Korean Fighters Alliance! For The Future Of Korean MMA

Korean Fighters Alliance - mfight.co.kr

There is almost nowhere to compete in MMA in Korea right now. SpiritMC is gone and FMC doesn’t seem like it will continue. There are events outside of Korea but only a few fighters will get a shot there. Young fighters can’t get any experience so fewer pursue MMA these days.

Because of this, the Korean Fighters Alliance (KFA), which is just a group of fighters from different gyms training together once a week to trade training methods and gain experience, has been started.

A few of the fighters are former SpiritMC Welterweight champion Ui Cheol Nam, who is supposed to make his Strikeforce debut on the Fedor vs. Rogers card, undefeated Heavyweight prospect Hae Joon Yang, Seung Bae Whi, and SENGOKU X participant Jae Sun Lee.

Sengoku Raiden Championship 12! Poster

SENGOKU XI! Fight Order Announced

The fight order for SENGOKU XI has been announced and it will contain a double main event. The first main event of the evening will be between Jorge Santiago and Mamed Khalidov and the second between Hatsu Hioki and Michihiro Omigawa, which will be the main feature of this weeks SRC Damashii episode. I don’t know what the point of calling it a double main event is.

SENGOKU XI
Date: November 7th, 2009
Place: Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan

Main Fights (3×5):
9. FW: Michihiro Omigawa vs. Hatsu Hioki
8. MW: Jorge Santiago vs. Mamed Khalidov
7. LW: Satoru Kitaoka vs. Jorge Masvidal
6. LW: Kazunori Yokota vs. Eiji Mitsuoka
5. LHW: Kevin Randleman vs. Stanislav Nedkov
4. WW: Akihiro Gono vs. Shin Ramen
3. FW: Marlon Sandro vs. Yuji Hoshino
2. HW: Dave Herman vs. Big Jim York
1. FW: Shigeki Osawa vs. Ronnie Ushiwaka

Opening Fight (2×5):
BW: RYOTA vs. Yuichiro Yajima

Fight Of The Soul (During Intermission):
FW: Bull vs. Tomoaki Ueyama

Izumi To America! AKA And Xtreme Couture

Izumi & Anjoh traveling abroad - GBRing.com

Athens Silver Medalist in Judo Hiroshi Izumi, who is planned to participate at Sengoku Raiden Championship 12 on NYE, said at the J-ROCK workout studio today that he will leave to America on November 1st to train at the American Kickboxing Academy for 3 weeks and at Xtreme Couture for 1 week.

Izumi decided on these two gyms after a discussion with coach Yoji Anjoh. They think that there are a lot of strong fighters in these gyms and considering what Izumi wants his own fighting style to become someday, they decided on AKA and Xtreme Couture.

He might meet up with a senior of his during his Judo days in Yoshihiro Akiyama at Xtreme Couture as well, where Akiyama is currently training.

About his next fight he says that this time he’ll persist on a submission, showing a strong will of getting his first MMA victory.

Kazunori Yokota! Receiving Motivation From Ishii And Petrosyan

Yokota getting ready - GBRing.com

Kazunori Yokota, who is training hard for what is one of the most important fights of his career on November 7th, held an open training session yesterday at the GRABAKA gym.

There he talked about Petrosyan’s victory in the previous day’s K-1 MAX Finals and how it has motivated him. He said:

“There have been various martial arts events on TV recently but the one who has left the biggest impression was Petrosyan.”

“If there was a fighter like Petrosyan in MMA I would retire. No matter what you do you can’t defeat him (laugh). He towers above the rest.”

His ideal/dream style is similar to that of Petrosyan and number 1 P4P boxer Floyd Mayweather, to hit and not get hit.

Yokota is currently training his striking at the Power Of Dream gym. Olympic Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii also trains there and it seems like they have become good friends in the past month because of their judo backgrounds. He says that even when they walk outside people greet and call out to Ishii. It’s like being with a celebrity.

They train together 4-5 times a week. “Just being together with a fighter like him is motivating.”

About his own preparations, in which he has received help from a student of muscle in Ishii, he says that he is holding back on sweets and carbonated drinks, and closely watching what he eats so his physical condition is good and because of that he is already at 71.3 kg, over a week away from the fight. Because of that he can also concentrate on training and not waste time on weight-cutting.

Yokota is training to defend the guillotine choke and rear naked choke of Mitsuoka, which he thinks are two of his strong points. He himself says that he definitely won’t lose when it comes to stamina and punching speed. He says that since this week is the final spurt before the fight training is severe, sounding like he trains so hard that he collapses everyday.

Psycho! Karl Amoussou To DREAM

According to Five Ounces of Pain, French Karl Amoussou has signed a four fight deal with DREAM. No debut date is set yet though.

He’s a very exciting fighter and there should be exciting fights for him in DREAM’s Middleweight division.

Final Preparations! Vale Tudo Japan 09

#5: A Look Back

SKILL MMA – Look back Vale Tudo Japan with 5 fights
Bloody Elbow – Top 10 Moments From Vale Tudo Japan

#4: Fighters Gathered

Fighters gathered - GBRing.com

DEEP CAGE IMPACT! DEEP Vs. PXC

Five fights have been announced for the first ever cage event by DEEP. As you may recall, this event will allow soccer kicks, stomps, and elbows, and will not be fought in a hexagon which was the case at DREAM.12.

DEEP Bantamweight champion Masakazu Imanari and DEEP Megaton GP winner Yusuke Kawaguchi will take on champions of Guam’s PXC organization, which DEEP has a good relationship with. Imanari’s opponent is URCC and PXC Bantamweight champion Justin “The Shocker” Cruz and Kawaguchi’s opponent is PXC Heavyweight champion Roque Martinez.

In a Light Heavyweight fight on the card, Bernard Ackah will take on DEEP Megaton GP participant Shunji Kosaka, who has gone 2-0-1 since the GP. This fight will have a big impact on the title picture of DEEP’s LHW division.

DEEP CAGE IMPACT
Date: December 19th, 2009
Place: Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan

Fights:
Masakazu Imanari vs. Justin “The Shocker” Cruz
Yusuke Kawaguchi vs. Roque Martinez
Bernard Ackah vs. Shunji Kosaka
Naoki Matsushita vs. Yuki Ito
Atsuhiro Tsuboi vs. Sadao Kondo

Planned Participants:
Nobuhiro Obiya, Ryuta Sakurai, Koichiro Matsumoto, Eiji Ishikawa, ISE, Takeshi Yamazaki, Toshiaki Kitada, HIROKI (Sato), Yoshitomo Watanabe, Hirohide Fujinuma, Hiryu Okamoto, Yasuhiro Kawasaki, Yasuhiro Motomura, Male Animal

Doping Tests Cost 370000 YEN! 30000 For Organizations Affiliated With The JOC

The managing director of the Japan Muay Thai Federation, which is one of the organizations under the new Japan Martial Arts Federation, talked about this new federation.

One thing he said is that doping tests per person cost 370,000 YEN (~4,000 USD). However, organizations affiliated with the Japan Olympic Committee only have to pay 30,000 YEN.

It would be really hard for Japanese MMA organizations to pay that amount of money if they wanted to do doping tests. How much does it cost in the U.S.?

Anyway, this news has brought up a discussion about the pro organizations affiliated with the JMAF (WVR, Shooto, Pancrase, and ZST). I don’t know if the 30,000 YEN goes for pro organizations as well but this could be one of the reasons that the pro organizations affiliated themselves with the federation.

Source: ZAKZAK

SENGOKU XI! Opening Fight Announced

A Bantamweight opening fight has been added to SENGOKU XI. RYOTA of Hidetada Irie’s Kingdom Ehrgeiz, who has had a couple of victories and a couple of unfortunate fights in the last couple of years, will take on ZST and Pancrase veteran and 2000 East Japan Amateur Shooto Bantamweight tournament runner-up Yuichiro Yajima.

RYOTA has fought a lot in indy MMA in Japan. He was the runner-up of the Kingdom Ehrgeiz open-weight tournament in 2007 despite being the lightest fighter. He also won the THE STREET FIGHT T-1 open-weight tournament in 2005. These are the kind of events which allow elbows, headbutts, etc. (he even says that he has fought in rings where the ropes have been barbed wire). RYOTA is definitely an exciting fighter, a Bantamweight division in a big Japanese MMA organization has a lot of potential for excitement.

I don’t think this is the only opening fight of the card since they start at 3 PM. They need at least one more to keep going until 4 PM.

SENGOKU XI
Date: November 7th, 2009
Place: Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan

Main Fights (3×5):
FW: Michihiro Omigawa vs. Hatsu Hioki
FW: Marlon Sandro vs. Yuji Hoshino
FW: Shigeki Osawa vs. Ronnie Ushiwaka
LW: Kazunori Yokota vs. Eiji Mitsuoka
LW: Satoru Kitaoka vs. Jorge Masvidal
MW: Jorge Santiago vs. Mamed Khalidov
LHW: Kevin Randleman vs. Stanislav Nedkov
HW: Dave Herman vs. Big Jim York
WW: Akihiro Gono vs. Shin Ramen

Fight Of The Soul (During Intermission):
FW: Bull vs. Tomoaki Ueyama

Opening Fight (2×5):
BW: RYOTA vs. Yuichiro Yajima