» Fighter: Izuru Takeuchi

World Victory Road has officially added their Middleweight Grand Prix to Sengoku 6, taking place 1 November in Saitama, Japan.

The winner of the tournament will face Fighters.com’s ninth-ranked middleweight “Grabaka Hitman” Kazuo Misaki (20-8-2) for the first-ever middleweight belt 4 January in Saitama at Sengoku 7.

Kazuhiro Nakamura (12-8) will face Yuki Sasaki (22-14-1), and Jorge Santiago (18-7) will face “Afghan Killa” Siyar Bahadurzada (14-3-1).

The event already features a lightweight tournament to determine an opponent for Fighters.com’s second-ranked lightweight “Fireball Kid” Takanori Gomi (29-3) at Sengoku 7 for the title.

The bouts remaining in the lightweight tournament are Satoru Kitaoka (21-8-9) versus sixth-ranked Eiji Mitsuoka (14-5-2), and Kazunori Yokota (7-1-3) versus Mizuto Hirota (10-2).

WVR also announced that Fighters.com’s Fighter of the Month “King Mo” Muhammed Lawal (1-0) will fight, although an opponent has not yet been determined.

“GameBred” Jorge Masvidal (14-3) versus Seung Hwan Bang (5-2) is also official.

Joe Doerksen (40-12) revealed through MySpace Tuesday that he has agreed to fight Izuru Takeuchi (25-9-6).

Read More About Sengoku 6 to Include MW Grand Prix; Lawal, Masvidal, and Doerkson Also on Card…

Nova União featherweight Marlon Sandro (11-0) leaped into Pancrase’s top spot in that weight class Wednesday night at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo after nailing second-ranked Miki Shida (13-5-2) with a flying knee in the final minute of the second round.

The fighters were competing for the 66-kilo King of Pancrase title vacated by Yoshiro Maeda (23-4-2), who debuted successfully in the WEC in February.

Sandro followed his knee strike with a typhoon of fists that finished dazed Shida at 4:19 of the round.  The stoppage was Sandro’s first since 2005.

Earlier in the night, Sandro’s training partner and cousin Hacran Dias (7-0-1) scrapped with Takafumi Ito (33-26-10) to a draw in a 77-kilogram match.  Dias was debuting in Pancrase versus 13-year Pancrase vet Ito.

Middleweight King of Pancrase Izuru Takeuchi (24-9-6) unanimously fended off a challenge from veteran Hiromitsu Kanehara (14-19-1).  Takeuchi hasn’t finished an opponent in Pancrase since 2004.

Samboist Alavutdin Gadzhiyev (7-1) kept cruising through Pancrase’s middleweight division with a TKO of Hikaru Sato(17-18-4) after just a minute-and-twenty, his third consecutive first round stoppage guaranteeing him a showdown with Takeuchi for the title.

Krazy Bee lightweight Shinsuke Shoji took a UD over Kenji Arai (12-12-2) and his bantamweight teammate Michihisa Asano (6-4-2) earned a majority decision over U-File’s “Yukito” Yuichiro Shirai (3-5-3).

Middleweights Takanori Sato (5-4-4) and Masahiro Toryu (4-3-3) fought to a draw.

Welterweight Tomoyoshi Iwamiya (4-6) won a unanimous decision over Asaki Honda (4-2-1).