Confuseyus
IMPORTANT: If you are looking for the 3/20/09 Sengoku 7 preview and predictions, PLEASE CLICK THE LINK BELOW! This post was for the January event, which was later revealed to have been called Sengoku No Ran. They just didn’t tell anyone outside Japan ahead of time.
http://dcrage.wordpress.com/2009/03/14/confuseyus-world-victory-road-sengoku-7-take2-preview-amp-predictions/
This Sunday (January 4) is World Victory Road Sengoku 7 from Saitama, Japan…which has the unenviable task of going up against the biggest puroresu event of the year in Japan-New Japan’s Tokyo Dome Blowout Show (the Japanese equivalent of WWE WrestleMania). Sengoku 7 is headlined by title fights to crown the promotion’s first Lightweight and Middleweight champions, but as always, we must start at the bottom to get to the top:
Standard disclaimer: As is always the case, these picks are strictly for entertainment purposes only and should not be used as the basis for any real life betting/wagering. Also, Sengoku is one of few Japanese promotions, if not the only one, to use the Unified MMA Rules, which are similar to those used by UFC. Most notably, it means that all fights are 3 5 minute rounds. Also, when it appears in a fighter’s records the “NC” stands for No Contest. All records are based on the fighters’ records according to the Sherdog Fight Finder.
Minoru Kato vs. Hidetada Irie
Records: Kato 2-5, 1 NC, Irie 3-3-2
Only in Japan is a sub-.500 record not the touch of death for your career. It’s not uncommon over there to see fighters with more losses and wins or guys with a lot of draws, as evident by the records here. Granted, 2 of Irie’s 3 losses were to guys named Gegard Mousasi & Dan Severn, who are really good fighters, but when you also beat guys with names like Jino Jino & Rikio Rikio (seriously. Look up Irie on Sherdog’s Fight Finder), kinda makes you wonder…then again I do remember there being a fighter named Dong Dong. Kato has actually staged a decent turnaround in his career, after starting 0-3 with 1 NC he’s since gone 2-2. And in his last fight just 9 days ago, it was over before you even settled in-he TKO’d his opponent in just 9 seconds. That being said I have trouble picking the guy with the losing record, so I see Kato being laid out fairly quickly and Irie going above .500.
Prediction: Irie by 1st round KO/TKO.
Maximo Blanco vs. Seigo Inoue
Records: Blanco 1-1, 1 NC, Inoue 5-5-1
These guys have fought their entire careers for their respective promotions-Blanco for DEEP, Inoue for Japan excluding 1 fight for the M-1 Challenge. Since they both seem like average guys, this is where I go with experience and that favors Inoue. I’ll overlook his beating a guy named Mike Mike (don’t you just love Japanese MMA?) and say Inoue will make a guy whose name translates loosely as “Maximum White” see Maximo Negro y Azul (Spanish for Black & Blue) in the 1st round.
Prediction: Inoue by 1st round submission/tapout.
Muhammad Lawal vs. Yukiya Naito
Records: Lawal 2-0, Naito 15-4-2
On paper this almost looks like a “booked to win”. Lawal, or “King Mo” as he’s nicknamed, has made a giant impact on the scene since debuting earlier this year. A collegiate wrestling standout, Lawal debuted for Sengoku in September and made a statement by TKOing Travis Wiuff in under 3 minutes. In his second fight it took until the 3rd round but eventually he TKO’d Fabio Silva. I don’t expect Naito to be such a pushover, he’s a veteran tho can TKO you or make you tap. He rarely goes the distance. Naito is a heavy underdog in the MMAPG game, but he’s hot right now-6 straight wins, 9 of his last 10, so I’m feeling like he’s got a shot to dethrone the King. I’m rolling the dice, going for the underdog bonus, and picking Naito to stop Lawal midway through the fight.
Prediction: Naito by 2nd round submission/tapout.
Dave Herman vs. Mu Bae Choi
Records: Herman 13-0, Choi 7-3
With EliteXC’s apparent demise, Herman heads to this event to show why he’s considered one of the top Heavyweight prospects outside of UFC. He’s been a machine to date-only one of his fights has lasted longer than 3 minutes (that fight went to a 3rd round) and when he beat Ron Waterman in EliteXC it gave him serious legitimacy. Choi has fought twice this year after being inactive in all of 2007, compiling a 1-1 record this year. He’s a wrestler with a good ground game even though he probably will give up a good 15 pounds to Herman. This could be a trip-up fight for Herman, but I don’t see Choi giving “Pee Wee” too many problems. Herman should lay Choi out early, just a question of how fast. Over/under: 2 minutes.
Prediciton: Herman by 1st round KO/TKO.
Sergey Golyaev vs. Eiji Mitsouka
Records: Golyaev 12-6, Mitsuoka 14-6-2
Both guys took very different paths from Sengoku 6 to this fight. Golyaev was booked to lose, and lose convincingly, to top Lightweight Takanori Gomi en route to Gomi getting a title shot…only Golyaev shocked Japanese MMA to the core by stealing a split decision win in a fight where Gomi clearly wasn’t himself. Mitsuoka faced Satoru Kitaoka in the Sengoku Lightweight GP Semifinals but came up short, being submitted in 76 seconds. This fight is the “Hot Bout” on MMAPG right now, and with pretty good reason. Both guys have identical 7-2 records in their last 9 fights, but Golyaev has won 5 straight while Mitsuoka’s loss snapped a 3-fight win streak. This one could go the distance and will be a technical fight more than anything. Golyaev has a lot to prove coming off the Gomi fight, so the pressure is really on him. I think he’ll be able to make Mitsuoka tap late in the fight, the question is will it really happen. We’ll see.
Prediction: Golyaev by 3rd round submission/tapout.
Sanae Kikuta vs. Hidehiko Yoshida
Records: Kikuta 27-6-3, 1 NC, Yoshida 8-6-1.
Another one that ’s something of an “old-timers” fight, Kikuta has been fighting since 1996, Yoshida is going on 40 and has been fighting since 2002. Both have fought exclusively in Japan, Kikuta even has a UFC fight to his credit from when they visited Japan years ago as well as having competed once on the Japanese game show “Sasuke” (which airs in the US as “Ninja Warrior”). Yoshida, with one fight being an exception, fought exclusively for PRIDE until it folded in 2006, then came back earlier this year for Sengoku. This is a classic grappler vs. grappler/judoka fight, Yoshida has won all his fights by submission while Kikuta has won 15 of his by tapout. That makes this one a safe bet to go the distance, based on experience, and admittedly to a degree age (Kikuta is 2-3 years younger than Yoshida), I’ll go with the former King Of Pancrase here and take Kikuta in a close decision.
Prediction: Kikuta by unanimous/majority decision.
Yoshihiro Nakao vs. Antonio Silva
Records: Nakao 7-1, 2 NC, Silva 10-1.
This fight is more about the back stories than the fight himself as both have histories. Nakao is infamous for being the fighter who actually legit kissed Heath Herring before their fight at K-1 Dynamite 2005, Herring returned the favor by kissing him goodnight with his fists. It was ruled a No Contest before it even began. Silva has been something of a lightning rod in the US, he’s the first (and possibly only) EliteXC Heavyweight Champion, a victory tainted by the revelation that he tested positive for, to put it in plain english, horse steroids, in a test by the CSAC. It got him suspended for 1 year which the CSAC head, Armando Alejandro Estrada…oops, wrong Armando-I meant Garcia…expected him to uphold. When you’re suspended for a drug test you’re expected to honor the suspension and not fight ANYWHERE in the world or you risk never fighting in the state again-or if you’re Garcia, anywhere in the US period. So Silva is defying the suspension and fighting in Japan because, like everyone else, a fighter’s gotta eat. And this is equal booked-to-win and freakshow because, by MMA standards, I can only think of one fighter that’s in Silva’s league in terms of height and weight: Hong-Man Choi. Silva is a freak at 6′4″ and 300 pounds. Nakao may be big in his own right but I have a feeling he’s going to just do best by get in there, take a quick fall, then head out and cash his paycheck and enjoy some good living for a while. Silva should finish Nakao quickly then we’ll see what the backlash from the CSAC might be, that’s gonna be the bigger story to a degree.
Prediction: Silva by 1st round KO/TKO.
Takanori Gomi vs. Satoru Kitaoka for the inaugural Sengoku Lightweight Championship
Records: Gomi 29-4, 1 NC, Kitaoka 23-8-9
Gomi is the #7 Lightweight in the World according to MMAWeekly.
OK, let’s start with the bizarre: This fight should not be happening. Gomi was guaranteed this fight if he beat Golyaev at Sengoku 6. As noted above, he didn’t, but Sengoku decided it was best for all involved to make the match anyway, specifically best for Kitaoka, who won the Sengoku Lightweight GP to earn his title shot. Sengoku helped bring Gomi out of a hiatus he was forced into by the collapse of PRIDE, and perhaps offered a chance to move on after his final PRIDE fight-a loss to former UFC star Nick Diaz…but Diaz would fail a post-fight drug test when it showed marijuana in him, and the result was changed to No Contest. Gomi won his first 2 Sengoku fights before the Golyaev loss. Kitaoka, meanwhile, had all but one of his previous career fights in Pancrase before joining Sengoku, where he won his first 4 fights with the first 3 being by submission all in under 77 seconds. Kitaoka has won 9 of 10 going into this fight and, although he’s the clear underdog, I see a lot of variables working for him. He’s hot, he’s earned his shot, and Gomi may not be all there after not being his old self in the Golyaev loss, which may still leave him less than 100% mentally. Gomi clearly has more to lose here as he’s one of the faces of Japanese MMA, but a dice roll says make way for a new face and a new champion in the form of Kitaoka by a razor-thin nod.
Prediction: Kitaoka by split decision.
Kazuo Misaki vs. Jorge Santiago for the inaugural Sengoku Middleweight Championship
Records: Misaki 21-8-2, 1 NC, Santiago 20-7
Misaki is the #5 Middleweight in the World according to Weekly.
Both took similar paths to this fight withwinning streaks spanning both Senoku and Strikeforce. Misaki has won 3 straight since a NC at the 2007 NYE event in Japan (KO’d Yoshihiro Akiyama with an illegal soccer kick) while Santiago has won 8 straight since a 2-fight losing streak that got him dropped by UFC, a streak punctuated by an indescribably brutal KO of Sean Salmon in Strikeforce’s One Night Middleweight Tournament that Santiago won. This is another tough one to call, and I’m fairly certain it’ll go the distance. This one’s a coin flip to me, my flip came up Misaki so that’s who I’m going with to take the title. Should either one go back to Strikeforce next year, the winner could go to the top of the short list of challengers for Middleweight Champion Cung Le’s title when Le returns from shooting movies in spring. If he does-it’s not definite.
Prediction: Misaki by unanimous/majority decision.
Results & recap coming January 4.
