DREAM Middleweight GP participant Jason “Mayhem” Miller was successful in his MMA return at the Kingdom MMA event in Hawaii yesterday. He submitted Kala Hose in the first round and after the fight he said that the DREAM Middleweight title is next.
You can watch the full fight on YouTube.
SENGOKU X DREAM - GBRing.com
Another big fight has been announced for the awesome-looking Shooto 20th Anniversary event on May 10th. DREAM Lightweight GP participant Mitsuhiro Ishida will face SENGOKU Lightweight GP participant & Cage Froce Lightweight champion Mizuto Hirota. The fight was announced at a Shooto event on Sunday. 5 other fights were also announced for the card.
Kenichiro Togashi vs. Tetsuji Kato
4th ranked Welterweight Kenichiro Togashi will look to continue going up the ladder after a victory against top contender Ganjo Tentsuku in February as he takes on Tetsuji Kato, who returns to the ring after losing a decision to Gilbert Melendez at Strikeforce back in 2007.
Yusuke Endo vs. Willamy Chiquerim
Shooto Pacific-Rim Welterweight champion Yusuke Endo will return since his draw with Koutetsu Boku to take on Willamy Chiquerim, who has dominated his opponents in Shooto Brazil lately.
Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura vs. Takumi Ota
Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura returns to Shooto after a loss in a very entertaining fight against Abel Cullum in the opening round of DREAM’s Featherweight GP. He will have another tough test against dangerous Takumi Ota.
Shooto Tradition: Road To 20th Anniversary Final
Date: May 10th, 2009
Shooto Lightweight Title Fight:
Lion Takeshi vs. Rumina Sato
Normal Fights:
Takanori Gomi vs. Takashi Nakakura
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Mizuto Hirota
Koutetsu Boku vs. Yutaka Ueda
Kenichiro Togashi vs. Tetsuji Kato
Yusuke Endo vs. Willamy Chiquerim
Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura vs. Takumi Ota
Yun Jong Jae vs. Takesuke Kume
Megumi Fujii vs. Kim Dong Hee
A new big MMA organization which will be called “Fighter Mania Championship” (FMC) is starting in South Korea. The first event is planned to take place in September in Seoul and a press conference is planned for July. Aleksander Emelianenko, Choi Mu Bae, and Blagoi Ivanov (the guy who beat Fedor in Combat Sambo) are already at the verbal level in regards to participation. They are planning to hold an event per 2-3 months all around South Korea.
The company behind the event is an MMA/Martial Arts management company called “Fighter Mania Entertainment”. The company will also hold amateur events (starting in July) for domestic talent between the big FMC events.
FME representative Kim said that they are aiming at the organization becoming to the level that PRIDE was and the UFC is.
There are rumors that they are currently negotiating with all three of the Emelianenko brothers (Aleksander is already confirmed). PRIDE was very popular in Korea and Fedor is well-known there. I have even seen UFC and K-1 mentioned in Korean movies.
Kim also mentioned Mirko CroCop, Mark Hunt, and Jerome Le Banner.
Source: Kamipro
Cro Cop To Fight Overeem In July
Mirko Filipovic is likely to once again face Dutchmen Alistair Overeem. Though the the fight is yet to be made official, its the most likely scenario for the Croatian.
Cro Cop confirmed that he had started boxing training and said that he felt highly motivated for his next challenge. He indicated that he would be ready to fight in a month Dream.
“”I feel superb, the movement is there, my heart is in it. My recovery is ahead of schedule. I’ll probably complete in Dream 9 in May or July” said Cro Cop speaking with Nova TV.
Mirko reiterated that he had no immediate plans to walk away from the sport even though he is aware that his career is entering the last phase. This final phase could last anywhere from ten to fifteen more fights but according to Mirko this will be the most productive part of his career.
“Often in past I’ve had problems motivating myself to train. But I realized that when i end it all a part of me will die. Some people think that I fight for money, this is not so. Money is the least important factor in my motivation “.
“I’ve used this break to give my mind a good rest and now I have a clear look on my career and which paths to take. The retirement is not an option ” he said on his official blog last month.
Overeem is the current Strikeforce heavyweight champion and has made plants to depend his title in June most likely against a former member of Team Cro Cop, Fabricio Werdum.
The last time the two met Overeem back in September of 2008, and the match had to be stopped after a series of illegal low blows .
Cro Cop long term plans however still remain unclear. Five MMA organizations in total (Three US based and two Japanese) have offers on the table.
“July is still a long way off. In the next few days I will know more about my schedule for 2009. I want to fight at least another four times this year, and I plan to fight five times in 2010.” – said an enthusiastic Cro Cop.
UFC 97 Betting Lines
UFC 97 is now less than a day away, head over to you’re local sports book or bookmaker to lock in the best lines before its too late. Full UFC 97 odds have been out for over a month now. By far the biggest odds mover has been Shogun Rua. His line has come in sharply. Hardonk, Silva and Kang have also been supported heavily over the past three days. Here are the current lines for the two main events as they stand at the time of posting.
Anderson Silva -560 at 5Dimes
Thales Leites +500 at Sportsbook
Chuck Liddell at Sportsbook -185
Shogun Rua at Sportsbook +155
Aoki X Ishikawa - GBRing.com
Shinya Aoki and his friend, kickboxer Naoki Ishikawa, were on a tv show which will air on Samurai TV on Monday. Aoki said that he will return to the MMA ring and to the Lightweight division around July.
Osawa And Blanco Announced! - Sportsnavi.com
SENGOKU Training Players, Yoshida Dojo fighters, and very promising Amateur Wrestlers Maximo Blanco (Makishi) and Shigeki Osawa were both announced for SENGOKU VIII today. They recently fought at a Pancrase event where they had good results. Osawa will fight in an opening fight against Kota Ishibashi and Blanco will take on Akihiko Mouri, who has experience from HERO’S, DEEP, and Pancrase, in a Lightweight fight.
Update: WVR PR Kokuho said that one additional opening fight is planned to be added. Besides that the card is complete.
SENGOKU VIII
Date: May 2nd, 2009
Place: National Yoyogi Stadium 2nd Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan
Featherweight GP 2nd Round Fights:
Hatsu Hioki vs. Ronnie Ushiwaka
Nam Phan vs. Michihiro Omigawa
Marlon Sandro vs. Nick Denis
Chan Sung Jung vs. Masanori Kanehara
Lightweight Fights:
Kazunori Yokota vs. Leonardo Santos
Maximo Blanco vs. Akihiko Mouri
Light Heavyweight Fights:
Xande Ribeiro vs. Kei Yamamiya
Stanislav Nedkov vs. Travis Wiuff
Welterweight Fight:
Makoto Takimoto vs. Michael Costa
Opening Fight (2×5):
FW: Shigeki Osawa vs. Kota Ishibashi
I got a request to start with these posts again. The Japanese MMA magazine covers can often indicate where interest lies during the timespan that they are sold. For the May covers, there’s mostly “KID” and Satoru Kitaoka. “KID” is on the Kamipro and Kakutougi Tsuushin covers while SENGOKU champ Kitaoka is on the Kamipro May special issue and also, together with Shinya Aoki, Caol Uno, and some other MMA people, on the Gong Kakutogi cover. Fight&Life have UFC fighter Yushin Okami as their May issue coverfighter.
DREAM Lightweight GP participant Kazuyuki Miyata and the rest of the DEEP 41 fighters weighed-in on the 15th in Tokyo. Miyata weighed-in at 66.5 kg for his 67 kg match, which will be is his first fight on his road to the Featherweight division. He says that his body fat percentage is around 6%. When his weight was 71 kg at the beginning of February his body fat percentage was around 7-8%.
Also on the card is a DEEP Lightweight title fight between Katsunori Kikuno and Koichiro Matsumoto. These two are worth keeping an eye on since they will probably pop up at a larger event in the future.
Here is a good forum thread for people who want to read and learn more about the DEEP card going down tomorrow.
Going into the FINAL16 event on April 21st most articles are about K-1 MAX cosplayer YOUICHIRO☆JIENOTSU☆NAGASHIMA.
He had an open training session at the DEEP gym on the 8th where he was dressed as anime character Shana. On the 11th he was in Akihabara in Tokyo where there are a lot of electronics stores and where a lot of anime, manga, etc. fans gather. There he was dressed up as a character from a series called Nurse Witch Komugi. Nagashima promised that he will “furubokko” Albert Kraus. I think “furubokko” is an online word meaning to really beat up someone.
Here are two short videos of the DEEP gym open training session: Part 1 and 2.
It seems that even the big English language blogs/communities are starting to recognize Nagashima.
(Photos By: GBRing.com)
Tatame reports from DREAM Middleweight GP runner-up Ronaldo Jacare’s coach that Jacare will fight for the vacate DREAM Middleweight title at DREAM.9 on May 26th. A possible opponent is Jason “Mayhem” Miller, who Jacare defeated in the quarterfinal of last years GP.
