(Taisuke Okuno vs. Ryo Chonan. Fight starts at the 1:30 mark. Props: DJSexStyle via MiddleEasy)

Some highlights from today’s stoppage-heavy Sengoku show. Above, Ryo Chonan gets put to bed in just 19 seconds. After the jump: The brief but ferocious slugfest between Yoshiro Maeda and Masanori Kanehara, which ended in an unfortunate early stoppage, and the welterweight GP final match between Keita Nakamura and Yasubey Enomoto.

("A bunch of dudes got knocked dead this morning! Yaaaaaaaay!" / Photo courtesy of src-official.com)

Spoilers after the jump to protect your delicate feelings. Click through for full fight results and a rundown of some notable moments from today’s World Victory Road: Soul of Fight event at the Ariake Colosseum in Tokyo. Videos to come.

(Marlon Sandro shows off a kick he’s been working on called the ‘Flying Photoshop Material.’ Props: Sherdog)

Tomorrow’s year-ending Sengoku event in Tokyo may be short on gross mismatches, public executions, gender/rule-bending stunt fights, and Bob Sapp, but the card makes up for it in matches that are actually competitive and relevant. "Soul of Fight" will present a staggering 28 bouts of MMA and kickboxing; you can check out the full lineup at the end of this post. HDNet will be airing the bouts in a two-part series on January 14th and 21st, but we’ll try to post videos of the best fights as soon as we can. Here’s a few you might be seeing…  

Marlon Sandro vs. Hatsu Hioki (for Sengoku Featherweight Championship)
Soul of Fight’s main event is easily the most important featherweight bout possible outside of the WEC. Since debuting in Sengoku last March, reigning champion Marlon Sandro has become one of the most vicious knockout artists in all of MMA, dispatching his last three opponents in a combined fight time of 3:20. In his last fight, the Nova Uniao standout starched Masanori Kanehara in 38 seconds to win World Victory Road’s featherweight strap. Hioki, who is the reigning 143-pound champ of Shooto, might be the last elite-level challenge that Sandro will find in Japan, and brings an Aoki-esque grappling style that’s as creative as it is aggressive.

(Fight!‘s June 2010 issue, on newsstands now.)

Okay, we gotta tell you a couple-three things:

– Come back to CagePotato.com tomorrow night beginning at 10 p.m. ET for our liveblog of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Werdum.

– Hurry up and enter some pools on MMA FightPicker. There will be no prizes for the winners, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.

– How ’bout a round of e-appaluse for the Potato Nation members who made their presence known in the comments section this week, and will be receiving one-year subscriptions to Fight! Magazine…

Disco-Platypus on "Knockout of the Week: Marlon Sandro Flattens Masanori Kanehara in 38 Seconds, Wins Sengoku Featherweight Title": The Sengoku championship may as well be labeled, "The Champion Who Would Crumble Most Quickly When Faced With American-style Wrestling."

DangadaDang on "Report: Batista Signs With Strikeforce; Opponent and Date of Debut Set to Be Announced": He is aware that no one in MMA can be brought out of a sleeper hold on the pure energy of a chanting crowd, correct?

And finally — uh-oh, get comfortable…

(Props: neerbnadroj)

While American MMA fans were focused on the TUF 11 Finale and WEC 49 last weekend, Sengoku Raiden Championships 13 went down Sunday in Tokyo, featuring Masanori Kanehara‘s first featherweight title defense against Marlon Sandro. Or should we say attempted title defense — Sandro needed just 38 seconds to blast Kanehara with a right uppercut and send him down to the canvas face-first, stiff as a board. Already the reigning featherweight King of Pancrase, Sandro now adds the Sengoku featherweight belt to his trophy case.

After an early career that was marked by more decisions than stoppages, Sandro (17-1) has scored three straight first-round knockouts since his controversial split-decision loss to Michihiro Omigawa last August; Sandro’s win over Kanehara follows his nine-second KO of Tomonari Kanomata at Sengoku 12. Sengoku 13 will be broadcast on HDNet this Friday at 10 p.m. ET. Full results from the event are after the jump…

(Maximo Blanco vs. Chang Hyun Kim; brutal finish @ 1:33. Props to WatchKalibRun)

From yesterday’s Sengoku Raiden Championships show in Tokyo…

– Jorge Santiago def. Mamed Khalidov via unanimous decision
– Akihiro Gono def. Diego Gonzalez via unanimous decision
– Maximo Blanco def. Chang Hyun Kim via KO, 1:10 of round 1
– Marlon Sandro def. Tomonari Kanomata via KO, 0:09 of round 1
– Yoshihiro "Kiss" Nakao def. Henry "Sentoryu" Miller via TKO, 3:27 of round 2
– Yuji Hoshino def. Nick Denis via submission (guillotine choke), 0:47 of round 2
– Leonardo Santos def. Kiuma Kunioku via submission (rear-naked choke), 3:06 of round 1
– Shigeki Osawa def. Kyung Ho Kang via unanimous decision

Two more fight videos after the jump…

(Yoshihiro "Kiss" Nakao — still pretty creepy. Photos courtesy of src-official.com.)

A day after WEC 47 pops off in Columbus, Sengoku will be holding their latest event at the Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Unfortunately the card won’t be broadcast live on HDNet — they’ll be airing it next Friday at 8 p.m. — but we’ll be sure to put up videos of the best fights by Monday. Check out the complete eight-match lineup, via japan-mma.com:

8. Jorge Santiago (21-8-0, champion) vs. Mamed Khalidov (20-3-1, challenger), for SRC Middleweight Title
7. Akihiro Gono (31-15-7) vs. Diego Gonzalez (13-3-0), welterweight
6. Maximo Blanco (4-2-1) vs. Chang Hyun Kim (15-5-0), lightweight
5. Marlon Sandro (15-1-0) vs. Tomonari Kanomata (15-4-5), featherweight
4. Yoshihiro “Kiss” Nakao (8-2-0) vs. Henry "Sentoryu" Miller (6-9-0), heavyweight
3. Yuji Hoshino (16-7-7) vs. Nick Denis (9-1-0), featherweight
2. Kiuma Kunioku (34-22-9) vs. Leonardo Santos (6-3-0), lightweight
1. Shigeki Osawa (4-1-0) vs. Kyung Ho Kang (4-2-0), featherweight

Some important points…

(And he was such a nice guy before he started hanging out with those Diaz boys. Photo courtesy of Fight Magazine.)

When Shinya Aoki broke Mizuto Hirota‘s arm at the New Year’s Eve Dynamite!! show and followed it up with the old ‘Tokyo Heybuddy,’ that didn’t sit too well with the people from Sengoku.  Not that they had any real reason to think that their lightweight champ would beat the Dream beltholder, but having him utterly destroyed and then publicly humiliated probably wasn’t what they had in mind when they agreed to that portion of the cross-promotional battle.  Now, says MMA Mania, Sengoku officials are asking for Aoki to be punished for his post-fight behavior, which they referred to as "erratic, unforgivable conduct," followed by what they believe to be a mostly insincere apology.

They’re right about one thing — Aoki probably isn’t all that sorry.  The move wasn’t exactly gentlemanly, but it was perfectly in line with the persona he had been cultivating in the lead-up to this fight.  This is the same guy who pretended not to know who the Sengoku champion was, who called the fight a "disgrace" to himself and his family, and who entertained himself at pre-fight press conferences by telling other fighters to shut up when their comments ran a little long for his liking.  If you were paying attention, you could have seen this coming.

(The appropriately epic poster for Dynamite!! 2009.)

Members of FEG and World Victory Road held a press conference earlier today in Japan to discuss their collaborative effort for New Year’s Eve, Dynamite!! 2009: The Power of Courage. A batch of fights were announced, and the lineup (via Nightmare of Battle) is looking like this so far…

MMA Heavyweight Feature:
Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida

Super Hulk Tournament Final:
Ikuhisa "Minowaman" Minowa vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

DREAM vs. Sengoku Raiden Championship:
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto vs. Masanori Kanehara
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Michihiro Omigawa
Hideo Tokoro vs. Marlon Sandro
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Akihiro Gono
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hiroshi Izumi
Alistair Overeem vs. Kazuyuki Fujita

(Aoki has been on the internet all day trying to figure out who these Sengoku jokers are. It would probably help if he didn’t keep pausing every five minutes to shop for new tights on Amazon.)

Instead of splitting the Japanese MMA vote with two separate New Year’s Eve events, Sengoku and Dream have decided to not only combine their efforts, but to pit several of their fighters against one another in a Sengoku vs. Dream battle royal.  Of course, because they’re still a little over a month away from the event, the organizers haven’t seen fit to nail down the complete fight card yet.  That’s just not how they do, but chances are that the final lineup will be co-headlined by the K-1 bout between Masato Kobayashi and Andy Souwer, along with Hidehiko Yoshida taking on MMA newcomer Satoshi Ishii in the battle of the gold medalist judokas.

Aside from that, it’s a toss up.  Several cross-promotional fights are expected, but far from finalized.  If you were hoping to see Dream lightweight champ Shinya Aoki take on Sengoku lightweight champ Mizuto Hirota, well, first you’ll need to explain to Aoki exactly who Hirota is:

"Who’s the champion now? Because I don’t know,” [Aoki] said. “Right now, I’m number one. I feel that I’m [at the] top now, and if I fight him, I fight him. I didn’t say I wanted to fight him, and no one knows who he is, so if we fight … well, I’ll have to think about it.”
 

Oh, Shinya.  You crazy guy.  Allow us to provide a little primer for you after the jump. 

(Bibiano Fernandes reacts after submitting Joe Warren at DREAM.11. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Following recent events in the UFC, WEC, DREAM, and Sengoku, we’ve updated the featherweight and lightweight pages in our Power Rankings section. To summarize…

FW: Bibiano Fernandes enters for the first time. Hatsu Hioki and Raphael Assuncao rise slightly, while Wagnney Fabiano plummets. WEC 44‘s scrap between Mike Brown and Jose Aldo could alter the top 5. Josh Grispi and L.C. Davis lie just outside the top 10.

LW: Gray Maynard enters for the first time. Shinya Aoki solidifies his place at #2, while Joachim Hansen and Gesias Cavalcante fall. Josh Thomson officially drops off the list due to inactivity, but if he can make it through a training camp without injuring himself, the winner of the rematch between him and Gilbert Melendez could potentially re-enter. Mizuto Hirota and Tyson Griffin are also close. UFC 107‘s match between BJ Penn and Diego Sanchez could alter the top 5.

Give ‘em a look and let us know how you feel…

(‘This guy’s totally rich or something, right? Right?’)

Wouldn’t you know it, the same day we dance on Tim Sylvia’s MMA grave, his name pops up in the news again, this time to say he may have either a very legitimate or very ridiculous fight in the works.  According to Sylvia’s manager, Monte Cox, Big Tim is in talks to head to Japan for a New Year’s Eve fight and Cox says he’s “pretty confident that he is going to fight there.”

What they don’t know is whether he’ll fight for Dream or Sengoku, but apparently Dream contractees Alistair Overeem and Hong Man Choi have both been discussed as possible opponents.  That means that he might get a real fight against the Strikeforce heavyweight champion (who, again, is avoiding fighting in the U.S. like he’s got some kind of Roman Polanski-esque legal troubles over here), or he’ll do the typical NYE freak show fight against Choi.  Those are two very different potential futures for Sylvia.  You’d hope that he would rather go the serious route if given the choice, but as we’ve seen in the past, Sylvia is not above taking a bout that makes no sense at all.

What do you say, would you rather see Sylvia in an absurd fight against Hong Man Choi, just to keep the New Year’s Eve tradition intact, or does Sylvia-Overeem really get your heart pumping?  Side question: if he does fight HMC, what are the odds that he joins Jose Canseco and Bobby Ologun on the “Techno Goliath’s” list of MMA victims?  Just saying, this is the guy who couldn’t close the deal with a hard-drinking strip club bartender on Blind Date,  so you better believe he knows how to screw up a sure thing.

(Props: CagePotato reader "Numa." Fight starts at the 6:00 mark.)

It’s official: Dan Hornbuckle is the Real Deal. The Hammond, Indiana-based fighter improved his record to 19-2 (17 wins by stoppage) with his TKO victory over Nick Thompson earlier today at Sengoku 10th Battle. As you’ll see in the video above, Thompson was able to hang with Hornbuckle for most of the first round, but "the Handler" started to find his range by the end, and he went in for the kill in round two. Skip to the 14:55 mark to see Hornbuckle end the fight by landing about a dozen unanswered blows on Thompson. Directly afterwards, he demanded a Sengoku belt to go along with his pile of small-show titles. Sengoku doesn’t currently have a welterweight champion; expect to see Hornbuckle in a title fight in the near future.

After the jump: Hornbuckle’s one-round rager against Courtney Ray in the finals of an eight-man HOOKnSHOOT tournament in March 2007.

(Silva vs. York. Props to MMA Share)

Sengoku 10 went down earlier today in Saitama, Japan, and what it lacked in big names, it more than made up for in thrilling finishes. In the headlining bout, Olympic judo silver medalist Hiroshi Izumi made the brilliant decision to stand and bang with Kiwi kickboxing champ Antz Nansen, and got worked; the ref eventually stopped the fight after Izumi was punched to the mat three times in a single 35-second stretch. Meanwhile, in the fights that you might actually care about, Antonio Silva ended "Big" Jim York‘s night in the first round with an arm-triangle choke, following a methodical performance that saw Bigfoot control the standup and take York down with ease.

Dan Hornbuckle followed up his knockout of the year candidate against Akihiro Gono last month with another fantastic performance against Nick Thompson, earning a second-round TKO with a flurry of strikes that began with a straight left and ended with a knee to the jaw. (We’ll post the video when we find it.) Also, Kazunori Yokota scored a first-round knockout over former IFL lightweight champion Ryan Schultz, who has now lost three straight fights in Sengoku.

Full results and more videos after the jump…

("So listen, you got any clean urine I can borrow?" Photo courtesy of MMA Junkie.)

According to a story on Sherdog, Sengoku is planning to book American steroid aficionado Josh Barnett for their November 7th card, but not against Antonio Silva as was originally suggested; Silva is currently scheduled to fight at Sengoku 10 in September. Conveniently, World Victory Road Director Takahiro Kokuho is giving Barnett the benefit of the doubt regarding his latest positive test in California:

(Hioki vs. Kanehara: The fight went as planned, but everything afterwards didn’t. Props to 19054771 via Bloody Elbow.)

I have to admit, I was pulling for Michihiro Omigawa to shock the world and win Sengoku’s Featherweight Grand Prix, after entering the tournament in March with a 4-7-1 record. But the way he reached the finals at today’s Sengoku Ninth Battle show in Saitama, Japan, was questionable to say the least, and he wound up losing to a guy who shouldn’t have even been there in the first place. Let’s start at the beginning…

Tournament favorite Hatsu Hioki dominated Masanori Kanehara in the tourney’s semifinals, putting Kanehara in constant danger with submission attempts and ground-and-pound. Though Kanehara was able to make a late rally, the fight went to Hioki by unanimous decision. Unfortunately, it was discovered that Hioki suffered a concussion during the match, and wouldn’t be able to continue to the finals.

Chan Sung Jung choked out Matt Jaggers later that night in the GP’s reserve bout, and should have rightfully taken Hioki’s place. But Jung, who had previously been robbed by the judges in his quarterfinal match against Masanori Kanehara in May — a decision that many fans chalked up to the fact that Jung is Korean — was insulted again today when it was quickly decided that Kanehara would fill in for Hioki. So basically, the alternate bout was absolutely meaningness, due to the fact that a Korean won it.

(Seriously. The man showers after every workout, and always uses fresh needles. Image courtesy of CombatLifestyle.)

Thank God for the city of Japan — where else would fighters who are wrongly accused of steroid use get a chance to redeem themselves? According to an article posted yesterday on Tatame (via BloodyElbow), two such innocent victims could be meeting in the ring at the end of this year:

(And to think this all started with a colorful gi, some little shorts, and a dream.)

It looks like Combat Sambo tournaments might actually lead to career advancement opportunities, after all.  Blagoi Ivanov has signed a three-fight deal with Sengoku and will reportedly face former Pride fighter Kazuyuki Fujita in his first fight at Sengoku 9 in August.  Ivanov is the guy who made minor waves (more like ripples by the time they reached the U.S.) when he beat Fedor Emelianenko on points in the World Combat Sambo Championships last November.  Fujita’s claim to fame is that he once hit Fedor so hard it briefly stunned him.  Neither of these accomplishments is enough to make this a truly interesting fight, although Sengoku has got to take what they can get when it comes to heavyweights. 

(Marlon Sandro vs. Nick Denis; props to MMA Scraps.)

After a shaky start that saw Maximo Blanco get DQ’d after misinterpreting the "foot stomps yes, soccer kicks no" rule, and Travis Wiuff getting kneed in the balls about two dozen times before losing via TKO, Sengoku managed to put on a pretty damn entertaining show yesterday (or late Friday for us). The focal point of "Eighth Battle" was the quarterfinals of their featherweight grand prix, and unsuprisingly, top-ten featherweights Hatsu Hioki and Marlon Sandro advanced to the semis; Hioki was able to submit Ronnie Mann in the opening round, while Sandro needed all of 19 seconds to flatten Nick Denis with punches.

Elsewhere in the bracket, Michihiro Omigawa continued his career comeback, stopping Nam Phan with ground-and-pound late in the first round; after entering the tournament with a 4-7-1 record, Omigawa now holds back-to-back wins over two very credible featherweights. Korean fighter Chan Sung Jung wasn’t so fortunate, as he dropped a decision to Masanori Kanehara in what many fans felt was a race-based robbery.

Complete results from the event and more fight videos after the jump…

(Main-eventers Ronnie Mann and Hatsu Hioki. Image courtesy of allelbows.)

Attention insomniacs and members of the undead: HDNet is hooking you up tonight with a live broadcast of "Sengoku Eighth Battle," which kicks off at 3 a.m. ET/midnight PT. Though the card lacks big names, it will feature the quarterfinals of their ongoing featherweight grand prix — and if the fights are as entertaining as the FWGP’s first round, we’ll be in for a treat, so DVR this bitch at the very least. Here’s what the matchups will look like…

FEATHERWEIGHT GRAND PRIX BOUTS
Hatsu Hioki vs. Ronnie Mann
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Nam Phan
Masanori Kanehara vs. Chan Sung Jung
Marlon Sandro vs. Nick Denis

(Props: Nightmare of Battle)

Masanori Kanehara thinks you can, and at his open workout in Tokyo he told media members that that’s how he intends to beat Chan Sung Jung, also known as “The Korean Zombie,” (that’s who he’s supposedly preparing for in the above photo, but man what a cheap zombie mask) in the Sengoku featherweight Grand Prix.  Conventional wisdom has always held that the best way to deal with a zombie is by destroying the brain or removing the head, preferably by doing something awesome/gruesome.  

But the rear naked choke?  I guess that could work, though your risk of getting bitten while sinking in the choke seems pretty high.  Still better than an armbar or guillotine choke, though.  And don’t even think about trying to heelhook one of those suckers.

Basically, to sum up: if there is a zombie attack and you are forced to choose which MMA fighter to team up with until the whole thing blows over, Demian Maia is probably not your safest pick.  Your first instinct might be to go with Fedor Emelianenko, but lest you forget, he’s lived with some fear issues when it comes to darkness.  Something to think about.

On a related note, the zombie embodies man’s fear of the crushing force of society and conformity.  Discuss.

(James Thompson vs. Jim York.  Props: MMA Videos)

Say this for James Thompson, dude is dependable.  You can always count on him to come charging out of his corner at the sound of the bell, then become quickly exhausted, and finally get dropped by a punch that doesn’t look all that hard.  In a sport where consistent performers are hard to come by, it’s refreshing to know exactly what you’re going to get when "The Colossus" is in the ring.

After the jump, more videos from Sengoku’s "Seventh Battle" that are actually athletically meaningful.

(Props: FightTrend)

- Muhammed Lawal def. Ryo Kawamura via unanimous decision
- Hatsu Hioki def. Chris Manuel via submission (armbar), 4:12 of round 1
- Nam Phan def. Hideki Kadowaki via TKO, 3:09 of round 1
- Jim York def. James Thompson via KO, 4:33 of round 1
- Michihiro Omigawa def. L.C. Davis via unanimous decision
- Marlon Sandro def. Matt Jaggers via submission (arm-triangle choke), 2:57 of round 2
- Masanori Kanehara def. Jong Man Kim via unanimous decision
- Chan Sung Jung def. Shintaro Ishiwatari via submission (rear-naked choke), 4:29 of round 1
- Ronnie Mann def. Tetsuya Yamada via unanimous decision
- Nick Denis def. Seiya Kawahara via TKO, 2:36 of round 1

Notes:

— King Mo was yellow-carded in the second-round for poking Kawamura in the eye twice. He dominated the fight with his takedowns; one judge scored the fight 30-24 for Lawal.

— The second-highest-ranked featherweight in the tournament, L.C. Davis, lost to the fighter with the worst record. Yes, we’ll be updating that Power Rankings page soon. Red-hot prospects Marlon Sandro and Ronnie Mann may have a spot on it shortly.

— The night’s other notable upset belonged to Nam Phan, a middling lightweight who dropped a weight class to be in the tournament and wound up knocking out former Shooto champ and top-15 featherweight Hideki Kadowaki.

— James Thompson went back to doing what he does best: Getting KTFO’d. His traditional fight-opening gong-and-dash nearly sent him flying out of the ring.

(Worth it just for the introductions.)

Sengoku 7 is popping off tonight live on HDNet at 3 am EST.  Sure, you could DVR it and get some sleep instead of staying up to watch it live, but wouldn’t that only make the people at HDNet feel like they made the right decision by not showing the last Dream event live?  I don’t know about you, but if there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s allowing others to feel as if they’ve done the right thing.

That’s why I’m staying up to watch it.  Maybe that means I’ll be a mess tomorrow, but the way I see it the quality of my work is already so poor, who’s going to notice?  Here are some things you can do while you’re waiting for tonight’s broadcast and fighting off the powerful forces of sleep:

(Props: Cage Writer)

So you want B.J. Penn to stop his courageous fight for truth, justice, and a no contest?  That probably means you’re a bad person who hates MMA.  Bummer.  Penn continues to frame this as a crusade to clean up the sport, which would be great.  But odds are the UFC is still not going to give him that "fair fight" rematch he wants.  And maybe he should be thankful for that.

(From All Elbows, via Fightlinker)

King Mo tries to entertain himself while he waits for his Sengoku bout.  I have to admit that it’s refreshing to see how much pleasure he gets out of old episodes of “Martin,” but when he starts telling the Japanese media how much he loved pro wrestling as a kid and mentions both The Ultimate Warrior and “Ravishing” Rick Rude as favorites, that’s where I get suspicious.  How can you like both guys, Mo?  Don’t you know they were mortal enemies?!  Just ask Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.  He’ll tell you.

(Images courtesy of MoSpace)

So, Maggie from Cage Writer came across the top photo of Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal‘s amazing new tattoo, which she found on his MySpace page. A cursory visit to that page reveals a nearly non-stop cavalcade of awesomeness — honestly, such a welcome and uplifting change of pace from the reliable sadness of myspace.com/warmachine170nhb. I mean, just look at Lawal’s "About Me" essay:

(Sometimes you have only one friend, and he’s somewhere at the bottom of that next mug of beer.)

In a recent interview with Sportsnavi (via Suki) Takanori Gomi talks about his fall from the top of the lightweight division and his loss to Satoru Kitaoka (video here, and it doesn’t take long) in the Sengoku lightweight Grand Prix.  Give him credit for owning up to his poor performance, as Gomi more or less says that he has sucked lately and doesn’t seem entirely hopeful that things will get better.

As you saw, I couldn’t do anything. I suppose fans who knew me since PRIDE considered that I looked like a totally different person. I don’t even know why. I didn’t feel any energy in the ring. After the fight, I felt like I was free. I thought I fulfilled my duty.
- Do you mean that you resigned from a representer of the top lightweight fighter?
I suppose so. I hadn’t proven myself in the last few fights. I was training, yet everything was fall in apart. I couldn’t put together because my training wasn’t enough. My skills went down in the last 2 years. I experienced a lot in the last 2 years. I quit Kiguchi dojo without thinking well, and started my gym. I felt responsibility to take care of my students, and I was passive about my fight. I was just waiting and see who I fought with.
- The title of the tournament was “road to Gomi”
I have no excuse about my performance and my loss. Kitaoka was entirely better than me. I I hope he becomes a great champion and defends his title.

“MMA Live” talks to Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker about his recent acquisitions, and breaks down new rules on Vaseline, as well as running down all the fun little news items floating in the ether of late.  And yeah, War Machine’s arrest gets a mention.  They know how to have fun over at ESPN.

In this preview of the upcoming episode of “Inside MMA” Thiago Alves discusses his weight issues.  He insists he doesn’t have any problems getting down to 170, except for the fight with Matt Hughes, where he missed it by four pounds, and the fight with Tony De Souza, where he was caught using a diuretic and suspended for eight months.  But he admits that he normally walks around at about 200 or 205 pounds, which is pretty freaking big for a welterweight.  If it was me though, I wouldn’t be talking about that stuff in public before a bout with GSP.  That’s only going to help him understand your physiology and how better to destroy it.

After the jump, a look at the new Sengoku ring girls.

(Masakazu Imanari during his win over Mike Brown at DEEP 22 in December 2005. Photo courtesy of stephenfactory.)

DREAM’s next multi-event grand prix kicks off at DREAM 7 (March 8th; Saitama, Japan), featuring featherweights; the exact weight limit will be either 63 or 63.5 kilograms, which is closer to 140 pounds than the 145-pound Western definition of the weight class. According to Nightmare of Battle, eleven fighters have been officially announced so far. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto’s participation is still a question mark, though he’d probably get seeded to the second round if he signs on. Here’s what the field is looking like currently:

Masakazu Imanari: #5-ranked featherweight. Is the reigning Cage Rage World Featherweight champion, and DEEP Bantamweight champion.

Hiroyuki Takaya: Shooto/K-1 vet who most recently fought for the WEC, where he has lost consecutive fights to Leonard Garcia and Cub Swanson.

Takafumi Otsuka: DEEP/Fury FC vet

Hideo Tokoro: Has had nearly 40 career fights, with three appearances at DREAM events. Most recently lost to Daisuke Nakamura at Dynamite!! 2008 on New Year’s Eve. Holds wins over Alexandre Franca Nogueira and Royler Gracie; once fought Royce Gracie to a draw.

(Props: Facey)

Our boy Matt S./"Facey" just sent us the second installment of his brilliant MMA highlight reel project, where he complies the best moments from each month into a single, convenient video. January ’09 had more than its share of killer moments, from Jose Aldo‘s knee-knockout and people’s-champ celebration at WEC 38, to the string of near-lethal KOs at "Day of Reckoning," to Jon Jones’s utter tooling of Stephan Bonnar, to Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal’s call-and-response bit at Sengoku 7. You can check out more of Matt’s work at FightFace.blogspot.com.

Below: A fan-shot video of Akihiro "Oh No" Gono‘s legendary ring-entrance at UFC 94. After the jump: The latest video trailer for UFC 95: Sanchez vs. Stevenson. Man, they’re really playing up the "London is rainy" angle…

(Props: BloodyElbow)