Road FC 006! The Full Card
[/caption]Road FC 006. FINAL4
6. MW Tournament Final: Lee/Son vs. Oyama/Kim
5. Crying Fist Special Fight: Jung Won Lee vs. Han Lee Mun
4. BW Tournament Quarterfinal: Kyung Ho Kang vs. Andrew Leone
3. MW Tournament Reserve: Jae Young Kim vs. Hee Seung Kim
2. MW Tournament Semifinal: Shungo Oyama vs. Jong Dae Kim
1. MW Tournament Semifinal: Eun Soo Lee vs. Hae Suk Son
Road FC Young Guns 2
6. -90kg Fight: Eun Soo Kim vs. Sang Soo Lee
5. Welterweight Fight: Seok Mo Kim vs. Jung Min Kang
4. Lightweight Fight: Hyun Suk Lee vs. Chung Il Jeon
3. Bantamweight Fight: Jae Hyun So vs. Myung Sik Kwak
2. Bantamweight Fight: Kwang Su Park vs. Dae Hwan Kim
1. Bantamweight Fight: Jae Hoon Moon vs. Jin Suk Jung
KID Back In Japan! Reconstructing His Body
Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto will face Vaughan Lee in a Bantamweight fight at UFC 144 at Saitama Super Arena on February 26th. Yesterday he returned home to Japan after a two month training camp in Canada. He has focused mainly on remodeling his body/muscles to get it better suited for 135 pounds.
Imanari In Singapore! Versus Kevin Belingon
A Bantamweight bout between DREAM veteran Masakazu Imanari and exciting undefeated Filipino Kevin Belingon has been announced for the March 31st One FC 3 card in Singapore.
Also announced for the card, a Middleweight fight between Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Melvin Manhoef.
Two more DREAM fighters are expected to be added according to OneFC’s twitter.
Sotiropoulos Out! Gomi And Mitsuoka Clash
An injury suffered in training has forced lightweight George Sotiropoulos (14-4 MMA, 7-2 UFC) to withdraw from UFC 144, officials announced today.
In his place steps newcomer Eiji Mitsuoka (18-7-2 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who meets Takanori Gomi (32-8 MMA, 1-3 UFC) on the event’s preliminary card.
Fight Video! Road FC MW Tournament Quarterfinal
Road FC 005. Night Of Champions: Jong Dae Kim vs. Dool Hee Lee
Kim will face Shungo Oyama in one of the Middleweight tournament semifinals at the Road FC 006. FINAL4 event.
January 28th! Pancrase 2012 Progress Tour
The first big Pancrase event of 2012 will take place on January 28th at Differ Ariake in Tokyo and two King Of Pancrase titles will be on the line.
In the co main event Kiyotaka Shimizu will defend his Super Flyweight KOP title against Seiji Ozuka. Shimizu will look to get back on track after a 6-fight unbeaten streak came to an end at the hands of Shinichi “BJ” Kojima at Shooto The Shoot 2011. Ozuka is a solid fighter who has done really good lately going 4-0-1 with 3 TKO wins. His record isn’t the best at 12-9-6 but he has really only been stopped in one of his losses.
The other KOP title fight will be in the Middleweight division as the card will host a 4-man one-night Middleweight tournament with the main event final deciding the 11th Middleweight KOP.
The original fight cosplayer Hikaru Sato will take on Yoshihiro Akiyama teammate Ikkei (Nagamura) in one semifinal and Yuji Hisamatsu will face tournament favorite Ryo Kawamura in the other.
KEI Yamamiya will battle Hibiki Tamura in a Welterweight fight. Yamamiya is 3-0 in his last 3 while Tamura has had a really rough time as of late.
A Super Flyweight fight between Yuki Yasunaga and Isao Hirose will take place. Yasunaga started his career going 0-4 but is now 7-1 in his last 8 fights. The winner of this fight should be close to a shot at the Super Flyweight KOP title.
Tatsuya So had a good 2011 and he will look to have a similar 2012 campaign. He will take on Pancrase regular JTaro Takita in a Bantamweight fight.
In another Bantamweight fight the legendary Masahiro Oishii will face Yuta Nakamura who went 3-0 in 2011.
Sengoku Bantamweight Asia Tournament participant Shoko Sato had quite a bad 2011 but will try to turn things around against Takada Dojo’s Masaomi Saito in another Bantamweight fight.
The legendary Yuki Kondo will continue his Welterweight campaign as he is scheduled to take on wrestler Kenji Nagaki.
In some of the lower-down-on-the-card-bouts Yoshihiro Matsunaga and Tiger Ishii meet in a Flyweight fight, females Mizuho Sato and Kyoko Kimura will fight in a 64kg Athena Rules fight, the exciting Takuya Eizumi will face Masakazu Utsugi in a Flyweight fight, and Shinya Irei will clash with Naoking (Naoki Tajima) in a Featherweight bout.
Road FC! Three Championship Belts
The left one will be for the Bantamweight tournament winner, the middle one for the Middleweight tournament winner, and the right one for the Lightweight tournament winner.
Road FC Bantamweight Tournament Starts! Kyung Ho Kang Vs. Andrew Leone
The first quarterfinal for the Road FC Bantamweight tournament has been announced. Sengoku participant and undefeated-at-Bantamweight Kyung Ho Kang will take on United States’ Andrew Leone at “Road FC 006. FINAL4” on February 5th.
Grappler Kang is more experienced than Leone and has looked good at Bantamweight but Leone has started his career well with a solid win over the talented Soo Chul Kim in his last fight.
All tournament quarterfinals will not take place on the 5th though as the undercard of the evening, “Road FC Young Guns 2” will host a few qualification fights.
Sato Vs. Strasser! Welterweight King Of Pancrase Title Fight
Fights have been announced for the March 11th Pancrase event.
Welterweight King Of Pancrase and Kazushi Sakuraba student Takenori Sato will defend his title against the rising Strasser Kiichi. Neither have lost recently as Sato is 4-0-1 in his last 5 and Kiichi is 5-0-2 in his last 7. Kiichi got a big submission win over Yu Shiori to end his 2011 campaign.
Also on the card, a Welterweight fight between the inconsistent Masahiro Toryu and Juntaro Ami as well as between Shingo Suzuki and Sengoku Welterweight Tournament participant Kenta Takagi.
The Return Of Yuji Hoshino! Shooto Debut
Two fights have been announced for the March 10th Korakuen Hall Shooto event.
Yuji Hoshino who hasn’t fought since submitting Nick Denis (who made his UFC debut last Friday) at Sengoku will make his Shooto debut against Akitoshi Tamura.
Also announced for the card, Junji Sarumaru vs. Yuki Shojo.
Crying Fist Season 2 Finale! Fedor Guesting
Crying Fist is a Korean TV show linked with Korean MMA promotion Road FC. I haven’t watched it for a while but last time it was similar to The Ultimate Fighter (without the house) with less skilled fighters. They seem to have changed the format in season 2 (pro fighters such as Jae Hyun So trying out amateurs) and there are some horrible fighters in there but it’s very entertaining.
TV show participants Jung Won Lee and Han Lee Mun will face each other at Road FC 006. FINAL4 on February 5th. Mun is supposed to be quite the prospect at 18 years of age.
Road FC 006! Middleweight Tournament Finals Set
The semifinal combination of the Road FC Middleweight champion tournament at “Road FC 006. FINAL4” on February 5th has been announced.
The legendary Shungo Oyama will take on Jong Dae Kim in one semifinal and Eun Soo Lee will face Hae Suk Son in the other. The final will take place at the same event.
A “Crying Fist Special Match” has also been announced for the event. Crying Fist is a Korean TV show linked to Road FC. Kinda like The Ultimate Fighter without the house. Anyway, Crying Fist season 2 champion Jung Won Lee will take on 18 year old super prospect Han Lee Mun in the fight. I believe Mun was supposed to face Lee in the final of the season but got injured.
Is anyone interested in the season 2 finale of Crying Fist? Fedor was on the show.
Return Of The Champ! Takahashi Vs. Girl Genius
A new fight has been added to the February 5th “Shoot Boxing 2012 ~Road to S-cup~ act.1” event.
SB Japan Women’s Flyweight champion Ai Takahashi returns to the ring since beating RENA to capture the belt to take on 17 year old Jewels Roughstone GP 2010 champion Karateka Mizuki (2-1 MMA, 1-1 SB, 2-0 Pro Kick, 3-1-1 Amateur Kick).
The 57th Impact! Gono And Nakamura Clash
Four new fights have been announced for the big DEEP 57 Impact card.
Akihiro Gono will finally make his MMA return after several Kickboxing matches since the end times of Sengoku to take on the master of flying armbars Daisuke Nakamura.
Two real veterans will meet as Hiromitsu Kanehara will face Daijiro Matsui.
Former Kickboxer Yuki who has converted to MMA, joined Yoshihiro “KISS” Nakao’s wrestling-heavy Team Tackler gym, and gone 2-0 will battle Bernard Ackah.
DEEP regular Yoshitomo Watanabe will fight Bungeling Bay’s Naoki Samukawa.
Partnership! DREAM X ProElite
LOS ANGELES, CA. (January 12, 2012) – ProElite MMA is proud to announce a newly formed partnership with the largest Japanese MMA organization, Dream. With this alliance, the two organizations will co-promote future events, possibly bringing the ProElite brand to Japan. Also with this partnership, they have created a dynamic fighter exchange program, which will allow fighters from both companies to fight on each other’s shows. The fighter exchange program will begin on January 21, 2012 in Hawaii when Japanese star Ikuhisa “The PUNK” Minowa takes on Kendall “Da Spyder” Grove in the main event of the evening and also DREAM Light heavyweight tournament runner-up Tatsuya Mizuno will take on Ilima Maiava. And also as the sign of close relationship between two organization, Japanese voice of the ring, Lenny Hardt would attend the event to be the cage announcer.
ProElite COO Billy Kelly said, “We are extremely excited to form a business bond with the most prominent Japanese MMA organization. With a stable of great fighters on their roster and a great team behind the scenes, this can only be seen as a win-win. Bringing the ProElite brand to Japan is a dream come true and we are excited to continue building Japanese MMA back to the fore front of our sport.”
DREAM Event producer Keiichi Sasahara said, “I’m really honored to announce the partnership with ProElite. It’s long been said that Japanese MMA has declined from the past days. But I believe we could show our fundamental strength by delivering big card like Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii to fans in our last NYE show. It is urgent for us to exploit Asian or Pan-pacific market by improving relationship with foreign organization like ProElite. We would like to make this exchanging fighters program as a first step to generate synergistic effect for both organizations.”
Covering Asian Mixed Martial Arts