This starts in an hour (2am EST) on HDNet. :good * Light Heavyweight bout: Hiroshi Izumi vs. James Zikic * Lightweight bout: Kazunori Yokota vs. Brian Cobb * Lightweight bout: Maximo Blanco vs. Kiuma Kunioku * Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinal bout: Keita Nakamura vs. Takuya Wada * Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinal bout: Yasubey Enomoto vs. Taisuke Okuno * Asian Bantamweight Grand Prix bout: Jae Hyun So vs. Manabu Inoue * Asian Bantamweight Grand Prix bout: Shoko Sato vs. Akitoshi Tamura * Asian Bantamweight Grand Prix bout: Wataru Takahashi vs. Shunichi Shimizu * Asian Bantamweight Grand Prix bout: Shintaro Ishiwatari vs. Taiyo Nakahara * Light Heavyweight bout: Kazuo Takahashi vs. Chang Seob Lee
This was my first time seeing a lot of these fighters. After a boring opener to the bantamweight tournament, Shimizu and Takahashi put on a really good show in the second quarter-final. Soto really bottled it after an impressive opening round and deserved the loss (but nearly lucked out with that cut). The first three minutes of stand-up between Ishiwatari and Nakahara were bananas. Actually, the boxing from both was really nice all the way along. Of the four advancing fighters, Shimizu looked like the most reliable favorite to win it all. Enomoto is a bad mother****er. "Smiling Zombie" Okuno has a hell of a chin, though. There may be a new MMA Zombie sheriff in town (since Chang-Sung Jung got KTFO). Brawling butterball Chang Seob Lee was a hoot to watch, both in his live loss to Takahashi, and the one to the fellow fatty Hiroshi Izumi at SRC 13 (which they showed during intermission). :yep Izumi himself did appear to be in better shape against Zikic...but doesn't seem to have improved technically on his feet. He may be a great judoka, but he's no masterful mixed martial artist. This was not a convincing win (although Zikic didn't exactly shine either). Venezuelan specimen Maximo Blanco looked really nice in patiently sharp-shooting a late substitute. His uppercuts are lethal. He's one to watch. Cobb deserved the decision against Yokota, IMO.
It's a channel owned by Mark Cuban, who's famous for owning the DAllas Mavericks basketball team. They show all Hi-Definition content, including syndicated TV shows and movies along with original programming including concerts and lots of MMA and kickboxing. You have to have a HDTV to get it, though.
