SRC Damashii! Episode 5

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.

SRC Damashii! Episode 4

Japanese MMA Magazines! Some Content

Students Of Muscle

A little of the content from the upcoming issues of the Japanese MMA magazines.

FEG President Tanigawa (Dynamite!!): “There’s a surprise only I can make this year again.”

Alistair after Glory fight: “I’ll train tomorrow and the day after that, and in three days I’m heading to Osaka.”

Hiroyuki Takaya (Bibiano fight): “In the final minute. Hiroyuki Takaya returned.”

Masanori Kanehara: “Tokoro, let’s both win on NYE and then dive into Tokyo bay together. (laugh)”

FEG President Tanigawa: “Will Ishii vs. Yoshida be aired by TBS? That definitely won’t happen!!”

Shinya Aoki: “I’m considering NYE. The fighter I’d like to fight more than anyone else is BJ Penn!”

Tatsuya Kawajiri irriated at the difficult voyage of getting a fight with Aoki: “Mine and Aoki’s ideologies are completely different.”

Katsunori Kikuno also wants a title match on NYE: “When the event in Osaka is finished, who the appropriate challenger is will be known.”

Both Masanori Kanehara Hiromitsu Kanehara and Sanae Kikuta want Kiyoshi Tamura. Kanehara says that a fight between himself and Kikuta is completely fine as well.

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.

The Meeting Of The Century! Ishii X Kameda

The Future - Nikkansports.com

Both originally from Osaka, Japan, 22 year old undefeated Boxer Koki Kameda and 22 year old Judo gold medalist turned MMA fighter, Satoshi Ishii, met for the first time yesterday at the Kameda Gym in Tokyo.

Japanese MMA magazine Kamipro implemented this “meeting of the century” and a lot of the main sporting newspapers and magazines, and television stations were invited after the dialogue between Ishii and Koki, which can only be read in Kamipro #140 (October 23rd).

Talking with the press, both said that they have wanted to meet since before and Ishii proposed joint training after Koki’s world title fight against Naito in November.

Ishii said that he wants to go and watch Koki’s fight against Naito and will do so if he can take a break from training. Koki said: “It’s on NYE so my fight is already over and if I don’t have anything else I want to go and take a look. I haven’t seen MMA live yet. If I observed it from ringside, it would be powerful.”

Students of muscle - ameblo.jp/koukikameda/

When the press said: “You both have big mouths…”, Koki interrupted and said: “By no means, we’re both serious. Because both of us are studying muscles. Ishii looks to be like a muscle master. More than this is a company secret so nothing further will be said (laugh).”

SRC Damashii Episode 1! Ishii Has Graduated

The first episode of Kakutougi Document SRC Damashii aired yesterday and has been uploaded to YouTube. Part 1, 2, 3. Thanks to the uploader.

Ishii has graduated - GBRing.com

Satoshi Ishii announced today that he graduated from Kokushikan University in September. He is now doing hard training for his debut and currently spends almost every day (besides Sundays) at the Power Of Dream gym in Tokyo. He does some physical exercises from 9:30 in the morning and then trains from 10:00. Fighters such as Kazuo Misaki and Kazunori Yokota also train there so he has top fighters as training partners (I believe K-1 fighter Singh Jaideep trains there, Hideo Tokoro trains/trained there, etc.).

Ishii has not only trained the technical side of MMA since converting, he is also putting a lot of effort and is very interested in the physical and conditioning side of the game. He showed his current physique today and there’s a huge difference compared to Beijing last year.

Ishii's MMA Physique - GBRing.com

He’s also currently studying Yoshida with gym chairman Furukawa to come up with a strategy for the fight. Ishii wants to fight a fight without any errors on NYE, skillfully switching between the stand-up and the ground game, showing off a real MMA performance.

Japanese MMA Magazines! Yuji Hoshino To SENGOKU?

The contents of the new issues of the Japanese MMA magazines are out (Kamipro, Gonkaku, and Kakutogi Tsuushin). Below are some of the interesting ones.

Will Dynamite!! and Ishii/Yoshida have a dual broadcast?

FEG’s Tanigawa: “K-1 won’t go bankrupt you know~~~!”

Gomi (VTJ09): “This might be my last fight in Japan.”

Cage Force champion Yuji Hoshino in SENGOKU.

Ryo Chonan to DREAM? SENGOKU? or…

Why is Satoshi Ishii studying traditional karate?
Satoshi Ishii with the Japan Karate Association (8th dan Masahiko Tanaka & 7th dan Takenori Imura)

Will the theme of SENGOKU’s new name be “the strongest man”?

WVR PR Kokuho (New Years): “I definitely want Gomi to appear. Kitaoka will also receive an offer.”

Will 22 year old Korean Parky challenge the cage of DREAM?!
“I want to fight Kikuno and Melendez. Kikuno’s crescent kick will be his weak point as well.”

DREAM.12 will be in a cage. DREAM EP Sasahara: “I don’t think that an 8-sided cage (octagon) is the global standard.”

New DEEP champion Takafumi Otsuka: “At the DREAM cage event I want top fight a name (someone known) at 63 kg.”

Makoto Takimoto! Interested In Future Ishii Fight

Takimoto looking for big fights? - GBRing.com

Makoto Takimoto held an open training session at the J-ROCK workout studio today showing his boxing while wearing a long sleeve windbreaker. While it looks like the weight cut might be hard for him, Takimoto says that last time he had to cut 10 kg for his first fight at welterweight, but this time it’s only around half of that.

He has not really watched any footage of his opponent since there isn’t any available, but with his relaxed attitude going into fights he wasn’t intending to do much studying even if footage was available.

While Takimoto hasn’t won an MMA title since converting from judo, he looks at this fight as being one in which if he wins, he’ll be close to a title fight. For him, winning by KO or submission to make please the audience is ideal

While Takimoto wants his junior Hiroshi Izumi, who is like a younger brother to him, to do good in his MMA debut, about Ishii he said: “If Yoshida loses to him, I’d like to have a go at him next. I’m not thinking about it at present, but if the chance comes, I’d definitely like to try and fight him”.

Showing a smiling face and an interest in Ishii’s debut Takimoto finishes with: “Even if it’s an open-weight fight, it’s no problem”.

SENGOKU New Year Event! The Battle Of Gold Medalists

The Battle Of Gold Medalists - Kamipro.com

The opponent of Satoshi Ishii’s debut match was announced today at a press conference in Tokyo. His debut will be on SENGOKU’s new year event and his opponent will be fellow gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida in what promises to be a huge fight in Japan.

Update: The date of the event will be decided this month.

Update #2: Ishii provocatively said: “I’ve respected Yoshida since I was young, and it’s a good thing that I’m able to fight him. To be able to nail the tip of his chin with my punch is also a good thing.”

Yoshida said: “I think this is a good chance to teach (him) about the degree of difficulty of MMA, I want to teach him that.”

Update #3: WVR PR Kokuho said that there is a possibility that the name of the event will be changed from the new year event and onward (will they change SENGOKU or the name of their new year events? Possibly a demand from a TV station they have acquired?) to a name which has popular use in the world (popular use around the world, something English like DREAM? What word do people know almost regardless of where they live?). The name change and date might be announced at SENGOKU X on September 23rd.

Update #4: Kokuho also said that next Sunday (the 20th) on TV Tokyo there will be a SENGOKUG! special from 16:55 to 17:15 (4:55 PM to 5:15 PM). The special will be about SENGOKU’s Judo Top Team (Ishii, Yoshida, Takimoto, Izumi).

Update #5: It looks like they really are thinking about changing the name from SENGOKU to something else. Since they use Chinese characters for SENGOKU it seems like they now want to use something that is more international.

Update #6: Kokuho said the reason that the date isn’t set yet is becuase of the sponsor side and arena.