Dream New Year’s Eve Predictions

Filed under: DREAMWill Fedor Emelianenko continue his winning ways on New Year’s Eve in Japan? Or will Satoshi Ishii take an enormous step forward in his MMA career with a huge upset? Will Japanese stars Shinya Aoki, Hiroyuki Takaya and Tatsuya Kawajir…

Filed under:

Will Fedor Emelianenko continue his winning ways on New Year’s Eve in Japan? Or will Satoshi Ishii take an enormous step forward in his MMA career with a huge upset? Will Japanese stars Shinya Aoki, Hiroyuki Takaya and Tatsuya Kawajiri put on impressive performances? Will American fans manage to stay awake after UFC 141 and watch several more hours of fighting into the wee hours of Saturday morning?

We’ll attempt to answer those questions and more as we predict the winners of this year’s New Year’s Eve event in Japan below.

What: Dream: Fight for Japan New Year 2011

Where: Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan

When: Friday late night, the HDNet broadcast will begin at 1 AM ET, just after the conclusion of UFC 141.

Predictions on all the MMA fights below.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii
Fedor is 5-0 fighting in Japan on New Year’s Eve, and it would be an enormous upset if he doesn’t improve to 6-0 against Ishii, a former Olympic judo gold medalist who is 4-1-1 in his MMA career. Fedor has obviously declined significantly from the days when he was the top fighter in the sport, but I don’t think he’s fallen so far that he’ll lose to Ishii. This should be a relatively easy win for Fedor.
Pick: Emelianenko

Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka
Aoki is arguably Japan’s best pound-for-pound fighter, but he’ll have his hands full with Kitaoka, who’s a good grappler and has beaten some very solid opponents, including Carlos Condit, Paul Daley and Takanori Gomi. I see this one going the distance and being closer than most people think, with Aoki eking out a close decision.
Pick: Aoki

Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi Inoue
Takaya is making his second defense of the Dream featherweight title, which he won by defeating Bibiano Fernandes on New Year’s Eve last year. Inoue is coming off a great head kick knockout of Caol Uno, but Takaya’s kickboxing is better than Inoue, and I like him to win by decision.
Pick: Takaya

Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
Kawajiri dropped to featherweight and looked great in his recent win over Joachim Hansen. His striking will be too much for Miyata.
Pick: Kawajiri

Hayato Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan
Both of these guys are past their primes (Sakurai is 36 and has lost four in a row; Chonan is 35 and has fought low-level competition since losing three of four in the UFC a few years ago), but I think Sakurai has a little more gas left in the tank and will avenge Chonan’s 2003 victory.
Pick: Sakurai

Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez
Fujii is one of the best pound-for-pound female fighters in the world, and Benitez is simply not at her level. This should be an easy submission victory for Fujii.
Pick: Fujii

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal: Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques
Fernandes, the former Dream featherweight title, is more comfortable fighting at bantamweight, and he has to be considered the favorite to win this tournament. I look for him to beat Marques easily.
Pick: Fernandes

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal: Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos
Banuelos was released by the UFC after losing a decision to Miguel Torres early this year, but he’s a dangerous opponent for anyone and a much better striker than Imanari. I like Banuelos to win by TKO.
Pick: Banuelos

Bantamweight Tournament Reserve Bout: Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev
Tokoro, who lost a split decision to Banuelos in the tournament quarterfinals, should win the reserve bout against Saadulaev, who lost to Marques.
Pick: Tokoro

Bantamweight Tournament Final: Winner of Imanari/Banuelos vs. Winner of Fernandes/Marques
Fernandes has an excellent opportunity to make a statement that he’s the best bantamweight outside Zuffa, and I think he’ll put on a show by beating Banuelos in the tournament finale.
Pick: Fernandes

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

DREAM: Fight For Japan New Years Eve 2011 Promo For HDNet

This Friday night, the action also takes place half-way around the world in “The Land of the Rising Sun” as DREAM presents Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011 on New Years Eve from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The card features a mix of mixed martial arts and kickboxing bouts including a heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii, as well as the conclusion of DREAM’s Bantamweight Grand Prix tournament. The live event features nine hours of action and kicks off at 10pm EST on HDNet this Friday (Dec. 30, 2011).

Check out the full fight card after the jump

Click here to view the embedded video.

This Friday night, the action also takes place half-way around the world in “The Land of the Rising Sun” as DREAM presents Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011 on New Years Eve from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The card features a mix of mixed martial arts and kickboxing bouts including a heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii, as well as the conclusion of DREAM’s Bantamweight Grand Prix tournament. The live event features nine hours of action and kicks off at 10pm EST on HDNet this Friday (Dec. 30, 2011).

Official Fight Card

Heavyweight Bout: Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii
DREAM Lightweight Championship Bout: Shinya Aoki (c) vs. Satoru Kitaoka
DREAM Featherweight Championship Bout: Hiroyuki Takaya (c) vs. Takeshi Inoue
Featherweight Bout: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
Welterweight Bout: Hayato Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan
DREAM/K-1 Special Rules Bout: Yuichiro Nagashima vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Women’s (115 lbs) bout: Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez
IGF Rules Bout: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Aerts
IGF Rules Bout: Atsushi Sawada and Shinichi Suzukawa vs. Kazushi Sakuraba and Katsuyori Shibata
IGF Rules Bout: Josh Barnett vs. Hideki Suzuki
IGF Rules Bout: Jerome Le Banner vs. Tim Sylvia
K-1 Max Bout: Yuta Kubo vs. Nils Widlund
K-1 Max Bout: Masaaki Noiri vs. Kengo Sonoda

Bantamweight Tournament

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal Bout: Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos
Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal Bout: Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques
Bantamweight Tournament Reserve Bout: Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev
Bantamweight Tournament Final: Winner of Imanari/Banuelos vs. Winner of Fernandes/Marques

Women’s MMA News and Notes: McMann vs. Akano, Fujii Returns, Carano’s Future

Filed under: DREAM, Strikeforce, Bellator, NewsDespite a shortage of talent, the interest in women’s MMA seems to be stronger than ever, thanks in large part to Cris Cyborg, Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate. Still, there are other talented women making hea…

Filed under: , , ,

Despite a shortage of talent, the interest in women’s MMA seems to be stronger than ever, thanks in large part to Cris Cyborg, Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate. Still, there are other talented women making headlines out there, and they deserve some of our attention too.

Below is a roundup of news and notes from the world of women’s MMA.

* ProElite has signed an intriguing 135-pound fight for its upcoming card on Jan. 21 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Sara McMann, the 2004 Olympic silver medalist who has compiled a 4-0 MMA record thus far, will meet top-ranked Hitomi Akano on the undercard of the event headlined Kendall Grove vs. Ikuhisa Minowa. The 31-year-old McMann defeated Raquel Pa’aluhi via third-round submission in the first ProElite show back in August. Akano, who famously lost to an overweight Cris Cyborg in an Aug. 2009 Strikeforce bout, enters the fight with an 18-8 record and riding a two-fight winning streak. She recently defeated Roxanne Modaferri via unanimous decision in July.

* Megumi Fujii (pictured), one of the best pound-for-pound female fighters in the world, has agreed to meet Karla Benitez in the first-ever DREAM women’s bout. The fight will take place on the promotion’s New Year’s Eve show, which is being dubbed “DREAM – Fight for Japan: Genki Desu Ka! New Year! 2011.” Fujii (24-1) is 2-0 since suffering the first and only loss of her career to Zoila Gurgel at Bellator 34 last October. Benitez (6-1) will enter the bout looking to get back on track after losing her first pro MMA fight in her most recent bout in October.

* Speaking of Gurgel, the Bellator 115-pound champion, who underwent knee surgery to repair a torn ACL several weeks ago, tweeted recently that she is healing “ahead of schedule,” and if things keep up this way, she could be back in action in approximately five months.

* “Haywire,” starring Gina Carano, will be released in theaters on Jan. 20, so that means expect to see a whole lot more of Carano in the coming weeks. Which leads us to …

* Carano is featured in the latest edition GQ Magazine. More on that here. Now, if you’re wondering whether Carano will ever fight again, we asked Stephen Espinoza, the new EVP and GM of Showtime Sports, who also used to be Carano’s a lawyer, that very question on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour.

“I’ve actually been trading calls with Gina,” he said. “She’s really, really focused on the film, on ‘Haywire.’ She just smiles and winks. You know her well enough. She’s got that sort of mysterious wink once in a while when she sort of says, I don’t know, but will sort of wink and you kind of feel like there’s something else there. But I know she is, in her heart, a fighter and always has that urge, just like any boxer does or anyone that is really committed to the sport. So if there is any opportunity to do so, I think you could see her [fight again] pretty quickly.”

* It feels like Rousey, who is still pushing for a fight against Miesha Tate at 135 pounds instead of Cris Cyborg at 145, continues to break barriers everyday. For example, she was a guest on Joe Rogan’s popular podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” on Wednesday, which most MMA fighters can’t say, let alone any women’s MMA fighters. You can watch/listen to the show here.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Ishii, Monson Fights Represent the Last Phase of Fedor’s Career

Filed under: DREAM, M-1 GlobalThe best heavyweight in MMA history will make his return to the ring on New Year’s Eve in Japan, when Fedor Emelianenko faces the former Olympic judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii, and the fan reaction to that fight has been…

Filed under: ,

The best heavyweight in MMA history will make his return to the ring on New Year’s Eve in Japan, when Fedor Emelianenko faces the former Olympic judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii, and the fan reaction to that fight has been decidedly mixed.

On one hand, you have fans who loved seeing Fedor’s glory days in Pride who figure that there’s nothing wrong with seeing him back in Japan on New Year’s Eve, which was once an annual tradition. On the other hand, you have fans who are disappointed that Fedor won’t be facing a high-level opponent, as Ishii is just 4-1-1 in his MMA career and doesn’t have anything close to the kind of MMA resume that Fedor has.

The reality is that this fight — and Fedor’s fight in Moscow last month against Jeff Monson — is just what we’re going to see from the 35-year-old Fedor at this point, as he enters the last phase of his legendary career. We’re not going to see Fedor against Top 10 competition anymore, so we might as well enjoy watching him against the competition he will face, guys like Ishii and Monson who are perfectly respectable but far from elite.

Before I go any further, there’s a little revisionist history to get out of the way: Some people like to claim that Fedor never fought high-quality competition, that all he did was “crush cans” in Japan. That’s really not an accurate account of any stage of Fedor’s career: He beat good opponents like Babalu Sobral and Ricardo Arona in Rings early in his career, beat good opponents like Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Mirko Cro Cop in Pride in the prime of his career, and beat good opponents like Tim Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski in Affliction late in his career. It’s true that Fedor liked to mix in easy fights against the likes of Lee Hasdell and Yuji Nagata, but at his best he took on many of the best heavyweights in the world and beat them consistently.

What has changed is simple: Fedor is not at his best anymore, and now he’s not in a position to fight the best heavyweights anymore. The sport’s top heavyweights are signed to exclusive Zuffa contracts, and so they’re not going to be fighting Fedor any time soon.

And really, Fedor shouldn’t be fighting an elite heavyweight right now. After consecutive losses to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva and Dan Henderson, taking a step back in quality of competition only made sense for Fedor, because he can’t compete with the truly elite in the sport anymore. That’s not a knock on Fedor, any more than it’s a knock on Michael Jordan to say that he wasn’t as good with the Washington Wizards as he was with the Chicago Bulls. It’s just the reality with aging athletes.

The good news about the Ishii fight is that while Fedor is a heavy favorite, it’s not a mismatch to the same extent that Fedor’s last New Year’s Eve fight was. In that fight, on December 31, 2007, Fedor was still the No. 1 heavyweight in the world, and seeing him easily submit the Korean giant Hong Man Choi in a Japanese freak show felt like a waste of time. Ishii isn’t on Fedor’s level, but Fedor-Ishii in 2011 is a more competitive fight than Fedor-Choi in 2007 was.

The other piece of good news is that this will be Fedor’s fourth fight this year, making 2011 the most active year for Fedor since 2004, when he was the heavyweight champion in Pride. If you’re a Fedor fan, seeing him fight frequently is not a bad thing.

So that’s where Fedor is at this late stage in his career. He’s no longer fighting the best of the best on the biggest stages in the sport, but if you’ve enjoyed watching him fight, there are worse things than seeing him in the ring with Ishii on New Year’s Eve.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Mike Schiavello on Announcing, Pro Wrestling and Japanese MMA

Mike Schiavello believes he has a gift. For the fans that have tuned into HDNet to see any of the recent Dream MMA or K-1 kickboxing shows, Schiavello has demonstrated a very unique storytelling ability. The Australian native is one of the fastest comm…

Mike Schiavello believes he has a gift.

For the fans that have tuned into HDNet to see any of the recent Dream MMA or K-1 kickboxing shows, Schiavello has demonstrated a very unique storytelling ability.

The Australian native is one of the fastest commentators in MMA history. His color commentators are often heard laughing during the middle of a broadcast.

“God given gift of quick-wit,” Schiavello said. “I’ve been doing this for 16 years—always the same style. It’s a lot of experience.”

Over the past few years, Schiavello has made his name in the U.S. He is the lead announcer for HDNet. He has covered a variety of smaller promotions in the U.S., but his specialty is the Japanese fight scene.

In his career, Schiavello has called over five thousands fights.

“I’ve commentated so many fights it’s hard to pick a favorite,” Schiavello said, when asked for his most memorable matches. “For K-1, I’m going to go with Masato vs. Souwer at Budokhan Hall in 2007. Sammy Schilt vs. Peter Aerts was amazing.”

“For MMA, I love Hatsu Hioki vs. Marlon Sandro in Sengoku’s end of year show last year.”

Unfortunately though, the major Japanese fight scene has not been anywhere near as popular is it was in the early 2000’s. Gone are the massive sell-outs for Pride FC.

“The local shows are flourishing at the moment,” Schiavello said. “The big shows not so much. K-1 is in trouble. They owe a lot of money. On the other hand, Dream has real entertainment.”

 

Schiavello is clearly a big fan of Dream—even though the organization is not drawing anywhere near as well as Pride did. Rumors about Dream’s demise have recently circulated.

“Dream is a great show from a TV perspective,” Schiavello said. “I think there is potential there. I think they will do several more cards.”

The fall from prominence for K-1 is what has caused people to think the same future is on the way for the MMA promotion.

“I don’t think Dream has a problem—It’s FEG,” Schiavello said, referring to the organization that oversees K-1. “Real Entertainment handles Dream. They are still paying their fighters on time. They’re still drawing big crowds.”

As long as Dream is attracting people to the arenas, Schiavello will be the person calling the action for U.S. fight fans.

His somewhat bombastic style of calling the action filled with one-liners has caused many onlookers to believe his style would also be suited for pro wrestling.

Schiavello sees some similarities and some differences.

“They’re both live spectacles,” Schiavello said. “They are both a combat style of entertainment, but the biggest obvious difference is the MMA is real and pro wrestling is not.”

“You can’t schedule anything in mixed martial arts. It’s not pro wrestling. You don’t know the storylines.”

 

Recently, former pro wrestlers Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley have made the switch to the cage. Lesnar credits his past history with World Wrestling Entertainment for teaching him how to be a star.

Schiavello feels that more fighters should follow the former UFC heavyweight champion’s lead.

“MMA fighters can learn from pro wrestling on how to better market themselves,” Schiavello said.

However, for someone to become a successful announcer like Schiavello has, he offers much simpler advice.

“Practice, practice, practice. Pay your dues.”

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

DREAM Adds Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez For New Year’s Eve Event

Tweet Fresh on the heels of this past weekends women’s Strikeforce title bout, the Japanese based DREAM promotion has added it’s own women’s match to the upcoming Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011 scheduled for New Year’s Eve. Former Jewel and Bellator fighter Megumi ‘Mega Megu’ Fujii (24-1) is set to take on […]

Fresh on the heels of this past weekends women’s Strikeforce title bout, the Japanese based DREAM promotion has added it’s own women’s match to the upcoming Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011 scheduled for New Year’s Eve.

Former Jewel and Bellator fighter Megumi ‘Mega Megu’ Fujii (24-1) is set to take on European fighter Karla Benitez (6-1) in a 115-lbs bout at the year-end show.

DREAM posted the bout this weekend on the promotions website dreamofficial.com.

DREAM Fight For Japan: Genki Desu Ka Omisoka 2011 is scheduled to take place on Dec. 31 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The event features a heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii.

Fujii has competed just once in 2011, earning a unanimous decision in a rematch against Mika Nagano this past July at a Jewels show in Japan. Fans in North America may remember ‘Mega Megu’ best after she competed in Bellator’s women’s flyweight (115 lbs) tournament in 2010, making it to the finals only to lose to Zoila Frausto (Gurgel) by split decision. The loss ended Fujii’s 22-win undefeated streak and is the only blemish on her career.

Benitez recently suffered her first career loss this past October, losing a by decision to opponent Katja Kankaanpaa at a Cage 16 show in Finland. Before that, the Spanish fighter had six wins and one “No Contest” to her record scoring two (T)KO wins, two submission, and 2 decision victories.