In what could be a big hit to many MMA athletes and fans alike the FBI today has seized the domain name of Full Tilt Poker, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker. While seemingly unrelated to MMA, these poker sites play a big role in the MMA world by sponsoring many fighters and promotions alike. For fighters, this means there is one less avenue for sponsorship money. After the jump are details of what went wrong for these big name poker sites

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I thought the BE Community might get a kick out of this. SlashFilm, or /Film as it were, just put of their review of the Matt Hamill biopic that ran at the recent installment of the AFI Fest in Hollywood, California. The review seems to be pretty positive.

While Pulsar was impossible to figure out, Hamill is exactly the opposite. It’s a unique spin on the classic, tried and true sports formula of one person trumping over the competition. What sets this film apart though is not only that it’s true, it’s about a deaf person who became a UFC superstar.

Matt Hamill was born deaf in rural Ohio. Even though Matt couldn’t hear, his stubborn but loving grandfather made sure he was never treated differently, even when he probably should have been. So to help mask much of his social frustrations, Matt developed an aptitude for wrestling which eventually lead him to heights that would be incredible for someone with all five senses, let alone one missing.

Made by a slew of first time feature filmmakers, including director Oren Kaplan and writers Eben Kostbar and Joseph McKelheer, Hamill does feel a little rough around the edges. It drags a bit in the middle and the inevitable climax doesn’t pop as much as you’d expect, but those are just two minor gripes in an otherwise solid package. One really interesting thing the film does is vary the use of subtitles. Since the film stars a mostly deaf cast, and will presumably be marketed to deaf people, the whole thing needed to be subtitled in the first place. Then, large sections of the film are just in sign language, so people who can hear need subtitles for that. Finally, there are scenes where the subtitles are missing words (which is sort of ____ like ____), confusing the audience as if they too were deaf. Add that to some superior sound design and the film does an admirable job of making the audience sympathize with Hamill’s situation on a physical level as well as an emotional one.

A lot of that connection also has to do with the lead performance by Russell Harvard, who played the adult version of H.W. Plainview in There Will Be Blood. He’s simply perfect in the role. A deaf actor himself, he’s a physical presence while also being very sympathetic and relatable. He’s the glue in a film that’s provides a unique take on a familiar story and manages to simultaneously inspire and entertain.

Pic via bitcast-a-sm.bitgravity.com

Review via /Film

Dana White accidentally(?) posted his cell phone number on his Twitter page.

@AmaraBlake. I'm not very good with twitter tell me if you get thisabout 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

@AmaraBlake. If you get this try and text me at 702 927 0525about 22 hours ago from TwitterBerry

@Boomjay. I am cool with it. I put it on the public forum for people who want to text me. Not really any different than twitter.

Everyone that is textn me right now I am going to workout now so I won't be on my phone. Thanks for the texts nice talking to you allabout 2 hours ago from TwitterBerry

Seems like he is liking all the fan texts he is receiving. And who knows, maybe if you ask him something he will respond to you. I doubt this will last very long as with the more press this gets the bigger the flood of texts and even calls he'll receive and I'm guessing he will have to change his number very soon.

I haven't been following rumors about the next season of The Ultimate Fighter 10: Team Rampage vs Team Evans, with exception to the Kimbo Slice story but I found this rumor to be quite interesting. MMA Madness has the scoop on this rumor.

"Former IFL Heavyweight champion Roy "Big Country" Nelson and UFC veteran Wes Sims will join Kimbo Slice on the cast for The Ultimate Fighter Season 10: The Heavyweights, a source close to the show reported."

Interesting to see the mix of talent that will be in the house this coming season if this rumor proves to be true. You have  former NFL players, Kimbo Slice, a former champ in Roy Nelson and Wes Sims. You'll remember that Sims has competed in the UFC before, compiling a 0-3 record with losses to Frank Mir(twice) and Mike Kyle. In his first fight against Mir at UFC 43, Sims was actually disqualified for stomping on Mir's head which led to the rematch at UFC 46. At UFC 47 Sims was knocked out by Kyle but later complained that Kyle had bit him in the chest, an illegal move which was not noticed by the referee.

Of the 42 contracts acquired by Strikeforce two notable names not on the list, according to Five Ounces of Pain, is (former?) EliteXC Heavyweight Champion Antonio Silva and Middleweight Murilo 'Ninja' Rua. The two fighters will remain under the control of ProElite.

Though a great fighter it should come as no surprise that Antonio Silva did not get picked up by Strikeforce. After testing positive for banned substances after beating Justin Eilers to become the EliteXC Heavyweight Champion Silva was suspended for one year. Silva, still under suspension in the US, went around that suspension and fought at the January 4th Sengoku event held in Japan.It's now a possibility that he gets his fighting license revoked in the US and he may not be able to fight in the US ever again.

Rua meanwhile:

Having earned $35,000 for his knockout loss to Benji Radach this past October during EliteXC’s “Heat” event, Rua’s contract was also deemed to be too pricey. Despite having become the first-ever EliteXC middleweight champion following a second round TKO over Joey Villasenor during a combined Strikeforce and EliteXC event in July of 2007, Rua is just 2-2 in his last four bouts.

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas. While it is easy to mock WM, the truth is he is clearly a very troubled individual and needs psychiatric evaluation and assistance.

Five Ounces of Pain has the scoop on the latest War Machine screw up:

A source speaking on the condition of anonymity informed FiveOuncesOfPain.com early Monday morning that Koppenhaver had been arrested by Las Vegas Metro Police over the weekend.

Jay Rivera, a representative with the Public Information Office of the Metro Police Department, confirmed that Jonathan Paul Koppenhaver was arrested Saturday, February 8 at approximately 4 a.m. local time. According to Rivera, a citizen’s arrest was made of Koppenhaver on charges of misdemeanor battery.

Quite a character this guy is. It's only a matter of time until this guy is on some VH1 reality show. You can bank on that.

Update

TMZ is reporting that War Machine was arrested after getting into a fight at a gay night club. Krave, the night club where Mr. Machine got arrested, is described as a gay club, but very straight friendly.

Cops tell TMZ security at Krave was escorting War Machine out of the club after a little brouhaha -- when he allegedly turned on security and starting punching them

via www.blogcdn.com

According to MMA Junkie sources close to Houston Alexander can confirm that Alexander has agreed to fight Andre Gusmao at UFC 98 on May 23rd. The event is being held in Las Vegas Nevada and is headlined by the Heavyweight Championship unification rematch between Brock Lesnar and Interim Champion Frank Mir. The co-main event of the evening will be the much anticipated, and much delayed, fight between The Ultimate Fighter 6 coaches Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. The Nebraska native is looking to bounce back from three consecutive losses against LHW contender Thiago Silva, a record tying 8 second KO at the hands of James Irvin and a submission loss to rising LHW prospect Eric Schafer.

For the most part three consecutive losses inside the Octagon pretty much spells death but with Alexander I think his all or nothing and overall exciting fighting style has saved him from being booted by the UFC.In his time in the UFC he has drawn a pretty good fan following for the tenacity and ferociousness he has shown when he fights. I would venture a wild guess in saying that should Houston lose this one he will indeed be let go, and if anything he may be told to go work his games in the minor leagues before he can get another shot at the big times, so to speak. Meanwhile Alexander's opponent, Andre Gusmao, is coming off his UFC debut loss to Jon Jones. He'll look to come back strong from his first professional loss against the always dangerous, although not so much on the ground, Houston Alexander.

UFC 98 is looking great so far with the potential for loads of action. Here is the rumored card so far:

Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir (heavyweight title unification)
Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra
Frank Edgar vs. Sean Sherk
James Irvin vs. Drew McFedries
Houston Alexander vs. Andre Gusmao
David Kaplan vs. George Roop

That is a lot of fire power so far for this show. There is bound to be a lot of exciting matches. You have the heavy hitters in McFederies, Irvin and Alexander. The potential wrestling war between Sherk and Edgar. The grudge match, although a few months too late, between Serra and Hughes and of course the title unification between one of the fastest rising stars in the sport, Brock Lesnar, and the resurgent Frank Mir. Giggity

Today DREAM event producer Keiichi Sasahara announced what was to come for DREAM for 2009. Here's the announced schedule, thanks to Nightmare of Battle

DREAM 2009 Schedule

March 8th - DREAM.7 - Saitama Super Arena
April 5th - DREAM.8 - Nippon Gaishi Hall
May - DREAM.9 - Somewhere in Kanto
July - DREAM.10 - Somewhere in Kanto
September - DREAM.11 - Somewhere in Kanto
October - DREAM.12 - Not decided
December 31st - Dynamite!! - Saitama Super Arena

The opening round of the Featherweight Grand Prix will be at DREAM 7 and the conclusion will occur at the September event.

Also announced was the addition of a Welterweight Grand Prix, which is to end in the July event. The Welterweight event will consist of 8 participants.

Sasahara also addressed rumors of Featherweight star Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto missing out on the upcoming Featherweight Grand Prix. He will indeed be participating, although at this point it is not certain whether he will be ready for the opening round. Judging by the way they are spacing out the FW GP they are doing just about everything they can to accomodate the Japanese star. Kid could very well be entering the tournament in the second round which is slated for April.

Also of note is this little tidbit about fighters jumping ship to go to the UFC

...the probability of Schilt, Overeem or CroCop fighting in the UFC is low.

It's a battle between two of the top wrestlers in the UFC's Lightweight division. MMA Mania has learned that Sean Sherk will be facing Frankie Edgar at UFC 98 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

MMAmania.com has learned from a source close to the Sherk camp that the bout has been agreed upon and will be a featured fight of the evening.

It was rumored earlier that Sherk would be taking on Roger Huerta in Huerta's last fight under his current contract. Many though this rumored match up was a sort of punishment for Huerta, who has stated that he will be leaving the UFC to pursue and acting career. Seeing that Sherk is the superior wrestler of the two many expected Sherk to overwhelm Huerta and not let him go out on a high note. This echoes the last fight in the UFC of Andrei Arlovski. He was pitted against Jake O'Brien in his last fight under his UFC contract on the undercard of UFC 82. To me that fight seemed as a punishment for Andrei declaring that he was leaving the UFC after his contract was up. Recently though the rumors about Sherk/Huerta were shot down when Huerta stated that he had not been offered any fights by the UFC as of yet.

UFC 98 is starting to shape up very nicely, that is if the rumors of other bouts hold up. So far though this is what the tentative card looks like

UFC 98

May 23, 2009

Las Vegas Nevada

------

Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir*

Matt Hughes vs Matt Serra*

Sean Sherk vs Frankie Edgar

Drew McFederies vs Jame Irvin

George Roop vs Dave Kaplan

*Rumored

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.

If it isn't one thing with Monson, it's another. Last week Jeff Monson was charged with malicious mischief and now the former #1 UFC heavyweight contender has been arrested, but not because of the graffiti work he did on the state Capitol. This time it seems as if Monson was involved in domestic abuse against 30-year-old Stephanie Trapani, who is involved with Monson.

Here is what happened leading up to the incident and the incident itself according to the Olympian:

Trapani says she had a romantic relationship with Monson, but they got in an argument after found out he had romantic relationships with other women. She also alleges "he has two wives." She said she found out information about his other girlfriends on his cell phone and she then threw the cell phone out the window of her car while she was driving to pick him up at the gym. When he found out his cell phone was gone when they returned to Trapani's home, he got angry. "He went ballistic," she said.

At Trapani's home, Monson packed up his belongings, Trapani said. But when she told him she had thrown his cell phone out the window of her car, he grabbed her laptop and started "hitting the columns" of her home. She said Monson was enraged, and put a hole in the wall and flipped over a grandfather clock.

Two wives, a girlfriend and other romantic interests? AND the one girlfriend picks him up at the gym after he works out? Pimpin' ain't easy.

Is it me or have MMA fighters been in the news a lot lately, but not for the right reasons? It seems as if there is an incident a week involving an MMA fighter.

UPDATE

The Olympian has an updated report saying that Trapani has more photos of Monson spraying grafitti on various other locations. She tells the Olympian that she will be ahnding over the photos to prosecutors involved in tha case against Monson. She discovered the pictures on Monson's cell phone, which she had thrown out her car window after finding out about his other girlfriends. After she calmed down she recovered the cell phone and plans on giving the phone to the authorites.

"I'm sure the prosecutors would like to look at that," she said.

MMA Weekly has a not all too surprising interview up with Assemblyman Bob Reilly who is a member of the committee who represents the 109th district of New York. Some of the Assemblyman's answers are just plain ignorant and it makes me wonder how can someone like this be responsible for regulating the sport of MMA or denying it's regulation. Here are some choice nuggets from the interview:

Reilly: My feeling about the bill is that it’s a flawed piece of legislation. And my feeling about mixed martial arts is that there are many problems with it. It really is a glorification of brutality and violence. Many people believe that violence in the media, or any portrayal of violence, or violence itself as I think happens in mixed martial arts, in fact, makes people immune to violence and in fact promotes violence.

In New York State, we pass a lot of laws to stop violence, especially among young people in schools, but domestic violence (as well). I think that this basically is a glorification of violence, but it certainly promotes violence. In itself, I think it’s a very brutal sport that creates, obviously, physical harm to the participants, and I don’t think there’s any other sport who’s purpose is to harm your opponent.(note:WHAT?!) But we know that in mixed martial arts, that, in fact, is one of the purposes.

MMA makes us immune to violence. MMA promotes violence. MMA causes cancer and kills little kittens in their sleep. Is the sport of MMA violent? Yes, it can be but let's look at this realistically. The athletes aren't in their to play patty cake with each other. MMA at it's core is a combat sport much like sports such as boxing, kick boxing, muay thai are combat sports. The goal of these combat sports is to obviously inflict damage onto your opponent. The goal is to beat your opponent with whatever means you can in each sport. And according to the Assemblyman no other sport has the goal of harming your opponent. That is just laughable. What really irks me about this Assemblyman's comments is that later he admits to being a boxing fan. 

Reilly: And I’ve always been a boxing fan, and grew up admiring people like Rocky Marciano or Sugar Ray Robinson. But I see the brutality of professional boxing now, and the skill of amateur boxing. In amateur boxing, one emphasizes skill, and the other, a much more brutal type of activity, and much more harm to the individual boxers. What I've seen of mixed martial arts, and the way they’ve advocated for it in New York State, tells me that without very careful consideration and regulation, which we’re not prepared to do right now, we would be down the road of the sordid history of boxing, which I think you would have a hard time defending. I still think amateur boxing is a great sport. I’ve always been a fan of all boxing, but if I had my druthers, I would change professional boxing into amateur boxing.

How can you go from condemning one sport for being too violent and then saying in the next breath that you are a big fan of boxing? Granted even the Assemblyman thinks boxing is a tad bit too violent. He even goes as far as to say professional boxing should be more like amateur boxing, head gear and all.

MMAWeekly.com: Is that to say that if mixed martial artists put on headgear, outlawed certain things like elbows on the ground, certain types of techniques, you might be more open to it?

Reilly: Sure.

What I also don't understand is how the state of New York is not ready to regulate MMA. Plenty of other states have easily transitioned into regulating MMA and to think that the state of New York is not ready to regulate it is a bit peculiar. It also bothers me that the Assemblyman goes on about the violence of MMA yet time and time again it has been shown that MMA is far safer than boxing

And then there's this. I don't even know what to make of this:

Reilly: For example, I found the commissioner of our state athletic commission, a woman, completely ill informed about the rules. For example, she said, “well, you couldn’t elbow somebody” – I think there’s a famous fight, I’ve never seen it, where some fellow with a cauliflower ear is elbowed in the ear…

MMAWeekly.com: It was a punch to the ear…

Reilly: …and there was puss and blood that goes all over. One of our members had seen that, and I guess it really turns people off

I could go on and on about all the vaginas on boxers faces I've seen opened after boxing matches. Remember the second head Hasim Rahman had after his fight with Evander Holyfield?(Yes I know it was due to a headbutt. Point still stands, I guess). The fight the Assemblyman is reffering to is probably the Kimbo Slice/James Thompson fight at Elite XC: Primetime in which Thompson's enormous cauliflower ear popped after being hit by Kimbo Slice's fist. Was there blood? Of course. Throwing puss into the mix is a bit unfair. Yeah it was gross but it's not like things like that are the norm in an MMA fight. Looking back at the fight there wasn't a large amount of blood coming out of Thompson's burst ear.

And finally:

I think that the idea that what we're doing is mixing skills is the problem, too. And I think the rule change would be that when you're boxing, you box. When you're wrestling, you wrestle. But there's a reason why when a boxer falls to one knee or two knees, that the other boxer can't come up and hit him in the head. And there's a reason why in wrestling, you can't hold a guy and at the same time whack him. It's for the safety of the participant. You can't do that. You asked me if I could imagine some rule changes that would demonstrate the skill of the various martial arts more clearly, and I would find that acceptable and the answer is yes. But I think the violence level would be greatly reduced, and I don't know if promoters and advocates want to do that.

Sounds like this guy just doesn't like combat sports in general. He may say he's a boxing fan (well, more a fan of point boxing) but I don't buy it. And this is one of the people in charge of accepting or denying regulation of MMA in New York? Sigh...

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.

Sources close to the fight have revealed to MMA Weekly that American Top Team fighter Alessio Sakara has been replaced by Dan Miller for the upcoming UFC Fight Night card in Tampa, Florida. Sakara is apparently out due to an injury, though how severe of an injury has yet to be seen. The fight is still scheduled to be on the under card of the event.

Miller's last fight was a unanimous decision win over fellow former IFL fighter and former IFL Middleweight Champion Matt Horwich at UFC 90. This will be Miller's third fight in the UFC after being aquired in the demise of the IFL. Rosholt meanwhile is debuting in the UFC after the WEC's Middleweight division was dissolved at the end of last year. He is coming off a somewhat impressive yet very sloppy performance against Nissen Osterneck at WEC 36. The young Oklahoma State prospect is going to have his hands full against Miller.

A few days ago Nightmare of Battle reported the television ratings of the year end FiELDS Dynamite!! 2008 event (an updated BE Fan Post of the ratings here). To quickly recap the highest rated portion of the broadcast was the 2nd part which included fights from Mirko Cro Cop, Kazhushi Sakuraba, Badr Hari, Shinya Aoki and Bob Sapp. That portion of the broadcast recieved an overall rating of 12.9%.  It was recently learned that the highest viewed fight in that portion was of course... Bob Sapp vs Kinniku Mantaro. Wait... What?

The fight received the broadcast's highest rating of 18.1%. At this point I don't even know what to say about this news. I was a big fan of the match up when it was announced even though it was a completely ridiculous concept. I thought that it's Japanese MMA, they can get away with that sort of stuff and guys like me can watch it just for the fun of it and not take it too seriously. I didn't think though that this fight would be the highest rated fight of this star packed event. Maybe I just underestimated the appeal of freak show fights to the Japanese crowd. I am really interested in finding out which was the second most viewed fight of the event just for comparison.

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas. Good catch.

I was going through some MMA news sites earlier when I saw this little snippet that was, I believe, largely overlooked in the wake of UFC 92. It deals with the abrupt and absurd ban of MMA Authentics/Cage Fighter fight wear.

If you recall a few months ago MMA Authentics was banned from being a sponsor worn inside the Octagon much like Affliction, although it was not because MMA Authentics was starting up their own MMA organization. Instead it was banned because MMA Authentics took over more retail space in one of the nations largest retailers. This ban affected such fighters as Chuck Liddell, Roger Huerta, Urijah Faber and Forrest Griffin. MMA Payout writer Robert Joyner noticed the following:

MMA Authentics/Cage Fighter made their return to the Octagon at UFC 92.  Former Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton Rampage Jackson  was sporting a signature MMA Elite shirt, with special wolf design for the brawler known to let out a howl after victory.  Cornerman for Rampage Tiki Ghosen as well the entire Rampage crew were decked out in the shirts.  Any past tensions between the apparel brand and the UFC look to be in the rear view mirror.  Expect an announcement shorlty about a possible deal/further elaboration on the lifting of the ban.

Its a surprise that this news was largely over looked by the MMA blogosphere seeing as it was big news when MMA Authentics was banned. If I recall correctly I remember a lot of angry commentors berating the UFC for the move (and justly so). It appears as if the ban has been lifted seeing as there has been no news of Rampage being punished for wearing an unapproved sponsor much like Matt Lindland  was supposedly fired for wearing an unapproved sponsor at the weigh ins of UFC 54. Though Lindland says he was fired for other reasons. We'll see how this apparent unban pans out in the coming weeks. For now though it looks like MMA Authentics is on it's way back to being in the good graces of the UFC.

MMA Weekly is reporting that Dean Lister has requested a release from his UFC contract so that he can pursue other contracts with different organizations. According to his management he is already in talk with the Japanese organization Dream as well as Affliction. Lister is coming off a disappointing unanimous decision loss to perennial Middleweight contender Yushin Okami. The loss was Lister's second in the UFC, his only other to Nate Marquardt, and sixth total loss overall.

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.

Nightmare of Battle is reporting that the television ratings from the year end FiELDS Dynamite!! 2008 event are in and they are less than what was expected.

Dynamite!! Part 1 (19:00-21:00) 11.8%
Dynamite!! Part 2 (21:00-23:00) 12.9%
Dynamite!! Part 3 (23:00-23:24) 8.4%

Compared to the last couple of years:

2007:

(18:00-20:30)- 11.1%
(20:30-23:00)- 14.7%
(23:00-23:34)- 11.1%

2006:

(18:00-20:30)-16.3%
(20:30-23:05)-19.9%
(23:05-23:34)-10.1%

In a pre-event press conference FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa said they were aiming for 15% and over. The final part was the section that had the most amount of 'star' fighters that included Mirko vs. Choi, Mark Hunt, Shinya Aoki vs Eddie Alvarez, Gegard Mousasi and Sakuraba vs Tamura. 

The second part had fights including the unbelievable Sapp vs. "Kinniku Mantaro", Seemy Schilt vs Mighty Mo, Hayato Sakurai, Kawajiri vs Kozo and Hari vs Overeem.

Based on how the talent was spread out one would assume that the third part of the event would have gotten higher ratings than the second part or at least an equal amount due to the inclusion of Sakuraba, Mirko and Aoki. Those are three big time names in Japan. Well Cro Cop may not be as big as he once was because he left for the States. Still though the part should have gotten better ratings. Maybe the freakshow fight is what the fans really wanted to see and they only stayed tune for that section.

The first part of the event was the Under 18 tournament and a few less than high caliber fights which include Andy Ologun vs Sakaguchi and Minowaman vs. Zimmerman. It's kinda a surprise that this part would score higher ratings than the 'main card' of the event but maybe thats due to the fact that people intitially tuned in and as the long night progressed they tuned out. Whatever the reason may be this is pretty bad news for FEG. Its a shame to see that no matter how many stars were packed into this Dynamite!! show they cold not live up to previous years shows.

*Update*

Apparently I assumed too much in thinking that TBS was airing the event in the order in which it happened live but that was not the case. According to Nightmare of Battle here is how the event broke down into when it was on television

Part 1: Minowaman, Andy, Koshien Semifinals, Kyshenko, Sakurai, Tokoro
Part 2: Alistair, Kawajiri, Sapp, Mirko, Koshien Final, Mousasi, Aoki, Sakuraba
Part 3: Manhoef, Schilt

This makes much more sense as the highest rated segment was the segment with Sakuraba, Tamura, Mirko and Aoki and the lowest rated segment didn't have the fan favorites or particularly good fights.

Also of note is how the show did comparatively against the other NYE shows that were on at the time and as someone had pointed out in the comments section the Dynamite!! show did very well against the competition.

TBS got the second/third best rating on NYE with Dynamite. Of course, NHK won with the song contest, but after that was Dynamite!! or the comedy show (which is really fun) on Nippon TV which got around the same ratings.

How the channel does versus other channels should be more important than the ratings number. So this isn’t a catastrophe in any way, especially considering KID and Masato didn’t participate. But it isn’t good either.

This is the first of (hopefully) a series of retrospectives on the last year in MMA. I start off with Japanese MMA because I thought it was a particularly great year over there and we are all pretty much familiar with the American MMA scene. 

To really understand this last year in Japanese MMA I really need to start in late 2007 after the demise of Pride Fighting Championships in 2007. In October of 2007 World Victory Road was created and at the time it was touted to be the replacement to the disbanded Pride FC. Naoya Kinoshita, CEO for WVR, revealed the name "Sengoku" saying it was selected from fan suggestions for an event name. The word Sengoku consists of two Chinese characters, "Sen" and "Goku". "Sen" literally translating into "Fight" and "Goku" into "Master." Sengoku had big shoes to fill if they were to be replacements for PrideFC. At the time though there was no time table as to when the new promotion would debut. Months later at the end of 2007 Shooto, FEG, M-1 Global and former Dream Stage Entertainment employees all came together for a Pride farewell show entitled "Yarennoka!". After this event there was outcry from Japanese fans for a continuation of Japanese MMA events similar Pride. With the outcry from the fans and the longing by the DSE employees to continue promoting MMA came the creation of a new MMA promotion. The new Japanese promotion was formally announced in February and it was revealed to be a partnering of former DSE employees with Fighting and Entertainment Group. FEG decided to dissolve their MMA promotion, HERO’S, in order to create a completely new promotion entitled DREAM.

Their inaugural event was held in March and it featured the opening round of the Lightweight Grand Prix. The event featured such fighters as Mitsuhiro Ishida, Eddie Alvarez, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Shinya Aoki, JZ Calvancante and Joachim Hansen. Not to be outshined by rival Dream, Sengoku also held their inaugural event in March featuring many former Pride stars such as Hidehiko Yoshida, Josh Barnett, Takanori Gomi and Kazuo Misaki. Dream’s second event featured the opening round of the Middle weight Grand Prix with many stars participating in the tourney. Fighters like rising star Jacare, Melvin Manhoef, Denis Kang, Kazushi Sakuraba and Gegard Mousasi. Like rival Dream, Sengoku held their own Lightweight and Middleweight Grand Prix later on in the year featuring fighters like Ryan Schultz, Rodrigo Damm, Jorge Masvidal, Cyborg Santos, Jorge Santiago and Kazuhiro Nakamura.

In the coming months of the year both organizations would go on to hold six events, proving that MMA in Japan is far from done. In the Dream Lightweight GP we got to see the rise of Eddie Alvarez as one of the top lightweights in the world with exciting victories over Joachim Hansen and Tasuya Kawajiri. Shinya Aoki also climbed up the lightweight rankings with impressive victories over JZ Calvancante and Caol Uno. Eventually though there could only be one champion and alternate Joachim Hansen took advantage of Eddie Alvarez ‘s inability to continue after a brutal fight with Tatsuya Kawajiri. Hansen faced Aoki for the second time in his career in the finals of the Lightweight GP and he TKOed Aoki to become the first Dream Lightweight Champion as well as the LWGP Champion. The Dream Middleweight GP was also a proving ground for up and coming fighters as well as seasoned vets. However, this GP saw the up and comers wind up on top with Gegard Mousasi upsetting tournament favorite Denis Kang and powerful striker Melvin Manhoef. Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ de Souza proved he’s got a bright future in MMA with wins over Jason Miller and Zelg Galesic. Jacare and Mousasi went on to meet in the finals of the GP with Mousasi coming out on top after a devastating up kick that KOed Jacare. With that Mousasi increased his stock and became the MW GP Champion as well as the MW Champion.

On the other side of the Japanese MMA scene was Sengoku’s LW and MW Grand Prix. For their LW GP Sengoku took a different route, making the Grand Prix a ‘Road to Gomi’. The winner of the GP would get the right to fight Takanori Gomi, who was already a lock for the Lightweight championship. It was an odd move by Sengoku but there is a method to their madness. Gomi was by far their biggest star acquisition in the lightweight division and their other lightweights were not all too popular, if at all, in Japan. The LWGP would give the rising LW stars a chance to shine and it would give Japanese fans new fighters to root for. It would also serve as a way to legitimize whoever Gomi would eventually be fighting for the lightweight championship down the line. Eventually Satoru Kitoaka would go on to win the GP in turn earning the right to fight Gomi at the Sengoku No Ran 2009 event at the beginning of next year. Unfortunately for Sengoku at the same event where the LWGP Champion was crowned Gomi lost to Sergey Golyaev, a virtual unknown. Now, to me at least, the fight at Sengoku No Ran 2009 between Kitoaka and Gomi is sort of anti climatic because they are having Gomi fight for the championship based on name and popularity alone instead of merit. Such is Japanese MMA politics.   

The Sengoku MWGP was much smaller in scale than the Dream counterpart but it produced some great fights. Like the Dream MWGP, the Sengoku MWGP saw the rise of new stars. American Top Team fighter Jorge Santiago won the GP crown with a stunning TKO over former Pride star Kazuhiro Nakamura. This would be Santiago’s second overall Grand Prix he’s won in the past year, having won the Strikeforce MW tournament in November of 2007. Now Santiago looks to take on Kazuo Misaki for Sengoku’s vacant MW title at the Sengoku No Ran 2009 event.

The Japanese MMA year came to a close with an absolutely enormous event this morning, or last night depending on where you are, at FiELDS Dynamite!! 2008. An unheard of 18 matches ranging from a dream title fight to a freak show fight of epic proportions to a match between two aging legends and everything else in between. FEG has really brought out the stars for this years installment of the Dynamite!! event lining up fighters such as Mirko Cro Cop, Badr Hari, Hayato Sakurai, Kazushi Sakuraba, Shinya Aoki, Hong Man Choi and many, many others. The event absolutely lived up to it's billing of being a Dynamite!! show. MMA fighters dominated the event against their K-1 counterparts and Badr Hari now has the enjoyment of having to eat his words from what he said earlier this year at Dream.6.

He also insulted the performance of the competitors by stating "All I've seen tonight is a bunch of hugging and kissing"

Alistair Overeem practically decapitated Hari and did so under K-1 rules. The former K-1 Heavyweight champ has some humble pie to eat once he regains conciousness. There is reportedly a MMA match between Hari and Overeem set for sometime in early 2009 but who knows if Hari will even take the fight now after being thourghly embarassed last night. Alistair iced the cake in his post fight speech: "For all MMA fighters, and everybody, who think respect is important: there you go". Kawajiri and Mousasi also had dominate victories in their K-1 rules fights against top opponents. It's suffice to say that the MMA guys had quite a night.

Also on the card was what some fans were calling the real Dream LWGP Finals with Shinya Aoki vs Eddie Alvarez. You'll recall that Alvarez was unable to continue after his win of Kawajiri in the semi finals of the GP and he was replaced by alternate Joachim Hansen. Aoki made quick work of the Philidelphia native by submitting him in the opening minutes of the first round. Unfortunately a fight between Dream LW and LWGP champion Joachim Hansen and JZ Calvacante was cancelled due to Hensen not being medically cleared. It's a shame that we didn't get to see the fight as it definitely would have added even more dynamite to the incredible event. I think though that the rest of the event made up for the one fight's absence. Hopefully we will see the two square off sometime in 2009.

Probably most surprising of all was the fight between Mark Hunt and last second replacement Melvin Manhoef. Mahoef replaced Jerome Le Banner who was out due to the flu. Manhoef made Hunt's legendary iron chin look like silly putty as he KOed Hunt with 2 well placed punches. And this is a guy who was able to withstand a direct Mirko Cro Cop LHK and not even flinch. That really is dynamite in Melvin's hands. And this is a guy who recently retired from MMA competition!

The night was capped off with a less than stellar match between two aging legends in Sakuraba vs Tamura. Throughout the fight it was apparent that one legend was aging faster then the other. Sakuraba looked rally off his game the whole night and was picked apart by Tamura who won by unanimous decision.

Even though the new years has already come and gone in Japan the New Years extravaganza doesn’t stop there. Sengoku has their first ever New Years event on January 4th and they are also trying to pack in a lot of great fights for the fans. Japanese superstars Takanori Gomi, Kazuo Misaki and Hidehiko Yoshida plus many rising stars all look to entertain the fans at this event. Both events are a great to put an exclamation point on what has been an exciting year in Japanese MMA.    

FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa at announcement press conference stated that "We've wanted to put on a new mixed martial arts event that would continue the great dream alliance of last New Year's Eve… We want to create a show that, first of all, would be enjoyed by the fans and will make for an exciting live event." I believe that FEG has lived up to its promise of putting up a great new promotion. 2008 was a great year for Japanese MMA after what seemed to be a disaster of a 2007.

This Fan Post was promoted to the front page by Nick Thomas.

Yet another fight was announced today for the absolutely monster FiELDS Dynamite!! 2008 year end event. According to Nightmare of Battle it was made official today that Minowaman, real name Ikuhisa Minowa, would be facing off against K-1 fighter Errol Zimmerman in an MMA rules fight. Minowaman is looking to bounce back from a quick heel hook submission loss at Dream.6 against Masakatsu Funaki. Meanwhile Zimmerman is coming off a pretty good showing at the K-1 World Grand Prix Finals 2008. In the tournament the Dutch-Surinamese kick boxer was able to make it to the second round of the tournament before being KOed by former K-1 World Heavyweight Champion Badr Hari.This will be Zimmerman's first MMA fight and I believe he may be at a disadvantage here.

This fight may seem like an odd match up, but it is far from the oddest match up scheduled for the Dynamite!! 2008 card. Minowa regularly fights in the Welterweight range yet he loves taking on physically bigger opponents. He's taken on Zulu, Butterbean, Cro Cop, Wanderlei Silva, Giant Silva and a slew of larger fighters. Zimmerman will be no different than his previous opponents seeing as Zimmerman was is listed at 238lbs. Minowa will definitely be at an advantage here. He has a wealth of submission experience while Zimmerman has almost no time to train for take down defense, let alone submission defense. If the fight goes to the ground Zimmerman will be like a fish out of water and Minowa will definitely try to capitalize on a submission. Minowa is very well versed in submissions and he has been able to submit much larger opponents.

This fight is another attempt in a long line of fight that are meant as ratings grab by FEG. Minowa is a pretty popular fighter in Japan due to his crazy in ring antics and his overall crazy attitude (Any guy who trains for a fight by dodging baseballs thrown from pitching machines and racing planes is pretty crazy to me). His fighting style also caters to the Japanese fans. A lot of what Minowa does is risky, but entertaining to see. From the flying double leg kick to the front roll take down and various other wrestling moves the guy is as much a showman as he is a fighter. Minowa holds a record of 40-29-8 and while he is not the best of fighters he does hold some pretty impressive wins over such opponents as Don Frye, Phil Baroni, Kimp Leopoldo and Gilbert Yvel. Not bad for a guy who started out his MMA career going 1-8-1. The most telling match from Minowa's fight history is his fight against another K-1 fighter Stephen Leko. In 2003 Leko was on a 6 fight win streak in K-1 and when he fought Minowa in the Pride Shockwave 2004 card he was easily submitted via heel hook by the smaller Japanese fighter. I really wouldn't be surprised if Minowa pulls it off again against Zimmerman.

Because of this odd match making the fight will be taken in the previously unheard of (at least to me) Dream Open Weight division.

As for the rest of the immense card, here is how FEG has announced how the fight order will take place:

0. K-1 Koshien 62kg Reserve Fight: Daizo Sasaki vs. Taishi Hiratsuka

—Opening Ceremony—

1. DREAM Open-Weight: Minowaman vs. Errol Zimmerman


2. K-1 Koshien 62kg Semifinal: Ryuya Kusakabe vs. Koya Urabe


3. K-1 Koshien 62kg Semifinal: HIROYA vs. Shota Shimada


4. K-1 Middleweight 71kg (1×3 min. ext.): Yoshihiro Sato vs. Artur Kyshenko


5. DREAM Lightweight 68kg: Hideo Tokoro vs. Daisuke Nakamura


6. DREAM Welterweight 75kg: Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Andy Ologun


7. K-1 Koshien 62kg Final (1×2 min. ext.): Kusakabe/Urabe vs. HIROYA/Shimada

—Intermission—

8. DREAM Heavyweight +93.1kg: Kinniku Mantaro vs. Bob Sapp


9. DREAM Heavyweight +93.1kg: Semmy Schilt vs. Mighty Mo


10. DREAM Welterweight 80kg: Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Katsuyori Shibata


11. K-1 Middleweight 70kg: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Takeda Kozo


12. K-1 Open-Weight (3 min. ext.): Badr Hari vs. Alistair Overeem

—Intermission—

13. DREAM Heavyweight +93.1kg: Mirko CroCop vs. Choi Hong Man


14. K-1 Open-Weight: Musashi vs. Gegard Mousasi


15. DREAM Heavyweight +93.1kg (3×5 / 60s int.): Jerome Le Banner vs. Mark Hunt


16. DREAM Lightweight 70kg: Shinya Aoki vs. Eddie Alvarez


17. DREAM Lightweight 70kg: Joachim Hansen vs. J.Z. Calvan


18. DREAM Middleweight 84kg: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura

As for that fight listed as 0 before the opening ceremonies, I doubt they will be showing that fight seeing that it is a reserve fight for the Under 18 tournament. But you never know. If you are planning on watching this fight live on internet stream I would prepare for a long day. I would imagine that this event is probably going to be in the 4-5 hour range depending on how quickly the fights end and how quickly FEG keeps things going. Eighteen, potentially nineteen, fights is a hell of a lot of MMA and K-1 fights and it is a hell of a way to cap of a great year of combat sports action.

Last week it was announced by FEG that Bob Sapp would be fighting an anime character, yes anime character, Kinniku Mantaro at the FiELDS Dynamite!! 2008 event on December 31st. The most unusual part of the news was that the fighter playing Kinniku Mantaro would be wearing a full get up, including a mask, as to properly represent the character. This was perhaps the most unusual fight ever announced in all of MMA and the news has confused just about every MMA fan out there.

Fortunately for the fans this fight serves as a debut for a great MMA prospect in Akihito Tanaka, though he is fighting as an anime character. Tanaka has a lengthy amateur wrestling career and he also has a slew of awards and championships most impressive of which is 7 year win streak at the All-Japan Wrestling Championships. His other achievements can be seen here.

Today Nightmare of Battle was able to pass along the the pictures of Kinniku Mantaro in a public training session at Kazushi Sakaruaba's Laughter 7 gym (what a great name for a gym by the way). The mask he will be wearing is different than the mask he wore at the press conference when the fight was announce (picture here)

via nightmareofbattle.files.wordpress.com

via nightmareofbattle.files.wordpress.com

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.

According to Nightmare of Battle Hayato Sakurai has been officially added to the end of the year blow out event FiELDS Dynamite!! 2008. His opponent will be Katsuyori Shibata who, if you aren't familiar with, is a Japanese professional wrestler turned mixed martial artist. Unfortunately for Shibata the transition from pro wrestling to MMA has not been particularly easy or successful. Coming into this fight at Dynamite!! Shibata has already faced such top fighters as Kuzushi Sakuraba, Jason Miller and Yoshihiro Akiyama. In his career in MMA Shibata is 2-5-1 with the two wins coming against Yoshihisa Yammamoto, another pro wreslter turned mixed martial artist, who holds a 13-23 record and Webster Dauphiney who holds an 0-3 record. This is not the best of fights for Sakurai seeing as it will not affect him in rankings or his stance in the Dream Lightweight title picture, but this is a good fight for the fans. Sakurai is still a pretty popular fighter from his days in Pride, DEEP and Shooto.

This fight is FEG's way of drawing even more fans and ratings for their end of the year show. FEG is trying just about every angle they can to bring in the fans whether is be holding interesting K-1 match ups, exciting MMA matches, insanely unusual freak show fights or just bringing in big name fighters to showcase themselves on the card. FEG also tried to reel in more fans by announcing that Olympic Judo hero Satoshi Ishii would be making his appearance and addressing the Japanese fans during the show.  As of now I'm not too sure that Ishii will be making it to the show since he has accepted an invitation by Dana White to attend UFC 92 this coming weekend.

Also added to the Dynamite!! card is what I think may be another freak show fight and that is a fight between Yukio Sakaguchi and Andy Ologun. I'll let Nightmare of Battle explain it to you:

As rumored, Yukio Sakaguchi will take on Andy Ologun in an MMA rules fight which should be entertaining. This is a battle between Kenji Sakaguchi’s older brother and Bobby Ologun’s younger brother.

The reason I think this could be considered another freak show match is because Andy is the younger brother of TV personality turned fighter Bobby Ologun. Neither Bobby nor Andy are good fighters. Bobby sports an MMA record of 2-3 with wins coming against Akebono and Abidi and losses coming against Bob Sapp, Hong Man Choi and Yusku Fujimoto. In case you are wondering, Bobby weighs around 215lbs while the majority of his opponents have outweighed him by at least 100lbs. Although he did beat Akebono, a professional sumo wrestler who weighs 500lbs. Impressive? I'm not too sure about that. Andy Ologun is, from what I can tell, a fighter only and not a TV personality. He holds a K-1 record of 1-3 and an MMA record of 1-1. His last fight was against the flying armbar happy Daisuke Nakamura at Dream.5. Meanwhile Yukio Sakaguchi is by all accounts an average MMA fighter who holds a record of 3-3.

Also of note is that according to N.O.:

Neither fight has a contracted weight set right now. However, the Sakurai vs. Shibata fight is said to be fought around 81 kg, which is almost exactly in between DREAM’s Welterweight and Middleweight divisions.

Maybe I am reading a little too much into this fight. Maybe this is just an average fight between two fighters who probably won't be in any top ten any time soon and it's not like a freak show fight like I initially thought. In any case, here is the updated FiELDS Dynamite!! 2008 card thanks again to N.O.B:

Continue reading this post »

From a recent interview, via Fight Linker:

Did you like Thailand in general?
I’m not going back there again! (laughs) When you look at Bangkok: all you see is bars, sex-tourism prospers, alot of prostitutes and transvestites. It only disgusted me as an orthodox man.

You will fly out to this fight accompanied by priests?
I try to get a blessing before all important things, including my fights. God willing, my spiritual father Andrei Zinoviev will make the trip with me.

Sounds like Matt Hughes talk to me. Who doesn't like to partake in hookers and transves.... I mean drinking every once and a while? And whats with all the priest talk? Fedor is sounding very reminiscent of the God Warrior himself, Matt Hughes. 

*This fanpost was not meant to be taken seriously. The interviews are real but I could care less what the fighters religious affiliations are or the way in which they express their faith. I just found the interview snippet to be particularly interesting because I had no clue Fedor was such a orthodox guy.

Via his website:

NEXT VICTIM: BADR HARI!
The discussion was who would fight under whos rules first and Alistair stepped up first! Alistair will fight Badr Hari at K1 Dynamite 31 december under K1 rules! Since Badr Hari challenged Alistair he sees no other option than cause another demolition and knock Badr Hari out! Both fighters agreed to fight in MMA rules early 2009!

It was rumored earlier that Overeem would be taking on Sergei Kharitonov for the third time in an MMA match. It seems as if this fight is not happeneing anymore and instead Overeem is taking on K-1's bad boy Badr Hari in a K-1 rules fight.

I would love to see the two fight in an MMA match at Dynamite!! 2008 but that would put the K-1 bad boy at a huge disadvantage... Unless Dream allows stomps for this fight. But really this is a pretty good fight. Overeem's stand up is very good in MMA and it will be interesting to see if he can hold up against the former K-1 World Heavyweight Champion. It's good to see that Overeem has a back up plan in case he gets beat in the K-1rules fight. I've never heard of two fighters agreeing to fight in K-1 and MMA seemingly back to back. I wonder if this is Overeem's request or Hari's. If it's Overeem's request you have to wonder if he thinks he will lose in the K-1 rules fight but will look to redeem himself in the MMA fight. It could also be a way for Alistair to punish Hari for calling out MMA at the last DREAM event. That is if Overeem doesn't do so in the K-1 rules fight. If you don't remember what happened at the last DREAM event here is a quick recap. Badr Hari approached the ring prior to the Middle-Weight Final bout and challenged the Dream Heavyweight fighters to a match against him at the FEG FiELDS Dynamite!! 2008 show in Tokyo. He also insulted the performance of the competitors by stating "All I've seen tonight is a bunch of hugging and kissing." The MMA contingent didn't take too kindly to his words and hopefully Overeem takes Badr down a peg or two in the K-1 rules fight. It's definite that Overeem will submit Hari in the MMA rules match, if it does happen. That will definitely humble Hari. 

What ever does end up happenening, whether it be Overeem vs Kharitonov III or Overeem vs Hari in K-1the fans at FEG FieLDS!! Dynamite 2008 will be greating a lot of great fights. Hopefully FEG comes out and officially announces one or the other. FEG is definitely trying to get as many fans as they can for their end of the year blow out show. It'll be interesting to see the Japanese fans' reaction to Badr if he does fight. You'll remember last time Badr fought he was disqualified for stomping on Remy Bonjasky in the K-1 World Grand Prix Finals. The fans immediate reactions were obviously of shock and disgust. Will the fans embrace the bad boy again in this fight or will they turn on him for being DQ'd from the most important fight of the year in K-1.

This Fan Post was promoted to the front page by Nick Thomas.

According to MMAJunkie.com the fight is all but official with both fighters verbally agreeing to face each other at UFC 97:

Sources close to the bout have indicated to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) that Silva and fellow Brazilian Thales Leites (14-1 MMA, 5-1 UFC) have verbally agreed to the contest. Bout agreements have yet to be signed.

In his run in the UFC Leites has defeated Pete Sell, Ryan Jensen, Nate Marquardt and Drew McFederies. Leites is not the ideal opponent I'd like Silva to be facing right now, especially since Silva has stated several times that he would like to retire in(what is it now?) four fights. I think he needs to rematch Yushin Okami but unfortunately Okami is fighting a near meaningless fight against Dean Lister. The bout was already signed before Silva weirded everyone out at UFC 90 so there is nothing the UFC could have done to match Okami with Silva.

I'm not trying to take away anything from Leites. He deserves to fight Silva right now but in my opinion, this is not the fight that Silva should be taking right now. Another thing is that Silva will be off until April of 2009, when UFC 97 is projected to take place. Silva has also said time and time again that he would like to fight as often as possible. After not even breaking a sweat in October to fighting in April of the next year? Thats terrible to see. Silva is more than capable and willing to fight in a date closer than April and it doesn't make sese to me why the UFC would want to put Silva on the shelf for so long, especially after the UFC 90 display. Silva has been anxious to redeem himself to the fans after that odd display and I don't think he would prefer to wait until April to redeem himself. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out. All rumors indicate that Silva has agreed to fight Leites for the Middleweight title but who knows if he and his management have agreed to fight in April. Maybe Leites and Silva will end up fighting sooner rather than later.

This will definitely be the biggest test of the 27 year old Leites's career. In his last fight at UFC 90 Leites was able to quickly submit Drew McFederies, who has never been known to have any sort of a ground game. Before that Leites fought fomer #1 contender Nate Marquardt. In that fight Leites was able to out point Marquardt to get the split decision victory. However, in that fight Marquardt was docked two points to illegal stikes(and should have been docked another for pile driving Leites). Had he not been docked the points Marquardt would have won a narrow decision(if my math is right) or the fight would have been a draw at worst. Silva was easily able to dispatch of Marquardt in 2007 at UFC 73: Stacked. I hate to play the MMA math game but.... well I'll just leave it at that. No matter what though it will be a much more compelling and competitive match than Silva vs Cote.

As of right now UFC 97 is rumored to take place in Montreal. If it holds up this will be the second UFC event to take place in Montreal.

[UPDATE] by Nick Thomas - It's official:

There is no longer a place for rumors involving the likely match between the kingpin of middleweight division, Anderson Silva, and top ranked Thales Leites of Nova Uniao. Signed early this week, this fight will be the main event of UFC 97, confirmed for April 18 in Canada. In a call to the Brazilian Leites, he told us that he will be challenging the champion.

Promoted from the FanPosts by Kid Nate. I love me some Sengoku -- and anyone sleeping on King Mo is missing out on one of the hottest prospects of 2008.

Per Nightmare of Battle, three new fights were added today to the Sengoku No Ran 2009(or Sengoku: Rebellion 2009 in English if you like) event which is going to be held on January 4th, 2009 in the famous Saitama Super Arena in Japan. Of the three announced fights from today only one will be on the main card of the event and that is a fight between up start Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal versus Yukiya Naito.

King Mo burst onto the MMA scene with a devastating knock out win over YAMMA heavyweight champion Travis Wiuff and a solid TKO win over Fabio Silva. Travis is a very seasoned MMA veteran who holds notable wins aver Kazuyuki Fujita, Ricco Rodriguez and Roman Zentsov. To me King Mo is reminiscent of Sokoudjou’s start in Pride and ironically both are on Team Quest. While not exactly the same as Sokoudou’s start in Pride because of the level of talent that each fighter defeated it’s still kind of eerie if you ask me.

Image via Sherdog.com

Continue reading this post »

This is according to HDNet Fights CEO Andrew Simon, via MMA Fanhouse

Although HDNet is usually the go-to place for Japanese MMA in the U.S., and although the network just signed a new deal to televise K-1 events as well, HDNet Fights CEO Andrew Simon tells me that there's a chance the Dynamite show won't be televised at all in the U.S. The show isn't considered a K-1 event and therefore isn't covered by HDNet's contract with K-1. Right now it's unclear whether the Dynamite show will be available to American viewers.

If the show isn't televised here, it would be a major disappointment. MMA fans are increasingly relying on HDNet to bring them the best fights outside the UFC, and missing out on the Dynamite show would be a bad way to end the year.

I have been looking forward to the end of the year blowout event since it was announced many months ago and my anticipation has increased with every announced match, even the frakshow matches. It would be terrible to not have one of the best cards of the year not be televised, even on tape delay, in the US. When it was announced that HDNet struck a deal with Dream and K-1 parent company Fighting and Entertainment Group to air K-1 events I figured it was all but confirmed that HDNet would also be airing the co-promoted K-1 and Dream event seeing that HDNet already airs Dream events and they have just started airing K-1. Here's to hoping that HDNet can work out some sort of last minute deal to air FEG FieLDS Dynamite!! 2008.

Here's what the American MMA audience will be missing if HDNet can not air FieLDS Dynamite!! 2008:

FieLDS Dynamite!! 2008
Date: December 31st, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

MMA Rules Fights

• Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
• Mirko CroCop vs. Choi Hong Man
• Joachim Hansen vs. J.Z.Calvan
• Shinya Aoki vs. Eddie Alvarez
• Mark Hunt vs. Jerome Le Banner
• Semmy Schilt vs. Mighty Mo

K-1 Rules Fights:

• Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Takeda Kozo
• Gegard Mousasi vs. Musashi
• Yoshihiro Sato vs. Artur Kyshenko

K-1 Koshien Semifinal Fights:

• HIROYA vs. Shota Shimada
• Ryuya Kusakabe vs. Koya Urabe

K-1 Koshien Final Fight:

• HIROYA/Shimada vs. Kusakabe/Urabe

Unknown Rules Fight:

• Hideo Tokoro vs. Daisuke Nakamura

 

 

And FEG is reportedly still looking to announce up to five more fights .That's a lot of MMA and K-1 action we Americans are going to be missing out on, until the event comes out somewhere on the internet.