World Victory Road held their latest event Sunday night in Japan, which was early Sunday morning for those of us in North America.

Sengoku Raiden Championship 13 was held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan and featured 13 bouts culminating with a main event title bout between champ Masanori Kanehara vs. challenger Marlon Sandro. SRC 13 also kicked off it’s Welterweight Grand Prix tournament.

With a stunning 38 second victory, challenger Sandro knocked out featherweight champ Kanehara to take the featherweight title. MMAFighting.com has the breakdown of the round as well as the full results.

SRC Featherweight Title Fight:
Marlon Sandro def. Masanori Kanehara by KO (Punches) – Round 1, 0:38
It took just 38 seconds for Marlon Sandro to take Masanori Kanehara’s feathweight belt. The bout started with Sandro immediately seizing control of the center of the ring with the defending champion circling around him, feigning jabs and attempting to gauge the speed difference. This circling did not last long though and as soon as Kanehara moved to the corner, Sandro moved in with a jab that that was blocked, followed by a right straight. The finishing blow, as is becoming the norm for the Nova Uniao black belt, was the right uppercut which landed cleanly and ended Kanehara’s night early. A following left hook from Sandro as Kanehara stiffly fell forward to the mat missed but was not needed. Kanehara was stretchered from the ring and did not regain consciousness until back stage and Sandro was awarded the featherweight title.

The full SRC 13 event results are as follows:

Featherweight Title Fight: Marlon Sandro def. Masanori Kanehara by KO (Punches) – R1, 0:38
Light-Heavyweight: Hiroshi Izumi def. Chang Seob Lee by TKO (Punches) – R1, 4:37
Welterweight: Yasubey Enomoto def. Sanae Kikuta by TKO (Punches) – R1, 3:57
Lightweight: Maximo Blanco def. Rodrigo Damm by TKO (Punches) – R2, 0:45
SRC Welterweight GP Series 2010 Block A
- Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura def. Omar de la Cruz by TKO (Punches) – R2, 3:53
- Takuya Wada def. Jae Sun Lee by Split Decision
Featherweight: Shigeki Osawa def. Katsuya Toida by DQ (Kicks to the Groin) – R3, 1:35
Featherweight: Doo Ho Choi def. Ikuo Usuda Split Decision
Light-Heavyweight: Ryo Kawamura def. Hidetada Irie by TKO (Punches) – R2, 3:00

With so many fights happening this past week, Strikeforce: LA, Bellator 22, TUF 11 Finale, and WEC 49, it’s easy to forget that there are some excellent promotions across the ocean in Japan.

The DREAM promotion updated it’s DREAM.15 card with a couple of bouts. The weigh-ins for World Victory Road’s latest Sengoku Raiden Championship event, SVR 13, took place on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. A women’s event completed itself on Saturday with Valkrye 6, culminating with a flyweight championship bout between Naoko Omuro vs. Yasuko Tamada.

DREAM.15 will host the promotions opening round of it’s four-man Grand Prix tournament to determine it’s first-ever light-heavyweight champ, will see K-1 kickboxer Melvin Manhoef (24-7-1) take on Tatsuya Mizuno (7-5). Also announced was a lightweight matchup between Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante (14-3-1) vs. Katsunori Kikuno (13-2-1).

DREAM.15 will take place on July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. HDNet will carry the event for fans in North America. You can see the current DREAM.15 card near the bottom of the post.

World Victory Roads Sunday event, Sengoku Raiden Championship 13, will see a featherweight title fight and the opening round of it’s welterweight grand prix tournament. The weigh-ins took place on Saturday at East 21 Hotel in Toyocho, Tokyo. The actual event will take place in Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan, also known as Sumo Hall, and will be shown on HDNet in North America on June 25.

Defending his Sengoku featherweight title will be Masanori Kanehara (65.7kg) who takes on Marlon Sandro (65.7kg). The full weigh-in results and event match ups can be found near the bottom of the page.

The womens event, Valkyrie 6, took place on June 19 at the Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan and featured five female bouts. Yasuko Tamada picked up her thenth victory as well as the Valkrye flyweight title after earning a unanimous decision over Naoko Omuro.

Keeping her record unbeaten at 7-0, was Rin Nakai who defeated Megumi Yabushita, who holds 36 professional fights under her belt, via unanimous decision. With so few female fighters in the sport of MMA, the 135 pound Nakai could find herself as a potential opponent of Strikeforce bantamweight Strikeforce champ Sarah Kaufman.

The full results from the Valkyrie 6 event can be found at the end of the post.

Props to MMAFighting.com for providing updates on the Japanese events.

DREAM.15

Lightweight title bout: Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Lightweight bout: Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Light-heavyweight tournament:
– Melvin Manhoef vs. Tatsuya Mizuno
– Gegard Mousasi

Sengoku Raiden Championship 13

SRC featherweight title fight: Masanori Kanehara (65.7 kg) vs. Marlon Sandro (65.7 kg)
Light-heavyweight bout: Hiroshi Izumi (92.5 kg) vs. Chang Seob Lee (92.2 kg)
Welterweight: Yasubey Enomoto (76.8 kg) vs. Sanae Kikuta (77.1 kg)
Lightweight: Maximo Blanco (70.2 kg) vs. Rodrigo Damm (70.2 kg)
SRC welterweight GP opening round:
– Omar de la Cruz (76.9 kg) vs. Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura (76.7 kg)
– Jae Sun Lee (77.1 kg) vs. Takuya Wada (77 kg)
Featherweight: Shigeki Osawa (65.7 kg) vs. Katsuya Toida (65.8 kg)
Featherweight: Doo Ho Choi (65.8 kg) vs. Ikuo Usuda (65.7 kg)
Light-heavyweight: Hidetada Irie (92.7 kg) vs. Ryo Kawamura (92.3 kg)

Valkyrie 6

Valkyrie flyweight title bout: Yasuko Tamada def. Naoko Omuro via unanimous decision
Rin Nakai def. Megumi Yabushita via unanimous decision
Ayame Miura def. Mutsumi Kasai via unanimous decision
Naho “Sugi Rock” Sugiyama def. Megumi Morioka via TKO (referee stoppage) – R2, 2:20
“Butterfly Knife” Yuka def. Kimie “Sakura” Okada via unanimous decision

With so many fights happening this past week, Strikeforce: LA, Bellator 22, TUF 11 Finale, and WEC 49, it’s easy to forget that there are some excellent promotions across the ocean in Japan.

The DREAM promotion updated it’s DREAM.15 card with a couple of bouts. The weigh-ins for World Victory Road’s latest Sengoku Raiden Championship event, SVR 13, took place on Saturday in Tokyo, Japan. A women’s event completed itself on Saturday with Valkrye 6, culminating with a flyweight championship bout between Naoko Omuro vs. Yasuko Tamada.

DREAM.15 will host the promotions opening round of it’s four-man Grand Prix tournament to determine it’s first-ever light-heavyweight champ, will see K-1 kickboxer Melvin Manhoef (24-7-1) take on Tatsuya Mizuno (7-5). Also announced was a lightweight matchup between Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante (14-3-1) vs. Katsunori Kikuno (13-2-1).

DREAM.15 will take place on July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. HDNet will carry the event for fans in North America. You can see the current DREAM.15 card near the bottom of the post.

World Victory Roads Sunday event, Sengoku Raiden Championship 13, will see a featherweight title fight and the opening round of it’s welterweight grand prix tournament. The weigh-ins took place on Saturday at East 21 Hotel in Toyocho, Tokyo. The actual event will take place in Tokyo’s Ryogoku Kokugikan, also known as Sumo Hall, and will be shown on HDNet in North America on June 25.

Defending his Sengoku featherweight title will be Masanori Kanehara (65.7kg) who takes on Marlon Sandro (65.7kg). The full weigh-in results and event match ups can be found near the bottom of the page.

The womens event, Valkyrie 6, took place on June 19 at the Differ Ariake in Tokyo, Japan and featured five female bouts. Yasuko Tamada picked up her thenth victory as well as the Valkrye flyweight title after earning a unanimous decision over Naoko Omuro.

Keeping her record unbeaten at 7-0, was Rin Nakai who defeated Megumi Yabushita, who holds 36 professional fights under her belt, via unanimous decision. With so few female fighters in the sport of MMA, the 135 pound Nakai could find herself as a potential opponent of Strikeforce bantamweight Strikeforce champ Sarah Kaufman.

The full results from the Valkyrie 6 event can be found at the end of the post.

Props to MMAFighting.com for providing updates on the Japanese events.

DREAM.15

Lightweight title bout: Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Lightweight bout: Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Light-heavyweight tournament:
– Melvin Manhoef vs. Tatsuya Mizuno
– Gegard Mousasi

Sengoku Raiden Championship 13

SRC featherweight title fight: Masanori Kanehara (65.7 kg) vs. Marlon Sandro (65.7 kg)
Light-heavyweight bout: Hiroshi Izumi (92.5 kg) vs. Chang Seob Lee (92.2 kg)
Welterweight: Yasubey Enomoto (76.8 kg) vs. Sanae Kikuta (77.1 kg)
Lightweight: Maximo Blanco (70.2 kg) vs. Rodrigo Damm (70.2 kg)
SRC welterweight GP opening round:
– Omar de la Cruz (76.9 kg) vs. Keita “K-Taro” Nakamura (76.7 kg)
– Jae Sun Lee (77.1 kg) vs. Takuya Wada (77 kg)
Featherweight: Shigeki Osawa (65.7 kg) vs. Katsuya Toida (65.8 kg)
Featherweight: Doo Ho Choi (65.8 kg) vs. Ikuo Usuda (65.7 kg)
Light-heavyweight: Hidetada Irie (92.7 kg) vs. Ryo Kawamura (92.3 kg)

Valkyrie 6

Valkyrie flyweight title bout: Yasuko Tamada def. Naoko Omuro via unanimous decision
Rin Nakai def. Megumi Yabushita via unanimous decision
Ayame Miura def. Mutsumi Kasai via unanimous decision
Naho “Sugi Rock” Sugiyama def. Megumi Morioka via TKO (referee stoppage) – R2, 2:20
“Butterfly Knife” Yuka def. Kimie “Sakura” Okada via unanimous decision

All fighters competing in Sunday's latest World Victory Road event, Sengoku Raiden Championship 13, today made weight for the show.

The weigh-ins took place today in Tokyo, Japan. The city's Ryogoku Kokugikan hosts tomorrow's show, which debuts in North America on HDNet on Friday, June 25.

Among those weighing in were the show's headliners: Sengoku featherweight champ Masanori Kanehara and challenger Marlon Sandro. Both weighed 65.7 kilograms (144.8 pounds).

A lightweight bout of Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante vs. Katsunori Kikuno and a light-heavyweight grand prix opening-round matchup between Melvin Manhoef and Tatsuya Mizuno are set for next month's DREAM.15 event.

The organization today announced the additions, which join a fight card that also includes lightweight champion Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri.

DREAM.15 takes place July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, and the event airs in North America on HDNet.

Canadian fans will get the chance to see some of the fighters involved in this Sunday’s WEC 49: Varner vs. Shalorus event on Thursday, June 17 at one of the biggest malls in North America.

The event is headlined by a bout between former WEC lightweight champ Jamie Varner (16-3) and undefeated Kamal Shalorus (6-0-1). Canadian featherweights Mark Hominick (17-8) and Yves Jabouin (14-5) square off in the co-main event.

On Thursday, June 17, World Extreme Cagefighting® invades the West Edmonton Mall for a public workout open to both fans and members of the press. The open workout will take place at the Newcap Stage at the West Edmonton Mall from 1pm – 3pm MST and will showcase the pre-fight training regimens of some of the world’s best mixed martial artists. The Newcap Stage is located on the first floor, Phase IV, in front of HMV.

The schedule for fighter workouts is as follows:

1pm – 2pm MST: Jamie Varner, Yves Jabouin, and Ed Ratcliff
2pm – 3pm MST: Kamal Shalorus, Mark Hominick, and Chris Horodecki

(*Fighters Subject to Change)

WEC.tv

Press Release
“Ring or cage?” is MMA’s biggest debate. Fans of the ring often say that it promotes better fighting technique, while defenders of the cage like that enclosure’s dramatic “no escape” appeal. The Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC) has always taken place in a ring, and it always will. Why? Because the ring provides more exciting fights and a better overall experience for the fans.

MOST OF MMA’S HISTORY IS IN THE RING
Long before MMA arrived in North America, the pre-MMA pioneers in Brazil and Japan fought in a ring. In December 1963, “Judo” Gene Lebell and boxer Milo Savage stepped into a ring in Salt Lake City, Utah to square off in North America’s first televised MMA match. Cage fighting wasn’t presented to North American TV audiences until 1993, when the aim was to promote MMA as a “deathmatch”-style spectacle.

MMA IN THE RING = CLEANER FIGHTING TECHNIQUE
Very few MMA fans have seen more fights than Eddie Goldman, who has been covering our sport for over 15 years through his legendary show, No Holds Barred (http://eddiegoldman.com ). Widely viewed as “the godfather of MMA media”, Goldman has been an outspoken proponent of the ring, citing clean techniques as the reason for his preference:

“Over the years, cage fighters have learned how to use the cage enclosure as part of their strategy. Many fighters push their opponents up against the cage, or even move them to it after taking them down. This aids brawling, but not the use of submissions or clean striking. Just look at the decline of the number of submissions in so many of the top fights in most of the companies which use a cage, then compare that to the flow of action and the aesthetics of the fights in companies like the Maximum Fighting Championship (MFC), who use the ring.” – Eddie Goldman, No Holds Barred (http://eddiegoldman.com )

MMA IN A RING IS BETTER FOR SPECTATORS
It’s no secret that watching MMA in a cage isn’t great for spectators. Many MMA fans have paid hundreds of dollars for a cageside seat only to discover that they get a better view by watching the fight on the TV screens. But sight lines aren’t the only issue – the action is different too. When not inside the unforgiving walls of a cage, fighters are forced to move and press the action. There’s none of the wedged-into-the-cage ground-and-pound or wall wrestling, there’s more stand-up fighting, more movement, and more overall excitement.

CORPORATE SPONSORS PREFER TO SEE MMA IN A RING
According to MFC CEO Mark Pavelich, most of the reservations about MMA he consistently hears from potential corporate sponsors have to do with the cage. As he stated in his interview on No Holds Barred:
“I hate the cage. I’ve never liked it. It’s completely non-sport-oriented. Why do you think that big companies like Nike aren’t involved in mixed martial arts? Because the second they hear the word ‘cage’, the executives ask, ‘why are these people fighting in a cage?’”

“I run the Maximum Fighting Championship like a professional sports organization. People can debate this night and day, back and forth, for the next hundred years, but it doesn’t matter what apparatus is better to fight in. It matters what’s more acceptable to the corporate sponsors that are going to generate money for your organization to keep it alive and keep it rolling.”

THE MAXIMUM FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP WILL ALWAYS BE IN A RING
So cage or ring? The choice of fighting enclosure is going to play a big role in our sport’s future. If MMA is to continue to grow and be embraced by TV networks and combat sports fans worldwide, the ring is probably the path to follow. The Maximum Fighting Championship will always take place in a ring and for anyone who doesn’t believe that the ring promotes exciting fights, we formally invite you to come to MFC 26: Retribution. You WILL be proven wrong. Again.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dream.15 is set to take place on July 10 from the Saitama Super Arena in Satama, Japan and will be broadcast into North America via HD Net. There is only one match that has been made official, that being Dream champion Shinya Aoki taking on Tatsuya Kawajiri, but there is expected to be major names on the card including Alistair Overeem, Gregard Mousasi, and Melvin Manhoef.

The video gives fans a closer look at the differing training camps of Shinya Aoki and Tatsuya Kawajiri.

Aoki is joined by legend Kazushi Sakuraba at the Laughter7 gym. While Kawajiri head’s to the Team Cloud Dojo to train with Yoshihiro Akiyama, Yushin Okami, Caol Uni, Kenji Osawa, and many others for their upcoming fight.

Here’s the card, as it stands:

Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri
Alistair Overeem vs. TBA
(light-heavyweight grand prix opening round)

Gegard Mousasi vs. TBA
Melvin Manhoef vs. TBA

The follow up to last years very successful UFC 2009 Undisputed, THQ latest version of the game, UFC Undisputed 2010, is falling “bellow expectations” for sales according to Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian.

In a research note released today, Sebastian said the game is “tracking below our expectations at retail,” and pointed out that online retailer Amazon discounted the game $20 to $39 after only a week on sale.

Sebastian noted that factors directly related to Undisputed don’t explain the game’s poor showing: it has a strong reputation based on the reception of UFC Undisputed 2009, which exceeded 3.5 million units; it has extremely positive reviews, with an average Metacritic score of 85; and UFC itself is doing well. Thus, he postulates that other recent releases like Rockstar San Diego’s Red Dead Redemption could be “adding some competitive pressure.”

The console game was released in North America on May 25th and is currently selling for $53.27 for the PS3, $44.99 for the XBox, and $37.99 on the PSP at Amazon.com.

HT: Gamasutra.com

Press Release

Brazilian lightweight only man to beat World Champion Jose Aldo

The Maximum Fighting Championship has added a fighter with impressive credentials to its talent roster in the lightweight ranks.

Brazilian star Luciano Azevedo (16-8) boasts a strong resume and the native of Rio de Janeiro is expected to make his organization – and North American – debut at MFC 26. Details on the show and its lineup will be announced shortly. Azevedo has signed an exclusive four fight deal with The Maximum
Fighting Championship.

The 26-year-old, who has won six of his last eight encounters, holds the distinction of being the only fighter to best world-renown featherweight Jose Aldo, capturing a submission victory via rear-naked choke when the two met in 2005 in Brazil. One of Azevedo’s other career highlights is a decision win over veteran Din Thomas – a verdict that came just four months after his victory over Aldo.

“I’m very excited to have Luciano in our organization and I’m expecting big things from him. I believe he can deliver in a big way,” said MFC Owner/President Mark Pavelich. “Obviously he has a great resume particularly with his win over Aldo – the only man in the world that has that distinction. Luciano has all the tools to be a champion so I’m hopeful he will live up to the expectations.”

Azevedo has yet to fight in North America, predominantly fighting in his native Brazil but also making five trips to England, two to Japan, and a single matchup in France. The five-foot-eight jiu-jitsu practitioner and wrestler has won 12 of his fights by submission – five each by triangle choke and armbar along with two via rear-naked choke.