DREAM.16

[jmt225]

Main card

• Light Heavyweight Championship bout: Gegard Mousasi vs. Tatsuya Mizuno
• Middleweight bout: Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Jason Miller
• Lightweight bout: Shinya Aoki vs. Marcus Aurelio
• Openweight bout: Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Satoshi Ishii
• Featherweight bout: Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Chase Beebe
• Featherweight bout: Michihiro Omigawa vs. Cole Escovedo
• Featherweight bout: Hideo Tokoro vs. Joachim Hansen
• Featherweight bout: Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Takeshi Inoue
• Featherweight bout: Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Akiyo Nishiura
• Heavyweight bout: Yusuke Kawaguchi vs. James Thompson

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Damn, this should have been much sooner, but I completely forgot about it. It was once a potential super card, with fights like Shinya Aoki vs. Gilbert Melendez and Joe Warren vs. Michihiro Omigawa headlining the show, but thanks to injuries to Melendez and Warren, those fights had to be scraped, unfortunately.

Regardless, it's still a fun card. It airs in the morning at 3 A.M. Eastern on HD.Net. If you don't have HD.Net, then a stream won't be hard to find.

Anyways, on to the fights...

Gegard Mousasi should have no problem whatsoever with Mizuno. I expect this one to end very early, with Mousasi walking out as champion.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Jason Miller should be a LOT of fun, but Mayhem should dominate, unless he shows mercy, which is actually possible considering Mayhem has credited Sakuraba as his all time favorite fighter. Unfortunately though he's fighting the 40-year-old washed-up Sakuraba, instead of the Sakuraba that beat up Royce Gracie for 90 minutes straight. After some initial fun, Mayhem should be able to put Sakuraba pretty easily.

Shinya Aoki should end up getting an easy victory as well over Marcus Aurelio. I've seen Aurelio fight a few times, but have never been overly impressed. His most memorable moment was getting KTFO by Takanori Gomi, so he's nothing really special. Aoki will most likely catch him with a sub early on.

And Minowa, Ishida, and Omigawa should all put on a great show and win their respective fights.

So, yeah... not a great card (certainly not as great as it was originally planned), but it's still worth watching, no doubt.

 

[Buffalo Dave]

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Jason Miller should be a LOT of fun, but Mayhem should dominate, unless he shows mercy, which is actually possible considering Mayhem has credited Sakuraba as his all time favorite fighter. Unfortunately though he's fighting the 40-year-old washed-up Sakuraba, instead of the Sakuraba that beat up Royce Gracie for 90 minutes straight. After some initial fun, Mayhem should be able to put Sakuraba pretty easily.

Well you called this one just the way it was. Miller and Sakauraba trade a couple punches with nothing really landing. Sakauraba shoots, Mayhem sprawls, Sakauraba goes for a leg but Mayhem starts to unleash some punches, then sets in an arm triangle, Sakauraba taps. Its over in 2 minutes. What a class act by Miller after the fight.

Shinya Aoki should end up getting an easy victory as well over Marcus Aurelio. I've seen Aurelio fight a few times, but have never been overly impressed. His most memorable moment was getting KTFO by Takanori Gomi, so he's nothing really special. Aoki will most likely catch him with a sub early on.

Another one you pretty much called, except Aoki won by decision and not by a sub. Still dominated the whole fight on the ground. Landed some nice shots at the end of the fight.

Minowa vs. Ishii was alright. Minowa was pretty much dominated by Ishii's takedowns throughout the whole fight. Minowa did almost secure a heel hook in the 1st round. Minowa showed his toughness by withstanding all the takedowns and punches from the ground, but did nothing to win the fight.

Takaya vs. Beebe not much here but Beebe getting laid out very fast. Takaya landed a awesome left hook that put Beebe down, then followed with punches till he was out cold. Good thing for that because that woke me up a little!

Omigawa vs. Escovedo, Another fast finish as Omigawa won by an armbar in a little over 2 minutes.

Hansen vs. Tokoro, Man I feel bad for Tokoro getting popped in the nuts twice within the first minute. After he recovered he gets taken down by Hansen and taps to a triangle. A fight that lasted for about 15 minutes because of the nut shots but was only like 3 minutes of fighting.

Miyata vs. Inoue was actually the first fight I saw because I almost forgot this was on. It was another fight with two low blows they came from Inoue, Miyata was still in control throughout the fight. Miyata had to fucking awesome suplexs in the first round. Went on to win an easy decision.

Well the main event just ended a few mintues ago, thank God so I can finallly go to bed. Mousasi wins by rear naked choke 6 minutes into the fight in a damn good fight. Started with Mizuno landing a few punches, Mousasi then scores a takedown with some nice GnP. Mousasi then trying for an armbar and a rear naked choke but can't secure them. Mizuno almost slaps on a armbar of his own during Mousasi's attempts, but Mousasi fought through it. Mousasi got his back again and finished it with the rear naked choke.

Not a bad card at all, glad I stayed up for it!

 

[jmt225]

Well, I set my alarm to get me up at 2, but I nevertheless didn't fully wake up until 5:30. I got right on my computer, hoping the show was running really long like a lot of Dream shows do, but alas... Gegard Mousasi vs. Mizuno was about to start.

Regardless, since then I've managed to also watch Mayhem vs. Sakuraba, Aoki vs. Aurelio, and Michihiro Omigawa vs. Cole Escovedo.

First off, no surprise in the Mousasi vs. Mizuno fight. Mizuno looked good on the feet, but as soon as the fight went to the ground, Mousasi absolutely dominated him with Ground and Pound, until finally getting his opening for the RNC. No surprise, but Gegard did look great. Definitely looking forward to his return to Strikeforce.

Mayhem, again... no surprise. He slaughtered Sakuraba, and even though he beat this version of Sakuraba, I still think Mayhem showed that he's one of the best Middleweights in the World in this fight. I mean, who has ever submitted Sakuraba that quickly? Royce couldn't sub him in 90 minutes, whereas Mayhem did it in 2 minutes. Hell, the only time Sakuraba has ever been subbed in an MMA fight was in his very first fight, which was against Kimo and was fixed anyway. So, yeah... let's give some major props to Mayhem. Hopefully we see him back in Strikeforce too, which I'm hoping is against Jacare for the MW Title.

Shinya Aoki dominated Marcus Aurelio from bell to bell, for 15 minutes straight. Honestly it was a bit of a boring fight, but Aoki was doing what he could to finish. He reigned down punches, busted Aurelio's face up, and attempted a few submissions, but it's going to be hard to submit someone with the caliber of BBJ Aurelio has. I underestimated that aspect of Aurelio in my OP, but still... Aoki is the far superior fighter, and he showed it this morning.

And Omigawa's quick beatdown on Escovedo was no surprise either. Let's hope Dream can manage to get this match-up of Omigawa vs. Warren for their next show. That's going to be one epic fight.

Of the four fights I watched, it seemed like a good show. I have no interest in seeing any of the other fights from the show, with the exception of Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Akiyo Nishiura, which I hear had a bit of a controversial decision for Ishida, so I want to watch it and see for myself. I'm a pretty big fan of Ishida though so I might be a tad bit biased.