Xande Ribeiro Returns! Battle With Former King Of Pancrase

The second fight for SENGOKU VIII was announced today. The 2008 Mundials Open-Weight Champion Xande Ribeiro will return to take on former Light Heavyweight King Of Pancrase Kei Yamamiya. Yamamiya had a good 2007 and 2008, defeating Ryo Kawamura, Yuki Kondo, and Hiromitsu Kanehara in a row and becoming Light Heavyweight King Of Pancrase. However, he lost that title in October of 2008 in an awesome rematch against Ryo Kawamura.

Update: The SENGOKU card where Satoru Kitaoka will defend his Lightweight belt will take place on August 2nd. However, it seems that the SENGOKU 2009 schedule is not the same now as first announced. The August card is supposedly SENGOKU IX and then three SENGOKU cards will take place in September, October, and November. So it looks like WVR will take a summer break after the May card and then put out a lot of events in the second half of 2009.

Update #2: WVR’s Kokuho said that there will be Welterweight fights held throughout the year starting from the May event and two persons who do good will fight for the title on the new years event in 2010. Welterweight participants are planned to be announced tomorrow, could one of them be Akihiro Gono?

Kokuho also said that at the latest the 2nd round Featherweight GP match-ups will be announced at the beginning of next week. It will probably be Marlon Sandro and the three Japanese fighters on one side and the four other foreigners on the other side.

SENGOKU VIII
Date: May 2nd, 2009
Place: National Yoyogi Stadium 2nd Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan

Lightweight Fight:
Kazunori Yokota vs. Leonardo Santos

Light Heavyweight Fight:
Xande Ribeiro vs. Kei Yamamiya

Featherweight GP 2nd Round Participants:
Marlon Sandro
Nam Phan
Michihiro Omigawa
Masanori Kanehara
Ronnie Ushiwaka
Hatsu Hioki
Nick Denis
Chan Sung Jung

“Cannibal” To SENGOKU?!

Part of a new interview with the managers of Mamed Khalidov has been translated by Toadie at the Bloody Elbow Fanshots. There they say that they are in final talks to have Khalidov fight for WVR. Khalidov has only lost once since his first two professional fights and is a very exciting addition to the SENGOKU Light Heavyweight division, which includes fighters such as King Mo and Xande Ribeiro, should he sign with WVR.

Kitaoka Returns In June! Eyeing Pancrase Title

SENGOKU Lightweight champion Satoru Kitaoka has announced on his blog that he will return to the ring on June 7th. The fight will be in Pancrase. He wants to capture the Pancrase belt too and writes that he is not interested in any other belts than the Pancrase and SENGOKU belts. He will defend his SENGOKU belt just a couple of months later at SENGOKU X in August.

First Fight Announced! Yokota Vs. Santos

The first fight for SENGOKU VIII was just announced a few minutes ago on SENGOKU’s TV show. SENGOKU Lightweight GP finalist Kazunori Yokota will face BJJ black belt Leonardo Santos in a fight which should give some indication on who will challenge Satoru Kitaoka for his title in August.

SENGOKU VIII
Date: May 2nd, 2009
Place: National Yoyogi Stadium 2nd Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan

Lightweight Fight:
Kazunori Yokota vs. Leonardo Santos

Featherweight GP 2nd Round Participants:
Marlon Sandro
Nam Phan
Michihiro Omigawa
Masanori Kanehara
Ronnie Ushiwaka
Hatsu Hioki
Nick Denis
Chan Sung Jung

Back To Our Roots! Gomi Returns To SHOOTO

Takanori Gomi will return to SHOOTO and participate in a big Lightweight fight as he takes on SHOOTO Welterweight champion Takashi Nakakura on May 10th at SHOOTO Tradition ROAD TO 20th ANNIVERSARY FINAL. This fight will be a tough one even if Gomi trains seriously.

Another big fight announced for the card is a SHOOTO Lightweight title fight between Lion Takeshi and Rumina Sato, two fighters who were missing from the DREAM & SENGOKU Featherweight GP’s.

The third fight announced for the event was DREAM Lightweight GP particpant Koutetsu Boku versus the tough Yutaka Ueda.

Next For SENGOKU! Kitaoka Defends In August

Another SENGOKU event is in the books and it was a great event. Satoru Kitaoka announced at the event that he will defend his SENGOKU title in August and that he will probably have a fight before that (which will probably be in Pancrase).

WVR PR Kokuho said after the event that from May onward they will start working toward a Welterweight title fight at SENGOKU NO RAN 2010 by holding single fights. He also said that he wants to announce the 2nd round Featherweight GP fights soon.

Debut Date Set! Shigeki Osawa Enters The Battle

Shigeki Osawa - Kamipro.com

Shigeki Osawa will fight on the same night as fellow SENGOKU Training Player Maximo Blanco as he makes his MMA debut at the April 5th Pancrase event. Osawa was announced as a SENGOKU Training Player at the same time as Blanco was and is also a great Amateur Wrestler.

When Osawa was announced as a SENGOKU Training Player last year he had just returned home from the 8th World University Wrestling Championship in Greece where he won gold in the 60 kg division. He also won the All-Japan Freestyle Wrestling Championship 60 kg division in 2007.

Osawa has been training MMA full-time at the Yoshida Dojo since October of last year. He has been practicing together with Michihiro Omigawa. His debut opponent will be Hideo Matsui, who is also looking for his first MMA victory.

Final Preparations! SENGOKU VII

#9: HDNet

SENGOKU VII live on HDNet at 3 AM. Enjoy the show!

#8: Nam Phan Interview

Pre-GP Nam Phan interview at ADCCNews.

#7: Radio & Article

Jordan Breen previewed SENGOKU VII on his radio show today. You can download the show here. There is also an article of the press conference at Sherdog.

#6: Weigh-In Results

LHW: 10. King Mo (92.8 kg) vs. Ryo Kawamura (93 kg)
FWGP: 9. Hatsu Hioki (65 kg) vs. Chris Manuel (64.2 kg)
FWGP: 8. Nam Phan (64.8 kg) vs. Hideki Kadowaki (64.9 kg)
HW: 7. James Thompson (123.3 kg) vs. Big Jim York (120 kg)
FWGP: 6. Michihiro Omigawa (64.8 kg) vs. L.C. Davis (64.7 kg)
FWGP: 5. Marlon Sandro (65 kg) vs. Matt Jaggers (65 kg)
FWGP: 4. Kim Jong Man (64.8 kg) vs. Masanori Kanehara (64.9 kg)
FWGP: 3. Chan Sung Jung (64.9 kg) vs. Shintaro Ishiwatari (65 kg)
FWGP: 2. Ronnie Ushiwaka (64.7 kg) vs. Tetsuya Yamada (65 kg)
FWGP: 1. Seiya Kawahara (65 kg) vs. Nick Denis (64.8 kg)

Two Koreans Injured! Replacements Announced

Thansk to mdhan for commenting that Yong Soo Choi broke his hand in sparring and will not be able to face Shingo Garyu on Friday at the K-1 MAX event in Seoul. Instead, In Jin Chi will replace him. Unfortunately, it looks like Chi’s opponent, Hareruya, will not fight on Friday as the K-1 WORLD YOUTH fight has been bumped up and placed as the 6th fight of the night.

Another Korean was also reported as injured today. SENGOKU’s Yang Dong Yi will not be able to fight in HEAT on March 28th due to injury. He was supposed to face SENTORYU in the semifinal of the HEAT OW/HW GP. His replacement is Ryuta Noji, who lost to Yang in one of the quarterfinals of the GP.

Nightmare TV! Seiya Kawahara

One of the exciting fighters in the SENGOKU Featherweight GP, Seiya Kawahara.

Part one of an awesome looking three part series on King Mo by All Elbows.

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