The results from the Dream lightweight grand prix are in, and the Hellboy has been declared the winner.

He stopped two opponents to win the title, submitting Kultar Gill and knocking out favorite Shinya Aoki to grab the belt. Between the two fights, Hansen spent under 7 minutes in the ring.

Hansens win over Aoki avenged a loss to the Tobukan Judan over a year ago, when Aoki caught Hansen in a gogoplata. While Hansen is not the number one lightweight in the world by any means, this solidifies him as a top fighter, a position that has slipped in his recent decision loss to Eddie Alvarez.

His two finishes put Hansen back in a groove that he seemed to have been out of in Dream, as he hadn’t finished an opponent in his two fights since joining the organization, but now that he’s finishing guys, hopefully he will begin to show the consistency that he has lacked for most of his career. We can only hope.

After delays, expectation, anticipation, letdowns, upsets, epic bouts and a lot of optimism, DREAM will conclude what it started over 5 months ago. Things have definitely gone from bad to worse for the upstart organization. If you remember, earlier this year the 1st DREAM show raked in a dismal 9 rating even dropping to 6th overall that night. Fast forward to now and I think MMA fans have definitely come to embrace DREAM. They’ve definitely broke the mold of unreachable Japanese MMA by inked a deal with HDNet to televise their shows live in the United States and Nikkan Sports is reporting that Nike has just signed on to become a clothing supplier for DREAM. Sadly, there are 2 bouts that maybe removed from this much anticipated show. Hideo Tokoro suffered a minor accident after a car collision, but will continue with his anticipated bout with DREAM. 3 standout Takeshi Yamazaki. Also, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto will go fightless in 2008 as an injury has kept him out of his DREAM debut against Joseph Benavidez and maybe for half a year. Things seem to be getting worse for “Kid” as he maybe in some HUGE trouble as he is rumored to be linked to allegations of illegal drug use. The good news is that The Fight Network is reporting that Alistair Overeem has confirmed that he will fight Mark Hunt this weekend. Ok, Finally the fight card thus far looks like this:

HEIWA DREAM.5 Lightweight GP 2008 Final Round
Date: July 21st, 2008
Place: Osaka Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan

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