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Chaos with DREAM
By Zach Arnold | April 29, 2008
Too long to translate, but the summary is that between fighters like Masakatsu Funaki losing and Kiyoshi Tamura suffering a finger injury, everything is in a state of flux right now with both DREAM GP tournaments. In other words, expect some past fighters (like JZ Calvan) to be possibly re-booked as replacements in the tournament format.
Topics: DREAM, Japan, K-1, MMA, Media, Zach Arnold | | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
well, with sakuraba saying he aint fighting in the tournament cause he doesnt like it and they already had akiyama pull out from lack of interest in it (oops, broken nose
)
its a shambles all right, but a good way for dream to “seed” their semi finals they way they want them
not that anybody in japan will notice since it wasnt on tv
I hope this is for the better. With sak and tamura out maybe we will get see akyiama jump in? Maybe misaki as well?
I think once akyiama was out they should have delayed it right away.
Aoki deserves to be in there more, but jz makes for better matchups with the remaining fighters.
And it will be on tv just a couple days delay.
How credible was The Dream US spokesman’s reasons for the no tv coverage?
I think I read about dreams being moved on gryphons website awhile back before news even hit here, and he said it was moved to another time.
Quote from gryphon.
“bad news……DREAM normal TV network is not live but 4 days after.and broadcast time is not golden time but afternoon and midnight.”
FeG america claims they only have so many prime time slots for live coverage, its a contract they signed a year ago.
dream not doing that well? surprise surprise. youd think with all that management talent from ex pride combined with k1s promotional power, that they would have taken japan by storm
does gerry millen or frank trigg work for feg america?
DREAM’s current TV contract was negotiated before DREAM was thought up, when FEG had HERO’S, and HERO’S didn’t run as many shows as DREAM plan to.
Saku has said since day one he is not part of the tournament and I personally prefer it that way, he is too old to be taking part in GPs with top talent. Mayhem is fighting at DREAM.3, they should make that a 1st Round matchup like they are doing with Manhoef/Ralek. Although with Tamura out as well, it would mean no Japanese participants are left.
10 bucks says Tamura has been told he’d be fighting Sakuraba and he’s holding out for more money AGAIN.
I also expect Aoki to fight. you know, cause of money. anytime a fighter in a Japanese tournament “pulls out” or is “injured” prior to the next round, 9 times out of 10 it’s money.
does gerry millen or frank trigg work for feg america?
Jerry/gary/gerry “brother” millen was last seen whispering in fedors ear at a recent m1-challenge event.
And yes his hair has really reached its peak, the blonde spikes really shine.
More wild speculation from the blogging community regarding DREAM.
And what do you mean between fighters like Funaki losing and Tamura being injured?? Wouldn’t that only affect one seed, since they fought each other??
Also, I would prefer Sakuraba out of the tournament, then Mayhem/Shibata and Manhoef/Gracie can become a new bracket.
Man, I wish people would get off of DREAM’s nuts. It’s like people are rooting so hard for them to fail for some reason…
I don’t know if it’s xenophobia or UFC overaggression…but man…
by the way, Sakuraba is already saying he’ll fight in the rest of the tournament.
Maybe they can get Roids Gracie to step in?
Bill
What’s the point of a tournament if half of the fighters didn’t win (or even fight) in the first round? If I was a fighter, I’d probably be a little ticked off. It’s unprofessional imo. I can’t think of any other sport where that happens.
It’s not speculation — it is a translation of comments from mouthpiece Sasahara.
[...] is currently in route back to Florida. These tournaments are both falling apart at the seems. Chaos with DREAM | FightOpinion.com - Your Global Connection to the Fight Industry. __________________ #3-7 in the world, #1 IN MY HEART!!!! MMA DVD COLLECTION Shogun Rua - [...]
Aoki out, JZ was to be replacement but declinded according to sherdog. DREAM = NIGHTMARE
Couture vs Emelianenko could be the biggest fight in MMA history; however, what would the media distribution look like? HDNets is not in every household is it?
Thoughts?
Personally, I don’t care. Just put some good fights on the card and I’ll be happy. The belts, the trophies, etc… are just hype.
It’s in my household.
MMA spreads like wildfire over the internet anyway. Anyone interested in seeing it is able to within 24 hours.
well, being off prime time means less $$$ for Dream/FEG. the cut price production (compared to Pride) and sudden withdrawals by the marquee fighters from “injuries” or “lack of interest” leads me to believe that Dream/FEG is working on a tight budget - Aoki’s replacement JZ pulled out of the offered entry into the GP cause they couldnt reach agreement on $$$
problem is that this is a bit of death spriral -
loss of marquee fighters = less general interest = low ratings = worse slots = less money
Sasahara is not helping things with his shitty performance as executive EP (calling out Trigg, failing to keep marquee fighters in etc)
Is the Korean TV revenue worth talking about?
Korean TV revenue wont mean the difference between DREAM surviving or failing - but it is more than Japanese and US PPVs; it is less than event sponsors and ticket sales - so, in the ranking of revenue streams for a japanese promoter, Korean TV is behind Japanese TV, event sponsors and ticket sales but is a bigger number than PPVs (japanese and US) and the pittance made of merchandising
I’ve always kind of wondered how these Korean promotions are viewed in Japan.
Is it like Mexican pro wrestling on US TV? There are a lot of Koreans in Japan, enough to form a massive undocumented stateless underclass thanks to Japan’s citizenship policies…
Jeremy - there are over 1 million people of Korean origin in Japan. They are certainly documented and there is official and unofficial discrimination against them; but there are also many success stories - Masayoshi Son, CEO of Softbank is the best known (sponsor of K1’s US event)
But on the other hand, they also form the majority of the ranks of the yakuza and funnily enough, the Japanese right wing groups (read yakuza)
Native Japanese view them with suspicion and Korean promotions and products are not successful in Japan (except in a few cases- such as talent/athletes). For example, you wont find a Japanese buying a Hyundai or a Samsung. IN fact you are hard pressed to find Korean consumer products in Japan