With so many fights happening this past week, Strikeforce: LA, Bellator 22, TUF 11 Finale, and WEC 49, it’s easy to forget that there are some excellent promotions across the ocean in Japan.
The DREAM promotion updated it’s DREAM.15 card with a couple of bouts. The weigh-ins for World Victory Road’s latest Sengoku Raiden Championship event, SVR 13, took place on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. A women’s event completed itself on Saturday with Valkrye 6, culminating with a flyweight championship bout between Naoko Omuro vs. Yasuko Tamada.
DREAM.15 will host the promotions opening round of it’s four-man Grand Prix tournament to determine it’s first-ever light-heavyweight champ, will see K-1 kickboxer Melvin Manhoef (24-7-1) take on Tatsuya Mizuno (7-5). Also announced was a lightweight matchup between Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante (14-3-1) vs. Katsunori Kikuno (13-2-1).
DREAM.15 will take place on July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. HDNet will carry the event for fans in North America. You can see the current DREAM.15 card near the bottom of the post.
World Victory Roads Sunday event, Sengoku Raiden Championship 13, will see a featherweight title fight and the opening round of it’s welterweight grand prix tournament. The weigh-ins took place on Saturday at East 21 Hotel in Toyocho, Tokyo. The actual event will take place in Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan, also known as Sumo Hall, and will be shown on HDNet in North America on June 25.
Defending his Sengoku featherweight title will be Masanori Kanehara (65.7kg) who takes on Marlon Sandro (65.7kg). The full weigh-in results and event match ups can be found near the bottom of the page.
The womens event, Valkyrie 6, took place on June 19 at the Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan and featured five female bouts. Yasuko Tamada picked up her thenth victory as well as the Valkrye flyweight title after earning a unanimous decision over Naoko Omuro.
Keeping her record unbeaten at 7-0, was Rin Nakai who defeated Megumi Yabushita, who holds 36 professional fights under her belt, via unanimous decision. With so few female fighters in the sport of MMA, the 135 pound Nakai could find herself as a potential opponent of Strikeforce bantamweight Strikeforce champ Sarah Kaufman.
The full results from the Valkyrie 6 event can be found at the end of the post.
Props to MMAFighting.com for providing updates on the Japanese events.
DREAM.15
Lightweight title bout: Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Lightweight bout: Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Light-heavyweight tournament:
– Melvin Manhoef vs. Tatsuya Mizuno
– Gegard Mousasi
Sengoku Raiden Championship 13
SRC featherweight title fight: Masanori Kanehara (65.7 kg) vs. Marlon Sandro (65.7 kg)
Light-heavyweight bout: Hiroshi Izumi (92.5 kg) vs. Chang Seob Lee (92.2 kg)
Welterweight: Yasubey Enomoto (76.8 kg) vs. Sanae Kikuta (77.1 kg)
Lightweight: Maximo Blanco (70.2 kg) vs. Rodrigo Damm (70.2 kg)
SRC welterweight GP opening round:
– Omar de la Cruz (76.9 kg) vs. Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura (76.7 kg)
– Jae Sun Lee (77.1 kg) vs. Takuya Wada (77 kg)
Featherweight: Shigeki Osawa (65.7 kg) vs. Katsuya Toida (65.8 kg)
Featherweight: Doo Ho Choi (65.8 kg) vs. Ikuo Usuda (65.7 kg)
Light-heavyweight: Hidetada Irie (92.7 kg) vs. Ryo Kawamura (92.3 kg)
Valkyrie 6
Valkyrie flyweight title bout: Yasuko Tamada def. Naoko Omuro via unanimous decision
Rin Nakai def. Megumi Yabushita via unanimous decision
Ayame Miura def. Mutsumi Kasai via unanimous decision
Naho “Sugi Rock” Sugiyama def. Megumi Morioka via TKO (referee stoppage) – R2, 2:20
“Butterfly Knife” Yuka def. Kimie “Sakura” Okada via unanimous decision