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Very experienced Rampage Jackson, with a long-standing Japanese fan base takes on a hungry and highly motivated Ryan Bader on Sunday, February 26th at the Saitama Super Arena in UFC 144.
And Yushin Okami will be surely eager to show the fans his strength following his title shot defeat in Brazil.
Looking forward to all the fights on this card.
Main card:
Lightweight Championship Bout: Frankie Edgar vs. Ben Henderson
Quinton Jackson vs. Ryan Bader
Mark Hunt vs. Cheick Kongo
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Jake Shields
Anthony Pettis vs. Joe Lauzon
Preliminary card:
Yushin Okami vs. Tim Boetsch
Takanori Gomi vs. Eiji Mitsuoka(?)
Hatsu Hioki vs. Bart Palaszewski
Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Vaughan Lee
Riki Fukuda vs. Steve Cantwell
Takeya Mizugaki vs. Chris Cariaso
Tiequan Zhang vs. Leonard Garcia
As 2011 wraps up we are getting ready for the New Year’s Eve Genki Desuka? from Field’s.
Some great fights here.
Check out the rumble between Rumina Sato verus Nico Veressen, second video down.
The UFC has just released some exciting news for MMA fans and fighter in Japan.
February 26, 2012, at the mighty Saitama Super Arena. Be there.
The Takaya vs Miyata fight will be a war. They are both in incredibly good shape right now. Takaya has strong determination and it’s clear that Miyata has evolved as an MMA fighter.
Keeping tradition with the Judo-ka turned MMA fighters (excluding Ishii), Izumi has been given a very tough opponent who on paper is not likely to beat.
The English subtitles don’t show it but at 1:35 Aoki uses the word “gaijin” for foreigners. This literally translates as ‘outsiders’ and in Japanese this is the rudest choice of vocabulary, showing no respect. At 3:11 Kikuno uses the word “gaikokujin” in reference to non-Japanese which literally translates as ‘foreign country people’ which is more polite and shows respect. Although it doesn’t come across in the English language, where the word foreigner is mostly avoided, it shows a basic difference in the mental character of these two fighters and how they use their mother tongue.
Aoki, the younger of the two, and the one with the lesser respect in terms of MMA on the international circuit, especially following his embarrassing losses to Gilbert Melendes and Yuichiro Nagashima, clearly shows his contempt and immaturity with this choice of language.
Aoki obviously doesn’t care but the world is watching. He is loved for his incredible grappling skills in Japan but some now question just how long the ‘Baka Survivor’ (baka = stupid) will last in the MMA world.
We visited Kenji Osawa recently to talk JMMA and hear about HEARTS, his new dojo in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
Kenji, always cheerful and friendly, emphasized his ethos on enjoying training in MMA regardless of your level or ability.
Somewhat unsure of the future of DREAM in Japan he was unable to give a clear answer to where his career is headed; turning 35 this year also making hopes of entering the UFC slim. Wherever he fights we wish him all the best!
UFC 126 in Las Vegas, Nevada, is headlined by Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort. At the weigh ins the crowd seemed to be behind the challenger, Belfort, but the fight itself could shape up to be an epic battle. Both fighters are undoubtedly at the top of the middleweight division so we will have to wait and see on Saturday, February 5th.
This UFC also sees two top class Japanese fighters, Michihiro Omigawa (12-8-1), and Norifumi Yamamoto (18-3-0), who face
