SB Nation User Blog: EVeezy

New fighters listed for the EA Sports MMA game were reveled today. Cung Le Scott, Smith, Matt ...

EVeezy — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:49:53 -0000

New fighters listed for the EA Sports MMA game were reveled today. Cung Le Scott, Smith, Matt Lindland, Ronaldo Souza, Gilbert Melendez, Josh Thomson

Dream vs. Sengoku Match-Ups Revealed!

EVeezy — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:26:39 -0000

Promoted To Frontpage From Fanposts By Kelvin Hunt

FEG held it's second Dynamite Press Conference tonight. FEG president Tanigawa starts the press conference by walking out with Dream president Sasahara and WVR president Inamura. The first fight announced is Ray Sefo vs. Yosuke Nishijima. Nishjima is a popular former boxing champion in Japan. It will be a K-1 rules bout. Also in the press conference they announce Aoki has the flu. Sadly this could mean there could be no Aoki vs "Crusher" fight. "Kid" Yamamoto is making his return to MMA agaisnt Sengoku featherweight champion Masanori Kanehara. "Kid" is coming off an embarassing KO in K-1. Judo Olympic Silver Metalist Hiroshi Izumi is fighting for just the second time agaisnt pro-wrestler Katsuyori Shibata. Kazuyuki Fujita had a choice between Jerome Le Banner and Alistair Overeem. Fujita decided to ~~dig his own grave and~~ choose Overeem. Here is the rest of the fight card that was announced:

MMA Fight:
Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida

DREAM Vs. SRC:
-Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto vs. Masanori Kanehara
-Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Michihiro Omigawa
-Hideo Tokoro vs. Marlon Sandro
-Hayato "Mach" Sakurai vs. Akihiro Gono
-Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Izumi
-Alistair Overeem vs. Kazuyuki Fujita

K-1 MAX Fight (5×3 minutes, 1×3 ext.):
-Masato vs. Andy Souwer

K-1 Fight:
-Ray Sefo vs. Yosuke Nishijima

Super Hulk Tournament Final:
-Minowaman vs. Sokoudjou

K-1 Koshien Finals:
Final: HIROYA/Noiri Winner vs. Shimada/Ishida Winner
Semi-Final: HIROYA vs. Masaaki Noiri
Semi-Final: Shota Shimada vs. Katsuki Ishida
Reserve: Tsukasa Fuji vs. Ryuya Kusakabe

Now all the fights have not been announced so expect more announcements in the near future. Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida is still the main event, WVR's t.v. deal was dropped with this main event. This leads me to believe that a big name in Japan will be on the card. Fighters I am speculating are Gomi, Kawajiri, Sakuraba, Ishida, Kitaoka, Hirota. With an outside chance of Kang and Aoki to jump in. So far this is a soild NYE card. That being said it could be far better. There are MUCH more matches to be made. FEG stated that there will be 18 to 19 fights on this card. And only 14 have been announced. I am upset about the Koshien Finals (K-1 High school) It doesn't need to be on this card. The Koshien finals are taking up card space from meaning-full MMA fights. If the Aoki vs. Kawajiri fight does not get made I will be extremely upset.

Five-time World's Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski makes his MMA debut in Poland. HT:...

EVeezy — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 02:45:02 -0000

Five-time World's Strongest Man winner Mariusz Pudzianowski makes his MMA debut in Poland.

HT: Bloodyelbow.com

Kazuo Misaki penalty from commission is finished. World Victory Road is announced Misaki will be...

EVeezy — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:57:11 -0000

Kazuo Misaki penalty from commission is finished. World Victory Road is announced Misaki will be participating in the NYE show.

K-1 World Grand Prix 2009: Quick Results

EVeezy — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 11:57:06 -0000

via www.mmafight.com

Semmy Schilt def. Badr Hari via TKO (Kick to the body) R1

Tyrone Spong def. Keijiro "Kyotaro" Maeda via DEC
Semmy Schilt def. Remy Bonjasky via TKO (leg kicks) R1
Badr Hari def. Alistair Overeem via TKO (head kick) R1

Daniel Ghita def. Sergei Kharitonov via TKO (leg kicks) R3
Remy Bonjasky def. Errol Zimmerman via DEC
Semmy Schilt def. Jerome Le Banner via TKO (kicks to the body) R1
Alistair Overeem def. Ewerton Teixeira via KO (knee) R1
Badr Hari def. Ruslan Karaev via TKO (punches) R1
Peter Aerts def. Gokhan Saki via DEC
Jan Soukup def. Tsutomu Takahagi via DEC
Singh "Heart" Jaideep def. Makoto Uehara via KO (knee) R2
Ryuji Kajiwara def. Keiichi Samukawa via DEC

The Ultimate Fighter 10 Finale; Weight-ins

EVeezy — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:10:02 -0000

Roy Nelson (263) vs. Brendan Schaub (240)

via www.cdn.sherdog.com

Matt Hamill (206) vs. Jon Jones (206)

via www.cdn.sherdog.com

Houston Alexander (208) vs. Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson (212)

via www.cdn.sherdog.com

Frankie Edgar (155) vs. Matt Veach (155)

via www.cdn.sherdog.com

Marcus Jones (262) vs. Matt Mitrione (255)

via www.cdn.sherdog.com

James McSweeney (235) vs. Darrill Schoonover (261)

Jon Madsen (247) vs. Justin Wren (251)

Brian Stann (205) vs. Rodney Wallace (203)

Dennis Hallman (169) vs. John Howard (170)

Joe Brammer (155) vs. Mark Bocek (156)

MMA Prospect Watch: 12/4/09-12/6/09

EVeezy — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 08:42:55 -0000

I want to compile a list every weekend and discuss prospects fighting around the world. I want to shed some light on the young up and comers and some veterans that are trying to break into the big show. All these fighters are fighting this weekend around the world. If you are interested in watching these fighters please ask in the comments section and I will be more than happy to give you information. Please enjoy!

Joe "Diesel" Riggs -170 - 30-10 - Joe Riggs is fighting a journeyman in Eric Regan. Riggs should get a stoppage on this fight and get onto a Strikeforce card in the future. He is a decent exciting fighter, very useful to Strikeforce.

Duane Ludwig - 155 - 18-9 Ludwig has a tune up fight against journeyman Ryan Roberts. Ludwig is coming off a lost to hot prospect Lyle Beerbohm. Ludwig will get a win and he soon will be placed on a Strikeforce card. Duane Ludwig

via www.cdn.sherdog.com

Pat Curran - 145 - 8-2 - Jeff Curran's younger brother Pat Curran is fighting this weekend on his big brother's MMA promotion XFO. Pat is a good ground and pound artist with decent hands. Pat's opponent is Travis Perzynski, this should be a good fight for Curran to improve upon.

Lloyd Woodard - 170 - 6-0 - Woodard is a strong wrestler with good submission skills. He has beaten the tough Ryan Healy. He has passed the test the local scene in Washington has given him, it is time for him to fight some tough experienced opponents to grow as a prospect.

via www.risefc.com

Brent Primus- 155 - 5-1 - Primus is a HEAVY handed striker. His last three fights have gone a total of 1:55! I haven't seen much of his wrestling so I am not sure if he can stuff a takedown. But he is knocking fools out left and right, he needs more time polishing his skills across the local scene before making a jump in competition. Primus is an exciting prospect to watch.

Forrest "The Meat Cleaver" Petz - 155 - 16-7 - Coming off a decent win against Chad Reiner. Petz should have no problem getting another win against Brendan Seguin. Petz is eyeing another shot at the big show. Petz holds a winner over title contender Dan Hardy. But let's be honest Petz is a gatekeeper for good prospects that want to break into the big show. This is not ment to put down Petz, if Petz is able to string together a few more wins I don't see why Strikeforce or the UFC wouldn't offer him a contract. Bottom line Petz is a good fighter that will test good young prospects.

Christopher Schlichter- 205 - 2-0 - Schlichter has really good hands. Along with his powerfully striking Schlichter has decent wrestling. He sets up his strikes well and uses smooth takedowns. Guy has got powerful ground and pound and he is someone to be on the lookout for in the future.

via www.prokarateweekly.com

Joe Heiland - 155 - 6-0 - I believe this is Heilands first fight at 155. I think along with gaining experience Heiland is seeing how comfortable he will be at 155. Heiland is signed with the Canadain promotion MFC so we will be seeing this guy on HD net very soon. Heildand is a good wrestler with good ground and pound. He has good guard passing and positions his hips well when throwing punches on top. He is a guy to watch out for.

Jessica Eye-125 - 0-0 - Eye has a record of 4-0 in the ammeter circuit. Eye has a long way to go before she is fighting girls like Megumi Fujii. But she is a decent fighter that needs to improve her wrestling. A fight between her and Kim Couture would be interesting.

Tim Seug - 125 - 0-0 - Seug is an ammeter fighter with a record of 4-1. He is a decent wrestler coming out of Springfield, Oragon. With the 125 division being quite thin, if Seug continues to improve in the coming years we could possibly see him in the WEC.

Freddie Lux - 135 - 2-0 - Lux trains out of Tucson, Arizona with Andrew and Drew Fickett. Lux is a good submission wrestler than is continues to gain experience on the local circuit. His striking needs more polishing but I'm sure with more time in the gym, Lux can get that straightened out.

Mike Nickels - 185 - 8-2 Nickels is on a three fight win streak, recently racking up a win against a tough David Heath. Nickels is a good submission artist, and unfortunatly he never uses his reach to his advantage. Nickels had a stint in the UFC and is looking to get back there. He will be facing TUF 8 veteran Vinny Magalhaes.

via img.mixedmartialarts.com

Alvin Robinson - 145 - 9-4 - Robinson is making his first cut to 145. Honestly I love this kid. He is a physically dominating athlete. He has got good wrestling put he needs to work on his transitions and holding position on top. While Robinson is a good wrestler his striking has has a ways to go. I think he was just put into the UFC too early. But with him getting time to work on his skills I think he will blossom into a wonderful prospect.

Cameron Dollar- 155 - 2-2 - TUF 9 veteran Cameron Dollar is facing off with Kit Cope in a fight I think he will lose. But hopefully he will prove me wrong. Dollar surprised me with his striking on and off the TUF show. I think Cope striking is much better than Dollar's and I think Cope has just enough wrestling defence to stuff most of Dollars takedowns. To me Dollar looks a little small of 155 and I would like to see if he could make 145. Good fight though.

Cody Donovan- 205 - 5-0 - Cody Donovan is a great young fighter. He posses all around good skills, good wrestling, good transitions, and some pretty decent striking. If Donovan can continue to grow as a prospect, it would be a good idea for Strikeforce to pick this kid up.

Bryan Humes - 265 - 5-0 - Humes is a really good Heavyweight prospect. He possess good wrestling and GREAT cardio for a heavyweight fighter. He uses his wrestling to pin his opponents against the cage and wear them down. While the style my not be visually appealing he gets the wins.

Dream vs. Sengoku: NYE Show

EVeezy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 22:48:02 -0000

Promoted to front page from fanposts by Kelvin Hunt

via www.sporty-walki.org

I have declined to write about this topic so all the facts can come out. I have waited a week and still many questions have not been answered. Monster moves are being made in the far East. World Victory Road and Fighting Entertainment Group have been bitter rivals in the past but now they will join forces on New Years Eve. This is a major move! There is a possibility of Japan having a single major organization since Pride. However, according to Tony Loiseleur's twitter WVR is not done just yet.

WVR has already booked the Ryogoku Kokugikan for March, so we may see one more show. Future shows depend on finding a financial backer.

Now why is this happening? There are a few reasons why, first is Sengoku has failed to hustle a T.V. deal. Even with the Ishi vs Yoshida as the main event! In addition to Sengoku not getting a T.V. deal attendance has been a serious issue. And the major reason why is Don Quijote(The Japanese equivalent to Walmart in the U.S.) is having secret meetings with FEG President Tanigawa to discuss a union between the two. According to Nightmare Of Battle, FEG was not going to agree to this, their plan was to watch Sengoku die and pick up the fighters FEG desired. Unfortunately for FEG their sponsor, pachinko manufacturer FieLDS, is not going to renew their contract. So with FEG needing a financial backer and WVR needing a T.V. contract the two organizations will join together for NYE and possibly the future.

Nightmare Of Battle does an excellent job recapping the Press Conference here. Interesting bits of information coming out of the press conference is:

Satoshi Ishii wasn’t present since he is currently training in Las Vegas. The plan is 7 DREAM Vs. SRC fights. The fights will be announced one of these days. Yoshidasaid that he hasn’t heard who he’s fighting in this event yet, implying that his fight with Ishii isn’t officially announced yet. Tanigawa said consider what direction we’ll take at the press conference.

However, after the press conference Tanigawa said that they’ll do Yoshida vs. Ishii. That fight and Masato’s retirement fight will be a double main event.

"Mach" didn’t know about any of this since he hasn’t been on the Internet lately. In his comment he said that he’s hungry since he woke up at 12 PM and hasn’t had breakfast yet. The press conference was moved back 20 minutes because he was late.

Shibata is excited about fighting a SENGOKU fighter, mentioning that there are a lot of Judo medalists there. He wants to fight someone outside of his weight class and he’ll beat him up.

No word on any of the match-ups yet. We are 29 days away from the event and only one fight has been confirmed. This is not unusual for Japanese MMA but with such a massive change you would expect more fights to be announced. More information from Nightmare of Battle:

Did people expect them to talk about the backstage stuff at the press conference?

No way, that isn’t important to normal people.

The only way we’ll find out those things are through magazine interviews and insider articles like the one yesterday.

The WVR GM said that the current plan for the next SRC event is March. The fighters participating will be the fighters who have fought there until now.

Sasahara said that there will be 18-19 fights on NYE, and there will also be fights between DREAM fighters so it’s not only SENGOKU vs. DREAM on the MMA side. Kawajiri and KID couldn’t attend the press conference because they were out on other business.

About SENGOKU only fights (besides Ishii vs. Yoshida) the WVR GM said that it’s yet to be decided if there will be any.

Misaki’s participation is also yet to be decided. There will be a meeting about if his suspension will be lifted or not. Misaki himself said: "I want to obey the instruction of the SENGOKU side."

There will be foreign fighters competing as well, but the Japanese fighters will be the focus.

Tanigawawantsto match the champions with each other. The rules might depend on the fight.

About a future merger, Tanigawa said that Dynamite!! is mainly TBS’s event so there’s nothing like that.

The plan is for a double main event but Masato’s fight will probably be last since they’ll have a retirement ceremony after the fight. The event will start at 3 PM.

About K-1 fights besides Masato’s retirement fight and the Koshien finals Tanigawa said that there might be. It depends on what happens on December 5th.

via ca.c.yimg.jp

A day after the Confrence I read a post by Chris Nelson of Bloodyelbow.com:

World Victory Road public relations director Takahiro Kokuho has been released by the company for unspecified reasons. This brings the WVR/Sengoku picture into focus a bit more: Kokuho manages a good chunk of Sengoku's roster under his "J-Rock" banner, including those from Yoshida Dojo. With Kokuho ousted at WVR and none of his gym's fighters on the "Dynamite!!" card, Hidehiko Yoshida's non-committal comments at yesterday's press conference are easier to make sense of.

It is unclear what will happen with Kokuho and J-Rock after this.

If Don Quijote buys the MMA branch of FEG that could be a very good thing. Japanese MMA needs unity and money right now, and Don Quijotecan provide both. And FEG can provide a T.V. deal for Don Quijote which he needs. FEG can keep and manage K-1 all to itself. From what people are saying, it seems like Don Quijote are a pretty popular and respectable business, which might help cleaning up the yakuza taint Pride left. Now look at this, Don Quijote owns WVR, has a controlling stake in Pancrase, and buys DREAM! Don Quijote will control the major Japanese MMAscene. Along with controlling organizations Don Quijote is also involved in the Japan Martial Arts Federation. Smaller Japanese organazations such as Shooto and ZSTare also affiliated with the JMAF. Having the JMAF and Don Quijote together there could be a major revolution in Japanese MMA. With these two partners working together Japanese MMA could become far more Westernised in the coming years. Very exciting stuff! Radical changes are being made in the far east, a revolution of sorts. Could Japan regain the throne of MMA Mecca?

10 Things I Am Thankfull For

EVeezy — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 21:21:22 -0000

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I just wanted to complie this top ten list about ten things I am thankful for in Mixed Martial Arts this year. I feel that as fans we complain about certain things happening in MMA, like Rampage not fighting this year, awlful judging, and the rest of the crappy things that happens in fight sport. I decided to look on the brighter side and thank MMA for all the joy and passion it gives me. Hope everyone has a fantastic Thanksgiving, Best wishes to you all!

I am thankful that Brock Lesnarwill be returning to MMA action next year.
I am thankful thank Fedor Emelianenko is fighting in America.
I am thankful for watching so many MMA events this year.
I am thankful that BJ Penn will fight three times this year, last time that happened in was 2004.
I am thankful that the re-match between Shogun and Machidahas been scheduled.
I am thankful that sometime next year we will see 125'ers in the WEC.
I am thankful that ~~no MMA organization has closed this year~~ smarter business man are getting involved in MMA.
I am thankful for so many fantastic finishes this year.
I am thankful that so many world class althletes are getting into the sport of MMA.
I am thankful to all the staff and all the readers here at MMAforreal.com for reading my post, for letting me cover a event, for listening to my opinions, and for having such a cordial atmosphere when on the site. Thank you all.

Ariel Helwani talks with Fabricio Camoes about his upcomming fight with Caol Uno. HT: MMA...

EVeezy — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:14:55 -0000

Ariel Helwani talks with Fabricio Camoes about his upcomming fight with Caol Uno.

HT: MMA Fanhouse