Ikuhisa Minowa, a.k.a. Minowa-man, is confirmed to fight Goran Olle Ulf from Sweden in IGF 1.
"My opponent is unknown but if I am careless then that would affect the result so I am going to be prepared 120%."
This is what Minowa said at the press conference held at IGF office in Tokyo and he is completely right.
Olle Ulf is a complete unknown.
In fact he has never fought in a pro MMA bout. All we know about him is, Olle Ulf is about 185 lbs, stands at 6'4" tall, and his nick name is "Wolf".
So this should be an easy win for Minowa.
A fight to promote him to the next step which is a possible showdown with Satoshi Ishii, an Ace fighter of the promotion.
Minowa himself discussed that possibility, "There is a title in IGF so, step by step, I would like get closer to that."
He also added, "In regards to challenge at my right weight class, if this is for promotions in overseas, I would like to fight on those rules, but in IGF my goal is to fight in the open-weight division. It has always been my ideal to become an open-weight champion."
Inoki Genome Federation Presents
INOKI GENOME FIGHT 01
Saturday, April 5th, 2014
At Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan
Doors Open – 17:00
Fight Starts – 18:00
Confirmed Cards (Subject to Change):
The Main Event – Heavyweight Bout 5 min / 2R
Satoshi Ishii (Japan / Black House – Reign MMA) vs Philip De Fries (UK / Alliance MMA)
8th Match – Middleweight Bout 5 min / 2R
Ikuhisa "Minowa-man" Minowa (Japan / Freelance) vs Goran "Wolf" Olle Ulf (Sweden)
7th Match – Open-weight Bout 5 min / 2R
Guram Gugenishvilli (Georgia) vs Tony Bonello (Australia)
6th Match – Open-weight Bout 5 min / 2R
"Crusher" Kawaguchi (Japan / Ikubukuro BLUDE DOG GYM) vs Bret Rogers (USA / American Top Team)
4th, 5th & 6th Match are Pro-wrestling Bouts
3rd Match – Lightweight Bout 5 min / 2R
Ramazan Esenbaev (Russia) vs Yuki Yamamoto (Japan / Paraestra Chiba)
2nd Match – Open-weight Bout 5 min / 2R
Atsushi Sawada (Japan / IGF) vs Hoshi Kaze (Mongolia)
1st Match – Open-weight Bout 5 min / 2R
Shinichi Suzukawa (Japan / IGF) vs Bob Armstrong (New Zealand / ALIVE)
Ticket Prices:
VIP – 50,000 yen / Royal Seat – 20,000 yen / Arena – 10,000 yen / Mas Seat – 10,000 yen / Second Floor Special Seat – 7,000 yen / Second Floor Reserve Seat – 5,000 yen
*500 yen more at the door for VIP and Royal Seats.
IGF 2014 Schedule:
April 5th (Sat) – INOKI GENOME FIGHT 1 at Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan
July 13th (Sun) – GENOME 30 at Fukuoka International Center, Fukuoka, Japan
August (date TBA) – INOKI GENOME FIGHT 2 at TBA
October 13th (Mon) – Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Aichi, Japan
December 31st (Wed) – INOKI BOM-BA-YE 2014 at Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan
Report by Shu Hirata
Photo courtesy of Bout Review (www.boutreview.com)