Originally Posted by Japan-MMA

Sengoku 9 - Title Fight and Featherweight GP Semi's Announced

Sengoku have announced the semi-finals in their featherweight GP in addition to a lightweight fight for their next event on August 2 in Saitama Super Arena.

In the lightweight title fight, champion Satoru Kitaoka will take on a very worthy challenger in Mizuto Hirota. Hirota was part of last years GP, but lost to Kazunori Yokota in the 2nd round. He is the Cage Force lightweight champion and in his last fight got a quick TKO win over non other than Mitsuhiro Ishida. The champion needs to get this fight to the ground and I think Kitaoka will jump straight in for a leglock here. Hirota is very good at defending takedowns and it should be a very interesting fight.

Kazuo Misaki and Kazuhiro Nakamura will battle to see who the next challenger to Jorge Santiago's middleweight title will be.

The semi-final match-ups have been announced, and it will be very interesting to see who comes out on top. Personally, I have Marlon Sandro as my favorite but any one of the last four could take it. Sandor will take on the surprise so far in the GP, Michihiro Omigawa.

The other semi-final will be between Shooto veteran Hatsu Hioki and ZST fighter Masanori Kanehara. I feel that Kanehara has hed the easier route to the semi-fianls, and I cant really see him beating Hioki.

The final will be held on the same night, and I predict that it will be Hatsu Hioki against Marlon Sandro. That should be a very good and tactical fight.

Lightweight Title Fight
Satoru Kitaoka 24-8-9 vs. 11-3-1 Mizuto Hirota

Middleweight next title Challenger
Kazuo Misaki 21-9-2 vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura

Featherweight GP Semi-Finals:
Hatsu Hioki 19-3-2 vs. 13-5-5 Masanori Kanehara
Michihiro Omigawa 6-7-1 vs. 14-0-0 Marlon Sandro