Dream 8: Welterweight GP - April 5 (updated card)

[CPT]

DREAM 8: APRIL 5 ON HDNET
venue: Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan

First Round Bout in Dream Welterweight Tournament:
-Shinya Aoki (#1 Lightweight in the World)* vs. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai

Other Welterweight Tournament Participants:
-John Alessio
-Andre Galvao
-Marcelo Garcia
-Seichi Ikemoto
-Yuya Shirai

First Round Bout in Dream Featherweight Tournament:
-Daiki "DJ" Hata vs. Hideo Tokoro

Non-Tournament Bouts:
-Zelg Galesic vs. Andrews Nakahara
-Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Main card airs live in the United States on HDNet

* Based on MMAWeekly.com World MMA Rankings

Good thing I checked MMAWeekly before this post. I was about to rant about how they only had 3 participants lined up for an 8 man tournament starting less than a month away. I was also looking for confirmation of what I'd heard about Aoki vs. Sakurai being in the first round.

It's not the best of the best, but there should still be some decent fights. The prospect of Aoki vs. Marcelo Garcia or Andre Galvao in a later round gives me a half stock.

The Artist Formerly Known as Mach could very well beat Aoki in the first round though. I'm not sure why they chose to put the likely finalists in a first round match against each other. I guess this card needs something to grab people's attention.

I could go for something like Sakuraba vs. Jacare, and I think the Japanese audience would as well.

[Cammo101]

Aoki at 170? He might be biting off more than he can chew.

[cowboyronnie]

Someone told me once, some guy who lived in Japan and had seen Aoki in smaller shows, that he's actually pretty big and big for 160. It's only 10 pounds for Jap orgs, remember. Remember? The Japs? My grandpa spent 3 days in a ditch under strafe fire by those **** in '43.

[CPT]

If Aoki can handle Sakurai, he should walk through the rest of the tournament.

Weight cutting isn't as big a thing in Japan, so it's not like he will be going up against GSP, Fitch, Alves-sized guys (or anywhere near that talent level for that matter).

[Cammo101]

Aoki just looks so small at 155. He looked tiny next to guys like Hansen and Alvarez, I can't imagine how tiny he will look against 170 pounders. Luckily for Aoki, Sakurai is a smallish 170.

[CPT]

Update:

The tournament matchups have been announced, and they have added a couple really good non-tournament fights to this card.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/14365/monson- ... ream-8.mma

The Japanese-based DREAM organization today announced a number of DREAM.8 bouts, including a heavyweight matchup of Jeff Monson (28-8) vs. Sergey Kharitonov (16-3) and the opening-round bouts for its eight-man welterweight grand prix.

The show, DREAM.8, takes place at Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan.

The event broadcast debuts in North America on April 10 at 10 p.m. EST on HDNet.

In addition to Monson vs. Kharitonov, DREAM also officially announced the previously reported addition of PRIDE and EliteXC veteran Murilo "Ninja" Rua (16-9-1) to the card. He'll take on Dong Sik Yoon (4-6) in a middleweight bout.

Also in non-tournament action is a middleweight bout between Andrews Nakahara (1-1) and Shungo Oyama (7-11), who is a late replacement for Zelg Galesic (9-4).

In tournament action, the eight-man grand prix is headed by an intriguing and previously reported rematch between WAMMA lightweight champion Shinya Aoki (20-3) and Hayato "Mach" Sakurai (34-8-2). The two fighters first met at an August 2005 Shooto event, and Aoki suffered a close unanimous-decision loss; it's one of only three career losses for the former PRIDE fighter and 2008 DREAM lightweight grand prix runner-up.

Other DREAM welterweight grand-prix bouts include UFC veteran John Alessio (24-12) vs. Andre Galvao (2-0), one-time Affliction fighter Jason High (6-1) vs. Yuya Shirai (15-7), and Seichi Ikemoto (18-14-5) vs. Marius Zaromskis (8-2).

The full DREAM.8 card now includes:

* Shinya Aoki vs. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai*
* Ikuhisa "Minowaman" Minowa vs. Katsuyori Shibata
* Hideo Tokoro vs. DJ.taiki+
* Yuya Shirai vs. Jason High*
* Marius Zaromskis vs. Seichi Ikemoto*
* Andre Galvao vs. John Alessio*
* Murilo "Ninja" Rua vs. Dong Sik Yoon
* Andrews Nakahara vs. Shungo Oyama
* Sergey Kharitonov vs. Jeff Monson

The bad news is that Marcelo Garcia is not in the tournament after all. Not that he's a great fighter (he's 0-1), but I like to see elite BJJ guys in MMA. The other piece of bad news is that Galesic is off the card.

I think the good news outweighs the bad though. Ninja vs. The Donger is a pretty damn good fight, should be very competitive. Monson vs. Kharitonov is a great fight as well, at least in terms of importance. I love when guys who have fought predominantly in the States fight guys who have fought predominantly in Japan. Especially when they are high level guys; Monson and Kharitonov are both top 20 HWs at least.

The tourney matches look decent too, even though I don't know a whole lot about most of the fighters. Aoki vs. Sakurai is obviously a good one, and I'm looking forward to Alessio vs. Galvao as well. I'm going to guess the other guys aren't all that great (I know one of them had to beat Kim Yoon-Young to get in....that guy would have no business in a high level tournament), but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope they put on good fights.

Minowaman is always good for teh lulz.

Between this, WEC 40, UFC Fight Night whatever, and the start of the new TUF season, the next week in MMA should be **** awesome.

[CPT]

Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro may return at Dream 8.

http://www.graciemag.com/news/144/ARTIC ... 03-27.html

April 5th, at the next Dream event, may mark the return of Victor “Shaolin” Ribeiro, who last fought in September of 2007 at K-1 Heroes, where he sustained an eye injury resulting in surgery. Although his opponent has yet to be confirmed, information suggests he will be the student of Japanese star Caol Uno, according to information obtained by portaldaslutas.com and graciemag.com.

Don't know how good that source is, but it's good to know that Shaolin should be returning soon, either at Dream 8, or possibly Dream 9 on May 26th, which, by the way, features a main event of Gegard Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou.

[cowboyronnie]

Shaolin's in ofishally. Very much needed. Shaolin by sub within 90 seconds, I say.

[CPT]

I'm hoping after this comeback fight he jumps right back in with the big boys.

A fight with Aoki would be tits, but maybe a fight with Hansen, Ishida, a rematch with JZ (he might want to avoid that one, lol), or a rubber match with Crusher would be more likely.

[cowboyronnie]

Dong's out. That was going to be an exciting match.

And I'm only now realizing that that Ikemoto isn't the judoka Ikemoto.

LOL, this event is pretty weak.

[CPT]

Riki Fukuda has stepped up to fight Ninja. Pretty decent replacement for 48 hours notice.

This event could be weak, but I'm hoping the WW fights featuring guys I'm not very familiar with end up being good.

Aoki vs. Sakurai and Kharitonov vs. Monson are still pretty big fights.

[Cammo101]

Riki Fukuda has stepped up to fight Ninja. Pretty decent replacement for 48 hours notice.

This event could be weak, but I'm hoping the WW fights featuring guys I'm not very familiar with end up being good.

Aoki vs. Sakurai and Kharitonov vs. Monson are still pretty big fights.

Nothing like getting beat by a 48 hour replacement. Ninja showed again today that he is not even close to the fighter his brother is.

Aoki and Kharitonov both lost in under a minute, that is pretty sick. I knew Sakurai would be too big and strong for Aoki, but I still expected a little more fight. Monson is probably the most underrated fighter in MMA. He just wins. This guy has now beaten Roy Nelson and Kharitonov in the last month. Let's get him back in the UFC, or at least Strikeforce.

[El Hardee]

Here is the play by play link http://sherdog.com/news/news/dream-8-li ... play-16855

Monson is no joke, it would be nice to see back in the UFC, the dude is a crunching machine.You have to be strong to choke cats out in the Nort/South pos and it seems he's always doing it. Aoki and Ninja dropped the ball, and Shaoloin continues to rock fools and be one of the most underated fighters around.

[CPT]

Pretty decent show.

The Ninja vs. Fukuda and DJ.Taiki vs. Tokoro fights were both pretty good.

The Minowaman vs. Shibata fight was actually pretty good as well. Although I always raise an eyebrow when I see that double leglock stuff in Minowaman fights. Reminds me too much of Ric Flair.

The Ribeiro fight didn't have much action, but he was putting on a clinic until he opened him up with a knee to the head. It looked like he'd been shot.

Galvao looked good against Alessio, who is solid enough to put up a good fight. He was trying to fend off submissions pretty much the whole time, and finally ended up in the armbar.

The Aoki vs. Mach and Monson vs. Kharitonov fights were kind of disappointing. Kharitonov looked out of shape, got taken down entirely too easily, gave up position entirely too easily, and then got choked out north/south style wth an arm in.

Aoki vs. Mach surprised me in how quick and brutal it was. When the fight hit the ground in the first 5 seconds I was like "here we go," but Aoki got swept, KO'd by a couple vicious knees, and then punched a few times for good measure. Looked kind of scary, but he was up and about soon after. And then crying, of course. I know losses outside of the division shouldn't technically count against you, but losing in this fashion has gotta hurt Aoki.

[cowboyronnie]

Monson could never be a contender. He can't hit anyone standing because of his stature, his guard is weak and he has poor TDs. Kharitonov's attempt at a sprawl was pathetic. That Nelson fight was a borefest, neither guy did anything.

I don't think Aoki took too much damage. He just doesn't roll with punches at all and his neck gets jacked around like crazy when hit.

Ninja's now like 15-9, 15-10...yeesh. He did look like he had Pride-days cardio, though. He had a good pace.