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Wednesday war room: The politics of Japan
By Zach Arnold | November 28, 2007 | Print This
DSE/Yarennoka announced Shin’ya Aoki vs. JZ Calvan and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Hidehiko Hasegawa for their 12/31 Saitama Super Arena event. Calvan, of course, is a K-1 fighter and two-time HERO’s Middleweight tournament champion. A lot of people in Japan were wondering if we were going to see Takanori Gomi vs. Calvan on NYE for K-1. Instead, he’s on a DSE show? It is awfully curious to see why K-1 would be helping these people out, especially given the fact that Aoki vs. Calvan is not that big of a money draw whatsoever in Japan. Sadaharu Tanigawa (K-1’s matchmaker) apparently showed up (along with Saeki of DEEP fame) at the Yarennoka press conference today.
Update: Here’s the mugshot of Tanigawa, Takada, Monte Cox, and Saeki together today. Another photo here.
Results from today’s Pancrase card at Korakuen Hall: Izuru Takeuchi defeated Yuichi Nakanishi after 3R by a 3-0 judges’ decision (30-28 twice, 30-29), Marlon Sandro defeated DJ Taiki after 3R by a 3-0 judges’ decision (30-28 three times), Tatsuya Mizuno defeated Masayuki Kono in R1 in 3′28 by TKO, Michihisa Asano defeated Tomoki Murayama after 2R by a 3-0 judges’ decision (20-19 three times), Takuya Wada defeated aRyo Seiki fter 2R by a 3-0 judges’ decision (20-18, 20-19 twice), and Shinsuke Shoji defeated Wataru Takahashi in R1 in 52 seconds by KO.
Lots of new SEC amended filings by Pro Elite Inc.
Darren “BC” Uyenoyama sent out a MySpace bulletin stating that Rumina Sato will be teaching a seminar at Fight and Fitness in San Francisco this Sunday. No other details have been currently released.
The Des Moines Register in Iowa reports that a new 2,000-sq. foot MMA store called PJ’s Combat Hut has opened at the Valley West Mall in Des Moines, Iowa.
According to Fight Network Radio, Al Bernstein has been hired by Steele Cage Promotions to start doing MMA commentary for the company. His first booking is on 12/28 in Las Vegas. Why is this funny? Here’s your refresher course.
According to Al, if you like MMA, then you must be a religious nutter. Wonder when Al’s friend, Jim Feist, will start doing infomercials on Saturday mornings to push a 1-800 number for MMA fight predictions?
Speaking of Fight Network Radio, here’s the audio of their interview yesterday with Georges St. Pierre (which includes a stupid caller at the 8 minute time mark).
Todd Martin looks at the booking of Hughes vs. GSP III.
How about giving Akihiro Gono a DVD of his UFC 78 fight?
UFC is doing the hard sell for their new photograph book.
A profile article on Alex Cook.
Fightmetric is in bragging mode.
A karate instructor has been accused of kicking a boy 200 times. (Hat tip: Mikeinformer.)
Satoru Kitaoka is off of the Cage Force 12/1 Differ Ariake card.
Sam Caplan interviews Vadim Finkelstein.
An interview with Cheick Kongo.
Your press release of the week.
Topics: Media, Canada, Pancrase, Pro Elite, M-1, Zach Arnold, UK, K-1, UFC, MMA, Japan, PRIDE | | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Tanigawa’s whole thing is to make 12/31 a night of PRIDE vs. HERO*s. it’s even on the cover of Gonkaku. you’re slipping, Zach.
they want to do Akiyama vs. Misaki on the K-1 card. and Yarennoka is not starting until Dynamite is over, since they’re working together.
That theme means nothing to the Japanese public any longer. There’s a reason Sakuraba vs. Funaki is the main event and why it’s being advertised in the newspapers as a clash of the “U-System” (UWF family).
If that’s true, that’s a laughable and totally non-marketable match-up.
Dynamite is at the Osaka Dome, which is physically hours away from Saitama Super Arena. The K-1 event will air on Tokyo Broadcasting System, while the minor-league DSE show will air on SkyPerfecTV.
Again, the mystery is why Tanigawa and K-1 are cooperating with these guys. What’s the backstory? K-1 has no reason to cooperate with these people unless something has happened of consequence behind-the-scenes.
This hurts my head, trying to wrap my mind around it.
[…] Zach Arnold of FightOpinion.com says JZ vs. Aoki is not much of a draw, and maybe he’s right, but it has a chance to be an amazing fight. […]
From what I read from Suki’s blog, an interview conducted with the DSE run event indicated that it was a one-time only event and a farewell for PRIDE-type of event. Oddly enough, the organizers went on later in the interview to say that if the event was successful, they may organize another one, but it seems that maybe the other organizations are cooperating on the basis that they can beef their fighters up without spending a dime on production for one event.
Aoki vs JZ! What a friggin’ matchup! Come on, Zach, stop being such a Negative Nancy and enjoy the show!
Seriously, though, didn’t K-1 do something similar when they left the door open for Sakuraba to possibly come back to PRIDE for one last fight when it was obvious DSE was going under?
I assume Cavalcante was broached about the subject. his fight on this card will be much more important than any match he could have had at Dynamite. he would have buried on the card against a weak fighter. here, FEG puts him in more of a spotlight, and with a win, he could potentially draw some old PRIDE viewers to Hero’s. and FEG probably isn’t paying a dime, and are making JZ very happy by giving him a fight he badly wanted.
but seriously, what happened to just loving MMA, Zach? this is awesome news.
“It is awfully curious to see why K-1 would be helping these people out, especially given the fact that Aoki vs. Calvan is not that big of a money draw whatsoever in Japan” Zach, you done lost your mind?!
I wish a man with 3/4 sleeves and a missing thumb would demand JZ vs Gomi.
bwaaaha ^^^
i can understand why you wouldnt want DSE back in mma game and how you are frustrated that the yakuza are still able to linger there even after the whole PRIDE flop; but this is a great fight and the UFC has so far failed to fill the gap left behind by PRIDE in the area of great fights, so ill take this while i can get it