Clark Kent
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12-31-2009 01:30 AM:
The fight weekend begins tonight with a huge 18-fight card in Japan featuring MMA stars like Gegard Mousasi, Alistair Overeem, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Kid Yamamoto, Ikuhisa Minowa, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Shinya Aoki, Hayato Sakurai and the highly anticipated debut of 2008 Olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii.
The fight card will be live on HDNet (3 a.m ET/Midnight PT). For casual fans, it's a good way to get a look at many of the fighters Strikeforce will be featuring in some crossover promotions with DREAM in 2010.
Mousasi faces MMA vet Gary Goodridge. Strikeforce's light heavyweight champion is on a collision course with Dan Henderson probably slated for the middle of 2010. Overeem is the Strikeforce heavyweight champ. CEO Scott Coker said he expects Overeem to defend the title in the states in the second quarter of 2010. That appears to be a fight against Brett Rogers. Kawajiri and Aoki have both been mentioned as candidates for Strikeforce's April CBS card possibly against Gilbert Melendez or Josh Thomson. Don't forget about Sakurai, who may be a future opponent of Nick Diaz.
Ishii is really intriguing. DREAM won a bidding war against the UFC for his services. This is helluva debut fight against Hidehiko Yoshida, a veteran with 16 MMA fights against the likes of Josh Barnett, Wanderlei Silva, Don Frye, Royce Gracie and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic.
Bloody Elbow posted staff predictions.
The (reverse) bout order includes (courtesy MMAJunkie):
Masato vs. Andy Souwer (K-1)
Gary Goodridge vs. Gegard Mousasi
Shinya Aoki vs. Mizuto Hirota
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Alistair Overeem
Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida
Masanori Kanehara vs. Norofumi Yamamoto
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazunori Yokota
Jong Man Kim vs. Hideo Tokoro
Melvin Manhoef vs. Kazuo Misaki
Akihiro Gono vs. Hayato Sakurai
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Hiroshi Izumi vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Hiroya/Noiri winner vs. Ishida/Shimada winner (K-1 KOSHIEN final)
Yosuke Nishijima vs. Ray Sefo (K-1)
Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou ("Super Hulk" finale)
Katsuki Ishida vs. Shota Shimada (K-1 KOSHIEN semifinal)
Hiroya vs. Masaaki Noiri (K-1 KOSHIEN semifinal)
Tsukasa Fuji vs. Ryuya Kusakabe (K-1 KOSHIEN semifinal reserve)
More...
Yahoo! Sports.
Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield.
The fight weekend begins tonight with a huge 18-fight card in Japan featuring MMA stars like Gegard Mousasi, Alistair Overeem, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Kid Yamamoto, Ikuhisa Minowa, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Shinya Aoki, Hayato Sakurai and the highly anticipated debut of 2008 Olympic gold medalist Satoshi Ishii.
The fight card will be live on HDNet (3 a.m ET/Midnight PT). For casual fans, it's a good way to get a look at many of the fighters Strikeforce will be featuring in some crossover promotions with DREAM in 2010.
Mousasi faces MMA vet Gary Goodridge. Strikeforce's light heavyweight champion is on a collision course with Dan Henderson probably slated for the middle of 2010. Overeem is the Strikeforce heavyweight champ. CEO Scott Coker said he expects Overeem to defend the title in the states in the second quarter of 2010. That appears to be a fight against Brett Rogers. Kawajiri and Aoki have both been mentioned as candidates for Strikeforce's April CBS card possibly against Gilbert Melendez or Josh Thomson. Don't forget about Sakurai, who may be a future opponent of Nick Diaz.
Ishii is really intriguing. DREAM won a bidding war against the UFC for his services. This is helluva debut fight against Hidehiko Yoshida, a veteran with 16 MMA fights against the likes of Josh Barnett, Wanderlei Silva, Don Frye, Royce Gracie and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic.
Bloody Elbow posted staff predictions.
The (reverse) bout order includes (courtesy MMAJunkie):
Masato vs. Andy Souwer (K-1)
Gary Goodridge vs. Gegard Mousasi
Shinya Aoki vs. Mizuto Hirota
Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Alistair Overeem
Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida
Masanori Kanehara vs. Norofumi Yamamoto
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazunori Yokota
Jong Man Kim vs. Hideo Tokoro
Melvin Manhoef vs. Kazuo Misaki
Akihiro Gono vs. Hayato Sakurai
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Hiroshi Izumi vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Hiroya/Noiri winner vs. Ishida/Shimada winner (K-1 KOSHIEN final)
Yosuke Nishijima vs. Ray Sefo (K-1)
Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou ("Super Hulk" finale)
Katsuki Ishida vs. Shota Shimada (K-1 KOSHIEN semifinal)
Hiroya vs. Masaaki Noiri (K-1 KOSHIEN semifinal)
Tsukasa Fuji vs. Ryuya Kusakabe (K-1 KOSHIEN semifinal reserve)
More...
Yahoo! Sports.
Cagewriter is an MMA blog edited by Steve Cofield.
