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DREAM 3/15 Saitama Super Arena
By Zach Arnold | March 15, 2008
Spoilers. Plus, here’s a live event report. Brent Brookhouse has a recap. MMA Opinion also has a recap.
The claimed paid attendance for the show was 19,120.
Also, here are the videos of the fights on Daily Motion…
- Minowaman defeated Lee Gwan in R1 in 1′25.
- Hayato “Mach” Sakurai defeated Hidetaka Monma by KO in R1 in 4′12.
- Joachim Hansen defeated Kotetsu Boku by a 3-0 judges’ decision.
- Luiz Buscape defeated Kazuyuki Miyata in R1 in 7′37 (sleeper hold).
- Katsuhiko Nagata defeated Artur Umakhanov by a 3-0 judges’ decision.
- Mitsuhiro Ishida defeated Jung Bu-Kyung by a 3-0 judges’ decision.
- Mirko Cro Cop defeated Tatsuya Mizuno in 56 seconds of R1.
- Eddie Alvarez defeated Andre Dida.
- Tatsuya Kawajiri defeated Black Mamba by a 3-0 judges’ decision.
- JZ Calvan and Shin’ya Aoki was abruptly ended when Calvan hit Aoki in the back of the head with an elbow. Aoki was given some time to recover, but the ring doctor stopped the bout because Aoki was feeling some numbness in his body.
Announced for the upcoming DREAM Middleweight GP tournament: Yoshihiro Akiyama, Masakatsu Funaki, Kazushi Sakuraba, Yoon Dong-Sik, Kin Tai Ei, Shungo Oyama, and Minowaman.
Videos
Topics: DREAM, Japan, MMA, Media, Zach Arnold | | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
ANNOUNCE SPOILERS NEXT TIME. PLEASE
Cro Cop fight up now…anyone else watching the stream?
Alvarez absolutely crushed Dida, it was a trainwreck.
One thing to say… PRIDE NEVER DIE!
“Alvarez absolutely crushed Dida, it was a trainwreck.”
After getting knocked down early. Great fight…in no way one sided, although the last minute was a beating. Best fight of the night, IMO. I hope they match Alvarez up with Hansen in Rd 2.
Since JZ/Aoki was a no contest, does that fill up the empty Rd 2 spot with both advancing?
Iam a HUGE MARK for Yugi Nagata so I was pulling for his brother but doubt he could beat Umakhanov.
Iam shocked and elated that Nagata won
Aoki / JZ was the only fight that really got my heart thumping. Left a bitter taste in my mouth with the ending.
Looked like he elbowed him in the trap.
Too bad the stream was in Japanese, or we could have a clear idea of what happens with Aoki/Calvan.
Alvarez is the dark horse, methinks.
The doctor said Aoki’s neck was swollen and there was some numbness in his arms.
Saw this in the DREAM rules:
“In the opening round and the quarterfinals, in the event of a no contest, the fighter who is able to physically continue will advance to the next round. If neither can advance, FEG will select a fighter to advance. If a fighter victorious in the opening or quarterfinal round cannot advance due to injury, the fighter he defeated will advance in his place. If neither can advance to the next round due to injury, FEG will again select a fighter to advance at its discretion.”
Guess it’s JZ advancing.
Nah, I think they’ll just schedule a rematch for the next round. Since when has Japanese MMA followed any rules?
1. Horrible Ref in the Sakurai fight. He let about 20+ unanswered blows go on as Monma was just covering up. Typical Japanese garbage.
2. Cro Cop fought an asbolutely scrub. Wasn’t really even a fight. It almost made Cro Cop vs. Sanchez look respectable.
3. Minowa fight was another piece of garbage.
4. Miyata vs. Buscape - Miyata was winning the first portion of the fight. The crowd was absolutely dead for this fight. Makes me wonder what type of crowds this event is attracting.
5. Dida vs. Alvarez - Great fight. This is the proper weight class for Alvarez. He got hit with basically the same punch 3 times. If a Lightweight can hit harder then Dida, then Alvarez is KO’d in that fight. Still an impressive performance.
^ lol at the typical non-UFC “review” by Huddle.
Why do u even bother posting? We know what your ridiculously biased opinions are anyways.
Feel free to tell me were my anti-UFC bias is…
It might be American-centric, as I have no love for squash matches, but I don’t see anything in there that is overly skewed. I’m trying to watch the rest of the fights to comment on those as well.
To be honest, Huddle’s assessment is fairly accurate. The referee allowed Sakurai to put bombs on Monma’s face for about 20 seconds. He was looking at Monma’s face for an expression of defeat, but as we all know, fighters don’t just give up when getting pounded. The referees are there to stop that kind of damage.
The CroCop fight was exactly what it was… a can fight. CroCop did, however, looked heavier and had more muscle in his arms. He also managed to use a nice Muay Thai knee and a standing elbow strike, a bit different than usual.
Dida didn’t hit Alvarez solid with many shots except the big shot that put Alvarez on the mat. The big problem for Dida is he simply loops everything, never straight punches to use his reach, and it’s a sad waste of his power. Alvarez was dominant, and impressed me with this fight.
Unable to find the Ishida, Nagata, & Kawajiri fights….
6. Aoki vs. JZ - The ending was a big disappointment. However, I think a lot was shown in the fight. Aoki showed no way he could threaten JZ. JZ seemed to go in there with a good gameplan, and Aoki doesn’t have good enough striking or enogh strength to compete with JZ on the feet.
I’m not sure how DREAM will do things for the next round. There are already 6 fighters who advanced. They could put JZ/Aoki rematch right into the Quarterfinals. But then there is Ribeiro & Uno as well. Perhaps those two fighters can compete in an alternate fight (and a good alternate fight at that) just in case anybody gets injured for the Semi-finals. I think that is the best scenario at this time.
7. Hansen vs. Boku - Hansen’s ground game seems to be improving, but I can’t get the images of the quick sub to Aoki out of my head. I think against a good submission guy, he is always at risk of losing. Still a good competitive fight.
Check my site, I have them all up.
Review the fight, not the reviewer. Personally, I agree with everything Huddle said. This was a sad, sad event.
What did Mirko’s fight prove? The guy covered up once he was hit with a punch. Japanese fighters are known for their heart? I wonder if the guy was paid to roll over like that?
Sakurai didn’t really do much damage to Monma since he turtled up. But turtling up should be an automatic loss. That is a bad referee.
I hope they get better because Dream 1 is no where near Zombie Pride. More like Zombie Heroes.
Aoki totally flopped on that fight. He should’ve taken the point deduction on JZ. Since when has an elbow to the back take a fighter out of commission? That was WEAK.
The Ishida, Nagata, & Kawajiri fights all felt like the same fights….
1. One fighter was a more dominant wrestler who constantly went for the takedowns.
2. The fighter on his back wasn’t good enough to mount any sort of solid offense of get the fight stood up.
3. Fight went to decision.
At least those fights weren’t squashes, but they were pretty boring.
Hopefully the Quarterfinals will be a little better. I have little hope for the Middleweight Grand Prix…
The Middleweight GP participants aren’t quite doing it for me. I don’t understand why Melvin Manhoef isn’t in there, don’t see him being better fit in K-1.
If you got to see the fights can you rate them at http://mma.kamander.com.
Just click the stars. Thanks!
I just have to ask….what the hell was with those white shoulder bags the refs were wearing? That was just…weird. The Alveraz/Dida fight was good stuff, but Dida just throws WAY too many looping punches. It sucks how JZ/Aoki ended, but it seemed like Aoki suffered a stinger or something from those elbows. Since there were repeated elbows from JZ as compared to just one, shouldn’t it have been a DQ win for Aoki as oppossed to a No Contest?
Manhoef isnt in the MW gp coz he is headlining a k1 show in Amsterdam against peter aerts that month.
And aerts will beat him up.
All in all it was a pretty underwhelming ppv in my opinion, especially given the non-finish in the JZ-Aoki fight.
I’m pretty high on JZ and I’d love to see how he matches up against the UFC lw’s. I’m wondering how many of these guys in the GP might rightly belong at 145…Dida is pretty smallish for 155 when seeing him in there with Alvarez, who belongs at 155 and not WW.
I put 6 pics of JZ beating Aoki’s back on my blog.
They show the third shot was a definite one striking around Aoki’s back of the head-neck.
According to DREAM official rules, fighters are not allow to strike back of the head and (cervical) spine, not only by elbow but also punch and kick.
Chuck Says: I just have to ask….what the hell was with those white shoulder bags the refs were wearing? That was just…weird.
robnashville says: More than likely chuck that was the referee cam set up that they used to have in Pride and probably added to Dream coverage. The lap bag contains the battery and transmitter needed to send out the wireless signal to the production truck. For some great ref cam footage check out boondock’s third man video
http://boondockvideo.wordpress.com/2007/11/27/3rd-man-september-2006/#comments
well the matchmaking wasnt meant to be that good. Aoki and JZ was the only potential barn burner. But with the next round you have Kawajiri, Ishida, Hanson, and Aoki–which is what DREAM was shooting for anyway
super late stoppage in sakurai’s fight.
Leland,
Are you saying that Japanese cameras add five to ten pounds of muscle? Cro Cop’s opponent certain used an unorthodox style. The light whiffing knuckle followed by a wide open back while he looked to see which direction Mirko was in is clearly integral to his overall fighting technique.
that cro-cop fight was ridiculous. I kind of expected him to shake his head after he won, mumbling to himself “is this what i have become?”
doem,
Have you seen Mirko in “Ultimate Force?”
I highly recommend it. He fights his way out of a reeducation camp using mixed martial arts. It’s ridiculous.
there were some decent fights here, it’s not a Bushido 9, but it’s not as bad as some of you are ripping on
on the Aoki fight, i think JZ looked really sorry for what he did, it’ll be interesting what happens there… hansen is always exciting
In all seriousness, they should have just made it an 8-man tournament from the start. The JZ/Aoki fight was the only match-up on the card that I was interested in, and it ended horribly.
The JZ/Aoki fight was a total letdown. A nice prelude to a potential rematch. Overall, the card was OK. A decent re-boot for the wanna-be Pride clone.
Evidently, Tonight’s boxing fight between Pacquiao-Marquez will probably a lot more exciting than the ones I saw on DREAM.
Man, I hope we get a Hansen/Kawajiri rematch.
It was the Aoki/JZ of 2006.
I’ll also be happy with a Hansen/Alvarez pairing.
I have to agree with the earlier sentiment that Yarrenoka was much more impressive than Dream 1. Crocop hardly looked in the same shape as he was for the 2006 OPWG, and his opponent buckled with a few glancing blows. Hell, Eddie Sanchez took more solid strikes than that guy did. How does this help Crocop’s confidence other than build up a false sense of security? And the lineup for the MWGP looks just as unimpressive. Minowa, Funaki, and Sakuraba… urgh…
So it’s a first event, hopefully it’ll get better as time goes on?
straight up the live event and the TV 95 min version are 2 completely diff things
I didn’t much care for the 95 min Tv vers
the order of the matches was changed and 3 or more matches weren’t shown in their entirety.
As for the matchups..the biggest letdown for me was that they didn’t have Melendez..still feel that he should’ve won his last match and remained undefeated but…judges are judges.
As for GP the last match will be w/ Caol Uno and potentially either Shaolin/G.Melendez
Minowa looked decent w/ his lutatdor moves–Bum Kwan reminds of Riggs b4 the weight cut.(don’t joke his skills he’s only 21)
Monma was clearly overmatched but the ref was asking him if he wants to tap to strikes(others have) and he said no i’m ok…so the Refs decision is fine Sakurai is solid and will be in UFC soon
(no that isn’t a rumor) he was shown during last UFc and is capable of signing a short deal just like Misak just did for Strikeforce
The Hansen match was great
Ishida-BJk looked good and had a finish
Buscape looked good against Miyata
I loved the Artur-Katsuhiko Nagata match for its constant swings but this 1 needed an overtime round…Nagata will be the next great Japanese wrestling hope or not…
Mizuno was clearly overmatched by Mirko
What can u say Mirko gets 1 warm up b4 the serious competition shows up…
Alvarez-Dida was a great match for entertainment value but both showed huge holes in their game. Enjoyable=-
a Black mamba is a poisonous snake and Carter Gill showed that quick strike repeatedly despite being controlled by Kawajiri’s wrestling, Gill almost had a ko win multiple times throughout the match…excellent test of Kawajiri’s cardio/durabality against a much longer/taller competitor
Jz looked dominant but Aoki did have a flying sub attempt where he slipped on the mat can’t wait for the rematch…they should just let both compete in a 5 round superfight and give the winner a crack against the winner of the 16 man LWGP winner on NYE.
overall a decent event but definitely needs better balance for the upcoming MWGP…ok Sakuraba is an ok 73kg mw but Funaki, YDS, and Oyama don’t really excite me as much. Tae Kin needs to improve his overall game b4 he even cracks such a lineup. Nonetheless I feel that Dennis Kang and Akiyama need to be rematched in this tournament.
Yeah sved. Like UFC allows top foghters like Mach to fight in other organisations. And if Sakurai has to choose, he’ll choose DREAM, not the UFC.
Definitely an underwhelming debut for DREAM. Felt more like a rebadged HEROs event, than anything associated with DSE. Perhaps our expectations are just too high, or maybe the lack of a respectable opponent for Cro Cop and the JZ/Aoki outcome discolored what was otherwise a decent, if unspectacular, event.
Alvarez will be a nice dark horse for the entire GP, especially given his size advantage that will make the rest of the field (except for possibly JZ) look like small children. I think it is becoming obvious that fighters who compete in Japan simply don’t cut the same weight as Americans.
Also, I’m hoping it’s Gomi or Shaolin inserted into the 2nd round rather than Uno. DREAM needs a bit more star power, both for hardcore fans (and probably for casual Japanese fans as well).
Anyone know how the show did in ratings?
I have to admit. DREAM 1 was a let down. What’s worse is that the TBS 95 min TV version was edited too much. The TBS production and the fight card quality resembles K-1 HERO’s more than PRIDE. Zach may have had a point when he said that DREAM is probably not going to be the new PRIDE that PRIDE fans crave. For the live event, it would probably feel more like PRIDE presentation wise but the fights weren’t up to par regardless. Hopefully DREAM improves because right now DREAM looks like K-1 HERO’s + some PRIDE imports rather than what I had hoped (PRIDE style + K-1 HERO’s fighters added in). Yarennoka! was clearly the superior event.
Funny how for many it didn’t resemble Pride or even Yarennoka despite that 99% percent of people behind this show were the old Pride staff who were also behind Yarennoka.
how the hell did hansen not finish that fight?
I was there live and had an amazing time, as a live event it far exceeded all the UFC events I have been to (UFC 70, 75 and 80). It wasnt quite as good as FInal COnflict 2006, but what is?
I cant wait to go back to Tokyo for another one.