« Reports: Shogun vs. Liddell fight canceled | Home | Thursday trash talk: Reading material (3/6/08) »
WVR 3/5 Tokyo (Sengoku) event
By Zach Arnold | March 5, 2008
Gryphon has running PBP of the event.
The claimed paid attendance for the show was 15,523. If it’s a legitimate number, then the show was a financial success. (Update: A good point here — I remember when WWE ran a show at the facility a couple of years ago and got 12,000 max into the building for a sellout.)
The next two shows for WVR will take place on 5/18 in Tokyo at Ariake Colosseum and 6/8 at Saitama Super Arena.
Main results:
Josh Barnett defeated Hidehiko Yoshida in R3 in 3’23 with a heel hold.
Takanori Gomi defeated Duane “Bang” Ludwig in R1 in 2’28 with a straight left for the TKO.
Kazuo Misaki defeated Siyar Bahadurzada in R2 in 2’02 with a front choke hold.
Kazuyuki Fujita defeated Peter Graham in R1 in 1’23 with a spinning choke hold.
Evangelista Cyborg defeated Makoto Takimoto in R1 in 4’51 with an achilles hold.
Ryo Kawamura defeated Antonio Braga Neto by a 3-0 judges’ decision after 3R.
Nick Thompson defeated Fabricio “Pitbull” Monteiro by a 3-0 judges’ decision after 3R.
The promotion uses a 3R, 5 minutes per-round system.
Videos of the fights here. MMA Opinion comments about the debut event.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 24 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
. Kazuo Misaki def Siyar Bahadurzada (3R frontchoke)
. Kazuyuki Fujita – Peter Graham (1R anaconda choke)
. Evangelista “Cyborg” def Makoto Takimoto (1R heel hook)
. Ryo Kawamura def Antonio Braga Neto (3-0)
. Nick Thompson def Fabricio Monteiro (3-0)
Gomi destroyed Ludwig, TKO.
And apparently Barnett subbed Yoshida with a modified heel hook in Round 3.
From Sherdog.
Thompson def Monteiro by UD
Kawamura def Neto by UD
Santos def Takimoto – Heel Hook rd1 4:51
Fujita def Graham – North-South Choke rd1 1:23
Misaki def Bahadurzada – Guillotine choke rd2 2:02
Gomi def Ludwig -TKO (Cut)rd1 2:28
Barnett def Yoshida – Heel Hook rd3 3:23
In the Sherdog video, Barnett called a toe hold of some kind to finish the fight, I think. But he called it first round, so I guess he isn’t quite The Babe.
But let me say, I LOVE listening to him talk. Barnett is like Frank Shamrock, one of those articulate guys who really knows the history of the sport and understands the context in which he fights. It’s unfortunate that the UFC can’t find enough value in that to sign him without making him sell his soul.
Who does Barnett fight next? Fujita? The WVR Heavyweight Division isn’t exactly ‘packed’…
Good to see that Gomi got his juice back over in Japan… =)
If anyone finds vids, post em please.
lmao at Gomi being juiced. have you seen the dude lately? he weighed in at 153.
Barnett will fight Ogawa next. He said in his Sherdog interview that he wants to continue his domination of judokas. Good angle, bad match up for Ogawa.
It took him 3 rounds to finish Yoshida?!?!
Was it non striking?
@sprewellrimz:
have you not figured it out that ALL fighters in Japan are on the juice??
Kinda makes sense with Barnett fighting Ogawa next. they had that pro-wrestling match few weeks back at the Inoki show which finished with no clear winner and created some Heat so they can continue the angle in World Victory Road.
I’m not surprised by the results of this event. I would love to see these fights.
Sengoku Videos http://www.pancrase.org/world-victory-road-sengoku-fight-videos/03-05-2008/
I have no problem with Barnett fighting all of these Japanese guys. But no respectable ranking should include him until he starts to fight legit competition again.
As for the results, nothing was a shock. There were no good match-ups on this card….
you’re crazy if you don’t at least think Misaki vs. Siyar was a good matchup. Gomi vs. Ludwig was also intriguing and almost any time Yoshida fights it’s worth watching. he’s a wild card.
The Barnett suplex on Yoshida was dope!!
Even if Barnett beats Ogawa and then Fujita in a ‘native vs. gaijin’ gauntlet, who will WVR give him afterwards? Will they be willing to bring in a Monson, Rodriguez or Rizzo (for a rematch)?
“you’re crazy if you don’t at least think Misaki vs. Siyar was a good matchup.”
He doesn’t watch MMA. He watches UFC and reads the Observer.
Oh my GOD. Why the hell for the Fujita opening movie they have AVRIL!?!?! OH DEAR GOD…EAR RAEP!!!!!!!!!111111
I think “Gomi destroyed Ludwig” might be a bit of an overstatement……tko due to cut is not destruction…..I thought Bang looked good, and eagerly anticipate the certain rematch
there is no way known you can fit 15,000 people into Yoyogi no.1 – 10,000 is the tops and less for fight events (ie., ramps etc)
http://www.japanican.com/japaninfo/Detail.aspx?BookID=A1402360&category=S
having said that, tickets were pretty much sold out, i hear that it was about 9,000 people
http://www.dailymotion.com/search/sengoku/1
Barnett and Yoshida both laughing their asses off after the back drop suplex was AWESOME.
Also I think Barnett just played for a couple of rounds to make a good fight, then made sure to finish in the third. He knows to promote even when *in* a fight. Not saying it was woorked btw, just that Barnett was having a good time.