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On Thursday, ONE Fighting Championship (ONE FC) proudly announced the signing of Dream bantamweight champion Bibiano Fernandes and lightweight champion Shinya Aoki. Both fighters were standouts from Dream and were the last champions in their respective weight classes.
We take a look at possible opponents for the duo, who are set to make their respective debuts in ONE FC: Pride of a Nation in Manila on August 31st.
Japanese Shinya Aoki is a submission specialist who is opportunistic with his submissions. Boasting a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, 19 of his 30 wins have come via submission. However, he is coming to ONE FC following a TKO loss to Eddie Alvarez in April.
It would make sense for Shinya Aoki to face Zorobabel Moreira in the main event. Brazilian Moreira is coming off a knockout victory over ex-UFC fighter Roger Huerta via soccer kick. He is riding a five-fight winning streak, also defeating notables Felipe Enomoto and Andy Wang.
The only issue with a Moreira and Aoki bout is that they both train out of Singapore-based Evolve and might be hesitant about fighting a teammate. Perhaps debuting a lightweight championship and giving the fighters the opportunity to be the first ONE FC lightweight champion might be enough for them to accept the fight.
Another alternative opponent would be Ole Laursen. An accomplished kick-boxer, Laursen always puts on exciting fights such as his five-round war against Eduard Folayang in his last outing. Born in the Phillipines, he would have the support of the hometown crowd behind him in what would essentially a boxer vs. grappler match.
Bibiano Fernandes is the first, and only, Bantamweight Champion of Dream.
In Dream's last card on New Year's Eve last year, he defeated both Rodolfo Marques and Antonio Banuelos on the same night to be crowned champion. Hailing from Brazil and now fighting out of Canada, he is nicknamed "the flash" for his lightning-fast speed that has helped him defeat Joachim Hansen and Joe Warren, among others.
Two notable names stand out from the rest in ONE FC's bantamweight division.
Kevin Belingon is the URCC Flyweight Champion and has a record of 9-1. Training out of Team Lakay in the Philippines, Belingon will prove a tough test for Fernandes. The other notable is Leonardo Issa. Issa defeated Masakazu Imanari in last Saturday's ONE FC: Destiny of Warriors. A BJJ world champion, he displayed solid wrestling skills and a smart game plan to defeat Imanari via decision. With a record of 9-2, he is coming off a win, whereas Belingon lost to the aforementioned Imanari last March.
Both Fernandes and Aoki are huge additions to ONE FC's growing stable of fighters, and it will be exciting to see how they fare on August 31st.
ONE FC's first event in Malaysia, aptly named Destiny of Warriors, will take place on the 23rd of June in Kuala Lumpur's Stadium Negara. Headlining the card is a light-heavyweight clash between Strikeforce and Pride veteran Renato 'Babalu' Sobral against Dream veteran Tatsuya Mizuno. We take a look at 3 of the fighters on this card who could make a huge splash in the MMA circuit with a win.
1. Adam Kayoom
Adam Kayoom is a pioneer in Malaysia MMA. Well versed in Muay Thai and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, he carries the burden of fighting in front of an expectant hometown crowd.
Having won multiple regional Muay Thai and Jiu-Jitsu titles, Kayoom makes his ONE FC debut against Gregor Gracie.
A victory against a decorated Jiu-Jitsu opponent with the 'Gracie' surname is a surefire way to gain attention from MMA fans, and Adam Kayoom has the opportunity to do just that. Kayoom would have to try avoid leaving his limbs or necks exposed, and might be best suited to try keeping the fight standing as Gracie has yet to show significant development in his standup.
2. Leonardo Issa
Brazilian Leonardo Issa is riding a 6-fight winning streak heading into his fight with leglock specialist Masakazu Imanari. Imanari is a Dream veteran whose leglock submissions are one of the best, if not the best, in MMA.
Issa is no slouch on the ground either. He has finished all but one of his victories, and most of them by way of submission. It will be a huge feather in his cap if he manages to submit Imanari.
3. Zorobabel Moreira
Granted, Zorobabel Moreira has been a name that is slowly creeping up in MMA circles, but a win against Roger Huerta will catapult his stock into a whole different stratosphere.
Moreira has looked impressive in his two previous appearances under the ONE FC banner. He has demonstrated varied striking to complement his world-class Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu accomplishments. His versatility was evident in his last fight, where he overwhelmed his opponent Felipe Enomoto with kicks and punches before securing the win via armbar.
Roger Huerta was at one time considered a future UFC light-weight champion. He has an all-action style that has excited fight fans all over the world. Huerta took a temporary hiatus to film the movie Tekken, and is in the midst of his worst slump in his career.
A victory over Huerta would gain Moreira worldwide exposure. He stands on the verge of becoming ONE FC's first bona-fide superstar.
If you have absolutely no idea about Katsunori Kikuno by now, you're missing out on one of the most underrated lightweight fighters in any combat sport, let alone MMA.
Kikuno is the classic example of a true "martial artist in MMA," taking his two bread-and-butter disciplines, Judo and Kyokushin Karate, and blending them with a Sanchin Dachi stance that many traditionalists will recognize as a stance seen in the Okinawan Karate style of Uechi-ryu.
This combination creates a highly unorthodox fighting style that essentially showcases the traditional martial arts in the modern world of MMA and has achieved consistent success throughout Kikuno's serious pro MMA career.
Words can only do so much justice to Kikuno's style. But, we're going to let you hear a few vulgar syllables about what might have been one of Japanese MMA's best fights of 2011.
Yes, Japan took a big hit when it fell victim to a series of earthquakes that inspired the "Fight For Japan" theme of DREAM's 2011 schedule, but it scored big with Kikuno going head-to-head with 154-pound kickboxer and cosplayer Yuichiro "Jienotsu" Nagashima in a bout that was simply a classic to watch.
The bout was a Mixed Rules bout, with the first round being fought under kickboxing rules and the second round being under MMA rules, and neither disappointed.
Both men were knocked down in the kickboxing round, but Kikuno demonstrated why they call it "mixed martial arts" when he got the back of Nagashima in the MMA round, took Nagashima down and flattened him out before commencing onward with the "bobble-head beatdown" of the 17-4 kickboxer with the 3-2 MMA record.
We missed our shot at seeing another "Kikuno Crescent" this time out, but we got ourselves a look at one hell of a fight for sure.
Needless to say, anyone that missed Kikuno vs. Nagashima at DREAM's New Year's Eve 2011 event not only missed the real showstopper of the card, but they also may have missed one of, if not the best fight of 2011 in Japanese MMA.
It may not have been Dan Henderson vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, but for Japanese MMA aficionados and MMA fans alike, this bout was somewhere among the best fights in the world in 2011, one of the best fights in the Japanese MMA scene for 2011, and arguably one of the most fitting bouts to feature as we prepared to close 2011 and welcome the year of 2012 in combat sports.
Japanese MMA proved it was alive and well with the showing of DREAM's New Year's Eve 2011 show, titled "Genki Desu Ka!! Omisoka!! 2011" and translated as "How are you! New Year! 2011."
No, seriously, that's the translation of DREAM's latest "Fight For Japan" event, which for those of you fluent in Japanese is expressed as "元気ですか!! 大晦日!! 2011."
Anyway, UFC 141 got all the media hype and attention before the lengthy nine-hour fight card, but those who were able to watch the card in any fraction of its entirety laid witness to one of the most electrifying cards of 2011, and one of the two most fitting ways to close out the year 2011 in MMA.
Helping the excitement level of the Fight For Japan card was DREAM's inaugural Bantamweight Grand Prix, which saw former WEC and quietly released UFC bantamweight Antonio Banuelos advance past Masakazu Imanari to face Bibiano "The Flash" Fernandes, who defeated Rodolfo Marques.
Banuelos and Fernandes met in the finals later that night after respective decision victories, with Yusup Saadulaev waiting in the wings if neither man could compete, but Saadulaev's highlight-reel slam over Hideo Tokoro would be the only appearance of the Russian prospect on the card.
Fernandes scored the first round TKO by showing vast improvements in his striking arsenal, and landed a left high kick followed by a two-punch combination that shook Banuelos enough to cause him to slip while backing up and fall victim to some heavy ground and pound, giving Fernandes the final win of his GP stint and the DREAM bantamweight championship.
Though often associated with the Nova Uniao Jiu-Jitsu Academy, which has housed Marques as well as UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo, former SRC featherweight champion Marlon Sandro, and rising UFC bantamweight Renan Barao, Fernandes trained with the Revolution Fight Team for a time prior to the announcement of the DREAM Bantamweight Grand Prix and relocated to Matt Hume's AMC Pankration for the duration of the Grand Prix.
One year to the day that Hiroyuki Takaya defeated him for the DREAM featherweight title, Fernandes is back on the top with a roughly predicted 12 pounds of bantamweight hardware around his waist, and as we break ourselves into 2012, Fernandes will only ascend further and further until the day comes when he is finally UFC-bound.
Mike Schiavello believes he has a gift.
For the fans that have tuned into HDNet to see any of the recent Dream MMA or K-1 kickboxing shows, Schiavello has demonstrated a very unique storytelling ability.
The Australian native is one of the fastest commentators in MMA history. His color commentators are often heard laughing during the middle of a broadcast.
“God given gift of quick-wit,” Schiavello said. “I’ve been doing this for 16 years—always the same style. It’s a lot of experience.”
Over the past few years, Schiavello has made his name in the U.S. He is the lead announcer for HDNet. He has covered a variety of smaller promotions in the U.S., but his specialty is the Japanese fight scene.
In his career, Schiavello has called over five thousands fights.
“I’ve commentated so many fights it’s hard to pick a favorite,” Schiavello said, when asked for his most memorable matches. “For K-1, I’m going to go with Masato vs. Souwer at Budokhan Hall in 2007. Sammy Schilt vs. Peter Aerts was amazing.”
“For MMA, I love Hatsu Hioki vs. Marlon Sandro in Sengoku’s end of year show last year.”
Unfortunately though, the major Japanese fight scene has not been anywhere near as popular is it was in the early 2000’s. Gone are the massive sell-outs for Pride FC.
“The local shows are flourishing at the moment,” Schiavello said. “The big shows not so much. K-1 is in trouble. They owe a lot of money. On the other hand, Dream has real entertainment.”
Schiavello is clearly a big fan of Dream—even though the organization is not drawing anywhere near as well as Pride did. Rumors about Dream’s demise have recently circulated.
“Dream is a great show from a TV perspective,” Schiavello said. “I think there is potential there. I think they will do several more cards.”
The fall from prominence for K-1 is what has caused people to think the same future is on the way for the MMA promotion.
“I don’t think Dream has a problem—It’s FEG,” Schiavello said, referring to the organization that oversees K-1. “Real Entertainment handles Dream. They are still paying their fighters on time. They’re still drawing big crowds.”
As long as Dream is attracting people to the arenas, Schiavello will be the person calling the action for U.S. fight fans.
His somewhat bombastic style of calling the action filled with one-liners has caused many onlookers to believe his style would also be suited for pro wrestling.
Schiavello sees some similarities and some differences.
“They’re both live spectacles,” Schiavello said. “They are both a combat style of entertainment, but the biggest obvious difference is the MMA is real and pro wrestling is not.”
“You can’t schedule anything in mixed martial arts. It’s not pro wrestling. You don’t know the storylines.”
Recently, former pro wrestlers Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley have made the switch to the cage. Lesnar credits his past history with World Wrestling Entertainment for teaching him how to be a star.
Schiavello feels that more fighters should follow the former UFC heavyweight champion’s lead.
“MMA fighters can learn from pro wrestling on how to better market themselves,” Schiavello said.
However, for someone to become a successful announcer like Schiavello has, he offers much simpler advice.
“Practice, practice, practice. Pay your dues.”
Gary Herman is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Unless otherwise noted, all quotes were obtained first-hand.
DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki has revealed his upcoming fight plans while speaking with MMAWeekly.
The submission stalwart defeated striking specialist Rob McCullough at DREAM 17 on Sept. 24 and is now planning to return to action on New Year's Eve. No opponent has been announced for the end of year event.
Aoki also acknowledged his extensive training at Evolve MMA in Singapore, where he has been working on his Muay Thai skills. The fighter described his preparation for the McCullough fight, "For the first time, I was unafraid to stand and strike because of my Muay Thai training.”
The fighter also released the news that he will rematch current Bellator lightweight title holder Eddie Alvarez in 2012. Aoki defeated Alvarez by heel hook in late 2008.
The Japanese fighter also discussed the uphill battle that MMA faces in the country. Since the demise of Pride in 2007, other promotions have struggled to stay afloat. However, Aoki is confident that the sport will recover in the country. "MMA in Japan is a complicated situation," Aoki declared. "(But) It’s not in my control.”
Despite a pair of appearances inside Strikeforce, Aoki has yet to make the jump to US competition full time. Aoki recently welcomed a newborn baby at home and the fighter made it known that his family is his priority. “If I did not have a family, then I would go to the UFC right now,” said Aoki.
With the current state of MMA in Japan looking bleak, Aoki remains the country's biggest draw. Wins on New Year's Eve and against Alvarez could help revive the sport's popularity or even force Aoki to reconsider making the jump to the UFC.
Todd Duffee met Alistair Overeem at Dynamite!! 2010 for the Dream interim heavyweight championship. Let's give you some context—for those of you who don't follow the sport heavily—about Duffee.
Duffee is a former UFC heavyweight and holds the UFC record for quickest knockout inside the Octagon with a seven-second knockout of Tim Hague at UFC 102.
Now Duffee was cut from the UFC following a third-round knockout loss at UFC 114 to Mike Russow and was cut due to attitude problems. So all of this makes the knockout better in my opinion.
The bout between Overeem and Duffee begins with Duffee coming out and quickly throwing a right punch and getting tangled up with Overeem. That short burst was the best of Duffee's performance, as after that Overeem took over the bout with devastating knees and punches.
Looking at Overeem you know those punches and knees definitely don't feel like a nice massage somewhere on one of the islands of Hawaii.
The beginning of the end happens when Duffee ends up along the ropes with Overeem pressing and firing on all cylinders. One left knee, a right punch and a left punch, then Duffee drops like a ton of bricks onto the ground.
With that knockout win, Overeem earned the Dream heavyweight title and is now his second heavyweight belt in MMA. (He also holds the Strikeforce heavyweight belt.) Overeem is set to face Fabricio Werdum this weekend in the first round of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.
Duffee has yet to fight since this bout on New Year's Eve but is set to face Nick Gaston at Dream 17 on July 16th.
You can follow Sal on Twitter: @SalDeRoseMMA
You can also watch Blake Dreisbach’s “Submission of the Day” video, here!
In the semifinals of the Dream 5 lightweight tournament, Eddie Alvarez met Japanese sensation, Tatsuya Kawajiri.
Alvarez had beaten his two previous opponents, Andre Amade, and a tough Joachim Hansen to get to this fight.
The bout began off with both fighters trading blows, Alvarez with cool combinations and Kawajiri with a mixture of leg kicks, knees and punches.
Three minutes in, Alvarez had Kawajiri rocked and was teeing off. But somehow Kawajiri was able to recover and got back up and continued to press on.
Then the bout was quickly stopped for a tiny cut under the eye of Alvarez and then quickly started again.
Then after they began the fight again, Kawajiri knocked down Alvarez and began to turn the tables. Kawajiri then controlled Alvarez for a long amount of time on the ground and began to wear down Alvarez.
Alvarez then got up and both fighters began teeing off. Ironically, commentator Bas Rutten said “It’s like a Rocky movie!” Alvarez is from Philadelphia and is a great boxer. Then again, both fighters started trading blows and got up against the ropes. With both fighters getting hurt over and over, it was Alvarez who began to go off on Kawajiri, knocks him down, thinks the bout is over, and then goes on to to beat him senseless on the ground.
Alvarez was unable to compete in the finals of this tournament due to that cut under his eye, and was replaced by Joachim Hansen, who would go on and beat Shinya Aoki in the finals.
Since this card, Alvarez has gone 7-1 with his only loss coming against Aoki in his next fight at Dynamite!! 2008. Alvarez is currently the Bellator lightweight champion and is set to face Michael Chandler sometime soon.
Kawajiri is 5-2 since this fight with losses to both Aoki and Gilbert Melendez. His most recent bout was against Melendez where he was dominated in the first round and lost by TKO. Kawajiri is set to face Willamy Freire at Dream 17.
You can follow Sal on Twitter: @SalDeRoseMMA
Win, lose or draw, following Joachim Hansen’s bout against Mitsuhiro Ishida at Dream 17 in Saitama, Japan, fans of the sport shouldn’t count on seeing the man they call “Hellboy” in the UFC’s Octagon any time soon.
Hansen, whose interest was sparked in martial arts after seeing Jackie Chan films in his youth, has long dreamt of being “the best.”
Despite the fact that the UFC is undoubtedly the world’s biggest organization and Hansen has proven time and time again that he belongs in the Octagon, the popular Norwegian fighter has thus far successfully evaded competing in the UFC—much to the chagrin of many of the sport’s most passionate fans.
Hansen, who had his first professional mixed martial arts bout over a decade ago, has competed in some of the world’s biggest organizations—with bouts in Shooto, Pride FC and Dream FC—and holds notable victories over Taknori Gomi, Gesias Cavalcante, Caol Uno, Yves Edwards and Shinya Aoki.
As decorated a veteran as almost anyone in the sport, Hansen has competed in six different nations and has held championship belts in Shooto and Dream FC.
Although the UFC has reportedly tried to court “Hellboy” a number of times, after getting what many believed to be a “low-ball” offer by the UFC following the organization’s acquisition of Pride FC, Hansen decided to take his talent elsewhere—and is yet to look back.
“Yes, I do get a little tired of being asked about the UFC,” Hansen laughed after being asked a number of Octagon-related questions during our interview.
Although Hansen may never appear in the Octagon—thus depriving many mainstream fans of the sport the opportunity to see him compete—he is nevertheless appreciative of mixed martial arts supporters.
Moreover, for the record; Hansen doesn’t appear to be too upset by the notion of being overlooked by mainstream fans of the sport.
“True supporters of MMA—alongside the competitors—are the core of the sport...I don’t care if I’ve been overlooked by mainstream fans of the sport—only dead things go mainstream.”
