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Satoshi Ishii signs with World Victory Road (Sengoku)
By Zach Arnold | June 4, 2009
The Olympic gold medalist could make his debut as soon as August 2nd at Saitama Super Arena. Here’s the photo op today in Tokyo. The deal could reportedly be a two-year contract.
Update (6/4): Sengoku’s upcoming schedule includes dates on 9/23 at Saitama Community Arena (building at the Saitama Super Arena facility) and 11/7 in Tokyo at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
Topics: Japan, Media, MMA, Sengoku, Zach Arnold | 34 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Well, I’m glad the speculation is over at least. This went on for how long?
He probably milked a ton out of WVR, good for him. Regardless, this is a major coup for them, especially after DREAM had a bit of a disaster on their hands at DREAM.9 (KID losing, NC main event, although the last Sengoku was similar).
Im surprised that he didn’t take the 10k/10k the UFC was offering.
I thought for sure he was going to the UFC!
I was really looking forward to Ishii on TUF. Chilling, reading books on Judo theory and so forth while some frat boy from KOTC covered in skull tattoos is pissing off a balcony on a pile of passed out dudes.
Now that’s some good television
They don’t let you have books on TUF I thought.
Akiyama/Ishi could have been a HUGE money fight for the UFC as an introduction into Japan or Korea.
Jonathan, they wouldn’t fight each other. They’re good friends.
“They don’t let you have books on TUF I thought.”
Well, Diego had a bible in season 1.
Pissing off a balcony on a nerd reading a judo book IMO.
🙂
And we can probably live without ever knowing how those pages got stuck together!
Ishii/Roger Gracie seems destined to happen with this announcement, and that fight is money in the bank for Sengoku.
Roger Gracie will now be fighting for Strikeforce, not Sengoku anymore.
I haven’t read anything about Roger having actually signed a contract, just that there were negotiations. Besides, I’m sure Sengoku would be able to work out a deal with Strikeforce to make it happen given Strikeforce’s policy towards interpromotional work.
It’s really the best choice for him. They’ll bring him up slowly and give him a chance to develop.
He seemed interested in the UFC, but if he signed with them, he’d be thrown to the wolves with no fight experience to speak of and wash out early.
EA announced their MMA game today…seems to be unlicensed.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/01/ea-sports-mma-if-its-in-any-martial-art-its-in-the-game/
I’m sure that an apology will be forthcoming from the people who called me a liar for repeating the news that EA was working on an MMA game last year, even though that was a big part of the reason for the UFC/AKA temper tantrum (ie, because UFC had promised THQ the exclusive video game rights to its fighters, without actually having secured the exclusive video game rights to its fighters). The new information today is that the developer of EA Sports’ MMA game is Tiburon, which has also developed Madden since the PS1 era began. As previously reported, Randy Couture and Gina Carano were the first two fighters to sign on for EA’s MMA game last year.
MMA Junkie is also reporting that Frank Shamrock and Frank Trigg are “expected to be in the game.” I’d expect that many other fighters who didn’t sign away their exclusive lifetime rights last fall will also probably be in the game.
Of course, while Tiburon has a great pedigree with sports game development in general, they don’t yet have the pedigree with MMA game development that Yuke’s has established with UFC 2009, so it remains to be seen how good the EA-published game will actually be.
(Sorry for making this multiple posts)
A lot of the fighters who signed away their exclusive lifetime rights last year are just now going to be finding out what they signed away.
And as I wrote last November about just that topic, “It’s also interesting to note how the UFC is preying on fighters’ lack of knowledge about other potential video game deals. We’ve seen multiple fighters, including [Jon] Fitch, [publicly] say something to the effect of, “Come on, who else is going to be want to put ME in a video game?” This demonstrates that they are completely unaware of the fact that the biggest video game publisher in the world, Electronic Arts, also has a mixed martial arts game in the pipeline.”
“I’m sure that an apology will be forthcoming from the people who called me a liar for repeating the news that EA was working on an MMA game last year,”
unfortunately not, ivan, most of the people don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground but don’t let that get in their way from shooting off their mouth … Frank shamrock is in it, he talked with payout about it last nov…. said he would be in it and that it would come out in ’10 …
Nick Diaz better be in it.
After training with Lyoto Machida for months, he realized how much he sucks as a MMA fighter. More accurately, he was forced to realize how modern Judo differs from real fight.
> He seemed interested in the UFC, but if he signed with them, he’d be thrown to the wolves with no fight experience to speak of and wash out early.
Exactly. He would get knocked out before completing one judo throw. I’ll be suprised if Ishii becomes greater MMA fighter than Kazu Nakamura.
A japanese heavyweight contender?
Nothings impossible, although outside of a sturdy heavy bag like fujita, its still legendary.
If it doesn’t have any UFC fighters besides Couture, I don’t know how EA plans to compete against THQ. It’s not like there’s high demand for MMA outside of the UFC.
I was wondering the same thing.
It would have to be the wamma of MMA games,
IE: everyone else.
But if you think about it, EA has beaucoup money.
They could actually get everyone else!
Maybe even affiliate with wamma, which could be quite a beneficial arrangement for both parties.
Fedor
Overeem.
Barnett
Sylvia
AA
Vitor
Bab
Sok
Nak
Kaz
etc, etc, etc….
Yeah, without the huge amount of MMA names, the EA Title will have a hard time doing well. It’s the UFC Brand that sells to the casual gamer.
Frank Shamrock has such little name value to the casual fan.
Just being a UFC fighter doesn’t automatically make you exclusive to the UFC video games for life. Only those who have signed away their exclusive lifetime rights for free would be unable to be in EA’s MMA game or the Tapout MMA game. Randy Couture, for example, will be in EA’s game even though he’s a UFC fighter.
For any current UFC fighter who has not already signed away their exclusive lifetime rights for free, there would theoretically be nothing to stop them from having the choice of appearing in either UFC 2010 or EA Sports MMA, although it probably wouldn’t take long for the threats to be made like they were last November.
An EA MMA game will do just fine even with the UFC. EA is a powerhouse and can get there game marketed and advertised all over the place. As long as they have a deep create a fighter mode they will be fine. The Create mode in the UFC game is wack.
THQ’s license expires soon, and the company may expire before that, they’re seriously on the ropes money-wise.
I figured that EA was WORKING on an MMA game, but I’m surprised to see it announced so soon after THQ released their UFC game.
This is cockfuckery of the highest order on EA’s part, very much like their unlicensed Skate to Activision’s Tony Hawk Pro Skater series. Their trend toward non-licensed sports games is an interesting one.
If they stay in business long enough, THQ can still release UFC 2010 and UFC 2011 before the contract expires in 2011.
The Skate games are worlds above the Tony Hawk games and include the likenesses of a lot of notable professional Skaters, so I expect the same from EA MMA.
I wonder if guys like Sylvia, Andrei and other fighters that were cut or quit are under a longterm contract to UFC to use their image and likeness exclusively. I was surprised when it was announced AA, Sylvia and Cro Cop would be in the UFC game.
About EA Sports MMMA:
Supposedly already signed to EA Sports MMA:
Fedor
Randy Couture
Frank Trigg
Frank Shamrock
Gina Carano (possibly)
Gegard Mousasi (possibly)
EA has Gina and Randy already signed since they were already in one of their video games, and is the reason Randy is not in UFC undisputed. Fedor is going to EA Sports for a photoshoot this week with Mousasi. Frank Trigg is said to already be signed by EA along with Frank Shamrock.
The other interesting thing you mention is that Zuffa does not have exclusive rights to all the legends of the sport like Sakurai, Shamrocks, Gracies, Sakuraba, Igor, Fedor, Nog, Newton, Frye, Severn Tank, Vitor, Ruas, Gomi, Kid, Kawajiri, Hansen, Uno, etc. So, there is nothing really stopping them from doing that.
They can also use the UFC fighters that didn’t sign away their video game rights, as stated by Ivan.
UFC licence means nothing to EA. As long as the game is good it will sell.
For the EA MMA game to sell well (other than just being under EA) they will have to plaster Randy Couture’s face (and possibly Tito Ortiz’s if he will be in it) all over the cover, and posters, and trailers, etc. I hope it turns out good.
liger0,5 you’re completely right. EA as a brand has enough strength and familiarity with gamers to do well.