Black Mamba Returns At DREAM.5!

TheFightNetwork has a new article up where Black Mamba’s trainer says that Mamba will participate in DREAM.5. Mamba’s last DREAM fight was against Tatsuya Kawajiri in the first round of the Lightweight GP. He gave Kawajiri a lot of trouble but lost via decision in the end.

HEIWA DREAM.5 Lightweight GP 2008 Final Round
Date: July 21st, 2008
Place: Osaka Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan

Lightweight GP Final Fight:
Kawajiri/Alvarez vs. Uno/Aoki

Lightweight GP Semifinal Fights:
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Eddie Alvarez
Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki

Featherweight Fight:
Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Joseph Benavidez

Middleweight Fight:
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. TBA

Possible Participants:
Mirko Cro Cop
Minowaman
Joachim Hansen
Mark Hunt
Denis Kang
Black Mamba

Sakurai Vs. Diaz In September Instead?!

Hayato Sakurai has a new post on his blog where he writes, as we already know, that his fight against Nick Diaz for DREAM.5 is off and that it has been postponed until September when DREAM.6 is scheduled to take place. He also apologizes to the fans in Osaka.

DREAM.5 Poster! Unveils New Participants

The DREAM.5 poster is up on the official site and has a few faces on it which will probably fight on the card. They are Mirko Cro Cop, Minowaman and Mark Hunt. Also on it is Joachim Hansen but only as text without picture.

HEIWA DREAM.5 Lightweight GP 2008 Final Round
Date: July 21st, 2008
Place: Osaka Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan

Lightweight GP Final Fight:
Kawajiri/Alvarez vs. Uno/Aoki

Lightweight GP Semifinal Fights:
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Eddie Alvarez
Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki

Featherweight Fight:
Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Joseph Benavidez

Middleweight Fight:
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. TBA

Possible Participants:
Mirko Cro Cop
Minowaman
Joachim Hansen
Mark Hunt

First SENGOKU IV Fight Announced! Graham Returns

The first fight for SENGOKU IV on August 24th has been announced. Peter Graham returns since his loss to Kazuyuki Fujita at SENGOKU I and will fight his second MMA fight ever against French Moise Rimbon (Europe Top Team). Rimbon has been in the MMA game since 2000 and started out his career quite bad with a 4-5 record, but in his 13 last fights he has gone 8-2-3. This fight will be in the Heavyweight division.

Update: All participants and fights of the Lightweight Tournament will be announced next week. Gomi’s opponent will be announced in one or two weeks and will be chosen from three foreign fighters.

Update #2: The semifinals and the final of the tournament will take place the same night at SENGOKU VI in November.
____________

Moise Rimbon Fights:

2H2H Tournament:
Quarterfinal: Moise Rimbon vs. Fatih Kocamis
Semifinal: Moise Rimbon vs. Roman Zentsov
Final: Moise Rimbon vs. Amar Suloev

Moise Rimbon vs. Henrique Nogueira
Moise Rimbon vs. Alex Stiebling
Moise Rimbon vs. Ibragim Magomedov Part 1, 2, 3, 4
____________

SENGOKU IV
Date: August 24th, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Fights:
Peter Graham vs. Moise Rimbon

Possible Fights:
Takanori Gomi vs. Chris Horodecki

Possible Participants:
Frank Trigg
Daniel Acacio
Cristiano Marcello
Clay French

Lightweight Tournament Participants:
Satoru Kitaoka
Eiji Mitsuoka
Kazunori Yokota
Rodrigo Damm
Duane Ludwig

Gomi Vs. Horodecki At SENGOKU IV?!

I don’t know where they got this from but on MMAWeekly’s rumor section they have Takanori Gomi vs. IFL fighter Chris Horodecki listed as a possible fight at SENGOKU IV. This is a good fight for Gomi while waiting for the winner of the Lightweight Tournament and it should be entertaining style wise.

SENGOKU IV
Date: August 24th, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Possible Fights:
Takanori Gomi vs. Chris Horodecki

Possible Participants:
Frank Trigg
Daniel Acacio
Cristiano Marcello

Lightweight Tournament Participants:
Satoru Kitaoka
Eiji Mitsuoka
Kazunori Yokota
Rodrigo Damm
Duane Ludwig

Huge Wrestler To Make DREAM Debut!

In the latest issue of Gonkaku, FEG President Sadaharu Tanigawa says that Amateur Wrestler Akihito Tanaka will debut in DREAM. He is a freestyle wrestler and wrestles in the 120 kg (265 lbs) division. He has won the All-Japan Wrestling Championships seven times in a row now with the last win being in 2007.

Actually, during K-1 Dynamite!! 2004 he was announced as a new fighter signing together with Hong-Man Choi and Heath Herring but I don’t believe he ever fought after that. He is popular in Japan and another smart signing by FEG.

No Diaz Vs. Sakurai In July!

The DREAM Welterweight title fight between Nick Diaz and Hayato Sakurai that was rumored to take place at DREAM.5 in July will not happen according to GracieFighter. Apparently EliteXC can’t let him fight that date because they have something else for him around that time.

Japanese MMA Magazines! June Covers

It’s always interesting to see who/what is on the cover of the monthly Japanese MMA magazines. In the June issues Fight & Life has Caol Uno on its cover, Kamipro has Shinya Aoki, Gonkaku has Takanori Gomi and Wanderlei Silva, and Kakutougi Tsuushin has “KID” Yamamoto.

SRS! June 20th, 2008

SRS is another martial arts program in Japan. It is aired on the same channel that airs K-1 World GP events. In this episode they preview part of the big K-1 WGP in Fukuoka event on June 29th. This was also the program where they aired footage from SENGOKU I a while back, so it isn’t always K-1.

Vodpod videos no longer available.

More Chute Boxe Fighters To SENGOKU?! Negotiations Are Ongoing

GracieMag has a new interview with Chute Boxe leader Rudimar Fedrigo where he says that PRIDE veterans Daniel Acacio and Cristiano Marcello are currently talking with WVR and might participate at SENGOKU IV.

Acacio is the runner-up of last years Fury FC Middleweight GP, losing to current UFC fighter Rousimar “Toquinho” Palhares in the final. Since then he has had one fight in Finland which he won. He was also a rumored participant for DREAM’s Middleweight GP.

Marcello is a Jiu Jitsu coach at Chute Boxe and is on a two fight winning streak since losing to Mitsuhiro Ishida at PRIDE Bushido 12 in 2006. Could he be one of the participants in SENGOKU’s Lightweight tournament?

If Marcello and Acacio signs they will be the fourth and fifth fighters from Chute Boxe in SENGOKU. It seems that WVR have a good relationship with Chute Boxe and GRABAKA (Misaki, Kikuta, Yokota, Sasaki).