[miscmisc]

http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/...avi-fight.html

They founded "Nihon Sougou Kakutougi Kyoukai" (Japanese MMA Association, or something like that), and World Victory Road (what a shitty name) as managing company to deal with the financial side. The head of the Assoc is Tomiaki Fukuda, a vice-president of FILA. The vice presidents are Hiroshi Hase, a former-pro-wrestler congress man, and Takao Yasuda, the president of Don Quijote. Their goal is to make MMA completely legitimate as a sport and eventually join the other martial arts to be an Olympic sport.

At the top of World Victory Road is Naoya Kinoshita, who is the president of Kinoshita Komuten, a mega construction company/group. He says he started thinking of this idea some months ago when PRIDE was clearly going to be no more, and he feared that all the young people who were training in MMA would lose their future.

They are setting up a commission as well, which consists of Yukihiko Inoue, a former Tokyo Metropolitan Police commissioner, as the head, a bunch of other ex-civil-service employees, and a few big shot lawyers and ex-lawyers.

This looks like a fairly serious attempt, because people like Kinoshita wouldn't just f**k around. And if this was a kiddy attempt, you would expect someone like a former editor-in-chief of Kakutougi Tsushin or some jerk like that to lead the commission. Not a former-head of the police department, although you could say those big shots' names are just there to impress us. Someone like FEG wouldn't be able to even dream of pulling such a thing anyway. This is clearly not just someone starting a business because they smelled money, but a collective effort by various individuals. You can say that much at least, whether or not this attempt has any bright future.

They will establish all the weight classes (which will be probably different from PRIDE's or Shooto's), and they say that soccer kicks will be gone.

They haven't decided what they will call the new event, and are asking YOU to come up with something. You can either mail them, or go to this page:

http://www.kakutougi-kyoukai.com/new...orm/index.html

From top to bottom: NAME (kanji), NAME (kana), POSTAL CODE, ADDRESS, AGE, MALE or FEMALE, PHONE NUMBER, EMAIL, EMAIL (retype), and NAME OF THE EVENT

The page will be up until the end of this month.

[Desdichado]

Thank you. Very interesting.

They didn't say whether they would use a ring or a cage, did they? Or mentioned a date for the first event? Saitama on New Years Eve, maybe?

[miscmisc]

Originally Posted by Desdichado

Thank you. Very interesting.

They didn't say whether they would use a ring or a cage, did they? Or mentioned a date for the first event? Saitama on New Years Eve, maybe?

I don't think they talked about whether it will be the ring or cage. But I'll be very surprised if it turns out to be the cage. The cage just doesn't make sense considering how the general public would see it in Japan.

And, no date yet. They only said, "as soon as possible." Judging from what they said, NYE is probably too soon, I think, but who knows. It might happen. All kinds of people have been saying that there will be something on NYE after all.

As for the fighters, they are still "in negotiations with various fighters" and not yet at a stage to announce any officially.

[Herbo]

Whats wrong with World Victory Road? Its got that nice nonsensical quality about it.

[miscmisc]

Originally Posted by Herbo

Whats wrong with World Victory Road? Its got that nice nonsensical quality about it.

I don't know, I'm not even a bloody native speaker anyway.

But simple Victory Road would've been OK, I think...

But then, they had to show that they do have some global picture in their head, perhaps.

[miscmisc]

Also, what is painfully clear is that the commission is their way to say, "We will have nothing to do with xxxxxx, so this won't be another PRIDE." That's the reason why the former police head and tax collector are in the commission, the two biggest enemies of xxxxxx.

I can confidently say that a few of the commission members are absolute idiots despite their high status. But hey, most "commission"s in the world are there for the sake of being there only.

Anyway, J-Rock did a good job, hooked up with companies like Kinoshita Komuten. Fukuda is taking some risk here, because if he screws this up, his career over at FILA will be shot.

You wonder what kind of power this "commission" will have over the other orgs like Pancrase, Shooto, HERO'S and so on, though. I can only think of DEEP at this point.

Hiroshi Hase, the vice president of the Association, knows Ishii Kancho very well, BTW.

[( o Y o )]

Originally Posted by miscmisc

Hiroshi Hase, the vice president of the Association, knows Ishii Kancho very well, BTW.

In a good or bad way?

[Desdichado]

Originally Posted by miscmisc

I don't think they talked about whether it will be the ring or cage. But I'll be very surprised if it turns out to be the cage. The cage just doesn't make sense considering how the general public would see it in Japan.

And, no date yet. They only said, "as soon as possible." Judging from what they said, NYE is probably too soon, I think, but who knows. It might happen. All kinds of people have been saying that there will be something on NYE after all.

As for the fighters, they are still "in negotiations with various fighters" and not yet at a stage to announce any officially.

Well, I prefer the ring so I'm hoping they use it.

I'm somewhat surprised that no fighter was present. I'm sorta assuming that Yoshida will be involved in this?

Also, Shigeru Saeki wasn't there, was he?

[miscmisc]

Originally Posted by Desdichado

Well, I prefer the ring so I'm hoping they use it.

I'm somewhat surprised that no fighter was present. I'm sorta assuming that Yoshida will be involved in this?

Also, Shigeru Saeki wasn't there, was he?

I don't think he was.

I mentioned DEEP in the previous post, but actually, I'm not so sure. I have absolutely no idea where Saeki stands now. This doesn't quite sound like something in which the likes of Kato, Saeki and Sato are deeply involved, especially since they have absolutely nothing to do with FILA. This new event relies too much on the authority of FILA and financial power of Kinoshita Koumuten. There is too much emphasis on legitimacy and the "sports" aspect, to the point where you might almost think this is only for amateurs. You could argue that they had to do it this way due to the dirty image that PRIDE left (not to give us the impression that DSE is behind it, at least no initially), but still, this just doesn't smack of DSE at all. The whole thing looks so confusing to me. WVR did mention PRIDE, but there is no evidence that this will be the "next PRIDE," so to speak. Heck, the image that this announcement gave us is the polar opposite to PRIDE's, if anything. We know that J-Rock is involved, but J-Rock != DSE. Don Quijote was close to PRIDE, but they were just a sponsor anyway.

We might see another org/semi-org/event popping up, led by the genuine DSE guys. There is a rumor that Kato booked SSA on NYE, as you probably know. Since the Zuffa guys pulled a spectacular cop out with the lamest excuse ever as was expected, anything goes now. That other new event (assuming there will be one) and this one might shake hands and produce events together, under the banner of "legitimacy". Or not.

Well, I don't know much about the whole thing, in a nutshell.

Stay tuned, like I will.

As for Hase, I believe he has personally known Ishii Kancho for a long time. I don't know how close they are now, though.

[Shiruba]

Seems that a lot of activities are going on now. We have this, the DSE members plan (maybe), there was some talk about the return of RINGS and Saeki from DEEP said that he will book Saitama SA on NYE.

[Shiruba]

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...=4884&zoneid=2

Mr. Fukuda answered a number of questions regarding the rules, saying that the federation would like to have few limitations, but at the same time would get rid of dangerous moves such as soccer kicks, knee bars and attacking the spine.

What? No knee bars? Aren't heel hooks more dangerous than knee bars? Not with the damage but that you might not feel that much pain until it is to late.

[Matko]

Is it just me or do all these new names sound so...ridiculous. Elite Extreme Combat, World Victory Road...what's next?

Shooto is by far the best name in combat sports ever in my opinion. I even think that the sport itself should be referred to as Shooto instead of Mixed Martial Arts which is to long and doesn't have the same appeal, especially worldwide.

All this aside, it's great to see something is happening. The sport needs more competitors at a high level and different options for the fighters and for the fans. It's such a sad thing that PRIDE is gone. Whether they were corrupt or not, their product all around (the show, the fights, drama, etc...) was excellent. Nothing came even close. Don't get me wrong they were not perfect...but who is?

[ilostmydog]

Originally Posted by Shiruba

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...=4884&zoneid=2


What? No knee bars? Aren't heel hooks more dangerous than knee bars? Not with the damage but that you might not feel that much pain until it is to late.

*insert video of grappling tournament guy yelling "What do ya mean no kneebars! This is bullshit!"*

[Shiruba]

I like the name Shooto but I also like long names such as Demolition Of Octagon Gear. UFC, EliteXC, Cage Force, Cage Rage and names like that are all bad. Pride and Hero's are decent. So they should either be short or long but with a little strange name.

*insert video of grappling tournament guy yelling "What do ya mean no kneebars! This is bullshit!"*

There is always something in these new things that pisses one off. What MMA organization doesn't allow knee bars besides maybe amateur MMA. I don't like this commission talk either, that probably means that rounds are going to be the same length and I don't think they will be 10 minutes.

[AKA]

I think that UFC and K1 are ecellent names!

[tinobar]

regulation in japan yes plz i like world victory road too gots a puro vibe

i wish they would name an org king of fighters

fav org name is zst it rolls of the tongue i like saying "zest"

[Matko]

Originally Posted by AKA

I think that UFC and K1 are ecellent names!

While i don't dislike the abbreviation "UFC", i don't particulary like to pronunce the whole thing. As for K-1 i completely agree. It's very short, simple and original.

[Shiruba]

I also thought of King Of Fighters or The King Of Iron Fist Championships.

How about: The Official War Of The Combat Sports

ZST is also very good.

[xavion]

Originally Posted by Shiruba

I also thought of King Of Fighters or The King Of Iron Fist Championships.

How about: The Official War Of The Combat Sports

ZST is also very good.

King of Fighters is a long running video game series... the name is likely copyrighted/trademarked/whatever...

[ilostmydog]

King of the Monsters.