Sudo just tweeted it, and I was the first viewer.

In a night that was touted as Thailand vs Japan, 5 of Thailand’s top fighters took on 5 of Japan’s top. The night delivered exciting fights, with Thailand walking away with a majority of the victories. Japanese stand-out’s Chiharu and Little Tiger were both bested by their Thai opponents whereas Erika Kamimura made quick work of hers. Going into the fight, Erika Kamimura said she was going to win by KO and she did not disappoint. Requiring less than 2 minutes, Erika KO’ed her opponent, who remained laying on the canvas for quite some time. Below I have posted the results, several new champions, and pictures from the event.

WPMF Miniflyweight Championship Match

Erika Kamimura vs Churi Gothawynjim

Erika Kamimura by KO at 1:44 of RD 1

Erika Kamimura remains the Champion

WPMF Pinweight Championship Match

Chiharu vs Tuppusa Sostepjarun

Tuppusa Sostepiarun by Decision (49-50, 48-50, 49-50)

Tuppusa Sostepiarun is the New Champion

WPMF Interim Title Match

Little Tiger vs Payakying Muaysiam

Payakying Muaysiam wins by Decision (46-50, 47-50, 46-50)

*Muaysiam knocked Little Tiger down in the 5th

Momi vs Nonbi Luukumerannpui

Momi wins by KO at 1:01 of the 3rd RD

Yui Takada vs Pettshenin Sittojippon

Pettshenin Sittojippon wins by Decision (47-49, 47-50, 47-50)

Pettshenin Sittojippon is the New Champion

*Takada was knocked down in the 2nd

DEEP CAGE IMPACT 2013
Jun 15, 2013
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
1762 Attendance

Featherweight bout – 5×3:

Doo Ho Choi defeated Shoji Maruyama via TKO  – R2 2:33

Middleweight bout – 5×3:

Ryuta Sakurai defeated Yuji Sakuragi via TKO  – R1 1:04

Lightweightbout – 5×3:

Katsunori Kikuno defeated Jutaro Nakao via KO (Hook) – R1 1:07

Featherweight bout – 5×3:

Kazunori Yokota defeated Eun Kyum Kim via Submission (Top Wrist Lock) – R1 4:02

Megaton bout – 5×2:

Jong Wang Kim defeated Seigo Mizuguchi via TKO – R1 0:37

*Katsuya Toida retirement exhibition with Imanari*

Rest after the jump

Light Heavyweight bout – 5×2:

Shunsuke Inoue defeated Atsushi Yamada via TKO – R2 0:16

Welterweight bout – 5×2:

Yuki Okano defeated Yoshitomo Watanabe via TKO – R2 0:26

*Hidehiko Hasegawa vs Yuta Kaneko called off*

Bantamweight bout - 5×2:

Koichi Ishizuka defeated Yoshiki Harada via Submission (Choke Sleeper) – R1 3:54

Welterweight bout – 5×2:

Sanshiro Nakakura defeated Takahiro Kawanaka via Submission (Choke Sleeper) – R1 3:32

Bantamweight bout - 5×2:

Harushige Shinokawa defeated Roy via Decision (Unanimous)

Megaton bout – 5×2:

Big Body defeated Ryo Sakai via Decision (Unanimous)

Flyweight bout – 5×2:

Hayato Suzuki defeated Kota Ishibashi via Submission (Choke Sleeper) – R2 0:44

Lightweight bout – 5×2:

Yusaku Fujisawa defeated Tatsuya Tomozane via Decision (Split)

All photography by efight.jp

Tomorrow, some of Japan’s top kick boxers will face off against some of the best fighters from Thailand. Amongst the Japanese contingent is Erika Kamimura, Chiharu and Little Tiger. All three will be involved in Title Matches.

For Erika Kamimura this match is important for several reasons. This will be her first fight this year, as an earlier fight fell through. Also, Erika is trying to rebound from a disappointing Girl’s S-Cup last year and another strong performance will help immensely. Erika had been hoping for a rematch with Rena for the Rise Championship, but now that Rena is injured Erika’s future is uncertain. I would not be surprised if she doesn’t compete in the S-Cup this year, as prior to last years she stated that she wants to concentrate on Muay Thai and kick boxing.

Erika’s Pre-Fight Comments:

Q: How is your mental state?

EK: Since I have been able to have my practices and adjustments in a good rhythm, I’m really looking forward to this fight!

Q: This will be a title defense, is there any pressure going into the fight?

EK: No, I’m not truly not feeling it.

Q: What is your impression of your opponent? Do you have any plans?

EK: There really isn’t a lot of information, so I will do what I always do, I’ve heard that she is strong so I will have to deal with that.

Q:  What kind of fight do you want show?

EK: Doesn’t Erika Kamimura= KO? Please look forward to it. 

Q: Anything you want to say?

EK: Thanks for always supporting me! At last, I will fight this year. I’m looking forward to the fight!

Also on the card, is Japanese stand-out Little Tiger. Unlike Erika, Little Tiger has been busy this year. This will be her fourth fight, however recently she has been having some difficulties, having gone 1-0-2 this year. Little Tiger has had a little trouble in the past, with regards to truly braking into the upper echelon. A win tomorrow, would definitely put her back on track. Little Tiger expressed to us in an interview earlier this year that she wants to fight strong Thai fighters, so it seems that she got her wish.

 Little Tiger’s Pre-Fight Comments

Q: How do you feel about having your title match in the main event?

LT: I am really happy that a women’s title match is the main event. To be worthy of main, I want to leave people the memory of a climactic match.

Q: How do you feel about this rematch?

LT: Yes, we fought back in March, I think I understand her tactics. I am not unprepared, I want to knock her out.

Q: What kind of match do you want to show?

LT: That women can also do Muay Thai!! I want to have a thrilling fight, please support me, I will impress your hearts! 

Q: Anything you want to say?

LT: For having a women’s main event and giving women a chance, Mr.  Weerasakreck, to the sponsors, to the staff, thank you very much. I will do a match worthy of the main event. And to my supporters, we will show you we can fight like men, please continue to give us lots of support.

M-FIGHT「Suk WEERASAKRECK II」takes place tomorrow at Differ Ariake

Erika Kamimura vs Churi Gothawynjim

WPMF Miniflyweight Championship Match 5R 2M

Chiharu vs Tuppusa Sostepjarun

WPMF Pinweight Championship Match 5R 2M

Little Tiger vs Payakying Muaysiam

WPMF Interim Title Match

The Real Rock’n'Rolla Prince Devitt has dominated this years BOSJ with a clean sweep, winning every single one of his matches. Devitt now says he want the IWGP Heavyweight title but also stated that he has no plans on vacating his Jr. title title. Devitt will have a chance to take a huge leap closer to his goal, as he faces former champ Hiroshi Tanahashi at next weeks stacked Dominion iPPV.

Here’s the full card.

Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov (c) vs. Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA
Yuji Nagata, Ryusuke Taguchi & Captain New Japan vs. “BULLET CLUB” Kal Anderson, Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale
IWGP Tag Team Title, 3 Way Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima (c) vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka
NWA World Heavyweight Title: Rob Conway (c) vs. Manabu Nakanishi
Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Minoru Suzuki & Shelton Benjamin
Tetsuya Naito Return Match: Tetsuya Naito vs. Yujiro Takahashi
Special Singles Match: Hirooki Goto vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Prince Devitt
IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Togi Makabe

The greasy situation in AJPW has seen a few developments. Triple Crown champ, Suwama, along with Taiyo Kea & Masanobu Fuchi will all be staying with AJPW. Another rumor around is that Genichiro Tenryu will be re-joining the AJPW ranks.

Nobuo Shiraishi has said that AJPW was in-debt to the tune of 300 million yen and he was asked by former president Masayuki Uchida to save AJPW and that’s what he’s trying to do. It may backfire in a big way though, all major news sources are pointing toward Mutoh forming his own promotion and if enough talent follow him AJPW could be in even deeper trouble.

On Mitsuharu Misawa’s memorial show, NOAH have announced a big match for GREAT VOYAGE 2013 IN TOKYO next month. The eternal rivals, KENTA and Naomichi Marufuji will meet for the first time under KENTA’s reign as GHC Heavyweight champ. Also booked is a Jr. title bout between champ Taiji Ishimori and Super Crazy.

The NOAH Jr. Heavyweight Tag League lineup has also been announced.

BRAVE: Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Kotoge
Daisuke Harada & Hitoshi Kumano
Ultra-Violence Lucha Libre: Pesadilla & Dual Force
Team America & Australia: Roderick Strong & Slex
NO MERCY: Genba Hirayanagi & Maybach SUWA Jr.
Los Mexitosos: Super Crazy & Ricky Marvin
Shiori Asahi & Hiro Tonai
Team South America: Kaiser & Gaston Mateo
Anglo Japanese Technician Team: Yoshinari Ogawa & Zack Sabre Jr.
Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask

Abdullah Kobayashi Hepatitis C update & Zero1 goodness after the jump.

The big rumor last roundup was that BJW top star Abdullah Kobayashi had Hepatitis C and due to the extremely bloody nature of his matches, he may have spread it to others. Thankfully this rumor was just that, a rumor. After further testing Abdullah has been given the all clear.

Zero1 will kick off their annual Fire Festival next month. The lineup looks like this.

Block A:
Masato Tanaka
Kohei Sato
Yusaku Obata
Daisuke Sekimoto
Kazuma Sakamoto
Maybach Beta

Block B:
Shinjiro Otani
Ryouji Sai
Demon Ueda (ehemals Shito Ueda)
James Raideen
Yutaka Yoshie
Yuji Okabayashi

Nishijima has popped up in both K-1 and MMA during his day but originated as a boxer in the combat sports world  He has fought names such as Peter Aerts, Mark Hunt, and more recently Ray Sefo at Dynamite 2009.

The event will take place at the Kumamoto Mashiki town Gymnasium Arena on November 17th in Japan.

Nishijima is holds claim to the title of WBF Cruiserweight champ.  Upon claiming that title, he made the foray over into the other end of the combat sports world, more or less as a freakshow type fighter.  He fought many huge names, Mark Hunt, Melvin Manhoef, Hidehiko Yoshida, to name a few.  He holds a very respectable boxing record of 24-2 but hasn’t boxed since 2003.

It has been announced that Rena has been injured. The Shoot Boxing star was expected to make an appearance at this month’s event, but it  looks like that will be impossible. This is unfortunate, for those that follow Rena you will know that she badly injured her foot last year and this also kept her out of action. Even though she won the Girl’s S-Cup last year, she won it on a foot with screws in it. This time, the Shoot Boxer has injured her right hand. In her last fight, she cut her periosteum, which led to her severely damaging ligaments in her right elbow all the way down to her hand. The injury seems to have had a great impact on Rena, who released the following statement:

“This year I will fight a lot!! That is what I thought…last year I had an operation for an injury, operation for an injury, injury…and this year I am also injured…I feel like I am Bi-Polar, I can’t move, it is like I am a worn-out body… 

They put a big picture of me on the poster, it gave me a lot of anticipation/hope and since I am a Pro I felt like I couldn’t afford to not make an appearance. That is what I thought, but I am far from healed and it keeps on being cruel…

I am so irritated I cried, I was irritated and cried and every day, everyday, it stirred in me that I will be injured till the bitter end  and that thought will always be with me in fights and it will be what I think of in training…From now on I am thinking, I am thinking of various things, I am not going to be able to take part in June’s event. 

There were a lot of fans looking forward to it. For causing such terrible trouble to them, Caesar Takeshi and the Organization’s people, I am truly sorry…

I think I am going to devote myself to not decaying.”

It has also been announced that Rena will be doing some sort of fan-event at the show, in an effort to make it up to her fans. We at asianmma hope that Rena has a quick and speedy recovery. We will keep you updated.

Picture Courtesy of Sherdog

One of Japan’s top female fighters, Kikuyo Ishikawa (9-3) will be facing off against Amber Brown (2-1) on 7/28. This time the action will be going down in Tokyo instead of Okinawa (her hometown), where Ishikawa has been fighting recently. As you may remember, Brown stepped up as a replacement against Emi Fujino (12-6). Even though she lost the fight, Brown obviously made a good impression on Pancrase, as she has been invited back. This time she will also be able to fight at 105, her natural weight class. Since losing a close decision to Naho Sugiyama (8-3), Ishikawa has won 3 in a row, having finished her last opponent with strikes in the 1st Round. Ishikawa is a very talented fighter and is ranked #4 in her division. A win for her will build on her win-streak and will also be a victory against an opponent who looked strong against Fujino. A win for Brown will probably catapult her into the rankings, get her more fights in Japan and probably get the attention of promotions like Invicta FC.

Pancrase 250 goes down on 7/28

DEEP will make history this Saturday as they present Cage Impact 2013 in Korakuen Hall, the first time the historic venue has hosted a caged MMA event. The card  is stacked with familiar faces, rising stars and some potentially violent match-ups.

Korean prospect Doo Ho Choi headlines the event, he will take on former Lightweight King Of Pancrase Shoji Maruyama in a featherweight bout that is not expected to go the distance. Since his knockout win over former DEEP lightweight champ Nobuhiro Obiya in 2011, Choi has become one hottest prospects in the Japanese circuit, and he is only 22 years old. For the past two years, fans have watched him obliterate the likes of Mitsuhiro Ishida, Kosuke Umeda and Tatsunao Nagakura. It is no secret that Zuffa have been keeping their eye on the Korean featherweight, and if the rumors are true he will be UFC bound this year, so its pretty handy that this bout takes inside a cage. Maruyama, who is coming off a decision loss to featherweight champ Kazunori Yokota, is clearly the underdog here, despite being the more experienced fighter. However, he is never afraid of a brawl and will happily engage with Choi on the feet and a win over the 22 year old would be the biggest of Shoji’s career.

The co-main event has violence written all over it, ‘Mr DEEP’ Ryuta Sakurai will take on Yuji Sakuragi in a middleweight contest. Sakurai, a former middleweight champion, is coming off a win over Hiromitsu Kanehara last December and he will be hoping a win gets him a rematch with current middleweight champion Kazuhiro Nakamura. Sakuragi meanwhile will look bounce back from a defeat to Daiju Takase in December.

Kasuya Toida fought his last MMA fight this past April, the Shooto veteran announced his retirement straight after his decision loss to Seiji Akao. DEEP will hold a retirement ceremony for 36 year old submission specialist which will feature Toida facing Masakazu Imanari in an exhibition bout.

Elsewhere on the card sees the return of DEEP featheweight champion Kazunori Yokota and former lightweight Champion Katsunori Kikuno. Yokota will take on the unknown Kim OonKyeom while Kikuno takes on veteran Jutaro Nakao.

The other bout worth noting is a bantamweight affair between Yoshiki Harada and Koichi Ishizuka. DEEP boss Shigeru Saeki has raised the stakes in this one, whoever knocks their opponent within 30 seconds will take away 300,000 Yen.

One of the more interesting stories in MMA right now, is the career turnaround of Celine Haga. In her first 12 fights she went 1-11. The sole victory came over Jewels star Mika Nagano, however a rematch was fought and Nagano emerged the victor. At this point, many people stopped taking her seriously. Well now that Celine has won 3 in a row, people have started to take notice. What really caught people’s attention was when Celine defeated Naho Sugiyama this March. At that point, Naho had only lost one fight, to Invicta Champion Jessica Penne, and was thought to be one of the best fighters in Japan. Most people didn’t give Celine a chance, thinking that Jewels was giving Sugiyama an easy fight. Celine proved them wrong be winning the fight and the event’s MVP prize.

This month, Celine looks to build on her streak. She will be facing off against Japanese veteran Masako Yoshida for Road FC on the 22nd. Yoshida hasn’t fought under MMA rules in over 3 years, but did recently compete at the last Jewels show under grappling rules. Her opponent was Emi Tomimatsu. Emi dominated the match and almost finished Yoshida several times. This is significant because Emi is one of Celine’s training partners. Celine, while from Norway, has formed a training regime in Japan that involves some of the best fighters in the country. She splits her time training at AACC (Megumi Fujii, Ayaka Hamasaki, Hitomi Akano), GroundSlam (Roxanne Modafferi, Kikuyo Ishikawa), Bungeling Bay (Miku Hayashi) and with other fighters such as Emi Tomimatsu. It is safe to say that for the first time in her career, Celine is the obvious favorite going into the match. That is not to say that Masako Yoshida is some pushover. Yoshida has fought over 30 fights and has faced off against some of the best the sport has to offer. She brings a ton of experience into the fight.

When asked for comment, Celine had this to say:

 I’m excited to fight in Korea, Being signed to Road FC is not the final..its like entering a marathon..first you have to go through the hard training, then you have to reach the finish line..but I’m ready to give it all a 100%!  For each loss -I’ve grown as a fighter, developed more skills..and for each win- I’ve gained more confidence and self-esteem.. and I believe it is the perfect combination to have at this point! ganbaru

ROAD FC 012, 22nd June, 2013, Chi-ak stadium, Won-ju, Korea

DEEP 63rd Impact has been scheduled for August 25th at the Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. DEEP boss Shigeru Saeki has announced three bouts scheduled for the event

DEEP’s inaugural Flyweight Champion Yuki Motoya will make his first title defense as he takes on former Bantamweight title contender Tatsumitsu Wada. At 22 years old, Motoya became DEEP’s youngest ever champion when he won the organisation’s Flyweight tournament, last defeating the much more experienced Akira Kibe to capture the gold. Despite being only one year older than the champ, Wada is the much more experienced fighter and has beaten the likes of Takafumi Otsuka and D.j taiki. A great fight between two of DEEP’s younger prospects.

Elsewhere on the card, DEEP Megaton Champion Ken Hasegawa will defend his belt against Hirohide Fujinuma. This match was originally scheduled for DEEP 61 back in February but Fujinuma was forced out the bout due to an injury. Hasegawa would take on Seigo Mizuguchi and capture the belt via unanimous decision.

Finally, former sumo wrestler and PRIDE veteran, Henry “Sentoryū” Miller will step into the MMA ring one last time in his retirement bout. His opponent will be announced at a later date.

Hioki is returning after a very questionable decision loss to Clay Guida, one that saw the Japanese fighter use a very active guard and nearly submit Guida several times while throwing several elbows.  Hioki fell via split decision in that fight, making jiu jitsu fans the world over question the viability of MMA judges’ knowledge of their sport.

Elkins was knocked out by Chad Mendes back in April, something Mendes rarely does.

Elkins was once considered a threat to Jose Aldo’s title reign, but due to several bogus decisions, Hioki has yet to fight Aldo.  While not out of the question, Hioki will likely have to win a number of fights before that time comes.  As one of Japan’s most talented fighters, Hioki was a champion with the Sengoku promotion, as well as with Shooto before coming over to the UFC.  His fight with Lion Takeshi was one of the best fights to date in the Shooto promotion.