World Victory Road continued its weekend lead-up to their second event, "Sengoku Battle II," this Sunday, May 18. At the Differ Ariake arena in Tokyo, the show's cast of 16 fighters convened for a massive press conference.

World Victory Road CEO Naoya Kinoshita - the counterpart to UFC's Dana White or Dream's Keiichi Sasahara - addressed the press and fighters present with words of gratitude for their support of the novice promotion.

The main event of the evening pits close friends and occasional sparring partners Josh Barnett (Pictures) against Jeff Monson (Pictures). Between jokes and exchanging mutual respect for one another, both fighters addressed questions from the media.

"I'm happy to fight in the main event," said an upbeat Barnett. "I've known Jeff Monson (Pictures) for a long time, so I took this offer to fight him. I might not have considered this fight if I didn't know anything about my opponent besides him being a huge, scary, tattooed guy, but we're friends so this is not the case."

Monson said he wanted to deliver an exciting fight to all the fans. Barnett replied that Monson reminded him of a huge Teddy Bear, someone who likes to be hugged and tossed around.

Both fighters spoke light-heartedly of their preparation. Monson said he trained new techniques in Tae Bo, while Barnett added that he'd polished up his breakdancing skills.

Perhaps the fighter who got the most attention was Abu Dhabi World Submission Grappling open-weight and 98 kg division champion Roger Gracie (Pictures), who with only one MMA fight under his belt, will face the very experienced Yuki Kondo (Pictures).

Gracie, who is in Japan with Renzo Gracie (Pictures) and an entourage of Gracie fighters and trainers, already did his "tour of duty" around several MMA hotspots to get in his training, including the Grabaka gym and Yoshida Dojo. Gracie admitted that he's dreamed of fighting in Japan for a long time.

Gracie described Kondo as a fighter with lots of experience and fighting spirit. Kondo said he's impressed with Roger's height and reach (Gracie is 6-foot-4), but he plans to keep the fight standing and at a good distance to avoid grappling.

The always-candid Kevin Randleman (Pictures) had one important message for the fans and media: "I'm back.

"I'm very happy to return tomorrow." said Randleman. "I'm been out for one-and-a-half years now due to personal problems, but now I'm here, ready to fight tomorrow, ready to make World Victory Road the best event out there."

After the press conference, the weigh-in was held behind closed doors without the media. While no official numbers were revealed, a World Victory Road official told several media outlets that most of the fighters were over their contracted weight limit by one or two kilograms, but didn't expect any issues.