Sengoku 12 adds Gono vs. Gonzalez, Nakao vs. "Sentoryu," Santos vs. Kunioku
World Victory Road today officially announced three bouts for its upcoming Sengoku Raiden Championships 12 event.
Confirmed matchups include welterweights Akihiro Gono vs. Diego Gonzalez, heavyweights Yoshihiro Nakao vs. Henry "Sentoryu" Miller, and lightweight Leonardo Santos vs. Kiuma Kunioku.
The event takes place March 7 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, Japan, and airs on HDNet in North America.
WVR officials previously announced a title fight and rematch between Sengoku middleweight champion Jorge Santiago and Mamed Khalidov for the event.
Gono (31-15-7 MMA, 2-1 SRC), who's featured in today's HDNet Fights Video Vault installment, looks for his third straight win under the WVR banner. Gono, who was released by the UFC after back-to-back losses to Dan Hardy and Jon Fitch, most recently submitted Hayato "Mach" Sakurai for his biggest win since an August 2006 submission victory over Strikeforce champ Gegard Mousasi.
Gono now faces Gonzalez (13-3 MMA, 0-0 SRC), an M-1 Challenge veteran who makes his promotional debut with an eight-fight win streak. In fact, the Swedish fighter is 12-1 since 2005 and the lone loss came to now-top UFC contender Hardy.
Nakao (8-2 MMA, 2-1 SRC), meanwhile, is a former PRIDE fighter who makes his fourth consecutive WVR appearance. He's 2-1 in those fights and most recently scored a decision victory over Mu Bae Choi at Sengoku Ninth Battle. He now meets Miller (6-9 MMA, 0-0 SRC), who's better known by his Sumo wrestling nickname "Sentoryu." The 41-year-old PRIDE and Heat vet recently snapped a three-fight winless streak with a knockout of Min Soo Kim.
In lightweight action, Santos (6-3 MMA, 0-1 SRC) fights for the first time since he made his promotional debut and snapped a five-fight win streak with a close split-decision loss to Kazunori Yokota at Sengoku Eighth Battle. The Nova Uniao fighter now meets Kunioku (34-22-9 MMA, 1-0 SRC), a former King of Pancrase and K-1 HERO's fighter whose three-fight win streak included a recent decision win over A Sol Kwon at Sengoku Fifth Battle.
Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/17889/sengoku ... unioku.mma