Japanese Round-Up: Kaz Nakamura to Sengoku, No Cro Cop/Overeem at DREAM.6

- World Victory Road announced that UFC veteran Kazuhiro Nakamura will drop weight to participate in the opening round of the Sengoku 2008 Middleweight Grand Prix on September 28th, along with Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, Jorge Santiago and SHOOTO Light Heavyweight Champion Siyar Bahadurzada.

- The brackets for the opening round of WVR's Lightweight Grand Prix were also unveiled and (surprise!) they feature a bunch of Japanese dudes against a bunch of foreigners. Nonetheless, this is going to be an explosive tourney.

Satoru Kitaoka vs. Clay French
Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Rodrigo Damm
Kazunori Yokota vs. Bojan Kosednar
Mizuto Hirota vs. Ryan Schultz

- In an interview with InTheGuard.tv, Alistair Overeem says that his fight with Mirko "Cro Cop" Filopovic will not be happening at DREAM.6 next month. (He also continues to sound obsessed with the idea of a fight against the Croat, and even calls him a "douche-bag.") Props to Nightmare of Battle, who wisely speculate that FEG will be looking for a bigger-name opponent for the hugely popular Cro Cop in order to bolster the card and secure a decent TV rating to keep the show afloat.

- Shinya Aoki updated his column for Japanese fight mag Kamipro; not so much MMA related (Aoki says he doesn't know his next opponent yet) but he discusses some interesting Japanese energy drinks, along with a great nickname for a Japanese MMA heel. As always, SukiMMA translates for us gaijin:

It's very hot every day. To change my feeling, I went to Kamakura. My destination was Tsuruoka Hachimangu (Shrine). I saw many people who were short of breath by walking uphill to get the shrine. I sweat a lot, had a shaved ice with syrup on the top, went to beach and came home. I cannot wait my next fight. I want to know my next opponent, then I enjoy training more. By the way, my friend sent me a gift. When I open the box, there were energetic drinks for ED. I'm only 25 years old and he is making a fool of me. Honestly, I'm very interested in these drinks. The name of drinks is "Magma." I assume this drink keeps extraordinary destructive energy. If I drink this, can I be like Michael Jackson? (a nickname of Yoshihiro Akiyama) and get the highest score in the TV rating? I think I'm OK without this drink.

- Dana, take note: ZST is counter-programming Sengoku with two events on the same day! Okay, maybe not, since the ZST shows won't actually be on live TV. But the main events of both cards (Masanori Kanehara vs. Isamu Sugiuchi in a featherweight bout, and welterweight Hiroshi Tsuruya againist the hard-luck Tomohiko Yoshido) should be fun scraps.