Akira Maeda is set to revive RINGS, the event that helped kick off the careers of many fighters such as Fedor Emelianenko, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Dan Henderson, Randy Couture, Tsuyoshi Kosaka, Gilbert Yvel, Renzo Gracie, Ricardo Arona, Alistair Overeem, Valentijn Overeem, Kiyoshi Tamura and Volk Han.

RINGS – Reincarnation will be held on Friday March 9

Here’s the card (names in Japanese).

RINGS-reincarnation sairin (Korakuen Hall, March 9th)
WW: Taishin Kohiruimaki (debut) x Ben Abbott (1-3)
HW: Chris Haseman (20-16) x Gennadiy Kovalev (3-0)
LW: Naoyuki Kotani (25-10-7) x Ryuki Ueyama (11-13-5)
BW: Kenichi Ito (9-7-8 ) x Jarrett Owen (4-3)
Fly: Tatsuya Watanabe (9-3-3) x Yuichiro Yajima (14-13-1)
LW: Atsushi Ueda (12-4-5) x Konstantin Kireev (3-5)
LW: Hisato Ozawa (7-2-1) x Vitali Krat (2-0)
FW: Toshihiro Shimizu (12-10-9) x Daisuke Maku (9-3-1)
WW: Brendan O’Reilly (3-0) x TBA ()
TBA () x TBA ()
TBA () x TBA ()

Despite some negatives opinions floating around leading up to the event, it came off an excellent first UFC production under the Zuffa flag.

UFC 144 at the Saitama Super Arena

We spoke to guest fighter, Roy Nelson, who said he’s taking Junior Dos Santos over Alistair Overeem if and when they meet.

Roy Nelson

Also, we caught up with long time K-1 fighter in Japan, Mark Hunt, who KO’d Cheik Congo without too much difficulty earlier.

Mark Hunt

Japan’s last minute replacement for George Sotiropoulos, Eiji Mitsuoka, was disappointed at his loss to Takanori Gomi, but he has the most respect from MMA fans here for stepping up and fighting hard. Gomi looked good, but the questions remains how good he would have looked against the injured Austalian, or any top tier competition for that matter.

Yushin Okami was stopped in an incredible comeback from Tim Boetsch. Okami completely dominated the first two rounds when Boetsch came back and knocked him out with some hard uppercuts. Yushin suffers his second consecutive loss in the octagon but, having fought so well until the KO, is sure to fight again when he’s fit.

Quinton Rampage Jackson’s knee injury details and subsequent failure to train effectively and make weight emerged. Doctor’s told him not to fight after having injured his knee while working hard on his wrestling in preparation for Ryan Bader. Ryan, to his credit, told us he was rocked after Rampage slammed him in their fight. Jackson maybe should have called off the fight but felt a strong obligation to fight for the first time in six years (to the day) for the Japanese fans. Fans who have shown him much love over the years.

Rampage Jackson

Very experienced Rampage Jackson, with a long-standing Japanese fan base takes on a hungry and highly motivated Ryan Bader on Sunday, February 26th at the Saitama Super Arena in UFC 144.

And Yushin Okami will be surely eager to show the fans his strength following his title shot defeat in Brazil.

Looking forward to all the fights on this card.

Main Bouts (on Pay-Per-View):
-Frankie Edgar (14-1-1; #1 Lightweight)* vs. Benson Henderson (15-2; #7 Lightweight)*
-Quinton Jackson (32-9; #5 Light Heavyweight)* vs. Ryan Bader (13-2)
-Mark Hunt (7-7) vs. Cheick Kongo (17-6-2)
-Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-4) vs. Jake Shields (26-6-1; #7 Welterweight)*
-Yushin Okami (26-6; #3 Middleweight)* vs. Tim Boetsch (14-4)
-Hatsu Hioki (25-4-2) vs. Bart Palaszewski (36-14)
-Anthony Pettis (14-2; #9 Lightweight) vs. Joe Lauzon (21-6)

Preliminary Bouts (on FX):
-Takanori Gomi (32-8) vs. Eiji Mitsuoka (18-7-2)
-Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (18-5) vs. Vaughan Lee (11-7-1)
-Riki Fukuda (17-5) vs. Steve Cantwell (7-5)
-Takeya Mizugaki (15-6-2) vs. Chris Cariaso (12-3)

Preliminary Bout (on Facebook):
-Tiequan Zhang (15-2) vs. Issei Tamura (6-2)

*Based on the MMAWeekly.com World MMA Rankings

UFC Japan (UFC 144) Start Times:
Prelims on Facebook: 7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT (Live)
Prelims on FX: 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT (Live)
Main Card on PPV: 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT (Live)

NYE 2011

Some great fights here.

Check out the rumble between Rumina Sato verus Nico Veressen, second video down.

February 26, 2012, at the mighty Saitama Super Arena. Be there.

The Takaya vs Miyata fight will be a war. They are both in incredibly good shape right now. Takaya has strong determination and it’s clear that Miyata has evolved as an MMA fighter.

Keeping tradition with the Judo-ka turned MMA fighters (excluding Ishii), Izumi has been given a very tough opponent who on paper is not likely to beat.

The English subtitles don’t show it but at 1:35 Aoki uses the word “gaijin” for foreigners. This literally translates as ‘outsiders’ and in Japanese this is the rudest choice of vocabulary, showing no respect. At 3:11 Kikuno uses the word “gaikokujin” in reference to non-Japanese which literally translates as ‘foreign country people’ which is more polite and shows respect. Although it doesn’t come across in the English language, where the word foreigner is mostly avoided, it shows a basic difference in the mental character of these two fighters and how they use their mother tongue.

Aoki, the younger of the two, and the one with the lesser respect in terms of MMA on the international circuit, especially following his embarrassing losses to Gilbert Melendes and Yuichiro Nagashima, clearly shows his contempt and immaturity with this choice of language.

Aoki obviously doesn’t care but the world is watching. He is loved for his incredible grappling skills in Japan but some now question just how long the ‘Baka Survivor’ (baka = stupid) will last in the MMA world.