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Inoki 9/1 Budokan show
By Zach Arnold | July 2, 2006
By Zach Arnold
An update on the 30th anniversary Inoki vs. Ali themed Nippon Budokan show in Tokyo. It is scheduled for September 1st and will be titled “INOKI GENOME.” Nikkan Sports notes that Inoki’s camp is floating the names of Josh Barnett, Brock Lesnar, and Naoya Ogawa as potential names appearing in an 8-man tournament. Also, there is discussion that Inoki’s side is negotiating to bring in Laila Ali as a special guest. Inoki’s team also noted that they would bring in fighters from Jungle Fight and other promotions.
Of course, the following question needs to be asked: How is Josh Barnett going to work an MMA tournament a week before the PRIDE 9/10 Saitama Super Arena show? Is someone making a calculation that PRIDE isn’t going to be around by then, or is this purely bluster by Inoki? And if it is conjecture by Inoki, how will DSE react to Inoki falsely marketing one of their fighters for his show?
Update: Fumihiko Uei (BML producer) angrily issued a FAX to the fight media stating that the names of Kazunari Murakami & Katsuyori Shibata are unfairly being used to promote the Inoki 9/1 Budokan show.
Topics: All Topics, Japan, MMA, Media, PRIDE, Zach Arnold | 3 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
I’m guessing Nagata’s opponent for this show will be the Sylvia/Arlovski III loser. After all, he’s gotta follow the tradition of facing only the best (and getting murdered within a minute) and since Nogueira won’t be available, the loser of the fight will have to do.
Funny enough, one of the names Inoki’s camp floated out there was Ken Shamrock…
This is tremendous. I hope Inoki starts running shows regularly.