Road to UFC 2 confirmed fighters thread

As someone who watched every single fight during the last tournament... I'm keeping my expectations low.
 
Last event UFC had trouble finding fighters as they had lost their connections in Japan and Korea. I remember Charlie Jewett a American reporter who reports on Japan MMA said UFC even called him for help on finding fighters telling him they had lost most of their connections with the loss of Shooto Japan on UFC fight-pass. So I think they now see the importance of keeping connections open.

Not sure why they haven't signed Makoto Takahashi the Japanese fly weight maybe are making a deal with his agent Shu Hirata who handles Japanese fighters and would like to be the Ali Abdelaziz of Japanese fighters. He could be their source for Japanese fighters if he can get more fighters signed with him.
 
EndlessCritic said:
As someone who watched every single fight during the last tournament... I'm keeping my expectations low.
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I watched every single episode as well and enjoyed them thoroughly... but yeah. The fights were stylistically "fun" scraps for the most part, but Rinya was the only guy who while watching him I got the feeling that "this dude could really go places in the UFC".
 
Rei Tsuruya, Jiniushiyue and Sumit Kumar all have UFC profiles now, so assuming they're all on.
 
Hellowhosthat said:




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Patilima is a good one actually, there isn't many WW in Indonesia so it remains to be seen how he will do vs international competition.
His last fight vs Lesmana was suprisingly high level for Indonesian MMA, Lesmana is definitely the better striker and I expected him to knock out Patilima but Pailima is very durable.
I hope they give Lesmana a chance as a wild card or something cause he is a pretty good striker, but his ground game is severly lacking so Idk if he would do better as Patilima.
 
125 looks pretty tough. Lee Jung Hyun and Mark Climaco are both good and I've heard good things about Rei Tsuruya.
 
The fact that they have a welterweight tournament at all is pretty interesting I would bet my money on some central asian winning that tbh.
 
Hellowhosthat said:
125 looks pretty tough. Lee Jung Hyun and Mark Climaco are both good and I've heard good things about Rei Tsuruya.
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Sumit Kumar is also at 125lbs for this tournament and he's a very talented wrestler who's worked with Indian and US Olympic teams. Dudes super athletic and has been staying in Thailand and the US training at AKA Thailand and Alphamale for the better part of the last two years and he's only 22. Those 4, Tsuruya, Kumar, Climaco and Jung Hyun are on the greener side but 4 of the better flyweight prospects out there.

Waiting to see who else, I've heard a lot of central Asians trying to get on these but it doesn't look likely. Shin Haraguchi said he'd like to compete in the 145lb or 155lb tournament, good Japanese wrestler who's 5-0 pro MMA and only 24.

Look forward to seeing the complete lists. Flyweight tournament seems almost too stacked, I'd like all 4 I mentioned to get contracts. The Indonesian prospects, I get it, it's a huge populous country they are trying to penetrate but man...their talent isn't up to the level necessary.
 
Wonder if they can get any chinese guys. China has massive potential in just about any individual sport. They got a similar training system to russia.
 
HuskySamoan said:
Sumit Kumar is also at 125lbs for this tournament and he's a very talented wrestler who's worked with Indian and US Olympic teams. Dudes super athletic and has been staying in Thailand and the US training at AKA Thailand and Alphamale for the better part of the last two years and he's only 22. Those 4, Tsuruya, Kumar, Climaco and Jung Hyun are on the greener side but 4 of the better flyweight prospects out there.

Waiting to see who else, I've heard a lot of central Asians trying to get on these but it doesn't look likely. Shin Haraguchi said he'd like to compete in the 145lb or 155lb tournament, good Japanese wrestler who's 5-0 pro MMA and only 24.

Look forward to seeing the complete lists. Flyweight tournament seems almost too stacked, I'd like all 4 I mentioned to get contracts. The Indonesian prospects, I get it, it's a huge populous country they are trying to penetrate but man...their talent isn't up to the level necessary.
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Definitely gonna take a lot of time for Indonesian MMA to be competetive.
MMA was banned on TV not that long ago and in general physical activity is not as valued as it should be and waaaaayyyy too much cigarette smoking going on.
 
HuskySamoan said:
Sumit Kumar is also at 125lbs for this tournament and he's a very talented wrestler who's worked with Indian and US Olympic teams. Dudes super athletic and has been staying in Thailand and the US training at AKA Thailand and Alphamale for the better part of the last two years and he's only 22. Those 4, Tsuruya, Kumar, Climaco and Jung Hyun are on the greener side but 4 of the better flyweight prospects out there.

Waiting to see who else, I've heard a lot of central Asians trying to get on these but it doesn't look likely. Shin Haraguchi said he'd like to compete in the 145lb or 155lb tournament, good Japanese wrestler who's 5-0 pro MMA and only 24.

Look forward to seeing the complete lists. Flyweight tournament seems almost too stacked, I'd like all 4 I mentioned to get contracts. The Indonesian prospects, I get it, it's a huge populous country they are trying to penetrate but man...their talent isn't up to the level necessary.
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Thank you for your insights sir. Keep them coming.
 
Done some roster snooping and this is what I think we have so far

Flyweight

Mark Climaco - (25/USA/8-1) LFA fighter
Jiniushiyue - (China/11-2) JCK Fighter
Sumit Kumar - (22/India/4-0) Warriors dream fighter
Jung Hyun Lee - (20/South Korea/8-0) ROAD FC fighter
Billy Pasulatan - (Indonesia/10-2) One pride fighter
Ronal Siahaan - (Indonesia/7-0) One pride fighter
Rei Tsuruya - (22/Japan/6-0) - Pancrase champion
Joshua Van - (21/Myanmar/7-1) - Fury FC champion

Bantamweight

Tatsuya Ando (32/Japan/13-3-1) Shooto champion
Eperaim Ginting - (Indonesia/6-0) - One pride champion
Baergeng Jieleyisi - (China/12-3) - WLF fighter
Shuya Kamikubo - (27/Japan/11-1-1) went 6-0 in ONE
Chang Ho Lee - (28/South Korea/7-1) Black Combat fighter
Xiao Long - (24/China/24-7) WLF Champion
Rana Ruda Pratap Singh - (India/11-1) - Fight of Knights fighter
Daermisi Zhawupasi - (China/7-0) WLF fighter

Featherweight

Reza Arianto - (Indonesia/5-0) - One pride fighter
Abdul Azim Badakhshi - (Afghanistan/13-3) - Matrix Fight fighter
Li Kaiwen - (27/China/10-5) Went 9-3 in ONE
Kouya Kanda - (27/Japan/11-4) - DEEP interim champion
Yibugele - (China/21-11-1) JCK champion

Lightweight

Bahatebole Batebolati (25/China/7-1-1) LFA fighter
Hong Sung Chan (South Korea/9-1) Top FC Champion
Shin Haraguchi (24/Japan/5-0) Grachan champion
Sang Uk Kim (South Korea/7-2) AFC Fighter and also was on Physical 100
Kazuma Maruyama (30/Japan/12-6) Pancrase fighter
Aili Mulatebieke (China/13-2) JCK fighter
Wendris Patilima (Indonesia/8-0) One pride champion
 
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Hellowhosthat said:
Done some roster snooping and this is what I think we have so far

Flyweight

Mark Climaco - (25/USA/8-1) LFA fighter
Jiniushiyue - (China/11-2) JCK Fighter
Sumit Kumar - (22/India/4-0) Warriors dream fighter
Jung Hyun Lee - (20/South Korea/8-0) ROAD FC fighter
Billy Pasulatan - (Indonesia/10-2) One pride fighter
Ronal Siahaan - (Indonesia/7-0) One pride fighter
Rei Tsuruya - (22/Japan/6-0) - Pancrase champion
Joshua Van - (21/Myanmar/7-1) - Fury FC champion

Bantamweight

Tatsuya Ando (32/Japan/13-3-1) Shooto champion
Eperaim Ginting - (Indonesia/6-0) - One pride champion
Baergeng Jieleyisi - (China/12-3) - WLF fighter
Shuya Kamikubo - (27/Japan/11-1-1) went 6-0 in ONE
Chang Ho Lee - (28/South Korea/7-1) Black Combat fighter
Rana Ruda Pratap Singh - (India/11-1) - Fight of Knights fighter
Daermisi Zhawupasi - (China/7-0) WLF fighter

Featherweight

Reza Arianto - (Indonesia/5-0) - One pride fighter
Abdul Azim Badakhshi - (Afghanistan/13-3) - Matrix Fight fighter
Li Kaiwen - (27/China/10-5) Went 9-3 in ONE
Kouya Kanda - (27/Japan/11-4) - DEEP interim champion
Yibugele - (China/21-11-1) JCK champion

Lightweight

Bahatebole Batebolati (25/China/7-1-1) LFA fighter
Hong Sung Chan (South Korea/9-1) Top FC Champion
Shin Haraguchi (24/Japan/5-0) Grachan champion
Sang Uk Kim (South Korea/7-2) AFC Fighter and also was on Physical 100
Kazuma Maruyama (30/Japan/12-6) Pancrase fighter
Aili Mulatebieke (China/13-2) JCK fighter
Wendris Patilima (Indonesia/8-0) One pride champion
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Shuya Kamikubo and Li Kai Wen are definitely the names that interest me most.

Funny enough I was at Kazuma Maruyama's last fight.
 
Choi Seung Guk (he was a finalist in the first season so invited back) &
Gary Mangat (17-3/FLW) AKA...
FsC5s9SWAAA7elC.jpeg
 
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Hellowhosthat said:
I'm getting a bit confused now, we seem to have too many flyweights.

Climaco, Lee, Van, Tsuruya, Mangat and last seasons finalist Choi would be stupidly stacked.
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Maybe some will be alternates? Have you heard about any welter weights yet?
Screenshot 2023-03-27 3.06.46 AM.png
 
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