Starting Martial Arts
When asked about if he did any sports before MMA Yamada said that he did Judo from the first to third grade in junior high school. He said that he started Judo because he wanted to surpass his big brother who used to tease him with Judo techniques. When asked if he surpassed him Yamada said “Yes, overwhelmingly” with a laugh.
Physical Features & Favorite Fighters
Yamada said that his current height and weight is 180 cm and 72 kg. He began training MMA when he entered senior high school three years ago. When asked who his favorite fighter was at the time, Yamada answered that he liked Hideo Tokoro. He also likes Yoshiro Maeda’s fighting style.
Training, School & Fighting Strategy
He is training at Sinwa Total Combat in his neighborhood in Yokosukashi in the Kanagawa Prefecture. He will graduate from high school on March 2nd. He currently trains for 2-3 hours 5 days a week. He likes to decide the development of the fight very early in the match.
MMA Record & GP Wishes
His current MMA record is 3-0 in ZST. However, including all of his grappling matches it is 11-0-2. When asked about if he wanted to face anyone in particular in the GP, Yamada said that he wants to fight foreign fighters since there are not very many opportunities to fight them.
In a new article at Tatame Antonio Silva says that he will probably fight in SENGOKU’s April event, which doesn’t exist. However, he mentioned that it is a big show so it is probably the May event which seems like it will be the event where all big names of SENGOKU come out.
In another Tatame article, Antoine Jaoude says that he has qualified for ADCC this year. He also says that he thinks he should sign a SENGOKU contract for March.
Preview of the February 23rd K-1 MAX Japan Tournament quarterfinal fight between last years runner-up HAYATO and NJKF Super Welterweight Champion YOUICHIRO☆JIENOTSU☆NAGASHIMA.
The man training with HAYATO is current WBC Flyweight champion Daisuke Naito.
Nagashima is skilled but being a cosplayer probably helped him get a spot in this tournament. He is a big fan of anime and that kind of stuff.
We see the Brazilian, American, South Korean, Canadian (probably), and Australian flags on the poster. However, no fighter from Australia has been announced yet. Who could the Australian fighter in the GP be? Ian Schaffa? The poster also shows us that Hatsu Hioki is the fighter that WVR will push in this GP.
Lightweight Cage Force champion & SENGOKU Lightweight GP semifinalist Mizuto Hirota will have a tough first title defense when he takes on Lightweight King Of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue, who has done very good since dropping down to Lightweight. Besides being a good Lightweight fight, this fight is also interesting in the SENGOKU Lightweight title picture as both have mentioned wanting the SENGOKU belt recently.
Also on the card is a fight between Katsuhiko Nagata and Yasunori Kanehara as previously announced. The event takes place on February 28th.
Two GP participants were announced for the first round of the Welterweight GP taking place at DREAM.8 in April. They are Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and Shinya Aoki. Also announced was that the winner of Seichi Ikemoto and Hidetaka Monma at DEEP 40 IMPACT on the 20th will get a spot in the GP. Minowaman was announced as a non-GP fight participant.
Update: Aoki asked DREAM EP Sasahara how ticket sales for DREAM.7 are going. He asked if it is all right if he doesn’t participate and asked for a fight before the GP. Sasahara looked a little puzzled and said that he cannot answer that right now.
If people don’t quite understand Aoki’s comments above I’ll try to explain. He is not asking if he can get off the hook and not fight at DREAM.7. First he asks about how ticket sales are going, then he says something like: “Is it REALLY OK if I don’t participate?” Then he asks Sasahara to let him participate since he is already preparing. He is “arrogant”/thinks he is a big draw/thinks highly of himself/joking.
OLYMPIA DREAM.8 Welterweight GP 2009 1st Round Date: April 5th, 2009 Place: Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan
WVR have announced three new participants for their Featherweight GP. They are Shintaro Ishiwatari and Michihiro Omigawa who fought to a draw in a fight which was supposed to have been a qualification fight for the GP at SHOOTO Tradition 5 in January. And also youngster Seiya Kawahara who could be the next big fighter coming out of Pancrase. He received his first loss in a King Of Pancrase title match in his last fight in December.
Ishiwatari is someone to look out for. He lost his first professional fight by cut but has not lost since then. He has a good win over the tough Tenkei Fujimiya in what was a very exciting fight. Kawahara is also a very exciting fighter and is very promising considering his age. Omigawa brings PRIDE & UFC Lightweight division experience with him into the GP. He has already fought two of the currently announced fighters in the field.
Update: WVR PR Kokuho said that the remaining 5 participants and the final non-GP fight are planned to be announced early next week.
Update #2: Kokuho also said that right now he is thinking about persuading a fighter that he wants participating at any cost. Could it be Yuji Hoshino? Lion Takeshi?
