Sengoku: Fourth Battle emanated from Saitama Super Arena last night in Saitama, Japan with the opening round of their lightweight grand prix as well as the return of Takanori Gomi and Frank Trigg to the ring. Below are the results from the event:

Undercard:

• Valentijn Overeem def. Yoshihiki Takahashi via KO (flying knee) at 2:42 of round one
• Moise Rimbon def. Peter Graham via submission (rear naked choke) at :42 of round two
• Yang Dong Yi def. Pawel Nastula via TKO at 2:15 of round two

Lightweight Grand Prix Bouts:

• Mizuto Hirota def. Ryan Schultz via KO (superman punch) at 4:25 of round two
• Kazunori Yokata def. Bojan Kosednar via unanimous decision
• Eiji Mitsuoka def. Rodrigo Damm via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:13 of round one
• Satoru Kitaoka def. Clay French via submission (achilles lock) at :31 of round one

Co-Main Event:

• Frank Trigg def. Makoto Takimoto via unanimous decision

Main Event:

• Takanori Gomi def. Seung Hwan Bang via unanimous decision

Originally scheduled for UFC 85, a welterweight clash between the always tough Ryo Chonan (14-8) and the perennially perplexing, Roan Carneiro (12-7) will now take place on September 6th, at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta as a part of UFC 88.

The news comes from our good friends over at MMA Junkie.

Chonan had to pull out of the UFC 85 clash due to a rib injury, leaving Carneiro to take on a replacement fighter in the form of the unheralded Kevin Burns. In a surprising turn of events, the BJJ black belt was submitted by the lowly Burns. However, Carneiro finds himself in a rare position in which he could all but erase the result of the Burns’ fight by winning the fight he against the opponent he was originally set to face.

Chonan, on the other hand, is coming back from an injury to find everything is where he left it as the fight he had to cancel due to injury is still there, glaring back at him. It will be an important fight for “Piranha” as he failed to impress in his debut where he was on the wrong end of a Karo Decisyan.

UFC 88 is headlined by a light heavyweight showdown between Chuck Liddell and Rashad Evans.

Read more UFC 88 content on FiveOuncesOfPain.com.

From the good folks at Sherdog:

Roan Carneiro and Ryo Chonan have signed to fight at UFC 85 on June 7 in London, sources close to both camps have told Sherdog.com.

The bout will be a rematch of a Feb. 12, 2005, meeting in Deep. Chonan (14-8) stopped the Brazilian on a cut in that first fight after landing a knee as Carneiro (12-6) tried for a takedown.

Chonan was recently saying that he had “no money,” according to a translation of his blog and was awaiting his next fight. Now he’s got it and it looks be a damn good one on paper. This Joe Silva character knows what he’s doing sometimes.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that the UFC was unsuccessful in their attempt to get Hector Lombard a working visa and that his match against fellow Judoka Karo Parisyan scheduled for UFC 78 on Nov. 17 has been canceled.

The UFC has elected to also cancel the Thiago Alves vs. Ryo Chonan match and will move Chonan up to the main card to fight Parisyan in Lombard’s place. Alves will remain on the preliminary card and fight Chris Lytle. So for now, talks of a possible move to the WEC for Lytle are on hold.

Dave Meltzer has confirmed on WrestlingObserver.com that Ryo Chonan has officially signed with the UFC:

UFC has officially signed Ryo Chonan, a former Pride fighter

Ryo Chonan I guess is going to be another Jeremy Horn in the sense where they import a challenger who holds a previous win over one of their champions who has cleaned out his own division.

When there weren’t a lot of options for Chuck Liddell to fight, they signed Horn just to headline a PPV so that they could sell the past history between the two. If Anderson Silva gets past Rich Franklin again at UFC 77 then I get the feeling that Chonan could be pushed in a similar role.

The Fight Network is reporting that DEEP veteran Ryo Chonan could be in the mix for the UFC’s UFC 78 card in Newark, NJ this November. No official announcement has been made.

TFN is also reporting that Karo Parisyan has confirmed that the UFC is in negotiations for him to fight either Hector Lombard or Hayato Sakurai at UFC 78.