Sengoku all but dead. DREAM close behind

MrStuffins

World Victory Road loses primary sponsor, Japan's Sengoku event series on deathbed



On the same day a massive earthquake rocked Japan, one of the country's largest mixed-martial-arts promotions announced some troubling news of its own.

World Victory Road, home to the Sengoku Raiden Championship event series that airs on HDNet in the U.S., has lost its biggest sponsor, Don Quijote.

Officials today announced the news and hinted that – with the organization's dependence on sponsors – Sengoku's promotional days may be over.

"The only hope is the emergence of a sponsor to replace Don Quijote," today's announcement stated. "If there is no company that can help us, we have to think about the worst-case scenario: the end of SRC."

The announcement isn't entirely surprising, though. Company officials had announced no events for the 2011 season, and some of its notable fighters – including middleweight champion Jorge Santiago and ex-featherweight champ Marlon Sandro, among others – recently have signed with U.S.-based promotions such as the UFC and Bellator Fighting Championships.

The troubles aren't limited to WVR, though. DREAM hasn't announced a single show for 2011, and a planned January press conference never materialized. Additionally, Japanese mainstays Shooto and Pancrase reportedly are dealing with troubles, including financial concerns, of their own.

Additionally, as MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has reported in recent months, a handful of fighters, including veteran Gary Goodridge and Bob Sapp, publicly have complained about slow or no pay for their services. Sapp, in fact, said he was paid a mere $11,000 of a promised $20,000 DREAM purse. And at a DREAM "Dynamite!! 2010" event, he said officials wanted to cut a promised $30,000 payday in half, which prompted him to walk.

"[Officials] were apologizing for the horrible state that K-1 (the DREAM parent company) is in," he said. "The No. 1 problem is that K-1 is extremely broke. So is DREAM. They're paying some fighters as early as in six months, and the other fighters, they're just stiffing."

Both DREAM and WVR were launched following the UFC's purchase and eventual disbanding of PRIDE Fighting Championships, which promoted the most successful events in Japanese MMA history.

If this is the end for WVR, it'll close its event series with a total of 20 shows over a three-year period. Its events have hosted notables such as Hatsu Hioki, Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, Antonio Silva, Mamed Khalidov, Satoshi Ishii, Dave "Pee Wee" Herman and others.

Looks like Japanese MMA is on the way out!

Professey Chin

Been on the cards a good while now.
Pity.I always loved the Japanese events
Ill always have my Pride collection at least *hugs hard drive*

calex71

Been on the cards as said for a few years now. I have to say I'll miss it, Dream events had been some of the best in recent years for me.

I also liked it as an alternative to the US / UK stuff , what with it being ring based and a slightly different rule set.

A few of the fighters are already booked to fight in the US on upcoming strikeforce cards Kawajiri is matched with Gilbert Melendez in April if I recall.
Strikeforce seems to be a logical home for many of them as a fair few fighters would opt to fight in japan/elsewhere if possible on other promotions or single discipline tournaments etc something the UFC doesn't allow iirc?

riffmongous

Such a pity, it was a great alternative to the American product. MMA will be the real loser if the UFC becomes the global face of mma.

Time to get interested in DEEP I guess, that Kikuno guy is something different, and hopefully Chonan will go there.

rivalius13

Now they can all go over and get screwed over by US judges!

MrStuffins

calex71 wrote: »

Been on the cards as said for a few years now. I have to say I'll miss it, Dream events had been some of the best in recent years for me.

I also liked it as an alternative to the US / UK stuff , what with it being ring based and a slightly different rule set.

A few of the fighters are already booked to fight in the US on upcoming strikeforce cards Kawajiri is matched with Gilbert Melendez in April if I recall.
Strikeforce seems to be a logical home for many of them as a fair few fighters would opt to fight in japan/elsewhere if possible on other promotions or single discipline tournaments etc something the UFC doesn't allow iirc?

correct, however, AFAIK this fight is all part of the DREAM/SF cross promotion. if DREAM don't have a promotion anymore........ will this fight take place?

I think that a potential DREAM collapse might actually help SF. They can put together a LW tournie like their HW tournie perhaps? After all, the likes of Kawajiri, Aoki etc will be available to them!

JohnMc1

Its weird that this Sponsor is pulling out of Sengoku but will remain with Shooto and Pancrase.

jayteecork

Ah poor auld Bob Sapp.

calex71

Looks like Dream may have some fight in it yet

Next event is May 28

Card confirmed so far

Dream 2011 Bantamweight Grand Prix Quarterfinals
Masakazu Imanari vs. Keisuke Fujiwara
Hideo Tokoro vs. Yoshiro Maeda
Kenji Osawa vs. Takafumi Otsuka
Darren Uyenoyama vs. Atsushi Yamamoto

Shinya Aoki vs. Rich Clementi
Joachim Hansen vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida
Takeshi Inoue vs. Koichiro Matsumoto
Caol Uno vs. Akiyo Nishiura
Katsunori Kikuno vs. Daisuke Nakamura

Rich Clementi was a surprise.

riffmongous

Its good to see this thread getting revived, and with a few entertaining fights lined up too.

Clementi is disappointing I guess.

unknown13

Its sad because Japan has a such a good range of talent. I would prefer now to see a TUF: Japan before any countries get a series of TUF or even Japan -V- USA

Richy06

Clementi is 3rd in line after two other guys dropped out. Antonio McKee was one.

calex71

Richy06 wrote: »

Clementi is 3rd in line after two other guys dropped out. Antonio McKee was one.

Shane Nelson was the other, I say shame on Aoki for taking the fight, I know the Japanese purses are heavy but this just reeks of a show up for a pay day for both of them. Only way I would have any respect for him (Aoki) these days would be for him to get in there with BJ Penn etc

Rich has a punchers chance though. Fight has to start standing,

This is the single most Japanese Dream card I've seen too, I know it's for disaster relief / and is promoting the lower weights etc but still recent cards have shown where all of Dreams fighters are.

riffmongous

The card can't be complete yet though? I'd expect at least one 'freak' fight, where is 'The Colossus' these days?

stevemc01

I wouldnt be discarding Clementi so quickly. Hes not top 10 but he has over 50 fights and has some good wins on his record. He is on a bad run but at his best is well capable of giving Aoki a good fight.