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My Dream 13 Predictions
Bibiano Fernandes v. Joachim Hansen
Josh Barnett v. Siala Siliga
KJ Noons v. Andre Amado
Katsunori Kikuno v. Kuniyoshi Hironaka
Ryo Chonan v. Andrews Nakahara
Yoshiro Maeda v. Cole Escovedo
Ikuhisa Minowa v. Jimmy Ambriz
Bibiano Fernandes v. Joachim Hansen
Josh Barnett v. Siala Siliga
KJ Noons v. Andre Amado
Katsunori Kikuno v. Kuniyoshi Hironaka
Ryo Chonan v. Andrews Nakahara
Yoshiro Maeda v. Cole Escovedo
Ikuhisa Minowa v. Jimmy Ambriz
I am really upset with how the Jon Jones, Matt Hamill fight ended. I know the 6 and 12 belows were recently made illegal, and even the best guys slip up and throw illegal hits. It happens. But for the win to be given to Matt Hamill, I totally disagree with. That fight should have been a no contest. Jon "Bones" Jones was clearly dominating Hamill even on the ground, which is something that I at least haven't seen. Hamill is known for his wrestling and with Tito Ortiz's help, his ever improving ground and pound. Jones was man handling Hamill. So for the fight to go to Hamill, I feel bad for Jones. I don't know if that is something he can appeal to the athletic commission about or not. It should have been a no contest. However, the class Jones showed after the ruling came down is very commendable. I just wonder if it was Steve Mazzagatti or someone higher up with the NVAC that made the call to give the win to Hamill?
Another disappointment was Kimbo Slice and Houston Alexander. This fight was hyped up to be a slugfest for the ages. I predicted that the fight would be won by KO, the winner I wasn't really sure. I thought the fight would be over in less than two minutes, not that they'd play ring around the rosies for almost the first 5. I was however really impressed with Kimbo's ground game. I know, I know, I've been infamous for hating Kimbo slice. I've seen him at Elite XC before they went bankrupt, I've seen the street fights on YouTube. I just really felt that he was a total wild card with no real training that was doing it for the money. But after watching him on this season of TUF, I have changed my mind. You can see that he is really doing this for the love of the sport and training at ATT has greatly improved him. I don't know if he'll fight again for the UFC, but regardless of where he fights next he needs to take care of his knee. Thanks to the show, everyone knows its a weakness to prey on. Example in point, Alexander's game plan of leg kicks aimed directly at it.
I don't even want to talk about Matt Mitrione. All I can say is that I hope Marcus Jones doesn't throw in the towel just yet. He's only been training for two years and with more training who knows where he could end up.
As for Roy Nelson, he was the favorite to win it and he did. He had the most experience out of anyone being the IFL champion. I thought Brendan Schaub held his own against him though. He was dominating in the stand up game and I was impressed that he was able to get out from under Big Country on the ground. But it only takes one punch on the button to put someone away. I'm sure its not the last we've seen of Schaub.
The "Big Announcement" Dana White gave was somewhat expected. I thought that the coaches for next season would either be Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin or maybe Dan Hardy and GSP. Once I saw Tito in the audience I knew it was going to be him but wasn't sure who the other coach would be. As fate would have it, its Chuck. I'm game to see Chuck vs. Tito 3! Doesn't sound like some people are though, judging from posts on social networking sites. A lot of people are already saying that Chuck's going to win and Tito's going to blame it on some injury. Ok, so historically, Chuck's had Tito's number. Chuck's won every fight. But you have to look at the fact that Tito's had back problems for years and now he's had surgery to fix that. Come on people, you know you want to see Tito at 100% against Chuck. Not to mention a whole season of the bad blood between them! Lets just hope that Chuck is more inventive than Ken Shamrock in a war of words and that no one gets called a monkey. I can guarantee that at least once Chuck will say something about the size of Tito's head. Its inevitable.
by Jeremey Witkowski
www.myspace.com/mmafreak100
If you think the UFC is heavy on the mixed martial arts melodrama, you ain't seen nothing until you've witnessed the Japanese DREAM promotion laying it on with a trowel. And the kings of overhype were at it again on a Monday afternoon in Tokyo's Saitama Super Arena with DREAM 10, where a rank outsider beat all the odds to claim the middleweight title, winning a knockout tournament in front of a capacity crowd of 20,000 Japanese fight fans.
The DREAM middleweight Grand Prix tournament semi-finals included American boxer Jason High, Brazilian jiu-jitsu expert Andre Galvao, underdog Lithuanian kickboxer/wrestler Marius "The Raging Demon" Zaromskis, and Japanese legend and prohibitive favourite Hayato "Mach" Sakurai.
Sakurai (35-8-2) and Zaromskis (9-2) squared off in the semis and the bookies were hot on the hometown boy, with a $1 bet on the Lithuanian bringing about a $5.50 return, but intrigue is never far from the surface in Japanese MMA, and at DREAM10 it started at the weigh-ins.
Surprisingly, Sakurai showed up for the weigh-ins one kilogram over the weight limit.
He then did as one would normally do in such a situation - he hit the sauna, used three humidifiers, a sweatsuit, paid a visit to Gold's Gym and hit the treadmills, and took in no water for hours looking to shed that extra few pounds, and yet when Sakurai was re-weighed, he had actually added weight.
Nearly eight hours later and on his third trip to the scales, Sakurai finally made his weight limit - dehydrated and very worn out just hours before his first fight.
Meanwhile, Sakurai's opponent couldn't have appeared fresher on the day of their battle.
Appearing at ringside wearing a costume depicting the Street Fighter video game character Akuma (complete with fire-red wig), if Zaromskis felt goofy, you wouldn't know it from how he started proceedings.
Slamming Sakurai with huge looping punches, hard knees and lightning kicks, the 26-year-old stunned the veteran when he opened a cut over Sakurai's left eye.
An extended pause while medical staff worked on the cut gave Sakurai a chance to recover, but when the match resumed, a left-foot roundhouse kick to the head just seconds after the restart dropped him to the floor. A handful of undefended uppercuts later, and the fight was called for Zaromskis, shocking the packed crowd.
Those raised purely on the UFC won't be aware that the Japanese MMA scene runs a little differently than the US fight game in several ways. First, fighters endure a ten-minute 'marathon' round to start each fight and follow with a five minute second round. Elbows to the head aren't allowed, but knees to the head of a downed opponent are (as long as the fighters don't have a weight difference over 33 lbs), and 'soccer kicks' to the body of a downed opponent are also legal. In addition, the action happens in a boxing ring and judges decide a fight based on the entire bout, rather than on a round by round basis.
But the big difference? Melodrama.
Each fight begins with an extended video intro, with highlights of previous fights, karaoke video-like training montages and, eventually, the fighters coming to the ring down lengthy walkways taking the competitors the length of the stadium as the music thunders and the massive lights drench the crowd. Fancy dress costumes and orchestrated dance sequences are not unheard of.
But in the end, it all comes down to the fight, and on that front, Dream 10 did not fail anyone present.
In the other semi-final, American Jason High rolled in against Brazilian Andre Galvao, bringing a ton of bling to the ring and a corner crew dressed in their urban best, complete with sponsored bandana face masks. Not to be outdone, Galvao bopped his way to the ring like an extra from Saturday Night Fever, taking his time, grooving with every step, and giving it the full Ellen.
But the BS ended quickly when the fight started, as High dropped Galvao early with a right cross, and the Brazilian responded by attacking with an amazing array of grappling submission hold attempts, rolling from kneebars to heel hooks to body triangles and rear naked chokes. High, to his credit, gutsed his way out of each hold, sometimes after minutes on the wrong end of moves that would cause most to tap out.
Round two started the same way as the first, with High dropping the Brazilian and almost making the same mistake of jumping on him, but with his corner yelling "no", High realized he needed to
stay standing and keep the jiu-jitsu man throwing punches. That seemed a good strategy, and with a host of hard-striking knees, kicks and punches, the tide definitely turned.
But neither man could put his opponent out, so the fight went to the judges for what most observers would have thought a Galvao victory... only, not so much. A split decision upset win to High once again left the crowd speechless, setting up a battle of the underdogs for the final later in the evening.
That set the scene for a host of filler fights, but the pace of the action didn't slow at all.
Emerging to the song "We Are The World", Japanese judoka Katsunori Kikuni came to the ring to face the spinning backfist glory of Toronto-based Muay Thai fighter Andre "Dida" Amade in what was the strangest, and most one-sided fight of the night.
It opened with Kikuno approaching Dida like an extra from Michael Jackson's Thriller video, with hands extended, his chin out, and a big goofy grin across his face for about four minutes of slow shuffling forward. Dida, in turn, lashed out, landed a few good blows to Kikuno's face, and looked to be in control of the fight, being as the Japanese fighter was offering not a single punch.
That is, until Kikuno exploded into action five minuts in, launching a hard front kick to the midsection that took the semi-Canadian's breath away.
After some sustained, undefended and unanswered ground and pound from the back by Kikuno, the ref stepped in to halt proceedings, leaving the trainer from Toronto BJJ dejected in the middle of the ring.
The opening fight of the night was a reserve tournament bout, to decide who would fill-in for the tournament proper in case of an injury to one of the Grand Prix competitors. That fight, a stand-up kickboxing war between 33-year-old Seichi Ikemoto and Belgian Tarec Saffiedine opened with the Japanese fighter charging in, leaping into the air and trying to hit his opponent with a distinctly unorthodox double hammerfist.
But it was Saffiedine, 11 years Ikemoto's junior, who landed the hardest blows in round one, with solid combinations and loud-landing roundhouse kicks. A flurry of solid knees and kicks late in the round from the 22-year-old Team Quest recruit saw Ikemoto in trouble when it matters most, and as they came out for round two, Saffiedine continued the dominance, rattling Ikemoto consistently with nice combos on his way to a decision victory.
In other action, former WEC middlweight champion Paulo Filho made a triumphant return to the ring against Melvin "No Mercy" Manhoef that went some way to putting his past few years behind him.
Once an elite prospect, Filho has had substance abuse issues of late, and missed weight by seven pounds on his last fight before being soundly beaten by a fighter he'd bested previously, sometimes looking disoriented and confused in the process. Filho missed weight again in preparation for his Dream debut, and for the opening few minutes, it looked like his bad streak was going to continue as he ate a lot of punching combinations and appeared out on his feet several times.
But you can never turn your back on a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and soon enough Filho fell on Manhoef, worked towards isolating an arm, rolled about until he had it stretched out, and slowly rumbled towards an armbar victory.
In other fights, renowned submission specialist Shinya Aoki took a decision win over Brazilian Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro in a boring festival of leg kicks, Ultimate Fighter reject Jesse Taylor won on his DREAM debut when Korean tomato can Dong Sik Yoon (4-7) busted an ankle, and that just left the middleweight tournament final.
It didn't last long. Zaromskis dropped Jason High, knocking him out cold with a huge right-footed head kick that left High unconscious for long enough that it delayed the victory announcement.
Zaromskis performed a backflip once High was out of medical danger, celebrating the emergence of a new world champion - one that wouldn't have bet on himself three hours earlier.
Dream 10: Sakurai vs Zaromskis
Dream 10: Zaromskis vs Jason High
"I don't know. I had a conversation with Dana last week, me and him spoke ... we were really, really good friends at a point, best friends at a point, and everything got mucked up because of the fight game.... I wanted to be a man and squash things between me and him and wish him luck in his journeys and he did the same to me. So we kind of amended and squashed things, which is great. Dana showed the kind of person he is by apologizing to me and vice versa...."
And here is the tweet exchange that has just taken place in the last couple hours:
Dana: "Yes tito and I made up"
Tito: "yeah, me and @danawhiteufc made up. I'm expecting to be inside the Octagon again soon. thanks for the support guys - I appreciate it"
Dana: "Doesn't mean he's back it means we aren't smashing each other anymore and we don't hate each other."
So, of course this leaves room for speculation, will Ortiz be back with the UFC? Will we see him in the Octagon as soon as UFC 103 which some mma sites are already predicting? Or has Tito actually signed with another organization? At one time or another he had made statements that he had been signed by Strikeforce, EliteXC and Affliction. I guess only time will tell. Tito has said that he wants to get a fight by October, so we'll just have to wait and see.
