The 2008 World Women's champs was held in Chiba prefecture, Japan on Sunday the 6th of April. With 3 divisions a total of 48 competitors competeted for the light, middle and heavy weight crowns. There were some upsets as 2 divisions produced new champions and Anastasia Khripunova continued her dominance of the middleweight and won again. Russia had a very successful day taking all three titles. The results are,

Some upsets include last year's heavy weight champ Alina Aldatova who placed third this year. And Miruyo Ito who won the lightweight last year, placed second. Miruyo was strong with her combinations when she could get in close however at times she couldn't close the distance and Elena used her reach advantage to land strong kicks. Even when in close, Elena's strength and combinations were able to keep Miruyo at bay. Miruyo did however come away with a win and placed 1st in the women's kata. With a first and second place at the 2007 champs, 2008 didn't fare very well for Japan this time.

      2008 World champ's video highlights

Brazillian Kyokushin competitor and the current world middleweight champion Andrews Nakahara made his MMA debut on April 29th, 2008 in the middle weight catergory of the Dream 2 MMA tournament. The tournament was held at the Saitama arena in Saitama prefecture next to Tokyo. His opponent was the very reputable and experienced Kazushi Sakuraba. With fights against the likes of Royce Gracie and a long fight history, Kazushi Sakuraba was the clear favorite to win. It was setup as a 2 round fight (1st round, 10 mins, 2nd round 5 mins) however Andrews Nakahara lost in 8.29 minutes of the first round to a choke from Kazushi.

The reporters covering the fight were impressed that Andrews lasted as long as he did and was able to damage Kazushi with some of his techniques, especally his gedan mawashi geris. In one stage of the fight Kazushi had Andrews in the corner. While standing and having his leg gripped by both of Azushi's hands, Andrews with great balance still managed to land face punches.

      Andrews Nakahara vs Kazushi Sakuraba

Congratulations to Artur Hovhannisyan who completed the 100 man kumite on the 29th of March. After starting, the entire event took 4 hours and 7 minutes to finish. Artur was escorted to hospital in a waiting ambulance after sustaining heavy bruising all over his body. Out of the hundred opponents, a surprising number of reputable past tournament champions turned up to fight, support and cheer Artur to the end. Although spectators aren't permitted, a number of local branch chiefs came along to support Artur as well. Current world champion, Ewerton Teixeira, who fought in the K-1 the day before, also watched.

The 100 man kumite commenced at 1.00pm with Makoto Akaishi (2008 All Japan heavy weight champion) as his first opponent. Akaishi, a close friend also based at Honbu dojo, helped Artur train and prepare leading up to the 100 man. Akaishi fought Artur once more near the end. In his first 20 fights, Artur moved a lot, countering with strong chudan mawashii geris, scoring no ippons and the odd wazari. This was an unusual strategy as it forced him to fight the full 90 seconds of each round. Artur basically finished almost every fight right through to the end. At the 20th fight, Kancho Matsui advised him to focus more on speed and timing rather than powerful techniques which would make him tire more quickly. Artur threw more jodan mawashi geris, however he didn't really attempt any ashi barai (leg sweep) techniques which may have helped him to score more wazaris.

After the 60th fight, Artur took a 15 minute break, changed his dogi and redid his strapping. By this time the bruising was quite visible all over his body. He pushed through the sixties taking several water breaks, with the doctors looking over him. By fight 73, Artur really began to tire and lost the fight by ippon gachi to his opponents strong punches. It was clear that his body had sustained massive bruising and he was in pain. The fights didn't get any easier, but Artur showed his stamina, by constantly trying to move and evade in the limited space in the main dojo of Ichigeki Plaza. With over a hundred people participating and viewing, and a windowless dojo the conditions were quite warm. In the eighties and nineties, Artur persevered on, even with Kancho asking him twice if he was OK. Still waiting to fight was, 2007 World Champs runner up Jan Soukop; previous world middleweight champion Emil Kostov; and Tatsuya Murata who placed 5th in the 2008 All Japan open. His support crew consisted of Shihan Narushima, Joji Hibino and Andre Oustinov, constantly supporting him through out the day. The last three fights of the 100 man kumite included in order, Glaube Feitosa, Kentaro Tanaka and No 100, Francisco Filhio.

      Artur's 100 man kumite video clip.

    The 4th World Weight Championships will be held In Chiba prefecture from the 21st of August until the 23rd at the Makuhari Messe event hall. Japan will have two representatives in each of the light, middle, heavy and super heavy weight divisions. Last years 2008 All Japan open championships produced six of the eight representatives with the two light weight candidates chosen from the final of the All Japan Weight Championships held on June 7th.

It was an interesting light-weight division as the best of Japan appeared to display their skills. In all, eighty five light-weight competitors gathered in Osaka to find out which two would be chosen. The two seeded favorites, Yuzo Suzuki and Tomohiko Matsuoka who placed 1st and 2nd in the middle-weight division last year dropped down a weight class in order to make the team for the World Championships. Suzuki from Tokyo and Matsuoka from Osaka have been rivals for a while, but it was Suzuki again with his relentless punches and hiza geris that dominated once more to win by decision in the first round.

Suzuki had been strong up until he had a narrow win in the semi-final against Yuya Fujita from Ehime prefecture who seems to just keep improving. It looked like Fujita was going to the final with his strong middle kicks echoing in the arena as he stung Suzuki with several of them. He was able to maintain the distance between them, preventing Suzuki from closing the gap to use his punches. His footwork and strong kicks almost made it look like he was going to take the fight but the center referee called for an extension after Fujita received 2 flags against 2 for a draw. After another draw was called in the final extension, the fight was awarded to Suzuki for breaking the most boards. Yuzo Suzuki has now won his fourth All Japan weight title; twice as the middleweight and now twice as a lightweight. Placing second in the lightweight division of the 2005 World Championships, he'll be one of the favorites to win this year.