Due to popular demand, WWoMMA is back for April. Here are some of the best MMA highlights that went under the radar this month, with an emphasis on spectacular finishes and exciting up and coming talent. I've decided to add some UFC-style bonuses to spice things up a bit. Each winner will receive 1,000 smoogy points* for their efforts.

Best KO: Katsunori Kikuno

Best Submission: Max Fernandez

Best Fight: Jason Wood vs. Derek Shiffer


The Wide World of MMA - April 2009


King of Champions - Shockwave 2009
March 28, 2009 Crowne Plaza Event Center, Denver
Jesse Taylor def. Chris Camozzi via Decision (Unanimous)




HEAT 9
March 28, 2009, Aichi Bushido Hall, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
Max Fernandez def. Justin Holdaas via Submission (Flying Armbar) R1 1:00



BFC - Bellator Fighting Championships 1
April 3, 2009, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood, Fla.
Eddie Alvarez def. Greg Loughran via Submission (Guillotine Choke) R1 2:44

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Just a collection of some of the better fights in the last month you might've missed. I cheated a bit and added a couple of late February fights, plus K-1 MAX Korea. Click the event title for the full results of each card



DEEP 40th Impact - February 20th, Tokyo Japan

Katsunori Kikuno def. Jung Bu Kyung via R1 TKO




M-1 Challenge 12 : USA - February 21st, Tacoma Washington

Janne Tulrinta def. Tommy Depret via R1 Submission


Jae Young Kim def. Mikhail Zayats via R2 KO


Toni Valtonen def. Sander Duyvis via R1 KO

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I can't say I really had heard much about Giorgio Petrosyan before now, but he is a very slick fighter. He used just about everything in his arsenal to keep Andy Souwer off-balance and out of his range. The fight got dramatic when the judges unexpectedly ruled it a draw after three rounds despite Petrosyan seeming to be in control of the exchanges. Things got even more heated when Souwer was dropped by a punch in the extension round and the referee declined to give him a count. But in the end the judges saw things the way of Giorgio's incredibly agitated corner crew and gave him the decision, in what has to be considered a major upset.

On the undercard, Sahin "Kaas" Yakut looked solid in demolishing his oppenent in under a minute, and Hassan el Hamzaoui used a never ending barrage of flashy spinning kicks en route to a comfortable decision. Overall it was a pretty sweet card; the venue looked packed, and Petrosyan getting the win makes things even more interesting for the big Amsterdam Arena show in May.

Sahin 'Kaas' Yakut def. Shemsi Bequiri via R1 TKO

Hassan el Hamzaoui def. Federico Pacini via R5 Decision

Giorgio Petrosyan def. Andy Souwer via R4 Decision


Other results:

Rico Verhoeven def. Petr Majstorovic via Decision
Gregory Choplin def. Franco Lazzaro via Decision
Alexander Cosmo def. Murthel Groenhart via Decision
Armen Petrosyan def. Arnaldo Silva via Decision
Prajaskin Kaenjabai def. Francesco Cerigone via Decision
Mohammed Belkacem def. Slimane Sissoko via Decision
Wendell Roche def. Jasmin Becirovic via Decision

IT'S SHOWTIME - May 16, Amsterdam Arena

Badr Hari VS Semmy Schilt
Tyrone Spong VS Gökhan Saki
Melvin Manhoef VS Stefan Leko
Errol Zimmerman VS Mourad Bouzidi
Andy Souwer VS Chahid Oulad El Hadj
Giorgio Petrosyan VS Faldir Chahbari
Gago Drago VS William Diender
Nieky Holzken VS Sahin 'Kaas' Yakut
Joerie Mes VS Alviar Lima
Murat Direkçi VS TBA
Rico Verhoeven VS TBA
Chris Ngimbi VS Dennis Schneidmiller
Sem Braan VS Imro Main
Orono vor Petchpoon VS Hassan El Hamzaoui
Björn Bregy VS TBA

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

DREAM Featherweight GP winners pose during post-fight press conference. Photo from Sherdog.com

When I saw the ratings for the tape-delayed airing of DREAM 7 on Tokyo Broadcasting System, I was surprised. After DREAM 5 and DREAM 6 pulled down ratings in the 9%-10% range, an average of 2.4% seemed unthinkable. Yet here were the usual suspects like FightOpinion, and Bloodyelbow, using the inevitable "Nightmare" headlines to describe how bad things were. But something wasn't adding up.

Zach Arnold's piece said that the ratings were so bad, news sources like Sports Navigator "can't keep their eyes closed" any longer, but the report in question simply stated the ratings figures without any positive or negative analysis, like usual. Between these three sites, there was no real information to help put this rating into context.

As it turns out, DREAM 7 was aired at 1:20 AM local time on Sunday night. And unlike previous Sunday/Monday DREAM shows, it did not air during a long holiday weekend, but before a work day during the busiest time of the year in Japan. In other words, this was the worst time slot given to new DREAM programming on TBS by a wide margin. To compare this to previous events airing in prime time on big TV nights would seem ridiculous, but these blogs are doing it anyway.

Another piece of this puzzle which evidently has gone overlooked is the expectation for this event. It was put in a dreadful timeslot with no major stars and no real main event.

The average rating for the time slot on TBS, from what I gather, is about 2% to 3%. The Shinya Aoki vs. David Gardner fight peaked at 4% because it was actually aired out of order as the opening bout, ostensibly so people could watch it and then go to sleep!

An average rating of 2.5% is certainly not outstanding, but it is far from a disaster, or even being abnormal. Last year, a new Macross anime series debuted in the same time slot on the same channel to a 2.0% average and was considered a relative success.

In the past, DREAM reps have been unafraid to talk about the consequences that low ratings could bring for their promotion's future on television. But there is no concern being expressed over the DREAM 7 rating, in the Japanese media or by the promoters themselves. From Tony Loiseleur's DREAM 7 Notebook column on Sherdog:

Queued up as the first fight for the tape-delayed airing on TBS, the Aoki-Gardner bout was the highest-rated match of the broadcast, according to Dream event producer Keiichi Sasahara. Overall, the Dream 7 replay did a 2.4 rating in its midnight timeslot, a satisfying rating relative to its time of broadcast, Sasahara said.

So there you have it. The DREAM 7 rating is not a nightmare; it is actually within a normal range, when put into proper context. To compare the number directly with past shows in prime TV hours is to give a warped perspective of matters. The real test of the promotion's drawing ability will be prime time events like the April DREAM 8 card.

[This post originally from MMANews.com]

Photo from Yahoo! Japan

Yoshihiro Akiyama held a press conference today in Tokyo to address his recent signing of an exclusive contract with the UFC. He revealed that his deal would be for six fights, with the first to come in August. Akiyama confirmed that he would stay in the middleweight division, and said that Dana White wants to build him up to face Anderson Silva. He offered a statement of confidence:

"I want to press forward, never forgetting the feeling of challenge. Right now we are in a depression but when you see the fight I put up, conditions will turn around!"

HT: MMANews.com

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

If this report from MMAJunkie is true, it appears Caol Uno is about to walk away from DREAM and sign a contract with the UFC. Aside from Denis Kang, who is a reclamation project, to put it nicely, this is the first high profile acquisition of talent from Fighting Entertainment Group's MMA promotion by Zuffa. Though not an "A" level star for them like CroCop or Kid Yamamoto, he is a complimentary draw who is popular with the DREAM fans.

Speaking of the fans, take a look at the proposed UFC 99 card:

B.J. Penn fought in the early iterations of K-1's MMA events when the brand was still hot, plus Wanderlei Silva and CroCop were two of the biggest PRIDE stars for half a decade. This card would appeal more to Japanese fans than Americans. And considering Uno's history with Penn and the original UFC Lightweight title, not to mention his experience advantage over every other lightweight under the Zuffa umbrella, I wouldn't be shocked if Penn-Uno III is on the minds of Dana White and Joe Silva.

I believe the UFC is now making the first tangible steps on a path back to hosting live events in Japan, starting as soon as the second half of this year.

First of all, Dana gave this piece of news to the Japanese press in September of 2008:

UFC will be taking its show to Japan from the summer of next year.

It was announced they will be holding a show in the Phillipines next spring, and from there, UFC Japan will make its return. The last UFC event in Japan was in December of 2000.

Dana White said that if the summer Japan show is a success, they plan to hold a regular series of events in Japan.

Now, obviously that show in the Phillipines hasn't materialized yet, but UFC typically is a little behind schedule on the foreign events, so I still think a show in Japan can happen in 2009. When asked about their plans after UFC 94, White seemed pretty determined to make it happen:

It has been over eight years since the UFC last visited the "Land of the Rising Sun," but UFC President Dana White made it very clear at the UFC 94 post-event press conference that Japan is still very much a part of the organization's future.

"The Japanese market has always been important to me," White said. "It's a very, very, very tough place to navigate and do business. But, [expletive] 'em. We're going to do it anyway. They will not stop me from going into Japan."

He goes on to mention Caol Uno, Kid Yamamoto and Satoshi Ishii as three of the names at the top of his list to acquire from the Japanese Talent pool. But Kid and Ishii are far tougher nuts to crack than a mid-card fighter like Uno.

Satoshi Ishii is bound to make hundreds of thousands of dollars alone in sponsorships fighting in Japan. Despite his obvious and open courting by the UFC, all he signed was an exclusive negotiation agreement of unknown length. With DREAM offering him millions to sign with them, Zuffa faces an uphill battle.

Kid Yamamoto is similarly out of reach, though now he is supposedly a problem for some of the sponsors due to his alleged participation in hedonistic "pot parties" (seriously) and may need a cooling-off period.

For the UFC, sustaining a roster of top-flight Japanese stars and picking them off from DREAM (or Sengoku) can only happen if they either overpay like hell to make up for lost sponsorship opportunities, or run live events in Japan on a consistent basis in front of a large TV audience.

Right now, their TV deal with subscription-based service WOWOW does very little for them. Though there is a pay-per-view service called SkyPerfecTV that carries DREAM and Sengoku events, it is not a particularly popular or lurcrative option. The real dollars are to be had in major sponsorship for events televised on the major networks. K-1 shows are aired on Fuji TV and DREAM shows on Tokyo Broadcasting Station, which could be likened to the CBS and NBC of Japan. Sengoku events have all been aired on PPV, but they recently secured a TV deal with one of the lesser networks, TV Tokyo.

It could be argued that even with a tape delay of 12 hours or more, UFC could just have the shows in Japan and still do good business on the PPV, but the Zuffa brass know where the money is in that market. If they're really serious about making inroads, a deal with one of the six major networks is the ultimate goal, and it remains to be seen how well they will be accepted into the MMA landscape after the debacle that was the PRIDE purchase. It could take a lot of time and money to achieve any measure of success in the marketplace. Nevertheless, it looks like the UFC is going to take a crack at it.

Interestingly enough, DREAM may take the fight to the UFC to strike the first blow. The mysterious October DREAM 12 event has three candidate destinations: Australia, Korea... and the United States. K-1 has an annual tournament in Las Vegas, so it is not unreasonable to suggest we might see DREAM at the Thomas and Mack Center less than three years after the acclaimed PRIDE 33 event brought the house down.

It will be interesting to see how the paths of American and Japanese MMA cross this year, to say the least.

This is something I pulled together for my forum, using the last few EliteXC and Strikeforce cards plus their online rosters for reference. I have no inside information on which fighters they culled from the EliteXC roster, this is just my best guess. I figured it might make for an interesting conversation piece.

Heavyweight:

Alistair Overeem
Paul Buentello
Dave Herman
Brett Rogers
Shane Del Rosario
Kimbo Slice
Ricco Rodriguez
Bob Sapp
Tank Abbott
Maurice Smith
Daniel Puder
Jon Murphy
Carl Seumanutafa
Mike Cook


Light Heavyweight:

Renato Sobral
Rafael Feijao
Jarred Hamman
Bobby Southworth
Paoi Suganuma
Mamed Khalidov
Cyril Diabate
Aaron Rosa
Jaime Fletcher
Seth Petruzelli


Middleweight:

Cung Le
Robbie Lawler
Jorge Santiago
Kazuo Misaki
Frank Shamrock
Benji Radach
Scott Smith
Joey Villasenor
Trevor Prangley
Falaniko Vitale
Riki Fukuda
Terry Martin
Cyborg Santos
Dennis Hallman
Anthony Ruiz
Luke Rockhold
Alexander Shlemenko
Kala Hose
Cory Devela
Givanildo Santana
Jaime Jara
Kyle Noke
Nik Theotikos


Welterweight:

Paul Daley
Nick Thompson
Nick Diaz
Joe Riggs
Duane Ludwig
Phil Baroni
Ross Ebanez
Luke Stewart
Eric Bradley
Brian Schwartz
Lemont Davis


Lightweight:

Josh Thomson
K.J. Noons
Eddie Alvarez
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Gilbert Milendez
Jorge Masvidal
Yves Edwards
Jorge Gurgel
Conor Heun
Billy Evangelista
Fabricio Camoes
Muhsin Corbbrey
Edson Berto
Malaipet Team Diamond
Bobby McMaster
Douglas Evans


Featherweight/Bantamweight:

Wilson Reis
Bao Quach
Bryan Caraway
Mark Oshiro
Nam Phan


Women:

Gina Carano
Cristiane Santos
Kaitlin Young
Miesha Tate
Kelly Kobold
Michelle Waterson
Kim Couture
Shayna Baszler
Tonya Evinger
Julie Kedzie
Rosi Sexton
Debi Purcell

Josh Gross is all over the latest:

After reportedly deciding to shelve a complaint against UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, it appears B.J. Penn and his representatives have had a change of heart.

Penn's trainer, Rudy Valentino, told SI.com by text message that Penn has decided to move forth in filing a formal complaint with the Nevada State Athletic Commission alleging Georges St. Pierre's corner knowingly and illegally used Vaseline on his body to gain an unfair advantage Saturday night.

"Lawyers for B.J. are writting (sic) a complaint with the commission," Valentino said. "I just spoke to J.D. and B.J. a few minutes ago. They feel they have ations (sic)."

This story appears to have some legs.

Tokyo Sports recently published a brief Q&A with DREAM Event Producer Keiichi Sasahara, quoting him as saying that DREAM will send many of their MMA fighters to K-1 in 2009. This comes in the aftermath of the 2008 Dynamite event, which saw DREAM standouts Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi and Tetsuya Kawajiri all come up with surprising first round knockouts in K-1 rules action. Kawajiri in particular is expected to join the K-1 MAX fray sooner rather than later, possibly in a rematch with his Dynamite dance partner, Takeda Kozo. Sasahara named Overeem, Mousasi and Sergei Kharitonov as fighters who are expected to be booked in K-1 fights this year.


In other crossover news...

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Photo from www.sherdog.com

Earlier this week Mohammed "King Mo" Lawal stopped by the MMA.tv Underground Forum, back from his trip to Japan, where he won his third professional fight via TKO in the first round over Yukiya Naito. He was kind enough to answer questions from all comers. Some highlights:

I'd like to thank everybody thats down wit GDP....Gettin Dat Paper.....GDP or Die...and I aint tryin dyin

 

I love the country of Tokyo

   On why he got into mixed martial arts:

I always wanted to fight....It is the Ultimate Dream job....When I was young, we had fight day where I was livin...In counrty ass Richmond, KY

   The King Mo persona:

Its part of me...King MO aint no gimmik...I keep it 100 [percent]

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With the MMA fighters in K-1 matches at Dynamite shockingly running the table with 1st round knockouts, it seems like the topics of: "who are the best strikers in MMA?", and "what defines 'K-1 level'?" are alive and well. So with that in mind, pick your top 8 K-1 and MMA fighters for a K-1 rules GP, at open-weight, the MAX limit of 156lbs, or both. My matchups are assuming that its an NCAA style seeding (1v8, 2v7, 3v6, 4v5)

K-1 MAX Team

1. Masato
2. Artur Kyshenko
3. Andy Souwer
4. Yoshihiro Sato
5. Buakaw Por Pramuk
6. Albert Kraus
7. Mike Zambidis
8. Gago Drago

MMA Team

1. B.J. Penn
2. Eddie Alvarez
3. Andre Dida
4. Takanori Gomi
5. JZ CALVAN
6. Tatsuya Kawajiri
7. Duane Ludwig
8. Kenny Florian


Matchups

Masato vs. Kenny Florian
Artur Kyshenko vs. Duane Ludwig
Andy Souwer vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Yoshihiro Sato vs. JZ CALVAN
Buakaw Por Pramuk vs. Takanori Gomi
Albert Kraus vs. Andre Dida
Artur Kyshenko vs. Eddie Alvarez
Gago Drago vs. B.J. Penn

K-1 Team

1. Remy Bonjasky
2. Semmy Schilt
3. Peter Aerts
4. Badr Hari
5. Jerome Le Banner
6. Gokhan Saki
7. Errol Zimmerman
8. Ray Sefo

MMA Team

1. Alistair Overeem
2. Fedor Emelianenko
3. Melvin Manhoef
4. Gegard Mousasi
5. Anderson Silva
6. Lyoto Machida
7. Sergei Kharitonov
8. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira


Matchups

Remy Bonjasky vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
Badr Hari vs. Anderson Silva
Semmy Schilt vs. Sergei Kharitonov
Peter Aerts  vs. Lyoto Machida
Jerome Le Banner vs. Gegard Mousasi
Gokhan Saki vs. Melvin Manhoef
Errol Zimmerman vs. Fedor Emelianenko
Ray Sefo vs. Alistair Overeem

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

An interesting tidbit from this MMAPayout profile:

Shamrock business model in recent years includes 70% of revenue from fighting, 15-18% from licensing, and 12% from consulting.  The latter consists of fees Shamrock earns from promotions like Elite XC, and in the past, UFC, offering advice and support.  He takes cash and/or equity as payment, and sometimes will invest his own capital.

He believes in taking risks, but only calculated ones.  "I’ve taken some risks with my brand, but they were only risks where the payoff was way beyond the risk."  Over time, he’s changed his approach.  "I’ve got a life and longevity plan," he said.  "I want to be healthy and happy, but I have to be in really good shape and stay at the highest level.  Otherwise my brand will suffer and people will be kicking my ass."  As a result, Shamrock has been much more deliberate about how he plans and promotes his fights.  "My plan is to fight for 10 more years, until I’m 45, but the risks get higher every year as I get older, so I work to raise the value of each fight each time," by amping up the promotion and buildup, and commanding higher revenues.

At the same time, he continues to diversify his business outside the ring, landing some national, mainstream projects like "MMA for Dummies" with Wiley Publishing and one of the crown jewels of sports licensing deals, an MMA videogame by EA Sports that hits stores in 2010.

Last time we heard any details regarding this EA Mixed Martial Arts game, it was Randy Couture touting his possible inclusion in May:

IGN: You didn't appear in any of the UFC video games. Why was that the case?

I wouldn't waive my rights, so they yanked me from the game, and I'm not in the new version. I'm pursuing trying to do a video game of my own which I'm talking to EA about. I'm going to show up in Command and Conquer as a general, in a theatrical version of the video game they're doing now, and hopefully that will be the first step towards a video game with EA featuring me!

Obviously Couture, having returned to the UFC, appears to be out of the running, but it sounds like EA will forge ahead, with Shamrock and other non-Zuffa MMA stars comprising the roster. No word on whether or not the EA logo has been banned from the octagon yet.

Fronted by Luke Thomas.

Chris Howie of MMANews.com has it:

Although the second Affliction show is still over a month away, future plans include a third show that will most likely take place in January of February 2009. One fight that Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio is looking at is one that some fans have been talking about for quite some time.

"In terms of fighters we are looking at Jerome LeBanner, he is interested in doing MMA and apparently him and Tim Sylvia have some history between them so that is something that we are looking at right now."

My memory of it is kind of hazy, but as far as the background to this fight goes, the short version is that Le Banner called out Sylvia when he was champion, and again after the first Arlovski fight, with Tim brushing him off both times. To say JLB is a little over the hill would be an understatement, but he is no stranger to fighting larger opponents and I think Sylvia would be foolish to try and trade blows with him.

Steve Cofield has the exclusive for Yahoo Sports:

Sources have told Yahoo! Sports that free agent Tito Ortiz will fight Renato "Babalu" Sobral in the co-main event at Affliction's next fight card, on Oct. 11 at the Thomas & Mack Center on the UNLV campus in Las Vegas. The main event will feature a heavyweight bout between WAMMA champion Fedor Emelianenko and Andrei Arlovski.

Affliction vice president Tom Atencio would not confirm the Ortiz-Babalu fight. He said details for the fight card will be released during an Aug. 6 news conference that most likely will be held in Las Vegas.

How big is this signing for Affliction?

Well, lets look at the buy estimates (courtesy of MMAPayout and Dave Meltzer) for Tito's last five pay per views:

UFC 59 - Ortiz v. Griffin - 425,000
UFC 61 - Ortiz v. Shamrock II - 775,000
UFC 66 - Liddell v. Ortiz - 1,050,000
UFC 73 - Ortiz v. Evans - 425,000
UFC 84 - Ortiz v. Machida - 475,000-525,000

Average: 635,000

To put this in modern TV parlance, Affliction just pulled a "game changer". With a PPV ace like Ortiz, the landscape changes drastically. Given a proper promotional effort, the 250,000-300,000 buy range talked about by Affliction promoter Tom Atencio that was passed off as a laughably unrealistic goal now seems much more attainable, to say the least.

Totally unverified at the moment but I figured one of you sleuths could check into it:

alright, well anyway i live next door to rampage in irvine ca. just got home from work and the neighbors were telling me that he got arrested again. I guess there was a cop car there trying to arrest him and he refused thus involving multiple units. They had like stun/taser guns drawn. I asked why he was getting arrested because i know he posted bail and the cop told me neighbor the nanny was afraid of domestic violence. Im not bullshitting you, dont ban me for trolling.

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f2/rampage-gets-arrested-newport-beach-ca-all-dicussion-here-814660/index490.html#post24506170

This diary entry was promoted to the front page by Nick Thomas.

UFC President Dana White talks BJ Penn vs Sean Sherk.

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