(Marlon Sandro shows off a kick he's been working on called the 'Flying Photoshop Material.' Props: Sherdog)
Tomorrow's year-ending Sengoku event in Tokyo may be short on gross mismatches, public executions, gender/rule-bending stunt fights, and Bob Sapp, but the card makes up for it in matches that are actually competitive and relevant. "Soul of Fight" will present a staggering 28 bouts of MMA and kickboxing; you can check out the full lineup at the end of this post. HDNet will be airing the bouts in a two-part series on January 14th and 21st, but we'll try to post videos of the best fights as soon as we can. Here's a few you might be seeing...
Marlon Sandro vs. Hatsu Hioki (for Sengoku Featherweight Championship)Soul of Fight's main event is easily the most important featherweight bout possible outside of the WEC. Since debuting in Sengoku last March, reigning champion Marlon Sandro has become one of the most vicious knockout artists in all of MMA, dispatching his last three opponents in a combined fight time of 3:20. In his last fight, the Nova Uniao standout starched Masanori Kanehara in 38 seconds to win World Victory Road's featherweight strap. Hioki, who is the reigning 143-pound champ of Shooto, might be the last elite-level challenge that Sandro will find in Japan, and brings an Aoki-esque grappling style that's as creative as it is aggressive.
Megumi Fujii vs. Emi Fujino (women's 118-pounds)
The last time we saw Mega Megu, she had just taken her first-ever loss thanks to Zoila Frausto and some questionable judging. And so, it's time for Fujii to start building up another insane win streak against outmatched local competition. 9-4 Smackgirl/Valkyrie veteran Fujino seems like a perfect rebound candidate. Though she won her last fight by submission, the victory followed four consecutive decision losses to fighters including Megumi Yabushita and "Windy" Tomomi Sunaba. Fujii by armbar, round 1.
The last time we saw Mega Megu, she had just taken her first-ever loss thanks to Zoila Frausto and some questionable judging. And so, it's time for Fujii to start building up another insane win streak against outmatched local competition. 9-4 Smackgirl/Valkyrie veteran Fujino seems like a perfect rebound candidate. Though she won her last fight by submission, the victory followed four consecutive decision losses to fighters including Megumi Yabushita and "Windy" Tomomi Sunaba. Fujii by armbar, round 1.
Keita Nakamura vs. Yasubey Enomoto (Welterweight Grand Prix final)The biggest name in Sengoku's 2010 welterweight GP was Nick "The Goat" Thompson, and he was smashed in the opening round by Taisuke Okuno — so don't feel bad if you haven't been keeping up on this little tourney. Eight participants have been pared down to two finalists: Keita "K-Taro" Nakamura, a former UFC washout who scored stoppages against Omar de la Cruz and Takuya Wada, and Yasubey Enomoto, a relative rookie who got past Kenta Takagi and the aforementioned Okuno. If the winner of this fight becomes Sengoku's official welterweight champion, he'll be the paper-est paper-champion in recent MMA history. But hey, it should be a good scrap.
Maximo Blanco vs. "Parky" Won Sik Park (lightweight)
With four consecutive knockouts in Sengoku, Blano is edging ever closer to a lightweight title shot. But first he'll have to stave off Parky, a well-traveled veteran of Deep, DREAM, MARS, and Grachan, who has earned eight of his nine wins by first-round stoppage. Blanco is the reigning lightweight King of Pancrase; he would like nothing more than to go back in time and beat up everyone. Yes, everyone.
With four consecutive knockouts in Sengoku, Blano is edging ever closer to a lightweight title shot. But first he'll have to stave off Parky, a well-traveled veteran of Deep, DREAM, MARS, and Grachan, who has earned eight of his nine wins by first-round stoppage. Blanco is the reigning lightweight King of Pancrase; he would like nothing more than to go back in time and beat up everyone. Yes, everyone.
Buakaw Por. Pramuk vs. Hiroki Nakajima
Buakaw is a Muay Thai superstar and two-time K-1 World MAX Champion ('04, '06). Nakajima is a 22-year-old from Bungeling Bay who was a finalist in this year's K-1 MAX tournament, losing to jolly cross-dresser Yuichiro Nagashima. The fact that this fight is taking place under the Sengoku banner rather than DREAM/K-1 is sort of a slap in the face.
Buakaw is a Muay Thai superstar and two-time K-1 World MAX Champion ('04, '06). Nakajima is a 22-year-old from Bungeling Bay who was a finalist in this year's K-1 MAX tournament, losing to jolly cross-dresser Yuichiro Nagashima. The fact that this fight is taking place under the Sengoku banner rather than DREAM/K-1 is sort of a slap in the face.
And now the bout order, via Japan-MMA.com:
Main Event: SRC Featherweight title match (5min x 5): 28. Marlon Sandro 17-1-0 vs. 22-4-2 Hatsu Hioki
27. Middle 5min x 3: Kazuo Misaki 22-11-2 vs. 13-13-1 Mike Seal
26. KB 3min x 3 (70 kg): Buakaw Por Pramuk vs. Hiroki Nakajima
25. Female MMA 5min x 3 (53.5 kg): Megumi Fujii 22-1-0 vs. 9-4-0 Emi Fujino
SRC vs. Dream (5min x 3):
24. Feather: Masanori Kanehara 16-8-5 vs. 27-9-2 Yoshiro Maeda
23. Welter: Ryo Chonan 18-11-0 vs. 10-5-2 Taisuke ”Goten” Okuno*
22. Light: Maximo Blanco 7-2-1 vs. 9-2-1 "Parky" Won Sik Park
SRC Welterweight GP Final:
21. Keita "K-Taro" Nakamura 20-4-2 vs. 6-1-0 Yasubey Enomoto
20. Light: Kazunori Yokota 11-4-3 vs. 3-2-0 Jadamba Narantungalag
19. Middle: Yuki Sasaki 22-18-1 vs. 20-4-2 Mamed Khalidov
18. Heavy: Yoshihiro Nakao 9-2-0 vs. 19-2-0 Dave Herman
SRC Bantamweight Asia Tournament Semifinals (5min x 2):
17. Akitoshi Tamura 15-9-2 vs. 11-6-0 Taiyo Nakahara
16. Manabu Inoue 11-5-1 vs. 18-6-9 Shunichi Shimizu
15. Female MMA 5min x 2 (61 kg): Roxanne Modafferi 15-6-0 vs. 16-8-0 Hitomi Akano
14. Female MMA 5min x 3 (Open 3x3min): Rin Nakai 9-0-0 vs. 6-23-1 Mika “Hari” Harigai
13. Female MMA 5min x 2 (48 kg): Amy Davis 1-1-0 vs. 12-11-4 Misaki Takimoto
12. Female MT 2min x 5 (47.62 kg): Erika Kamimura vs. Chiharu
11. MT 3min x 3 (86.18 kg): Fabiano Cyclone vs. Andrew Peck
10. KB 3min x 3 (86.18 kg): Kazuki Ozawa vs. Lee Chang Seob
9. MT 3min x 3 (73 kg): Musashi Miyamoto vs. Hiroki Komata
8. MT 3min x 5 (60 kg): Kanongsuk Weerasakreck vs. Genki Yamamoto
7. MT 3min x 5 (52 kg): Arashi Fujiwara vs. Mutsuki Ebata
6. KB 3min x 3 (70 kg): Yutaro Yamauchi vs. Gou Yokoyama
5. KB 3min x 3 (70 kg): Yusuke Ikei vs. Shintaro Matsukura
4. KB 3min x 2 (61.23 kg): Hironobu Ikegami vs. Yuji Tanaka
3. SRC Jacket match 5min x 1 (Light): Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Jung Jin Suk
2. SRC Jacket match 5min x 1 (59 kg): Kiyotaka Shimizu vs. Ichiro Sugita
1. SRC Jacket match 5min x 1 (Light): Sotaro Yamada vs. Kim Lee Sak
2. SRC Jacket match 5min x 1 (59 kg): Kiyotaka Shimizu vs. Ichiro Sugita
1. SRC Jacket match 5min x 1 (Light): Sotaro Yamada vs. Kim Lee Sak
* Coming in as a late replacement for Dan Hornbuckle, who "is influenza." Okuno is being docked 20% of his fight purse for missing weight.
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