Announced at the second Yarennoka! press conference, Shooto Middleweight Champion Shinya Aoki will face the 2-time K-1 HERO's Middleweight Tournament Champion Gesias "JZ" Calvancanti. An explosive matchup between two very good fighters with some similar and different aspects to their fighting styles. Also announced was a battle between DEEP Welterweight Champion Hidehiko Hasegawa and PRIDE superstar Hayato "Mach" Sakurai. Two explosive matchups that will definitely affect rankings, potential matchups for later bouts, and pit champions vs. champions. Let's take a look at these great matchups and some of the other rumor participants.
Shinya Aoki (11-2) vs. Gesias "JZ" Calvancanti (14-1-1)
To the casual mixed martial arts fan who doesn't know who Aoki or Calvancanti is, you should check these two guys out. Aoki is best known for pulling off the first gogoplata ever in a mixed martial arts match against Joachim Hansen at PRIDE Shockwave 2006. Looking down his record, you may not see very many impressive wins, but he had an outright war with "Mach" Sakurai, but came out with a loss by decision. He comes into the fight with 8 straight wins, but has been on hiatus since April of this year. Ring rust? It's possible. Aoki sports black belts in Judo and Jiu-jitsu, insane flexibility, and the ability to go for the low probability submission to catch opponents off guard.
My interest in Calvancanti came with his entry into the arena of K-1 Hero's. He entered competition in K-1 with some huge knockout wins. Takaya and Yahya both were beaten inside :40 seconds, Takaya by flying knee and Yahya by a guillotine choke. He beat Caol Uno in a decision battle, but then came back and blew out Nam Phan in :26 seconds. The K-1 Middleweight tournament on September 17th of this year propelled Calvancanti in my eyes. He completely decimated Vitor Ribeiro, a top 5 lightweight, and continued into the finals to take on Andre "Dida" Amade, an up-and-coming lightweight striker who could be on his way to stardom. Calvancanti banged with Amade, but eventually took him down and used his ju-jitsu skills to submit him. Eight straight wins, most of them in destructive and quick fashion. A force to be reckoned with and one of the reasons why he's ranked in the top 3 on most rankings.
How do I see this going down? Calvancanti is a beast in the ring. He's very good at staying away from the guard, but he's also very slick on the ground as well. I would give Aoki the advantage in the guard due to his flexibility. Calvancanti will want to keep Aoki where he can punish him from the top or stand and throw power shots to end it. Either way, I think Calvancanti's aggressive and powerful style will put down Aoki. It should be a great fight though, and Aoki could pull off a submission win.
Hidehiko Hasegawa (14-8-4) vs. Hayato Sakurai (30-7-2) 
Hasegawa is a guy that I haven't watched a lot of video on. I have about 6 of his fights sitting on my hard drive that I will be closely looking over soon, but from what I remember about Hasegawa, he's had a few recent wars with Dong Hyun Kim. He lost at Deep Impact 31 by a TKO with barely any time left in the fight. In the rematch at Deep Impact 32, the fight was so close that it went to the judges who determined it to be a draw.
Hayato Sakurai is a potentially dangerous matchup for Hasegawa and a step up in competition. Sakurai has been fighting in PRIDE for quite some time in his career, since December of 2003. Early on, he had an UFC appearance against Matt Hughes in which he lost a 4 round war by TKO. He has some notable losses to Ryo Chonan, Jake Shields, Crosley and Rodrigo Gracie, and Takanori Gomi. He has had some impressive spans of wins in his career though. Sakurai beat Aoki at a Shooto event in August of 2005, then turned around and participated in Bushido 9, defeating Jens Pulver and Joachim Hansen in one night. He's also been fighting since the late 90's and has a plethora of experience. His most recent victory is over current TUF contestant Mac Danzig at PRIDE 33: Second Coming in which he knocked out Danzig late in the second round. In fact, his last three bouts have ended by a knockout.
Hasegawa does not have a huge fan in me. His recent fights with Dong Hyun Kim were odd to say the least. In the second fight, Kim and Hasegawa went to a draw in a battle that I thought Hyun Kim won. Apparently, this wasn't as obvious to the judges as I thought. Hasegawa showed some flurries of hope in the fight, but for the most part, his aggressive punching flurries did not land and he ended up on his back in the counters by Kim. The main skill that Hasegawa implements on the ground is the rubber guard. He's fairly flexible, but against Kim, he was unable keep it locked in long enough to transition. For the most part, Hasegawa's striking isn't very crisp, and his ground game hasn't been as great as it could be.
Sakurai has a considerable repertoire of skill to tap from. He has some decent standup, can go the distance, and has some great grappling skills. His grappling at one point won him 2nd place in the openweight class at the ADCC in 1999. Although that was some time ago, it still says volumes for the fact that he works with his grappling enough to stop some of the better MMA fighters. He also has some good takedown defense that was evident against Azevedo at Bushido 12. His judo skills are good enough to initiate throws to control opponents and he sets up combinations and wears opponents down with great leg kicks. Overall, he is a fairly well-rounded mixed martial artist. If I had to choose at this point, Sakurai seems to have a better standup game, and I think he can do more on the ground as well.
Other participants rumored
Mitsuhiro Ishida, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Kazuo Misaki, Joachim Hansen, Luiz Azeredo, Ricardo Arona, Gilbert Melendez, and Fedor Emelianenko are all supposedly fighting on this card. Fedor is confirmed, but his opponent has yet to be confirmed. Hong Man Choi is the rumored opponent, but I still want to state that he must survive a beating in the K-1 Grand Prix finals when he takes on Jerome Lebanner.
Ishida, Kawajiri, and Misaki are all arguably top 10 fighters in their respective weight classes, although Misaki is more than likely on the outside looking in. Hansen has lost some stock as of late after losing to Eiji Mitsuoka in a controversial decision that could have been ruled a draw. It puts him at 4 losses in his last 6 fights. Azeredo is curently 11-6, but fought Gomi twice in his last 5 fights and also lost to Hansen. Azeredo's last bout was a big win over up-and-coming banger Paul Daley.
Ricardo Arona is rumored to be denying his involvement right now in the NYE card because he is working personal problems out, but has stated he would love to fight Fedor in February on the rumored M-1 Global event. I haven't heard much on Melendez, but the two fighters who he has stated he has wanted to fight in the past have been matched up together, Aoki and Calvancanti. Melendez is one of the fighters that I'm definitely interested in seeing take on some more of the top Japanese talent.
Final thoughts
Sure, the event looks to have some ex-DSE employees behind it who may have been behind the scandals that sunk PRIDE. Fact is, as an MMA fan, this card is looking to be amazing. Aoki vs. Calvancanti is a matchup that I would love to see. With guys like Ishida, Melendez, Kawajiri, Misaki, and Azeredo along with some other names that are rumored, this card is looking very good. For the hardcore fan, this is something to get excited about. Casual fans won't be too high on this card, and it may not sell too much in Japan since some of the big PRIDE Bushido cards didn't do too well either.
From a pure standpoint of good mixed martial arts fights, this card may deliver. From a point that this could be a card that will begin a revolution of a new PRIDE in Japan, give me a break. This should be the one and only event for this collaboration of people organizing it. I've read a few interviews from Japan suggesting that this is the only event they will do unless it's unbelievably successful. I don't think it will be a grand success, not enough to garner another card. With the scandals and Yakuza links from the old PRIDE, the ex-DSE employees behind this will surely bring scrutiny. But hey, the fights at least look good.