It’s been a LONG time since my last contribution to MMAOpinion.com, which was due to school, exams and other attention grabbing things but I hope to come back with a lot more frequency during these days…

Anyways, moving to content, FEG is finishing up its 3rd major event of the month in Japan with its 2nd DREAM Show. My last posting before my “break” was specifically updating this card and I’m not too happy to inform you that there has been no additions thus far to the 183 Pound Grand Prix until Today that is. The card is most likely 100 percent finalized and the Grand Prix matches look like this:

Olympia DREAM.2

4/29 at Saitama Super Arena

• Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Andrews Nakahara
• Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masakatsu Funaki
• Denis Kang vs. Gegard Mousasi
• Taiei Kin vs. Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa
• Magomed Sultanakhmedov vs. Zelg Galesic
• Dong Sik Yoon vs. Shungo Oyama
• Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza vs. Frank Trigg
• Gesias “JZ” Calvancanti vs. Shinya Aoki

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Before writing this, I did some quick thinking about what the title would be. I guess lots of people are having fun with this whole DREAM thing so I thought I’d spare you a lame title and not beat around the bush. As most of us are now aware, DREAM’s inaugural show DREAM.1 had a less than spectacular draw from the Japanese audiences. Raking in a mere 8.9, I think lots of us are already fearing the worst by now. I was completely stunned when I read this number. I realistically didn’t think it was a huge draw but this was pretty low from what I expected considering Mirko Cro-Cop would be fighting. Mirko did manage to draw an lackluster 12.0, but it is still a lot lower than even the less than stacked K-1 Dynamite!! 2007. Thankfully, attendance wasn’t as low with a solid 19,000+.

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It’s easy to look at M-1 Global and World Victory Road and call this a rise for the Japanese market. After all, the ability to keep many of the Japanese fanbase’s favorite fighters (Fedor, Barnett, Yoshida, Gomi, and so on) in Japan is a huge win for the Japanese market, because though we’re all aware that K-1 will continue to be the best kickboxing organization on the planet, their MMA events are a long way from challenging the Goliath of the sport.

Still, M-1 and Victory Road present a serious problem for the Japanese market, because they seem to be splitting fighters. Fedor, Monson and a handful of other great guys have signed with M-1, while Barnett, Yoshida and the up-and-coming phenom Roger Gracie are signed to WVR. It greatly decreases the chances of a great superfight card that many have been speculating about since the Pride buyout. We figured the end of the crazy freakshow that Pride fights sometimes turned into (like Zuluzihno vs. Butterbean) could only be a good thing. That said, we were a bit too quick to look on the bright side.

It seems that Zuffa shot down the mother bear, and now we’re going to have to see the offspring fight to the death to establish themselves as dominant.

There is some hope, as Japanese organizations have been known to cooperate from time to time and pool contracts to give the fans what they want, (damn, I wish that the UFC would take a page out of that book some days) and the buyout has only increased the frequency of these kinds of deals, but has seriously damaged the quality.

I’d personally like to see one of these two blooming powerhouses buy out the other, so that we could see all of the world class contracts get pooled together in one organization, but I don’t think that’s likely, given that the financial situations of both organizations are in their beginning stages.

The promise of Josh Barnett vs. Fedor Emelianenko may be gone, and so we’re all keeping our fingers crossed for Randy Couture to sign with M-1. It wasn’t too long ago, before Zuffa sent the Pride boys a big fat check, when Barnett vs. Emelianenko was imminent, and shortly after that (when the buyout came), Couture vs. Fedor was on our doorstep. Or at least that’s what we thought.

Oh well, I guess it’s true what the Rolling Stones say; “you can’t always get what you want.”

This is the 2nd and final part of the preview of World Victory Road’s Sengoku, which take place on Wednesday the 5th of March. This show should definitely not be confused with the DREAM event that takes place in 2 weeks on the 15th. To help “facilitate” things just think of DREAM being named after Dream Stage (DSE), which I’m pretty sure isn’t what the whole name was intended for but it helps. Remember this is WVR’s 1st MMA show on a solid 1st card for an MMA promotion. The card looks small with only 7 fights but one has to remember that they had originally announced Sinae Kikuta vs. Phil Baroni but that fight was soon after canceled due to the fact that Baroni signed with Elite XC and was offered the fight against Kala “Kolohe” Hose at ICON. This fight was originally supposed to be Robbie Lawler vs. Kala Hose but an injury prevented that from happening. Anyways, back to Sengoku…

5.) Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada

I think it’s safe to say that some of the greatest intro’s around belong to Japanese fighters. 3 of the most memorable one’s in recent memory to me are Akihiro Gono’s BUSHIDO 13 semifinal bout against Denis Kang, in which DJ Gozma was joined by DJ Ozma in the PRIDE style rendition of the once popular J-Pop tune “Age Age Every Night” in what has to epitomize the whole entertainment/fighting style some fighters aim for. (Side Note: There’s a Japanese Pop Star named DJ Ozma, who Gono imitates in his famous Red Afro Dancing Intro’s. Gozma is a play on Gono and Ozma.) Genki Sudo’s tribal retirement intro at Dynamite!! 2006 was just jaw dropping and intricate to say the least.

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The 1^st time one does something it can be very nerve-racking and difficult and the outcome is sometimes what one doesn’t expect. Other times the outcome can be satisfactory and well deserved. The newly formed World Victory Road (WVR) will take center stage in Japan on the 5^th. WVR hopes, along with DREAM, to fill a void that PRIDE Fight Championships left after its implosion. WVR will host its inaugural 1^st show at the very unique looking Yoyogi National Gymnasium. The strangely named Sengoku will feature Mixed Martial Artists with varying skill levels, some elevating this cards status while others seem out of place.

I remember a couple of months back when word out of Japan was that a newly formed organization was about to be formed and would be associated with J-Rock. Obviously, the 1^st thing that popped into my head was Yoshida. I’m not the biggest Yoshida fan, but being one of the biggest draws in Japan it kind of got me thinking that maybe, just maybe this would be the “new” PRIDE. This is way before DREAM and around the time Shigeru Saeki’s name popped up saying that there was a revival movement, which became Yarennoka!, so anything sounded great coming from Japan. Fast forward about 5 months and we’re now in March and DREAM is unveiled and WVR kind of got pushed to the side. I think the fact that they lack about 4 more intriguing bouts actually hurt their cause as DREAM quickly sprinted ahead to try and fill that void. Wednesday will answer lots of questions that I think need to be answer before we can crown anyone the new, almost default premiere Japanese MMA organizations.

Will Sengoku mirror something epic and wonderful? Or was it’s inability to secure a TV deal a sort of foreshadowing of things to come? 2 very different paths all together. Wednesday’s card is very diverse and stands as so:

World Victory Road presents Sengoku

March 5, 2008

1. Fabricio “Pitbull” Monteiro vs. Nick “The Goat” Thompson
2. Ryo Kawamura vs. Antonio Braga Neto
3. Makoto Takimoto vs. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos
4. Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Graham
5. Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
6. Takanori Gomi vs. Duane “Bang” Ludwig
7. Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Josh Barnett Read the full story

It was announced today in Japan through a very Dream Stageish new website, www.dreamofficial.com the official DREAM website, that 3 new bouts have been added to the very much anticipated March 15th Lightweight Grand Prix. While not neccesarily the most compelling bouts thus far, they will serve as an appetizer for the 2nd round, which will be one for history books. Another thing that should be noted is the appearance of Kultar Gill, who wasn’t originally announced but is now participating and he is no stranger to the FEG GP circuit The announced match-ups are:

Heiwa DREAM. 1

1. Tatsuya “Crusher” Kawajiri vs. Kultar “Black Mamba” Gill
2. Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Luis “Buscape” Firmino
3. Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen vs. Koutetsu Boku
4. Shinya Aoki vs. Gesias “JZ” Calvancanti Read the full story

It was not so long ago that if you wanted to make a name for yourself, Japan was a very great place to do it. They had everything going for them. Great productions, great and charismatic fighters, etc. but all that would be erased quickly with the sudden demise of PRIDE and things shifted stateside. I’m not stating that Japan is at it’s former peak but they’re slowly and surely starting to climb up the latter of relevance. 2007 is a year that will definitely live infamy if you’re a fan of Japanese produced MMA. No top caliber shows other than Yarennoka!! 2007 and the HERO’S Middleweight GP Opening and Final Rounds were really stand out and didn’t really manage to attract a lot of attention. In March, all that will change with the new FEG Show and World Victory Road’s Sengoku.

World Victory Road has recently announced that Kazuyuki “Ironhead” Fujita, Duane “Bang” Ludwig, and Nick “The Goat” Thompson will all participate in their inaugural Sengoku show this March. Kevin Randleman has also inked a deal with WVR but it is unknown if he will participate on March 5th. Randleman and Fujita are coming off very long lay-offs and both men are coming off losses. Fujita lost a strange fight to Jeff Monson at PRIDE 34, while “The Monster” lost by submission at PRIDE 1st show in the states, PRIDE 32. “The Goat” on the other hand is fresh off a title defense at the last Bodog show and “Bang” bounced back from a loss to Paul “Semtex” Daley and managed to secure a win at Ring of Fire 30.

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