Roger Gracie Off Sengoku 5 Card...

World Victory Road posted a press release on their website today, explaining why Roger Gracie will not be participating on the Sengoku 5 card. According to WVR officials, Roger Gracie relayed messages to them about not being able to participate due to injury. WVR subsequently wanted medical reports to back up the claim and supposedly haven't been given such reports and plans to issue a punishment for the 26 year old, Gracie Barra UK fighter, who is undefeated at 2-0.

Here is the press release from WVR, translated by Suki (Suki MMA)...

We regret to announce that Roger Gracie, who was supposed to fight Travis Wiuff on Sep. 28, will not be a participant at Sengoku 5. Here are the details of how this came about.

On Sep. 17, Kevin Liddle, who is Roger Gracie's doctor, emailed us and presented Roger's condition. In the email, he described that he ordered Roger complete bed rest for 4 weeks, because of damage to the intercostal muscles. Roger's manager actually contacted us a week ago and mentioned the possibility of Roger having an injury. We ordered him to submit a formal medical report of his injury from his doctor.

A WVR official doctor read the email and considered Roger's condition wasn't serious enough to cancel his fight. WVR asked Roger to submit additional information, such as an official medical report by his doctor, the result of CT scan and other related examinations he took. However, we didn't hear from Roger.

On Sep. 19, Roger contacted us and requested to have a phone meeting between Dr. Liddle and our doctor. Our doctor, translators and WVR staff were ready for the meeting, however, we couldn't reach Dr. Liddle. When Roger asked for a meeting, he agreed to let Dr. Liddle respond to our questions within 3 hours, but we didn't hear back from Dr. Liddle.

On Sep. 20, Dr. Liddle emailed us and reported that Roger didn't break nor fracture any bones and that he hasn't even taken any examinations.

WVR ordered Roger several times to arrive in Japan by Sep 22 and take an examination. He refused to come to Japan, stating he expected to have difficulty in breathing during the long flight. We haven't seen him in Japan yet and haven't heard anything from him. So, WVR decided to make this announcement today.

We apologize to Travis [Wiuff] and our fans for delivering this news at the last minute. As for Roger Gracie, we are considering issuing a severe punishment for the incident. We will find an opponent for Travis [Wiuff] as soon as we can.

No word on what the punishment will entail, but it'll be interesting to see how WVR deals with one of their up and coming and potentially very marketable, young fighter. On one hand, you would expect them not to burn any bridges with the youngster, but you would also expect them take effective action, so such incidents do not become common place within the organization. Roger Gracie and his management haven't made any replies to today's press release by WVR.

We would like to thank Suki (Suki MMA) for the initial translation of the WVR press release. For more coverage of Japanese mma, please visit http://sukimma.blogspot.com

Sengoku Signing Spree Continues

World Victory Road's Sengoku continue to sign new talent. Having recently signed 2008 Mundials champion Alexandre "Xande" Ribeiro, Pawel Nastula and Americans Frank Trigg and Ryan Schultz, Sengoku have gone on to pick up Kazuhiro Nakamura and Valentijn Overeem. Overeem is slotted to appear on Sengoku 4 (August 24th), while Nakamura will make his debut for Sengoku on September 28th, in Sengoku's Middleweight Grand Prix tournament.

Kazuhiro Nakamura, the 29 year old Judo star is coming along after two disappointing spells in the UFC. Albeit against tough competition, he went 0-2 against Lyoto Machida and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou. Prior to his UFC fights, his entire career was with, now defunct, Japanese promotion Pride FC. He held an 11-6 record within Pride, which includes battles with the biggest names of the sport like Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Murilo Bustamante, Yuki Kondo, Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Igor Vovchanchyn, Josh Barnett and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua. He holds notable victories over Bustamante, Kevin Randleman, Evangelista Santos, Kondo, Nakao and Vovchanchyn. As you can tell from the whose who of fighters he has been in battle with, Nakamura is definitely up to the challenge to take on any and all competitors. He fits the bill of the true warrior spirit having fought bigger and stronger opponents. He'll also have a big opportunity to get his career back on track with a solid showing in Sengoku's inaugural Middleweight Grand Prix. He shall be a fan favorite being back in Japan and fighting alongside his training partner, Yoshida.

Valentijn Overeem, the 31 year old kickboxing and submissions fighter is looking to get active in mma again, having fought twice in the past 3 years. The Golden Glory fighter has an overall 25-22 record in mma and is a 12 year veteran of the sport, but hasn't fought in a major promotion since March of 2005, when he fought for K1's HERO'S promotion against Shungo Oyama. He's trying to turn his fate around, having lost 4 out of his last 5 bouts. He's fought for many promotions over his long career, including HERO's, Pride FC and Rings. He holds notable victories of Renato "Babalu" Sobral and Randy "The Natural" Couture. He'll look for a good showing in his Sengoku debut, when he meets up with relative unknown, Kazuo Takahashi.

Sengoku may not have started their promotion on full blast, but they are surely proving they are a viable contender to DREAM in the Japanese market with the recent signings (Trigg, Schults, Ribeiro, Nakamura, Nastula, etc.) and the announcements of the LW and MW Grand Prix tournaments. Here are the schedules, fight cards and participants for Sengoku 4 and 5...

Sengoku 4

Date:

August 24th, 2008

Place:

Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Fight:

Takanori Gomi vs Bang Seung Hwan

Makoto Takimoto vs Frank Trigg

Peter Graham vs Moise Rimbon
Pawel Nastula vs Yang Dong Yi

Kazuo Takahashi vs Valentijn Overeem

Lightweight Grand Prix 2008 1st Round match ups:

Satoru Kitaoka vs. Clay French

Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Rodrigo Damm

Kazunori Yokota vs. Bojan Kosednar

Mizuto Hirota vs. Ryan Schultz

Sengoku 5

Date:

September 28th, 2008

Place:

Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan

Middleweight Grand Prix 2008 1st Round participants:

Kazuhiro Nakamura

Evangelista Cyborg

Siyar Bahadurzada

Jorge Santiago

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Sengoku Sign BJJ Champion Xande Ribeiro

Fresh off his World Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Championships (also referred to as the Mundials) victory, Alexandre "Xande" Ribeiro has signed with World Victory Road's Sengoku mma promotion. Having been a dominant force in the world of BJJ over the years (especially in 2006/2008), he'll make the crossover to mixed martial arts come September 28th in Japan. An opponent hasn't been announced yet, but his debut into mma will be cause for many to tune into Sengoku no matter who his opponent is. He'll most likely be fighting at the 185 lbs weight limit, which is a drop in weight from what he competes in BJJ tournaments, which is at 205 lbs. The cut in weight might be an indicator that Sengoku may slot Xande into the Middleweight Grand Prix, which WVR has planned for Sengoku 5.

The 27 year old from Maunus, Amazonas, Brazil trains with Gracie Humaita Academy in Brazil and along side his brother Saulo at their gym (University of Jiu-Jitsu) in San Diego, California. Xande has trained under Royler Gracie and his brother Saulo. His accomplishments in BJJ include earning 8 gold medals at the Mundials (two this year), 6 gold medals at the Pan-American BJJ Championships and numerous world championships at other BJJ/Grappling tournaments. He holds notable victories over Roger Gracie and Gabriel Gonzaga.

Sengoku continue to sign elite BJJ and Judo stars to their roster. BJJ notables include Antonio Braga Neto, Roger Gracie, Jorge Santiago, Rodrigo Damm and Marcio Cruz. Judo notables include Makoto Takimoto, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Pawel Nastula and Hidehiko Yoshida. They also have a few Judo and Wrestling signees currently competing at the Olympics in Beijing. Having established a nice mixture of World Champions and Olympians in various martial arts styles, Sengoku is preparing itself for quality tournaments, which are planned for Sengoku 4 (August 24th) and Sengoku 5 (September 28th).

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