Report: Sengoku Raiden Championsip canceled for Dec. 31
by Akimitsu Kuwabara on Nov 12, 2009 9:34 AM EST
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Reports surfaced late yesterday indicating that World Victory Road's "Sengoku Raiden Championship" New Year's Eve supershow at Tokyo's Ariake Coliseum has been canceled for Dec. 31.
Despite awaiting official confirmation, the news of the event's peril was first reported by BloodyElbow.com after a turbulent turn of events this week has seemingly put the fight card in jeopardy.
The news comes on the heel of WVR's decision to call off a press conference regarding the NYE event. The announcements regarding the highly anticipated television contract that WVR has been working to secure to broadcast the event would have been the highlight of the conference.
No details have been released, thus stoking the suspicion that WVR may have been unable to land the broadcast deal.
Besides the headlining bout between two former judo Olympic gold medalists, Hidehiko Yoshida and Satoshi Ishii, several title bouts have been rumored for the event. With the plan for the mega-event scheduled for the prime television slot of the year imperiled, WVR may now join forces with rival Japanese promoter Fighting and Entertainment Group to stage one big, MMA/K-1 fight card.
The putative collaboration between WVR and FEG has been reported in Japan by Tokyo Sports -- note that, given the newspaper's known predilection for tabloid-style sensationalism, its report must be taken with a grain of salt.
According to the paper, the merged fight card will take place at Saitama Super Arena and air on TBS, as the regular DREAM and K-1 events do. The combined card may include cross-promotional bouts pitting fighters under the WVR and DREAM/FEG banners.
Furthermore, Tokyo Sports reports that the president of Don Quijote, WVR's main sponsor, and FEG president, Sadaharu Tanikawa, have been meeting privately since last month. After a series of meetings, they have reached the co-promotion deal for the NYE event earlier this month.
Tanikawa, DREAM event producer, Keiichi Sasahara and WVR PR director, Takahiro Kokuho have refused to comment on the Tokyo Sports report.
Expect a major press conference in the coming weeks to reveal the details of the co-promoted fight card.
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It’s too bad that the Japanese promoters can’t get their act together to make Japanese MMA relevant again. Us long-time fans remember the excitement of the old Pride events but those days are seemingly gone forever.
While these guys are running their businesses into the ground, Zuffa looms larger and larger at the gates. It’s starting to look simply like a matter of time until Japan sees UFC cards again.
by Drake_Labatt on Nov 12, 2009 9:39 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOObody cares… poor old japanese MMA, Pride gave me some of my favourite fights ever, Hendo vs Big Nog, Big Nog vs Fedor, Shogun vs Rampage, Cro cop vs Wanderlei, all the history man!!
by Spinning Fat Kick on Nov 12, 2009 10:09 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
What a mess. I actually liked the way sengoku was going about their business. I hope this is a one card deal if true because their two philosophies as far as how the fight game should be are vastly different. FEG/Dream is still hanging on to that same model from the heydays of pride while Sengoku has proven to be very modern and forward looking. They were going for the sports angle as opposed to entertainment. They were planning big things in terms of regulation, drug testing, etc…
Also why doesn’t Sengoku just hold a regular card on their current TV deal? I always figured that so long as they have Don Quijote’s financial backing that it really didn’t matter. Aki do you know if the store is facing any financial troubles that might be forcing it to look at other ways of supporting this “wing” project/operation. I really can’t see why they would otherwise want to dilute their product and change their mission. Even if it’s complete bs, i simply can’t get behind any type of merging of these two in the long run even at the expense of great matchups.
by NameNotRequired on Nov 12, 2009 10:23 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
Yep, this is total BS. I agree, they are 2 cies with different business model and I can’t get behind any type of merging either. What the hell is going on…yesterday Misaki today this. I thought WVR had secured a tv deal right before they signed Ishii? Sengoku was going in a great direction, I simply don’t understand why they are falling apart like that. I’m anxious to know more with the major press conference.
NNR, thanks for your recap of the ADCC, buddy! I appreciated that you took time to do it. I still didn’t had the time to watch it yet, so I can’t really give you my takes of it. But I will hopefully this weekend and get back at ya on this. I did missed in the past 2 months too many MMA fights that I had to catch up. Dream 11, MFC 22, WEC 43, Shine fights and K1 world max. I still got Jungle Fight 15, ADCC to watch and maybe the super six too. One thing though, I tried to watch the 2 day 1st part of the ADCC with Monson, but the vids in the MMA-TV vault were a pain in the a$$ to load. Also I know that you can only watch 1hr and got to wait 1hr before keep going, so it might take times to get thru the all weekend. Do you have a site or a link, where I can watch it entirely w/o delay?
by Alpha Male on Nov 12, 2009 11:03 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
I believe grappling-core.com has a few of the vids. I like the “…-core.com” sites for combat videos. K-1 Max, man it was just sickening to watch them rob Buakaw but it’s also nice to see Petrosyan come out like a beast. He’s considering leaving K-1 after that and i think FEG wants that too. I don’t think anything terribly interesting or of note happened at Jungle fight or MFC, couple of good fights. You gotta watch the DREAM 11 and WEC 43 vids though very critical business. Super six was great but u probly already heard that Froch looked bad and Dirrell got robbed. Also It’s getting plain sad with Taylor. I think Kessler takes the tourney.
by NameNotRequired on Nov 12, 2009 11:28 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs
Thanks man for the site. I can’t fn believe that I never heard of it before. I like the other “-core” too. One of the best places to get fights. Now I understand why the other “core” didn’t had anything on the ADCC.
Buakaw was a real rip off, I had all 4 rnd for him. Souwer was getting throwed like a rag doll in the ring damnit. I’m glad that he lost in the final. Petrosyan KO of yamamoto was sick too. MFC was good. I had the chance to see the fighter that I despise the most(David Heath) get his a$$ kick and JMac shut down by Lutter, so it was great. Don’t worry I already watched DREAM 11 and WEC 43…first thing I did when I got back from the woods. Dream 11 was a great event with good fights. Aoki is the man. WEC 43 Henderson did good, though it was a close fight. I was disappointed for my boy Jaboin. I know he can do better than that. Super Six…yeah I heard of the robery, that’s why I’m curious to see it. I’ll get back at ya with my thoughts of the ADCC and Super Six soon.
by Alpha Male on Nov 12, 2009 2:55 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
NNR, from what has been reported so far, the FEG/WVR collaboration is a one-event deal: I don’t think you need to worry about Sengoku’s going bankrupt or being absorbed by FEG, even though the status of their new TV deal remains under wraps. I do not know the financial health of Don Quijote — just like others in the retail sector, they obviously have been hit by the recession but I do not know how deep in the trenches they are. We’ll have to wait for further announcements from WVR to see what is really going on.
by Aki Kuwabara on Nov 12, 2009 2:33 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
That’s good news. The things i was reading over at head kick legend and a few other spots were around the same idea that Sengoku might be calling it quits which would be a shame. Hopefully this deal might shine some more light on Sengoku for people to see, because we all know the end of the road for DREAM. It may not come now or even in a year or two, but in the end i think they’ll go the way of pride. At least sengoku is looking at the future feasibility of what they’re doing.
by NameNotRequired on Nov 12, 2009 3:57 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs
A mixed Sengoku and Dream/K-1 card? Could be awesome. It’s about time the two big Japanese promotions work together.
by Belisarius on Nov 12, 2009 10:26 AM EST reply actions 0 recs
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