Sengoku's New Year's Eve Poster from N.O.B.

over 2 years ago Dave Walsh 8 comments 0 recs |

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i’d be more interested to see them throw down with gi’s on to be honest. any word on them fighting in their gi? will it be in the white hexagon thing?

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by theworldsoldestsport on Oct 30, 2009 3:03 PM EDT reply actions

White Cage was DREAM

This is Sengoku, so the traditional ring. As for the gi, I’m pretty sure we’ll see Yoshida sport the gi like he has in most of his fights. Ishii seems obsessed with how ripped he has gotten of late, so I see him fighting sans-gi. If anything this gives him a severe advantage if Yoshida wears the gi, as you’d have the younger, stronger judoka able to get a good grip on the gi and the older, slower, weaker judoka with nothing but a sweaty guy to try to grapple.

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by Dave Walsh on Oct 30, 2009 3:38 PM EDT up reply actions

Ishii has said he’ll fight without a gi.

by omigawda on Nov 1, 2009 8:18 AM EST up reply actions

I wonder how big of a draw this really will be considering it has to compete with DYNAMITE.

by Meshuggeth on Oct 30, 2009 5:43 PM EDT reply actions

Best guess?

Dynamite! does ok due to Masato and some of the freakshow stuff, Sengoku kinda flops.

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by Dave Walsh on Oct 30, 2009 9:33 PM EDT reply actions

I dunno, casual Japanese fans are enamored with Olympic athletes to a truly ridiculous degree. Add in a few things like “Japanese,” “gold medalist,” and “heavyweight,” and the guy is a perfect storm for ratings. The event as a whole could very well flop, but I anticipate stupid-high ratings for the main event, regardless of how excellent or superior FEG’s offering is for fight fans.

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by Dodectagon on Oct 31, 2009 11:35 AM EDT up reply actions

I agree to an extent

Sengoku’s approach to MMA is as a whole a lot better. DREAM cards are fun and feature a lot of names we all know and love, but there are a lot of gimme fights. I mean, Overeem/Thompson, as fun as it was, was just a complete joke.

Sengoku’s problem is that they suck at building stars. Look at Gomi. Gomi is not by any means the best in his weight class, but he was the star of PRIDE’s BUSHIDO series. Ludwig and Bang should’ve shown them that Gomi shouldn’t be fighting the toughest fighters they can find. So they pick an unknown but very dangerous Russian fighter who makes Gomi look bad. They then somehow justify giving him a shot at Kitaoka who beats him up for a few rounds.

Then you have guys like Omigawa, whom I love, but has such a bad history as one of their public faces and he has no chance of keeping it up.

Ishii/Yoshida is starting off a rookie with a big fight against a more experienced opponent. Yoshida knows MMA very well, regardless of how good he is at it. I firmly believe Ishii will beat Yoshida, but then what? They’ll probably toss Barnett at him or some other big name who will have an edge over him.

So I agree there will be an attraction for fans, but Sengoku’s MMA approach in Japan hasn’t drawn in a while, NYE will be telling for the future of MMA as a legitimate sport in Japan or if Super Hulk tournaments are what they need to survive.

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by Dave Walsh on Oct 31, 2009 7:07 PM EDT up reply actions

I completely agree with this. A great example of Sengoku’s lack of foresight in this area is the Izumi v. Antz Nansen fight at Segoku 10. Clearly meant to be a springboard to great things for Izumi, they put him in there with a guy who, while not possessing any MMA experience, is an accomplished and dangerous striker. Striking being an area that Isumi has not yet had a chance to really develop, he loses, thus derailing a potential up and comer for them. Poor, poor planning.

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by Fraser Coffeen on Nov 2, 2009 11:58 AM EST up reply actions