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.