SENGOKU Training Player Blanco To Make MMA Debut!

One of the two current SENGOKU training players, Maximo Blanco, will make his MMA debut on August 27th in Pancrase against Yuki Yashima in a 2×5 minute Lightweight division fight.

If you are wondering what a SENGOKU training player is, this is from an older post:

In addition, two amateur wrestlers were announced as SENGOKU “training players” today. They are promising wrestlers Shigeki Osawa (60 kg) from Japan (from the same wrestling academy as KID) and Maximo Blanco (74 kg) from Venezuela (who trains in Japan). SENGOKU will support them with money, fights in smaller events, training environment, and practice overseas so that they can participate in SENGOKU in the future.

“Genius” Osawa recently arrived home to Japan from Greece where he won gold in the 8th World University Wrestling Championship. Blanco has already started some MMA training at Yoshida Dojo. SENGOKU wants more “training players” in the future, so this isn’t only for these two.

CroCop Vs. Overeem At DREAM.6?!

Mirko CroCop has updated his MMA-ID.com blog writing that his recovery is going well and that he is accepting Alistair Overeem’s challenges that he has made in the past.

SENGOKU IV To Be Shown In Movie Theaters! Nozadze And Gogchelidze In Beijing 2008

SENGOKU IV will be shown live in six different movie theaters throughout Japan. Niigata, Chiba, Shinjuku, Umeda, Hiroshima, and Kagoshima are the locations. There will also be lotteries, selling of official goods and other activities at the theaters.

In other news, newly signed SENGOKU fighters Ramaz Nozadze and Georgi Gogchelidze will participate in the Olympics in Beijing next month. Nozadze won silver in 2004 and will once again participate in the Greco-Roman 96 kg class. Georgi will participate in the Freestyle 96 kg class. I don’t know yet if Zurab Zviadauri will participate as I can’t find any list of the Beijing 2008 Judo participants (if anyone knows, please comment). It’ll be interesting to follow these two, if they do good in Beijing they’ll probably write a little extra about it in Japanese newspapers because of their SENGOKU ties.

DEEP, Cage Force, IFL And KOTC LW Champions In SENGOKU! Gomi Vs. Hwan Announced

The opponent of Takanori Gomi and the four tournament fights for SENGOKU IV were announced today. Gomi’s opponent will be Korean DEEP Lightweight Champion Bang Seung Hwan as rumored. In the tournament two champions will meet as Cage Force Lightweight champion Mizuto Hirota takes on IFL Lightweight champion Ryan Schultz. In the three other tournament fights Rodrigo Damm faces Eiji Mitsuoka, Satoru Kitaoka is pitted against KOTC Lightweight champion Clay French and former DEEP Lightweight champion Kazunori Yokota will fight Slovenian Bojan Kosednar.

The semifinals and the final of the tournament will take place at SENGOKU VI in November. Duane Ludwig will not participate in the tournament. It seems that he has a fight in the U.S. that he must participate in.

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

Lightweight Fight:
Takanori Gomi vs. Bang Seung Hwan

Middleweight Fight:
Frank Trigg vs. Makoto Takimoto

Heavyweight Fight:
Peter Graham vs. Moise Rimbon

Lightweight GP Series 2008 1st Round:
Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Rodrigo Damm
Satoru Kitaoka vs. Clay French
Mizuto Hirota vs. Ryan Schultz
Kazunori Yokota vs. Bojan Kosednar

Possible Participants:
Daniel Acacio
Cristiano Marcello

(Photo By: GBRing)

Cage Force Lightweight Champion In SENGOKU GP?!

The table of contents for the September issue of Gong Kakutougi (Gonkaku) are out. On there is a quote by Cage Force Lightweight Champion Mizuto Hirota that says: “I want to have a series of victories in SENGOKU and quickly fight (Mr.) Gomi!”.

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

Fights:
HW: Peter Graham vs. Moise Rimbon
MW: Frank Trigg vs. Makoto Takimoto

Possible Fights:
Takanori Gomi vs. Pang Sung Hwan

Possible Participants:
Daniel Acacio
Cristiano Marcello
Clay French
Mizuto Hirota

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

Ratings! Akiyama Wants Tamura Next

DREAM.5 is over and once again it was a great event. The ratings for the event are already in, this is the first time since DREAM.1 that DREAM was on air the same day of the event and on a prime time slot. The overall ratings were 10.0 (higher than DREAM.1) with Akiyama vs. Shibata getting a 13.7 rating (highest of the night). Akiyama said today at the press conference that he would like to fight Kiyoshi Tamura next.

Final Preparations! Getting Ready For The Fifth Dream

#10: Final Update

If you are wondering who KODO is, check here.

#9: Two Additional Fights Announced

DREAM.5 will consist of 10 fights. KID’s replacement against Joseph Benavidez is KODO and Daisuke Nakamura will return to the ring only a few days after winning his fight at DEEP/M-1 Challenge in Japan. He will take on K-1 MAX fighter Andy Ologun, who has been on the news in Japan recently, in a 2×5 minute long special rules fight (not sure yet if the special rules is just the fight time or something else). The fight order has also been announced.

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

10. Lightweight GP Final Fight: Kawajiri/Alvarez vs. Uno/Aoki
9. Heavyweight Fight: Mark Hunt vs. Alistair Overeem
8. Middleweight Fight: Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Katsuyori Shibata
7. Featherweight Fight: Hideo Tokoro vs. Takeshi Yamazaki
6. Welterweight Fight: Motoki Miyazawa vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka
5. Featherweight Fight: KODO vs. Joseph Benavidez
4. Lightweight GP Reserve Fight: Joachim Hansen vs. Black Mamba
3. Lightweight GP Semifinal Fight: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Eddie Alvarez
2. Lightweight GP Semifinal Fight: Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki
1. 2×5 Minute Special Rules Fight: Daisuke Nakamura vs. Andy Ologun

#8: Benavidez Opponent TBA Tomorrow

The opponent of Joseph Benavidez and the fight order will be announced tomorrow.

#7: Hunt Vs. Overeem Official

They just held a press conference announcing the fight.

#6: Tokoro Will Participate

Hideo Tokoro made a post on his blog not long ago writing that he will fight on monday.

Kakutou Ou! July 15th, 2008

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Trigg Vs. Takimoto Official! Middleweight Tournament In September?

The rumored Frank Trigg vs. Makoto Takimoto fight was officially announced today for SENGOKU IV. The fight is in the Middleweight division. Takimoto said that he started to seriously train leg kick defense after his fight with Cyborg.

The WVR representative at the press conference said that they would like to start an eight-man Middleweight Tournament at SENGOKU V in September. He said that Kazuo Misaki will not participate if the tournament happens because he should have a fight with Strikeforce around that time, but their plan is for him to face the winner of the tournament.

In addition, two amateur wrestlers were announced as SENGOKU “training players” today. They are promising wrestlers Shigeki Osawa (60 kg) from Japan (from the same wrestling academy as KID) and Maximo Blanco (74 kg) from Venezuela (who trains in Japan). SENGOKU will support them with money, fights in smaller events, training environment, and practice overseas so that they can participate in SENGOKU in the future.

“Genius” Osawa recently arrived home to Japan from Greece where he won gold in the 8th World University Wrestling Championship. Blanco has already started some MMA training at Yoshida Dojo. SENGOKU wants more “training players” in the future, so this isn’t only for these two.

Update: Just found out that Blanco was supposed to make his PRIDE debut sometime in 2006. They are talking about this on some Japanese places, don’t know why though.

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

Fights:
HW: Peter Graham vs. Moise Rimbon
MW: Frank Trigg vs. Makoto Takimoto

Possible Fights:
Takanori Gomi vs. Pang Sung Hwan

Possible Participants:
Daniel Acacio
Cristiano Marcello
Clay French

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

(Photo By: Sportsnavi)

DREAM.5 Update! Tokoro Returns

The DREAM.5 and SENGOKU IV cards were both updated today. In a Featherweight fight Hideo Tokoro returns only one month after his DREAM debut to take on Takeshi Yamazaki, who has also had one fight in DREAM where he won a decision over Lightweight King Of Pancrase SHOJI. The fight will be fought at 64 kg. They want to announce Hunt’s opponent tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

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

Lightweight GP Reserve Fight:
Joachim Hansen vs. Black Mamba

Featherweight Fights:
Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Joseph Benavidez
Hideo Tokoro vs. Takeshi Yamazaki

Middleweight Fight:
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Welterweight Fight:
Motoki Miyazawa vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka

Participants:
Mark Hunt