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DREAM 5/29 Saitama Super Arena (2011 Bantamweight Japan GP series)
By Zach Arnold | May 15, 2011
- Bantamweight tournament: Darren Uyenoyama vs. Atsushi Yamamoto
- Bantamweight tournament: Yoshiro Maeda vs. Hideo Tokoro
- Bantamweight tournament: Masakazu Imanari vs. Keisuke Fujiwara
- Bantamweight tournament: Kenji Osawa vs. Takafumi Otsuka
- Featherweights: Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Joachim Hansen
- Featherweights: Lion Takeshi vs. Koichiro Matsumoto
- Featherweights: Kaoru Uno vs. Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura
- Lightweights: Katsunori Kikuno vs. Daisuke Nakamura
- Lightweights: Shinya Aoki vs. Antonio McKee
- Bantamweight tournament semi-final #1 (winner of fight #1 vs. fight #2)
- Bantamweight tournament semi-final #2 (winner of fight #3 vs. fight #4)
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 12 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
A non UFC/Zuffa card….these have become quite rare…quite rare indeed
This isn’t actually a bad card.
It is bad if you think this is what JMMA has descended to. I mean compared to what Japan has done in the past. Really only Aoki is a top fighter in this group. Hansen has name recognition and is an exciting fighter but loses as often as he wins and frequently getting KO’d. Maeda and McKee lost their way out of WEC/UFC. Kikuno, Wicky are so far below UFC standards.
I’ll watch it anyway even though there’s little that really interests me. Imanari fight might be interesting. Hansen vs. Ishida for old times sake is worth watching. Aoki twisting up the blanket should be fun. This will be the first time McKee will be in an exciting fight.lol
Why trash Kikuno? He pushed Alvarez and JZ to the limit.
Maeda lost to Champion Miguel Torres (in a FOTY candidate) and Rani Yahya to “lose his way out of the WEC.” He’s only gone 4-3 since but that includes wins over Kanehara, Chase Beebe, and Micah Miller, and losses to Hiroyuki Takaya and Cole Escovedo. He’s hardly been fighting scrubs.
Maeda would definitely be someone I’d be interested in hiring for the UFC if he were a free-agent.
Hansen has been KO’ed a big, whopping 1 time in his entire career. And I agree with smoogy, you’re not giving Kikuno nearly enough credit.
Zach- You beat me too it. I was thinking “frequently? It’s only happened one time I can recall”.
Maeda “lost his way out of the WEC” by losing to then-Champion Miguel Torres in a FOTY candidate, then losing to Rani Yahya. Since then he’s only gone 4-3 but that includes losses to Cole Escovedo and Hiroyuki Takaya, and wins over Micah Miller, Chase Beebe, and Masenori Kanehara. He’s hardly been fighting scrubs. He’s an exciting, talented fighter and someone I’d definitely be interested in seeing Zuffa reacquire.
I hope mckee was smart enough to demand his money upfront like varner wanted
Seems very sports-oriented. Probably a good thing, as the remaining MMA fans in Japan are gonna be disproportionately the hardcore types. Also, the focus on lower weight classes, and mostly domestic talent, is also smart.
I’m not sure it’s such a good idea to just do three weight classes though. If Dream continues to exist in a streamlined format, maybe a MW – FlyW spread on weight classes?
Also they should do everything in their power to get Robert Peralta over to Japan to do a rematch with Takaya, if Peralta isn’t under contract with Zuffa. Make it a multi-fight contract and have the money in a guaranteed escrow or whatever, it’s important to get their FW Champion’s credibility back.
That being said, I get the feeling that they are mainly doing this event to try and attract new investors. They’re still like $5-10 million in the hole, aren’t they?
Is there any more word on FEG’s future? I haven’t heard anything about K-1 this year.
is this the same event that sakibara and kato were going to start? and if not what happend to them, I was excited that sakibara was going to get back into mma.