Rumors! The Japanese Fighters Are Ready

The Japanese fighters are ready for SENGOKU

Kazuyuki Fujita got a lot of sun in America

Kazuyuki Fujita has been at Marco Ruas camp for a while. He returned to Japan yesterday.

Matt Lindland has not talked with DREAM

Matt Lindland says that he has signed a three fight deal with a company (that isn’t DREAM).

Eddie Alvarez Vs. Andre Dida on March 15th

Eddie Alvarez says that a fight against Andre Dida in the first round of DREAM’s Lightweight GP on March 15th is 100%.

Caol Uno might not participate in DREAM GP

Gryphon reports on his blog that Caol Uno might not participate in the DREAM Lightweight GP because of his gym’s leaders not being in good terms with some of the people in the new promotion.

Mirko’s opponent will be decided from three candidates

Gryphon reports that Bob Sapp will not be Mirko’s opponent since he got knocked out in his last fight, the opponent will instead be decided from three candidates. They will choose one of them this week.

(Photos by: GBRing)

Takimoto Preparing For SENGOKU! Cro Cop Vs. Mighty Mo At DREAM.1?

Makoto Takimoto Preparing For March 5th

Makoto Takimoto, fresh off his NYE victory over Murilo Bustamante, held a public training session today together with WBC Muay Thai Middleweight Champion Lamsongkram Chuwattana at J-ROCK workout studio. Will Takimoto, whose stand up game has improved a lot since he entered MMA, stand up and trade with Cyborg or will he try to take the fight to the ground where he has the biggest advantage?

For a Lamsongkram highlight video, click here, and for more pictures from the training session, click here.

Mirko Cro Cop Vs. Mighty Mo At DREAM.1?

Mirko Cro Cop vs. Mighty Mo is rumored to be taking place at the first ever DREAM event on March 15th.

Four Fights Announced! The 10 Minute First Round Lives(?)!

Four Lighweight GP fights have been officially announced for DREAM.1 on March 15th. Tatsuya Kawajiri will take on Hero’s veteran Black Mamba, Kazuyuki Miyata will face Luis Buscape, Koutetsu Boku from Krazy Bee will fight Joachim Hansen and the already known match between Shinya Aoki and J.Z. Calvan has been announced.

Also worth noting and something that personally, I am very happy about, is that the fights will be fought with a 10 minute first round and a 5 minute second round. Here is the new official DREAM website.

Update: I checked the DREAM web page again and now I don’t see anything about the round lengths. I remember that that was one of the first things I reacted to when I originally saw the card, so it almost had to have been there, but I’m not sure now.

Update #2: MMAWeekly.com have also written that there will be a 10 minute first round. We’ll just have to wait and see for an official rules release, which should be out quite soon.

HEIWA DREAM.1 Lightweight GP 2008 1st Round
Date: March 15th, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Fights:
Mirko Cro Cop vs. TBA

LW GP 1st Round Fights:
J.Z. Calvan vs. Shinya Aoki
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Black Mamba
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Luis Buscape
Koutetsu Boku vs. Joachim Hansen

LW GP Participants:
Andre Dida
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Caol Uno
Gilbert Melendez
Artur Oumakhanov
Jung Bukyung

Fight Order Announced! Four SENGOKU Girls Chosen

The fight order for the first ever SENGOKU event on March 5th has been announced. The main event is of course the Yoshida vs. Barnett fight and the semi main event is between Gomi and Ludwig. Four SENGOKU ring girls have also been announced, they were chosen from an audition that was held. You can check out their page here and a picture with all four together here.

SENGOKU I
Date: March 5th, 2008
Place: National Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan

7. Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Josh Barnett
6. Takanori Gomi vs. Duane Ludwig
5. Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
4. Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Graham
3. Makoto Takimoto vs. Evangelista Cyborg
2. Ryo Kawamura vs. Antonio Braga Neto
1. Fabricio Monteiro vs. Nick Thompson

Fighters Preparing For SENGOKU! Misaki And Graham

Kazuo Misaki Training With The WBC Flyweight Champion

Kazuo Misaki and WBC Flyweight Champion Daisuke Naito (32-2-2 (20 KO’s)) held a public training session together yesterday. Misaki has an upcoming fight with Shooto Champion Siyar Bahadurzada on March 5th and Naito will be defending his WBC title against Thai Pongsaklek Wonjongkam on March 8th. Naito’s only two losses are against Pongsaklek and they have faced each other three times, with Naito winning the most recent. Look here for more pictures from the session.

Peter Graham With Dan Henderson And Team Quest

Peter Graham is preparing for his March 5th fight against Kazuyuki Fujita by training in California with Dan Henderson’s Team Quest. Look here to read a message from Peter and thanks to this thread for pointing out that he is training with Team Quest.

Here is a video of Peter sparring with Fernand Lopez at Team Quest.

Fujita’s Opponent Announced! K-1 Fighter Peter Graham Enters MMA

Kazuyuki Fujita’s opponent at Sengoku on March 5th has been announced. It is Australian K-1 fighter Peter Graham who you might know from knocking Badr Hari out with a rolling kick in 2006. Graham is a big guy at 190 cm and 114 kg. He has a 17-7 (9 TKO’s/KO’s) K-1 record and last fought in K-1 last year against Badr Hari in a rematch where he lost by decision.

You can watch a highlight video from what transpired during the first Graham vs. Hari fight here.

Sengoku I
Date: March 5th, 2008
Place: National Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo, Japan

Fights:
Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Josh Barnett
Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
Makoto Takimoto vs. Evangelista Cyborg
Takanori Gomi vs. Duane Ludwig
Ryo Kawamura vs. Antonio Braga Neto
Fabricio Monteiro vs. Nick Thompson
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Graham

Kang Talks! Matt Lindland In DREAM GP?

There is a new article on thefightnetwork.com where Denis Kang talks about his future fights.

“I thought I was fighting Dec. 31, so I fly all the way to Montreal to train with Georges [St. Pierre], bust my ass and spend all kinds of money just to find I have no fight,” Kang said. “[Then], I’m told I’m fighting March 15, and I find out that’s not happening, either. It changes my whole schedule. Now I have 10 weeks instead of four left in my training camp. It’s ridiculous.”

“I want to win the grand prix,” Kang said. “Now they’ve got Akiyama, [Melvin] Manhoef, [Zelg] Galesic, [Kazushi] Sakuraba, Dong Sik Yoon … and I heard that Matt Lindland is going to be signing with them. There are a lot of good fighters I want to fight right there.”

If we look at which fighters that are signed and are in the right weight to be available for the GP at this time it would look something like:

Yoshihiro Akiyama, Yoon Dong Sik, Denis Kang, Kazushi Sakuraba, Melvin Manhoef, Zelg Galesic, Kin Taiei, Kiyoshi Tamura, Minowaman, Masakatsu Funaki, Katsuyori Shibata, Shungo Oyama and Yousuke Nishijima.

They will probably also try hard to sign Misaki for this GP. Misaki’s deal with WVR Sengoku is only for one fight.

Yarennoka! Documentary!

Here is a great Yarennoka! documentary split into 17 parts. It has a lot of behind the scene footage. For a guide on how to register at nicovideo.jp, read the Nico Nico Douga page which you can access on the menu to the right.

【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 1
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 2
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 3
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 4
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 5
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 6
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 7
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 8
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 9
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 10
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 11
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 12
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 13
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 14
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 15
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 16
【ニコニコ動画】やれんのか 17

Training Session! Gomi And Yoshida Preparing

Hidehiko Yoshida and Takanori Gomi held a public training session together at J-ROCK workout studio yesterday preparing for Josh Barnett and Duane Ludwig on March 5th. For more pictures, look here.

For People That Are Still Confused!

Some people might be confused with all of these new events being created these days, so here is a small guide on how all of the new Japanese MMA event names are connected to each other.

World Victory Road is a company, just like Zuffa. Sengoku is the name of World Victory Road’s MMA event, just like the UFC and the WEC are the names of Zuffa’s MMA events.

DREAM is also an MMA event, the companies behind it are FEG (K-1 and Hero’s) and another one which has not been named yet (as far as I know) consisting of some of the staff from DSE (Pride) and the Yarennoka! NYE event.

DREAM will replace Hero’s, so there will be no more Hero’s events. In the future (who knows for how long) the two biggest MMA events in Japan will be DREAM and Sengoku. Neither Nobuhiko Takada nor Akira Maeda will be a part of DREAM.