What a change of pace from DREAM. 1 to DREAM. 2. In that short span, number of bad things have been mounting up in the FEG front. With this 2 Organization war going on in Japan, It seems that by garnering less attention and just basically letting things go on around them World Victory Road (WVR) has almost won the battle without much action. It seems that bad planning, or the lack of, will be the early coffin in DREAM. I don’t think anyone wants to see this happen but the little things have caught up to them and the future is definitely uncertain for DREAM at the moment. Being Dropped from Primetime, lack of Fighters and bad management all together are definitely to blame for this whole thing becoming a tragedy.

Anyways, enough of the negativity, back to the reason of this little writing. As announced DREAM. 2 will be held on April 29th and the card looks like so:

OLYMPIA DREAM.2 Middleweight GP 2008 1st Round
Date: April 29th, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan

Middleweight GP 1st Round:
8. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Andrews Nakahara
7. Denis Kang vs. Gegard Mousasi
6. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masakatsu Funaki
5. Ronaldo Jacare vs. Ian Murphy
4. Magomed Sultanakhmadov vs. Zelg Galesic
3. Yoon Dong Sik vs. Shungo Oyama
2. Kin Taiei vs. Minowaman

Lightweight GP 1st Round:
1. Shinya Aoki vs. J.Z. Calvan

(Many thanks to Nightmare of Battle for the Organized Full Card)

Being the what the rest of the world would call a dumb American, I assumed that Montreal was much farther away from the United States than what Google maps just showed me. The predominently French Canadian city, on the eastern side of Canada, is less than 50 miles away from the upstate New York and Vermont borders. So while the Montreal crowd will obviously be predominantly Canadian, I wouldn’t be surprised to find a few outspoken Serra supporters mixed in the crowd and ready to support their fighter…and fight against the hometown crowd. It’s New York versus Montreal at UFC 83.

Canada is known for beer, cold weather, and hockey - and the fights that come with the sport. And for the first time, the UFC will be bringing the fighting to Canada in another sport which is quickly gaining mainstream attention by the Canadian press these days. It’s a move that many hardcore fans have been talking about ever since Georges St. Pierre made Matt Hughes verbally tap out during UFC 79. It’s also a move that will make the UFC a lot of money through the nearly-instant gate sellout along with the potential Pay-Per-View numbers which may rival some of the UFC’s other big PPV events if both Canadians and U.S. fans decide to watch the event live on television. And after Matt Serra decided to call out St. Pierre as “Frenchy” last May, you just might see the most eclectic UFC crowd on television ever.

But there’s more than hometown crowds, beer, and PPV numbers when it comes down to fighting. Let’s take a look at the televised matchups, including two of the five middleweight bouts, for UFC 83. (Note to UFC: Just hold a middleweight tournament and left the winner fight Anderson Silva.)

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This is the 2nd and final part of the preview of World Victory Road’s Sengoku, which take place on Wednesday the 5th of March. This show should definitely not be confused with the DREAM event that takes place in 2 weeks on the 15th. To help “facilitate” things just think of DREAM being named after Dream Stage (DSE), which I’m pretty sure isn’t what the whole name was intended for but it helps. Remember this is WVR’s 1st MMA show on a solid 1st card for an MMA promotion. The card looks small with only 7 fights but one has to remember that they had originally announced Sinae Kikuta vs. Phil Baroni but that fight was soon after canceled due to the fact that Baroni signed with Elite XC and was offered the fight against Kala “Kolohe” Hose at ICON. This fight was originally supposed to be Robbie Lawler vs. Kala Hose but an injury prevented that from happening. Anyways, back to Sengoku…

5.) Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada

I think it’s safe to say that some of the greatest intro’s around belong to Japanese fighters. 3 of the most memorable one’s in recent memory to me are Akihiro Gono’s BUSHIDO 13 semifinal bout against Denis Kang, in which DJ Gozma was joined by DJ Ozma in the PRIDE style rendition of the once popular J-Pop tune “Age Age Every Night” in what has to epitomize the whole entertainment/fighting style some fighters aim for. (Side Note: There’s a Japanese Pop Star named DJ Ozma, who Gono imitates in his famous Red Afro Dancing Intro’s. Gozma is a play on Gono and Ozma.) Genki Sudo’s tribal retirement intro at Dynamite!! 2006 was just jaw dropping and intricate to say the least.

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The 1^st time one does something it can be very nerve-racking and difficult and the outcome is sometimes what one doesn’t expect. Other times the outcome can be satisfactory and well deserved. The newly formed World Victory Road (WVR) will take center stage in Japan on the 5^th. WVR hopes, along with DREAM, to fill a void that PRIDE Fight Championships left after its implosion. WVR will host its inaugural 1^st show at the very unique looking Yoyogi National Gymnasium. The strangely named Sengoku will feature Mixed Martial Artists with varying skill levels, some elevating this cards status while others seem out of place.

I remember a couple of months back when word out of Japan was that a newly formed organization was about to be formed and would be associated with J-Rock. Obviously, the 1^st thing that popped into my head was Yoshida. I’m not the biggest Yoshida fan, but being one of the biggest draws in Japan it kind of got me thinking that maybe, just maybe this would be the “new” PRIDE. This is way before DREAM and around the time Shigeru Saeki’s name popped up saying that there was a revival movement, which became Yarennoka!, so anything sounded great coming from Japan. Fast forward about 5 months and we’re now in March and DREAM is unveiled and WVR kind of got pushed to the side. I think the fact that they lack about 4 more intriguing bouts actually hurt their cause as DREAM quickly sprinted ahead to try and fill that void. Wednesday will answer lots of questions that I think need to be answer before we can crown anyone the new, almost default premiere Japanese MMA organizations.

Will Sengoku mirror something epic and wonderful? Or was it’s inability to secure a TV deal a sort of foreshadowing of things to come? 2 very different paths all together. Wednesday’s card is very diverse and stands as so:

World Victory Road presents Sengoku

March 5, 2008

1. Fabricio “Pitbull” Monteiro vs. Nick “The Goat” Thompson
2. Ryo Kawamura vs. Antonio Braga Neto
3. Makoto Takimoto vs. Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos
4. Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Graham
5. Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada
6. Takanori Gomi vs. Duane “Bang” Ludwig
7. Hidehiko Yoshida vs. Josh Barnett Read the full story

Tonight is the battle of the street fighters. This fight has the making of a very exciting standup matchup (my guess for about a minute) . Take a look at the attached picture. This is a picture I found on www.mmajunkie.com. It seems like a picture that would be posted in a magazine asking for captions. I would love to post this on a betting website. I can only imagine the influx of gamblers that would bet on Kimbo - people that aren’t fans of MMA. This is hilarious. In my opinion this picture tells the entire story behind tonight’s fight.

Kimbo looks like a big muscle bound ogre that you would avoid on a dark night as you leave the bar. He is definitely a man among men, but in my opinion he will never be considered among the elite of Mixed Martial Arts. The sport has evolved and the best are no longer one sided fighters. They are good athletes that can compete in all areas of the game. They can stand and bang, or take you down and submit you. A testament of this is Josh Koscheck. He is the most decorated wrestler in the UFC, and his dominant wrestling skills aren’t enough to beat the likes of GSP (that actually out wrestled Koscheck in their fight.) Like I said in a previous article, this fight is more of a side show at the circus.

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John Philipavage has his UFC 79 preview over at MMA Predictions. Check it out and see who John has picked to win in the Hughes/St. Pierre fight and the Silva/Liddell main event along with all of the undercard fights. This site is certainly one of the best MMA preview and predictions sites out there right now.

Calling all East Coast grapplers and MMA fighters. The prominent North American Grappling Association has began it’s summer/fall tournament series with the first tournament on June 9th in Suwanee, Georgia at the Suwanee Sports Academy. The latest event was recently held on June 23rd at Bryant University in New Smithfield, Rhode Island with the New England Grappling Championships. Featuring 200 GI and No-GI classes, the tournament was held using 16 rings with class winners being awarded with a gold NAGA championship belts or a sword in many different weight and experience classes. Results can be found at NAGA’s website.

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