‘Japan Cup’ Bantamweight Grand Prix might be happening with Pride & Dream executives

The new promotion spearheaded by former Pride FC president Nobuyuki Sakakibara and former Pride FC vice president Hiroyuki Kato is gaining momentum as the pair have moved into an office in Shibuya, Tokyo and have started to flesh out the details of their Spring event.

We have an update on the new MMA venture that former Pride executive Nobuyuki Sakakibara and Dream executive Hiroyuki Kato have been reportedly plotting, and it is sounding like a very exciting concept already.

According to Dan Herbertson on MMAFighting.com, The event will be called something along the lines of “Japan Cup – Bantamweight GP” and will include several fighters that fought under the DREAM banner and obviously a bantamweight tournament. The event will not be a major production or a replacement for DREAM or Pride FC, but will be around the size of Shooto’s Vale Tudo Japan. Dream was planning on holding a bantamweight tournament in 2011, but it now seems unlikely.

It has been decided that Kato will be the face of the promotion while Sakakibara will be working behind the scenes due to Sakakibara’s past legal issues and the plan at this stage is to have the event at either JCB Hall or Yoyogi No. 2 Gymnasium. Dream champions Shinya Aoki and Hiroyuki Takaya and top lightweight Tatsuya Kawajiri were being targeted, but have since been lost to Strikeforce. I am expecting to see many fresh faces from the smaller companies popping up in this one, with very few foreigners on the card, but that’s just my guess. I look forward to seeing how this unfolds, and also looking forward to hearing some news about a new K-1 event (with the hopes that there will be one).