News and Notes from Bushido 11, HERO’s and DEEP

TOKYO, April 10 — In a press conference held Monday in Tokyo, the Nagoya-based DEEP organization officially announced a lightweight title match between Ryan Bow (Pictures) and Nobuhiro Obiya (Pictures) for Tuesday, April 11 on the DEEP 24th Impact show at Korauken Hall.

Obiya expressed to the Japanese media that his preparation and condition is excellent and how he feels relaxed for tomorrow’s bout.

"The DEEP lightweight belt is mine," said Obiya after discussing the preparation he went through with teammate and current PRIDE lightweight champion Takanori Gomi (Pictures).

Meanwhile, Bow spoke to the media in perfect Japanese and relayed a little about his background and why he moved to Japan to pursue this fighting aspirations. "I started in MMA at age 17 with the only goal to become a champion and after 10 years finally this dream is going to become true," he said.

Bow later offered a warning to all the media that was present and especially Obiya: "Watch for my left hook.”

Both Obiya and Bow, who fight for a DEEP lightweight belt that was vacated by Dokonjonosuke Mishima (Pictures) in February, came in very close to 154 pounds. Due to the strong connection between DEEP and PRIDE Bushido these days — DEEP president Shigeru Saeki works like the matchmaker and public relations official for the Bushido series — the winner of this bout is likely to get a free pass into the Bushido series sometime this year.

Also, tomorrow’s DEEP event will mark the awaited Japanese debut of King of the Cage middleweight superstar Joey Villasenor (Pictures), who takes on Ryo Chonan (Pictures)’s teammate Yuya Shirai (Pictures).

DEEP Executive Office presents DEEP: 24th Impact
April 11, 2006
Korakuen Hall,
Tokyo, Japan
Door Open: 5:30 p.m.
Fight Start: 6:30 p.m.

Fight Card (Subject to Change):

Ryan Bow (Pictures) vs. Nobuhiro Obiya (Pictures)
Yasuhito Namekawa (Pictures) vs. Cyrille Diabete
Hidetada Irie vs. Gegard Mousasi (Pictures)
Kazunori Yokota (Pictures) vs. Milton Vieira (Pictures)
Hidehiko Hasegawa (Pictures) vs. Quinton Alenza
Takeshi Yamazaki (Pictures) vs. Hirotaka Miyagawa
Yutaro Miyamoto (Pictures) vs. Noburu Nakadai
Soichi Nishida (Pictures) vs. Muscle Hiranuma
Yoshihiro Tomioka (Pictures) vs. Cicero Costa
Yuya Shirai (Pictures) vs. Joey Villasenor (Pictures)
Shiyo Yamato vs. Satoko Shinashi (Pictures)

“Kid”-Miyata and Akiyama-Nagata Officially Announced

The HERO’s promotion made official two matches for its upcoming Middleweight (70 kg) Grand Prix opening round, in addition to the line-up of participants for the Middleweight and Light Heavyweight (85 kg) tournaments.

Kazuyuki Miyata (Pictures) takes on Japanese star Norifumi Yamamoto (Pictures) while Yoshihiro Akiyama (Pictures) battles Katsuhiko Nagata.

Also, HERO’s confirmed a list of participants including Caol Uno (Pictures), Hideo Tokoro (Pictures), Ryuki Ueyama (Pictures) and Hidetaka Monma (Pictures), while at the same time announcing the participation of Brazilian stars Vitor Ribeiro (Pictures) and Alexandre Franca Nogueira (Pictures).

Also K-1 Producer Sadaru Tanikawa and HERO's figurehead Akira Maeda (Pictures) explained the concept with this year’s HERO's Grand Prix tournaments.

There are five tournament fights but “Kid” Yamamoto-Kazuyuki Miyata (Pictures) is not included. Yamamoto and Genki Sudo (Pictures) are seeded automatically into the second round for being finalists of last year's event, which saw “Kid” stop Sudo 4:39 of round one.

If Miyata wins he will take the "recommendation slot" into the tourney. Should he lose, he may fight Hiroyuki Takaya (Pictures) for the remaining “recommendation slot” at another event. Hiroyuki Takaya (Pictures) is not in this opening round due to injury.

August 5 Hero's Light Heavyweight GP Opening Round

Participants: four Japanese, four foreign light heavyweight fighters for the opening Grand Prix. Scheduled to participate are Yoshihiro Akiyama (Pictures), Katsuhiko Nagata, B.J. Penn (Pictures) (the UFC has not confirmed this), Melvin Manhoef (Pictures) and Rodrigo Gracie (Pictures).

Also scheduled are the five winners of the Middleweight opening round, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, Genki Sudo (Pictures), and the fighters included in the “recommendation slot" format for their second-round fights.

October 9 HERO’s MW/LHW GP Finals

Participants: The four winners of the 8/5 Middleweight tourney second round plus reserve match fighters will engage in semifinals/finals. Also the four winners of the early August Light Heavyweight tourney and their reserves will compete in the semifinals/finals.

K-1 HERO’s also announced that the Grand Prix belts are a one-time prize — like K-1 MAX or K-1 Grand Prix — so there will be no defenses and they only mean to represent the tournament champion.

Gono, Chonan and Takimoto Official for PRIDE Bushido 11

Dream Stage Entertainment held a press conference in Tokyo to announce the schedule for its upcoming PRIDE Bushido Welterweight Grand Prix, which is set to begin on June 4.

Sixteen fighters are scheduled to participate in the upcoming PRIDE Bushido Welterweight Grand Prix, with Ryo Chonan (Pictures), Akihiro Gono (Pictures) and Makoto Takimoto (Pictures) being the first official fighters.

Among the foreign fighters expected to participate are Dan Henderson (Pictures), Paulo Filho (Pictures), Phil Baroni (Pictures), Denis Kang (Pictures) and Murilo Bustamante (Pictures).

DSE has scheduled the tournament over three shows, with the first round taking place June 4 at the Saitama Super Arena. The quarterfinals would be next August 26 at Nagoya City Rainbow Hall. And the semifinals and finals are scheduled for November 5 at Yokohama Arena.