On the heels of Sengoku 4 on August 24, World Victory Road has finalized its fifth installment that features a middleweight grand prix and a pair of grappling all-stars. Sengoku 5 will take place on September 28 at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.
Grand Prix participants include:
Yuki Sasaki (21-14-1) vs Yuki Kondo (49-22-6)
Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos (16-11) vs Siyar Bahadurzada (13-3-1)
Jorge Santiago (17-7) vs Logan Clark (11-2)
Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-8) vs Paul Cahoon (10-11)
Kondo and Sasaki will be facing off for the first time, which comes as a surprise considering how many times they’ve battled under the Pancrase banner. In addition to having chewed some of the same dirt, each fighter will be looking to rebound from losses at Sengoku “Second Battle.”
On the flip side, Santiago and Santos took victories in their Sengoku debuts while Nakamura is making his first appearance with World Victory Road after a 0-2 run in the UFC. Bahadurzada — “The Afghan Killer” — was recently choked out by Kazuo Misaki at Sengoku “First Battle” back in March.
Bahadurzada may want to reconsider his nickname before appearing stateside.
Logan Clark dropped a decision to Kazuo Misaki at Sengoku 3 back in June, but who cares? I’ll watch anyone man enough to call themselves “The Pink Pounder”. And speaking of poundings, England’s Paul Cahoon is probably glad to be on any card that doesn’t feature nemesis Melvin Manhoef.
Appearing on the main card is American Top Team’s Jorge “GameBred” Masvidal (13-3) who will be taking on Ryan “The Lion” Schultz (20-10-1). Schultz was upset at Sengoku 4 last month when he was bounced out of the lightweight grand prix in the first round by underdog Mizuto Hirota.
Also in action are jiu-jitsu all-stars Alexandre Ribeiro (0-0) and Roger Gracie (2-0). A four-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, “Xande” rocketed to the top of the grappling food chain after defeating Gracie at the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world championships absolute divisions in 2006 and 2008.
Now he gets the path of least resistance as he faces the aging Takashi Sugiura (1-2), while Gracie goes head-to-head with MMA legend Travis “Diesel” Wiuff (53-11), who eroded the iron jaw of Kazuyuki Fujita at June’s Sengoku 3.
Looks like Gracie got the short end of the stick in that deal.
Here is the finalized fight card for Sengoku 5:
TBA vs. Travis Wiuff (53-11)
Light Heavyweight Fight:
Xande Ribeiro (0-0) vs. Takashi Sugiura (1-2)
Lightweight Fights:
Ryan Schultz (20-10-1) vs. Jorge Masvidal (13-3)
Kiuma Kunioku (33-22-9) vs. A Sol Kwon (5-3)
Middleweight GP Series 2008 1st Round:
Yuki Sasaki (21-14-1) vs Yuki Kondo (49-22-6)
Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos (16-11) vs Siyar Bahadurzada (13-3-1)
Jorge Santiago (17-7) vs Logan Clark (11-2)
Kazuhiro Nakamura (11-8) vs Paul Cahoon (10-11)
7 Comments »
Is that a barking spider I hear?
I love competition in mma and I dont root for any of the organizatioons to fold unlike mania of the hater on this site, but I really hope that World Victory Road folds, and Soon! The put together crappy events that even a gung ho Japanese mma fan like myself doesnt look forward to. This cmpany needs to FOLD because al its doing is taking away fighters from DREAM. Once this flds, its good fighters will be signed by DReam.
DReam becomes much more attractive with gomi in the mix. Think of the possabilities at lightweight:
Gomi vs. Eddie alvarez
Gomi vs. Diaz 2
Gomi vs. Aoki
Gomi vs. Hellboy 3 or 2 (dont remember h ow many times they fought
What interests me most about this card is the mma debut of Xande who is transitioning to mma from being a ju jitsu GOD who’s grappling skills rival the likes of Maia and Jacre.
Didnt Xande just recently win another Absolute division ju jitsu competition? I believe he won the absolute division twice, but I could be wrong
Mania, question: when do we get to start discussing the match ups for next WEdnesday’s UFN event?
Damn Kaz is out of the UFC, too bad..
I bet once the UFC starts doing shows in Japan, they wil throw Kaz on some undercard fights
Anyone else hearing rumblings about Sakuraba vs. Royce 3 for NYE?
The Gracie/Wiuff fight should catapult the winner into another level. Gracie would prove to be more than a grappling star and Wiuff would probably be considered somewhere along the lines of the UFC or EliteXC. He would completely dominate the EliteXC HW division IMO..