Address Change! NightmareOfBattle.com
The blog has moved to the address above. The biggest differences are the new design and a more friendly blog for people who don’t know much about (Japanese) MMA. There’s a widget to the right where you can switch between categories, tags, recent comments, post archives, etc.
Anyway, no more posts here.
Dynamite!! 2009! The Ratings
Wife X Masato - Sportsnavi.com
The ratings for Dynamite!! 2009 are out and they weren’t what Tanigawa had predicted before the event. The first portion of the card got a 11.8% rating, the second a 16.7%, and the third a 10.6% rating.
Not close to the red and white song contest which got 37.1% rating in it’s first portion and a 40.8% rating in it’s second. They did beat the other big program this NYE in comedy show Gaki no Tsukai on Nippon TV by 0.3% though (probably not in average rating though). Definitely not catastrophic.
What fights were on which portion:
The first part was Koshien + Izumi-Shibata + Takaya-Omigawa + Mach-Gono (only 2nd round) + KID-Kanehara + Tokoro-Kim (the last two fights might have been in the middle, not sure how they sorted them).
The middle was Ishii-Yoshida + Masato-Souwer (over an hour considering all the PVs and the anthem + fairwell speech).
The last part was about 20 minutes long with no PVs, Misaki-Manhoef, Overeem-Fujita, Aoki-Hirota and ending with a replay of the Yoshida-Ishii fight.
Kawajiri didn’t even get on the broadcast and Aoki’s fight was at a bad time. Reality check for people who think their fight will be “big”.
Also, Kazuo Misaki and his people have appealed for his fight with Manhoef being overturned to a no contest. The refereeing group will answer in two weeks.
Explosion! Dynamite!! 2009
The biggest event of the year is over and it was very enjoyable.
I’m someone who has been impressed with Izumi since his debut fight. His toughness and stand-up skills for someone who has such a build and only trained MMA for a month or so was very impressive in his debut fight (think how Yoon Dong Sik turtled up against Sakuraba).
He had another good fight tonight and I was most impressed with how he handled himself when he knocked down Shibata, smoothly going to mount. He won’t ever be a top ranker if he stays in the LHW division with his height, but I think he’s a natural.
Very impressive by Omigawa. When the fight was announced I thought it was quite even but leaned towards Omigawa before the fight started. Takaya got dropped by Tokoro and with Omigawa’s head movement and chin I thought Takaya would have a tough night. Very impressive by Gono as well, slick armbar.
The stoppages in the Super Hulk final and Misaki/Manhoef were really bad. I understand that it’s on national TV on NYE but that’s very unfair to fighters in such important fights. Great performances by Manhoef and Minowaman though.
Tokoro and Kim was one of the most entertaining fights of the night. Not surprising how it turned out. Before the fight I thought Kim could take Tokoro out if he landed, and he almost did in the third. Tokoro’s stand-up was once again impressive though and he was the clear winner.
Kawajiri/Yokota went as I thought. Yokota won’t be able to stop Kawajiri’s takedowns, Kawajiri will look more tired the longer the fight goes but will take it clearly in a three rounder.
An impressive performance by Kanehara, I didn’t think he would pull it off. I’m a little surprised at the commentators though, first round was either even or Kanehara’s (he actually dropped KID in the round), second Kanehara’s, and third KID’s. Kanehara is tough and hard to finish. He also hits hard which I don’t think people were very aware of before the fight.
Nothing surprising in the Overeem/Fujita fight, Overeem is really good right now as most know.
Impressive performance by Shinya Aoki. I’m not his biggest fan and didn’t like how he handled himself after the fight but he keeps beating top LWs.
I thought the referee in the Ishii/Yoshida fight was horrible, separating the clinch so quickly. He’s always horrible. Ishii looked very bad in the first, in the second he was successful in the clinch, and in the third it looked like his punches had more power behind them than earlier in the fight. He has a chin though and looked good the few seconds the fight was on the floor.
Masato went out in style. He didn’t say anything about what his future activities will be after the fight though.
FEG’s Tanigawa said after the event that he wants to go forward with a 60 kg K-1 tournament. DREAM EP Sasahara gave Aoki a stern warning after the event for his behavior. He thinks that it’s OK to provoke before a fight but as a pro such things shouldn’t happen when a fight is over. Kawajiri and Yokota also had some heated words before their fight but were very respectful afterward, with Kawajiri saying after the event that he is happy to have defeated a strong fighter like Yokota.
As for injuries, Hirota suffered a bone fracture in his right upper-arm, I believe Fujita suffered a strong concussion, and Kim Jong Man and Hiroyuki Takaya received some fracture on their right eyes. It doesn’t look like Yokota got injured from Kawajiri’s armbar.
The planned date for the first DREAM event in 2010 is the end of March. Look out for big-shot fighters at Featherweight and Welterweight. Sasahara said that they want to implement a title fight between Aoki and Kawajiri early this year. Minowaman asked Sasahara why there is no belt and prize money for the winner of the Super Hulk Tournament.
Kanehara said that there will probably be an SRC event in March and he wants to defend the belt against Omigawa there. We’ll see if there will be any Yoshida Dojo fighters fighting in SRC in the future though.
Final Preparations! Lighting The Fuse Part 2
#31: Presser Videos
#30: Who Got Their Wish Through?
1. No draws (Both)
2. 3 5 minute rounds (SRC)
3. No stomps (DREAM)
4. No soccerkicks (Both)
5. Judges prioritize effort to finish (DREAM)
6. Judges score per round (SRC)
7. 60 second interval between rounds (SRC) (In DREAM it’s 90 seconds)
Source: BoutReview
Final Preparations! Lighting The Fuse
#15: Fujita Has Returned
Kazuyuki Fujita returned (photo) to Japan from his 4 week long training camp at Marco Ruas’s Gym in the U.S. on the 27th. When talking with the press he said that he doesn’t think there is another Japanese fighter who can fight with Alistair. “If I don’t do it, who will?!”
#14: Gono NYE Performance
Gono announced that if everything goes as planned, we will see a performance on NYE on the same level of the red & white song contest, which is the big TV program on NYE in Japan.
#13: Kazunori Yokota Shootboxing
#12: SENGOKU HQ Fight Videos
A few SENGOKU fights will be available on DREAM’s YouTube channel for a limited period of time. They are high quality and with no commentary. Check them out.
Footage Of “The” Submission Out! PANCRASE Starting 2010 Strong
On the 21st PANCRASE announced some additional fights for the first big card of their 2010 Passion Tour on February 7th. Previously announced for the card was a Flyweight title fight.
As for the newly announced fights, Yuki Kondo will take on Sakuraba pupil and SENGOKU participant Takenori Sato for the interim Middleweight title, KEI Yamamiya will take on Yuji “The Pink Typhoon” Hisamatsu, who drew with Kondo in his last fight, and hard-hitting Seiya Kawahara will have a tough task in front of him against Tashiro Nishiuchi, who is 6-0-4 in his last 10 fights.
The Naoyuki Kotani vs. Daisuke Nakamura fight which took place at ZST is now out on YouTube:
Also check out the DEEP Cage Impact fights from a few days ago, especially Nobuhiro Obiya vs. ISE (very good) and Masakazu Imanari vs. Justin Cruz.
Road To Dynamite!! 2009! The Third Press Conference Part 2
The third presser - GBRing.com
The rules for the DREAM vs. SRC fights will be three five minute rounds and no stomps or soccerkicks (taking the bad from both). Referees will be mixed from both organizations. I don’t think the judging is decided yet.
Kazushi Sakuraba is injured and will most likely not participate. 1-2 more fights will be added (probably one of them being Kazuo Misaki vs. Melvin Manhoef).
Kawajiri wasn’t very motivated at the press conference: “I have no interest in this fight and I’m not motivated either.”
Omigawa and Takaya sounded more hyped for their fight though. Omigawa said that he thinks they are the best two Japanese featherweights.
Yokota is motivated to fight Kawajiri since Kawajiri is quite a big name now. He thinks that he’d take Kawajiri in a K-1 fight (Yokota has fought in shootboxing, bare-knuckle muay thai, kickboxing, etc. before with good results).
Aoki interrupted Yokota as he talked about beating Kawajiri in K-1: “Enough already. Be quiet, you.”
The glare of Aoki
However, Yokota just continued and said that he thinks he would be able to do more against Masato (than Kawajiri did) and he wants to show that in this fight.
After this Kawajiri said that he wants to meet the new year in a good way, fight with all his might, kill Yokota, etc.
Hirota said that it doesn’t seem like Aoki know about him (Aoki said at the first Dynamite!! press conference that he doesn’t know who the SRC champion is): “Should I put a heavy strike on him?”
Takaya said that the audience should obey the rules (there was an incident at the Featherweight GP finals where Takaya’s gang caused some trouble at the event): “I want you to be quiet and watch, and leave the fighting to me and Omigawa.”
Omigawa said that Takaya will be his favorite food on NYE. Both are excited, Omigawa said that because Takaya is the opponent in the “Kusottare Theatre” everything worked out as he desired. He says that they’ll have a violent and good fight on NYE. Takaya shares the same feelings.
"Choding" Aoki ("Elementary school kid" Aoki)
When the fighters were going to have their pitcure taken together after after the press conference Kawajiri just left and Aoki was going to do the same but DREAM EP Sasahara grabbed him and showed him where to stand.
Road To Dynamite!! 2009! The Third Press Conference
Check out the press conferences at this link.
It seems only two fights will be announced.
Shinya Aoki vs. Mizuto Hirota and Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazunori Yokota announced.
Aoki cut Hirota off as he was talking and told him to be quiet.
Aoki cried over not fighting Kawajiri but Kawajiri didn’t complain. He got warmed up to Hirota during the press questions though as both exchanged some words.
Hirota’s impression of DREAM: Channel 6 (TBS). Nothing more.
FieLDS Dynamite!! ～The Power Of Courage 2009～
Date: December 31st, 2009
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan
MMA Fight:
Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida
DREAM Vs. SRC:
Norifumi “KID” Yamamoto vs. Masanori Kanehara
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Michihiro Omigawa
Hideo Tokoro vs. Marlon Sandro
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Akihiro Gono
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Izumi
Alistair Overeem vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
Shinya Aoki vs. Mizuto Hirota
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazunori Yokota
K-1 MAX Fight (5×3 minutes, 1×3 ext.):
Masato vs. Andy Souwer
K-1 Fight:
Ray Sefo vs. Yosuke Nishijima
Super Hulk Tournament Final:
Minowaman vs. Sokoudjou
Road To Dynamite!! 2009! The Third Press Conference Tomorrow
Tomorrow (December 22nd) from around 13:00 (Japanese time) the third Dynamite!! 2009 press conference will take place and it will be streamed live on Ustream (I’ll post the link when I get it).
FEG’s Tanigawa was asked about Gomi on twitter today and wrote that we’ll know the outcome of that affair at tomorrows announcement.
However, from reading Gomi’s blog, America looks to be next for him. But he did post a picture with a Dynamite!! poster and his post wasn’t about the event.
Aoki had some harsh words for SENGOKU on the latest issue of Kamipro. Will it be Aoki vs. Hirota? Most is pointing toward Shinya Aoki vs. Mizuto Hirota and Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazunori Yokota right now but we’ll see tomorrow.
Yoshihiro Akiyama wrote on his blog that Hiroshi Izumi trained at his gym today.
FEG’s Tanigawa told Kamipro that they’re planning to hold a DREAM event in South Korea next year. He said that DREAM, K-1, and SENGOKU will all be around next year as well.
SRC will have an event on March of next year but it’ll be tough if they don’t have any good results on the first events of 2010. We’ll see if the new guy (Booker K: past matchmaker of PRIDE, was the link between PRIDE and the Chute Boxe camp, I think he was agent of Igor Vovchanchyn, etc.) can come in and keep the organization alive.
Shu Hirata asked WVR to end the contracts of his fighters if they won’t hold an event on NYE so that they could/can negotiate in the U.S. (Dan Hornbuckle was going to face Takimoto for the title on NYE if SRC 12 wasn’t cancelled, etc.). He says that they are earnest and ended the contracts.
Interview! The Korean Zombie Talks
Q: You started out as a kickboxer. Why did you decide to switch to MMA?
CJ: I started kickboxing since 10th grade. Originally my goal was to fight at K-1 because I fell in love with Ernesto Hoost’s powerful low kicks and awesome technique. After training kickboxing, I went to Kyongbuk Science University to major MMA (note: yes, this university offers a degree in MMA lol.). That’s when I first trained jiujitsu and I liked it. Locking in a submission gave me a different kind of satisfaction from striking.
I never liked fighting on the ground, but once I started training grappling I came to like it enough to make me want to switch to MMA.
Q: If you had continued to be a kickboxer, what level do you think you’d be at now?
CJ: It’s hard to say (laughs). I recently sparred with Chi-bin Lim, Jae-gil Noh, and Min-suk Kwon, and I wasn’t on their level. I couldn’t keep up with their pace. Standup fighting and MMA require different use of stamina. In standup fighting you have to keep throwing punches and kicks. You use different muscles and styles for each sport.
Q: If you were a kickboxer, what kind of style would you have?
CJ: I’d say I would have fought like Se-gi Kim or Min-suk Kwon; a brawling in-fighter rather than a technical out-fighter.
Q: What’s your ultimate goal? Have you ever thought about moving up to lightweight and fighting in the UFC?
CJ: As of now, my goal is to fight in the WEC and become a champion. I have no intention of moving up in weight whatsoever.
Q: Have you seen the Penn-Sanchez fight? He (Penn) might as well be called the lightweight Fedor.
CJ: He’s just what his nickname says he is – a prodigy. I think his style of fighting is the way to go now. I emulate his takedown defense in training. I, like BJ Penn, focus on the defensive aspect of wrestling. It feels better to defend a takedown than to score one (laughs).
Nightmare Of Battle 
