Author: Daniel Herbertson

Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Kazuhisa Watanabe Added to July 5 K-1 WORLD MAX

Filed under: K1, JapanK-1 President Sadaharu Tanikawa unveiled four additional matches Friday for July 5th’s K-1 World MAX 70 kg Final 16 and 63 kg Japan Tournament Finals. Notable for MMA fans, Sydney Olympic wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata will by making hi…

Filed under: ,

K-1 President Sadaharu Tanikawa unveiled four additional matches Friday for July 5th’s K-1 World MAX 70 kg Final 16 and 63 kg Japan Tournament Finals. Notable for MMA fans, Sydney Olympic wrestler Kazuyuki Miyata will by making his K-1 return against former Japanese featherweight boxing champion and K-1 bad boy Kazuhisa Watanabe. Miyata is coming off a close split decision win over Takafumi Otsuka at DREAM.14 and is undefeated as a featherweight.

Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura, who TKO’ed Hideo Tokoro at DREAM.14, was the preferred MMA representative but an injury sustained in that fight has kept him from making his K-1 debut.

Shohei Asahara, Toshiki Taniyama and Koya Urabe, who were all victorious in the opening round of the 63 kg tournament but failed to earn a spot in the Final 8, have been added in reserve fights.

Matchups Announced for Sengoku Bantamweight Asia Tournament

Filed under: Sengoku, JapanThe first round matchups for the Sengoku Raiden Championship Bantamweight Asia Tournament 2010, which starts at SRC Asia Volume 1 on July 4th at Differ Ariake, was set Friday via random draw.

The second round of the tournam…

Filed under: ,

The first round matchups for the Sengoku Raiden Championship Bantamweight Asia Tournament 2010, which starts at SRC Asia Volume 1 on July 4th at Differ Ariake, was set Friday via random draw.

The second round of the tournament will be held in late August at SRC 14. One seeded fighter from Shooto, Pancrase, Cage Force and ZST will face the second round victors in the third round of the tournament to be held in late October presumably at SRC 15. The eventual champion of the tournament will have to win five times if they are an unseeded fighter or three if they are seeded.

There were open applications for the tournament to Asian fighters under the age of 35 who have at least five professional fights or Olympic experience although those rules weren’t strictly adhered to.

Sanae Kikuta: Losing 37 Pounds in Seven Weeks

Filed under: Sengoku, interview, JapanSanae Kikuta is one of the unsung legends of Japanese MMA. A former light heavyweight King of Pancrase, 2001 88kg ADCC Champion, founder of the highly successful GRABAKA gym, and sporting a record of 28-6-3, Kikuta…

Filed under: , ,

Sanae Kikuta is one of the unsung legends of Japanese MMA. A former light heavyweight King of Pancrase, 2001 88kg ADCC Champion, founder of the highly successful GRABAKA gym, and sporting a record of 28-6-3, Kikuta has been consistently winning since 1996.

Now at 38 years old, and after almost 18 months of inactivity, Sanae Kikuta is making a drastic change. Spending most of his career at 200 lb and at some points getting as heavy as 207 lb, Kikuta will make the first cut of his career, all the way down to 170 lb.

Prior to his bout with Yasubey Enomoto at SRC 13, Kikuta met with the press to discuss his uniquely Japanese way of losing weight and his thoughts on fighting an unknown foe.