SENGOKU XI! Gono’s Opponent Announced

Akihiro Gono’s opponent for SENGOKU XI in November has been announced. He will face Korean Shin Ramen (Yoon Young Kim).

Kim is 22 years old and 190 cm tall. His MMA record is 13-4 and he’s coming off 2 submission victories in Japan. He’s called Shin Ramen because.

A fight of the soul fight(?) has also been added to the card, Kyokushin Karateka Bull (Hirokazu Konno) is fighting former Pro Boxer Tomoaki Ueyama (Ryuki Ueyama’s older brother), who has had a good 2009, from the U-File Camp. Bull is presented as a brawl master and the fight will be fought during the intermission of the event.

Also, a list of candidate participants for Sengoku Raiden Championship 12 (the number will continue from SENGOKU XI) on NYE was released. Mizuto Hirota, Masanori Kanehara, Satoru Kitaoka, Hatsu Hioki, Michihiro Omigawa, Kazunori Yokota, Eiji Mitsuoka, Makoto Takimoto, Hiroshi Izumi, and Kazuhiro Nakamura.

Update: WVR PR Kokuho said that the next commission meeting will be in December and that Misaki might be discussed then. Kokuho himself wants Misaki to fight on NYE since he has behaved very well (as he should) since the incident.

Kokuho wants at least 3 championship fights on NYE.

The fight of the soul is for the Japanese fans who sit quietly and watch the fights unlike foreign fans who make more noise. It will start 10 minutes into the intermission.

Update #2: A large press conference will be held next week for Sengoku Raiden Championship 12 and the Japanese fighters will be present. About a TV deal, Kokuho said: “I think I’ll be able to make some kind of announcement next week”.

Next week is also the final week of October and Kokuho said at the last press conference that they might have a big surprise (first of its kind in Japan) at the end of this month.

Carlos Newton was a possible opponent for Gono but since he injured himself in his last fight it didn’t happen.

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

Featherweight Fights:
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Hatsu Hioki
Marlon Sandro vs. Yuji Hoshino
Shigeki Osawa vs. Ronnie Ushiwaka

Lightweight Fights:
Kazunori Yokota vs. Eiji Mitsuoka
Satoru Kitaoka vs. Jorge Masvidal

Middleweight Fight:
Jorge Santiago vs. Mamed Khalidov

Light Heavyweight Fight:
Kevin Randleman vs. Stanislav Nedkov

Heavyweight Fight:
Dave Herman vs. Big Jim York

Welterweight Fight:
Akihiro Gono vs. Shin Ramen

Fight Of The Soul Featherweight Fight:
Bull vs. Tomoaki Ueyama

Japan Martial Arts Federation Start! Aiming At All-Japan MMA Championship

The new Japan Martial Arts Federation, which is under the umbrella of the Japan Wrestling Federation, held their inaugural press conference today. Figures such as WVR PR Kokuho, Sumo wrestler Asashoryu, Hidehiko Yoshida, and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai were present.

The president of this new Federation, Tomiaki Fukuda, said that MMA and the like has spread around the world, so Japan must not fall behind. That’s the reason for this new Federation.

As mentioned previously, pro organizations WVR, Shooto, Pancrase, ZST, and 9 internal amateur organizations (Combat Wrestling, Muay Thai, BJJ, etc.) are participating in this.

The first action that the Federation will take is to send 8 fighters to the 2009 Asian Indoor Games in Hanoi in Vietnam at the end of this month (for Muay Thai, Belt Wrestling, and Kurash). After that is the World Grappling Championship in Florida in December and of course the Martial Arts Games in Beijing in 2010.

Also, this federation, while clearing questions such as weight classes and rules, is aiming at an All-Japan MMA Championship.

I think that this All-Japan Championship will have a limited rule-set if it happens (since All-Japan tournaments usually don’t last more than a day) but with an annual championship it could definitely make MMA look more like a real sport in Japan. Especially with Shooto and Pancrase involved and the Federation saying that they will be strict on drug testing. Of course a weeked of MMA tournaments also sounds like a good watch and future Japanese stars could emerge.

Final Preparations! Getting Ready For The White Cage

#17: Fighters Gathered

Fighters gathered - Kamipro.com

#16: The White Cage Net Not Metal

Sasahara also talked about the net of the cage. It will not be metal, it’ll be some advanced material for durability that is also used for tuna and yellow tail cultivation among other things called matrix. He says that it’s impact absorbability is excellent.

Apparently the guy in charge of some net manufacturer was a PRIDE fan by chance so they stopped all other work to work on the net of the white cage. The color of the net is beige.

SRC Damashii! Episode 3

In a recent interview with Sherdog.com, Yoshizo Machida talked about Ishii training there earlier this year:

Sherdog: Having spent 70 days with Satoshi Ishii, do you believe he can become an MMA champion?

Yoshizo: I can’t tell. He’s an excellent athlete. He never gets tired. I think he’ll adapt really fast to MMA. In the beginning, he was getting beaten badly by Lyoto, but after two months, he improved a lot. I corrected his posture, taught him how to walk in the ring. Sometimes during training, he cried, not because he was tired but because of the high humidity near the Amazon. He has the Samurai spirit and always finished every exercise I gave to him. I’ve heard he visited and trained at the Renzo Gracie academy in New York and people liked him.

The third episode of SRC Damashii focused on Satoru Kitaoka and his return from the crushing defeat at the hands of Mizuto Hirota, which almost caused him to retire. Thanks to the uploader.

Korean News! Double U

A new Korean stand-up organization called Double U (W) will start with their first event on October 31st (not sure if this is correct). Apparently they have prepared for this launch since last year.

The rules of the event will be a mix between Muay Thai and K-1. Elbows will be allowed but clinch-fighting, like in K-1, is not permitted.

Three fighters that will participate in this new event are K-1 MAX veteran Se Ki Kim, undefeated K-1 Heavyweight Hyeon Man Myeong, and probably the best K-1 MAX fighter out of Korea, Chi Bin Im.

We’ll see if a Korean organization can finally at least establish themselves and hold events without folding after a month.

DREAM.12 Update! Sakuraba Vs. Galesic

Fujiwara Enters DREAM - Kamipro.com

Three and one modified fights have been added to the white cage which will be set up just six days from now.

Zelg “Benkei” Galesic has got a change in opponent as he will now face Kazushi Sakuraba instead of Melvin Manhoef, who is out due to injury.

Katsuyori Shibata returns to take on fellow pro-wrestler Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Kashin) who is looking to get his second ever MMA victory.

In a Welterweight fight, champion Marius Zaromskis will face Korean Myeon Ho Bae in what looks to be a non-title affair.

And finally, in a Featherweight fight, ZST Bantamweight champion Keisuke Fujiwara will take on Tomoya Miyashita.

Update: It looks like Overeem’s fight will be the last one, they’re currently in the final stages of securing an opponent. Daisuke Nakamura’s participation will most likely not happen again.

Update #2: I like some of the added fights but some fans in Japan (people who have already bought tickets, ppv, etc.) aren’t too happy with them advertising fighters on their posters/videos, and not delivering. Especially this event and DREAM.11 there have been a lot of this going on.

Also, Sanae Kikuta recently said in an interview that he wants to fight Kiyoshi Tamura on NYE. Tamura isn’t on this card, Nakamura will most likely not be on it. Is something going on between Tamura’s camp and FEG? Will Kikuta fight on Dynamite!! this NYE?

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

LW: Katsunori Kikuno vs. Eddie Alvarez
LW: Parky vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka
WW: Marius Zaromskis vs. Myeon Ho Bae
MW: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Zelg “Benkei” Galesic
MW: Yoon Dong Sik vs. Paulo Filho
MW: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa
FW: Yoshiro Maeda vs. Chase Beebe
FW: Keisuke Fujiwara vs. Tomoya Miyashita
HW: Alistair Overeem vs. TBA

GLORY 11! Overeem Vs. Sylvester

A few other results of note from the event:

K-1: Semmy Schilt def. Alexey Ignashov via unanimous decision
K-1: Nieky Holzken def. Faldir Chahbari via unanimous decision
MMA: Siyar Bahadurzada def. Robert Jocz via majority decision
K-1: Hesdy Gerges def. Ruslan Karaev via unanimous decision
K-1: Errol Zimmerman def. Wendell Roche via unanimous decision

Vale Tudo Japan 09! Rumina Sato Vs. Joe Warren Announced

Rumina at Shooto today - GBRing.com

A new fight was added to Vale Tudo Japan 09 today and it’s a big one. The legendary Rumina Sato will take on DREAM Featherweight GP semifinalist Joe Warren in a 63kg fight.

Update: Rumina said that he wants to win beautifully and show the people a submission victory.

Vale Tudo Japan 09
Date: October 30th, 2009
Place: JCB Hall in Tokyo, Japan

VTJ Rules, 71kg, 5×5 mins:
Takanori Gomi vs. Tony Hervey

VTJ Rules, 65kg, 5×5 mins:
Lion Takeshi vs. Alexandre Franca Nogueira

VTJ Rules, 63kg, 3×5 mins:
Rumina Sato vs. Joe Warren

Shooto Welterweight Title Fight, 3×5 mins:
Willamy “Chiquerinho” Chiquerim vs. Kenichiro Togashi

Shooto Bantamweight Fight, 3×5 mins:
Mamoru Yamaguchi vs. Jesse Taitano

VTJ Rules, 67kg, 3×5 mins:
Tenkei Fujimiya vs. Tito Jones

Participants:
Yoichiro Sato

ZST.22 ~7th Year Anniversary~! SENGOKU Champion Kanehara Returns

The first card announcement for ZST.22, which will take place on November 23rd, was made today. In the only announced fight for the card, Osami Shibuya, who has done good lately, will take on the undefeated Nobutatsu Suzuki in a Light Heavyweight fight.

An all-star cast of participants was also announced for the card. SENGOKU Featherweight GP winner and champion Masanori Kanehara will return for a fight before his title defense on NYE, Naoyuki Kotani will try to extend his winning streak to two fights, Masayuki Okude will go for the submission, and “Original Super High School Student” Tetsuya Yamada will look to get a victory after a couple of losses.

DEEP&CMA Big Thanksgiving! Atsushi Returns

Besides GLADIATOR III coming up, DEEP and CMA will hold another card just a week later (November 10th) which will also consists of many Japan vs. Korea fights.

Yesterday a fight between DREAM Featherweigh GP participant Atsushi Yamamoto and Korean Kyung Ho Kang was announced for the card.

Other fights to look out for is a CMA KPW Heavyweight title fight between Ryuta Noji and Ryan Goodman, Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Dool Hee Lee, and Hidetaka Monma vs. Dong Hyun Kim