Another two bouts have been added to next months DREAM.17 event in Japan. It was revealed on Wednesday that former UFC heavyweight Todd Duffee (6-2) would make his return to the promotion to face King of the Cage product Nick ‘Afrozilla’ Gaston (5-0). While a third place bout for the Japan Bantamweight Grand Prix tournament would take place between Keisuke Fujiwara (11-3-4) and Kenji Osawa (17-10-2).
DREAM.17 is scheduled to take place on July 16, and is the second offering for 2011 by the Japanese based promotion. The event will take place at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, Japan and currently there are no plans to broadcast the event in North America. Likely DREAM and HDNet will come to some agreement, so fans should expect the event to air via tape delay.
Duffee, owner of the fastest knockout on record for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, debuted with DREAM on New Years Eve. Duffee squared off with K-1 and Strikeforce champ, Alistair Overeem, at the Dynamite!! 2010 event for the DREAM heavyweight title. Overeem made short work of the former UFC fighter by ending the fight in just nineteen seconds of the first round.
Gaston is a perfect 6-0 so far in his pro career having fought exclusively for the KOTC promotion. ‘Afrozilla’ has fought once this year already, earning a first round TKO victory at a KOTC: Underground 66 event last April.
Fighting for third place, and a spot on the upcoming World Bantamweight Grand Prix tournament this fall, are Fujiwara and Osawa. Fujiawara steps in as a replacement for Atsushi Yamamoto who was forced out due to a possible retinal detachment following his loss to finalist Hideo Tokoro last month.
Fujiwara lost a decision to finalist Masakazu Imanari at the “Fight for Japan” event last month in the opening round of the Japan GP tournament. Previous to that loss, the ZST champion was undefeated in five fights going 4-0-1.
Osawa was also eliminated by Imanri in the tournament, losing in the semifinal-round of the tournament. That loss ended a two fight win streak, including his tournament opener over Takafumi Otsuka. Previous to his return to Japan Osawa also went 1-2-1 in the WEC from 2008 to 2009.
The current DREAM.17 card appears as follows:
Light Heavyweight Championship bout: (c) Gegard Mousasi vs. Hiroshi Izumi
Featherweight Championship bout: (c) Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
Bantamweight Tournament Final: Masakazu Imanari vs. Hideo Tokoro
Bantamweight Tournament 3rd place bout: Keisuke Fujiwara vs. Kenji Osawa
Lightweight bout: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Willamy Freire
Heavyweight bout: Todd Duffee vs. Nick Gaston