It was announced today in a Press Conference in Japan that the HERO’S will now be replaced by DREAM. DREAM is basically some of the people who made the PRIDE and Yarennoka!! show and the people who made HERO’S mixed together to create one incredible production staff. Although all the specifics aren’t known yet the announced schedule was released and they will have 2 Grand Prix, a Lightweight and Middleweight. It should be noted that in 2007 PRIDE had plans for a Lightweight GP but they never materialized due to the sale of PRIDE. The tournament is beyond stacked with a lot of great fighters.
The competitors thus far are:
HEIWA DREAM.1 Lightweight GP 2008 Opener
Date: March 15th, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan
LW GP 1st Round Fights:
J.Z. Calvan vs. Shinya Aoki
LW GP Participants:
Andre Dida
Mitsuhiro Ishida
Tatsuya Kawajiri
Caol Uno
Joachim Hansen
Gilbert Melendez
Luiz Azeredo
Artur Oumakhanov
Koutetsu Boku
Jung Bu-Kyung
Kazuyuki Miyata
Luiz Firmino
The schedule for these GPs are:
DREAM 2008 Schedule
March 15th - HEIWA DREAM.1 Lightweight GP Opening
April 29th - OLYMPIA DREAM.2 Middleweight GP Opening
May 11th - HEIWA DREAM.3 Lightweight GP 2nd Round
Mid June - OLYMPIA DREAM.4 Middleweight GP 2nd Round
July 21st - HEIWA DREAM.5 Lightweight GP Finals
Late September - OLYMPIA DREAM.6 Middleweight GP Finals
It should also be noted that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has made the jump to DREAM, as Brandt DeLorenzo noted here.
If you would like to see the Press Conference it is up at the Yarennoka!! website streaming here. You just need to click on the blue box that says å‰ç·¨ - ä¸ç¯‡ - 後編 towards the side of the page to view the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd part of the press conference respectively.
(Thanks to Nightmare of Battle for card and schedule)
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I do still love MMA and have...
February 13th, 2008 at 9:34 pm
At times it seems like the MMA fans as a whole are ready for another organization to step up and convert in ways the UFC can’t. This is good for the sport overall.
February 13th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Awesome, can’t wait for this.
February 14th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Although Pride was a dirty organization, it just seemed more exciting than the UFC. Maybe it was the mob ties or just the fact that it was happening far away with a lot of big names on every card. I can’t wait either!
February 20th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I love reading all your reports, I check back every day to see if there are updates. Keep up the good work my brother.
February 25th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Just thinking of the JZ-Aoki fight and finally watching Hellboy maybe have a chance to fight Dida again makes me want to see this!