Footage Of “The” Submission Out! PANCRASE Starting 2010 Strong

On the 21st PANCRASE announced some additional fights for the first big card of their 2010 Passion Tour on February 7th. Previously announced for the card was a Flyweight title fight.

As for the newly announced fights, Yuki Kondo will take on Sakuraba pupil and SENGOKU participant Takenori Sato for the interim Middleweight title, KEI Yamamiya will take on Yuji “The Pink Typhoon” Hisamatsu, who drew with Kondo in his last fight, and hard-hitting Seiya Kawahara will have a tough task in front of him against Tashiro Nishiuchi, who is 6-0-4 in his last 10 fights.

The Naoyuki Kotani vs. Daisuke Nakamura fight which took place at ZST is now out on YouTube:

Also check out the DEEP Cage Impact fights from a few days ago, especially Nobuhiro Obiya vs. ISE (very good) and Masakazu Imanari vs. Justin Cruz.

Interview! The Korean Zombie Talks

Q: You started out as a kickboxer. Why did you decide to switch to MMA?
CJ: I started kickboxing since 10th grade. Originally my goal was to fight at K-1 because I fell in love with Ernesto Hoost’s powerful low kicks and awesome technique. After training kickboxing, I went to Kyongbuk Science University to major MMA (note: yes, this university offers a degree in MMA lol.). That’s when I first trained jiujitsu and I liked it. Locking in a submission gave me a different kind of satisfaction from striking.
I never liked fighting on the ground, but once I started training grappling I came to like it enough to make me want to switch to MMA.

Q: If you had continued to be a kickboxer, what level do you think you’d be at now?
CJ: It’s hard to say (laughs). I recently sparred with Chi-bin Lim, Jae-gil Noh, and Min-suk Kwon, and I wasn’t on their level. I couldn’t keep up with their pace. Standup fighting and MMA require different use of stamina. In standup fighting you have to keep throwing punches and kicks. You use different muscles and styles for each sport.

Q: If you were a kickboxer, what kind of style would you have?
CJ: I’d say I would have fought like Se-gi Kim or Min-suk Kwon; a brawling in-fighter rather than a technical out-fighter.

Q: What’s your ultimate goal? Have you ever thought about moving up to lightweight and fighting in the UFC?
CJ: As of now, my goal is to fight in the WEC and become a champion. I have no intention of moving up in weight whatsoever.

Q: Have you seen the Penn-Sanchez fight? He (Penn) might as well be called the lightweight Fedor.
CJ: He’s just what his nickname says he is – a prodigy. I think his style of fighting is the way to go now. I emulate his takedown defense in training. I, like BJ Penn, focus on the defensive aspect of wrestling. It feels better to defend a takedown than to score one (laughs).

DEEP CAGE IMPACT! Gil Young Bok Makes Pro Debut

Bok X Bang - mfight.co.kr

Korean Gil Young Bok was going to make his MMA debut at FMC 1 in August but the fight never happened because of the situation surrounding the event.

Since then the 6th Pacific Open Freestyle Wrestling tournament winner and MVP has continued to train MMA at Team Force (Bang Seung Hwan, etc.) and gone 2-0 in amateur MMA fights. The exciting prospect will tomorrow finally make his pro MMA debut as he takes on Japanese Yasuhiro Motomura in the DEEP Cage.

DEEP CAGE IMPACT
Date: December 19th, 2009
Place: Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan

Part 2

9. Nobuhiro Obiya vs. ISE
8. Takeshi Yamazaki vs. Toshiaki Kitada
7. Ryuta Sakurai vs. HIROKI
6. Bernard Ackah vs. Shunji Kosaka
5. KICK☆ vs. Yoshiki Harada
4. Naoki Matsushita vs. Yuki Ito
3. Hirohide Fujinuma vs. Makoto/Akira(?)
2. Hiryu Okamoto vs. Kaiji Hirano
1. Yasuhiro Kawasaki vs. Mitsuru “Mike” Yamaguchi

Part 1

9. Masakazu Imanari vs. Justin “The Shocker” Cruz
8. Yusuke Kawaguchi vs. Roque Martinez
7. Atsushi Yamamoto vs. Tomoya Miyashita
6. Eiji Ishikawa vs. Yoshitomo Watanabe
5. Koichiro Matsumoto vs. Isamu Sugiuchi
4. Teruhiko Kubo vs. Kenta Takagi
3. Atsuhiro Tsuboi vs. Sadao Kondo
2. Yasuhiro Motomura vs. Gil Young Bok
1. Male Animal vs. Someone

First MMA Event In Hong Kong! Very Good

On January 11th of 2010 the first ever MMA event in Hong Kong will take place as Legend Fighting Championship hold their inaugural event.

The card is actually very good for a first event. Former King of Sanda Zhao Zilong will face Vicente Pajaro from the Philippines in the main event. However, it’s the Korean fighters who are the big names on the card.

Best Korean welterweight Ui Cheol Nam will finally return to competition as he takes on solid Australian lightweight Adrian Pang in the semi main event.

DREAM participant Myeon Ho Bae will return from his devastating knockout at the hands of Marius Zaromskis to take on DEEP fighter Yoshitomo Watanabe.

A Sol Kwon will return to martial arts competition for the first time since defeating K-1 MAX veteran Serkan Yilmaz in a Kickboxing fight to battle Japanese Masaya Doi. You might remember Kwon’s entertaining fight against Kiuma Kunioku in SENGOKU or his brutal fights against Kwang Hee Lee in Spirit MC.

Check out the full card and other info at the Legend FC website.

HUSTLE Split! SMASH Is Born

SMASH - Sportsnavi.com

A group has split from pro-wrestling organization HUSTLE, which is in very bad condition right now. This new group today announced the start of a new promotion called SMASH. This organization will hold pro-wrestling, MMA, and Kickboxing events starting from next year.

TAJIRI will be the supervisor of the pro-wrestling branch (temporary name: SMASH 2010), “Mr.Pride” Akira Shoji will be the supervisor for the MMA branch (temporary name: SMASH Fight Club), and another person will be the supervisor of the Kickboxing branch (temporary name: SMASH Grand Prix).

The company behind this promotion is Quantum Jump Japan. I think this company was going to help HUSTLE during their current trouble but after looking closer into it and finding out HUSTLE haven’t paid some wrestlers in time, etc. they decided to pull out and start a new promotion.

The first event will be held on March 26th at Shinjuku FACE (Pro-Wrestling branch) and the combat sport branches are planned to start in April or May.

Gomi NYE Hints?! The Khan Going Outside In 2010

Takanori Gomi made an interesting blog post today, he wrote that a dream he’s had for a long time came true, and we’ll know what wish came true at the end of the year. Maybe people are reading too much into it but Tanigawa was asked about Gomi participating in Dynamite!! on twitter today and answered that that question is really, really, really hard to answer.

Korean media are reporting that they haven’t heard about Choi Hong Man training anywhere right now so a fight against Tim Sylvia on NYE would be strange.

After their successful second event, it looks like The Khan has received a lot of offers from promoters outside of Korea. Offers have come from Japan, Mongolia, Croatia, and Macao.

A Korea vs. Japan 8 vs. 8 event together with Nagoya-based MMA/Kickboxing in a cage promotion HEAT (Sentoryu fights there) is possible for next year and another offer is producing a 71 kg tournament together with Croatian promotion King Of The Ring.

The offers from Mongolia and Macao are more “backing with funds and holding the event with the “The Khan” name” offers. Candidate dates for events are May 15th in Mongolia for the Genghis Khan Day and April in Macao. They might hold around 2 events outside of Korea in 2010.

Source: Kamipro Korea Column

Changing Tour Over! New Middleweight KOP Born

PANCRASEism doing it big today - GBRing.com

The final event of Pancrase’s 2009 Changing Tour took place in Japan today and from some reports, it was entertaining.

In the semi main event of the evening, Ryo Kawamura returned from his very disappointing loss to Fabio Silva in SENGOKU to take on Shunsuke Inoue from Yoshida Dojo. Kawamura defended his title (30-29, 30-30, 30-28) in a fight which apparently was close and very entertaining.

In the main event of the evening, Izuru Takeuchi put his Middleweight KOP title on the line against the much improved Ichiro Kanai (from the ism gym like Kawamura). Kanai won in what is reported to have been another very close fight (30-30, 30-29, 30-29) to become the new Middleweight KOP. Kanai started his career with a 3-8-3 record, but is now 8-2 in his last 10 fights.

Kawamura looked to be more happy that Kanai won than his own successful defence. The other ism people there also looked very happy.

The first fight for the first event of Pancrase’s 2010 Passion Tour on February 7th was announced at the event. Champion Mitsuhisa Sunabe will take on Kiyotaka Shimizu in a Flyweight title fight.

DEEP Cage Impact! Complete

The DEEP Cage Impact card is now complete and will consist of a total of 18 fights. The latest added fight is a kickboxing fight between comedian KICK☆ and number 1 student of “Mach” Sakurai, Yoshiki Harada.

The event is split into two parts with 9 fights each. It’s just that there will be a short break between the parts. All fights between the one mentioned above are MMA fights and all fights besides 1-7, 1-8, 1-9, 2-8, and 2-9 (and the Kickboxing fight) are 2×5 minutes (the five mentioned are 3×5). No elbows allowed in 2-1.

DEEP CAGE IMPACT
Date: December 19th, 2009
Place: Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan

Part 2

9. Nobuhiro Obiya vs. ISE
8. Takeshi Yamazaki vs. Toshiaki Kitada
7. Ryuta Sakurai vs. HIROKI
6. Bernard Ackah vs. Shunji Kosaka
5. KICK☆ vs. Yoshiki Harada
4. Naoki Matsushita vs. Yuki Ito
3. Hirohide Fujinuma vs. Makoto/Akira(?)
2. Hiryu Okamoto vs. Kaiji Hirano
1. Yasuhiro Kawasaki vs. Mitsuru “Mike” Yamaguchi

Part 1

9. Masakazu Imanari vs. Justin “The Shocker” Cruz
8. Yusuke Kawaguchi vs. Roque Martinez
7. Atsushi Yamamoto vs. Tomoya Miyashita
6. Eiji Ishikawa vs. Yoshitomo Watanabe
5. Koichiro Matsumoto vs. Isamu Sugiuchi
4. Teruhiko Kubo vs. Kenta Takagi
3. Atsuhiro Tsuboi vs. Sadao Kondo
2. Yasuhiro Motomura vs. A Korean fighter TBA
1. Male Animal vs. Someone

Nightmare TV! Naito Vs. Kameda

Thanks to the original uploader.

The Khan 2! Great Event

The Khan 2 took place two days ago and it was an entertaining event. You can watch the full event here and here.

MMA/Kickboxing in Korea seems to have become a little more active these days. The status of promotions are that The Khan just returned for the first time in over a year and a half, W will have their second event in December, Moosin doesn’t seem to be dead yet despite no word coming from them since their second event in July, there are rumors that Spirit MC will return, Pancrase Korea will have their first event in Seoul today, and no news yet on a second FMC event.

As for thoughts on the event (watch it before further reading), the three 70 kg fights were really good (the third round of Se Gi Kim vs. Min Suk Kwon was nuts).

Su Hwan Lee is really good. I think he could become competitive close to the top of K-1 MAX if he had a better chin.

Min Suk Kwon is really tough for his age (turned 20 this year). He stood toe to toe with both Im Chi Bin and Se Gi Kim, who are real veterans.

Apparently, this was Virgil’s third fight in three weeks. Impressive performance for having traveled around and fought so much in such a short time.

Su Jeong Lim won the tournament quite clearly and her popularity will probably continue to rise.

The Mönkh-Erdene on this event wasn’t the same as the much lighter Amateur Boxer, but this one was quite impressive for his build. It’s not usual in this kind of Kickboxing event to see someone with that build look so smooth, fluid and disciplined with his stance and guard.

In the MMA fights of the card, Sentoryu KO’d Olympic Silver Medalist who never uses his Judo, Min Soo Kim, early in the first, and promising wrestler Hae Joon Yang once again won by KO to improve his record to 4-0.