Grandslam Way of the Cage get international IPPV

Grandslam Way of the Cage iPPV official purchase page

2014 is somewhat new start for Japanese MMA. Gym's head start own event. Common thing for those event are give chance to young talent and fighter who known but had lose recently.For this event Hideo Tokoro try to restart after his controversial decision lose against Will Campuzano.After that decision Katsumura who was Tokoro's corner argue for Shooto commission. Yuki Nakai who did judge for that fight open his criteria .That is risky move for judges and authority but he take that risk.Katsumura feel sincere for his attitude and that make him Nakai do judge for his new event.Which is Grandslam "Way of the cage".Tokoro will face Victor Henry, who train at CSW.

UFC veteran Nam Phan will face Kenichi Ito for back to win column.Nam train Judo lately,so curious about what he can do at throw category.



Shunichi Shimizu who drop flyweight will fight against Yosuke Saruta.This fight show spirit of event.Fighter who fail at major drop to new division and fight against Shooto title challenger.He suffer lopsided lose at UFC, But if Shimizu claim great perform at local and make himself a champ, I will talk about his future foreign possibility.I'm just glad there is people give chance to him who want reclaim position.

At this event, there is new trial for audience.This Ustream iPPV is 800 yen for last 3 fights (Tokoro vs Henry, Nam vs Ito and Shimizu vs Saruta). That's mean other fights are free.So if you want test yourself watching Japanese local MMA live, this is your occasion.Of course it's local MMA and not major, but you can see "local" feel at here.If you want see last 3 fight, which is near major level card, you can pay to them for support their come back story."Way of the cage" start July 13 5:30PM (Japanese time).


Hideo Tokoro

DEEP 67 Impact to stream on international iPPV

DEEP 67 iMPACT iPPV official purchase web

DEEP decide do iPPV event for there event, DEEP 67 Impact .

Of course, most looking forward fight is main event between Yuki Motoya vs Yoshiro Maeda.Motoya is expect as golden prospect for DEEP organization but he  lose his belt against Wada.Beating Maeda value him as a challenger for Wada, because Maeda had beaten Wada.It's cross road fight for young vs old.You can looking forward it.Also it added Masakazu Imanari vs Haruo Ochi.It defines Imanari can still claim local title challenger or become mid tier fighter.But you can always think about this is still watching Imanari's fight at live, you can't expect many when think about his ages.

Also there is Kenji Osawa's retirement exhibition match and ceremony.You can expect special guest for exhibition opponent.


Yoshiro Maeda

TTF CHALLENGE 01 to stream on international iPPV

ＴＴＦ CHALLENGE 01 iPPV official purchase web

After his retire, Ryo Chonan's gym Tribe Tokyo MMA started own event. TTF challenge is for young prospect and fighters try to rebound.This kind event is hard to run because not as flashy as championship.But personally I enjoy watching prospect grow than anything. Also I know  everybody loves huge comeback story in sports.

I looking forward prospect crush, Yuya Shibata vs Yasutaka Koga most. I find Yuki Suzuki get evaluated from veteran fighter.It's rare to see this kind of event get ppv.So if you interest,spend dollars for make you fun.



Yuya Shibata

DEEP Jewels 4 to stream on international iPPV

DEEP Jewels 4 iPPV official purchase web

Recently, Japanese MMA organizations have tried to reach foreign fans with iPPV streams. It is a constant struggle to attract more fans and viewers, but at DEEP 66 Impact, Shigeru Saeki said that the event had performed better than he had initially thought. There is still a ways to go in order to meet his expectations and that has led him to the challenge of using PPV for DEEP and DEEP Jewels events. On May 18, DEEP Jewels 4 debuts on iPPV at Ustream.tv.

I hope that WMMA fans encourage others to watch the event because the number of people that watch will decide whether DEEP Jewels continues or not. You may remember that Pancrase did trial streams on Ustream, but it was short-lived. It's all about business. Saeki took over Jewels business when it was heavily in the red and many were against his decision to do so. If you see yourself as a WMMA fan, it's a do-or-die situation in defending one of the few all-female MMA promotions that still exists.


Seo Hee Ham

Big thanks to Robert Sargent  (MMA Rising) for English editing.

DEEP 66 get international iPPV

DEEP 66 iMPACT iPPV official purchase web

DEEP decide do iPPV event for there landmark event, DEEP 66 Impact .It include 5 title fight.BW, FW,LW,WW.MW. That's almost every championship they can offer.Price is around 9 US dollars.Also there is chance to watch free if you follow DEEP's this twitter account and retweet designate tweet.

All title fights they do at this event are

LW Satoru Kitaoka vs Naoto Miyazaki
FW Kazunori Yokota vs Katsunori Tsuda
BW Kenji Osawa vs Takafumi Otsuka
MW Yoshiyuki Nakanishi vs Shunsuke Inoue
WW Taisuke Okuno vs Yuta Watanabe

If prospect beat major name.There is a possibility fighter can make himself into majors.So it's not only for JMMA lovers.It can be prospect check.DEEP 66 Impact will be hold at April 29.


Kenji Osawa

What lies ahead for Japanese MMA in 2014

Shooto's main promoter, Sustain, runs Vale Tudo Japan (VTJ) as an upper-tier MMA promotion now, and the most interesting bout at their recent event, Yuta "Uruka" Sasaki vs. Teruto "Yashabo" Ishihara, became Fight of the Night. Uruka scored a choke-out win over Yashabo. After the fight, Uruka called out Shintaro Ishiwatari. On the other hand, when Kim Soo-Chul knocked out Motonobu Tezuka, his training partner Yashabo said he was going to fight Kim. I am curious to see whether a match will be made between them.


Yuta Sasaki

Hideo Tokoro vs. Will Campuzano became a controversial decision at VTJ 3rd. After an official argument against the decision was denied, Tokoro and his team refused to fight for VTJ in the future if the problem was not resolved. This argument also led to Shooto's official authority, Toshiharu Suzuki, refusing to referee at VTJ 4th because that judging problem hurt the Shooto Commission's image. Therefore, VTJ invited Larry Landless to come to VTJ 4th not only to referee but also to open a seminar to explain the Unified Rules to Japanese officials.


Hideo Tokoro

We learned recently that World Series of Fighting has affiliated with Pancrase. If you follow Japanese MMA news, you can watch the press conference with SRC Entertainment. WSOF Japan will be run by Pancrase president Masakazu Sakai, but SRC Entertainment is also involved. So will the new organization perhaps be known as a revived Sengoku or SRC?

At the press conference, we were informed that SRC Entertainment is no longer related to Don Quijote, which was the main sponsor for Sengoku, but SRC Entertainment will take part in running events for WSOF Japan and will also distribute classic Sengoku and SRC fight videos. At same press conference, Ray Sefo announced that the first WSOF Japan event will be in August or September, and Emi Fujino will participate in that event.

Finally, DEEP promoter Shigeru Saeki has said that he wants to hold a New Year's Eve event because right now only IGF does a NYE event with MMA in Japan and it's not a pure MMA event.

Shooto, Pancrase and DEEP are each trying to hold bigger upper-tier events and adapt more to American ideals, and that is the theme of 2014's Japanese MMA scene.

Big thanks to Robert Sargent  (MMA Rising) for English editing.

Japanese MMA scene Fighter to watch out 2014

Here is the 2014 edition of Fighters to Watch For. Kyoji Horiguchi landed himself a spot in a major organization (UFC), but there are many newcomers on this year's list.

Michinori Tanaka

Tanaka's 2013 campaign involved winning a championship in Guam/Philippines promotion PXC and carefully developing his career. While fighters he has defeated have begun to land themselves positions in the UFC, Tanaka's coach Katsumura has a conservative plan for his career. I think he needs improvement in his striking, but his grappling is already top-level. Tanaka went to donate money to the Philippines embassy for victims of Haiyan and I am looking forward to his 2014 campaign.




Yuta Sasaki

Sasaki beat Wajyutsu Keisyukai mentor Tetsu Suzuki and took Shooto's Pacific rim title during his 2013 campaign, and he beat Naoya Uematsu in a grappling match. He has become Japanese MMA's best grappler in his weight class. I am curious about what will happen when he can't take opponents down. He struggled against Kota Onojima when he could not get him down. His 2014 campaign starts with a fight against Keisuke Fujiwara, who is ZST champ.



Shintaro Ishiwatari

Ishiwatari's 2013 campaign did not go the way that he had wanted it to. He lost to Shooto champ and current UFC fighter Kyoji Horiguchi in the Japanese fight of the year and best comeback in Japanese local MMA history. His 2014 campaign begins with a title defense against Yo Saito, who is known as a guillotine specialist.



Mizuki Inoue

Inoue's 2013 campaign is best remembered for her first appearance in Invicta FC. She showed continuous improvement in her striking against Bec Hyatt. In that fight, she won clearly, but it wasn't a perfect game since she get overpowered in the clinch. After that, Inoue faced Emi Fujino, who has outstanding power for a Japanese female MMA fighter, but Fujino never got a chance to use that power. I saw drastic improvement in Inoue and I am looking forward to her next fight against Emi Tomimatsu.



Koji Ando

In 2013, Ando was best known for becoming a champion for Legend FC. Not only that, but he became champ by defeating Jadamba Narantungalag, who is considered to be one of top talents in the Asian MMA scene. Their fight ended due to an unfortunate ankle injury when Jadamba's weight was only supported by his right leg and his ankle broke, but Ando's win is legit since he led the fight at that point. His 2014 campaign will decide how his new contract goes and hopefully he will fight again soon.


Taiyo Nakahara

Nakahara's only fight in 2013 was against UFC veteran Marcos Vinicius Borges Pancini for Rebel FC. He finished Pancini, but I want to emphasize that his left body shot determined how the fight went. It's hard to land effective body blows in the lower weight classes.


Takaki Soya

Last year's Shooto Rookie tournament MVP was Paraestra Matsudo's Takaki Soya. 2012's MVP Masatsugu Sakaki, 2011's MVP Michinori Tanaka and 2010's MVP Kyoji Horiguchi are all still unbeaten in their professional MMA careers. Before entering the tournament, Soya won the East Japan Amateur Shoooto tournament and became the youngest professional Shooto fighter at age 17.

This year's rookie tournament's number of participants was reduced because of Shooto's policy change for non-Tokyo fighters who build their early careers in the regions where they live. That reduced regional promoters' expenses, but at the same time I can't say that this year's rookie tournament was the same as the previous three in terms of quality.
Still, I can say that Soya is a good finisher. I can't say that he'll become a local Japanese champ because bantamweight is the most crowded division in this country and the fighters he faced in the tournament aren't as good as the ones that Horiguchi and Tanaka faced in their tournaments. Shooto Rookie tournaments are still high quality and they bring about awareness of young talent like Soya.



DEEP Flyweights (Photo is Yuki Motoya)

I said last year that I was looking forward to the DEEP flyweights and Tatsumitsu Wada vs. Yuki Motoya was one of the best fights of 2013 in DEEP. Wada took down Shooto striker Haruo Ochi for a decision win. Former champ Yuki Motoya got a decision win over Pancrase champ Kiyotaka Shimizu. With those wins over rival organizations' champs and contenders, I feel that DEEP's most high-level weight class is flyweight.



Mikihito Yamagami

Last year, one of the best upsets was Mikihito Yamagami's decision win over Mamoru Yamaguchi. Yamagami succeeded by continuously taking the back of Mamoru. Allowing back-takes is considered to be a primary fault in Mamoru's fighting style, but people did not expect that Yamagami would be able to exploit that so well. Yamagami used 2013 to build up his body for a new weight class and he will appear for Road FC this year.



SKILL MMA : Japanese MMA scene Fighter to watch out 2013

Big thanks to Robert Sargent  (MMA Rising) for English editing.