On Monday DREAM officials added another bout to their upcoming end month DREAM: Fight for Japan event. Squaring off in a 143 lb bout will be former Shooto champion Takeshi Inoue (19-5) and current DEEP champ Koichiro Matsumoto (12-2).
DREAM: Fight for Japan is scheduled to be held on May 29, 2011 at the Saitama Super Arena Hall in Saitama, Japan. The event features a Bantamweight Japan Grand Prix Tournament, with the finalists meeting in July. The top three fightes will go on to compete in a World Grand Prix this fall. Also fighting on the card will be DREAM lightweight champ Shinya Aoki, Caol Uno, and Joachim Hansen.
This will be Inoue’s second appearance on a DREAM card after fighting almost exclusively for the Shooto promotion since the start of his pro career back in May of 2003. The former 143 lb champ recently earned a second round TKO victory last month at a Shooto event in Tokyo. The victory ended a two-fight losing streak which saw Inoue suffer a decision loss to Kazuyuki Miyata at DREAM.16 in his promotional debut, and a split decision title loss to Hatsu Hioki at a Shooto show in May of last year.
This bout will be Matsumoto’s DREAM debut and enters the bout on a five fight win streak. He was a former DEEP lightweight title contender, but after a title bout loss to Katsunori Kikuno in April of 2009 he dropped weight divisions and hasn’t looked back. Fighting at 143 lbs, Matsumoto earned three straight before defeating former champ Takafumi Otsuka for the title last August. His last fight was at the DEEP 51 event in December, where he earned a third round TKO victory over Shoji Maruyama.