An upcoming bout for this Thursday’s World Victory Road’s Sengoku: Soul of Fight event has saw a change as Bellator welterweight season 3 finalist Dan Hurnbuckle (22-3) has been forced off the card and replaced by Japanese fighter Taisuke Okuno (10-5-2).
Hornbuckle had been set to face Ryo Chonan (18-11) at the event but came down with a bout of influenza and was forced off the card. Chonan posted the update via Twitter on Dec. 25th and has since been made official by event staff today.
Chonan, a former UFC veteran, is 3-1 in his last four bouts coming off a TKO win over Jun Hee Moon last October at a Deep 50th Impact event. Before that he suffered a knockout loss to Jung Hwan Cha in April at the ASTRA event in Japan. Chonon is one of only four fighters to have ever defeated UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, he did it back at a PRIDE event in 2004 by submission.
Okuno is 3-1 in his last four bouts and is a veteran Shooto fighter. He recently lost a unanimous decision to Yasubey Enomoto at a Sengoku Raiden Championship 15 event in October ending a three fight win streak. Those three wins came in various promotions such as Sengoku, DEEP, and Shooto.
Sengoku: Soul of Fight takes place this Thursday, Dec. 30th, at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, Japan and features a 28-bout all day event. The event is expected to air in North America via tape delay on HDNet.