The fight order for DREAM 4 was finalized today. Not surprisingly Sakuraba vs. Manhoef will headline the event. However, there is one surprise in the order, see if you can catch it:

OLYMPIA DREAM.4 Middleweight GP 2008 2nd Round
Date: June 15th, 2008
Place: Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan

Middleweight GP 2nd Round Fights:
8. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Melvin Manhoef
7. Ronaldo Jacare vs. Jason Miller
6. Kin Taiei vs. Zelg Galesic
5. Yoon Dong Sik vs. Gegard Mousasi

Featherweight Fight:
4. Hideo Tokoro vs. Darren Uyenoyama

Heavyweight Fights:
3. Gadzhiev Alavutdin vs. Ralek Gracie
2. Alistair Overeem vs. Lee Tae Hyun

Lightweight GP 2nd Round Fight:
1. Shinya Aoki vs. Katsuhiko Nagata

Shinya Aoki again slotted into the opening match?

It isn't a far stretch of the imagination to believe that the DREAM executives were less than pleased with the main event of their inaugural event being ruled a No Contest. It was also easy to assume that Aoki/Calvan lead off DREAM.2 in order to display an eagerness to finally have their trilogy come to a conclusion, and not necessarily to defame two of their top draws with undercard status.

Now, for the second straight time, Aoki is again placed at the very bottom of the undercard.

Why isn't Aoki billed fourth? Surely it would make sense to place a tournament fight 4th, before the middleweight bouts took place. Is this another attempt to eagerly wrap up a earlier round of the Lightweight GP? Or, perhaps, is there a more nefarious motive, with the lingering displeasure of DREAM.1 still in the minds of DREAM's upper brass?

Sharp analysis from the fanposts. Promoted by Kid Nate.

At DREAM.4 the typical striker vs. grappler motif will again headline a Japanese mixed martial arts event. However, one thing will make this unlike any other recent match-up of the two styles: the legality of knees to a grounded opponent.

It's easy to forget, but Kazushi Sakuraba hasn't fought with legal knees on the ground since New Years Eve 2005 . While participating in K-1 Hero's the rules disallow the strikes. Melvin Manhoef has never participated with the technique, with them being absent in K-1 Hero's, as well as in Cage Rage.

In Melvin Manhoef's first fight that permitted knee strikes to the grounded opponent he hastily scored a knockout victory with a single, powerful knee. In that DREAM.3 fight, against Dae Won Kim, Manhoef managed to scramble off his back, reverse position, and end up on top. This, along with his KO victory over Yosuke Nishijima from the mount position, points to a growing capability of Melvin Manhoef to more affectively work on the mat.

Of course Kazushi Sakuraba has the ability to submit opponents. While in K-1 HERO's he managed five submission victories in seven fights. However, three of those five wins came over competitors with a combined record of two and eight. Sakuraba has earned no knockout victories while in K-1 HERO's, and in his most recent fight struggled to take down Andrews Nakahara.

Manhoef's improved ground game, added to Sakuraba's diminished, aging skill set, along with the key element of knees to the grounded opponent, seems to tell me that a first round knock out victory for Manhoef will close out the main event of DREAM.4.

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