The Tournament To End All Tournaments! Super Hulk Tournament Announced!!

Who will become the World Superman Champion? - Kamipro.com

Four new fights for DREAM.9 have been announced. An open-weight tournament called “Super Hulk Tournament ~World Superman Championship~” will commence at the event with Minowaman taking on Bob Sapp, Sokoudjou facing K-1 & MMA veteran Jan “The Giant” Nortje, Gegard Mousasi taking on Mark Hunt, and Choi Hong Man fighting former Baseball player Jose Canseco.

Update #1: These 4 fights complete the DREAM.9 card (maybe).

Update #2: DREAM EP Sasahara is aiming at a 15% TV ratings. He said that he still has a trump card, today’s announcement isn’t everything. Is the card really complete?

Update #3: The semifinals and final will not take place on the same day. The rules for the tournament are not set yet but expect shorter fights (why?!) and no knee strikes to the head of a grounded opponent.

Bob Sapp (200cm/147.6kg) vs. Minowaman (175cm/87kg)
Jan “The Giant” Nortje (211cm/149.5kg) vs. Sokoudjou (182cm/93kg)
Gegard Mousasi (186cm/97.8kg) vs. Mark Hunt (178cm/130.4kg)
Choi Hong Man (218cm/148.5kg) vs. Jose Canseco (188cm/109kg)

HEIWA DREAM.9 Featherweight GP 2009 2nd Round
Date: May 26th, 2009
Place: Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan

Super Hulk Tournament 1st Round Fights:
Minowaman vs. Bob Sapp
Jan “The Giant” Nortje vs. Sokoudjou
Gegard Mousasi vs. Mark Hunt
Choi Hong Man vs. Jose Canseco

Lightweight Fight:
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. J.Z.Calvan

2nd Generation DREAM Middleweight Title Fight:
Ronaldo Jacare vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller

Featherweight GP Quarterfinal Fights:
Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto vs. Joe Warren
Masakazu Imanari vs. Bibiano Fernandes
Yoshiro Maeda vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Abel Cullum vs. Hideo Tokoro

Nightmare TV! Fedor In Korean Drama

Fedor recently appeared in a scene of a Korean drama TV series.

Below is a quick summary of what is happening in the clip, thanks to Sherdog forum members robbyp & dudnaito.

First guy: Wow, you’re pretty good. Why not take on my friend too?

Second dude in blue: Sure.

First guy: Just wait a moment.

(A bunch of the blue dude’s friends come in the ring)

Friend #1: Hey, you looked really cool!
Friend #2: Hey, who is he going to bring? What if he brings a really good fighter?
Friend #1: It doesn’t matter, our guy is almost a pro! He is going to beat up anybody that comes out! Who’s he going to bring? FEDOR?? LOL!!! (pronounced hyo-dor-ooh in korean, you can actually hear it).

Then of course Fedor comes out and beats him up.

Pancrase! Another Big Name Announced

The Pancrase card on June 7th, which already features fighters such as Satoru Kitaoka, Yukio Sakaguchi, Ryo Kawamura, Yukiya Naito, and Seiya Kawahara, has got another big name added to the card. It was announced today that SENGOKU’s Choi Mu Bae will face Katsuhisa Fujii. Two other fighters from Bae’s Team Tackle have also gotten fights on the card which already consists of 16 fights and is not even complete yet.

Pancrase Changing Tour 3
Date: June 7th, 2009
Place: Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan

Satoru Kitaoka vs. Yukio Sakaguchi
Ryo Kawamura vs. Yukiya Naito
Choi Mu Bae vs. Katsuhisa Fujii
Seiya Kawahara vs. Tatsuya So

Fedor Vs. Aoki! Rough Summary

The exhibition was three minutes long. Below is a rough summary of how it played out. Remember that it was just an exhibition, they weren’t seriously trying to rip each others limbs off.

Fedor took Aoki down and showed some ground and pound motions. Aoki got back to his feet and went for a flying armbar which he then turned into a leg submission attempt. Back in standing position Fedor took Aoki down for the second time. Aoki went for an armbar from guard but Fedor lifted him up and dropped him on the mat.

The match went back to standing position where Fedor threw a right high kick. However, Aoki went for a takedown which was successful. Fedor answered and immediately got back to his feet after disrupting Aoki’s balance on the ground.

Fedor took Aoki down once again. With 40 second left, Aoki threw off his jacket and got fired up, screaming “Oraaaa!”. Aoki threw a right hook and tried taking Fedor down but Fedor ended up on top. Fedor went for a leg with lightning speed which ended the match as Aoki tapped from an achilles hold. At the same time, the gong sounded as the three minutes were up.

Aoki was very respectful afterward, telling a joke, saying it was a good experience and asking the crowd to give a big round of applause to Fedor. Fedor said that he didn’t think there were such strong fighters like this in the Lightweight division. He expressed some respectful words to Aoki and thanked him.

(Photos By: GBRing)

Final Preparations! SENGOKU VIII

#10: Kokuho Interview II

There is a second article up on Sherdog with WVR PR Kokuho. He said some interesting things like:

We don’t want to wave money in front of their stars just to bring them into our ring. We’d rather have a good relationship with the indie promotions in order that fighters can move back and forth between them and Sengoku. By coming to Sengoku, they’re already bringing their fans to our shows, so when they return, we feel that they will be able to bring back more fans who have watched them in Sengoku. It’s one of our ways to give back to these promotions and try to keep them profitable enough to stay around.

Our aim is not to gather everything under one umbrella. Shooto will remain as Shooto, and Sengoku will remain as Sengoku. But to come together and all work together, I think that is great.

This year onward, we need to make progress, making the event better than last year, of course, but we also need to keep in mind how to make a profit. Luckily, starting from Sengoku “No Ran [2009]” in January, we began to make a profit.

#9: Weigh-In Results

11. Hatsu Hioki (65kg) vs. Ronnie Ushiwaka (64.7kg)
10. Nam Phan (64.8kg) vs. Michihiro Omigawa (64.7kg)
9. Kazunori Yokota (69.9kg) vs. Leonardo Santos (69.9kg)
8. Xande Ribeiro (90.3kg) vs. Kei Yamamiya (92kg)
7. Chan Sung Jung (65kg) vs. Masanori Kanehara (64.8kg)
6. Marlon Sandro (64.9kg) vs. Nick Denis (64.6kg)
5. Makoto Takimoto (75.4kg) vs. Michael Costa (75.9kg)
4. Stanislav Nedkov (91.9kg) vs. Travis Wiuff (92.9kg)
3. MAXI (69.9kg) vs. Akihiko Mouri (69.9kg)

Ticket Sales! SENGOKU VIII, Shooto May 10th & Pancrase June 7th

I thought it might be interesting to check some ticket sales of events and maybe compare them in the future. Pancrase is selling out quick despite the card being over a month away. The SENGOKU event is also doing good. Shooto is completely sold out.

There are three levels (sold out, few left, and remaining) of the ticket amount left and they are from three different sources.

SENGOKU VIII – May 2nd, 2009 (National Yoyogi Stadium 2nd Gymnasium: ~3200)

A Seats (7000 Yen): Sold out, Sold out, Sold out
S Seats (12000 Yen): Remaining, Remaining, Remaining
SENGOKU Seats (17000 Yen): Sold out, Few left, Remaining
SS Seats (17000 Yen): Remaining, Remaining, Remaining
RRS Seats (25000 Yen): Few left, Few left, Few left
VIP Seats (50000 Yen): Sold out, Sold out, Few left
Front Row VIP Seats (70000 Yen): Sold out, Sold out, Few left

Shooto 20th Anniversary – May 10th, 2009 (JCB Hall: 2500-3000)

Completely sold out. Ticket prices ranging from 6000 to 20000 Yen.

Pancrase – June 7th, 2009 (Differ Ariake: ~1250)

C Seats (5000 Yen): Sold out, Sold out, Few left
B Seats (6000 Yen): Few left, Few left, Few left
A Seats (8000 Yen): Remaining, Few left, Remaining
SS Seats (10000 Yen): Few left, Few left, Few left

Press Conference! Fedor And Aoki Meet

Fedor X Aoki - Sportsnavi.com

Fedor has arrived in Japan. Press conference updates coming.

Update #1: Fedor’s Manager Vadim Finklestein said that they are aiming at Fedor fighting again in July or August. He will probably face a top 10 opponent. He said that they are also negotiating with a Japanese organization so there is a chance that the summer fight could be in Japan.

DREAM EP Sasahara, who was present at the press conference, said that while there are many hurdles to cross he would like to negotiate for Fedor to fight in DREAM on July or August and also on NYE. Since the Affliction staff is also in Japan he feels that this is an opportunity to negotiate.

Update #2: It seems that Aoki didn’t get much attention. He was sitting at the side with a frozen expression. The rules of the fight are still not set.

Update #3: Fedor started serious training with his team for one week before this (and probably his visit to Korea). However, it is mainly in preparation for the summer fight rather than the exhibition with Aoki.

Update #4: Fedor said that he has seen some of Aoki’s fights and he thinks that Aoki is one of the strongest fighters. Receiving this praise, Aoki said that he’s happy and also embarrassed. When Aoki saw Affliction’s Tom Atencio (who was present at the press conference) he jokingly said: “If you give me an Affliction t-shirt I will fight with all of my might”.

Poll! Appropriate July Opponent For Masato

K-1 has a poll on their official website where fans can vote on who they think is an appropriate opponent for Masato in July. This doesn’t mean that the fighter with the most votes will certainly fight Masato but it might make an impact. The list of opponents is as follows:

Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Yoshihiro Sato
Taishin Kohiruimaki
Andre Dida
Shingo Garyu
YOUICHIRO☆JIENOTSU☆NAGASHIMA
Hinata
Eddie Alvarez
TONGARASHIMEN (Sadaharu Tanigawa with a mask, from a commercial)
Shinya Aoki
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai
Kazuhisa Watanabe (K-1 LW)
DJ.taiki
Katsunori Kikuno
Kasuga Toshiaki (Unknown K-1 HW)
Takashi Tachikawa (Baseballer turned K-1 fighter)
Oscar De La Hoya (yeah right)
Satoshi Kobayashi
Takanori Gomi
Ryo Chonan
Musashi
Akebono
Yodsanklai Fairtex
Emelianenko Fedor
Mirko CroCop
Peter Aerts
Naoki Ishikawa
Daisuke Nakamura
Someone else (Mail FEG)

Fans outside of Japan can also vote so feel free to do it.

Nightmare TV! DEEP 41 & HEAT 9

Four fights from these two recent events. You can see in the Kikuno/Matsumoto fight why I hate DEEP despite thinking that they put on great cards for their size. The consistent quick stand-ups on their events make me sick. Thanks to the uploader.

DEEP 41 – Katsunori Kikuno vs. Koichiro Matsumoto
DEEP 41 – Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Jae Hyun So
HEAT 9 – Justin Holdaas vs. Max Fernandez
HEAT 9 – Sentoryu vs. Ryuta Noji

ZST.20!! Olympic Combination Vs. Team ZST

The first fight for ZST.20 which takes place on May 24th has been announced and it is an exciting one. DREAM Lightweight GP participants Kazuyuki Miyata and Katsuhiko Nagata will team up to take on SENGOKU Featherweight GP participant “Super High School Student” Tetsuya Yamada and “Mini Hong Man” Masayuki Okude in a 15 minute ZST Lightweight Tag Team match.

Both Miyata and Nagata participated in the 2000 Sydney Olympics in Amateur Wrestling (Nagata in Greco and Miyata in Freestyle). Nagata won a silver medal.

Update: The names of the teams are Olympic Combination and Team ZST.