SENGOKU Gold Rush Project I! Introduction

Fighters in the Bantamweight, Featherweight, and Lightweight divisions from (for now) Yoshida Dojo, PANCRASE, Wajyutsu Keisyukai, Gutsman Shooto Dojo, Kiguchi Dojo, Hori Dojo, SK Absolute, and Team ZST will have the chance to be chosen.

The chosen fighters will then face each other in June when the “SENGOKU Gold Cup” starts. The finals will take place at SENGOKU IX on August 2nd.

A surprise in the gym list is Kiguchi Dojo, the gym which Takanori Gomi belonged to during his well-known PRIDE run.

Pankurashisuto’s! Kitaoka X Suzuki X Kawamura

Pankurashisuto's - Sportsnavi.com

The legendary Minoru Suzuki is training with his juniors, Satoru Kitaoka and Ryo Kawamura, in preparation for his All-Japan Pro-Wrestling Triple Crown title match on May 30th.

Speaking of Kitaoka, it was announced today that he and Yukio Sakaguchi will fight in the main event on the June 2nd Pancrase card where fighters such as the aforementioned Kawamura, Yukiya Naito, Choi Mu Bae, and Seiya Kawahara are also scheduled to participate.

Pancrase also announced their schedule for the rest of 2009. The event after the June one will be on August 8th where Izuru Takeuchi, who was defeated by Joe Doerksen in SENGOKU in his last fight, will defend his Middleweight KOP title. After that there will be three more events before the end of the year on October 25th, November 11th, and December 6th.

SENGOKU IX! First Card Announcement Next Week

The first match-ups for SENGOKU IX on August 2nd will be announced sometime next week. The opponent of Kitaoka and the semifinals of the GP fights will be announced. The other fights on the card will consist of big fights between fighters aiming at belts in SENGOKU.

The Crusher & Evil Fist Preparing! “I Will Show Them A Real Fight”

The Crusher X Black Ship Trainer X Evil Fist - Kamipro

Tatsuya Kawajiri and Hiroyuki Takaya held an open training session together with Team Kurofune trainer Takeshi Yamada at the JB Sports Gym in Tokyo today. They had the same training menu (shadowboxing, sparring, mitts, etc.) and talked with the press afterward.

Kawajiri thinks that Calvan is a complete fighter, he has all aspects of MMA down. However, trainer Yamada has watched a lot of Calvan’s fights and has a counter-plan. Kawajiri doesn’t really think about the DREAM belt right now, if it happens it happens (literally if I do it I will do it).

When asked about the Super Hulk Tournament Kawajiri said: “I don’t know about the hulk or Canseco, but I will show the real thing. I will show them a real fight, I will make people watching on TV think that MMA is awesome”.

He isn’t interested in the Super Hulk Tournament but he understands, though it makes him feel sick, that “with only us” (fighters like him) a lot of people will not watch.

Takaya questions why his opponent, Yoshiro Maeda, didn’t come to the press conference where the Featherweight GP quarterfinals were announced since he himself woke up at 5 o’clock to take the train from Osaka to participate in it. About his weight, cutting down to 63 kg this time is no problem. Trainer Yamada has watched a lot of Maeda’s fights too.

(Photos & Sources: GBRing & Sportsnavi & Kamipro)

Xande! Two More Fights By January 2010?

There is a new interview with Xande Ribeiro up on GracieMag where he talks about his knockouts in MMA and how they relate to his training with Andre Dida and Wanderlei Silva. When asked about his next fight he said:

XR – I’ll see about fighting by the end of the year. I intend to have two more fights by January of next year.

Read the full interview here.

DREAM Welterweight GP! Jason High Vs. Andre Galvao

MMAWeekly and Tatame have both revealed that Jason High will face Andre Galvao in one of the semifinals of the DREAM Welterweight GP at DREAM.10 on July 20th. The other semifinal will naturally be between Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and Marius Zaromskis.

Another fight which could be take place on the card is a DREAM Lightweight title fight between champion Joachim Hansen and Shinya Aoki.

DREAM.10 Welterweight GP 2009 Finals
Date: July 20th, 2009
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

DREAM Welterweight GP Finals:
Sakurai/Zaromskis vs. Galvao/High
Andre Galvao vs. Jason High
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Marius Zaromskis

Possible Fight:
LW Title: Joachim Hansen vs. Shinya Aoki

Before The Ninth Dream! Jason “Mayhem” Miller

Awesome video by AllElbows.com with comments and training footage of Jason “Mayhem” Miller in preparation for his DREAM Middleweight title fight against Ronaldo Jacare on May 26th. This is the first video in the series.

Joint Training! KID X Naito

KID X Naito - Dreamofficial.com

Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto and Daisuke Naito, the two stars of the 3-hour Martial Arts Festival which will be aired on TBS on May 26th did a combine public training at the Boxing gym which Naito belongs to, the Miyata Gym in Tokyo, in preparation for their fights.

Naito first sparred for 2×3 minutes and then did some mitt training for 2×3 minutes. After that, KID did some mitt training (punches, kicks, and knees) for 1×10 minutes and then sparred for 1×10 minutes. The temperature in the gym was high since Naito is cutting weight for his fight. However, KID, who has confidence in his stamina, did not get fatigued. The president of Miyata Gym who was watching KID at ringside was very impressed by what he saw.

Afterward, KID said that the knee he injured last year is already perfectly healed. He showed some good kicks and knee strikes during the training. About the super hulk tournament, since the featherweights have the speed and the big fighters have the power, he thinks that it’s good to have such varying things to look forward to. He was a little disappointed though that he didn’t get to spar with Naito during the training session since he wanted to “furubokko” him (to really beat him up).

Ishiwatari Returns! Shooting Disco 9

On June 6th SENGOKU Featherweight GP participant Shintaro Ishiwatari will look to get back to his winning ways when he faces another fighter with heavy strikes in Daiki Tsuchiya at the Gutsman Promotion Shooting Disco 9 event in Tokyo. Though Tsuchiya lost in the second round of the 2008 Shooto Lightweight rookie tournament, he had an excellent fight with Hidenori Nishino, which can be seen below, in the first round.

DEEP 42 Impact! Middleweight Title Fight Announced

A DEEP Middleweight title fight between champion Yuichi Nakanishi and Riki Fukuda was announced for DEEP 42 IMPACT on June 30th today. Nakanishi defeated Fukuda last time they met which was in last years DEEP Middleweight GP final. Since then Nakanishi has lost to Yuya Shirai in a non-title fight and Fukuda has won four straight with his latest being an unanimous decision win over Murilo Ninja at DREAM.8.

Also on the card are DREAM veteran Takeshi Yamazaki, Ryuta Sakurai, and Hiromitsu Kanehara among others.