Published on various sites, November 2010
It’s the mossssst wonderful time, of the year!
The rumour mill is swirling as ever, for the end of year cards that Japanese orgs serve up. Ironically enough, after being PASTED in their co-promotion last year, Sengoku look to – incredibly – have the upper hand this time around. Dream have only one fight officially booked for K-1 Dynamite, whereas WVR’s Soul of Fight has a decently stacked card ready and waiting to happen.
And if Sandro vs Hioki goes down? Oh my. Oh…. my.
And three weeks prior to the 30th and of course New Years Eve, DEEP put on their 51st numbered card, featuring a non-title fight between featherweight champ Koichiro Matsumoto and former Pancrase vet Shoji Maruyama.
DEEP 51
Megaton WILL be present on this card, as the hulking Hideki “Shrek” Sekine (2-0) takes on Seigo Mizuguchi, in the staple big man fight that so fascinates and entertains the Japanese audiences.
Takafumi Otsuka, who lost to the title to Matsumoto back in July, fights on the card against Tomohiko Hori (11-9) and he looks to halt a three-fight losing streak and to earn another shot at the top in DEEP.
The rest of the card consists of Japanese fighters with very mixed records, and it should be entertaining fare as ever from DEEP.
Full fight card is as follows:
Koichiro Matsumoto (11-2) vs Shoji Maruyama (7-5)
Takafumi Otsuka (10-7) vs Tomohiko Hori (11-9)
Hideki “Shrek” Sekine (2-0) vs Seigo Mizuguchi (7-7)
Hidehiko Hasegawa (18-13) vs Yoshitomo Watanabe (8-11)
Hiromitsu Kanehara (18-23) vs Hiroki Sato (6-3)
Yasuaki Kishimoto (12-3) vs Kosuke Umeda (9-8)
Isamu Sugiuchi (8-9) vs Tomoya Kato (9-3)
Yuta “Andre” Watanabe (12-4) vs Yusaki “99″ Tsukumo (8-4)
Yusuke Kagiyama (10-3) vs Katsunori Tsuda (4-0)
Yuki Ito (8-6) vs Yasuhiro Kawasaki (5-1)
Hirotaka Miyakawa (5-7) vs Masato Kobayashi (4-3)
adao Kondo (5-2) vs Juri Ohara (2-0)
obuo “Gosatu” Odakura (2-0) vs TBA
Toshikazu “ISE” Iseno (7-6) vs TBA
Tatsumitsu Wada (3-6) vs TBA
As for Dynamite, nothing is as yet concrete apart from the admittedly tasty matchup for the DREAM Featherweight title: Bibiano Fernandez vs Hiroyuki Takaya II. Little more than a year ago, Takaya was edged out in the FW Grand Prix final by a VERY close decision to Bibiano, and has worked hard to earn a second shot. He was not granted an immediate title fight by Dream, who matched him up with Omigawa instead, and he got violently stopped. He clawed his way back up to title contention by icing the Lightweight Grand Prix winner Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen, and then Chase Beebe to earn his rematch with Bibi. This one should be good…. but it would look better with a few more fights booked around it!
One tasty (to some) rumour is that the legendary Sakuraba will finally drop down to welterweight – a weight he could have cut to, yet he fought the majority of his career at LHW or open-weight – to face Dream’s welterweight kingpin Marius Zaromskis. Saku is so done that I reckon a C level light-heavyweight or middleweight could have their way with him now, but the redeeming feature of this fight would be that Zaro is tiny compared to him. Hell, Zaro is a SMALL welterweight! Not to mention he has lost two on the spin, his recent No Contest notwithstanding… so this is perhaps the only forseeable way that Saku could possibly retire on a title win. Lets pray the dream comes true.
Then again… it isn’t booked. Just like the rest of Dream’s card!
World Victory Road, on the other hand, are putting on the epic looking Soul of Fight. My personal #1 ranked FW Marlon Sandro is heavily rumoured to face Shooto champ and star Hatsu Hioki. The fight was suggested by unreliable (and idiotic) sources to be taking place at FEG’s Dynamite, but given that it pits the Sengoku and Pancrase champ (Sandro) against the Shooto king (Hioki) and both men are contracted to WVR, it will clearly be a Sengoku title defence for the lethal Brazilian.
This will be a FOTY contender for sure, if it goes down. I would personally rank the winner the undisputed #1 FW; given the resumes and skills of both, with the only black mark being that BOTH were robbed in disgusting fashion against fellow top 5 FW Michihiro Omigawa, in horrendous “must win” decisions. WVR probably regret it now, as Omigawa decamped to Dream, and now apparently seeks a berth in the UFC.
Regardless, Sandro and Hioki are FW giants. This will be an epic bout if it happens!
Soul of Fight also sees the return of Yasubey Enomoto. His next victi…. excuse me, opponent, will be Keita Nakamura. The latter is a very capable MMArtist on the JMMA scene, and holds an excellent 20-4 win/loss record. But in Enomoto’s current form, I’m expecting an absolute clinic to be put on; at Nakamura’s expense. Enomoto is looking special.
The announced Sengoku card for World Victory Road presents: Soul of Fight is as follows:
* Yasubey Enomoto vs. Keita Nakamura
* Manabu Inoue vs. Shunichi Shimizu
* Taiyo Nakahara vs. Akitoshi Tamura
* Akitoshi Tamura vs Taiyo Nakahara
* Dave “Pee Wee” Herman vs. Yoshihiro Nakao
* Fabiano Aoki vs Ryuta Noji
* Chiharu Icho vs Erika Kamimura
* SANDRO vs HIOKI (hope hope hope)
Should be a good couple of mornings for us British Japanophiles, noons for the Euros and nights for our cross-Atlantic bredren in the States!
Hope FEG get their shiznit together in time. But if not, at least Sengoku are putting on a few barnburners, even if their own Featherweight super-fight doesn’t go down.
Fletch
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