Dream News - Page 1

Following a recent five-month delay in payment to lightweight contender Nick Diaz, the Japanese-based DREAM promotion has again run behind on compensating its fighters. The participants in question this time are heavyweight Jimmy Ambriz (13-11-1) and lightweight Todd Moore (9-3). Both U.S.-based fighters participated in September's DREAM.6 event. "As far as I'm concerned, they pretty much have stiffed us," Moore told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "The fight was Sept. 23, and we're going on into [late November] and they still haven't paid. That's two months. That sucks, man."

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Joachim Hansen ‘The Hellboy Returns on NYE’ DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix Champion Joachim Hansen took some time out of training to talk with PDG about his tournament victory, Eddie Alvarez, training and fighting on NYE.

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PDG: You replaced Eddie Alvarez, who beat you earlier in the GP; how did that affect the way you fought in the finals? Hansen: Eddie Alvarez and Shinya Aoki are two totally different fighters. I knew a little about Aoki’s style because I fought him in PRIDE in 2006. I knew I had to be very careful with Aoki when on the ground and to not make any big moves that could leave me open to his submission game. If you could clone Alvarez and Aoki into one person you would be close to having the total mixed martial arts fighter!

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Eddie Alvarez 'Waiting for a Fight' Lightweight rising superstar Eddie Alvarez took some time to talk with PDG about the fall of EliteXC, his DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix experience, training and what the future holds for his mixed martial arts career.

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PDG: Your scheduled fight against Nick Diaz was canceled when EliteXC went bankrupt last month; what were your thoughts when you got the news? Alvarez: It was very unfortunate as I was about five weeks into my training for the fight. I was really looking forward to that fight and the whole situation just basically sucked. It was very important for me to win a title in America on national television. Shit happens and it wasn't the first time in my career. There was a similar situation when I was fighting for Bodog. I'm looking forward to moving on and signing with another American company that has a television presence.

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Olympic Judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii was set to make his mixed martial arts debut on New Year’s Eve at the FieLDS Dynamite show at the end of this year. However it now looks as though he will just be making a brief cameo appearance like Fedor Emelianenko did back at DREAM 6 in September according to our friends at Nightmare of Battle. While fans may be disappointed that he won’t be competing, the good news is he’s officially signed with Japan’s Fighting & Entertainment Group (FEG) and is expected to compete in an upcoming DREAM event sometime in Spring 2009. I’m sure he’ll elaborate when his fan club holds a celebration party on November 3, but for now he is remaining tight-lipped about the details. The December 31 Dynamite card features a plethora of top-tier fighters and fan favorites such as Kazushi Sakuraba, Shinya Aoki, Hayato Sakurai, Joachim Hansen, Yoshihiro Sato and many more. One of the names being kicked around for Ishii’s debut according to Tokyo-Sports is fellow Judo gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida (8-6-1). Nothing is certain yet, but both athletes rank very high in the court of public opinion and a fight between them would no doubt be a huge draw.

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In the Chinese fire drill of EliteXC’s talent division since its closure last Monday, fighter managers are taking the legal reigns to free their clients. Cesar Gracie, manager of EliteXC fighters Nick Diaz and Jake Shields, informed MMAWeekly.com he had sent EliteXC a notice on Friday stating that the company had breached their contracts with his clients. The clause in EliteXC’s contract, as reported by Loretta Hunt of Sherdog.com, states that should the company not be able to fulfill the terms of its “promotional and payment obligations” – essentially, to keep its employees working – the fighters could seek to terminate the agreement. EliteXC had 30 days from the notice of breach to correct the situation. Gracie said he is already making plans for Diaz’s next fight. The 25-year-old fighter has an existing clause in his contract allowing him to compete in Japan as long as it doesn't interfere with his EliteXC duties.

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Two-time K-1 Hero’s middleweight tournament winner Gesias “JZ” Calvancanti and former Shooto and Cage Rage lightweight champion Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro will both reportedly return to action at Fighting and Entertainment Group’s annual “Dynamite!” show on New Year’s Eve in Japan according to MMA Weekly’s MMA Insider Blog. Both Calvancanti and Ribeiro have been battling injuries for much of 2008. Calvancanti last took on Shinya Aoki at DREAM.2 in April, where he dropped an unanimous decision. Following the fight, the Brazilian was forced to undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus and ACL in one of his knees and was expected to be sidelined until the end of this year. Meanwhile Ribeiro has battled an injury bug that has prevented him from competing since suffering a first-round TKO loss to Calvancanti at the K-1 Hero’s middleweight tournament finals in September 2007. “Shaolin” owns career victories over some of MMA’s top lightweights, including Mitsuhiro Ishida, Tatsuya Kawajiri, and Joachim Hansen.

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Nick Diaz has always been open about how much he loves fighting in Japan and how he feels about the way the nation embraces and respects the sport. He’s also stated in the past he feels the Japanese rules with a ring and no elbows on the ground favor traditional martial arts. Basically, the Stockton native likes the way the Japanese approach the fight game. In fact, he recently confirmed through GracieFighter.com that he will return to fight in “The Land of the Rising Sun.” Here’s a snip: “Dream pays Nick Diaz in full from his last bout in May. Diaz agrees to return to fight in Japan, however at this point it is unclear for which organization.” There have been rumors all summer that Diaz would face “Mach” Sakurai for the DREAM welterweight title during his next trip out there, but Diaz had problems getting paid for his last fight with the promotion against Katsuya Inoue at DREAM 3 on May 11. He was reportedly owed $100,000 by the Japanese mixed martial arts promotion for the first round technical knockout win over Inoue. He is now clearly skeptical about doing business with them again.

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New DREAM Middleweight Champion Gegard Mousasi announced not only plans to move up to 205 in MMA, but also to pursue a boxing world title. Mousasi believes his management company, who also represents Fedor Emelianenko, has strategic partnerships in place that will allow him to pursue a boxing career. No timetable set for a boxing debut.

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FEG president Sadaharu Tanikawa tells Kamipro that he's interested in seeing Shinya Aoki fight Yoshihiro Akiyama. "Akiyama said he wanted to fight Yoshida. I think DREAM will never arrange Yoshida for him. It's obvious that Akiyama played to the crowd. I'm interested in what Aoki said. He fully understands what kind of fights DREAM wants to present. I want to watch Aoki vs Akiyama." FEG (Fighting & Entertainment Group) is the parent company of DREAM, which is run by matchmaker Keiichi Sasahara.

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While talking about his recent no contest against Alistair Overeem at DREAM 6, Mirko Cro Cop has promised to deliver during a rematch on December 31. He also issues a warning to Overeem: Don't hit too close to the groin or expect similar revenge.

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Fighting and Entertainment Group remains resolute that its Dream promotion is in the mixed martial arts business to stay, despite rampant speculation to the contrary following dismal television ratings for Dream 6 on Tuesday in Japan.

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Melvin Manhoef has retired following his semi-final loss to Gegard Mousasi in the DREAM middleweight GP earlier this week. His team - Mike's Gym, headed by Mike Passandier - made the announcement earlier this evening, according to German-language site Ground and Pound.de

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The claimed attendance for the DREAM 9/23 Saitama show was 20,929. : Sports Navigator is reporting that DREAM 6 drew a 9.0% rating on TBS, with the high QH (quarter-hour) mark showing Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. Masanori Tonooka drawing a 13.4% rating. Bad numbers, as expected. Their events are great, they put on great fights, but they just keep doing bad #'s...hopefully they can make something happen to get their numbers up.

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some interesting tidbits... couple of my favorites... 5 hours, 20 minutes total duration of the event as broadcast on HDNet 5 minutes, 10 seconds combined duration of the two semi-final matches and final bout of the Middleweight Grand Prix 121 seconds Todd Moore took to walk to the ring 67 seconds it took Shinya Aoki to submit Moore via neck crank 0 number of punches thrown by Aoki

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"Alaister was ahead on points, however its a 15 minute fight and i knew my time would come" said Mirko Mirko wanted to continue to fight, however the ringside doctor prevented him from continuing. "I'm angry it ended this way, it seemed as if he was the dominant one, however i wasn't in trouble for a second and was waiting for my opportunities. I prepared very well because i thought the match could last a while. I thought i would knock him down in the end" His manager Zvonimir Lucic confirmed that he wanted to continue the fight however the ringside officials prevented it as a precaution. kinda makes overeem look like a dick sayin he was faking

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Knees to the groin aside, Alistair Overeem isn’t buying Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s claims that he could not continue during last night’s Dream.6 bout. Cro Cop’s anguish looked pretty genuine, and Overeem’s knees seemed intent on finding his testicles, but Fighters Only reports that the Dutchman thinks dude was faking it in order to get out of a beating: “Tonight I was kicking his ass, I destroyed him. …The first knee was in the crotch but the second was not. CroCop just didn’t want to fight anymore.” “I think he underestimated me, but if he wants to fight again, I’ll fight him again. I’d like to finish him.” Overeem was dominating the fight. That much seems apparent, though Cro Cop would have us believe that he was just biding his time and waiting for the right moment to stop getting his ass kicked. But whatever you think of Cro Cop and his ethical code, that knee strike was clearly in the groin neighborhood. A cursory examination of the video evidence proves that much. Even if Overeem feels that he didn’t get him right on the buttons, as it were, he’s got to concede that Cro Cop might have been just a little extra sensitive in the testicular region at that point in the fight, seeing as how he’d already been nailed there. Nobody likes to see a fight end like that, especially the guy who leaves the ring with one of his testicles inside his body, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt on this one.

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Apparently Mirko's testicles didn't get any rest after Kongo played knee-bongos with them. Here's the scoop from the Overeem vs CroCop bout. Also, here's a (slow as hell loading) video to the fight. I just left it alone for a while then went back to the window to watch.

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