World Victory Road is back and has finalized its fourth installment featuring a lightweight grand prix and the return of its prized acquisition Takanori Gomi. Sengoku 4 will take place on August 24 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.
“The Fireball Kid” is looking for his second straight win under the upstart promotion after stopping Duane “Bang” Ludwig at Sengoku: First Battle back in March.
Opposing him will be current DEEP lightweight champion Bang Sueng Hwan. The South Korean debuted in 2007 and is the winner of five straight.
Also headlining the card will be former UFC welterweight Frank Trigg. “Twinkle Toes” last competed at HDNet Fights: Reckless Abandon back in December when he submitted Edwin “Babyface” DeWees by kimura.
Here’s the official card for Sengoku 4:
Main Card:
Takanori Gomi (28-3) vs Bang Sueng Hwan (5-1)
Makoto Takimoto (4-4) vs Frank Trigg (16-6)
Peter Graham (0-1) vs Moise Rimbon (12-7-3)
Takahashi Kazuo (0-1) vs Valentijn Overeem (25-22)
Pawel Nastula (1-3) vs Yang Dong Yi (2-0)
Lightweight GP:
Clay French (16-2) vs Satoru Kitaoka (20-8-9)
Rodrigo Damm (8-1) vs Eiji Mitsuoka (13-5-2)
Bojan Kosednar (6-1) vs Kazunori Yokota (6-1-3)
Mizuto Hirota (9-2) vs Ryan Schultz (20-9-1)
The GP may not have any household names, but I’ll be keeping a close eye on Clay French, who has wins over some tough competitors like Jason Ireland and Mac Danzig. Also watch out for Brazilian black-belt Rodrigo Damm, winner of eight straight including his last match at Sengoku: Third Battle.
Making his return to MMA is Olympic judo gold medalist Pawel Nastula, last seen competing at PRIDE 32 back in 2006. While his 1-3 record is nothing to brag about, three of his four fights were against some of the world’s best including Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Aleksander Emelianenko and Josh Barnett.
That’s pretty stiff competition for anyone, let alone a fighter new to the world of mixed martial arts. Now he’s on the main card matched against a more suitable opponent in Yang Dong Yi, the young and dynamic DEEP fighter who has two straight first round TKO wins to start his career.
It will be interesting to see how fans receive the Sengoku lightweight grand prix considering how soon it’s being held after the DREAM lightweight GP.
While I’ve yet to hear any fans complain about having too much MMA, there may be an unspoken expectation for the Sengoku participants to try and outshine their crosstown rivals.
22 Comments »
should be good
It’s BS that diaz win over gomi doesnt’ count because he was high.
No man its completely okay. The other night I cheated on my wife, but I ruled it a no contest cause i was high. and the best part, it was performanc enhancing…. win win
LMAO!!!
LMAO! You totally redemed yourself. Get this man his shirt!!!
Thanks man.
why is gomi not in the grand prix?
I believe the grand prix is being used to find the next challenger for Gomi, thus him winning the grand prix would serve NO purpose.
JOHN. good news! mmapayout.com has posted that dream has signed a new deal with a company called FEG. for a 5 year deal. this company is also affliated with k-1 and looks from what i read that the company fully plans to keep dream andk-1 going until 2013. i may have read more into it than it was, but it would be hard for me to believe that any co. would sign with a fight org. if they were about to go kaput. we’ll see though.
What a snoozefest…
You can say that again.
What a snoozefest…
Diaz really deserves and extra win for fighting high. That would be really hard to concentrate on your BJJ.
Rob Dib
http://www.break-your-face.com
rob: Ju jitsu Legend, Eddie Bravo wrote a whole chapter in his book about how smoking weed helps you with your ju jitsu! True story!
Thanks for the info man! I knew smokin’ weed enhances everythin’. I spar with my buddies while high and it’s like the matrix man! It’s all slow-motion!…Same thing with playin’ basketball. I smoke before gettin’ on the court. I literally break their ankles ‘coz they seem so slow in defending. Man, weeds the best non-narcotic drug around! It’s cheap too! Especially here!
Bw: THat is wonderful news. THank you for the heads up! Hopefully DREAM will continue to grow!~
Gomi isnt in the GP cause he may have to fight somebody with slight credability, which, with the exception of the aforementioned no contest is something he hasn’t done for awhile, and seems like he won’t do again. Most overrated fighter on the planet WOOOO
agree. Win Lose or draw, Gomi needs to get demoted from the #2 spot. He’s 4-2 in his last 6. top10s should be fighting top10s to retain their status. Nothing against him or his past achievements, the division is just too stacked. Tyson Griffin isn’t even ranked. look at his last 6.
Gomi has the slight experience advantage in this one… what a surprise.
Ryan Schultz wins the GP.
Man, Nastula is such a talented guy, too bad MMA is not for him. I attended a training session with him once and he was tossing us around like ragdolls.
But the lack of a groundgame will most likely cost him that fight too.
You Tapped: You do know that Nastula is a Judo Olympic gold medalist right? How can he not have a ground game?