Results tagged “Japan MMA” from MMA Explosion

This guy knocked out Jaosn High with a head kick and now I just heard he's been signed by Strikeforce. Good acquisition for SF - this guy's a terror.

Another win for Philadelphia's Eddie Alvarez, and a hard-fought one, as he had his neck twisted into a pretzel with a standing crucifix.

That third one looked like a closed fits, but hey, it's machida, he can take it.

From Antonio Inoki's wiki:
During one visit to a school in the 80's, Inoki was punched twice by a student. Inoki slapped the student across the face, knocking him down. The student, who later turned out to be an Inoki fan, then rose, bowed deeply, and thanked Inoki for the slap. The incident became very famous as the then live clip of the binta (slap in the face) was shown many times on Japanese television. Now various celebrities and even common people in Japan ask Inoki to slap them to install courage or even as some sort of strange blessing. The slap's name is the "Fighting Spirit (or Toukon) Slap."

There's Philadelphia native Eddie Alvarez in the front, to the right of Alistair Overeem.

from bloodyelbow.com:
Bellator lightweight champion and past contender to Shinya Aoki's WAMMA lightweight crown Eddie Alvarez (18-2) will battle Japanese Kyokushin karate practicioner and DEEP lightweight champion Katsunori Kikuno (12-1-2).

Alvarez enters the contest following a three-fight win streak in the Bellator lightweight tournament and DREAM lightweight tournament upset victories over Joachim Hansen and Tatsuya Kawajiri. He eventually lost to Shinya Aoki at Dynamite!! 2008, but he still remains one of the best lightweights in the world outside of the UFC. Kikuno is coming off a quick victory over Andre "Dida" Amade at DREAM 10 after knocking out Koichiro Matsumoto in the DEEP Lightweight tournament to win the Lightweight crown.

Video was sent to me by Brad Souders. George McGinnis then sent his comments to me:
"My boy Genki is at it again. I received an email from Coach Brad Souders that listed a link to one of Genki Sudo's music video's in which he wrote, performed in and produced. One thing I love about the guy is that he doesn't allow himself to be bound by the laws of any one style in regards to MMA or personality. We could all learn a lot from him not just on the mat and MMA, but how he chooses to live in general. I can really appreciate the fact that he isn't afraid to express himself creatively and through his passion for music. You would honestly be surprised how many fighters have a hidden knack for music. Some quick names that come to mind is Oscar Del La Hoya (Boxing World Champion), Kaensak (Muay Thai World Champion), Genki Sudo MMA legend and pioner and I do believe during my travels that GSP has expressed an interest in the music industry as well. Who woulda knew right?..."

Sincerely Yours: George McGinnis
York Mixed Martial Arts Academy
www.YMMAA.com

Well, it was a bit of a gimme - It was Williams' MMA debut, although he is a former boxer - but it was great to see Saku get another win.

One of my favorite fighters of all time, Kazushi Sakuraba, who many feel should have retired by now, will be fighting on the DREAM.11 card, to be held on Oct. 6. It's kind of bizarre how this is so last-minute, and that his opponent still hasn't been announced.

Behind #1 BJ Penn and #2 Shinya Aoki, according to:

Released today through bloodyelbow.com.

Eddie's next fight is at DREAM.12 against Katsunori Kikuno:

After recently releasing a teaser video announcing that DREAM.12 will take place in a six-sided cage, the Japanese-based DREAM organization has now announced the first two matchups for the card.

Bellator Fighting Championships lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez (18-2) meets DEEP champ Katsunori Kikuno (12-1-1), while Cage Force lightweight title holder Kuniyoshi Hironaka (15-6) faces Korean Won Sik Park (7-1-1).

Korean Myeon Ho Bae (8-4) was also announced as a participant on the card.

DREAM.12 takes place Oct. 25 at Osaka Castle Hall in Osaka, Japan. The event airs in North America on HDNet.

The new DREAM cage.

Philadelphia's Eddie Alvarez, Paulo Filho, Katsunori Kikuno, Yoshiro Maeda, Andrews Nakahara, Alistair Overeem, Kiyoshi Tamura, Marius Zaromskis and Murilo "Ninja" Rua have all been announced as participants in the Oct. 25 event, the first-ever for DREAM in a cage.

Gegard Mousasi has been forced to withdraw from a scheduled bout with Rameau Thierry Sokodjou in the semifinals of the Super Hulk Tournament at Dream 11, MMAWeekly.com has been told by multiple sources close to the situation. The Japanese promotion is currently trying to find a replacement opponent for the Oct. 6 event, which also features the promotion's Featherweight Grand Prix Finals.

According to one source, Mousasi may have injured his shoulder during a grappling exhibition with Fedor Emelianenko at M-1: Breakthrough last month in Kansas City.

Now this is a slick promo right here, giving you a little bit of what to expect for the third installment of the Central Pennsylvania Warrior Challenge. CPWC II, and the one before it - the first sanctioned MMA event in state history - have shown what great fighters we have in little ol' York County. Guys give their all, most of them for no money at all, to show their love for the sport. As far as I know, no other MMA promotion in Pennsylvania has staged as many events as Mark Jovich has in the few months MMA has been legal here.

I talked to Mark today, and he said he had just come from the new Lancaster Convention Center, where CPWC III will take place on October 23. "It's the best, the place is beautiful," he said. "It's just unbelievable." The venue for the event, a 4,000-capacity hall, will have four 10-foot-by-10-foot screens hung above the cage, in addition to 36 lights suspended above. And how about this - shades of PRIDE - a 50-foot catwalk to the cage. And as for the fighter rooms backstage - nothing short of top-notch, Mark said. Mark's working hard to bring the best match-ups, featuring local fighters and maybe even some nationally-known pros. Click here to get more info. on the event.

It's a German suplex, but Katsuyori Shibata is a popular fighter in Japan - he has an amateur background and is a pro wrestler - that somebody on sherdog called it the Shibataplex. I just thought the pic was cool. It's from his UD win over Minowaman on April 5 at DREAM.8

Awesome striker vs. grappler fight from the recent DREAM.10 welterweight tournament in Japan. Zaromskis is a Lithuanian who trains in England now and seems to favor the stand-up game, but is adept at getting out of trouble on the ground. High is a University of Nebraska wrestling standout.

You have your classic striker vs. grappler in this middleweight fight. The backstory was could Filho, who had suffered mental health issues in the past, and an embarrassing defeat to Chael Sonnen in the WEC, put it all together. The winner here would be who could execute first - either Manhoef knocks out Filho, or Filho submits Manhoef. So, no real surprises, but still fun to watch. And check out the crowd - for those of you who really liked PRIDE, it looks like MMA might be making a bit of a comback in Japan.

Thanks to Robert K. from BigOddsMike for the story, which he gleaned from Croatian site index.hr. Make sure to go there for all your UFC 100 odds.

After making a successful UFC comeback against Al Turk, Mirko Cro Cop's next fight will most likely be on September 19th , at UFC 103, in Dellas, Texas. Although we're still awaiting an official confirmation, Mirko's opponent will likely be 24-year Brazilian Junior Dos Santos.

The rising star exploded into the heavyweight division against former UFC contender Fabricio Werdum. The fight lasted only 81 seconds.

Dos Santos, known as "The Gypsy" in Brazil was set to fight in August, but UFC organizers cancelled the bout planned for UFC 102 in favor of a possible main event with the Croatian.

"I think I'll fight September 19. They took me off the August 29 show," he said, also announcing he will no longer be facing the same opponent. "My opponent's changed. I'll probably face Cro Cop. If I beat him I'll be in really good standing. If that's truly the case, I'm guaranteed on the main card and in the main event of the evening. If I were to fight now it wouldn't be on the main card," he said

After UFC 99, Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic drew the ire of the MMA community when he announced he was leaving the UFC, although it had been reported he was supposed to fight several more times there. Most speculated he was jumping back to DREAm, the Japanese promotion he had fought under after leaving the UFC the first time. here's an exclusive from Robert K from Big Odds Mike who translated an article from the Croatian site index.hr.

Exclusive UFC owner visiting Cro Cop in Croatia

Index understands that Lorenzo Fertitta, the head honcho and part owner of the UFC flew to Zagreb with his own private jet earlier this morning. He was driven to Mirko's residents shortly after, where he stayed for two hours talking with the Croatian fighter. He returned to the airport afterwards, smiling, where his private jet flew off in to an unknown destination.

This is a K-1 fight (stand-up only), but it's significant because Manhoef is a Dutch kickboxer who transitioned to MMA some years ago and has a reputation of having vicious knockout power. His fight with Cyborg Santos in Cage Rage a few years back was an absolute war that fans to this day talk about. I had never heard of Maeda. So, other than I just like knock-outs, there is an MMA connection.

by Kevin Iole, mmajunkie.com:
COLOGNE, Germany - Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic's return to the UFC was a short one.

Not long after stopping Mostapha Al-Turk in the first round of UFC 99 on Saturday at Lanxess Arena in his first fight in the UFC since back-to-back losses in 2007, Filipovic informed UFC president Dana White that he had signed a three-fight contract with the Japanese-based DREAM organization.

White had signed Filipovic less than a month ago to a one-fight deal, the first time in more than nine years that he'd done that. He had worked out terms on two additional fights, but said he'd only put pen to paper for Saturday's bout.