(Photo via Yomiuri Yomiuri/Reuters)
An earthquake struck off the northeaster coast of Japan at approx. 2:46PM local time with a magnitude of 8.9 on the richter scale, the quake triggered a tsunami that has devastated the coastline and devoured the coastal city of Sendai.
Events planned by the Jewels and Pancrase promotions in that country have been canceled due to the disaster. Other promotions such as Shooto , Heat and Tribelate also have events scheduled for the near future, it’s likely these events will be effected by the quake also.
MMA-Japan.com has provided many of the updates on the MMA scene in Japan concerning the current situation.
Well known mma personalities such as UFC fighter Yoshihiro Akiyama have posted photos of the damage on his website http://ameblo.jp/yoshihiro-akiyama/. And female fighter, Roxanne Modafferi, posted this update from her Facebook page concerning the quake when it hit.
Then the place freaking starts ROCKING. People start BOOKING it for the door. Come on, grandma, ditch the cart! Like 5 grandmas were like blocking the doors with their carts…We make it outside and even standing on the pavement, we can feel it. I look up and see antenae waving back and forth wildly, and I SEE THE FREAKING 7 STORY BUILDING SWAYING compared to the one next to it!! It was so scary! The building was moving! People were pouring out of all the nearby buildings. Eventually, I went to my office and saw my co-workers with students standing outside. Turns out that we cancelled classes for the rest of the day. Well, only two kids showed up and we sent them home. There were aftershocks, and it was really scary.
More updates are sure to follow concerning the entire situation, so certainly stay tuned to sites like MMA-Japan.com for the latest on Japanese MMA and the effects of the quake on that country.
Updated: MMA-Japan.com has confirmed that Shooto has in fact canceled it’s event.