Sengoku Raiden Championship press conference Pt. 2

Following part 1, this is the second part of the report on January 7 press conference during which World Victory Road (WVR) discussed the aftermath of the Dynamite!! 2009 fight card and new year's plan for the Sengoku Raiden Championship.

Hidehiko Yoshida, who bested Satoshi Ishii in the battle of judo Olympic gold medalists at Dynamite!! 2009, hinted at impending retirement during the post-fight interviews. At this point, however, the future of his career and contract with SRC seems uncertain; at the presser, WVR director, Sumio Inamoto revealed that, while Yoshida is rumored to have one more fight left before retirement, it is uncertain whether he will end his career in SRC.

Furthermore, Inamoto gave credence to the rumor that the contract between WVR and J-Rock, which manages the fighters from Yoshida dojo, has expired. Note that J-Rock is helmed by the recently dismissed WVR director, Takahiro Kokuho. At this point, Yoshida, as well as other SRC fighters from his dojo -- Michihiro Omigawa, Kazuhiro Nakamura and Makoto Takimoto -- have no intention of fighting for SRC in near future and, as Inamoto claimed, WVR has no plan of renegotiating the contract with J-Rock.

On a related note, Shigeki Osawa, a former amateur wrestling standout who has been training out of Yoshida dojo for his current stint in the Sengoku Fighter Development program, will likely switch his affiliation and continue fighting for SRC.

Inamoto announced that the timetable for the return of Satoshi Ishii, who made his MMA debut at Dynamite!! against Yoshida, is currently under negotiation. WVR has been planning a big match for him at a large arena in either July or November, so his return at either date is likely.

Reflecting upon the results of the "DREAM vs. SRC" bouts, he stated that, aside from the reprehensible behavior from Shinya Aoki, the interpromotional bouts and merged fight cards between DREAM and SRC hold great appeal in reinvigorating Japanese MMA. While WVR has not engaged DREAM in discussions about future collaboration, Inamoto hinted at the strong desire -- at least on WVR's part -- for such possibility.

Following are noteworthy bits from the discussion over the interpromotional bout series at Dynamite!! 2009:

• Kazuo Misaki stated that he would like to contest the referee stoppage in his TKO loss to Melvin Manhoef in the post-fight interview. Misaki was visibly upset over the stoppage, but he has since regained his cool and been talking with WVR over whether or not he should submit an official appeal over the stoppage.
• There was much concern over the health of Kazuyuki Fujita upon his near-death experience at the knee of Alistair Overeem. Fujita managed to regain consciousness at around 11AM the day after the fight, and checked out of the hospital after one day.
• Mizuto Hirota has successfully undergone surgery to treat the broken arm he sustained in the controversial fight against Shinya Aoki. He will remain in the hospital until the 17th of this month and then undergo rehabilitation for two/three weeks. He is expected to be able to do light exercises such as jogging in February and light sparring come May. His return to competition will likely come after summer.
• Hirota, along with Michihiro Omigawa and Kid Yamamoto, was absent from the Dynamite!! pre-fight press conference on December 30. Initial speculation held that he struggled with weight cut. Apparently, he suffered from severe physical ailments such as vomiting and diarrhea on that day: While the cause remains unknown, it likely was not due to rapid weight cut.
• Akihiro Gono and Masanori Kanehara were awarded one million yen (10,678 USD according to current exchange rate) each for the "Fights of the Night" by WVR.
  

Finally, the first SRC event of 2010 is scheduled for March 7 at Ryogoku Kokugikan. Subsequent events are planned for May, July, September, and November: A total of six to seven events, including a possible NYE show, are under consideration for 2010.

The SRC's theme for 2010 seems to be tournaments: Tournaments for a variety of weight classes, from lighter ones up to middleweight and light heavyweight, are currently in the planning stage. SRC will likely introduce bantamweights to the tournament series to feature promising fighters from Japan and overseas.

Stay tuned to MMAmania for more news regarding Sengoku Raiden Championship as they become available.