Filed under: News, JapanA pair of featherweight bouts have been booked for the Dec. 31 “How Are You?” event (this year’s Dynamite!! equivalent) with Tatsuya Kawajiri squaring off against Kazuyuki Miyata and Hiroyuki Takaya defending his belt against Ta…
A pair of featherweight bouts have been booked for the Dec. 31 “How Are You?” event (this year’s Dynamite!! equivalent) with Tatsuya Kawajiri squaring off against Kazuyuki Miyata and Hiroyuki Takaya defending his belt against Takeshi “Lion” Inoue in Saitama, Japan.
Kawajlri (29-7-2) fought in two of the three DREAM events in 2011, beating Drew Fickett and Joachim Hansen. In April, Kawajiri challenged Gilbert Melendez for the Strikeforce lightweight belt and lost by first-round TKO. In his most recent fight against Hansen in September, Kawajiri made the drop to featherweight. Miyata (11-8) fought once this year in a losing effort against Takaya with the DREAM title on the line.
Takaya (16-9-1), who won the DREAM title last New Year’s Eve, returned to the U.S. in April for Strikeforce and lost on the undercard to now-UFC fighter Robert Peralta. Takaya then bounced back in July with the aforementioned win over Miyata. Inoue (21-5) won all three of his fights this year against Taiki Tsuchiya, Koichiro Matsumoto and Caol Uno.
The full card will be a mixture of MMA, kickboxing and pro wrestling matches and will air on HDNet.
Aoki vs. McCullough. Enjoy it while it’s still available. Props: FightVieoMMA.com
Earlier this morning, DREAM 17 went down in Saitama, Japan. For those of you who have been reading this website for a while now, you know the drill. For those of you who are new here, first off, welcome. Second, DREAM publishes the results of their fights immediately after they happen, but the fights aren’t typically aired on HDNet until a later date. So if you feel like you’ve already read the results from somewhere or already saw the fights, well, you probably have. However, if you were really drunk last night and want to refresh your memory on what you saw (not that we condone that sort of thing), or are too disinterested in DREAM to have stayed in to watch it, then come inside where we have full results waiting after the jump.
Aoki vs. McCullough. Enjoy it while it’s still available. Props: FightVieoMMA.com
Earlier this morning, DREAM 17 went down in Saitama, Japan. For those of you who have been reading this website for a while now, you know the drill. For those of you who are new here, first off, welcome. Second, DREAM publishes the results of their fights immediately after they happen, but the fights aren’t typically aired on HDNet until a later date. So if you feel like you’ve already read the results from somewhere or already saw the fights, well, you probably have. However, if you were really drunk last night and want to refresh your memory on what you saw (not that we condone that sort of thing), or are too disinterested in DREAM to have stayed in to watch it, then come inside where we have full results waiting after the jump.
Still here? Good. Try not to act too surprised, but Shinya Aoki managed to dump another striker on his back and work for a submission last night. While Rob McCullough managed to get back to his feet after Aoki’s first takedown, he proceeded to do absolutely nothing until getting taken down again. Another impressive performance from Aoki, albeit against questionable competition.
In other non-tournament action, Takeshi Inoue dazzled the Japanese crowd with a head kick knockout of Caol Uno. Sorry, we don’t have a video of that for you. In far more predictable news, Tatsuya Kawajiri submitted Joachim Hansen with an arm triangle in the third round, Sakuraba lost yet another fight, this time to Yan Cabral, Gerald Harris picked up a split decision victory over Kazuhiro Nakamura and Ikuhisa Minowa submitted another oversized freak, Baru Harn. And yes, we actually DO have a video of that.
In Bantamweight World Grand Prix action, UFC veteran Antonio Banuelos picked up a split decision victory over Hideo Tokoro. This fight was his first since being canned by the UFC after a unanimous decision loss to Miguel Torres at UFC 126. Bibiano Fernandes, Masakazu Imanari, and Rodolfo Marques also advanced to the next round with victories last night.
Last night, HDNet aired their footage from DREAM’s disaster benefit show, which took place last weekend. Most of you already know what to expect, as results were posted immediately after the event took place, but the fights are worth a quick look. During Aoki vs Clementi Frank Trigg generously guestimated that a half dozen fighters were mentioned as possible opponents for Shinya Aoki. To be fair, that’s about when we stopped paying attention to rumored opponents for Aoki as well. Unfortunately, we don’t have any videos from the bantamweight tournament semifinal matchups. If we find some we’ll get them up. Videos are after the jump.
Last night, HDNet aired their footage from DREAM’s disaster benefit show, which took place last weekend. Most of you already know what to expect, as results were posted immediately after the event took place, but the fights are worth a quick look. During Aoki vs Clementi Frank Trigg generously guesstimated that a half dozen fighters were mentioned as possible opponents for Shinya Aoki. To be fair, that’s about when we stopped paying attention to rumored opponents for Aoki as well. Unfortunately, we don’t have any videos from the bantamweight tournament semifinal match ups. If we find some we’ll get them up. Videos are after the jump.
Shinya Aoki vs. Rich Clementi. At 5:34, Clementi politely informs Aoki that he punches like a girl. Have to admire a guy who can taunt an opponent who is absolutely dominating him.
Shooto featherweight champion Hatsu Hioki announced today that he has relinquished his belt and that he is moving on from the Japanese promotion in search of other challenges.
“At this time, I’ve returned the Shooto world lightweight title,” Hioki told Sherdog.com via email. “There is a pride in wearing the Shooto world title, but I think that, in the near future, I would like to challenge a new stage of pride.”
According to Sherdog, the popular 24-4-2 fighter, who holds a pair of wins over UFC featherweight contender Mark Hominick as well as one a piece over Takeshi “Lion” Inoue and Marlon Sandro, is being flown in to Vancouver, BC to attend UFC 131. I think we can all connect the dots on where he’s fighting next.
(Video courtesy of YouTube/EskriMMA)
Shooto featherweight champion Hatsu Hioki announced today that he has relinquished his belt and that he is moving on from the Japanese promotion in search of other challenges.
“At this time, I’ve returned the Shooto world lightweight title,” Hioki told Sherdog.com via email. “There is a pride in wearing the Shooto world title, but I think that, in the near future, I would like to challenge a new stage of pride.”
According to Sherdog, the popular 24-4-2 fighter, who holds a pair of wins over UFC featherweight contender Mark Hominick as well as one a piece over Takeshi “Lion” Inoue and Marlon Sandro, is being flown in to Vancouver, BC to attend UFC 131. I think we can all connect the dots on where he’s fighting next.
Unless he’s just a huge fan of Nick Ring or fellow countryman Michihiro Omigawa and we’re just reading into this all wrong, Hioki will be a welcome addition to the UFC’s somewhat vapid 145-pound class. When you scratch beneath the surface of plausible threats to champ Jose Aldo’s strap like Hominick, Chad Mendes, Josh Grispi and Dustin Poirier, there are really no other viable contenders waiting in the wings. “Shooto no Ko” will provide the division with a much needed spark.
A pair of featherweight bouts have been booked for the Dec. 31 “How Are You?” event (this year’s Dynamite!! equivalent) with Tatsuya Kawajiri squaring off against Kazuyuki Miyata and Hiroyuki Takaya defending his belt against Takeshi “Lion” Inoue in Saitama, Japan.