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DREAM.8 will take place on Sunday, April 5th from Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan. Unfortunately for fans, HDNet has decided to not air the event LIVE and will air it on a tape-delay on April 10th. Fortunately for those of you with the connections, it will likely air on SkyPerfect PPV. 

The main event will, in fact, be Shinya Aoki vs. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai in a first round matchup in the Welterweight Grand Prix. The final four matchups on the card will all be within the framework of the Welterweight Grand Prix. The card will feature the return of Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro to MMA competition, a bout between Dong Sik Yoon and Murilo "Ninja" Rua, and a heavyweight tilt between Sergei Kharitonov and Jeff Monson. It should be an exciting night of action. In this first part of a two part series, we'll break down the DREAM.8 Welterweight Grand Prix opening round:

The marquee matchup of the evening features former top 10 Welterweight Hayato "Mach" Sakurai facing arguably a top 3 Lightweight in Shinya Aoki. The "Baka Survivor" is currently riding a 3 fight win streak since his loss to Joachim Hansen in the DREAM.5 Lightweight Grand Prix final, but did manage to defeat Eddie Alvarez on New Year's Eve at K-1 Dynamite!!. Sakurai is coming off a win over Katsuyori Shibata at the same event.

This will be a move up in weight for Aoki, and it'll also be a rematch of their 2005 Shooto bout in which Sakurai won via decision. The circumstances are a bit different this time around.

Aoki was only seven bouts into his career during their first matchup, and Sakurai was a much younger fighter. Sakurai also hasn't taken on top notch competition in his last few fights, and he also lost to the unlikely David Baron in a Shooto matchup back in May. The question becomes whether Sakurai's skill level has dropped off significantly enough for Aoki to take advantage.

Sakurai will be the significantly better striker, but Aoki has felt this pressure before... in nearly every matchup. His jiu-jitsu game has been phenomenal as of late, even against a power punisher like Alvarez. Can Sakurai avoid the submission? I'm leaning toward Aoki's youth, speed, and knowledge to outplay Sakurai this time around.

Interesting addition to the Welterweight Grand Prix, but it definitely doesn't feature two upper-echelon talents. High is currently 6-1 with his main claim to fame being a victory over former UFC fighter Kevin Burns. His most recent fight took place on the Affliction: Day of Reckoning card in which he was knocked out in a little over a minute by Jay Hieron.

Yuya Shirai (15-7) is a DEEP and M-1 Challenge veteran. When taking on mid to upper-echelon competition, he has came up short, but that doesn't dismiss him as solid competition for High. There are a couple of problems I forsee.

In High's short career, he's still been able to finish most of his opponents while Shirai has had trouble finishing opponents over the course of his career. He's more a submission fighter while having much less likelihood of knocking High out. I'm leaning toward Jason High in this matchup.

DEEP veteran Seichi Ikemoto will take on Cage Rage veteran Marius Zaromskis in another WW Grand Prix matchup of the evening. Ikemoto's record may look like a huge signal that this matchup could be fairly one-sided, but it's been quite awhile since Ikemoto has had a terrible outing.

Ikemoto's last loss came to quick transitioning phenom Daisuke Nakamura at PRIDE Bushido 12 in August of 2006. Since then, he's gone 4-0-1 with a second win over Hidehiko Hasegawa highlighting his run. He's got the power to end fights standing, but he isn't overly technical in his striking as evident with many of his decision wins.

The heavy-handed Lithuanian in Marius Zaromskis is a pleasant surprise in the Grand Prix. Casual fans should love the knockout power he possesses. He hasn't been the most technical standup fighter as with most U.K. products, but his power alone could present huge problems for Ikemoto.

Very intriguing matchup in Alessio vs. Galvao. Galvao is only in his third matchup in professional mixed martial arts, but the hype surrounding him is plentiful. Galvao won the Medium Heavyweight Gold Medal at the BJJ Worlds in 2008. He has a very dynamic jiu-jitsu ground game coupled with a powerful physique and impressive strength. It should provide an ample test for Galvao as Alessio is a very evasive wrestler.

WEC veteran John Alessio is coming off a loss to Paul Daley at MFC 19. He's been fairly susceptible to better strikers in his more recent bouts, but this will be a totally different bout. Galvao will want this fight on the floor, and his overall power could be a tremendous feat to overcome. Alessio's experience will be what he needs to feed off of, but without overwhelming striking, I wonder how long he can hang on the floor.

This is a non-Welterweight Grand Prix matchup, but I thought I'd mention it in this preview due to its significance to DREAM.9's FW GP matchups. A tough to call matchup between DREAM veteran Hideo Tokoro and Pancrase and DEEP veteran Daiki "DJ.taiki" Hata will round out the Featherweight Grand Prix. Hata has some solid power in his hands and solid ground and pound abilities. Tokoro possesses more of a submission game than an actual striking threat. He has some venerable skills on the floor.

I'm leaning toward Hata in this matchup. Tokoro has a huge experience edge, but Hata has proven to be elusive to the submission. His standup will be a factor in punishing Tokoro to a win. The winner will fight at DREAM.9.

I'll be breaking down the non-tournament bouts in my next article to be posted on Friday, April 3rd.

Images courtesy of BloodyElbow.com user, Baudelaire