I remember injecting my esophagus with energy drink in order to stay up and watch Hiroshi Izumi’s MMA debut at Sengoku 10. It was against Antz Nansen, a guy from New Zealand who Michael Schiavello playfully referred to as some ‘hardcore kiwi’ that occasionally fought in the streets of Auckland. Perhaps The Voice was right. Antz Nansen greeted Izumi with an onslaught of right hooks in the first round to temporarily impair Izumi’s consciousness within three minutes. A year later, Nansen had his second MMA bout, this time against Enson Inoue at Astra. He was caught in an armbar by one of the coolest guys in the MMA world, so he may have lost — but in the grand scheme of things he still came out as a winner. That was Nansen’s last MMA bout. We’re not sure what he’s doing, but it’s definitely not fighting for the DREAM light heavyweight strap at DREAM 17.
On July 16th, Izumi will attempt to snag the DREAM light heavyweight belt in Gegard Mousasi’s first title defense. The guys at DREAM believe you guys aren’t properly hyped for the event, so they made this handy promo to sooth the inner-MMA fan that resides in our eyeballs. [Source]