DREAM.3
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(Jason Miller keeps ‘em laughing against Katsuyori Shibata.)
DREAM.3 went down today in Saitama, Japan, with two upsets pulled off in the lightweight grand prix, while Nick Diaz, Jason Miller, and Melvin Manhoef all scored first-round TKOs. The night’s biggest surprise was the defeat of top-ten lightweight Mitsuhiro Ishida at the hands of Caol Uno — who had received a bye into the GP’s quarterfinals — by way of rear-naked choke early in the second round. Eddie Alvarez also took an unexpected win, grinding down Joachim Hansen over 15 minutes en route to a unanimous decision. The card’s other marquee names didn’t disappoint, with K-1 vet Melvin Manhoef demolishing Dae Won Kim, and Nick Diaz getting the better of Katsuya Inoue in a slugfest. But Jason Miller did his best to steal the show, entering the ring in Zubaz-esque tights for his fight against the completely outmatched Katsuyori Shibata, and repeatedly posing for the camera. Full results are below, and videos are after the jump.
Lightweight GP Quarterfinals
Caol Uno def. Mitsuhiro Ishida via rear-naked choke, 1:39 of round 2
Eddie Alvarez def. Joachim Hansen via unanimous decision
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Luiz “Buscape” Firmino via unanimous decision
Welterweight Feature
Nick Diaz def. Katsuya Inoue via TKO (towel thrown), 6:47 of round 1
Middleweight GP Round 1
Jason Miller def. Katsuyori Shibata via TKO, 6:07 of round 1
Middleweight GP Reserve Fight
Melvin Manhoef def. Kim Dae Won via TKO, 4:08 of round 1
Lightweight Features
Daisuke Nakamura def. Jung Bukyung, 1:15 of round 2
Takeshi Yamazaki def. Shoji Maruyama via unanimous decision
(more…)
Written by admin on May 11th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on DREAM.3 and Mitsuhiro Ishida and Buscape and Caol Uno and Tatsuya Kawajiri and Luiz Firmino and Japan and DREAM and News and Videos and Jason Miller and Eddie Alvarez and Recap and Joachim Hansen and MMA.
(“Adrianu!”)
With a replacement unable to be found for the injured Shinya Aoki, DREAM officials have decided to allow Aoki to remain in their lightweight tournament, with his quarterfinal bout against Katsuhiko Nagata pushed from DREAM.3 (May 11th) to DREAM.4 (June 15th). Interestingly — and I only use the word “interestingly” because “bullshiteously” isn’t a word — Aoki’s doctor claims that the injury Aoki sustained against Calvancante on April 29th was a severely bruised rib, and not anything to do with his face, as was initially fabricated reported. Also, the doc says that during the Aoki/Calvancante re-match, Shinya was still recovering from a cervical injury he received during his first fight with JZ on March 15th, which impaired the feeling in his right arm. And cervical injuries are no joke, people; ask all my ex-girlfriends.
Anyway, this is great news for the lightweight GP’s credibility, although the newly-staggered nature of Aoki’s bracket will sap a little bit of the tournament’s drama. DREAM.4 will also feature Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s match against (possibly) Jerome LeBanner, as well as the second round of its Middleweight Grand Prix.
In other news from the Far East, Yuki Kondo has been booked to fight Roger Gracie at Sengoku II (May 18th; Tokyo, Japan), which is also slated to feature fights between Josh Barnett and Jeff Monson, and Kevin Randleman vs. Ryo Kawamura. Kondo has competed mainly as a light-heavyweight in Pancrase, the UFC, and PRIDE, and holds notable victories over Mario Sperry, Semmy Schilt, Ikuhisa Minowa, and Frank Shamrock. The 6′4″ Roger Gracie competed at heavyweight in his MMA debut, a first-round submission win over Ron Waterman in December 2006. Nightmare of Battle is reporting this one as an “open weight” bout, which would make it similar to Randleman’s match, in which the 205-pound vet is taking on a natural middleweight in Kawamura. It sounds like Sengoku could a use a little assistance in its fight-booking department — or, they’re more interested in spectacles than legitimate competition. Either way, it strikes us as kinda bullshiteous…
Written by admin on May 5th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on DREAM.3 and DREAM.4 and Roger Gracie and Yuki Kondo and Japan and Shinya Aoki and News and Rumors and DREAM and MMA.
(Our thoughts exactly.)
I would take this as a clear sign that EliteXC’s welterweight belt is cursed by poltergeists and refuses to be possessed by mortals.
The championship fight between top 170-pound contender Jake Shields and challenger Drew Fickett for EliteXC’s vacant welterweight title has been postponed for a second time, as it was announced today that Fickett has injured his knee and will not be able to compete at EliteXC’s June 14th event in Honolulu, Hawaii. The two fighters were originally supposed to meet at “Shamrock vs. Le” on March 29th, but Shields pulled a muscle in his back days before the event, and Fickett took on Jae Suk Lim instead, winning by guillotine choke in the first round. Luckily, Shields doesn’t seem to be too disappointed by Fickett’s injury, as his back may not be 100% recovered yet anyway. As he told MMAWeekly:
“I think I could be okay to fight by (June 14), but I think opting for July would probably be the smartest thing. It would give me more time to rehab before jumping into sparring, and I think there would be a little more exposure with it being on CBS (in July).â€
The June 14th card still features K.J. Noons defending his lightweight title against Yves Edwards, as well as fights between Nick Diaz and Muhsin Corbbrey, Murilo “Ninja†Rua vs. Tony Bonello, Rafael Feijao vs. Wayne Cole, and Ron Waterman vs. Dave Herman.
Speaking of Diaz, the pot-abusing lightweight has joined the lineup of DREAM.3 (May 11th; Saitama, Japan), where he’ll take on Katsuya Inoue, a two-time welterweight King of Pancrase with a career record of 16-5-3. Reportedly, the winner of that fight will face Hayato Sakurai for DREAM’s welterweight title in July or September. (I guess not all the belts will be awarded via chaotic grand prix.) With this addition, DREAM.3’s mighty, mighty lineup is looking like this:
Lightweight GP Round 2
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis Buscape
Joachim Hansen vs. Eddie Alvarez
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Caol Uno
Katsuhiko Nagata vs. [whoever fills in for Shinya Aoki]
Middleweight GP Round 1 Fight
Jason Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Middleweight GP Reserve Fight
Melvin Manhoef vs. Kim Dae Won
Nick Diaz vs. Katsuya Inoue (welterweights)
Jung Bukyung vs. Daisuke Nakamura (lightweights)
Takeshi Yamazaki vs. TBA (featherweights)
Written by admin on May 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on Japan and Hawaii and DREAM.3 and Honolulu and DREAM and News and EliteXC and Jake Shields and Drew Fickett and Nick Diaz and MMA.
(Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)
DREAM announced today that Gesias “JZ” Calvancante and Shinya Aoki will face each other again at DREAM.2 (April 29th; Saitama, Japan), to decide which fighter will proceed to the second round of its all-star lightweight grand prix. Calvancante and Aoki’s first match, at last month’s DREAM.1, ended in a no-contest after Calvancante landed a series of illegal elbow strikes to the back of Aoki’s neck, and Aoki wasn’t able to continue fighting; Calvancante had been dominating the action up to that point, and many fans speculated that Aoki overplayed his injury in order to escape the fight and avoid a loss.
DREAM.2 will also feature the opening round of a middleweight grand prix that will feature bouts between Denis Kang and Gegard Mousasi, Kiyoshi Tamura and Masakatsu Funaki, and (possibly) Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Andrews Nakahara; Yoshihiro Akiyama and Ikuhisa Minowa are also expected to participate. The winner of the JZ/Aoki battle will have to compete again just two weeks later at DREAM.3 (May 11th; Saitama, Japan) against Katsuhiko Nagata, who defeated Artur Oumakhanov by unanimous decision in the lightweight tourney’s first round. The rest of the lightweight GP’s second-round matchups look like this:
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis “Buscape” Firmino (note: Kawajiri and Firmino previously met at PRIDE Bushido 8 in July 2005, where Kawajiri won by unanimous decision.)
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Caol Uno (note: Uno, a UFC/K-1 Hero’s vet, didn’t compete in the lightweight GP’s first round, and is getting an automatic bye into the second.)
Joachim Hansen vs. Eddie Alvarez (note: Joachim Hansen is a freakin’ beast.)
Written by admin on April 4th, 2008 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on JZ and lightweights and DREAM.2 and DREAM.3 and Gesias Calvancante and Japan and News and DREAM and Shinya Aoki and MMA.
