· Dream 9 Full Results And Recap
Dream 9 proved to be one of the promotion’s stronger cards thus far. However, it did not pass without controversy. With Middleweight Champion Gegard Mousasi taking a page from B.J. Penn’s book and bouncing around different weight divisions, he recently relinquished his title. Dream decided a new champion would be crowned at Dream 9. In the end, matchmakers decided to put together two of the more popular fighters from last year’s Dream Middleweight Tournament for the title contest, Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller and Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, pitting the two together for a second a time in hopes of coming out with a popular, marketable champion.
Unfortunately, the strategy proved to be fruitless. The bout started off much like the previous one, but things went horribly awry just minutes into the very first round. Miller managed to work his way off the ground after a successful takedown from ‘Jacare’ and worked ‘Jacare’ back to the ground. That was where it happened; Miller threw an illegal soccer kick at the head of Jacare, which opened a giant gash on his hairline.
Ringside doctors halted the action for two and half minutes before action resumed. The fight resumed for one more scramble, but it became painfully apparent, at that point, that the fight would not continue as Jacare was gushing blood like a faucet. As it was too early in the fight to go to the scorecards, and the cut came as a result of an illegal blow, doctors had no choice but to cut the bout short and rule it a “no contest” causing an anti-climactic finish to what was a wonderful night of fights.
Other than the main event debacle, Dream 9 turned out a very solid showing with its double tournament format.
The "Second Round of Featherweight Grand Prix" delivered on nearly all fronts as every single match-up went to the underdog. The most shocking of all upsets came when Joe Warren took a close split decision victory over heavily favored Japanese bad boy, Norifumi ‘Kid’ Yamamoto. The match saw Kid getting the best of the striking department as he cracked Warren with several hard shots, and slowed his opponent’s advances with strong inside leg kicks. It was Warren’s Olympic Greco-Roman wrestling experience however, that turned out to be the game-winner. On a few occasions Warren took Yamamoto down and kept him there, winning the match with his control and ground striking.
‘Kid’ showed that although he is one of the best pure talents in the sport, an 18-month layoff while recovering from injury is detrimental to anyone. Warren, now 2-0 in his Mixed Martial Arts career, holds victories over former WEC champion Chase Bebe and Yamamoto, a K1-Heroes middleweight champion and consensus top pound for pound fighters in the sport’s history. Warren has seemingly made a name for himself as the featherweight “Rocky” of MMA, and is now the odds on favorite to win the tournament.
In the only truly lackluster event on the card, Bibiano ‘The Flash’ Fernandes earned a unanimous decision victor over Masakazu Imanari. Imanari stuck to his usual “unpredictable” game plan, which has become painfully predictable over time, constantly flopping to his back and sitting down in the butt scoot position and earning himself a yellow card in the process. In one of the most outrageous misuses of the yellow card system to date, Fernandes was also given a yellow card for no apparent reason when the fight was stood back up after escaping an ankle lock. Commentator Guy Mezger could make no sense of it as he exclaimed that Bibiano was the only one fighting. After the penalties, the match continued with more of the same until the final bell.
In another great showing, Hiroyuki Takaya took out former WEC banthamweight title challenger Yoshihiro Maeda in the closing minute of the first round. The round saw Takaya frustrated by Maeda’s reach both on the feet and the ground, until the recurring theme of the night reared it’s head once again. With about 30 seconds left in the round, Takaya was issued a yellow card penalty. In the first exchange after the pause Takaya landed a huge punch right on the button and pounced on Maeda until the referee had no choice but to stop the fight declaring Takaya the winner by TKO due to strikes.
The highlight of the show, and what is now one of the front runners for ‘Fight of The Year’, Hideo Tokoro defeated Abel Cullum by rear naked choke early in the second round. The fight took place all over the spectrum of the fight game with beautiful ground transitions and submission attempts, exciting striking, and active clinch fighting. There was never a dull moment as the two went back and forth, until Tokoro was able to sink in a choke on a winded Cullum. An emotional Tokoro, who was replacing the man who beat him in the first round Daiki ‘Dj.Taiki’ Hata, announced after his victory that he had plans on retiring before being welcomed to the Dream tournament. With that sentiment and his performance in this match, he will more than likely be the crowd favorite for the remainder of the tournament.
The non-tournament bout between Gesias ‘JZ Calvan” Cavalcante and Tatsuya “The Crusher” Kawajiri was a case of Kawajiri using his jab effectively, and Cavalcante jumping guard several times looking for a submission that never came. The bout went to decision and saw Kawajiri come through with a unanimous decision victory. This bout also saw the issuing of a yellow card penalty. This time the official levied the penalty to Cavalcante for stalling on the ground. ‘JZ’ was coming off a 14-month knee injury and rehab. He has not been in action since his decision loss to Shinya Aoki in last year’s lightweight grand prix. The ring rust on Calvan’s game was apparent as he simply couldn’t put his strikes together and could not cinch in his much-heralded guillotine from any position. Kawajiri will now more than likely be moved up to number-one contender status with this big win.
Which brings us to the highly anticipated Super Hulk Tournament’s first round. Not a single fight made it out of the first round.
The tournament saw Bob ‘The Beast’ Sapp submit to an Achilles lock in less than two minutes with only one strike thrown by Minowaman before shooting for a takedown. Jose Canseco lost his MMA debut fight to the popular “Techno Goliath” Hong Man Choi as he threw a few uncommitted strikes and ran into a corner where he slipped and Choi would pound him into submission. Reports in the previous days have shown Canseco admitting that he was scared of Choi's sheer mass. Such a fear could explain why Canseco seemed so tentative from the opening bell.
The two odds on favorites to meet in the finals, Dream Middleweight Champion Gegard Mousasi and UFC and PRIDE FC veteran Rameau Thierry ‘The African Assassin’ Sokoudjou, both made short work of their opposition as well. Sokoudjou used strong leg kicks to fluster Jan ‘The Giant’ Nortje and eventually managed to take him down with his world class Judo. From there he quickly moved to side mount and pounded Nortje with hammer fists until the fight was stopped. Even after the fight was called ‘The African Assassin’ continued to pound ‘The Giant’; apparently unable to hold in his frustration over the Nortje grabbing the ropes during several take down attempts. Mousasi, in the quickest outing of the night, blitzed former K1 heavyweight champion Mark Hunt with a quick take down in the first exchange of the match. Thirty seconds and two Kimura attempts later, Hunt found himself tapping out.
Now with natural selection working it's magic in the Super Hulk Tournament, the featherweight semi-finals filled with surprising combatants, a number one contender set for the lightweight championship, and a third encounter between Mayhem and Jacare to take place, we have a vaguely clear vision of what Dream’s future should look like. The excessive and often inexplicable usage of yellow cards is certainly an issue that needs to be addressed, as even the commentators are perplexed at the timing and overall usage of the foul. The overwhelming issuing of these penalties could have potentially marred an otherwise successful and entertaining event.
One of the more interesting of all the stories coming out of Dream 9 maybe both JZ Calvan and Kid Yamamoto. The two fighters, considered among the elite of their respective weight classes, suffered strangely similar knee injuries, and had long layoffs before returning with losses to tough competition. With ring rust apparent on both fighters, the story of Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua comes to mind. We are now left to wonder if the road back to greatness will be one as frustrating as that of Shogun’s, or if it will be a quick path to redemption? The next few bouts for the two should be incredibly telling, as sometimes Japanese promotions are known to protect their stars. But with that being said, they simultaneously came off of layoffs lasting over a year and they weren’t done any favors in their returns tonight.
By Jesse Denis
