World Victory Road

(Let's hurry this up. Gomi has to get back to slinging dope in the park. Photo courtesy of Sengoku.)

Everyone made weight for this weekend’s World Victory Road Sengoku event in Japan, which means it’s all systems go for Antonio Silva to officially give the finger to the California State Athletic Commission by fighting overseas while under suspension back in the states.  Silva will have a good thirty-five pounds on Yoshihiro “Kiss” Nakao when they step in the ring, though most of that weight is located in his chin.

Also of note, Takanori Gomi attempts to put his recent decision loss behind him (see video) as he takes on Satoru Kitaoka for the Sengoku lightweight title.  Meanwhile, the guy who beat Gomi, Sergey Golyaev, gets stuck on the undercard.  Real nice. 

In what might be the best fight of the night, Jorge Santiago squares off with Kazuo Misaki for the middleweight strap.  Dave “Pee Wee” Herman and Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal are also both on the card, and don’t worry, King Mo is prepared for inclement weather.

Full weigh-in results after the jump.

From Sengoku. Props to BloodyElbow. More photos here.

(Takanori Gomi poses with one of the characters from Cabin Fever.)

(This wouldn't turn out very well for Hidehiko Yoshida.)

(Told you.)

Here's some footage of Gomi turning Bang Ludwig's face into pasta sauce, and Barnett working over Yoshida en route to a heel-hook tapout. Gomi and Barnett's fights at Sengoku were their first MMA matches in over a year, but both looked like they'd never left the ring. 100% dominance...

— Josh Barnett def. Hidehiko Yoshida via submission (heel hook), 3:23 of round 3
— Takanori Gomi def. Duane Ludwig via doctor's stoppage TKO (cut), 2:28 of round 1
— Kazuo Misaki def. Siyar Bahadurzada via submission (guillotine choke), 2:02 of round 2
— Kazuyuki Fujita def. Peter Graham via submission (north-south choke), 1:23 of round 1
— Evangelista Santos def. Makoto Takimoto via submission (heel hook), 4:51 of round 1
— Ryo Kawamura def. Antonio Braga Neto via unanimous decision
— Nick Thompson def. Fabricio Monteiro via unanimous decision

We'll get up some photos and videos when they become available...

(Props: Sherdog)

(...and the card holders for Barnett's next fight.)

When Josh "The Babyface Assassin" Barnett fights for World Victory Road in Japan on March 5th, it'll be the first time we've seen him in action in 15 months. Hidehiko Yoshida will be his opponent in the main event at "Sengoku" - WVR's debut event. Barnett says this fight makes for a good headliner - on an already exciting card - and he's glad to be back in action.

World Victory Road became the winning horse in the Barnett race after a messy contract situation left by the dismatling of PRIDE. The brand new WVR has been snatching up fighters lately, including top guys like Nick "The Goat" Thompson, Takanori Gomi, and Kazuyuki Fujita - all fighting in the debut event.

Barnett mentioned that although he is now with WVR, he wouldn't rule out signing up with DREAM, which is run by several former PRIDE suits in conjunction with some K-1's parent company. Barnett says the deal would be up to DREAM and the execs know what the issues were in PRIDE, so the conflicts can be avoided if they wanted. That could set up a possible fourth fight with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic who recently signed up with DREAM. Cro Cop accounts for three of Barnett's five career losses. Are we over that match-up or not? Me? I could probably be coerced into tuning in, but would complain about it being boring the next day.

Josh also recently spoke about the talk of him possibly fighting Fedor Emelianenko.

"Honestly, I don’t think much about it at all. I’m not Randy (Couture)," he said about the Fedor fight. "I’m not going to chase after this fight. For me, I need to be out there fighting my fights, creating my own merit. Fedor is the No. 1 guy out there based on his past performances; he’s an incredible fighter and a cool guy. At this point people need to go their own ways.

"I’ve been waiting way too damn long to get a fight because of the turmoil that came of Pride folding, so at this point I’m not going to do anything that could possibly stall or hold up my career anymore in hopes in putting one specific (fight) together."

(He's got a little Captain in him.)

Though the UFC had been in talks to bring one of the best lightweights in the world to the Octagon, the two sides couldn't come to terms, and it was announced today that Takanori Gomi has signed with Japan's World Victory Road organization instead. Gomi will earn approximately $190,000 per fight, and makes his WVR debut at "Sengoku" on March 5th, to be held at the National Yoyogi Stadium in Tokyo. No opponent for Gomi has been named yet, but the card is expected to host fights between Phil Baroni and Sanae Kikuta, Kazuo Misaki and Siyar Bahadurzada, and Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos and Makoto Takimoto; a bout between Roger Gracie and Hidehiko Yoshida has also been rumored.

So, this blows. With every botched high-profile negotiation, the UFC's claim to having "the best fighters in the world" becomes even more suspect, and Gomi was a big one. In particular, we would have loved to see a potential re-match between him and B.J. Penn. Penn submitted "The Fireball Kid" at a Rumble on the Rock event in 2003, after which Gomi went on a ten-fight win-streak, plowing through the likes of Jens Pulver, Ralph Gracie, Luiz Azeredo (twice) and Hayato "Mach" Sakurai. If the UFC can't open their pocketbooks for guys like Sakurai and Norifumi Yamamoto and offer them what they're worth, this is going to keep happening. Until then, we're stuck waking up at six in the morning to watch Japanese fight cards on HDNet...