Re: JMMA is ALIVE: The Official Japanese MMA discussion thread

[PRIDE NEVER DIE]

Pancrase CEO Sakai met with Barnett at last weeks IGF...wonder if they discussed him defending his KOP

My god, how incredible that would be. I don't see the competition they could get a hold of though. Kiss Nakao? Peter Graham? Choi Mu Bae? Soa Palelei? Such a shame they can't get Semmy for linearity purposes.

Perhaps they could cut a deal with M-1 and have one of thier hw's go challenge Barnett in Pancrase...

[wekka]

Pancrase CEO Sakai met with Barnett at last weeks IGF...wonder if they discussed him defending his KOP

My god, how incredible that would be. I don't see the competition they could get a hold of though. Kiss Nakao? Peter Graham? Choi Mu Bae? Soa Palelei? Such a shame they can't get Semmy for linearity purposes.

Perhaps they could cut a deal with M-1 and have one of thier hw's go challenge Barnett in Pancrase...

As much as I would like to see someone like Malikov get a shot, it seems highly unlikely. I think the best bets are the names I listed, someone from AKA like Daniel Puder or even Todd Duffee, or you might see someone like Ryo Kawamura, Yuji Sakuragi, or even KEI Yamamiya step up and take a chance.

[CDF47G-MMA Rankings]

DREAM LIVES. NYE show being planned. Conference on Thursday with details on the event.

[wekka]

Any matches you hope to see?

My personal wishlist:

Takaya x Kawajiri
Kitaoka x Moreira
Tamura x Kikuta
Bibi x Maeda
Sakurai x Okuno
Ishii x Razmadze
D.Nakamura x ISAO
Tokoro x Wada
Nakanishi x Manhoef II
Doo Ho Choi x LION
Izumi x Mizuno
K.Nakamura x Kawamura
Miyata x Ishida
Kikuno x Nagata
Mitsuoka x SHOJI
Shirai x KEI
Minowaman x Thompson
Fujii x Tsuji

[wekka]

Shooto 11th Round has been formally announced for November 11th and it looks fantastic for a card that is directly preceding the huge Vale Tudo Japan card in December.

Wataru Miki x Yusuke Yachi
Manabu Inoue x Yuta Sasaki
Yuki Shojo x Tadaaki Yamamoto
Haruo Ochi x Ryuichi Miki (stupid rematch -_-)

[wekka]

A quick rundown of all the fairly recent JMMA happenings:

GRABAKA Live 2:

Vale Tudo Rules: Yuji Sakuragi def. Sanae Kikuta- (1R TKO)
Yuki Sasaki DRAW Hiromitsu Kanehara
KEI Yamamiya def. Kenichi Yamamoto- (DEC)
Jong Wang Kim def. Yoshihisa Yamamoto- (1R KO)
Rambaa Somdet def. Takuya Eizumi- (DEC)
Eiji Ishikawa def. Daijiro Matsui- (DEC)
Hikaru Hasumi def. Ryota Masuda (1R TKO)

*In quite the spectacle, the main event was contested under Vale Tudo rules. Yes, you heard that right. Kikuta was completely steamrolled in devastating fashion. After such a brutal finish, I think we might have seen the last of Kikuta.

*The ABSOLUTELY FUCKING LEGENDARY KING OF ALL KINGS KEI battled tooth and nail with fellow legendary mixed martial artist Kenichi Yamamoto in a rousing, nostalgic affair. While KEI came out on top, he didn't leave the cage looking the same after taking a fair bit of punishment. He'll face Ikkei Nagamura at the Pancrase event on December 1st.

*M16 returned with a solid victory against the ever exciting Takuya Eizumi. Somdet's career is kind of in purgatory right now. While i'd like to see him get one more solid run at the title in Shooto, it looks as if Somdet is fine with just being a part-time fighter and full-time trainer.

Other JMMA results:

*Shigeki Osawa loses yet again in a disappointing match against Yoshifumi Nakamura at Shooto Gig Tokyo 12. It seems as if all of the Japanese fighters with solid wrestling bases that could make a serious impact in the North American scene are suffering from massive inconsistency.

*JMMA gatekeeper Shin Kochiwa defeated Koshi Matsumoto by second round KO.

[Van Halen MMA]

RUMOR :

Glory will combine the Grand Slam event and Dream NYE

[KSW]

RUMOR :

Glory will combine the Grand Slam event and Dream NYE

[Van Halen MMA]

We might get an annoucement today but it will be awesome if true.

In terms of logistics it makes total sense. You're giving the Japanese a truely stacked event. Also more time to promote and hype the fights

[wekka]

From what i've gathered is that this is beginning to seem more likely. I've heard that they've stopped selling tickets for the Grand Slam altogether, which seems to give this rumor a lot more momentum in terms of being truth.

I've also heard that a few fighters have dropped off, Jurkovic comes to mind, and fighters originally slated to partake in the tournament are now being rumored for MMA bouts, like Kharitonov.

Here is my conclusion:

A combination of Dynamite and the tried and true WGP of days past. The Grand Slam tournament might be downgraded from the original 16 man field into a traditional one night, 8 man grand prix. Anywhere from two to three kickboxing superfights will be added, Petrosyan one of the guarantees.

With this though, we might have less MMA bouts than originally announced, unless they're feeling truly ambitious, we might see up to TWENTY fights!!

From what i've gathered, these are all the fighters that are expected to participate:

Tatsuya Kawajiri
Hiroyuki Takaya
Satoru Kitaoka
Sergei Kharitonov
Robin Van Roosmalen

Giorgio Petrosyan
Yuta Kubo
Jienotsu Nagashima
Masaaki Noiri*

Semmy Schilt
Remy Bonjasky
Peter Aerts
Daniel Ghita
Errol Zimmerman
Jerome Le Banner*

[KSW]

From what i've gathered is that this is beginning to seem more likely. I've heard that they've stopped selling tickets for the Grand Slam altogether, which seems to give this rumor a lot more momentum in terms of being truth.

I've also heard that a few fighters have dropped off, Jurkovic comes to mind, and fighters originally slated to partake in the tournament are now being rumored for MMA bouts, like Kharitonov.

Here is my conclusion:

A combination of Dynamite and the tried and true WGP of days past. The Grand Slam tournament might be downgraded from the original 16 man field into a traditional one night, 8 man grand prix. Anywhere from two to three kickboxing superfights will be added, Petrosyan one of the guarantees.

With this though, we might have less MMA bouts than originally announced, unless they're feeling truly ambitious, we might see up to TWENTY fights!!

From what i've gathered, these are all the fighters that are expected to participate:

Tatsuya Kawajiri
Hiroyuki Takaya
Satoru Kitaoka
Sergei Kharitonov
Robin Van Roosmalen

Giorgio Petrosyan
Yuta Kubo
Jienotsu Nagashima
Masaaki Noiri*

Semmy Schilt
Remy Bonjasky
Peter Aerts
Daniel Ghita
Errol Zimmerman
Jerome Le Banner*

That´s a card I´m willing to pay 60 bucks for

[bolsheet]

I just don't want to see less mma fights on the card, they will only have 1 event on 12 months, but this mega card realy makes sence for them at this point.

[CDF47G-MMA Rankings]

I just don't want to see less mma fights on the card, they will only have 1 event on 12 months, but this mega card realy makes sence for them at this point.

Yeah, I agree. If they keep the 10 MMA fights and still have solid kick boxers in MMA fights then I am good with this move.

[wekka]

Well if we can get high level mma bouts along with an extremely solid Kickboxing grand prix, ill be more than willing to.accept the sacrifice.

Although if this is the case, this shouldn't be a DREAM event.

[bolsheet]

At last we will have the vtj, here is my optimist prediction
Featherweight Caol Uno vs Rumina Sato
Welterweight Hayato Sakurai vs Hernani Perpetuo
Flyweight Mamoru Yamaguchi vs Darrell Montague
Bantaweight Hiromasa Ogikubo vs Kyoji Horiguchi
Flyweight Shinichi Kojima vs Alexandre Pantoja
Lightweight Takasuke Kume vs Leonardo Santos
Featherweight Takeshi Inoue vs Guy Delumeau
Lightweight Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs Willamy Chiquerim

[wekka]

At last we will have the vtj, here is my optimist prediction
Featherweight Caol Uno vs Rumina Sato
Welterweight Hayato Sakurai vs Hernani Perpetuo
Flyweight Mamoru Yamaguchi vs Darrell Montague
Bantaweight Hiromasa Ogikubo vs Kyoji Horiguchi
Flyweight Shinichi Kojima vs Alexandre Pantoja
Lightweight Takasuke Kume vs Leonardo Santos
Featherweight Takeshi Inoue vs Guy Delumeau
Lightweight Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs Willamy Chiquerim

Outside of Delumeau. And June/Santos, that looks very realistic.

[bolsheet]

^Unfortunately we probably will have trouble to find a way to see this (even months latter) unlike the dream show.

[wekka]

Well if the last VTJ was any indicator, we might get this fairly quickly as opposed to most other JMMA events.

[retrocausality]

any news on JEWELS next card?

[wekka]

any news on JEWELS next card?

All I've heard are expected appearances by Ayaka Hamasaki and Seo Hee Ham.

[wekka]

More DREAM.18 rumors:

Van Roosmalen x Jienotsu is rumored to take place under MMA rules. Kickboxing or MMA, doesn't sound good for Jienotsu either way.

Kitaoka's list of opponents have dwindled down to a rematch with Masvidal, an incredible tilt with JZ Calvan, or Toby Imada.

[CDF47G-MMA Rankings]

More DREAM.18 rumors:

Van Roosmalen x Jienotsu is rumored to take place under MMA rules. Kickboxing or MMA, doesn't sound good for Jienotsu either way.

Kitaoka's list of opponents have dwindled down to a rematch with Masvidal, an incredible tilt with JZ Calvan, or Toby Imada.

JZ/Kitaoka would be sweet. This is the one I prefer.

[wekka]

Masvidal doesn't seem likely anymore. I'd really like to see JZ continue in Japan again, although Imada isn't a bad match either, just nowhere near as sexy as a former Sengoku champ versus a former HERO*S champ

[CDF47G-MMA Rankings]

Masvidal doesn't seem likely anymore. I'd really like to see JZ continue in Japan again, although Imada isn't a bad match either, just nowhere near as sexy as a former Sengoku champ versus a former HERO*S champ

Agreed, JZ/Kitaoka is first choice and then Imada/Kitaoka which would also be sweet. Last choice would be Masvidal/Kitaoka rematch. If Masvidal did come over I would prefer he fight someone else rather than this rematch.

[wekka]

I'd really be interested in Van Roosmalen/Masvidal. Not a total blowout, like Jienotsu, and it would be stylistically.pleasing to the crowd.

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