Archive
Yoshiro Maeda! DREAM.12 Next?
Yoshiro Maeda didn’t win in a way he would’ve liked to yesterday in his fight against Kleber Koike at DEEP Osaka Impact. He first got hit by a thumb in the eye, and later in the first round by a knee to the groin, which made him unable to continue. Maeda won by DQ.
While still in pain after the fight he still took the mike and said: “My battle still continues. Is an Osaka event participation next?”, appealing to the DREAM officials at ringside.
Also on the card, a fighter I like, Young “RYO” Choi, won another fight as he stopped Yuya Aikawa by punches in the second round. I would like to see him in bigger events or in a DEEP title fight soon. Could he be a participant in DEEP’s upcoming Light Heavyweight tournament?
See pictures of the fights here.
September 1st, 3 PM! FINAL16 Card Announcement For The World
For the first time ever, tomorrow at 3 PM (Japan time), the K-1 FINAL16 card will be announced on K-1’s official website for everyone in the world to see at the same time.
Time: September 1st, 3 PM and forward (Japan time)
URL: http://www.k-1.co.jp/
D&S Fighters Around The World! America & Hungary
M-1 Breakthrough – August 28th, 2009
Daisuke Nakamura vs. Ferrid Kheder
It’s Showtime Hungary – August 29th, 2009
Kazuyuki Miyata! Please Look Forward To The Weigh-Ins
Kazuyuki Miyata was recently interviewed on DREAM’s official site.
Miyata doesn’t think that there will be any problems fighting in DREAM for the first time since DREAM.1 since he has had fights since then.
About moving from Lightweight to Featherweight this year:
“I was a little too light at 70 kg. When I was 70 kg I passed by only having to skip breakfast at the day of the weigh-ins. So I was a little light. At 63 kg dropping weight is somewhat difficult, but I think Featherweight is a reasonable division for me.”
Miyata says about the 63 kg division of DREAM that if it was around 61 kg he would definitely give it up, but if it was 65 kg it would’ve been good. However, he says that he will definitely make 63 kg this time.
Miyata’s normal weight is around 72 kg. In DEEP he fought at 65.8 kg and seriously started to drop weight 2 days before. This time he’ll keep his weight exactly at 70 kg and then start to drop 2 days before. His body weight percentage is around 5% right now, but he’ll push it toward 0% (which he says won’t be a problem due to his wrestling background), so please look forward to the weigh-ins.
About DJ.taiki, Miyata has only seen his fight with Tokoro but he thinks he’s strong since he was chosen as a participant of the GP. However, Miyata will be over 70 kg (almost 100% muscle) at fight time. He thinks that there’s an overwhelming physical difference so there will be no problems.
He isn’t thinking much about the tournament right now, he wants to win against DJ and appeal with his strength. About his new gym, he has received a lot of support at his recent fights, he has been able to study various techniques, and he has become stronger by the week. He doesn’t think there are any minuses with him having opened the gym.
He has done physical training at Akira Maeda’s gym once a week this year. He has learned from Maeda about stamina which he has lacked in the past. He says with a bitter smile that the training there is more difficult than his fights.
Before, after the first round his stamina was mostly no good anymore. Now, however, he can fight 15 minutes, which he showed in DEEP, so the training has payed off.
He really wishes for the fans to see the weigh-ins. He is also looking forward to it. You’ll see a body which can’t be seen easily. It’ll be an enjoyable fight and he’ll show a different Miyata than we have seen in the past.
Won Sik Park To The Big Leagues?! Morosanu Vs. Kin Taiei For Finals Reserve Fight Spot?
Korean up-and-comer Won Sik Park had a good win last week in DEEP against Yuichi Ikari. At a post fight blog post at the DEEP blog, DEEP boss Saeki and someone else chat about the fight.
The interesting part is when the other guy wonders what’s next for Won Sik Park. At first Saeki doesn’t say anything, but he then reveals it to the other guy.
Saeki says: next is ◎◎◎◎.
The other guy: eeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!(speechless) you’re kidding, right.
Saeki: It’s been decided.
DREAM is 5 characters, SENGOKU (戦極) is 2, DREAM (ドリーム) and SENGOKU (センゴク) in one part of the Japanese writing system are both 4 characters. Title in Japanese is also 4 characters but a little later in their discussion…
The other guy: But, Saeki. Parky said after the fight that he wants to challenge Kikuno for the belt.
Saeki basically says that that sounds good, Kikuno is doing his best in DREAM right now, and it’s a likely fight in the future if both keep fighting their hardest.
Most Japanese names are 4 characters, so it could be a fighter also. But I don’t know which fighter DEEP have/could bring in which would cause such a “reaction”, maybe Nobuhiro Obiya.
Won Sik Park vs. Naoki Matsushita
Won Sik Park vs. Atsuhiro Tsuboi
In K-1 news, a superfight between entertaining Romanian Catalin Morosanu and Kin Taiei is possible for the FINAL16 event in Seoul. According to the article the winner of the fight will receive a spot on a reserve fight at the K-1 WGP 2009 Finals.
Most FINAL16 fights such as Musashi/Teixeira, Ghita/Schilt, Overeem/Aerts, and Manhoef/Bonjasky are already being rumored/leaked. An official fight card should be announced next week.
SENGOKU X! Judo Vs. Kickboxing
2004 Olympic silver medalist, 2005 World Championships gold medalist, and 2008 Asian Championships gold medalist in Judo, Hiroshi Izumi, will face a fellow MMA beginner in his debut at SENGOKU X on September 23rd. Samoan Antz “Notorious” Nansen from New Zealand became well-known in his birth city through street fights (also how he got his nickname).
Nansen started Kickboxing after he met well-known kickboxer Jason “Nobunaga” Suttie (eventually became his best pupil). Nansen became WKBF Cruiserweight champion and in October of last year he also became the WKBF Heavyweight champion when he defeated Joe Martin. He also took the IMF Muay Thai New Zealand Heavyweight title and his current record is 14-1-1 (5 KO’s).
Two other fights have also been announced for the card. The second Judo Top Team member on the card, Makoto Takimoto, will face Korean Spirit MC veteran Lee Jae Sun, and Antonio Silva will take on Big Jim York, who returns from a victory over James Thompson at SENGOKU VII.
Update: A confident Izumi at the press conference said that he wants to stand with Nansen. He said that he’s very confident in his striking and that it’s his fighting style. Not surprising talk since he said when he was announced as an MMA convert that he wants a fighting style similar to Wanderlei Silva.
Update #2: Izumi was on a one week training camp in Kagoshima last week. He usually trains with Yoji Anjoh, but sometimes goes to Yoshida Dojo and Wajyutsu Keisyukai to train. He has trained with UFC fighter Yushin Okami (at WK) and according to him (Izumi) he handled the menu with ease.
Update #3: Takimoto’s opponent, Jae Sun Lee, last fought at Moosin 1 (Kickboxing) in Korea. The fight is available online.
SENGOKU X
Date: September 23rd, 2009
Place: Saitama Community Arena in Tokyo, Japan
Single Fights (3×5):
LHW: Hiroshi Izumi vs. Antz “Notorious” Nansen
HW: Antonio Silva vs. Big Jim York
WW: Makoto Takimoto vs. Lee Jae Sun
LW: Kazunori Yokota vs. Ryan Schultz
LW: Maxi vs. Tetsuya Yamada
LHW: Ryo Kawamura vs. Fabio Silva
WW: Dan Hornbuckle vs. Nick Thompson
MW: Takenori Sato vs. Joe Doerksen
Opening Fights (2×5):
LW: Ikuo Usuda vs. Baek Woo Hyun
FW: Shigeki Osawa vs. Kim Ki Hyun
BW: Ryosuke Komori vs. So Jee Hyun
KID Traveling Abroad! Dynamite!! Return
See you on NYE - GBRing.com
Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto said at a press conference in his gym today that he will travel abroad to train and regain his hunger. Possible locations he is thinking about right now are USA and Thailand. The plan is for his return fight to be at Dynamite!! on NYE.
Ishii Vs. Tanigawa! K-1 Split?
There’s a new article out (take some Japanese articles with a grain of salt) which says that the relationship between FEG President Tanigawa and K-1 Founder Ishii is not that good these days. The article starts out writing that K-1 is in a crisis right now.
According to the article, after Ishii came out of jail he wanted to acquire stocks of FEG but the TV people didn’t like it since he’s an ex-convict, so Tanigawa and his people tried to somehow exclude him. With Ishii’s new YouTube channel, publishing a book, starting an amateur organization, and telling FEG to combine things with WVR, Tanigawa and his people aren’t very happy and it seems now that them and Ishii and his people have split up.
However, it seems that that’s not the only reason for the split, it seems to really be about K-1 having serious economic difficulties. Less tickets are being sold, ratings are decreasing, they have debts, guaranteed money to staff and fighters are late, etc.
It seems things went worse when Ishii was away and an MMA/K-1 authorised person says in the article that Ishii’s matchmaking was ingenious and that Tanigawa was no good after all. Masato retiring doesn’t make the situation any good either.
16 years since starting the event, a road of hardships is awaiting K-1…
Musashi To Retire! Final Appeal To Get Into The FINAL16
At a press conference today, Musashi made a direct appeal to the fans to receive one of the three final spots in the 2009 FINAL16 event. Either way, he will retire soon. He says that his condition is very good now and that his injuries are being healed.
FEG President Tanigawa said that his feeling on this is 50-50. He wants Musashi to get a final chance, but Musashi hasn’t even fought once this year in K-1 and there are other fighters, who have fought their best this year, who also want a chance in the GP. No special treatment will be given to Musashi.
Tanigawa hopes to announce the remaining three and all the FINAL16 fights early next week. If Musashi doesn’t get a spot in the FINAL16, Tanigawa says that he wants to propose something like a retirement fight to him.
Update: It looks like Melvin Manhoef will receive one of the three final spots.
Pancrase Ending 2009 Strong! Kawahara Returns
Pancrase have had four shows thus far in 2009, but it looks like they will have four more events from the middle of October to the end of 2009.
On October 17th they will hold an event at Shinjuku FACE for the first time with a Pancrase Gate (amateur fights) and Pancrase Changing Tour double.
On October 25th SENGOKU fighters KEI Yamamiya and Seiya Kawahara will return when the sixth Changing Tour event takes place in Differ Ariake in Tokyo. Kawahara’s opponent is Ryota Sasaki who is on a 4-fight winning streak. Also on the card, one of the two men to have defeated Kawahara, Manabu Inoue, takes on the legendary Masahiro Oishi.
Pancrase will round out 2009 with an event on November 8th at the Azeria Taisho Hall in Osaka and an event on December 6th at familiar Differ Ariake in Tokyo.
Nightmare Of Battle 