Gomi signs with World Victory Road
January 31, 2008 by Gary Herman
According to Sherdog.com, one of the hottest free agents in the market, Takanori Gomi, is finally set to return, but not with the UFC as originally expected, Gomi has signed with World Victory Road:
The deal will see Gomi debut for the promotion on their March 5 Sengoku card at Yoyogi National Gymnasium No. 1.”
Is there anyway WVR can hurry up and sign Nick Diaz? The signing of Gomi is definitely a blow to the UFC. Adding the Pride lightweight champion to the UFC’s ranks would have made for some huge fights.
Now, all we can do is hope that WVR puts Gomi in the ring with some quality opponents. And that we can somehow see those fights on televsion.
That World Victory Road is putting a decent card together. Tis a shame about Gomi though.
“That World Victory Road is putting a decent card together.”
What are the scheduled bouts so far? I don’t remember seeing anything besides a little blurb that Misaki was fighting for them. Also the thought of Gomi fighting Rodrigo Damm or Fabricio Monteiro isn’t very appealing to me, quite a disappointment tbh.
There’s just a lot of name fighters on there.
Misaki vs. Someone
Baroni vs. Kikuta
Cyborg vs. Takimoto
Roger Gracie vs. Yoshida
Gomi vs someone
and possibly that Monteiro guy vs. someone
Isn’t Diaz signed long term with EXC?
Nick Diaz is long-term with EliteXC. I think he might be able to fight for other organizations, but EliteXC probably has some sort of right of refusal.
Wasn’t he offered the fight with Aoki at Yarrenoka but he only turned it down because he didn’t have enough time to prepare?
I’d like to see Gomi fight in the UFC, but it’s probably a smart move for him to go elsewhere. The UFC lightweight division is extremely competitive. I think you could make the argument that it’s the deepest weight class from top to bottom. Gomi is very popular in Japan, so why not capitalize on that at home in an org. that’s not as stacked? As fans we all want to see the best square off, but the fighters have to be more concerned about smart career moves.
Gomi didn’t want to sign with the UFC, that’s my gut feeling….Gomi is a Star in Japan and after fighting in Vegas and being booed during the whole fight against Diaz and chants of USA, why would he want to fight over him…..Gomi was the last big name to not be signed from Pride..Oh Ricardo Arona…