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In Depth With Enson Inoue

By Tommy Hackett

Pictured: Enson Inoue prepares for training last week, from his official blog at http://blog.goo.ne.jp/enson-inoue/

Tonight (well, actually it’s Sunday in Japan, or early morning US time)
ASTRA launches its first MMA show ever, at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. Headlining the event is the retirement bout of Hidehiko Yoshida, against his former pupil Kazuhiro Nakamura and also the return of Enson Inoue, in a bout against New Zealand kickboxer Antz Nansen. Also on the card are the likes of Ryo Chonan, Jorge Masvidal, and a co-main event with Micah Miller against Michihiro Omigawa. The whole show sounds like a heck of a good time, but unfortunately, you’ll have to be in Japan to see it.

While it was initially reported that J-ROCK would offer a webcast of the event (by Sherdog and others), it appears those plans fell through.It would seem a great show for an HDNet to carry here in the US, but sadly all MMA seems overshadowed by ZUFFA, who are offering a WEC PPV. Sadder still, Dave Walsh of HeadKickLegend reports that the event is getting short shrift from Japanese media as well. Seems a lot of us take for granted the massive impact Yoshida had on the MMA scene there — even me. The biggest story for this show to me is the return of Enson Inoue, and if you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking the same thing.

So we’re out of luck regarding watching this event. But Enson’s fans got a big treat this week from Jaser Davari of Swedish MMA site Kimura.se. Davari has assembled the most in-depth English interview to date with the legend, and has published the video in four parts — with a fifth still to come.

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Posted in Enson Inoue, Interviews, Japan, Tommy Hackett | No Comments

MMA in Japan: What Went Wrong

By Jacob Lawton

I’m sure I’m not the only one who devoted a large slice of New Year’s Eve to watching the big cross-promotional MMA event in Japan. I’m sure I’m not the only one to have found much to love about said event. I’m sure I’m not the only one who can’t help but think how far Japanese MMA has fallen.

Don’t get me wrong, the card was fun, and, the first half of it at least, was competitive. Japanese legends Hayato ‘Mach’ Sakurai and Akihiro Gono had an entertaining, fast paced fight that ended via vicious Gono armbar. Korean upstart Jung Man Kim had a fight of the night contender with Hideo Tokoro and Melvin Manhoef TKO’d ‘The Grabaka Hitman’ Kazuo Misaki (yes, it was an early stoppage, but that’s for another rant). Even the obligatory Judo-player face off between Hidehiko Yoshida and Satoshi Ishii was a surprisingly fun slugfest. But so much of the card was a freak show. Shinya Aoki snapped Mizuto Who-rota’s arm with a nasty reverse hammerlock. Alistair Overeem and Gegard Mousasi dismantled career journeymen Kazuyuki Fujita and Gary Goodridge inside the first round. It wasn’t funny, and it wasn’t safe. Nevertheless, overall the card had been a success.

But neither Sengoku or DREAM have yet to officially book their first event of 2010, and here lies the problem. Japanese MMA is not deep enough to survive a comparison with the near-monthly high quality offerings promoted by Strikeforce and ZUFFA in the States. How has Japanese MMA fallen so hard?

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Posted in History, Jacob Lawton, Japan, Pride FC | 5 Comments

Signing Akiyama; UFC’s “War” on Japan

By Dave Walsh

The big news this week has revolved around the signing of Yoshihiro Akiyama, the Japanese-born Korean Judoka-turned-fighter by the UFC. The Japanese national Judo hero who is best known by fans across the world as the “slippery” fighter who fought Kazushi Sakuraba while oiled up in December 2007 in K-1. This news is seen as a large coup to many fans, especially with the UFC planning to enter into the asian market at some point, namely Japan.

For Dana White & Co., the entrance and possible success in Japan is not exactly about business as much as it is about pride (no pun intended). After the purchase of the PRIDE Fighting Championship assets and finding out they essentially purchased the shell of a company, some rights to the tape library and an office crew that didn’t really do anything. It was a 50+ million dollar mistake of a purchase just to put a competitor that was already on its very last legs, most likely promoted their last show, and had no television contract and disgraced its own name, out of its misery. PRIDE only has fringe name value in the United States, and the hype behind certain fighters on UFC shows from Dana and the announce crews have undoubtedly helped turn PRIDE from a Japanese promotion fans watched to a mythical entity where every fight was an intense showdown, where the best fighters faced off and everything was a spectacle.

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Posted in Dave Walsh, Japan, UFC | 3 Comments

Total MMA Radio 10 July 2008: Interview with Neil Grove and DREAM 5

By Jonathan Snowden

On today’s edition of Total MMA Radio, our own Iain Liddle sits down with Cage Rage’s Neil Grove and Marc Staehling discusses DREAM 5.

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Posted in Cage Rage, Japan, Neil Grove, Podcast | 1 Comment

A Look Back at Choke

By Tommy Hackett

Rickson Gracie in Choke: it’s the much loved (and much hated) 1999 documentary which spotlighted the Gracie family champion’s preparation and participation in the 1995 Japan Vale Tudo. What brought this DVD back into my player? Was it all the recent excitement about his 19 year old son Kron Gracie and his gold medal winning performance at the 2008 Pan American games? Was it Rickson’ recent appearance in the (excellent) jiu-jitsu episode of Fight Quest? I don’t know, but like YAMMA it happened… and sadly, I ended up enjoying it a little less than I thought I would…

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Posted in Japan, Movies, Rickson Gracie, Tommy Hackett, jiu-jitsu | No Comments

Japan’s DREAM Falls Short; Is it a Sign?

By Dave Walsh

by Dave Walsh

Do you miss Japan’s boom? Miss Genki Sudo’s long, elaborate dance sequences and freak show fights? There are people at our forum who agree with you. Go figure.

I think after the past few weeks we’ve had some questions answered when it comes to the future of the sport of MMA. If anything, to some it might have been a cold, hard reality check, while to others it was the expected result. MMA in Japan was the standard for years. While the UFC was being shunned by the mainstream in the mid-90s we had PRIDE selling out big arenas and Inoki beginning to scheme up ideas to break into the market. That was then and this is now, and right now things have changed drastically. Two events in particular over the past few weeks; World Victory Road’s Senkogu and most recently DREAM.1 have proven that the Japanese style of MMA still has its place in the world of MMA, but not like it used to.

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Posted in DREAM.1, Dave Walsh, Japan | 1 Comment

Zuffa’s Asian Influx

By Marc Staehling

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By Marc Staehling

With the recent confirmation of the North American Debuts of Korea’s Dong Hyun Kim, and Japan’s Yoshiyuki Yoshida at UFC 84, I thought it would be appropriate to take a glance at last few years of international(Asian) acquisitions made by the UFC and WEC.

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Posted in Japan, Marc Staehling, UFC, WEC | 1 Comment

Looking ahead to DREAM 1

By Kendall Shields

by Kendall Shields

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This weekend’s DREAM 1 event is really our first look at the new reality of Japanese MMA. The entertaining and competitive March 5 World Victory Road Sengoku card (match-by-match coverage here, videos of most matches here) gave us Hidehiko Yoshida, Takanori Gomi, Josh Barnett, Kazuyuki Fujita, and Kazuo Misaki, all of whom are significant fighters and draws — and it was a great show — but DREAM is clearly on a different level. Between their concentration of promising young talent and proven draws on the one hand, and their network TV slot with TBS on the other, FEG’s HERO’S replacement looks set to be the premiere power in Japanese MMA. The March 15 debut show offers a mix of truly ridiculous mismatches and competitive Lightweight Grand Prix tournament bouts. If you’re a fan of Japanese MMA, you probably see the appeal of both kinds of contests.

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Posted in Japan | 1 Comment

In Depth With Enson Inoue

MMA in Japan: What Went Wrong

Signing Akiyama; UFC’s “War” on Japan

K-1 World GP 2008 Finals Recap

Total MMA Radio 10 July 2008: Interview with Neil Grove and DREAM 5

A Look Back at Choke

Japan’s DREAM Falls Short; Is it a Sign?

Zuffa’s Asian Influx

Looking ahead to DREAM 1

Real-time (as opposed to live) World Victory Road Sengoku Report