World Victory Road, the newly formed mixed martial arts company that is based in Japan, announced that their first show will take place on March 5th, 2008 at Yoyogi First National Gymnasium. The event will be called "Sengoku" meaning "Fight Master" from the translation of two Chinese characters according to Taro Kotani of Sherdog.com. WVR is currently part of the new post-PRIDE push for a major MMA player to come out of Japan. World Victory Road is the parent company that will host an MMA organization, or simply host a number of events under certain monikers such as "Sengoku". From what the article says, there will be five "Sengoku" events over the course of 2008. From the sound of the details coming out from WVR, I must say that I'm not overly impressed with this organization's attempt, although we have yet to hear their entire card or any news on the stable of fighters they plan on bringing in. Let's dig into the details.
Fighters named, still some mystery
Hidehiko Yoshida, Sanae Kikuta, Makoto Takimoto, and Ryo Kawamura were all announced as fighters for the inaugural event. Yoshida (7-5-1) is somewhat of an attraction in Japan. He's a living legend to the Japanese MMA scene and has a fairly successful dojo in Japan. He's a judoka who won a gold medal in Judo at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Yoshida is a fairly old fighter for the MMA game. He's currently 38 years of age. Yoshida has had some spectacle fights that have brought him fame, but has also brought him considerable pain. Yoshida defeated fighters such as Don Frye, Mark Hunt, and "Tank" Abbott, not very impressive, but he fought to a draw against Royce Gracie, and lost decisions to Wanderlei Silva and the great American Greco-Roman wrestler Rulon Gardner in his first and only MMA fight. He is clearly a spectacle draw for Japanese fans.
Sanae Kikuta (26-6-3) is a veteran MMA fighter who trains with Team Grabaka, the camp responsible for producing some of the better fighters in Japan. Fighters such as Akihiro Gono and Kazuo Misaki train with Team Grabaka. Kikuta is one of the older fighters within the team at 36 years of age, but has a plethora of experience in the MMA scene. For the most part, Kikuta has lost when called upon to make a step up in competition. In his more recent bouts, he's had an ongoing war with Yuki Kondo, losing his most recent battle with him and drawing with him in May of 2003. His last two wins were with PRIDE at Shockwave 2005 and Bushido 13 against Makoto Takimoto and Jean Francois Lenogue respectively. He hasn't fought since November of 2006, so getting rid of the ring rust will definitely be a factor.
Makoto Takimoto (3-3) is fairly green to the MMA scene, but isn't in the judo arena. His most recent win was over Zelg Galesic at PRIDE 34, but not an overly impressive win considering Galesic isn't exactly one of the best guys on the ground when tested there. Takimoto was beaten by the veteran Sanae Kikuta at Shockwave 2005 by decision and had his eye socket completely destroyed by Gegard Mousasi at PRIDE Bushido 11. He isn't a very impressive prospect for the organization to be touting. Ryo Kawamura (7-1-2) is an exciting Pancrase knockout fighter who should bring some spectacular striking to the card. He hasn't fought unbelievable competition, but I look for WVR to match him up with someone he can stand and bang out. His only loss is to Fabio Silva, who I haven't been very impressed with since Melvin Manhoef one-two'd him into dreamland at the K-1 Hero's event on September 17th. Regardless, Kawamura may still bring a highlight reel knockout to the card.
As an American MMA fan, I'm not too excited about the card, but Yoshida can produce some good MMA and bring out a win against a tough opponent. Kikuta is a good veteran fighter, but Takimoto isn't an impressive signing for the card. Kawamura seems to be on the card to strictly produce some powerful knockouts, which is always a plus. The more interesting news about WVR is the rumors that they may be trying to get Gomi for the event. With that said, WVR will most likely be looking to bring some other fighters in as well to fight Gomi. I always hope for Melendez's name to somehow sprout up in the WVR talk, we'll see.
Other details
All of the fighters will be non-exclusive to the event and WVR, allowing them to fight for other promotions. This will allow for the fighters in the events to gain some more experience elsewhere. This is pretty standard reasoning behind those types of agreements, although we've seen this backfire at times in recent event plannings. HDNet Fights has had some dealings with Sean Salmon that recently hurt the promotions "Reckless Abandon" main event. Salmon was knocked out cold at the Strikeforce Middleweight Tournament, and is now under medical suspension that will not allow him to fight "Mayhem" Miller on the HDNet Fights card. Non-exclusivity can sometimes produce those types of situations. This is the reason why the UFC keeps their fighters exclusive, along with a whole host of financial reasons as well.
The weight classes are pretty standard from the top until you hit the welterweight, lightweight, and featherweight divisions. Welterweight is set at 167 pounds, lightweight at roughly 150 pounds, and featherweight at 132 pounds. My initial thoughts were that if the promotion plans on bringing fighters from the States over who are familiar with the unified weight classes of the UFC or any other American promotion besides EliteXC, it may be fairly hard to deal with the constraints differing. Welterweight isn't a huge problem as we only see a 3 pound difference, but lightweight sports a 5 pound difference which seems to be a problem for some fighters. The biggest difference is the featherweight division. In the WEC, the featherweights fight as 145 pounds, making a 13 pound difference in those rules. Obviously, it is much more likely that they will find bantamweight fighters to be placed in those fights or simply use homegrown Japanese fighters. Nonetheless, I imagine we will see some changes to this structure and some catchweight fights to accomodate bigger name bouts. WVR did mention they plan on adding weight classes in the future, it's a mystery whether or not they would be in between the current structure.
WVR Rules
The most baffling thing about the announcement was the rule set that was decided on to regulate the event's action. Three five minute rounds, championship fights will be five rounds, pretty standard stuff. Knees on the ground and stomping are permitted, but you can't elbow or soccer kick someone? Huh? This seems absurd. Stomping is probably more likely to hurt you seriously than an elbow, at least in my mind. Why? Elbows in guard are fairly hard to reign down with significant power. It can be done, but a stomp with full body weight behind it can be devastating. Even soccer kicks at times may not have the force of a stomp. Even more odd, kicks and elbows at least take some training to perfect and skill to put down on an opponent at times, whereas stomps can literally be traced back to when you were a little kid pouting and stomping the ground because you didn't get any ice cream. Maybe I'm way off base, but stomps are dangerous, very dangerous. I'd rather see elbows put into the rules and stomps taken out. I'm not a huge fan of soccer kicks per say, but I can live with those in the rules. In PRIDE, many of those moves were used as finishing blows to an opponent who was already out of the fight, but in some cases, they ended bouts quickly that could have continued.
I liked seeing some of the old rules back, but honestly, some of these tactics that they have allowed require no skill. Stomps were great for passing a guard for a devastating blow, and they sometimes caused fighters to get off the floor to avoid them, therefore pressing action, but we've seen them used in the past to finish opponents who are already hurt beyond repair. Knees on the ground I can do with. At times, I feel that a fighter can move to position in a fight to open up the knee strike, but in the UFC, it isn't permitted on the ground. Case in point, Stevenson vs. Pellegrino had one instance late in the bout in which Pellegrino had one knee on the canvas as Stevenson had his knees clear to strike. Pellegrino stayed on the ground knowing he would be blasted by the strikes if he lifted his knee. Stevenson masterfully pressed Pellegrino to the fence to gain position and opened up that advantage. We probably would have seen a quick end had the knees on the ground been permitted in the UFC or in MMA in the U.S. in general. I can do without it though.
Final thoughts
Excited? I'm not. The names that were announced may be great for Japanese fans, but for me, it's nothing yet. If we can see Gomi take on someone worth a damn in this card, it'll be something worth watching. It'll be interesting to see who they can grab up from the international scene as well. HERO's and the ex-DSE promotion seem to be gaining steam, although it's been said that the ex-DSE promotion is a one-time deal. With M-1 Global supposedly supporting more events or holding their own in the Asian market, they will also be players. I'm not holding too much hope for WVR in an increasingly more crowded MMA market in Japan.