World Victory Road (WVR) recently announced the latest match-up for its next event, Sengoku 9, which is a reserve bout for it’s featherweight tournament pitting Matt Jaggers against Chang Sung Jung at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, on Aug. 2.
Jaggers fell victim to Marlon Sandro at Sengoku 7 in the round of 16 stages of the tournament, getting choked unconscious by a standing arm triangle. Since that hiccup he managed to get back on the winning path this May by submitting Peter Dominguez with a rear naked choke in the first round of their scrap at Bellator 4.
His opponent, "The Korean Zombie" Chang Sung Jung, will look to get back in the win column after he recently had his undefeated streak snapped when he dropped a close decision to Japanese mainstay Masanori Kanehara in their tournament quarter final bout at Sengoku 8 in May.
WVR also officially announced the signing of 2004 Olympic Judo silver medalist Hiroshi Izumi, who has been linked with the organization for quite some time but has not put pen to paper until now.
He joins the likes of Gold medal-winning judoka Satoshi Ishii who recently joined the Japanese promotion himself to transition from Judo to mixed martial arts. Izumi is currently preparing for his debut at light heavyweight, with no official timeline as to when that will happen.
The pairings for World Victory Road’s featherweight grand prix semifinals are of course also set to go down at Sengoku 9.
The often overlooked Michihiro Omigawa — who earned his spot in the semifinals by dominating and garnering a hard fought decision victory over L.C Davis and then firing off an impressive performance against Nam Phan — will have another tough test when he faces the always dangerous Marlon Sandro.
Sandro — the Featherweight King of Pancrase — has been impressive in his own right throughout the tournament, submitting Matt Jaggers at Sengoku 7 with a standing arm triangle. He then went on to defeat Nick Denis at his own game by knocking "The Ninja of Love" out with a well placed uppercut just 19 seconds into the first round at Sengoku 8.
Tournament favorite and promotion poster boy Hatsu Hioki will collide with Masanori Kanehara. Hioki has been a dominant force thus far in the tournament, submitting American Top Team (ATT) jiu-jitsu coach Chris Manuel by triangle armbar at Sengoku 7. He then went on to submit formidable grappler Ronnie Mann with a triangle lock earlier last month. Kanehara has garnered decision victories over Jong Man Kim also Chang Sung to earn his spot.
The winners from both semifinal matches will meet in the featherweight tournament finals, which will be held later in the same evening.
Here is the current line-up for Sengoku 9:
Sengoku lightweight title bout:
Satoru Kitaoka (24-8-9) vs. Mizuto Hirota (11-3-1)Sengoku featherweight grand prix semifinals:
Hatsu Hioki (19-3-2) vs. Masanori Kanehara (13-5-5)
Marlon Sandro (14-0) vs. Michihiro Omigawa (6-7-1)Sengoku featherweight grand prix final:
Hatsu Hioki (19-3-2) or Masanori Kanehara (13-5-5) vs. Marlon Sandro (14-0) or Michihiro Omigawa (6-7-1)Sengoku featherweight reserve bout:
Matt Jaggers (11-5) vs. Chang Sung Jung (6-1)Sengoku Gold Cup Lightweight (154lbs) Final:
Ikuo Usuda (4-0) vs. Koji Ando (2-0-2)Sengoku Gold Cup Featherweight (143lbs) Final
Sengoku Gold Cup Bantamweight (132 lbs) Final
Takeshi Numajiri (1-1) vs. Ryosuke Komori (3-1)Non-tournament bouts:
Kazuo Misaki (21-9-2) vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura (13-9)
Blagoi Ivanov (0-0) vs. Kazuyuki Fujita (15-7)
Yoshihiro Nakao (7-2) vs. Choi Mu Bae (9-3)
Eiji Mitsuoka (15-6-2) vs. Clay French (16-5)
Akihiro Gono (29-14-7) vs. Dan Hornbuckle (17-2)
For more on Sengoku click here.
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