On July, 17-th Japan will witness the next fifth installment of world's team MMA competition in M-1 Challenge. Team France will lock horns with Team USA and Japanese representatives will face off with dreadful Team Holland. Let's take closer look in the stable of Japan.
This team consists of the athletes from different gyms. The one thing uniting them all is vast experience. Every single fighter is a veteran of either DEEP, Pancrase or MARS organizations.
Lightweight Daisuke Nakamura has compiled 14-9 MMA record with victories in Pride, K-1 Hero's and consequently DREAM. In his debut at M-1 Challenge he was also victorious in a hard clash against Russian Legion's Yuri Ivlev.
Ken Hamamura (14-4-4) – welterweight fighter who was quite successful in his DEEP outings.
Yuta Watanabe is the youngest but the most promising fighter. He's scored 8 W's with 4 KO's so far having lost just once. At M-1 Challenge 3 he defeated Legion's Ansar Chalangov.
Yuji Sakuragi (9-11-1), light heavyweight veteran of Pancrase. He couldn't withstand fierce attacks of Besiki Gerenava but nevertheless he's got that strength margin that can help him come out a victor in any battle including an upcoming clash at M-1 Challenge 4 where he'll definitely give his respective Dutch adversary run for his money.
We move on to the last heavyweight category where Pride veteran and UFC 23 Japan runner-up reigns. Katsuhisa Fujii (8-14-1) had been involved in wars against hard-hitting Igor Vovchanchyn and submission phenomenon Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Will Japanese team pull of the victory this time in order to improve the achievements reached until now just to get the chance of breaking into the semifinals? We'll see come July, 17-th. The land of Rising Sun will host M-1 Challenge 5.
