Final Preparations! Getting Ready For The Eleventh Dream

#19: Weigh-In Results

8. Joachim Hansen (68.2kg) vs. Shinya Aoki (69.8kg)
7. Kazushi Sakuraba (83.5kg) vs. Rubin Williams (82.5kg)
6. Tatsuya Kawajiri (69.9kg) vs. Melchor Barracuda (69.2kg)
5. Sokoudjou (100kg) vs. Bob Sapp (155kg)
4. Minowaman (87.5kg) vs. Choi Hong Man (145kg)
3. Joe Warren (62.7kg) vs. Bibiano Fernandes (62.7kg)
2. Hideo Tokoro (62.8kg) vs. Hiroyuki Takaya (63kg)
1. DJ.taiki (62.8kg) vs. Kazuyuki Miyata (62.8kg)

#18: Sakuraba Wants More Fights In 2009

At the weigh-ins today, Sakuraba said that if he’s unhurt, he’d like to have continuous fights this year (probably DREAM.12 and Dynamite!!).

GLADIATOR Is Back Again! Okayama Event

Team Pancrase Vs. Dragon Gate Bono - Sportsnavi.com

Last year, an event called GLADIATOR (collaboration between DEEP and CMA) was held in the Momotaro Arena in Okayama, Japan. A few years before that, a big two day event was held in South Korea as well. This year the GLADIATOR executive committee is back with the third GLADIATOR event that will be held at the Okayama Budokan on November 3rd.

A press conference was held today where the fights of the event were announced. A few solid names are scheduled to fight such as Korean female fighter Seo Hee Ham, K-1 veteran Yusuke Fujimoto, K-1 up-and-comer Mitsugu Noda, exciting Karateka Yuji Sakuragi, Maximo Blanco DQ victor Akihiko Mori, Dynamite!! 2008 participant Yukio Sakaguchi, MMA veteran Daijiro Matsui, and HERO’S participant Min Suk Heo.

The last event was a Japan-Korea friendship event where 6 Korea Vs. Japan fights were held with Korea winning 5 of those fights. The same theme continues this year with 8 fights between Japanese and Korean fighters scheduled.

The young Korean opponents of Shoko Sato and Daijiro Matsui are, similar to Chan Sung Jung when he defeated Michihiro Omigawa in last years GLADIATOR event, receiving a chance to maybe get on to something bigger in case of victory in the November fights.

Below is the card of the event (I’ll add the Korean names as soon as a Korean MMA website post the card).

Japan-Korea International Goodwill MMA Event GLADIATOR -Okayama Event-
Date: November 3rd, 2009
Place: Okayama Budokan in Okayama, Japan

Pro-Wrestling Rules, Tag Team, 1×30 Minutes:
Minowaman & Minoru Suzuki vs. Akebono & Don Fujii

MMA Rules, CMA KPW Middleweight Title Fight, 3×5 Minutes:
Hiroya Aikawa(?) vs. Min Suk Heo

K-1 Rules, 3×3 Minutes:
68kg: Go Yokoyama vs. Jae Hun Moon
Girls: Ayano Oishi vs. Seo Hee Ham
Yusuke Fujimoto vs. Junpei Hamada
Mitsugu Noda vs. Yuji Sakuragi

MMA Rules, 2×5 Minutes:
LHW: Daijiro Matsui vs. Il Cheol Park
LW: Akihiko Mori vs. Hyeong Geol Lee
LW: Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Seong Hwa Han
FW: Shoko Sato vs. Nam Jin Jo

Kickboxing Rules, 3×3 Minutes:
70kg: Koji Tsunekiyo(?) vs. Hyper Kick Lee

SENGOKUG! SENGOKU Gold Cup Japan Vs. Korea Footage

Footage of the three Japan vs. Korea SENGOKU Gold Cup fights of SENGOKU X were shown on Sundays SENGOKUG! episode. Thanks to the uploader.

DREAM.12! Kikuno Vs. Alvarez Official!

Bae, Kikuno, Hironaka, Parky - Sportsnavi.com

The first two fights for DREAM.12 have been announced and they are high-level ones. In two Lightweight fights, DEEP Lightweight champion Katsunori Kikuno will take on Eddie Alvarez and Won Sik “Parky” Park will battle newly crowned Cage Force Lightweight champion Kuniyoshi Hironaka in a fight which I think might be a little too early for the young Korean.

Also announced as a participant of the card, Korean Myeon Ho Bae, who is 7-1 in his last 8, will make his DREAM debut.

Update: The fights will be fought in a hexagon cage and they will be 3 5 minute rounds(NO!!!).

The White Cage - Sportsnavi.com

Update #2: The current plan is to hold one special cage event like DREAM.12 each year from 2010 and onward.

OLYMPIA DREAM.12
Date: October 25th, 2009
Place: Osaka Castle Hall in Osaka, Japan

Lightweight Fights:
Katsunori Kikuno vs. Eddie Alvarez
Won Sik Park vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka

Participants:
Myeon Ho Bae

Planned Participants:
Marius Zaromskis, Alistair Overeem, Paulo Filho, Murilo Ninja, Kiyoshi Tamura, Yoshiro Maeda, Andrews Nakahara

Possible Participants:
Takafumi Otsuka

The Korean Typhoon! Won Sik Park

Since losing his debut in 2006, 22 year old Korean Won Sik “Parky” Park is undefeated in his last 8 fights and has started to open some eyes in the MMA world…

Name: Won Sik Park
Age: 22
Background: Taekwondo
MMA Record: 7-1-1
Dojo: CMA Korea Ulsan Gym

Be Proud Of Your Roots

Parky has trained Taekwondo for 7 years and is currently a 3rd degree black belt. He says: “A lot of Japanese fighters are proud of their backbone like Judo and Karate. However, Korean fighters who have Taekwondo as their backbone, they aren’t proud of it. I’m not an elite Taekwondo player but it is the foundation which made it possible for me to fight in MMA. I tried Taekwondo moves like it’s kicks and sidestep in my fights before and it was plenty effective. I want to use Taekwondo’s strong points in MMA and make the predominance of Taekwondo known.”

Taekwondo Vs. Kyokushin Karate

With three consecutive first round victories in DEEP, Parky has his eyes set on Katsunori Kikuno and the DEEP Lightweight title. He says that Kikuno has power and his middle kick is strong. He is currently preparing a counter for Kikuno’s crescent kick. If the time comes he intends to increase his physical strength training and train with Jang Yong Kim, the only fighter to have not been stopped by Kikuno in his last 5 fights, as well.

“I’ll definitely take back the belt that Bang Seung Hwan relinquished.”

The White Cage Of DREAM Next

To level up Parky has started to visit Team MAD to train with fighters such as UFC’s Dong Hyun Kim and Myeon Ho Bae.

On September 29th, 2009, Parky was announced as a participant of the white cage of DREAM where he will face Cage Force Lightweight champion Kuniyoshi Hironaka.

Fight Videos

Visit Parky’s YouTube channel to see most of his MMA fights and some grappling footage.

________________

Sources: Kamipro Korea Column, Bout Review

DREAM Featherweight GP 2009! Road To Finals

The Aftermath! K-1 World GP 2009 In Seoul -FINAL16-

This years FINAL16 event is over and it was an entertaining one. The FINAL8 draw can be seen on K-1′s YouTube channel. A couple of interesting fights were decided.

November 29th! Daisuke Naito Vs. Koki Kameda

A Boxing SUPERfight has been announced for November 29th at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan. WBC Flyweight Champion Daisuke Naito will put his title on the line as he faces Koki Kameda, the most popular brother of the extremely well-known and controversial Kameda family.

Kameda acted cocky and talked with a rough language as usual at yesterdays press conference, saying that he doesn’t have any weak points, talking about Naito’s age, etc. Below are stories and footage of some of the controversies which have come from the Kameda brothers fights until now.

August 2nd, 2006 – Koki Kameda vs. Juan Jose Landaeta I

Koki’s first title fight in 2006 ended in controversy. Koki won the fight by split decision which angered many Japanese (it actually was a close fight though). The station which aired the fight got many phone calls with people complaining. A lot of issues arose from the match, death threats, fix allegations, etc. Koki won the rematch clearly though.

October 11th, 2007 – Daisuke Naito vs. Daiki Kameda

Naito successfully defended his title in 2007 against one of Koki’s younger brothers, Daiki Kameda. The fight was very controversial as Daiki, out of frustration, resorted to elbows, lifting and throwing Naito to the canvas, and other foul tactics in the later rounds.

Following the fight Daiki got a one year suspension, his father (who was one of his seconds) got suspended indefinitely, and Koki (also second) got a warning after microphones picked up that he told Daiki to elbow Naito in the eye between rounds. The fight got a huge 40.9% TV rating in Japan (Koki is more popular than Daiki, so you can understand the size of the upcoming fight).

You can see another controversial Koki fight and the kind of personality the father (Shiro Kameda) has when it comes to Boxing in the video below.

Sheathing The Sword! SENGOKU X

Another SENGOKU event in the books and it turned out good excitement wise despite a small crowd.

As you might already know SENGOKU will change name to Sengoku Raiden Championship (Raiden means thunder (rai) and lightning (den)) and their New Years Event will take place on NYE at the Ariake Colosseum with Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida as the main event.

The story behind the new event name comes from the man Raiden Tameemon (1767-1825) who is considered to be one of the greatest sumo wrestlers (sumo record: 254-10-41) of all time.

Raiden was born to a farming family in a village in rural Shinano province. He is said to have possessed great physical strength even in childhood. His father Hanemon, who enjoyed sumo as much as sake, allowed 14 year old Raiden to attend sumo classes at Nagaze (today called Murokocho), the neighbouring village.

When Raiden was 17, the Urakaze-beya stablemaster noticed him when he came through the area while on jungyo with his wrestlers. He was especially impressed with the young man’s physique, which was extraordinary at the time. Young Raiden was 1.97 metres (6’5.5″) tall, which was three headlengths taller than most of his contemporaries. He also had matching long arms and large hands; a handprint at the Shofukuji temple near Okayama, which is said to be of Raiden’s hand, measures 24 cm (9.5″) from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger.

Between November 1793 and April 1800, Raiden won all tournaments he participated in, without leaving even one title to the other great fighters of his time, Tanikaze and Onogawa. After 1800, he remained dominant, and sumo officials even disallowed him to use his favourite techniques in order to keep his matches interesting.

Despite his dominance, he never was promoted to Yokozuna, the highest title in sumo. The reason remains a mystery in the history of sumo. – Wikipedia

The theme of the new name is: “Who is the Raiden of the 21st century?”

DREAM.12! The Cage Of Rising Sun

OLYMPIA DREAM.12
Date: October 25th, 2009
Place: Osaka Castle Hall in Osaka, Japan

Possible Fights:
Katsunori Kikuno vs. Eddie Alvarez

Planned Participants:
Marius Zaromskis, Alistair Overeem, Paulo Filho, Murilo Ninja, Kiyoshi Tamura, Yoshiro Maeda, Andrews Nakahara

Possible Participants:
Won Sik Park, Takafumi Otsuka