Sengoku VI Card "Finalized;" Rogerio Returns to Japan

"Finalized" because while the full slate of matches has been announced, nothing ever seems certain with the major Japanese promotions until the week/day/hour before the show. Still, even if the tournament and reserve bouts were the only fights to stick, this would still be a pretty phenomenal card.

SENGOKU VI
Date: November 1st, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Lightweight Fight:
Takanori "The Fireball Kid" Gomi 29-3 vs. Sergey Golyaev 10-6


Light Heavyweight Fights:
Antonio Rogerio "Minotoro" Nogueira 14-3 vs. Moise Rimbon 13-7-3


Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal 1-0 vs. Fabio Silva 11-4


Lightweight GP Series 2008 Semifinal Fights:
Satoru Kitaoka 21-8-9 vs. Eiji Mitsuoka 14-5-2


Kazunori Yokota 7-1-3 vs. Mizuto Hirota 10-2


Lightweight GP Series 2008 Final Fight:
Kitaoka/Mitsuoka vs. Yokota/Hirota


Lightweight GP Series 2008 Reserve Fight:
Bang Seung Hwan 5-2 vs. Jorge "GameBred" Masvidal 15-3


Middleweight GP Series 2008 Semifinal Participants:
Kazuhiro Nakamura 12-8 vs. Yuki Sasaki 22-14-1


Jorge Santiago 18-7 vs. Siyar "Afghan Killa" Bahadurzada 14-3-1


Middleweight GP Series 2008 Final:
Nakamura/Sasaki vs. Santiago/Bahadurzada


Middleweight GP Series 2008 Reserve Fight:
Izuru Takeuchi 25-9-6 vs. Joe Doerksen 40-12

"Lil Nog" was scheduled to face Vladimir Matyushenko at Affliction's cancelled October show, but will instead take on the veteran Rimbon for his first fight on Japanese soil since 2006. Mo Lawal drops down to light heavyweight to face Wanderlei clone Fabio Silva after shocking almost everyone in his MMA debut by TKO'ing the far bigger and more experienced Travis Wiuff.

It's going to be great to see the semis and finals of both the Middleweight and Lightweight Grand Prixs play out all in one night. The MWs semifinalists should be fun (not to mention Doerkson returning to Japan against the tough Pancrase vet Takeuchi), but thanks to some major upsets at Sengoku IV, the LW participants will be the ones to top, with a quartet of explosive Japanese fighters vying for a shot at the inaugural Sengoku lightweight title. In the reserve bout, Jorge Masvidal makes a quick turnaround from his September TKO of Ryan Schultz to face relative newcomer Bang Seung Hwan, who was last seen giving Gomi a run for his money in a decision loss.

Speaking of Gomi, he's been given another fairly safe fight, taking on Sergey Golyaev as he treads water waiting for the LWGP winner. Golyaev boasts the impressive submission skills you'd expect from a Red Devil, but has faltered and in fact been submitted by every "name" fighter he's faced (Joachim Hansen, Rich Clementi, Kurt Pellegrino).

Meanwhile, no sign of Josh Barnett, who announced that he'd be participating last month.

[Update by Nick Thomas] - Bumped for this weekend... added pictures and fight records.