Fighting Mixed Combative 1! Catastrophy

A catastrophic event took place this past Sunday in Seoul where only three of ten scheduled main fights took place. Seven of the ten Japanese fighters did not walk out at the opening ceremony of the event. There seems to have been some money issues before the event so the seven fighters decided to pull out in the last minute.

I don’t know if FMC didn’t pay some amount that they should’ve before the event, or if the Japanese fighters asked for more money. It seems that FMC offered the money backstage but the fighters still didn’t want to fight. FMC then offered some extra money but by then some of the fighters had already left.

I’m not sure about any of this. I hope there is something on this on a Japanese site soon so I can understand what happened better (who knows which version is true though).

Fight Videos (spoilers below): two out of the three fights

Anyway, in the three main card fights that happened, Naoki Matsushita defeated Jang Yong Kim, who got really careless, by TKO, Kosuto Umeda defeated Du Jae Jong by TKO (injury), and Hiroshi Nakamura defeated Jong Man Kim, who broke four fingers in the fight but fought on since it was the main event, by decision.

The 4th World Weight Category Tournament! Nakahara Going For Second Win

The 4th World Weight Category Tournament in Kyokushin Karate will take place from August 21st to 23rd in Chiba, Japan. DREAM fighter Andrews Nakahara won the 3rd World Weight Category Tournament in 2005 and will participate in the 4th one’s 8-man Middleweight (under 80 kg) tournament on the 23rd.

This is a big tournament which only happens once every four years and winning it twice would really be something. Nakahara will be facing Barja Kumar Rai from Nepal in his first match of the day.

A1: Hiroyuki Kidachi (Japan) vs. Simon Kennedy (Australia)
A2: Stoian Nicolae (Romania) vs. Shohei Yamamoto (USA)
B1: Zenjyuro Mori (Japan) vs. Khuseyn Elikhanov (Russia)
B2: Barja Kumar Rai (Nepal) vs. Andrews Nakahara (Brazil)

Fighting Mixed Combative 1! Preview

The FMC 1 Gathering - mfight.co.kr

The weigh-ins (top to bottom: Nakamura/Jong Man, Hisamatsu/Dae Won, Nakamura/Yang Dong) for tomorrows FMC card took place today and all fighters made weight. The event will start at 5 PM and will be aired on MBC ESPN at 10:10 PM or 11 PM (I think it’s on from 10:10 PM to 1:10 AM Korean time) on the same day (low quality stream on TVAnts for anyone who wants to see it as it airs).

Below is a little text written about some of the fighters on the card who I think are the most relevant at this time. The card really has some good names if you look at it and for being a South Korea vs. Japan card by a new Korean organization, I’m impressed. The next FMC card in September should feature the big names that the organization has signed as Aleksander Emelianenko, Blagoy Alexandre Ivanov, and Ivan Emelianenko are among some of the fighters who could appear.

Fighting Mixed Combative 1
Date: August 16th, 2009
Place: Jangchung Gymnasium in Seoul, South Korea

10. -88kg: Yang Dong Yi (87.75kg) vs. Yuta Nakamura (87.6kg)
9. -84kg: Dae Won Kim (83.95kg) vs. Yuji Hisamatsu (84kg)
8. -67kg: Jong Man Kim (66.95kg) vs. Hiroshi Nakamura (66.90kg)
7. -70kg: Du Jae Jeong (69.85kg) vs. Kosuto Umeda (70.1kg)
6. -77kg: Hyun Gyu Lim (77kg) vs. Keitaro Maeda (76.70kg)
5. -70kg: Bae Yong Kwon (69.90kg) vs. Hiroki “AB” Aoki (69.60kg)
4. -70kg: Jang Yong Kim (70kg) vs. Naoki Matsushita (69.90kg)
3. -84kg: Kim Hoon (84kg) vs. Shuji Morikawa (83.90kg)
2. -65kg: Gil Young Bok (65kg) vs. Daisuke Endo (64.60kg)
1. -70kg: Whi Gyu Kim (70kg) vs. Asato Hashimoto (69kg)

Yang Dong Yi

Undefeated Yang Dong Yi has fought in Japan since the middle of 2007. His biggest win to date came when he defeated Pawel Nastula in SENGOKU after some controversy. His background is in Amateur Wrestling which he uses very well in his fights. Last December he entered the HEAT Heavyweight Tournament where he defeated Ryuta Noji in the first round. He injured himself before the second round of the tournament though and couldn’t continue competing in it.

The most interesting thing about tomorrow’s fight might be that it’s at 88 kg (194 lbs). Yang has fought as a Heavyweight previously despite being quite short (180 cm) for the weight class. He said after his win against Nastula that he might drop down to Middleweight and it looks like this is the first step toward that. He successfully weighed in at 87.75 kg today.

vs. Keigo Takamori
vs. Pawel Nastula

Dae Won Kim

One of the most experienced and best fighters out of Korea. Kim’s background is in Judo and he currently seems to train in Team Force (see the end of the post). He has fought in many big organizations in Japan such as PRIDE, DEEP, HERO’S, and DREAM where he has victories over Marcelo Garcia, Yuya Shirai, and Keiichiro Yamamiya. He almost stopped Melvin Manhoef with strikes in his last fight in the reserve fight of the 2008 DREAM MW GP 1st round.

vs. Marcelo Garcia
vs. Melvin Manhoef

Jong Man Kim

Another very experienced fighter out of Korea. He participated in this years SENGOKU Featherweight GP where he put up a good fight against champion Kanehara. He has a lot of power in his hands and his stoppage of Atsushi Yamamoto was one of the most hard to watch fights in MMA. He hasn’t won in a while now (though he should’ve got the judgment decision against DJ.taiki) but has the ability to defeat anyone at Featherweight. He’ll continue to fight top competition though as he tomorrow takes on…

vs. Atsushi Yamamoto (recommended)
vs. Hatsu Hioki
vs. DJ.taiki Part 1, 2

Hiroshi Nakamura

After a rough start to his career, Nakamura is currently on a 8 fight non-losing streak with 5 victories and 3 draws. In those fights he has defeated Tenkei Fujimiya and Wataru Miki, and gone to draws with Hatsu Hioki and Shintaro Ishiwatari. He is a very good grappler with some decent ground and pound (not very powerful strikes but his hits are clean). His stand-up is not very strong (it has gotten a little better though) so if he has trouble taking Kim down in the later rounds things could go bad for him. Look for him to compete in this years ADCC tournament as well as he has been announced for it.

Many fights on YouTube

Hyun Gyu Lim

24 year old Hyun Gyu Lim is someone who should be looked out for in the future. His stand-up is good, he’s tough, and he has already faced some good names and done good against them in his short career. Look for him to stop his opponent via punches tomorrow.

vs. Dmitry Samoilov
vs. Lucio Linhares

Hiroki “AB” Aoki

AB has lost only to great fighters. He is good both standing and on the ground. He is also quite tall for a Lightweight. Another interesting guy for the future.

vs. Maximo Blanco
vs. Steve Magdaleno
vs. Takafumi Ito Part 1, 2

Jang Yong Kim

Kim shocked everyone when he TKO’d former UFC and DREAM Welterweight KTaro Nakamura in Cage Force last November. Kim is also the only fighter who has gone to a decision with Katsunori Kikuno in Kikuno’s last 5 fights. In the entertaining fight he went head to head standing without backing down and on the ground he threatened with submissions. It’ll be interesting to see how Kim does in the future.

vs. Katsunori Kikuno Part 1, 2 (recommended)

Gil Young Bok

Bok will make his MMA debut tomorrow. From the little information I found on him he seems to be a good (maybe better than good) amateur wrestler but he hasn’t been able to train MMA for very long before this fight (only 2 months of MMA training I think).

He won the 6th Pacific Open Amateur Wrestling tournament (Freestyle) in January of 2005 and was also chosen as the MVP of the event. That was in his second year of University. After that it seems that he did the mandatory 2 year Korean military service and during that time he got into MMA.

Below is a picture from the weigh-ins with Bok to the left, and former DEEP LW champion and SENGOKU veteran Bang Seung Hwan to the right. They are both part of Team Force (is it a new MMA team?).

Team Force: Bok X Bang - mfight.co.kr

DEEP 43 Impact! Main Is Chonan Vs. Nakao

DEEP 43 Impact will introduce a new rule in DEEP where 5 judges (including the referee) instead of 3 will judge the promotions title fights (with the must system in case of draws).

The August 23rd event will mark the MMA returns of some great fighters when Ryo Chonan returns to Japan to take on Jutaro Nakao in the main event, Dokonjonosuke Mishima defends his Featherweight title against DREAM Featherweight GP participant Takafumi Otsuka in the semi main event, and Masakazu Imanari defends his Bantamweight title against Tomohiko Hori in the fight before.

Official Poll! FINAL16 Final Spots

Vote at the K-1 official site on who out of these fighters you want to get a spot in the FINAL16 (a few (one) of them are (is) unrealistic):

glaube feitosa
ray sefo
choi hong man
paul slowinski
mighty mo
stefan leko
tyrone spong
sergii lashchenko
kin taiei
melvin manhoef
musashi
junichi sawayashiki
alistair overeem
sergei kharitonov
chalid “die faust”
freddy kemayo
gegard mousasi
mirko crocop
mark hunt
alexey ignashov
yosuke nishijima
catalin morosanu
takumi sato
pavel zuravliov
mourad bouzidi

The Endless Fighter! Bringing The Belt Home

DREAM fighter Mitsuhiro Ishida will face Gilbert Melendez for the second time on August 15th at Strikeforce in America. On the 10th he talked with the official website of DREAM about the fight. Below is a quick summary of the interview.

Ishida has trained for a while with the feeling of “it would be good if I could fight in August or September”. Of course, the preparations for this fight aren’t the same compared to usual because of being brought in late. But he feels that this fight isn’t a minus for him.

Talking about his last appearance in Strikeforce, Ishida says the he will fight in a venue with a different atmosphere this time compared to then. He was happy when people clapped for him and there was no booing last time. However, this time he’s quite sure that he will hear some booing since he is in the hometown of Melendez. Being there is something good he thinks, since Melendez went through the same thing in their last fight.

Ishida had a feeling that he was going to rematch Melendez after their first fight ended. He doesn’t like rematches but since a belt is on the line this time and because of his feeling that there was going to be a second fight after the first, it’s a little different.

Ishida thinks that the last fight became a difficult one and since this one is 25 minutes long, he thinks that it will be equally difficult if it drags on. He also thinks that this fight has the potential to develop differently than last time because of the different rules in America compared to Yarennoka! and DREAM.

About their last fight, Ishida thought after round 1 that he and Melendez were mutually tired but when Melendez came out fresher in the second, he was surprised. It’s that tenacity, Ishida says, the tenacity to win which to him is the most frightening thing.

Ishida would be lying if he said that he doesn’t think about becoming the interim champion by winning the fight, but before that he has to bring down a beast called Melendez. After leaving behind a good result, the reward is the belt.

Ishida wants to win the belt, bring it to a DREAM event, and greet everyone in the ring with it. This for the fans at the fan event of DREAM.10 who cheered him on, greeted him, and made him feel happy after his loss to Mizuto Hirota in Shooto.

Ishida was interviewed by MMA FanHouse a few days ago as well. Also on the Strikeforce card, Gegard Mousasi will face Renato “Babalu” Sobral for the Light Heavyweight title and DREAM.10 participant Jesse Taylor will face Jay Hieron. SENGOKU’s King Mo will also fight in America when he takes on Mark Kerr at an M-1 Global event at the end of August.

SENGOKU X! The Lightweight KOP Vs. The Former Super High School Student

Yamada X Maxi - GBRing.com

Four new fights have been announced for SENGOKU X on September 23rd. The three opening fights of the event will be the winners of “SENGOKU Gold Cup: Japan” vs. the winners of “SENGOKU Gold Cup: South Korea”.

The only main card fight that was announced is one which I expected in newly crowned Lightweight King Of Pancrase Maxi (Maximo Blanco) taking on “Former Super High School Student” Tetsuya Yamada in a Lightweight fight.

Update: An excited Yamada said that he wants to become a superstar like his teammate Tokoro became when he brought down the former Shooto champion (Pequeno). Yamada also announced that he will fight at Lightweight from now on (it takes too much on his stamina to cut to Featherweight). He is currently doing wellfare work 5 days a week and training 6 days a week. He is now able to train more than when he was in school.

Update #2: Maxi is already interested in other belts as he revealed that he also wants the SENGOKU and UFC belts. About Yamada Maxi said that he’s young and his ground game is strong. He thinks it’ll be a tough fight.

Update #3: It seems like Yamada will train in a gym that isn’t his normal one. However, he couldn’t say which it is. He will go there everyday though.

Update #4: WVR PR Kokuho said that this fight might decide the Lightweight title challenger after the next challenger. One of the best 4 of the Featherweight GP is also planned to participate at SENGOKU X (probably Sandro). The plan is for Antonio Silva to face a foreign fighter and for Joe Doerksen to face a Japanese fighter. The negotiations with Izumi’s opponent are currently going rough. Expect more fights to be announced soon.

Update #5: So Jee Hyun came second in the South Korean gold cup but since the winner can’t participate due to some circumstances, Hyun will take his place. Osawa is happy that his fellow SENGOKU training player became a champion but he says that he also wants to become a champion soon. Kokuho said that the fighter who has the best win out of the three fights will get a fight at either SENGOKU XI in November or SENGOKU’s new year event. Izumi’s fight will be the main event of SENGOKU X.

SENGOKU X
Date: September 23rd, 2009
Place: Saitama Community Arena in Tokyo, Japan

Lightweight Fights:
Kazunori Yokota vs. Ryan Schultz
Maxi vs. Tetsuya Yamada

Opening Fights (2×5):
LW: Ikuo Usuda vs. Baek Woo Hyun
FW: Shigeki Osawa vs. Kim Ki Hyun
BW: Ryosuke Komori vs. So Jee Hyun

Participants:
Hiroshi Izumi
Makoto Takimoto
Antonio Silva
Joe Doerksen

Possible Participants:
Xande Ribeiro
King Mo

13 Fighters Official! K-1 World GP 2009 FINAL16

13 fighters for the FINAL16 K-1 event in September in Seoul were announced today. They are:

Remy Bonjasky
Badr Hari
Errol Zimmerman
Gohkan Saki
Ewerton Teixeira
Ruslan Karaev
Jerome Le Banner
Peter Aerts
Semmy Schilt
Kyotaro (Keijiro Maeda)
Zabit Samedov
Daniel Ghita
Singh “Heart” Jaideep

The last 3 participants will be picked through fan voting online and sponsor recommendations. The current nominated fighters are:

Glaube Feitosa, Paul Slowinski, Ray Sefo, Choi Hong Man, Mighty Mo, Stefan Leko, Tyrone Spong, Sergii Lashchenko, Kin Taiei, Musashi, Junichi Sawayashiki, Melvin Manhoef, Alistair Overeem, and Sergei Kharitonov.

FEG president Tanigawa want fans to vote on young fighters. He also wants to give priority to fighters who have fought in K-1 this year.

Surprise At DREAM.12! Osaka Castle Hall

It was announced today that DREAM.12 on October 25th will take place at the Osaka Castle Hall in Osaka. DREAM EP Sasahara said that the card is currently being worked on but fighters from Osaka like Yoshiro Maeda are being considered. He also mentioned Kazushi Sakuraba as a potential participant.

Sasahara is leaving to America tomorrow and his goal is that he wants to announce the whole cooperation deal with Strikeforce and negotiate about fighters (Fedor included).

Sasahara revealed that the plan is for Strikeforce fighters to participate as soon as DREAM.12. They want to invite both fighters who haven’t fought in Japan before, and fighters who have had activity in the past and are still doing their best today. He thinks they will be champion class. They are also considering Alistair Overeem.

Sasahara says that he really wants to say something. He says that he is thinking about various [a word which could mean device, mechanism, half done, etc.]. Anyway, it’s a big surprise. He says that it’s a 70% chance that it will happen. He also said: “It’s not the first of its kind in Japan but…”.

Some sites give more detail than others which I find strange. According to sportsnavi Sasahara said that it is something that have been in Pro-Wrestling and the like before. For example something similar to establishing both a ring and cage. Expect something next week.

The Aftermath! K-1 WORLD GP 2009 Final Chance

A quite enjoyable K-1 event took place in Japan today which is available on the internet for people who want to watch it. I liked the atmosphere of the smaller arena and seeing some new faces in a K-1 event in Japan. Official results are available here.

With this I believe the three fighters that have qualified for the FINAL16 this year are Zabit Samedov, Singh “Heart” Jaideep, and now Daniel Ghita. These three will together with the final 8 from 2008 (minus Badr Hari?) plus a few fighters chosen by sponsors, FEG, and possibly fans battle at this years FINAL16 event in September in South Korea.

Aerts praised Nishijima after the fight by saying that he’s tough, has heart, and that his punch has power. However, he feels that it wasn’t a difficult fight for him since he knew that Nishijima had no choice but to punch so therefore he could distance with lowkicks.

Nishijima talked about how hard it was for him to reach Aerts with his punches and that Aerts lowkicks “somewhat hurt”. This doesn’t seem to be the end for Nishijima though as he received advice from Aerts who said that it is necessary for him to include kicks in his training. If there’s an opportunity Nishijima will be back in the K-1 ring.

Kyotaro (Keijiro Maeda) won his first fight since becoming K-1 Heavyweight champion as he KO’d Kyokushin Karateka Jan Soukup in the third. Another impressive performance by Kyotaro who really has some power and skills in his hands.

Ghita was impressive in his GP victory despite having easy first and second rounds. His kicks are heavy and he has good size for K-1. It will be interesting to see how he does against some of the veterans with his kicking game though.