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via www.sporty-walki.org

I have declined to write about this topic so all the facts can come out. I have waited a week and still many questions have not been answered. Monster moves are being made in the far East. World Victory Road and Fighting Entertainment Group have been bitter rivals in the past but now they will join forces on New Years Eve. This is a major move! There is a possibility of Japan having a single major organization since Pride. However, according to Tony Loiseleur's twitter WVR is not done just yet. 

WVR has already booked the Ryogoku Kokugikan for March, so we may see one more show. Future shows depend on finding a financial backer.

Now why is this happening? There are a few reasons why, first is Sengoku has failed to hustle a T.V. deal. Even with the Ishi vs  Yoshida as the main event! In addition to Sengoku not getting a T.V. deal attendance has been a serious issue. And the major reason why is Don Quijote(The Japanese equivalent to Walmart in the U.S.) is having secret meetings with FEG President Tanigawa to discuss a union between the two. According to Nightmare Of Battle, FEG was not going to agree to this, their plan was to watch Sengoku die and pick up the fighters FEG desired. Unfortunately for FEG their sponsor, pachinko manufacturer FieLDS, is not going to renew their contract. So with FEG needing a financial backer and WVR needing a T.V. contract the two organizations will join together for NYE and possibly the future.

Nightmare Of Battle does an excellent job recapping the Press Conference here. Interesting bits of information coming out of the press conference is:

Satoshi Ishii wasn’t present since he is currently training in Las Vegas. The plan is 7 DREAM Vs. SRC fights. The fights will be announced one of these days. Yoshidasaid that he hasn’t heard who he’s fighting in this event yet, implying that his fight with Ishii isn’t officially announced yet. Tanigawa said consider what direction we’ll take at the press conference.

However, after the press conference Tanigawa said that they’ll do Yoshida vs. Ishii. That fight and Masato’s retirement fight will be a double main event.

"Mach" didn’t know about any of this since he hasn’t been on the Internet lately. In his comment he said that he’s hungry since he woke up at 12 PM and hasn’t had breakfast yet. The press conference was moved back 20 minutes because he was late.

Shibata is excited about fighting a SENGOKU fighter, mentioning that there are a lot of Judo medalists there. He wants to fight someone outside of his weight class and he’ll beat him up.

No word on any of the match-ups yet. We are 29 days away from the event and only one fight has been confirmed. This is not unusual for Japanese MMA but with such a massive change you would expect more fights to be announced. More information from Nightmare of Battle:

Did people expect them to talk about the backstage stuff at the press conference?

No way, that isn’t important to normal people.

The only way we’ll find out those things are through magazine interviews and insider articles like the one yesterday.

The WVR GM said that the current plan for the next SRC event is March. The fighters participating will be the fighters who have fought there until now.

Sasahara said that there will be 18-19 fights on NYE, and there will also be fights between DREAM fighters so it’s not only SENGOKU vs. DREAM on the MMA side. Kawajiri and KID couldn’t attend the press conference because they were out on other business.

About SENGOKU only fights (besides Ishii vs. Yoshida) the WVR GM said that it’s yet to be decided if there will be any.

Misaki’s participation is also yet to be decided. There will be a meeting about if his suspension will be lifted or not. Misaki himself said: "I want to obey the instruction of the SENGOKU side."

There will be foreign fighters competing as well, but the Japanese fighters will be the focus.

Tanigawawantsto match the champions with each other. The rules might depend on the fight.

About a future merger, Tanigawa said that Dynamite!! is mainly TBS’s event so there’s nothing like that.

The plan is for a double main event but Masato’s fight will probably be last since they’ll have a retirement ceremony after the fight. The event will start at 3 PM.

About K-1 fights besides Masato’s retirement fight and the Koshien finals Tanigawa said that there might be. It depends on what happens on December 5th.

via ca.c.yimg.jp

A day after the Confrence I read a post by Chris Nelson of Bloodyelbow.com: 

World Victory Road public relations director Takahiro Kokuho has been released by the company for unspecified reasons. This brings the WVR/Sengoku picture into focus a bit more: Kokuho manages a good chunk of Sengoku's roster under his "J-Rock" banner, including those from Yoshida Dojo. With Kokuho ousted at WVR and none of his gym's fighters on the "Dynamite!!" card, Hidehiko Yoshida's non-committal comments at yesterday's press conference are easier to make sense of.

It is unclear what will happen with Kokuho and J-Rock after this.

If Don Quijote buys the MMA branch of FEG that could be a very good thing. Japanese MMA needs unity and money right now, and Don Quijotecan provide both. And FEG can provide a T.V. deal for Don Quijote which he needs. FEG can keep and manage K-1 all to itself. From what people are saying, it seems like Don Quijote are a pretty popular and respectable business, which might help cleaning up the yakuza taint Pride left. Now look at this, Don Quijote owns WVR, has a controlling stake in Pancrase, and buys DREAM! Don Quijote will control the major Japanese MMAscene. Along with controlling organizations Don Quijote is also involved in the Japan Martial Arts Federation. Smaller Japanese organazations such as Shooto and ZSTare also affiliated with the JMAF. Having the JMAF and Don Quijote together there could be a major revolution in Japanese MMA. With these two partners working together Japanese MMA could become far more Westernised in the coming years. Very exciting stuff! Radical changes are being made in the far east, a revolution of sorts. Could Japan regain the throne of MMA Mecca?