"Well, it sounds good. So long as it’s an MMA bout, I’m fine with [Kawajiri or Kikuno], or even someone from the UFC. It doesn’t have to be a top-level fighter. Even a mid-level fighter would do, like Joe Stevenson. I actually wanted him to lose [against Nate Diaz], so he’d be cut and he could come to Dream and I could fight him. Life doesn’t always work out the way you want, but anyway, there are a lot of fighters I’d like to fight in the US."

DREAM lightweight star Shinya Aoki brushes aside challenges from DREAM lightweights Tatsuya Kawajiri and Katsunori Kikuno to discuss his fantasy opponent list, per Sherdog.

Photo via Sherdog.

DREAM.10 coverage

First off, my sincere apologies for the lack of these posts in the past month - it's been a relatively slow time for Japanese MMA and a relatively busy time for myself. Lots of news to catch up on, though, so let's get straight to business...

- Following Shinya Aoki's (21-4, 1 NC) unanimous decision victory over Vitor Ribeiro at today's DREAM.10, event producer Keiichi Sasahara told reporters that the "Baka Survivor" will finally get his rubber match with missing lightweight champion Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen (19-7-1). Provided Hansen can stay healthy, the title fight will take place on October 6th at the just-rescheduled DREAM.11. The same show will feature the Featherweight Grand Prix semifinals (Bibiano Fernandes vs. Joe Warren; Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Hideo Tokoro) and finals, plus the second round of the Super Hulk Tournament (Minowaman vs. Hong Man Choi; Gegard Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou). Kazushi Sakuraba was also mentioned as a possible participant. (Source: Kamipro; photo via Sportsnavi.)

- Having just completed its inaugural "Revolutionary Exchanges" event at Korakuen Hall, Shooto promoter Sustain has revealed some details regarding the second and third events in the new series. The second show will take place on September 22nd and is headlined by a Shooto Pacific Rim Welterweight Title rematch between champion Yusuke Endo (12-3-2) and challenger Kotetsu Boku (14-5-2). The pair's first (non-title) bout in January of this year ended in a majority draw after three rounds of back-and-forth action. (Video in the extended entry.) Boku went on to defeat Yutaka Ueda via impressive TKO at Shooto's "Tradition Final" event in May, while Endo was choked out by Shooto Brazil lightweight champ Willamy "Chiquerinho" on the same show.

The third "Revolutionary Exchange" will be held on November 23rd; the only scheduled participant thus far is #2 ranked flyweight Rambaa "M-16" Somdet (6-2). In between the two shows, Sustain will resurrect its Vale Tudo Japan series for an eagerly anticipated event at JCB Hall on October 30th.

Continue reading this post »

The summertime drought for major Japanese MMA ends Monday morning at 3AM Eastern / Midnight Pacific when Fighting and Entertainment Group presents DREAM.10 on HDNet from Saitama Super Arena. DREAM's first Welterweight Grand Prix champion will be crowned; plus we'll see the return of Paulo Filho to Japanese soil against the always dangerous Melvin Manhoef; Shinya Aoki looking to rebound from his brutal WWGP loss as he moves back down to lightweight to face Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro; and the debut of DEEP welterweight champ Katsunori Kikuno against Andre "Dida" Amade, who makes his first MMA apperance in over a year.

As always, BloodyElbow.com will be here with live play-by-play and results, plus comments from the long-dormant BE Night Crew.

1:56 AM ET: Just about an hour left 'til showtime. If you somehow missed the news, WWGP favorite "Mach" Sakurai needed three tries and several hours to make the 76kg (167 lbs.) limit at weigh-ins yesterday. We'll get to see how such a grueling cut will affect his performance against Marius Zaromskis early on, as their semifinal bout is the second fight of the night.

3:20 AM ET: We're live! The opening VTR is playing (sentimental music, lots of vintage Fedor/Mirko/Wand footage) and the ceremony should start momentarily.

Continue reading this post »

Continue reading this post »

This Sherdog interview with Tatsuya Kawajiri gets to the essence of it:

Sherdog: Many MMA fans were critical of you fighting under K-1 rules. Did you have doubts?
Kawajiri: I didn’t have doubts because I had no choice. If I had declined, I wouldn’t have fought on New Year’s Eve, and, at the same time, I had no place to run away from the situation. Looking at the reactions from all of my doubters after I won, I knew that I could shut down all the critics like that if I won. I understood that nobody would accept me saying, "I challenged a K-1 fight, but I lost. Sorry." K-1 rules aren’t the best fit for me, and it certainly was a difficult challenge, but I wanted to prove the doubters wrong.

Sherdog: Did you have trouble bringing your senses for MMA back after the K-1 match?
Kawajiri: Definitely. I didn’t grapple at all for a month. Normally when I train twice a day, I mix up striking, grappling and physical training so that I train different areas of MMA during the day. But this time around, I concentrated on grappling. I trained grappling day and night, trying to regain my wrestling, jiu-jitsu and grappling skills.

There's just no reason for this kind of stuff, IMO. Kawajiri is an MMA fighter. He wants to fight MMA. Fighting K-1 is a high-risk, low-reward proposition for him.

My guess is that the FEG management (who run both DREAM and K-1) believes that featuring MMA fighters on their higher-rated K-1 cards will draw attention to the DREAM promotion. It also builds heat between MMA fans and kickboxing fans with the inevitable -- "who is stronger? MMA or K-1?" hype they build around each cross-over fight.

I just think its part and parcel of a lack of seriousness about MMA as a sport on the part of FEG. I far prefer the approach taken by World Victory Road and believe that over time we will see WVR's Sengoku overtake DREAM as the #1 Japanese MMA promotion.

Hi-res versions available at DREAM Official.

Continue reading this post »

Zach Arnold can be relied on for the savvy but contrarian take:

Give credit to Ken Imai — he took his client, who had little or no leverage in the MMA marketplace, and Team Mirko managed to work over Dana White beautifully. He got his one fight against a relatively ’safe’ opponent and now will cash in with a new deal with DREAM.

No, Dana, Mirko didn’t screw you over. Ken Imai didn’t screw you over. They played you like a fiddle, but they didn’t screw you over. You gave them an opening, they took advantage of it like anyone would in this cutthroat business, and they turned it into something bigger and better.
...

As for Mirko saying one thing and doing another to Dana’s face… well, take a look at Mirko’s past history in the fight business and how he handled his deal with power agent Miro Mijatovic before joining Ken Imai and Sakakibara in PRIDE. No surprises there. Dana made a one-fight deal with the devil and the devil acted like the devil does.

Our own Michael Rome responds in the comments:

A lawsuit is probably coming, with claims for breach of contract, fraud, violation of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, detrimental reliance, and more.

We’d need to know the conversation to see if there was an oral contract, there may have been. And whether U.S. courts have jurisdiction is a close question, but the answer is probably yes. They can also sue abroad. If they do, Mirko will spend more money defending this than he "played" Dana for.

Commenter Chuck has another view:

I’m sure if this happened to Scott Coker, Monte Cox, Don King, Lou Dibella, Bob Arum, etc. no one would make this out to be a big deal. You know why? Because this shit happens ALL THE TIME!!!! Hell, I remember when KJ Noons left EXC suddenly, most people thought it was a great idea that he left the way he did. Very little difference than what happened here. Do you know how many small time promoters (of any combat sport, including pro wrestling) get burned by prospects leaving them when a bigger promoter comes around with more money? It happens all the time. Now people suddenly care when it happens to Dana White? Please!!! How hypocritical can you get?

Bloody Elbow #1 fan Alan Conceicaoo adds:

I do have to say one additional thing after waking up. Its pretty obvious DREAM wants to put on Cro-Cop/Fedor II. Its been talked about since mid 2008, but timing never came together for it. If Cro-Cop does fight Fedor, it puts some holes in the "he doesn’t want to fight legit guys" argument real quick. Of course, he won’t have earned it and will have no chance of winning, but that’s minor compared to the money and interest it can generate for them. Besides, everyone here would still watch.

Personally, I think its just the way life goes at every level from the biggest to the smallest. Dana needed/wanted Cro Cop to beef up a troubled German card. Cro Cop wanted a pay day and wanted to trigger a little bidding war for his services. Everybody got what they needed out of the deal and Cro Cop gets to ask Dana, "How taste my pee pee?"

UPDATE: Fightlinker has more:

The funny thing about this is that Dana just seems to keep getting fucked over by this strange nebulous group of PRIDE-related assholes. 364 days of the year, he keeps his poker face on and refuses to cut anyone any slack. But one day a year his inner PRIDE mark re-appears and he ends up cutting a deal that results in him getting fucked over. And people wonder why he’s not willing to co-promote or bend any rules. Because every time he does, he ends up like Charlie Brown trying to kick that damn football.

As for Mirko, I have no idea what he’s doing and at this point I am very close to not caring. Betraying the UFC doesn’t bother me all that much … Dana has done enough dickish things that it’s kinda refreshing to see him get clowned. But I’m just sick and tired of waiting for Mirko to get back into some kind of title picture that matters. DREAM’s heavyweight division isn’t a joke, but the way it’s booked is. With the UFC we were set to see Crocop vs Nog and Couture. With DREAM, who fucking knows? He could be fighting a dude dressed as a giant chili pepper. So that’s why I’m not too happy about this bullshit.

During intermission at Tuesday's DREAM.9 event, DREAM.10 participants Hayato "Mach" Sakurai, Katsunori Kikuno and Shinya Aoki addressed the Yokohama audience, and a promo video was played which officially announced a handful bouts for the July 20th show at Saitama Super Arena.

The video revealed that fan favorite Melvin Manhoef will return to DREAM against former WEC middleweight champ Paulo Filho, whose visage on the big screen elicited "oohs" from the crowd. Also, the previously scheduled discussed lightweight title bout between Shinya Aoki and Joachim Hansen has apparently been scrapped; the Japanese submission ace will now take on Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro.

In the ring, "Mach" told fans that, as the only remaining Japanese fighter in the Welterweight Grand Prix, he'll do his best to bring the title to Japan. "Please come to support, July 20th at the Saitama Super Arena. The power of everyone becomes my power!" Sakurai will first face Marius Zaromskis, and, should he advance, the winner of Andre Galvao vs. Jason High.

Kikuno, meanwhile, confirmed that his DREAM debut will come against K-1 Hero's veteran Andre "Dida" Amade. The DEEP lightweight ace said that he has dreamt of this moment since he was a high school student. After his last few performances in DEEP, Kikuno certainly looks ready to test himself on the big stage.

Continue reading this post »