K-1 Hero's (5th Aug 06) Press Conference

At a press conference held at the Capital Hotel in Tokyo, 2005 HERO'S

Middleweight Champion Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto announced that, as rumored, he would a hiatus from mixed martial arts competition in order to pursue his dream of wrestling in the Olympics. 'KID' plans on working toward the 2007 Emperor's Cup and a 2008 Beijing Games bid in the 60 kilogram class. While K-1 producer Sadaharu Tanigawa said that he hoped Yamamoto would participate at New Year's Eve's K-1 Dynamite!!, 'KID' offered no definitive answer as to when he would step back into the ring.

Also announced was that last year's middleweight tournament runner up, Genki Sudo, would not participate in this year's tournament as expected. While HERO'S staff were optimistic about Sudo's participation, it appears that a herniated disc in Sudo's neck, an injury from collegiate wrestling, will keep him from the tournament.

With 'KID' and Sudo out of the tournament, Tanigawa announced that their tournament spots would be filled by Hiroyuki Takaya and Kazuya Yasuhiro. K-1's online polling for the recommendation spot saw Hideo Tokoro take the majority of the vote, giving him the bid for the tournament's eighth man, but due to the further two spots opened up, K-1 selected further participants from the polling. Takaya was the second place vote getter, and thus was afforded a spot.

Yasuhiro, however, was not dominant in the polling. Many votes were cast for former Shooto kings Alexandre Franca "Pequeno" Nogueira and Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro, however K-1 felt that with the participation of Gesias "JZ" Cavalcanti and Rani Yahira, that Brazil was adequately represented in the tournament. Nogueira, however, is still slated to compete in a superfight on the card.

Lithuanian Remigijus Morkevicius also took a great number of votes, but is not yet able to return to the ring, due to nasal surgery. As a result, K-1 MAX fighter Kazuya Yasuhiro was given the final spot. Yasuhiro has competed in mixed martial arts before, losing by submission to 'KID' Yamamoto.

Click here to view the provisional fight card