wgs2005

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FEG President Sadaharu Tanigawa announced that a tournament to crown a middleweight champion would hold its opening round in the Yokohama Arena on July 16.

Kaoru [Caol] Uno versus Katsuhiko Nagata was named as the first confirmed bout and both were in attendance for the announcement. Nagata felt honored to face a veteran such as Uno and hoped to give him his toughest bout to date in HERO’s. Uno was equally enthused, focusing attention on Nagata’s Olympic-caliber wrestling and the challenge of engaging Nagata in his strong suit.

Katsuhiko Nagata has been training under the auspices of American Kickboxing Academy, home to trainer ‘Crazy’ Bob Cook and fighters Mike Swick and Paul Buentello among others. He trained there prior to his bout against Isaiah Hill on HERO’s inaugural stateside card, suffering a broken nose in the process of his split decision victory. Doctors have since cleared Nagata of the injury and he will resume training at AKA until July 6th.

Tanigawa expects Gesias ‘JZ’ Calvancati, Hideo Tokoro, Kazuyuki Miyata, and Vitor ‘Shaolin’ Ribeiro among others to participate as well.

HERO’s Middleweight World Champion Tournament Opening Round
Monday, July 16 2007
Yokohama Arena, Kanagawa

Tentative Fight Card (Card Subject to Change):

HERO’s 2007 Middleweight World Champion Tournament Opening Round
70KG, 3 rounds of 5 minutes each
Kaoru Uno (Wajyutsu Keisyukai Tokyo) vs. Katsuhiko Nagata (American Kickboxing Academy)

Scheduled to Participate:

Gesias Calvancanti (American Top Team)
Hideo Tokoro (Team ZST)
Kazuyuki Miyata (Freelance)
Kultar ‘Black Mamba’ Gil (Revolution Fight Team)
Shuichiro Katsumura (Katsumura Dojo)
Andrea Dida (Chute Boxe)
Alexandre Franca Nogueira (World Fight Center)