4/29 DREAM 2 - Fights Announced

Most of the Middleweight tournament fights are now annouced with 4 fights announced today, and there will be some surprise additions in this. There are also some fighters that were expected.

Only 1 more fight in the tournament... Will someone get a "free" pass to the 2nd round here too?

Annouced today (all tournament fights):
Ikuhisa Minowa 39-27-8 vs. 2-2-0 Taiei Kin
Magomed Sultanakhmadov 4-1-0 vs. 7-3-0 Zelg “Benkei” Galesic
Yoon Dong Sik 3-4-0 vs. 7-10-0 Shungo Oyama
Ronaldo Jacare vs. 16-6-0 Frank Trigg

Previously announced:
Tournament fights
Kazushi Sakuraba 23-10-1 vs. Andrews Nakahara
Kiyoshi Tamura 28-14-0 vs. 38-12-1 Masakatsu Funaki
Denis Kang 29-9-1 vs. 20-2-1 Gegard Mousasi

Non-Tournament:
Shinya Aoki 14-2-0 vs. 14-1-1 JZ Calvan

Also rumored for this card is Nick Diaz, he had agreed to fight Marcelo Garcia but that did not work out. Hopefully DREAM finds an opponent for him.

http://www.graciefighter.com/?page=news&PHPSESSID=27bee539d74156e1549c0ba56ae466d9

**UPDATE***
Akiyama is gettting his knee checked, there should be an official next week but he might not be able to participate. FEG has now also denied that Akiyama will get a pass to the 2nd round like Caol Uno did.
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080418-00000033-spnavi-fight.html
http://sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp/fight/other/headlines/etc/20080419-00000003-spnavi_ot-fight.html

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4/29 DREAM 2 - Participants

DREAM has announced (it was actually done at the DREAM event on Saturday) 7 participants for the Middleweight tournament. It is more a field designed to please the Japanese audience than the hard-core MMA fan, from what I can see. But still, it should be an exciting event and these are only half of the tournament participants.

After the dissapointing TBS results for the first event, I am sure they will have some Super-Fights that will draw more viewers.

The fighters announced for the Middleweight tournament:
Kazushi Sakuraba 23-10-1 (2 NC)
Yoon Dong Sik 3-4-0
Yoshihiro Akiyama 10-1-0 (2 NC)
Shungo Oyama 7-10-0
Taiei Kin 2-2-0
Masakatsu Funaki 38-12-1
Ikuhisa Minowa “Minowaman” 39-27-8

Rumored:
Kiyoshi Tamura 27-14-0
Denis Kang 29-9-1

I am putting in the rumored fighters, because the are, as NOB has pointed out, featured on the poster.

Also, just in case you are wondering, DREAM has said they will make an announcement this week with regards to the Lightweight tournament and the controversy surrounding the Aoki vs. JZ decision.

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