Maximo Blanco drops Kiuma Kunioku at SRC 15: Taro Irei/Sherdog.com
After the promotion’s last outing produced a memorable “Fight of the Year” candidate, Sengoku Raiden Championship had trouble replicating such quality in its latest presentation, Sengoku 15 on Oct. 30 in Tokyo. Still, the event nicely showcased some of the promotion’s potential stars, including lightweight Maximo Blanco and welterweights Yasubey Enomoto and Keita Nakamura.
Blanco produced another crackling stoppage, finishing Kiuma Kunioku in 4:26 with a series of uppercuts and soccer kicks. The wild J-Rock lightweight has won five of his six Sengoku fights inside two rounds; the loss was a disqualification for an illegal soccer kick. Enomoto defeated Taisuke Okuno in a dominant decision, and Nakamura stopped Takuya Wada on strikes to advance to the Dec. 30 final of the promotion’s welterweight grand prix.
The event, which aired on HDNet, was not the focal point of SRC coverage, however. The promotion’s plan to run a Dec. 30 year-end event the day before the annual “Dynamite” extravaganza from Fighting and Entertainment Group was detailed this week. It was rumored SRC and FEG, which promotes Dream and K-1, would cooperate on the network television event by matching their fighters against each other, which was done to entertaining effect last year.
During a press conference, FEG head Sadaharu Tanikawa said such bouts are not likely to take place this year. Tanikawa indicated Dream may cooperate with Sengoku parent company World Victory Road’s planned Dec. 30 event, dubbed Sengoku “Soul of the Fight,” at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo. The event will be a day-long festival of MMA, grappling and kickboxing, with a total of 25 to 30 fights, from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
No fights were officially announced for the show, though it is known that 2008 Olympic judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii will fight at “Dynamite” instead of the Sengoku event. The welterweight final between Enomoto and Nakamura is expected to take place to crown a welterweight champion, and a featherweight title fight between Marlon Sandro and Hatsu Hioki is set.