Japanese Heavyweight Satoshi Ishii to Take on Philip De Fries at IGF 1

Satoshi Ishii returns to the ring to headline IGF’s first card of 2014 this weekend. The Japanese heavyweight will be looking to extend an 11-fight winning streak when he takes on Philip De Fries at the Ryougoku Sumo Hall.

Irshii (11-2-1) has not lost a fight since being stopped by Fedor Emelianenko at Dream’s 2011 New Year’s Eve event. The Olympic gold medal winning Judoka has become a staple of Antonio Inoki’s promotion and will be appearing in the IGF ring for the seventh time.

His opponent on Saturday is Philip De Fries (10-3-1), who submitted Brett Rogers at the most recent IGF event to get back to winning ways after an unsuccessful UFC stint which saw him go 2-3 inside the Octagon.

The card also sees the return of Ikuhisa Minowa (58-35-8), who will be a firm favorite when he takes on Goran Jettingstad, although the Swedish debutant reportedly stands at six-foot-four-inches and will therefore have a huge advantage in terms of height and reach.

Two experienced heavyweights will go head to head when Tony Bonello (16-2-1) takes on Guram Gugenishvili (11-2). Both are coming off losses with the American last seen losing to Rolles Gracie at a ONE FC event and the Georgian enduring back to back M-1 defeats.

The third big heavyweight fight on the card sees Yusuke Kawaguchi (15-6) take on Brett Rogers (14-7-1). The American was submitted by De Fries on New Year’s Eve and followed that up with another loss in Russia while the Japanese veteran has won his last two.

Russian lightweight Ramazan Esenbaev has been rewarded for his New Year’s Eve victory over Satoru Kitaoka with a spot on a second successive IGF card and will be taking on Yuki Yamamoto (5-5-2-1) who is unbeaten in his last four fights.