DREAM.5 & WVR Card Updates and K-1 World MAX Final 8 Thoughts
By Ernest Helwig on Jul 09, 2008
In only 2 weeks the coronation of the Lightweight winner of the Inaugural DREAM GP will finally occur. It was really hard to guess 4 months ago which 4 fighters would be in the finals and while 2 of the finalist were somewhat expected (Kawajiri and Aoki), the 2 others (Uno and Alvarez) have definitely come out of almost nowhere. Also, in typical Japanese promotion fashion the card is not finalized but there is a sense of the fighters who will be participating. It should also be noted that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic was listed as a participant on DREAM’s nice baby blue promotional poster but will now sit out the event and most likely have minor sugery. But “Cro Cop” fans fear not because it seems his return maybe sooner than later and likely against a red, hot Alistair Overeem, who recently called him out after his demolition of Lee Tae-Hyun at DREAM.4. Anyways, the card is currently as follows:
HEIWA DREAM.5 Lightweight GP 2008 Final Round
Date: July 21st, 2008
Place: Osaka Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan
Lightweight GP Final Fight:
Kawajiri/Alvarez vs. Uno/Aoki
Lightweight GP Semifinal Fights:
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Eddie Alvarez
Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki
Featherweight Fight:
Norifumi Yamamoto vs. Joseph Benavidez
Participants:
Yoshihiro Akiyama
Katsuyori Shibata
Possible Participants:
Minowaman, Joachim Hansen, Mark Hunt, Denis Kang, Black Mamba
(Thanks to Nightmare of Battle for the Full Fight Card)
Now to sort this out a bit. Both “Black Mamba” Kultar Gill and Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen will most likely be featured as the reserves for this event. Why Mamba? Who knows really? It also surprises me that Kang and Minowa are both listed but I think FEG are trying to go BIG for their September 23rd show, which means sliding down the non-GP participating Middleweights. Also, Mark Hunt will participate and will likely face Jerome LeBanner, who was Mirko’s original opponent. Finally, Katsuyori Shibata expressed his desire to fight Yoshihiro Akiyama at the Akasaka Fight Festival. Akiyama has gone 7 months since his last fight and I definitely think this fight could serve him well to get back in the swing of things.
Moving on to the WVR side of things. MMA Junkie is reporting that the company has inked a deal with UFC veteran Frank Trigg. This is definitely a move in the right direction for WVR. This no doubt sets up a possible rematch with WVR standout Kazuo Misaki, who lost to Trigg at the memorable PRIDE 33: Second Coming show. Also, the plan to carry out a GP by Sengoku is in full swing. The only names listed currently on the site are Eiji Mitsuoka, Satoru Kitaoka, Duane “Bang” Ludwig, Rodrigo Damm, and Kazunori Yokota. The hopes of this is to get some competition for their Lightweight King, Takanori Gomi, who might be set to fight Chris Horedecki. If you ask me, they should’ve just set up a fight against Kitaoka, considering his credentials I think this would’ve been enough. But anyways, the 8/24 show is nowhere close to being booked but looks like this:
SENGOKU IV
Date: August 24th, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan
Fights:
Peter Graham vs. Moise Rimbon
Possible Fights:
Takanori Gomi vs. Chris Horodecki
Possible Participants:
Frank Trigg
Daniel Acacio
Cristiano Marcello
Clay French
Lightweight Tournament Participants:
Satoru Kitaoka
Eiji Mitsuoka
Kazunori Yokota
Rodrigo Damm
Duane Ludwig
(Thanks again to Nightmare of Battle for the Full Fight Card)
Finally, while this isn’t 100% MMA related, the K-1 World MAX circuit is down to the final 4 competitors. The most stand-out thing from last night definitely had to be Yoshihiro Sato’s amazing knockout of Buakaw Por-Pramuk. The 2 men had battled earlier this year in a Superfight at the MAX Japan Tournament earlier this year to a Round extension split decision. This fight is definitely an indication of Buakaw finally being caught up by the competition and also his ability to look very very lackluster this year. Speaking of the MAX Japan Tournament, Yasuhiro Kido’s dream run for the title is over after he was defeated by my pick to win MAX this year, Artur Kyshenko. Masato and Andy Souwer round out the other 2 finalist in what looks like a stellar final. Last but not least, the MMA tie-in. UDL’s Andre “Dida” Amade was victorious over ZST and early K-1 HERO’s standout Remigijus Morkevicius in an explosive and much needed boost in moment for the Brazilian fighter. I’ll link the more interesting bouts under:
Yoshihiro Sato vs. Buakaw Por. Pramuk III
Filed Under: MMA in Japan • News • Review
Comments (2)
Get 1 Now
Get Free Gear
Hansen and Kultar Gil makes sense to me for the reserve match. Ishida looked very poor against Uno, as did Nagata against Aoki, J.Z. is hurt, and you don’t want Luiz Buscape getting a chance at being your champion. Gil put on a very competitive fight against Kawajiri, and he also represents the (mostly) unrepresented HERO’s brand. Plus, Gil likes to fight, and you put that style with Hansen…awwww snap.
I’d dig seeing Shibata and Minowa fight each other. Both coming from a pro-wrasslin’ background, that’d hype up the home crowd mega. Then maybe put Kiyoshi Tamura with Akiyama? Either way, I hope Minowa and Shibata aren’t split up for Kang and Akiyama.
Mark Hunt vs. Jerome LeBanner is a decent fight, but I’d much rather see Hunt versus any other K-1 heavyweight in an MMA match. Also, let’s not forget that Kharitonov has to be showing up in DREAM eventually. Hopefully that’ll be sooner, rather than later.
Any way you slice it, DREAM.5 should be a baller ass show.
Yeah, I agree with your assessment. But I also would have to add that Uno and Kid were definitely the faces of HERO and kind of make this have a more HERO feel. All we need is a random Lithuanian and Hideo Tokoro.
Shibata vs. Minowa would be too much energy for 1 place to handle but I’d love to see it. I also think that the Matchmaking in DREAM has improved. Sasahara is definitely doing a better job in his 1 year than Maeda did his whole career.
Great Post and Keep the Peace..