SMASH - Sportsnavi.com
A group has split from pro-wrestling organization HUSTLE, which is in very bad condition right now. This new group today announced the start of a new promotion called SMASH. This organization will hold pro-wrestling, MMA, and Kickboxing events starting from next year.
TAJIRI will be the supervisor of the pro-wrestling branch (temporary name: SMASH 2010), “Mr.Pride” Akira Shoji will be the supervisor for the MMA branch (temporary name: SMASH Fight Club), and another person will be the supervisor of the Kickboxing branch (temporary name: SMASH Grand Prix).
The company behind this promotion is Quantum Jump Japan. I think this company was going to help HUSTLE during their current trouble but after looking closer into it and finding out HUSTLE haven’t paid some wrestlers in time, etc. they decided to pull out and start a new promotion.
The first event will be held on March 26th at Shinjuku FACE (Pro-Wrestling branch) and the combat sport branches are planned to start in April or May.
The release of the poster means that there will be an announcement soon, hopefully tomorrow or Thursday like Tanigawa said that they are planning. Also, on the SRC website it says “Raiden Cup, 3×5 minutes” above Ishii vs. Yoshida.
Takanori Gomi made an interesting blog post today, he wrote that a dream he’s had for a long time came true, and we’ll know what wish came true at the end of the year. Maybe people are reading too much into it but Tanigawa was asked about Gomi participating in Dynamite!! on twitter today and answered that that question is really, really, really hard to answer.
Korean media are reporting that they haven’t heard about Choi Hong Man training anywhere right now so a fight against Tim Sylvia on NYE would be strange.
After their successful second event, it looks like The Khan has received a lot of offers from promoters outside of Korea. Offers have come from Japan, Mongolia, Croatia, and Macao.
A Korea vs. Japan 8 vs. 8 event together with Nagoya-based MMA/Kickboxing in a cage promotion HEAT (Sentoryu fights there) is possible for next year and another offer is producing a 71 kg tournament together with Croatian promotion King Of The Ring.
The offers from Mongolia and Macao are more “backing with funds and holding the event with the “The Khan” name” offers. Candidate dates for events are May 15th in Mongolia for the Genghis Khan Day and April in Macao. They might hold around 2 events outside of Korea in 2010.
Source: Kamipro Korea Column
PANCRASEism doing it big today - GBRing.com
The final event of Pancrase’s 2009 Changing Tour took place in Japan today and from some reports, it was entertaining.
In the semi main event of the evening, Ryo Kawamura returned from his very disappointing loss to Fabio Silva in SENGOKU to take on Shunsuke Inoue from Yoshida Dojo. Kawamura defended his title (30-29, 30-30, 30-28) in a fight which apparently was close and very entertaining.
In the main event of the evening, Izuru Takeuchi put his Middleweight KOP title on the line against the much improved Ichiro Kanai (from the ism gym like Kawamura). Kanai won in what is reported to have been another very close fight (30-30, 30-29, 30-29) to become the new Middleweight KOP. Kanai started his career with a 3-8-3 record, but is now 8-2 in his last 10 fights.
Kawamura looked to be more happy that Kanai won than his own successful defence. The other ism people there also looked very happy.
The first fight for the first event of Pancrase’s 2010 Passion Tour on February 7th was announced at the event. Champion Mitsuhisa Sunabe will take on Kiyotaka Shimizu in a Flyweight title fight.
This years tournament is over and it was one of the best finals ever.
FEG President Tanigawa declared today that he wants Alistair or Semmy to take Fedor out.
Candidates from the finals event for Dynamite!! are Alistair, Semmy (will fight under MMA rules if he fights, possibly against an SRC fighter), and Hari (depending on their condition). Alistair wants Hari in an MMA fight.
11 or 12 additional fights will be announced for Dynamite!! and Tanigawa wants 7 of those to be DREAM vs. SENGOKU/SRC fights. He also wants around 3 K-1 vs. DREAM/SENGOKU fights (like last years Mousasi/Musashi, Kawajiri/Kozo, and Alistair/Hari fights).
He is aiming at a +20% rating with the highest ratings moment beating the red and white song contest. However, he is more afraid of the Gaki no Tsukai comedy variety program which will air on NYE.
Tanigawa wants to announce the Dynamite!! card this Wednesday or Thursday.
Update: The event got a 15.3% rating on Fuji TV. The highest moment of the event was around the decision in the third round of Bonjasky vs. Zimmerman with 19.9% rating. This is a decrease 0.8% from last years finals, but still decent/good I think.
The DEEP Cage Impact card is now complete and will consist of a total of 18 fights. The latest added fight is a kickboxing fight between comedian KICK☆ and number 1 student of “Mach” Sakurai, Yoshiki Harada.
The event is split into two parts with 9 fights each. It’s just that there will be a short break between the parts. All fights between the one mentioned above are MMA fights and all fights besides 1-7, 1-8, 1-9, 2-8, and 2-9 (and the Kickboxing fight) are 2×5 minutes (the five mentioned are 3×5). No elbows allowed in 2-1.
DEEP CAGE IMPACT
Date: December 19th, 2009
Place: Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan
Part 2
9. Nobuhiro Obiya vs. ISE
8. Takeshi Yamazaki vs. Toshiaki Kitada
7. Ryuta Sakurai vs. HIROKI
6. Bernard Ackah vs. Shunji Kosaka
5. KICK☆ vs. Yoshiki Harada
4. Naoki Matsushita vs. Yuki Ito
3. Hirohide Fujinuma vs. Makoto/Akira(?)
2. Hiryu Okamoto vs. Kaiji Hirano
1. Yasuhiro Kawasaki vs. Mitsuru “Mike” Yamaguchi
Part 1
9. Masakazu Imanari vs. Justin “The Shocker” Cruz
8. Yusuke Kawaguchi vs. Roque Martinez
7. Atsushi Yamamoto vs. Tomoya Miyashita
6. Eiji Ishikawa vs. Yoshitomo Watanabe
5. Koichiro Matsumoto vs. Isamu Sugiuchi
4. Teruhiko Kubo vs. Kenta Takagi
3. Atsuhiro Tsuboi vs. Sadao Kondo
2. Yasuhiro Motomura vs. A Korean fighter TBA
1. Male Animal vs. Someone
