HEIWA DREAM.5 Lightweight GP 2008 Final Round
Date: July 21st, 2008
Place: Osaka Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan

Lightweight GP Final Fight:
Kawajiri/Alvarez vs. Uno/Aoki

Lightweight GP Semifinal Fights:
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Eddie Alvarez
Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki

Featherweight Fight:
Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Joseph Benavidez

Participants:
Yoshihiro Akiyama
Katsuyori Shibata

Possible Participants:
Minowaman, Joachim Hansen, Mark Hunt, Denis Kang, Black Mamba

(Thanks to Nightmare of Battle for the Full Fight Card)

Now to sort this out a bit. Both “Black Mamba” Kultar Gill and Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen will most likely be featured as the reserves for this event. Why Mamba? Who knows really? It also surprises me that Kang and Minowa are both listed but I think FEG are trying to go BIG for their September 23rd show, which means sliding down the non-GP participating Middleweights. Also, Mark Hunt will participate and will likely face Jerome LeBanner, who was Mirko’s original opponent. Finally, Katsuyori Shibata expressed his desire to fight Yoshihiro Akiyama at the Akasaka Fight Festival. Akiyama has gone 7 months since his last fight and I definitely think this fight could serve him well to get back in the swing of things.

Moving on to the WVR side of things. MMA Junkie is reporting that the company has inked a deal with UFC veteran Frank Trigg. This is definitely a move in the right direction for WVR. This no doubt sets up a possible rematch with WVR standout Kazuo Misaki, who lost to Trigg at the memorable PRIDE 33: Second Coming show. Also, the plan to carry out a GP by Sengoku is in full swing. The only names listed currently on the site are Eiji Mitsuoka, Satoru Kitaoka, Duane “Bang” Ludwig, Rodrigo Damm, and Kazunori Yokota. The hopes of this is to get some competition for their Lightweight King, Takanori Gomi, who might be set to fight Chris Horedecki. If you ask me, they should’ve just set up a fight against Kitaoka, considering his credentials I think this would’ve been enough. But anyways, the 8/24 show is nowhere close to being booked but looks like this:

SENGOKU IV
Date: August 24th, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Fights:
Peter Graham vs. Moise Rimbon

Possible Fights:
Takanori Gomi vs. Chris Horodecki

Possible Participants:
Frank Trigg
Daniel Acacio
Cristiano Marcello
Clay French

Lightweight Tournament Participants:
Satoru Kitaoka
Eiji Mitsuoka
Kazunori Yokota
Rodrigo Damm
Duane Ludwig

(Thanks again to Nightmare of Battle for the Full Fight Card)

Finally, while this isn’t 100% MMA related, the K-1 World MAX circuit is down to the final 4 competitors. The most stand-out thing from last night definitely had to be Yoshihiro Sato’s amazing knockout of Buakaw Por-Pramuk. The 2 men had battled earlier this year in a Superfight at the MAX Japan Tournament earlier this year to a Round extension split decision. This fight is definitely an indication of Buakaw finally being caught up by the competition and also his ability to look very very lackluster this year. Speaking of the MAX Japan Tournament, Yasuhiro Kido’s dream run for the title is over after he was defeated by my pick to win MAX this year, Artur Kyshenko. Masato and Andy Souwer round out the other 2 finalist in what looks like a stellar final. Last but not least, the MMA tie-in. UDL’s Andre “Dida” Amade was victorious over ZST and early K-1 HERO’s standout Remigijus Morkevicius in an explosive and much needed boost in moment for the Brazilian fighter. I’ll link the more interesting bouts under:

Yoshihiro Sato vs. Buakaw Por. Pramuk III

Artur Kyshenko vs. Yasuhiro Kido (Pt. 1 and Pt. 2)

Andre “Dida” Amade vs. Remigijus Morkevi?ius

Anderson Silva to light heavyweight. MMA being sanctioned in NY. A huge NYE show. More international UFC events. But, there is a rumor that might be pretty interesting if true.

Apparently a “realiable source” has stated Vince McMahon and Dana White are buying the UFC from the Fertitta brothers through the remaining shares of the company. McMahon will not have much input, but instead, he will assist with financing the deal and making this happen. Of course this is just one variant of the rumors being spewed out left and round on the internet.

Sound crazy? It just might be. Or maybe it will just be an announcement that the UFC is finally ready to show off the UFC video game slated to be released in 2009. Whatever it is, It’s certainly a Dana White white and it’s entertainment.

Note to readers: I had to make some late edits as I wrote this last night and it didn’t read very well!

It’s not Randy vs. Fedor, but at least it’s Somebody vs. Fedor.

Monson, the man we dub “Snowman”, might just be the first test for the virtually undefeated Emelianenko since he fought both Mark Hunt and Mark Coleman back in 2006 in Pride. While Hunt was only 5-3 and barely pulling off split decision wins over Wanderlei Silva and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Coleman, however, had wins over Maurico “Shogun” Rua, Don Frye, and many other old-school legends of MMA. He was also recently inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame if that still counts for anything anymore (thanks to Dana White saying that Tank Abbott is next). The fights against the Marks were just two months apart and the results were the same; submission wins for Emelianenko. After defeating Matt Lindland, who many say wasn’t a top contendor because he moved up two weight classes to fight, in April of last year, Emelianenko only recently emerged on New Years to beat the unnaturally huge K-1 kickboxer Hong Man Choi. Some fans rejoiced while others laughed and called it a circus. And who could blame them?

So can all of the name-calling and can-fed accusations finally end for Emelianko? Is Monson, a guy who went on a 16 fight win streak between 2003 and 2006, good enough to satisfy MMA fans who want to see Emelianenko up against “real” competition? Monson does have losses to Chuck Liddell and, surprisingly enough, Forrest Griffin back in 2002, but he also carries a decade of experience.

We’ll soon find out if the fight will be made official and when it will be held. As far as who will be lucky enough to host this - will it be held by EliteXC on prime time television in April? I really doubt that, but it is somewhat amusing to even think about it. Perhaps HDNet Fights will televise the first M-1 production or maybe a Japanese promotion has some crazy idea to attempt another event similar to K1 Hero’s Dynamite!! You know, the the kind of unorganized event you would expect to come out of Japan.

But either way, we can hopefully expect to see a real fight that goes the distance. Then maybe someone can really solidify themselves at the top #1 heavyweight in the world. Or not.

With a net worth of $2.7 billion and an interest in MMA, Mark Cuban could very well be the American who is buying out M-1. If so, this could be his big break as he begins to air his HDNet Fights on his own network beginning on October 13th. It’s not easy to be profitable as a small organization on TV (see BodogFight, IFL, ProElite) and this would be a great move for most of us.

With the rumored lineup of UFC 78, it seems that the casual fans are winning so far. With matchups like Ortiz vs. Rashad 2 and a bunch of small name fighters, aside from Karo Parisyan and if you go back far enough, Spencer Fisher; putting most die-hards to sleep, the casual fan will certainly enjoy the cage-grabbing takedowns and one-dimensional primeval ground ‘n pound that will erupt during the main fight. This, of course, is aside from the drunkeness and booing that is sure to envelope the mixed crowd in Newark, NJ.

Fights like a potential BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson/Sean Sherk lightweight championship bout, Bisping vs. Hamill rematch, Serra vs. Hughes welterweight championship bout, and introduction of former Pride champion Wanderlei Silva are all rumored for UFC 79 back in the wonderful city of (you guessed it) Las Vegas.

There’s really only one person we can blame for his respective fight; Sean Sherk. He was caught using Nandrolone, an anaboic steroid, during his lightweight title fight against Hermes Franca during UFC 73 and is still awaiting the appeal results from the CSAC regarding his suspension and fine. Everyone else has an excuse: Matt Hamill is injured, Matt Hughes and Matt Serra can’t fight until the Ultimate Fighter 6 is done airing, and Wanderlei wasn’t ready to fight in November for personal reasons regarding his move to the United States.

Let’s hope the letdown is only as rumor. We still have time for another good fight or two during UFC 78, but will the UFC’s great (if you believe everything Dana White says) matchmaker pull through? It’s not Vegas, so I don’t see it happening.