3/8 DREAM 7 - Ishida vs. Nakamura Announced

At yesterday's DEEP event, it was announced that Mitsuhiro Ishida will face Daisuke Nakamura at DREAM 7. This will of course not be a GP fight, but one of the non-GP fights on the card.

Daisuke Nakamura had an amazing 2008, winning all of his 7 fight and only once going the distance. His last loss came to Vitor Ribeiro, and he has only 1 loss in his last 12 fights. This should be a very good fight.

Another one will be the fight between Shinya Aoki and David Gardner. Aoki expressed an interest in fighting on the DREAM 7 card, even though he is scheduled for DREAM 8 as well. DREAM has granted him that request, and I am sure the Japanese fans will be looking forward to that fight. David Gardner is an experienced opponent and he has been to Japan before. On that occation, he was fighting in Cage Force and he lost to Koutetsu Boku.

DREAM 7 is shaping up to be a very good card, main focus will be on the featherweight GP, of course.

Announced:
Shinya Aoki 19-3-0 vs. 16-10-0 David Gardner
Mitsuhiro Ishida 17-4-1 vs. 19-9-0 Daisuke Nakamura

Previously announced:
Masakazu Imanari 15-6-1 vs. 12-5-1 Atsushi Yamamoto
Hiroyuki Takaya 9-6-1 vs. Kim Jong Won
Yoshiro Maeda 23-6-2 vs. 10-2-0 Micah Miller
Chase Beebe 12-3-0 vs. Joe Warren
Takafumi Otsuka 8-3-1 vs. 3-2-0 Bibiano Fernandes
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura 9-3-1 vs. 13-2-0 Abel Cullum

Read more...

3/8 DREAM 7 - Featherweight GP Match-Ups

FEG have announced the match-ups for the DREAM featherweight GP. DJ Taiki's fight is moved to DREAM 8 due to an injury he sustained in the qualifying fight with Shoji Maruyama earlier this month.

Yoshiro Maeda is returning to Japan from his WEC experience and should be a good addition to this GP.

They are keeping a spot open for "Kid", so I hope we get to see him in round 2.

The weight is set to 63kg.

Early picks for best match-ups:
-Imanari vs. Atsushi Yamamoto should be awesome!
-Takafumi Otsuka vs. Bibiano Fernandes should be a very good fight as well.

There are really no easy match-ups, even if I know next to nothing of the debutants.

Masakazu Imanari 15-6-1 vs. 12-5-1 Atsushi Yamamoto
Hiroyuki Takaya 9-6-1 vs. Kim Jong Won
Yoshiro Maeda 23-6-2 vs. 10-2-0 Micah Miller
Chase Beebe 12-3-0 vs. Joe Warren
Takafumi Otsuka 8-3-1 vs. 3-2-0 Bibiano Fernandes
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura 9-3-1 vs. 13-2-0 Abel Cullum

On a side note from the comments, does this post card reveal some participants for DREAM 8?

Read more...

3/8 DREAM - Another Participant in the Featherweigh GP Announced

DEEP held an event in Korakuen hall today. It was mainly pro-wrestling, but on the card was a DREAM featherweight GP qualifier.

The fight was between the 2 Pancrase veterans Shoji Maruyama (former Pancrase champion) and Daiki "DJ Taiki" Hata.

DJ Taiki defeated Shoji by decision and by that, qualified for the DREAM GP staring March 8 in Saitama Super Arena.

Added today:
Daiki "DJ Taiki" Hata

Previously announced:
Masakazu Imanari 15-6-1
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura 9-3-1
Takafumi Otsuka 8-3-1
Hiroyuki Takaya 9-6-1
Hideo Tokoro 21-15-1
Atsushi Yamamoto 12-5-1
Bibiano Fernandes 3-2-0
Micah Miller 10-2-0
Chase Beebe 12-3-0
Joe Warren
Kim Jong Won

Rumored:
Abel Cullum 13-2-0

Read more...

3/8 DREAM Featherweight GP Participants Announced!

Not too many surprises, but it looks like a solid GP. Joe Warren was a name I didnt expect, he is a wrestler coming out of Team Quest, so ti will be interesting to see what he can do.

Some very familiar DREAM fighters in here. Atsushi Yamamoto was expected after his win over Tokoro, but does that mean that Krazy Bee is contributing 2 Yamamoto's? I was also half expecting Kazuyuki Miyata to be in there...

DREAM did announce that they intended 8 Japanese and 8 foreigh fighters, currently there are 6 Japanese and 5 foreign. If we assume (and I am) that "Kid" is in, there is room for 1 more Japanese and 3 foreign fighters. Just to be clear, FEG is saying that "Kid"'s participation is not assured. It is also worth nothing that no European fighter is included.

There should be some very good match-ups in here, it is also interesting to compare the Sengoku GP to the DREAM GP. Seems like DREAM is going more with established fighters (especially the Japanese), where as Sengoku has added some very young fighters.

Masakazu Imanari 15-6-1
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura 9-3-1
Takafumi Otsuka 8-3-1
Hiroyuki Takaya 9-6-1
Hideo Tokoro 21-15-1
Atsushi Yamamoto 12-5-1
Bibiano Fernandes 3-2-0
Micah Miller 10-2-0
Chase Beebe 12-3-0
Joe Warren
Kim Jong Won

Winner of DJ Taiki vs. Shoji DEEP 2.10

In addition to announcing the tournament participants, DREAM announced their schedule (which they sort of already had), for 2009. It looks like this:

3.20 DREAM 7 Featherweight GP Round 1 - Saitama Super Arena
4.5 DREAM 8 Welterweight GP - Nippon Gaishi Hall (Nagoya)
5.? DREAM 9 Featherweight GP Round 2 - Kanto (Tokyo) Area
7.20 DREAM 10 Welterweight GP Finals - Saitama Super Arena
9.? DREAM 11 Featherweight GP Finals - Kanto (Tokyo) Area
10.? DREAM 12 (TBA)
12.31 Dynamite - Saitama Super Arena

Read more...

Chase Beebe to Sign with DREAM

Former WEC champion confirms to MMA Weekly that he is intending to sign a 3 fight deal with DREAM. The intention is to participate in the upcoming DREAM featherweight tournament in March. This means that he is moving up from bantam to featherweight to do this, I am not sure how much the weight difference is though. DREAM might have a featherweight division a little lighter than Sengoku (Sengoku: 65kg, DREAM: 63kg).

Source: MMA Weekly

Kid Yamamoto announced earlier this week that he would NOT fight in March.

Read more...