7/20 DREAM 10 Fights - DREAM 9 Ratings and Thoughts

Summer time is a bit more quiet on the Japanese MMA scene, as usual. But DREAM has given us some things to think about.

The DREAM 9 ratings were good compared to previous events, DREAM 9 got a rating of 16.2% it topped out at 19.1% during the "Kid" Yamamoto vs. Joe Warren fight. And there is the problem, "Kid" is out of the tournament and he is the biggest DREAMs biggest draw. Expect to see him in the tournament reserve fight. Warren really showed how talented he is, he has started his MMA career in a great way.

What about the rest of the DREAM 9 event? Tokoro again put up a great fight for the crowd, but it takes 2 to tango. The metchup with Abel Cullum was great, the energy in this fight was amazing and it should be a fight of the year candidate.

On the opposite side was the Imanari vs. Fernandes was not the sort of fight the average fans will enjoy. Still a lot of skills and Imanari is a very difficult fighter to face. Fernandes did well and got the win.

The fighters left in the featherweight tournament are:
Bibiano Fernandes
Joe Warren
Hideo Tokoro
Hiroyuki Takaya

It will be very interesting to see how the FEG will match these guys up, I am going to guess Warren vs. Fernandes and Tokoro vs. Takaya. It would ensure a Japanese fighter in the final.

Now it is time to look forward to the DREAM 10 event, which will take place July 20, and I was surprised at some of the fight announcements. But there are already some great fights announced and rumors of some more.

Already announced were the welterweight Tournament semi-finals:
Semi-final 1: Hayato "Mach" Sakurai 35-8-2 vs. 9-2-0 Marius Zaromskis
Semi-final 2: Andre Galvao 3-0-0 vs. 7-1-0 Jason High

True to tradition, the final will be held the same night. And there should be a reserve fight announced too.

During the DREAM 9 event, 3 more fights were announced:
Light: Shinya Aoki 20-4-0 vs. 20-2-0 Victor Ribeiro
Light: Katsunori Kikuno 11-1-1 vs. 6-3-1 Andre "Dida" Amade
Middle: Melvin Manhoef 23-5-1 vs. 16-1-0 Paulo Filho

Shinya Aoki is back in the lightweight division, but I was expecting it to be a title fight. Instead he is taking on Victor Ribeiro, who is coming of a win against Katsuhiko Nagata in DREAM 8.

It is good to see Andre "Dida" back in the MMA ring, and his fight with Kikuno should be very good.

Paulo Filho is back in Japan, I am excited to see that but I hope he comes in better shape than his last fight in the WEC. If Filho comes in shape, the fight with Manhoef will be awesome!

On a side note, DREAM still doesnt have a middleweight champion, Could they add a title fight here? Maybe make some sort of tournament format? A rematch between Miller and Jacare at DREAM 11? It will be interesting to see. Lots of things happening in the DREAM organization now.