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Dynamite 12/31 Saitama card line-up

By Zach Arnold | December 31, 2009

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Today’s presser in Tokyo at Shinjuku Station Square drew close to 9,000 fans. It was a typical K-1 press conference with all the fighters. The most attention was paid to Masato and Andy Souwer.

  1. K-1 KOSHIEN 2009 Semi-Finals: HIROYA vs. Masaaki Hori
  2. K-1 KOSHIEN 2009 Semi-Finals: Katsuki Ishida vs. Shota Shimada
  3. Super Hulk Tournament finals: Minowaman vs. Sokoudjou
  4. K-1 (Heavyweights): Yosuke Nishijima vs. Ray Sefo
  5. K-1 KOSHIEN 2009 Finals
  6. DREAM vs. SRC (Light Heavyweights): Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Izumi
  7. DREAM vs. SRC (Featherweights): Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Michihiro Omigawa
  8. DREAM vs. SRC (Welterweights): Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Akihiro Gono
  9. DREAM vs. SRC (Lightweights): Melvin Manhoef vs. Kazuo Misaki
  10. DREAM vs. SRC (Featherweights): Hideo Tokoro vs. Jong-Man Kim
  11. DREAM vs. SRC (Lightweights): Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazunori Yokota
  12. DREAM vs. SRC (Featherweights): Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto vs. Masanori Kanehara
  13. SRC (Heavyweights): Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Satoshi Ishii
  14. DREAM vs. SRC (Heavyweights): Alistair Overeem vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
  15. DREAM vs. SRC (Lightweights): Shin’ya Aoki vs. Mizuto Hirota
  16. DREAM (Heavyweights): Gegard Mousasi vs. Gary “Big Daddy” Goodridge
  17. Masato’s Last Match: Andy Souwer vs. Masato

Related: Dave Walsh — Dynamite!! 2009 and the future of the fight game in Japan

Event reports: Fanhouse | Pro MMA | Dave Walsh | Bloody Elbow | Japan MMA

Topics: DREAM, Japan, K-1, Media, MMA, Sengoku, Zach Arnold | 28 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

28 Responses to “Dynamite 12/31 Saitama card line-up”

  1. Zack says:

    Jesus..this is going to be a long show. Is HDnet gonna show the whole thing uncut? And is it technically tonight?

  2. Alan Conceicao says:

    HDNet has 7 1/2 hours held for this, so I’m guessing “yes”. It is tonight if you are in Hawaii/Alaska, but on at 3AM here on the east coast.

  3. Dave says:

    I just murdered myself running down the history of Dynamite!! and christ has there been a lot of weird stuff on those shows.

    Bobby Olgun fights, endless Sapp and Akebono, KISS Nakao, the SAPPBOMB, Ubereem, Greasing!, New Japan, seriously the weirdness never stops and you forget that after a while.

  4. Dave says:

    Show is completely sold out at this point and the fan fair with Sakuraba and Royce Gracie is going down right now.

  5. Zack says:

    Awesome opening with Saku.

  6. Fluyid says:

    I didn’t expect Yoshida to get that decision.

  7. Steve4192 says:

    Man.

    My expectations for Ishii were obviously WAY too optimistic. He looked like crap. He’s still young and may improve, but his chin is nowhere near as good as I expected (based on his cranium, neck, and jaw size) and he doesn’t seem to respond well to getting hit.

    It’s a shame we can’t take the heart and crazy chins of guys like Yoshiaki Yatsu and Hiromitsu Kanehara and put them in Ishii’s body.

  8. Alan Conceicao says:

    Jesus, that show went on forever. Just short of 8 hours!

  9. The Gaijin says:

    How the mighty have fallen – KID is on a major, Gomi-like downward spiral.

  10. Alan Conceicao says:

    Crap, hit submit.

    Uh, thoughts:

    -Love me some long fights, and Masato/Souwer lived up to expectations. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.

    -Hirota/Aoki was interesting and then OH MY GOD HIS ARM. Seriously, the middle finger thing was uncalled for. I hate Aoki: would love to see BJ eviscerate him.

    -Ishii is so freakin’ terrible. Seriously. Imagine if the UFC had actually signed him and had him fight ANYBODY worth a crap. Just picture it in your minds.

    -Kid looked like he was fighting a guy from a totally different weight class. Well, wait; he was! Not the worst performance he’s ever put on but another loss doesn’t help. He needs to fight guys that aren’t lightweights.

    -Tokoro/Kim was fun, albiet meaningless. I had to look at the list to even remember that it happened.

    -The tomato cans acted as expected.

    -The kid kickboxers were as lousy as expected. Sorry to see that someone beat HIROYA and then won the tournament. He’ll be blackballed liked the last guy who beat him.

    -Kawajiri ran over Yokota, didn’t he? Good build up for the Aoki fight, I suppose.

    -Did Sakurai even care that he was fighting?

    -Finally, Omigawa survives to be on another major card on another day. How? No idea.

  11. 45 Huddle says:

    A 4 hour UFC (PPV and SpikeTV together) is about my limit for show length. Even those feel a little long. I couldn’t imagine sitting around for 8 hours watching this event.

    In terms of the fight results…

    1) Kid Yamamoto’s career is basically over at the high level. He has not been the same since he knee surgery. Sakurai’s career might be over as well. Not sure about Misaki, but he hasn’t looked good since his “win” against Akiyama.

    2) Aoki a baby. If this was a one time thing, I would say perhaps emotions just got the better of him. But there is always an issue.

    3) Aoki is without a doubt the #2 Lightweight in the world. He still has zero chance against BJ Penn. Anybody who thinks otherwise is likely just a BJ Penn hater. Penn does everything better then him and is too good to get caught in a submission.

    4) The Overeem and Mousasi fights were pointless on paper and just sad to watch.

  12. Alan Conceicao says:

    Oh! Minowaman’s win. I rewound it and heard the clap of the fist and everything. Wild. Sokoudjou needs to completely reconsider the sport, and I hope to god no major or emerging promotion brings him in for a TV spot. He’s fodder for XFC, Sportfight, or MFC undercards and nothing else.

  13. Dave says:

    GUYS I AM NOW SO STOKED FOR UFC 108 oh, erm, wait, no.. I’m not.

    Shows like this ruin fighting for me because they end on such amazing high notes it is impossible for anything to live up to them. Started out rough, but about the Omigawa fight on it was just an incredible show.

  14. Paul says:

    The Big Kabosh, indeed, wasn’t it? UFC can learn a thing or a thousand not just from FujiTV (?) but from Schiavello on through. What a way to end the year.

  15. Wolverine says:

    Alan Kanehara is not a lightweight, he’s a featherweight.

    It’s weird that 18 months ago fans wanted Fabed vs. Kid so much. Look at these two now, Faber lost to Brown twice while Aldo is the new featherweight king and Kid couldn’t even beat Masanori Kanehara and a green Joe Warren.

  16. 45 Huddle says:

    News that has kind of gone under the radar today…. KJ Noons vs. Billy Evangelista for the January 30th Strikeforce card. I definitely think the winner of this should fight Gilbert Melendez next…

  17. Alan Conceicao says:

    Alan Kanehara is not a lightweight, he’s a featherweight.

    I know. And Kid Yamamoto still looks a lot smaller, which doesn’t surprise me much with DREAM’s original limit of 139. Matter of fact, K-1 was billing Kanehara as 154lbs.

  18. Zack says:

    Bummer on some of the early stoppages. Time constraints maybe? Great main event. The Ishi fight sucked but I’m sure FEG was glad that the last two fights went the distance for ratings sake. The main event was great.

  19. liger05 says:

    Not watched it yet as we dont get live Japanese MMA in the UK. Why am I reading rumours of Fujita being dead?

  20. Alan Conceicao says:

    He’s alive, unless someone is missing the boat on translating the news of his death. I don’t think that’s the case.

  21. Steve4192 says:

    The ‘Fujita is dead’ rumors are from some jackass modifying his wiki page and the lemmings on Sherdog and other forums running with it.

  22. Alan Conceicao says:

    Man, forget the Strikeforce lightweights. Javy Vasquez/Jens Pulver! Ten years late? Sure. But its a better use of Pulver than any in a long time, should he still need to fight.

  23. liger05 says:

    Just wanna say RIP ‘Dr Death’ Steve Williams. A true legend.

  24. Dave says:

    “I definitely think the winner of this should fight Gilbert Melendez next…”

    I think Gil vs. Aoki is a better fight, personally, but we all know, BIZ BIZ BIZ. From a business standpoint, having two Americans on a Showtime broadcast getting major media coverage in the US against your champ is better than a Japanese fighter whose first fight for Strikeforce would be a title fight.

  25. Michaelthebox says:

    “Ishii is so freakin’ terrible. Seriously. Imagine if the UFC had actually signed him and had him fight ANYBODY worth a crap.”

    Huge bullet dodged, there. Does this turn Ishii into an anchor around Dream’s neck, or can they successfully market a rematch or some other matchup for Ishii and draw huge business?

  26. Dave says:

    I’m not sure if they have any reason to book Ishii again. The press seems to be over him at this point and it is clear that Ishii vs. Yoshida wasn’t going to draw on its own.

    He lost and didn’t look good against what is basically an old burnt out man, he needs to call it a day or start taking training seriously.

  27. liger05 says:

    Iishi needs to just stick with one gym doesnt he. Dont think travelling all over the place working with different people can help.

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