The first fight for SENGOKU VIII was just announced a few minutes ago on SENGOKU’s TV show. SENGOKU Lightweight GP finalist Kazunori Yokota will face BJJ black belt Leonardo Santos in a fight which should give some indication on who will challenge Satoru Kitaoka for his title in August.
SENGOKU VIII
Date: May 2nd, 2009
Place: National Yoyogi Stadium 2nd Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan
Lightweight Fight:
Kazunori Yokota vs. Leonardo Santos
Featherweight GP 2nd Round Participants:
Marlon Sandro
Nam Phan
Michihiro Omigawa
Masanori Kanehara
Ronnie Ushiwaka
Hatsu Hioki
Nick Denis
Chan Sung Jung
Masato, Genki Sudo, and FEG Producer Sadaharu Tanigawa participated in this years Tokyo Marathon (42.195 km) which took place today. Masato ran his first marathon and was the best of the three with a time of 3:51:14. He wasn’t that happy with the time and said that next year he wants to get a time under 3:20. He wanted to spurt after 36 km but his leg started hurting.
Sudo crossed the finish line at 5:46:19 and Tanigawa at 6:12:50. Sudo ran with an injured leg but he said it was OK with medicine.
Click here for some pictures.
Graciemag.com reports that Murilo “Ninja” Rua is training in Sao Paulo for a April 5th fight in Japan. He says that he will face a Korean fighter. Could it be Yoon Dong Sik?
In other DREAM.8 news, Zelg “Benkei” Galesic might be off his DREAM.8 fight against Andrews Nakahara because he didn’t pass his medical test. Read more about it here.
Takanori Gomi will return to SHOOTO and participate in a big Lightweight fight as he takes on SHOOTO Welterweight champion Takashi Nakakura on May 10th at SHOOTO Tradition ROAD TO 20th ANNIVERSARY FINAL. This fight will be a tough one even if Gomi trains seriously.
Another big fight announced for the card is a SHOOTO Lightweight title fight between Lion Takeshi and Rumina Sato, two fighters who were missing from the DREAM & SENGOKU Featherweight GP’s.
The third fight announced for the event was DREAM Lightweight GP particpant Koutetsu Boku versus the tough Yutaka Ueda.
Another SENGOKU event is in the books and it was a great event. Satoru Kitaoka announced at the event that he will defend his SENGOKU title in August and that he will probably have a fight before that (which will probably be in Pancrase).
WVR PR Kokuho said after the event that from May onward they will start working toward a Welterweight title fight at SENGOKU NO RAN 2010 by holding single fights. He also said that he wants to announce the 2nd round Featherweight GP fights soon.
Aoki, Sasahara, "Mach", and the Belts. - GBRing.com
The rumored fight is now official as Shinya Aoki vs. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai was announced as a first round match-up for the DREAM Welterweight GP which kicks off on April 5th.
Update: The rest of the GP line-up is planned to be announced next week. The event will consist of 9 or 10 fights. One of the four last spots might be given to another Japanese fighter.
OLYMPIA DREAM.8 Welterweight GP 2009 1st Round
Date: April 5th, 2009
Place: Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan
Welterweight GP Fight:
Shinya Aoki vs. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai
Welterweight GP Participants:
Seichi Ikemoto
Yuya Shirai
Featherweight GP Fight:
Hideo Tokoro vs. DJ.taiki
88 kg/194 lbs Fight:
Minowaman vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Middleweight Fight:
Andrews Nakahara vs. Zelg “Benkei” Galesic
Possible GP Participants:
Andre Galvao
Marcello Garcia
John Alessio
Possible Participants:
Ronaldo Jacare
Gegard Mousasi
Shigeki Osawa - Kamipro.com
Shigeki Osawa will fight on the same night as fellow SENGOKU Training Player Maximo Blanco as he makes his MMA debut at the April 5th Pancrase event. Osawa was announced as a SENGOKU Training Player at the same time as Blanco was and is also a great Amateur Wrestler.
When Osawa was announced as a SENGOKU Training Player last year he had just returned home from the 8th World University Wrestling Championship in Greece where he won gold in the 60 kg division. He also won the All-Japan Freestyle Wrestling Championship 60 kg division in 2007.
Osawa has been training MMA full-time at the Yoshida Dojo since October of last year. He has been practicing together with Michihiro Omigawa. His debut opponent will be Hideo Matsui, who is also looking for his first MMA victory.
FEG president Sadaharu Tanigawa announced today that Badr Hari has cancelled his participation at the K-1 Yokohama event on the 28th due to poor health/bad shape. Tanigawa was not happy with this at the press conference. Instead, Peter Aerts will take Hari’s place against Errol Zimmerman.
It was also revealed that Ruslan Karaev will not participate either. He was supposed to fight in the 4-man K-1 Heavyweight title tournament but is out with a back injury. The awesome Tyrone Spong will take his place and in turn, J-NETWORK Heavyweight champion Singh Heart Jaideep will take Spong’s place in the tournament reserve fight against Keijiro Maeda.
In other FEG related news, Akebono will not be able to participate in the Tokyo Marathon on the 22nd. He was training for it (as you can see on the picture above) but a final medical check on the 12th showed that as he is now it is unreasonable for him to exercise for such a long period of time.
FieLDS K-1 WORLD GP 2009 in YOKOHAMA
Date: March 28th, 2009
Place: Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan
Superfights (3×3, 2×3 Ext.):
Alistair Overeem vs. Remy Bonjasky
Peter Aerts vs. Errol Zimmerman
Ewerton Teixeira vs. Jerome Le Banner
Junichi Sawayashiki vs. Glaube Feitosa
K-1 Heavyweight Title Tournament Fights (3×3, 1×3 Ext.):
Manhoef/Chalid vs. Spong/Saki
Melvin Manhoef vs. Chalid “Die Faust”
Tyrone Spong vs. Gokhan Saki
K-1 Heavyweight Title Tournament Reserve Fight (3×3, 1×3 Ext.):
Keijiro Maeda vs. Singh Heart Jaideep
(Photo By: Kamipro)
#9: HDNet
SENGOKU VII live on HDNet at 3 AM. Enjoy the show!
#8: Nam Phan Interview
Pre-GP Nam Phan interview at ADCCNews.
#7: Radio & Article
Jordan Breen previewed SENGOKU VII on his radio show today. You can download the show here. There is also an article of the press conference at Sherdog.
#6: Weigh-In Results
LHW: 10. King Mo (92.8 kg) vs. Ryo Kawamura (93 kg)
FWGP: 9. Hatsu Hioki (65 kg) vs. Chris Manuel (64.2 kg)
FWGP: 8. Nam Phan (64.8 kg) vs. Hideki Kadowaki (64.9 kg)
HW: 7. James Thompson (123.3 kg) vs. Big Jim York (120 kg)
FWGP: 6. Michihiro Omigawa (64.8 kg) vs. L.C. Davis (64.7 kg)
FWGP: 5. Marlon Sandro (65 kg) vs. Matt Jaggers (65 kg)
FWGP: 4. Kim Jong Man (64.8 kg) vs. Masanori Kanehara (64.9 kg)
FWGP: 3. Chan Sung Jung (64.9 kg) vs. Shintaro Ishiwatari (65 kg)
FWGP: 2. Ronnie Ushiwaka (64.7 kg) vs. Tetsuya Yamada (65 kg)
FWGP: 1. Seiya Kawahara (65 kg) vs. Nick Denis (64.8 kg)
Read more…
Thansk to mdhan for commenting that Yong Soo Choi broke his hand in sparring and will not be able to face Shingo Garyu on Friday at the K-1 MAX event in Seoul. Instead, In Jin Chi will replace him. Unfortunately, it looks like Chi’s opponent, Hareruya, will not fight on Friday as the K-1 WORLD YOUTH fight has been bumped up and placed as the 6th fight of the night.
Another Korean was also reported as injured today. SENGOKU’s Yang Dong Yi will not be able to fight in HEAT on March 28th due to injury. He was supposed to face SENTORYU in the semifinal of the HEAT OW/HW GP. His replacement is Ryuta Noji, who lost to Yang in one of the quarterfinals of the GP.
