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Hero's
Hero's was a Japanese mixed martial arts promotion operated by Fighting and Entertainment Group, the parent entity behind kickboxing organization K-1. Grown from and branched off of K-1's earlier experiments in MMA, including the ''K-1 Romanex'' event and various MMA fights on its regular K-1 kickboxing cards, it held its first show on March 26, 2005. The promotion was handled by former Fighting Network Rings, Rings head Akira Maeda. At a press conference on February 13, 2008, FEG announced that they discontinued Hero's and were creating a new mixed martial arts franchise, Dream (mixed martial arts), Dream, in collaboration with former Pride FC executives from Dream Stage Entertainment. History Although not as popular worldwide as the Ultimate Fighting Championship or the now defunct Pride Fighting Championships, Hero's was very recognizable in the Japanese mixed martial arts scene, thanks in large part to the visibility and resources of Fighting and Entertainment Group, FEG an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caol Uno
(born May 8, 1975) is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler. He is the Co-Champion of the UFC 41 Lightweight Tournament and a former Shooto Lightweight Champion. As one of the early Ultimate Fighting Championship's elite Lightweight competitors, Uno competed for the UFC Lightweight Championship on two occasions. Despite falling short in both championship bouts; losing a five-round decision against Jens Pulver at UFC 30, to determine the inaugural UFC Lightweight Champion as well as a draw against B.J. Penn at UFC 41 (in a bout which would have determined the new UFC Lightweight Champion and UFC 41 Lightweight Tournament Winner), Uno is acknowledged as a pioneer for his impact and influence during the early era of the UFC Lightweight Division. Mixed martial arts career Early career Uno finished second in the All Japan amateur Shooto tournament in 1996. He was a runner-up in the submission wrestling world championships at ADCC losing in the finals t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gesias Calvancante
Gesias Cavalcante (born July 6, 1983) is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist currently competing in the Lightweight division. He was the 2006 and 2007 K-1 HERO Middleweight Champion, and has also fought for Strikeforce, DREAM, Shooto, World Series of Fighting, and Cage Rage. Cavalcante also participated in the Dynamite!! USA event. MMA career While Cavalcante is primarily an MMA fighter, he made his K-1 debut fighting against Masato in the 2007 World Max tournament, losing via decision. On September 17, 2007, Cavalcante won the K-1 HERO'S' 2007 Middleweight (70 kg) tournament by defeating Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist Vítor Ribeiro by TKO in the first round and Andre Amade by submission via armbar in the finals. Cavalcante had agreed to fight former PRIDE Fighting Championship Lightweight standout Shinya Aoki at Yarennoka! but withdrew from the fight due to a knee ligament injury. The match was rescheduled for March 15, 2008 at Dream 1 to kick off the new D ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genki Sudo
is a Japanese MMA fighter, singer, actor and politician who has been serving as a political independent in the House of Councillors since 2019. Between 1998 and 2006, Sudo was a professional athlete and then was in the entertainment industry from 2006 to 2019. He has since returned to his previous position in World Order as of September 2021 where he is currently active. He is a retired mixed martial artist and a kickboxer who, until 31 December 2006 competed in the Japanese fighting organization HERO'S and before that, the Ultimate Fighting Championship and Pancrase. He is known for his elaborate ring entrances and unorthodox fighting style. Over his career, he holds notable wins over Nate Marquardt, Royler Gracie, Eric "Butterbean" Esch, Mike Brown, Kazuyuki Miyata, Hiroyuki Takaya, Damacio Page and Ramon Dekkers. Sudo, following his retirement, transitioned into a career in entertainment as a Japanese singer, composer, choreographer, actor, professional calligrapher and autho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan Menjivar
Ivan Menjivar (born May 30, 1982) is a Salvadorian-Canadian mixed martial artist who formerly fought in the featherweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Background Menjivar was born in La Paz, El Salvador, in 1982. Fleeing the corrupt government, Menjivar moved to Montreal with his family when he was 11. He has a brother and a sister. He started training Kung-Fu as a kid, eventually progressing to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Mixed martial arts career Early career Menjivar formerly fought in the welterweight and lightweight divisions, before dropping to featherweight. Menjivar made his MMA debut in 2001 and fought until 2006, earning a record of 20–7. After he was defeated by Bart Palaszewski at an IFL event, he retired from MMA. Four years later, he came out of retirement for W-1 MMA, defeating Aaron Miller by triangle choke submission in round one. World Extreme Cagefighting In November 2010, Menjivar signed with the WEC, right before its merger with the UFC. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Denis Kang
Denis Kang (, born September 17, 1977) is a Canadian professional mixed martial artist who most recently competed in the Middleweight division. A professional competitor since 1998, Kang has formerly competed for the UFC, PRIDE, DREAM, Impact FC, M-1 Global, K-1 HERO'S, ROAD FC, and Pancrase. In his prime he was ranked one of the top fighters in the world and scored notable wins over Pat Healy, Marvin Eastman, Akihiro Gono and Murilo Rua. Background Kang was born in the French overseas collectivity of Saint Pierre and Miquelon to a Korean father and French mother. He and his family relocated to the Canary Islands and finally North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 1988 when he was 11 years old. After some years from their arrival to Vancouver, he started taking Hapkido lessons by encouragement of his parents. Kang transitioned into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in high school because he wanted to improve in his ground game more than practice self-defense. Mixed martial arts c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dream (mixed Martial Arts)
Dream (styled DREAM in capitals) was a Japanese mixed martial arts (MMA) organization promoted by former PRIDE FC executives and K-1 promoter Fighting and Entertainment Group. Dream replaced FEG's previous-run mixed martial arts fight series, Hero's. The series retained many of the stylistic flourishes and personnel from Pride FC broadcasts, including fight introducer Lenne Hardt. In America, the promotion was aired on HDNet. They promoted over 20 shows highlighting some of the best Japanese and international MMA talent, establishing or enhancing the careers of top ranked fighters such as Shinya Aoki, Gesias Cavalcante, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Ronaldo Jacaré, Eddie Alvarez, Jason Miller, Kazushi Sakuraba, Gegard Mousasi and Alistair Overeem. History Pride FC's buyout and Yarennoka! After the Zuffa buyout of Pride FC, the former Dream Stage Entertainment executives put on a collaborative New Year's Eve mixed martial arts show with Shooto, M-1 Global, and the Fighting and Enterta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rani Yahya
Rani Ahmad Yahya (born September 12, 1984) is a Brazilian mixed martial artist and BJJ practitioner. He won the 66 kg division of the prestigious ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship in April 2007. He currently fights in the Bantamweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Background Yahya was born to a Syrian father and Brazilian mother. He trained judo, taekwondo and karate in his childhood, finding Brazilian jiu-jitsu at the age of 11. Mixed martial arts career World Extreme Cagefighting Yahya made his WEC debut against former TKO Major League MMA featherweight champion Mark Hominick at WEC 28 on May 3, 2007. Yahya defeated Hominick in the first round with a rear naked choke. He fought and lost to Chase Beebe via unanimous decision for the WEC bantamweight championship at WEC 30 on September 5, 2007, and earned ''Fight of the Night'' bonus. On November 5, 2008 at WEC 36, Yahya fought Yoshiro Maeda and won via Submission in the first round ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlos Newton
Carlos Newton (born August 17, 1976) is an Anguillian-born Canadian retired mixed martial artist. He is a former UFC Welterweight Champion and Pride FC Japan MMA Legend. Known as "The Ronin", he competed worldwide in the biggest MMA organizations including UFC, Pride FC, IFL, K-1, Shooto and most recently W-1. He is a 3rd Degree Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black Belt alongside his coach Terry Riggs under Renzo Gracie, at Warrior MMA in Newmarket, Ontario. Newton has always been considered a fan favourite and a "Submission Master" and has dubbed his personal fighting style — an amalgam of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Wrestling, Karate, and Boxing — as "Dragon Ball Jiu-Jitsu" in tribute to Dragon Ball, a Japanese manga and anime franchise. As a testament to his worldwide popularity, Newton is one of only a few MMA athletes to ever be allowed to compete in the UFC and Pride FC at the same time. In Canada he is respected as a mixed martial arts pioneer, he was the first Canadian UFC Cham ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vítor Ribeiro
Vítor de Souza Ribeiro (born February 24, 1979 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is a retired professional mixed martial artist who competed in the Lightweight division. A professional competitor since 2001, he has formerly competed for Strikeforce, Shooto, DREAM, Cage Rage, Cage Force, the World Fighting Alliance, and K-1 HERO'S. Ribeiro is the former Cage Rage World Lightweight Champion and the former Shooto World Lightweight Champion. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lineage Mitsuyo Maeda » Carlos Gracie Sr. » Carlson Gracie » André Pederneiras » Vitor Ribeiro Mixed martial arts career Vitor Ribeiro is an accomplished grappler. He has won the CBJJ Mundials (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World Championship) four times, once as a purple belt in 1996 and three times as a black belt in three consecutive years (1999, 2000, and 2001). He has competed in the ADCC World Championship in 2000 and 2003. After a brief absence from the MMA world, Ribeiro returned to competition at DREA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lyoto Machida
(born 30 May 1978), is a Brazilian professional mixed martial artist and karateka, who currently competes in the Light heavyweight division. He formerly competed for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), where he was a former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion, as well as a UFC Middleweight Championship title challenger, and also in the Bellator MMA. Early life Lyoto was born in Salvador, Brazil, as the third son of the highly ranked head of the Brazilian branch of the Japan Karate Association, Shotokan karate master Yoshizo Machida (町田嘉三). Yoshizo moved to Brazil from Japan when he was 22 years old, where he met and married Lyoto's mother, Ana Claudia, who is of Brazilian descent. Growing up in Belém, Lyoto began training in karate at the age of 3 and earned his black belt at the age of 13. He also began training in sumo wrestling at the age of 8, and then BJJ and boxing at sixteen. He won a number of amateur karate tournaments, including the 2001 Pan Am ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dynamite!! USA
''SoftBank presents Dynamite!! USA'' was a mixed martial arts (MMA) event co-promoted by Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG), the promoters of K-1 kickboxing events and Hero's MMA events, and EliteXC. The event was held on Saturday, June 2, 2007 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles, California. Mauro Ranallo, Bill Goldberg, and Jay Glazer did commentary. Background The event featured the MMA debut of former professional wrestler Brock Lesnar and the anticipated rematch between Royce Gracie and Kazushi Sakuraba. The show also featured the MMA debut of NFL wide receiver Johnnie Morton. The event was aired in two parts in the United States, with three preliminary bouts airing for free on Showtime and a main fight card shown on pay-per-view. In Japan, the card was aired as a two-hour edited broadcast on TBS on June 4, 2007. A condensed one-hour version of the entire event was broadcast on Showtime June 9, 2007. The Pay Per View cost viewers $29.95 Controversy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Akira Maeda
(born Go Il-myeong (Hangul: 고일명, Hanja: 高日明), January 24, 1959) is a Japanese mixed martial arts promoter, writer and retired professional wrestler and mixed martial artist of Korean descent. Maeda was also known by the ring name Kwik-kik-Lee during his time on the British wrestling show '' World of Sport'' (WoS). Maeda helped develop the shoot-style of professional wrestling during the late 1980s. He founded Fighting Network RINGS in 1991 which would become one of the top MMA promotions before it folded in 2002. Professional wrestling career New Japan Pro Wrestling (1978–1984) Maeda entered the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) dojo in 1978, after being discovered at a karate tournament, and debuted the same year. Like many other New Japan stars before and after him, Maeda embarked on a foreign tour to the United Kingdom, where he adopted the Kwik-kik-Lee moniker. In 1983, he participated in the first International Wrestling Grand Prix tournament, won by Hulk Hog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
