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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: DREAM

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

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MMA Monday Headlines with Mercedes Terrell in the Fitting Room

Merecedes Terrell tweeted this picture of herself in festive lingerie because she liked the sign: “FREE RIDE IN A POLICE CAR IF YOU SHOPLIFT”. What’s ironic is that Mercedes could get a free ride in.

Merecedes Terrell tweeted this picture of herself in festive lingerie because she liked the sign: “FREE RIDE IN A POLICE CAR IF YOU SHOPLIFT”. What’s ironic is that Mercedes could get a free ride in any getaway car if she shoplifted that outfit, as well.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira had a plate and 16 screws inserted into the complex fractured arm he suffered from the hands of Frank Mir at UFC 140.

Dana White is hoping for Anderson Silva to retire with a Super Fight against Jon Jones or Georges St. Pierre.

UFC 142 books Fabio Maldonado vs. Caio Malgalhaes in Rio.

Alistair Overeem doesn’t have time for allegations as he preps for UFC 141.

Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez booked for DREAM: New Year! 2011

Kazushi Sakuaba Returns to Pro Wrestling on New Year’s Eve

Filed under: News, JapanKazushi Sakuraba is set to participate on the New Year’s Eve “Genki Desu Ka!!” card in Saitama, Japan — as a pro wrestler.

Sakuraba, who made a name for himself in the mid-to-late 90s as a pro wrestler shortly before becoming …

Filed under: News, Japan

Kazushi Sakuraba is set to participate on the New Year’s Eve “Genki Desu Ka!!” card in Saitama, Japan — as a pro wrestler.

Sakuraba, who made a name for himself in the mid-to-late 90s as a pro wrestler shortly before becoming a Japanese MMA superstar under the PRIDE banner, will partner with Laughter7 teammate Katsuyori Shibata against Shinichi Suzukawa and Atsushi Sawada in a tag team pro wrestling match.

A familiar face on New Year’s Eve, Sakuraba has competed in MMA bouts on six of the last eight New Year’s Eves. Sakuraba, 42, has lost his last four bouts and hasn’t recorded a victory since his win over Zelg Galesic at Dream.12 in October 2009. Better known for his accomplishments as a pro wrestler, Shibata holds an unspectacular 4-11-1 MMA record.

Back on the MMA front, the promoters recently announced a women’s MMA bout with Megumi Fujii taking on Karla Benitez. Fujii (24-1) has won her last two fights to bounce back from a split decision loss to Zoila Gurgel in the finals of the Bellator 115-pound women’s tournament in October 2010. Benitez (6-1) fights out of Spain and is coming off the first loss of her career.

The current “Genki Desu Ka!!” lineup is below.

Dream Lightweight Title Bout
Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka

Dream Featherweight Title Bout
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi “Lion” Inoue

Dream Bantamweight World GP
Semifinals: Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques
Semifinals: Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos
Finals: Winner of Fernandes-Marques vs. Winner of Imanari-Banuelos
Reserve: Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev

Other MMA Bouts
Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
Mixed Rules Bout
Yuichiro Nagashima vs. Katsunori Kikuno

Pro Wrestling Matches
Kazushi Sakuraba and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shinichi Suzukawa and Atsushi Sawada
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Aerts

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MMA Top 10 Women: Ronda Rousey Enters the Top 5

Filed under: Strikeforce, Bellator, Rankings, Women’s OverallRonda Rousey is the next big thing in women’s mixed martial arts.

The undefeated Rousey, who beat Julia Budd on the Nov. 18 Strikeforce Challengers card, has been running through her competi…

Filed under: Strikeforce, Bellator, Rankings, Women’s Overall

Ronda Rousey is the next big thing in women’s mixed martial arts.

The undefeated Rousey, who beat Julia Budd on the Nov. 18 Strikeforce Challengers card, has been running through her competition like few fighters, male or female, we’ve ever seen: Rousey is 4-0, and incredibly all four of her wins have come in less than a minute, all by armbar. Before turning pro she had three amateur fights, and she won all three of those by armbar in less than a minute, too.

And so, although she’s still new to the sport and still hasn’t been tested against the best women Strikeforce has to offer, Rousey makes my Top 5 as we rank the top pound-for-pound fighters in women’s MMA. She looks that good.

What we don’t know yet is whether Rousey is more than just a one-trick pony: If she faces an opponent who’s able to keep the fight standing, will she be able to hold her own exchanging punches? And although she’s not going to face anyone who’s on her level as a judo player, will she be able to execute more than just her go-to arm bar if she faces an opponent who’s sophisticated enough on the ground not to let Rousey get her arm?

It remains to be seen. But I think she’s a future champion, and I think she deserves her place on the list of the top women in the sport, which is below.

Top 10 pound-for-pound women in MMA

(Editor’s note: The ranking from the last time we ranked women are in parentheses)

1. Cris Cyborg (1): After more than a year away, Cyborg returns to defend her women’s 145-pound title against Hiroko Yamanaka. That’s an interesting matchup; Yamanaka has a 12-1 record and will have a height and reach advantage over Cyborg. But Yamanaka has never fought outside Japan before, and Cyborg has been so dominant that at this point it’s very tough to see anyone beating her.

2. Zoila Gurgel (2): It’s unfortunate that after Gurgel’s huge win over Megumi Fujii, she’s only been able to fight once. She’s currently nursing a torn ACL and won’t be back any time soon. It would make sense for Bellator to arrange another women’s tournament for the right to take on Gurgel, although it’s not clear whether that’s in the promotion’s plans.

3. Miesha Tate (7): Tate turned in a great performance against Marloes Coenen to win the Strikeforce 135-pound women’s championship. What really worked for her in the Coenen fight was her superior wrestling, and it’s her wrestling that would make her a favorite to beat almost any female fighter in the world.

4. Megumi Fujii (3): In the year since suffering her one and only loss to Gurgel, Fujii has gone back to Japan and won a couple of unanimous decisions. I’d like to see her back in the Bellator cage in 2012, and a rematch with Gurgel would be the biggest women’s fight Bellator could make.

5. Ronda Rousey (NR): Rousey has been calling out Tate, and although the next shot at Tate’s 135-pound title was supposed to go to Sarah Kaufman, Zuffa may decide that Rousey is too hot to hold off on right now. Rousey is an easy sell for promoters because she’s smart and articulate and an Olympic bronze medalist in judo, and putting her in the cage with Tate would be one of the most marketable female fights that Strikeforce could arrange.

6. Marloes Coenen (4): First Coenen lost her Strikeforce title to Tate, then she lost her contract when her management at Golden Glory feuded with Zuffa. Now it’s anyone’s guess when or where she might fight next; she’s with an organization called BlackEye Promotions, which has no events scheduled.

7. Sarah Kaufman (5): Kaufman’s only loss was to Coenen, and since then she’s won two in a row, supposedly earning a title shot against Tate, whom Kaufman beat in 2009. The question is whether Strikeforce will push Kaufman aside to put Rousey in the cage with Tate.

8. Jessica Aguilar (8): Aguilar looked great in her unanimous decision win over Lisa Ellis-Ward at Bellator 58. Aguilar has now won seven of her last eight fights, with the only loss coming by split decision to Gurgel.

9. Tara LaRosa (6): LaRosa has been inactive since her great heel-hook submission of Carina Damm in March, and as a result a couple of more active fighters have leapfrogged her in the rankings. LaRosa is one of the real pioneers for women’s MMA. Let’s hope she’s back in the cage soon.

10. Alexis Davis (NR): Davis has had a couple big wins since we last updated our women’s rankings, beating Julie Kedzie by unanimous decision in July and then beating Amanda Nunes by TKO in September. I hope Zuffa keeps Strikeforce’s 135-pound women’s division alive, because Davis could be a great opponent for Tate, Kaufman or Rousey.

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CP Interview: Jessica Aguilar Wants the Best — and It Ain’t the Champ

“My regular training schedule was interrupted briefly after I broke a bone and had it pinned for faster and stronger healing – but now I am right back at full speed, 100% healthy, working like an animal, loving every minute and can feel that my training performance has clearly reached a new career high for me – I am really pumped and ready to go!!” -Jessica Aguilar, on training PicProps: Tom Hill

When you look into Jessica Aguilar’s training regimen, you know that you’re dealing with a dedicated athlete. Her typical schedule is brutal. Her gym, American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, is home to elite fighters. Her “personal time” — a couple of hours carved out of the afternoon — are usually spent working, to supplement a fighting income that doesn’t always square with having the best equipment, or a registered dietitian on call, or a hyperbaric chamber in your back yard.

Not that you’ll hear her complain. Aguilar gets by the with help of her sponsors, and she’s quick to point it out. But unlike the usual ham-handed attempts by fighters to plug companies that send them checks, Aguilar comes across as genuinely appreciative of the people and companies who have supported her through lean times. Talk to her for five minutes, and you realize that the positivity and tenacity aren’t marketing points, they’re deeply ingrained character traits. That attitude, the relentless optimism, the rugged determination, have served Aguilar well in her six year career.

Join us after the jump for all of CP’s exclusive interview with Jessica.

Jessica Aguilar never meant to start a career in MMA. A life-long athlete, a twenty-three year old Aguilar had just moved from Texas to Florida. The story goes that she started training BJJ on a whim after showing up late for her aerobics class one day, and it clicked from day one.

She was a quick study, and her instructors threw her into a NAGA grappling tournament two months after she started rolling. Not long after that, she was approached by a promoter at an amateur competition, asking if she’d take a pro fight. Aguilar, completely ignorant of what she was getting herself into (and expecting to lay down an entrance fee), agreed to take the fight by asking, “Sure, I’ll compete, how much do I pay?”

Aguilar got paid for that first fight she took with almost no training and less experience, and she caught a loss to Lisa Ward. Ward was then, and still is, a top five fighter in the women’s 115 pound division.

Aguilar went on to assemble an 8-3 record before being invited to take part in Bellator’s inaugural women’s tournament. She scored a business-like arm triangle choke on Lynn Alvarez in the first round, moving her ahead in the tournament to fight Zoila Frausto. Frausto won the decision, but this is what the competitors looked like afterwards. Jessica Aguilar, unscratched, smiled and applauded graciously when the decision was announced.

Jag returned quickly to the cage, picking up a submission win over Elsie Henri less than two months after her screw job loss, then a decision win over powerful wrestler Carla Esparza.

A Frausto rematch was planned, then scrapped, when Jag’s recovery from surgery wasn’t proceeding properly. Another opportunity presented itself in the form of another old loss: Lisa Ward. She’s Lisa Ward-Ellis now, but she’s still the same fighter: a top-ranked contender in the weight class with a win over Aguilar back in February 2006. Jag wants to erase that loss, but what she really wants is a shot at the best female fighter in her weight class. Thing is, the current Bellator women’s champ isn’t who she’s talking about: Jag has her sights set on Megumi Fujii.

Better Know a Martial Art: Judo is Awesome

VidProps: ijfchannel/YouTube

Funny thing about literal translations: they’re rarely very good at saying exactly what you mean, rather they tend to sort-of-in-a-general-way communicate a rough idea. And sometimes, they’re downright misleading. Take judo, for example. The Japanese translates into English imprecisely to begin with: ju translates literally as “gentle” or “soft”, while do is “way” or “path”. Both of these concepts relate more to the philosophy of judo — conservation of energy and an emphasis on technique — than a description of the style and action. Ask anyone who’s ever tried a few classes in the “gentle way“, and they’ll tell you that it’s anything but. Any class that begins with learning how to fall down with minimal pain runs a significant risk of being brutal.

Judo was born in the late 19th Century by a Japanese jujitsu fella by the name of Jiguro Kano, known to his brodogs as “Da Jigumon”. Kano had begun training as a result of being bullied growing up —a story that still rings true through time. At the time, “jujitsu” was something of a generic term for unarmed fighting, and schools varied wildy in technique, training methods, and instruction.

VidProps: ijfchannel/YouTube

Funny thing about literal translations: they’re rarely very good at saying exactly what you mean; rather, they tend to sort-of-in-a-general-way communicate a rough idea. And sometimes, they’re downright misleading. Take judo, for example. The Japanese translates into English imprecisely to begin with: ju translates literally as “gentle” or “soft”, while do is “way” or “path”. Both of these concepts relate more to the philosophy of judo — conservation of energy and an emphasis on technique — than a description of the style and action. Ask anyone who’s ever tried a few classes in the “gentle way“, and they’ll tell you that it’s anything but. Any class that begins with learning how to fall down with minimal pain runs a significant risk of being brutal.

Judo was born in the late 19th Century by a Japanese jujitsu fella by the name of Jiguro Kano, known to his brodogs as “Da Jigumon”. Kano had begun training as a result of being bullied growing up –a story that still rings true through time. At the time, “jujitsu” was something of a generic term for unarmed fighting, and schools varied wildy in technique, training methods, and instruction.

Kano redefined weaponless combat by focusing on a relative handful of techniques from jujitsu schools, emphasizing techniques that were a) actually applicable in real life situations (so they threw out the Scorpion kick and the Torture Rack) and b) safe to practice on a live partner (so they dropped the tiger claw eye gouge to spinal cord asplosion touch of death).

His break from practicing martial arts primarily through kata (waving your arms around in the air and looking all silly) and placing an importance on randori (actual ass kicking with a real live person) was revolutionary.

Japanese jujitsu schools continued to develop, influence, and challenge judo. It was a small jujitsu school (Fusen ryu) that was on the vanguard of ground-based grappling that led to a heightened interest in learning something besides how to throw someone to the ground really hard. The result was a surge of ne waza judo around the turn of the century, just when Mitsuyo Maeda was studying martial arts. A student of both classical-style jujitsu and Jiguro Kano’s judo, Maeda emigrated to Brazil before World War I, where he met a Brazilian fella by the name of Gracie. But that’s a whole other story.

Judo continues to evolve, particularly the rules of international competition. But throwing somebody down really hard is still really, really awesome.

Judo Strengths

Judo players tend to bring a great deal of upper body strength to the cage for MMA, and their standing clinch work is as good as any style. They tend to be explosive athletes, with knockout power. Add to that training with submissions and ground fighting, and it is a powerful base.

Judo’s popularity in MMA waxes and wanes — remember when Karo Parisyan was an exciting new prospect? — and with an influx of new blood lately, interest is gaining again.

Notable Judokas in MMA

Hiroshi Izumi, Megumi Fujii, Hidehiko Yoshida, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Satoshi Ishii, Karo Parisyan, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Rick Hawn, Ronda Rousey

Technique to Know

The uchi mata is one of the throws you may spot in MMA. Megumi Fujii has a beautiful uchi mata, and that’s not slang for anything. Judo master/sambo savant/all-round grappling ninja Gokor Chivichyan won a gold medal at the 2008 USJA/USJF Winter Nationals with an uchi mata, and we found this very cool video of his demonstrating a slick kneebar off of a defended uchi mata. And that’s just one throw. Judo has, like, a whole lot.

Ok, Nation, brush up on your Japanese, go watch a few YouTube videos, and get out there and start hip tossing fools. It’s what Jiguro Kano would want.*

[RX]

*it’s really not.