Nightmare TV! DJ.taiki Vs. SHOJI

Enjoy this great DREAM Featherweight GP qualifier from February 10th.

Draw! The Next Batch Of Lightweight Greats

Today’s Cage Force event ended not long ago and it seems like there were some close fights. Katsuhiko Nagata drew with Team Akiyama gym member Yasunori Kanehara and the main event between Cage Force champion Mizuto Hirota and Lightweight King Of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue also ended in a draw.

The main event was a very important fight in the SENGOKU Lightweight title picture (they even wrote about it on SENGOKU’s official website and had a short spot with Katsuya Inoue, mentioning his three wins over champion Kitaoka, at a SENGOKUG! episode), so it will be interesting to see what happens now.

Lightweight prospect Yoshihiro Koyama also fought at the Cage Force event today where he defeated another good fighter in Tomonari Kanomata by unanimous decision. Koyama together with Katsunori Kikuno and Koichiro Matsumoto, who won their fights against Jung Bukyung and Jutaro Nakao at DEEP 40 last week, is part of the next batch of possible Japanese Lightweight greats.

In another interesting fight at DEEP 40 last week, Seichi Ikemoto defeated Hidetaka Monma to receive a spot in the DREAM Welterweight GP starting at DREAM.8 in April.

Ishii To Brazil! Training With Lyoto & Nogueira

Satoshi Ishii will be making a trip to Brazil in March to train with Lyoto Machida and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He met them at UFC 94 and was invited to train with them in Brazil. He will be leaving for Sao Paulo from Narita Airport on March 4th.

“The Crusher” Returns! Remy Bonjasky Vs. Alistair Overeem Announced

Kawajiri, Ishida, and Takaya in Tokyo. - GBRing.com

A Lightweight fight between Tatsuya Kawajiri and BJ Penn pupil Ross Ebanez was announced for DREAM.7 at an open training session in Tokyo today. Tatsuya Kawajiri, Mitsuhiro Ishida, and Hiroyuki Takaya all prepared for their March match-ups in front of the press at the JB Sports Gym.

Also announced today were a few K-1 World GP in Yokohama fights. In the MMA-related fights Remy Bonjasky will face Alistair Overeem, Badr Hari will rematch Errol Zimmerman, and Melvin Manhoef will participate in a 4-man tournament to decide the new K-1 Heavyweight champion (the title was stripped off of Badr Hari after the K-1 Finals debacle). He will face Chalid “Die Faust” in his first round fight and if he wins that one he will face either Ruslan Karaev or Gokhan Saki in the title fight.

HEIWA DREAM.7 Featherweight GP 2009 1st Round
Date: March 8th, 2009
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

74 kg/163 lbs Fight:
Shinya Aoki vs. David Gardner

Lightweight Fights:
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Ross Ebanez
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Daisuke Nakamura

Featherweight GP Fights:
Masakazu Imanari vs. Atsushi Yamamoto
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Kim Jong Won
Chase Beebe vs. Joe Warren
Takafumi Otsuka vs. Bibiano Fernandes
Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura vs. Abel Cullum
Micah Miller vs. Yoshiro Maeda

Akiyama To The UFC! Maximo Blanco (The True Knight) Returns

It has been officially announced on UFC’s website that Japan & Korea superstar Yoshihiro Akiyama has signed with the UFC. No date has been set yet for his debut but with this signing we can probably expect the UFC to hold events in Korea or Japan, maybe sooner than we thought.

Promising SENGOKU training player Maximo Blanco will return to the Pancrase ring on April 5th with his new ring name, The True Knight (not sure how to translate, could maybe be translated as the knight of truth also). He will face veteran Koji Oishi in probably his toughest fight to date.

King Mo talks another Pancrase fighter, namely Light Heavyweight King Of Pancrase Ryo Kawamura, in a new interview with PunchDrunkGamer.

In other SENGOKU news, Jorge Santiago reveals to Tatame that he might return to SENGOKU in May. Hopefully he will defend his title if he participates.

SENGOKU veteran Nick Thompson defeated Paul Daley on the 20th at MFC 20. This is a big win for him and he would surely be one of the favorites in a possible SENGOKU Welterweight GP. You can watch the fight here.

Nakamura Victorious At ADCC Japan! Clash With SENGOKU Colleague In Final

Nakamura throws Naito. - GBRing.com

SENGOKU fighters Kazuhiro Nakamura and Yukiya Naito clashed in the -99 kg division final of the ADCC Asia Qualifiers yesterday in Japan. It ended with a point victory by 7 to 1 for SENGOKU Middleweight GP runner-up Nakamura.

Another Nakamura won the -77 kg division tournament when DREAM veteran KTaro Nakamura choked out his opponent, Yoshinao Shitabayashi, in the final. MMA veteran Kohei Yasumi won the -66 kg division, Yukinori Haruhara won the -88 kg division, and Koji Kanechika won the +99 kg division.

Kazuhiro, who decided that he would participate around one week ago, did not know the rules of the matches very well and was seen at times asking the referee if what he was doing was OK. He won the quarterfinal by heel hook and the semifinal by armbar. He is not sure yet if he will participate in the World ADCC tournament but he definitely wants to.

Ishida Vs. Nakamura! Aoki Gets His Wish Granted

Two non-GP fights were announced for DREAM.7 today. Shinya Aoki will get his wish of a pre Welterweight GP fight granted as he takes on American David Gardner. The second announced fight is a high class one as Mitsuhiro Ishida returns to battle the exciting Daisuke Nakamura.

Update: The Aoki vs. Gardner fight will be fought at 74 kg, 2 kg under the DREAM Welterweight limit.

HEIWA DREAM.7 Featherweight GP 2009 1st Round
Date: March 8th, 2009
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

74 kg/163 lbs Fight:
Shinya Aoki vs. David Gardner

Lightweight Fight:
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Daisuke Nakamura

Featherweight GP Fights:
Masakazu Imanari vs. Atsushi Yamamoto
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Kim Jong Won
Chase Beebe vs. Joe Warren
Takafumi Otsuka vs. Bibiano Fernandes
Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura vs. Abel Cullum
Micah Miller vs. Yoshiro Maeda

Possible Participants:
Gegard Mousasi
Melvin Manhoef

The Man In The Background! Kim Jong Won

Name: Kim Jong Won
Born: November 20th, 1975
Height: 170 cm
Fighting Style: Judo
MMA Record: 0-0
Dojo: Team Yoon

Judo Career

Kim Jong Won began taking Judo in elementary school. He started to stand out in his second year in junior high-school where he won most of the tournaments he participated in. By eleventh grade he competed in the 60 kg class and dominated many tournaments in South Korea. He was chosen as a South Korean Judo representative while he was still in high school, something that doesn’t happen everyday. He was chosen to participate in the Atlanta Olympics when he was a second year student in University.

Judo Achievements

November 19th, 1989: Sungkop Tournament, 60 kg, 1st place
October 1st, 1995: Judo World Championships, 60 kg, 7th place
November 21st, 1995: Asian Judo Championships, 60 kg, 3rd place
July 26th, 1996: Atlanta Olympics, 60 kg, 9th place
July 27th, 1997: Pacific Rim Judo Championships, 65 kg, 1st place
November 23rd, 1997: Asian Judo Championships, 65 kg, 1st place

The Man In The Background

Kim retired from Judo and returned to his private life at quite an early age. Years later, while preparing to become a professional golfer, he accompanied Yoon Dong Sik and saw some MMA fights. His interest grew and he started to seriously consider switching to MMA. When Team Yoon was formed, he began training MMA regularly.

He is the man in the background whenever Yoon fights. You can see him in Yoon’s corner and as a sparring partner in Yoon’s pre-fight public training sessions.

He was supposed to make his MMA debut in 2008, but the event that he was going to participate in never took place. He was planning to participate at Lightweight but after seeing the Lightweight fights in DREAM he thought that his own experience is insufficient for the Lightweight division so he decided to drop to Featherweight.

He trains his grappling at Team Yoon and his stand-up with K-1 fighter K.MAX, who placed second in the K-1 World MAX 2008 Asia tournament.

Kim says that his condition right now is the best (including his Judo days). Observing and being the second of Yoon Dong Sik and Jung Bukyung, he knows that he cannot just go into MMA and win with Judo alone. He has been practicing MMA for a year and a half now in wait for his debut fight. Fighters he look up to are Wanderlei Silva and Georges St. Pierre.

Sources: NeoKumaPage & DREAM Profile

Return To Japan! James Thompson Vs. Big Jim York

MMAWeekly reports that James Thompson will face Big Jim York in his return to Japan at SENGOKU VII on March 20th. Thompson is currently on a three fight losing streak so a win here is important.

Big Jim York was defeated by Yoshihiro “KISS” Nakao in his last fight at SENGOKU II.

SENGOKU VII
Date: March 20th, 2009
Place: National Yoyogi Stadium 2nd Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan

Light Heavyweight Fight:
King Mo vs. Ryo Kawamura

Featherweight GP Participants:
Marlon Sandro, Hatsu Hioki, Nick Denis, Ronnie Ushiwaka, Chris Manuel, Masanori Kanehara, Chan Sung Jung, Tetsuya Yamada, Seiya Kawahara, Michihiro Omigawa, Shintaro Ishiwatari, Nam Phan, L.C. Davis, Hideki Kadowaki, Matt Jaggers

Possible Fights:
James Thompson vs. Big Jim York

15 Spots Filled! Strong Fighters Announced

WVR announced 4 additional participants in the Featherweight GP starting on March 20th. They are Former SHOOTO Lightweight champion Hideki Kadowaki, Vietnamese Nam Phan who will be moving down from Lightweight, IFL GP runner-up L.C. Davis, and KOTC veteran Matt Jaggers.

The 16th participant will be from Asia and the second non-gp fight will be a Heavyweight fight.

SENGOKU VII
Date: March 20th, 2009
Place: National Yoyogi Stadium 2nd Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan

Light Heavyweight Fight:
King Mo vs. Ryo Kawamura

Featherweight GP Participants:
Marlon Sandro
Hatsu Hioki
Nick Denis
Ronnie Ushiwaka
Chris Manuel
Masanori Kanehara
Chan Sung Jung
Tetsuya Yamada
Seiya Kawahara
Michihiro Omigawa
Shintaro Ishiwatari
Nam Phan
L.C. Davis
Hideki Kadowaki
Matt Jaggers

Possible Participants:
James Thompson