Fletch Blog: Kid & Omigawa to UFC-land; This Japanophile Thanks God for Sengoku...

Published on various sites, December 20th 2010



Two more Japanese MMA superstars are heading stateside.
Now, whereas my American brothers from East to West now have an exponentially better chance of seeing P4P God Kid and the man “whom the featherweight division revolves around” (in his own mind), this simply means that I – a pathetically biased British Japanophile – now have to deal with yet another blow to the flagging Japanese scene. Thank the Lord above for World Victory Road’s epic Soul of Fight card: without it, I may not have made it through the Christmas holidays without turning into the fight game’s Ebeneezer Scrooge.

It should come as no surprise that Omigawa has left for the UFC. His ego is such that despite his obvious Yoshida Dojo ties helping him to gift decisions over the best two featherweights in JMMA, Marlon Sandro and Hatsu Hioki, he left for Dream, beat Takaya and some comparative cans, and then declared that the featherweight division ‘revolves around him’. He then called out Dream Lightweight champ Shinya Aoki to a fight at Dynamite, and has now decamped for America.

The guy is an animal, but I can no longer stand him. Any man who steals the perfect 18-0 record from my #1 featherweight in MMA, Marlon Sandro, depriving him of the chance to win the SRC Featherweight Grand Prix, and who defects from JMMA to the UFC, ain’t cool in my book. Disclaimer: this does not reflect the views of IFI as a whole, but FletchBlogs are ‘my book’.

No Cat No Life? Not for me, sonny Jim. For me it’s no JMMA no life, and the Japanese featherweight scene has suffered as a result of its two biggest and best dropping gift decisions to a man who promptly leaves for UFC. Now if Omigawa gets grapple-f*cked, or if Jose Aldo tears him apart, how does that reflect on Japan?
Horrible news for me. The best I can hope for is that he at least works his way to a shot against the mercurial Aldo, and then I can perhaps dare to dream. I may even forgive him for the darkness that was Sengoku 9.

Kid leaving for the UFC is one that I am a little more OK with. Yes, a star has left, but that star has faded in recent years. After taking a hiatus from the sport due to his desire to compete as a wrestler at the 2008 Olympics, Kid Yamamoto returned to the MMA world with two consecutive losses – unthinkable for the undersized juggernaut who had previously torn through a 22-1 record that included a K-1 Hero’s Middleweight (154lbs) Grand Prix triumph, despite having a ‘natural’ weight of around 135lbs or so. Kid was a phenom, and in losing to the talented rookie Joe Warren and Sengoku’s official Grand Prix champion Masanori Kanehara (a man who had lost in the tournament, and replaced a finalist due to injury) Kid clearly displayed a lack of motivation. Something just wasn’t there, and it was feared that he was a star that burned out fast. And one quick win over an over-matched opponent later, and the fears haven’t completely subsided.

Either way…whether or not Kid reclaims his place at the top of either the Bantamweight or Featherweight divisions, it will be a pleasure to watch him.

And the nostalgia in me can’t help but remember the fevered debate of the old days…’Kid vs Faber, who would win?’ Well, now we may just find out. I just hope they both have enough left in them to put on the epic showing that they both deserve from each other.

Though on saying that…I wouldn’t complain at another four second flying bicycle tiger knee knockout from Kid!

So what, you ask, have Sengoku got to do with the price of chips?

Well my lovelies, they happen to be putting on an epic end 0f year show. Last year was disastrous – the World Victory Road boys put their finest on the line in a co-promotion of sorts with Dream at K-1 Dynamite, and some of the top boys got stuffed. Sengoku lightweight champ Mizuto Hirota had his arm snapped by a copper lock from the imperious Shinya Aoki, and Kazuo Misaki got smashed by the fury of Manhoef. Kawajiri beat Yokota in a battle of contenders from either promotion, and Alistair Overeem kneed Kazuyuki Fujita so hard in the head that the big Japanese fella still has nightmares about horses. It was largely disastrous for WVR.

This year is different. FEG’s attempts to organise Dynamite have been shambolic, and World Victory Road presents: Soul of Fight looks to be more epic than all three (yes, three) Die Hard films combined with Con Air and The Rock. For y’all action junkies out thur’.

Sandro vs Hioki? THIS, my pedigree chums, is the TRUE final of the Sengoku Featherweight Grand Prix. With Sandro robbed (as aforementioned) and Hioki suffering concussion in his victory, the actual final was basically contested between the two guys that LOST their semi-finals!

The winner will be – in my honest opinion – the #1 featherweight in the world. Now, if only Sandro and teammate Jose Aldo had some kind of major falling out… wouldn’t that be nice?

I will be doing a piece on Soul of Fight this week, but for now lads, have a gander at this masterpiece, and anticipate it unfolding before our eyes on December 30th.

The card:

SRC Featherweight Title Fight – 5R x 5min
Marlon Sandro vs. Hatsu Hioki

SRC Welterweight Grand Prix Final
KTaro Nakamura vs. Yasubey Enomoto

SRC Middleweight Fight 3R x 5min
Kazuo Misaki vs. Mike Seal

Sengoku Muay Thai-boxing Rules 70kg 3R x 3min
Buakaw Por. Pramuk vs. Hiroki Nakajima

SRC Lightweight Fight 3R x 5min
Kazunori Yokota vs. Jadamba Narantungalag

SRC Heavyweight Fight 3R x 5min
Yoshihiro “KISS” Nakao vs. Dave Herman

Women’s MMA Rules Open-weight
Rin Nakai vs. HARI

SRC Bantamweight Asia Tournament Semifinals
Akitoshi Tamura vs. Taiyo Nakahara
Manabu Inoue vs. Shunichi Shimizu

SRC Jacket Rules Lightweight 1R x 5min
Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Jin Suk Jung

SRC Jacket Rules Lightweight 1R x 5min
Sotaro Yamada vs. Lee Sak Kim

SRC Jacket Rules 59kg 1R x 5min
Kiyotaka Shimizu vs. Ichiro Sugita

Sengoku Muay Thai Rules Heavyweight +86.18kg 3R x 3min
Fabiano Cyclone vs. Ryuta Noji

Sengoku Muay Thai Rules 73kg 3R x 3min
Musashi Miyamoto vs. Hiroki Komata

Sengoku Kickboxing Rules 70kg 3R x 3min
Yusuke Ikei vs. Shintaro Matsukura

Sengoku Kickboxing Rules 70kg 3R x 3min
Yutaro Yamauchi vs. Go Yokoyama

Sengoku Muay Thai Rules Lightweight 60kg 5R x 3min
Kanongsuk Weerasakreck vs. Genki Yamamoto

Sengoku Muay Thai Rules 52kg 5R x 3min
Arashi Fujihara vs. Mutsuki Ebata

Sengoku Kickboxing Rules 61.23kg 2R x 3min
Hironobu Ikegami vs. Yuji Tanaka

Women’s Sengoku Muay Thai Rules Mini Flyweight 47.62kg 5R x 2min
Erika Kamimura vs. Chiharu