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‘Kid’ Draws Lopez at Dream 14
By: Tony Loiseleur
TOKYO -- Dream Event Producer Keiichi Sasahara on Saturday added a bout between Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto and Federico Lopez to the Dream 14 lineup, announcing the matchup from the Yamamoto Sports Academy.
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Originally planned for Strikeforce “Heavy Artillery” in St. Louis, the Yamamoto-Lopez match was pulled in order to clear Yamamoto’s participation at Dream 14 on May 29 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. Dream will utilize its white cage for the event.
Sasahara cited Yamamoto’s inability to secure a visa and the fact that Strikeforce does not use his weight class as other reasons why the bout was rescheduled. Dream’s bantamweight division falls under a 139-pound limit. -
'Kid' Back to K-1
By: Jordan Breen
K-1 MAX's Final 8 offering now has an even more intense MMA flavor.
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Parent company Fighting and Entertainment Group announced Thursday that two more MMA competitors would see K-1 rules action at the MAX grand prix quarterfinal event July 13 at Tokyo's Nippon Budokan. -
Faber Not Surprised Warren Beat Yamamoto
By: Jake Rossen
Where’s Urijah Faber when you need him? Like, say, the betting window at the MGM?
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The former WEC featherweight champion told Fanhouse’s Michael David Smith that he wasn’t at all surprised to see 1-0 MMA rookie Joe Warren (pictured) defeat Japanese bad-ass Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto Tuesday morning.
"Joe came down here and trained with us for about a week and a half, and he was pretty raw when he came down here," Faber told Smith. "But people are forgetting that he's been doing some of the most difficult training for pretty much his whole life. … I wasn't that surprised he won.”
Faber appears to be pretty cool about the whole thing despite the fact that a fight with Yamamoto had been tagged for years as the sport’s most potentially lucrative 145-pound clash; Warren and WEC champion Mike Thomas Brown have extinguished those dreams nicely.
