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Dream New Year’s Eve Predictions

Filed under: DREAMWill Fedor Emelianenko continue his winning ways on New Year’s Eve in Japan? Or will Satoshi Ishii take an enormous step forward in his MMA career with a huge upset? Will Japanese stars Shinya Aoki, Hiroyuki Takaya and Tatsuya Kawajir…

Filed under: DREAM

Will Fedor Emelianenko continue his winning ways on New Year’s Eve in Japan? Or will Satoshi Ishii take an enormous step forward in his MMA career with a huge upset? Will Japanese stars Shinya Aoki, Hiroyuki Takaya and Tatsuya Kawajiri put on impressive performances? Will American fans manage to stay awake after UFC 141 and watch several more hours of fighting into the wee hours of Saturday morning?

We’ll attempt to answer those questions and more as we predict the winners of this year’s New Year’s Eve event in Japan below.

What: Dream: Fight for Japan New Year 2011

Where: Saitama Super Arena, Saitama, Japan

When: Friday late night, the HDNet broadcast will begin at 1 AM ET, just after the conclusion of UFC 141.

Predictions on all the MMA fights below.

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii
Fedor is 5-0 fighting in Japan on New Year’s Eve, and it would be an enormous upset if he doesn’t improve to 6-0 against Ishii, a former Olympic judo gold medalist who is 4-1-1 in his MMA career. Fedor has obviously declined significantly from the days when he was the top fighter in the sport, but I don’t think he’s fallen so far that he’ll lose to Ishii. This should be a relatively easy win for Fedor.
Pick: Emelianenko

Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka
Aoki is arguably Japan’s best pound-for-pound fighter, but he’ll have his hands full with Kitaoka, who’s a good grappler and has beaten some very solid opponents, including Carlos Condit, Paul Daley and Takanori Gomi. I see this one going the distance and being closer than most people think, with Aoki eking out a close decision.
Pick: Aoki

Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi Inoue
Takaya is making his second defense of the Dream featherweight title, which he won by defeating Bibiano Fernandes on New Year’s Eve last year. Inoue is coming off a great head kick knockout of Caol Uno, but Takaya’s kickboxing is better than Inoue, and I like him to win by decision.
Pick: Takaya

Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
Kawajiri dropped to featherweight and looked great in his recent win over Joachim Hansen. His striking will be too much for Miyata.
Pick: Kawajiri

Hayato Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan
Both of these guys are past their primes (Sakurai is 36 and has lost four in a row; Chonan is 35 and has fought low-level competition since losing three of four in the UFC a few years ago), but I think Sakurai has a little more gas left in the tank and will avenge Chonan’s 2003 victory.
Pick: Sakurai

Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez
Fujii is one of the best pound-for-pound female fighters in the world, and Benitez is simply not at her level. This should be an easy submission victory for Fujii.
Pick: Fujii

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal: Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques
Fernandes, the former Dream featherweight title, is more comfortable fighting at bantamweight, and he has to be considered the favorite to win this tournament. I look for him to beat Marques easily.
Pick: Fernandes

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinal: Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos
Banuelos was released by the UFC after losing a decision to Miguel Torres early this year, but he’s a dangerous opponent for anyone and a much better striker than Imanari. I like Banuelos to win by TKO.
Pick: Banuelos

Bantamweight Tournament Reserve Bout: Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev
Tokoro, who lost a split decision to Banuelos in the tournament quarterfinals, should win the reserve bout against Saadulaev, who lost to Marques.
Pick: Tokoro

Bantamweight Tournament Final: Winner of Imanari/Banuelos vs. Winner of Fernandes/Marques
Fernandes has an excellent opportunity to make a statement that he’s the best bantamweight outside Zuffa, and I think he’ll put on a show by beating Banuelos in the tournament finale.
Pick: Fernandes

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Fedor Emelianenko to Face Satoshi Ishii in Japan on New Years Eve

(What? Was Zuluzinho not ready for a rematch?)

Fresh off a unanimous decision victory over Jeff Monson that snapped the only multiple fight losing streak of his career, word has just broke that Fedor Emelianenko will be fighting in Japan for the first time since his armbar victory over Hong Man Choi at Yarennoka – New Years Eve 2007. As luck would have it, “The Last Emperor” will be fighting on New Years Eve once again, this time under the DREAM banner and against 2008 Olympic gold medal winning Judo practitioner Satoshi Ishii.

Not exactly the freak show bout that Japan (and Fedor) have been known to dabble in, but to call it a mismatch would be somewhat of an understatement. After winning the gold medal in Beijing, China over three years ago, Ishii has built up a 4-1-1 MMA record, with wins over the likes of Ikuhisa Minowa and former K1 great Jerome Le Banner, but has not fought since his draw with pill popper and occasional fighter Paulo Filho back in September. Ishii’s lone loss came in his MMA debut at the hands of fellow Judoka gold medalist Hidehiko Yoshida.

(What? Was Zuluzinho not ready for a rematch?)

Emelianenko, on the other hand, is no stranger to the kind of offense Ishii will bring; he has not only medaled in the Russian National Judo Championships, but is a four time World Combat Sambo champion as well. And along with an experience advantage over Ishii that borders on brobdingnagian, Fedor can also fall back on the fact that he has a pair of Phantasm-esque murderballs for hands and an arsenal of submissions that would give any member of the Gracie family an erection. So yeah, Fedor should be able to take this one with relative ease.

DREAM “Genki Desu Ka! New Year! 2011 will also conclude (finally) DREAM’s bantamweight tournament, featuring the semifinals and final match-ups of the four remaining participants: Antonio Banuelos, Masakazu Imanari, Bibiano Fernandes and Rodolfo Marques.

Genki Desu Ka! is set to transpire December 31st from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

-Danga

DREAM Bantamweight Semifinals Set for ‘Genki Desu Ka!!’

Filed under: News, JapanTo close out DREAM’s World Bantamweight Grand Prix, Bibiano Fernandes will face Antonio Banuelos, while Masakazu Imanari will fight Rodolfo Marques on the Dec. 31 “Genki Desu Ka!!” (How are you?) card in Saitama, Japan.

Fernan…

Filed under: News, Japan

To close out DREAM’s World Bantamweight Grand Prix, Bibiano Fernandes will face Antonio Banuelos, while Masakazu Imanari will fight Rodolfo Marques on the Dec. 31 “Genki Desu Ka!!” (How are you?) card in Saitama, Japan.

Fernandes, Baneulos, Imanari and Marques were all victorious in opening round bouts at DREAM.17 in September to advance to the semifinals. The winners of the semifinals will meet the same night on Dec. 31 to determine the Grand Prix champion.

Former DREAM Featherweight GP winner and titleholder Fernandes (9-3) is coming off a win against Takafumi Otsuka via rear-naked choke. Marques (14-1) out of Brazil’s Nova Uniao advanced with a unanimous decision win over Yusup Saadulaev.

Leglock specialist Imanari (24-9-2) has been one of the most active fighters in Japanese MMA in 2011. He’s 3-2 this year with wins over Abel Cullum, Kenji Osawa and Keisuke Fujiwara and loses to Hideo Tokoro and Hiroshi Nakamura. Banuelos (19-7) made his UFC debut in February in a losing effort against Miguel Torres and then bounced back with a win over Hideo Tokoro at DREAM.17.

Event promoters also announced Friday the addition of Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan to the card.

Sakurai (35-12-2) will be in search of his first win since knocking out Shinya Aoki back at DREAM.8 in April 2009. The former UFC title contender last competed last New Year’s Eve in a loss to Jason High. He was booked to fight at DREAM.17 but bowed out due to injury. Chonan (20-12), best known for a submission win over Anderson Silva, won both his fights in 2011 fighting under the DEEP banner.

The final “Genki Desu Ka!!” card will be a mix of MMA, kickboxing and pro wrestling matches.

Current lineup:

Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques
Masakazu Imanari vs. Antonio Banuelos
Winner of Fernandes-Marques vs. Winner of Imanari-Banuelos
Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi “Lion” Inoue
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata

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MMA Top 10 Bantamweights: Dominick Dominates the Class

Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Rankings, BantamweightsOne of the things that demonstrates Dominick Cruz’s dominance over the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts is also one of the problems that the UFC is going to have promoting him going forward: He…

Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Rankings, Bantamweights

One of the things that demonstrates Dominick Cruz‘s dominance over the bantamweight division in mixed martial arts is also one of the problems that the UFC is going to have promoting him going forward: He has already handily beaten most of the best 135-pound fighters in the world, and there aren’t a lot of big fights for him out there.

Cruz’s latest conquest was Demetrious Johnson, and that fight went a lot like most of Cruz’s other fights: It wasn’t a vicious, violent beatdown, but it was a one-sided display of technical dominance, a fight in which we knew within the first minute or two that we were going to see Cruz win a unanimous decision.

As much as MMA fans recognize Cruz’s skill, it’s going to be hard for the UFC to get the general public excited about his fights because the public likes guys who destroy their opponents better than guys who win through their technical mastery. Still, there’s no doubting that Cruz is by far the best in the bantamweight division: He’s already beaten most of the other Top 10 bantamweights, as you’ll see below.

Top 10 Bantamweights in MMA
(Number in parentheses is the fighter’s rank in the last bantamweight list.)

1. Dominick Cruz (1): One of the really impressive aspects of Cruz’s current run is the quality of the competition he’s facing. As we’ll discuss below, there are a lot of really good bantamweights in the UFC right now — Johnson, Joseph Benavidez, Brian Bowles, Urijah Faber, Scott Jorgensen — and Cruz has beaten them all handily.

2. Joseph Benavidez (2): Benavidez is 15-0 when he’s not fighting Cruz, and 0-2 when he is fighting Cruz. If the UFC ever adds a flyweight class, Benavidez could easily make the cut to 125 pounds and would likely be the division’s first champion. Instead he languishes as the second-best fighter in a division where he’s already lost twice to the best.

3. Brian Bowles (3): After losing the bantamweight belt to Cruz in March of 2010, Bowles missed a year because of injuries. Now he’s 2-0 in 2011, and if he makes it 3-0 by beating Faber at UFC 139, he’ll probably get another shot at Cruz.

4. Urijah Faber (4): If Faber gets by Bowles at UFC 139, the UFC will probably give him his rubber match with Cruz. But that says more about Faber being the UFC’s most marketable bantamweight than it says about Faber’s chances of taking the bantamweight belt from Cruz: The way Cruz beat Faber at UFC 132 leaves little doubt that Cruz would be a heavy favorite if they fight again.

5. Bibiano Fernandes (NR): The former Dream featherweight champion, Fernandes is now fighting at 135 pounds in the Dream bantamweight tournament, and he looks great there: He’s better off fighting at a lower weight. He’s the best bantamweight outside the UFC, and he could be a great future opponent for Cruz if the UFC ever signs him.

6. Demetrious Johnson (5): Mighty Mouse is undersized at 135 pounds, and he would benefit from a move down to flyweight. The UFC has been talking about creating a flyweight class for a long time (and the WEC talked about it for a long time before that), and with guys like Johnson and Benavidez around, there’s no better time than now.

7. Scott Jorgensen (6): Jorgensen was thoroughly outclassed by Cruz last year, but he bounced back with a big knockout win over Ken Stone in June. He draws Jeff Curran next at UFC 137.

8. Miguel Torres (7): The former WEC bantamweight champion, Torres is the best UFC bantamweight who hasn’t yet fought Cruz. I also think Torres could be an interesting opponent for Cruz because he has height and reach that match up well with Cruz, and because he’s good at fighting off his back, and Cruz showed against Johnson that he can at times be sloppy on top. Torres is coming off a loss to Johnson, and he probably needs to go on a two-fight winning streak before the UFC would give him a crack at Cruz. He can start that streak at UFC 139, when he fights Nick Pace.

9. Brad Pickett (8): After putting together some very impressive performances in the WEC, the British Pickett will finally make his UFC debut on his home turf at UFC 138 in Birmingham, England, where he’ll face …

10. Renan Barão (9): Barao is on an incredible run, having won 26 straight fights (with one no contest) since dropping his professional MMA debut in 2005. However, all but the last three of those fights have been against little-known opponents on small Brazilian shows. Going to England to face Pickett represents a big step up in quality of competition for Barao, and the fight represents a very good match-up to determine which one of them really deserves to be considered a Top 10 bantamweight.

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DREAM 17 Results: Banuelos, Fernandes Advance in Bantamweight World GP

Aoki vs. McCullough. Enjoy it while it’s still available. Props: FightVieoMMA.com

Earlier this morning, DREAM 17 went down in Saitama, Japan. For those of you who have been reading this website for a while now, you know the drill. For those of you who are new here, first off, welcome. Second, DREAM publishes the results of their fights immediately after they happen, but the fights aren’t typically aired on HDNet until a later date. So if you feel like you’ve already read the results from somewhere or already saw the fights, well, you probably have. However, if you were really drunk last night and want to refresh your memory on what you saw (not that we condone that sort of thing), or are too disinterested in DREAM to have stayed in to watch it, then come inside where we have full results waiting after the jump.

Aoki vs. McCullough. Enjoy it while it’s still available. Props: FightVieoMMA.com

Still here? Good. Try not to act too surprised, but Shinya Aoki managed to dump another striker on his back and work for a submission last night. While Rob McCullough managed to get back to his feet after Aoki’s first takedown, he proceeded to do absolutely nothing until getting taken down again. Another impressive performance from Aoki, albeit against questionable competition.

In other non-tournament action, Takeshi Inoue dazzled the Japanese crowd with a head kick knockout of Caol Uno. Sorry, we don’t have a video of that for you. In far more predictable news, Tatsuya Kawajiri submitted Joachim Hansen with an arm triangle in the third round, Sakuraba lost yet another fight, this time to Yan Cabral, Gerald Harris picked up a split decision victory over Kazuhiro Nakamura and Ikuhisa Minowa submitted another oversized freak, Baru Harn. And yes, we actually DO have a video of that.

In Bantamweight World Grand Prix action, UFC veteran Antonio Banuelos picked up a split decision victory over Hideo Tokoro. This fight was his first since being canned by the UFC after a unanimous decision loss to Miguel Torres at UFC 126. Bibiano Fernandes, Masakazu Imanari, and Rodolfo Marques also advanced to the next round with victories last night.

Full results, courtesy of MMAFighting:

Non-Tournament Bouts
Shinya Aoki def. Rob McCullough via submission (neck crank) – R1, 4:52
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Joachim Hansen via submission (arm-triangle), R3, 2:30
Takeshi Inoue def. Caol Uno via KO – R1, 4:17
Yan Cabral def. Kazushi Sakuraba via submission (arm-triangle choke) – R1, 2:42
Satoru Kitaoka def. Willamy Freire via split decision
Gerald Harris def. Kazuhiro Nakamura via split decision
Ikuhisa Minowa def. Baru Harn via submission (scarf-hold armbar) – R1, 4:39

Bantamweight World GP Quarterfinal
Antonio Banuelos def. Hideo Tokoro via split decision
Bibiano Fernandes def. Takafumi Otuska via submission (rear-naked choke) – R1, 0:41
Masakazu Imanari def. Abel Cullum via submission (armbar) – R3, 0:46
Rodolfo Marques def. Yusup Saadulaev via unanimous decision

DREAM.17 Results: Aoki vs. McCullough

Filed under: DREAM, Results, JapanMMA Fighting has Dream.17 results for Shinya Aoki vs. “Razor” Rob McCullough and the rest of the Sept. 24 fights from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

In a non-title bout, Dream lightweight champion Aoki bec…

Filed under: DREAM, Results, Japan

MMA Fighting has Dream.17 results for Shinya Aoki vs. “Razor” Rob McCullough and the rest of the Sept. 24 fights from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

In a non-title bout, Dream lightweight champion Aoki became the first person to submit ex-WEC titleholder McCullough, slapping on a neck crank late in the first round. Meanwhile, Antonio Banuelos, Bibiano Fernandes, Masakazu Imanari and Rodolfo Marques all won quarterfinal bouts to advance in the Bantamweight World Grand Prix.

Dream.17 results are below.

Non-Tournament Bouts
Shinya Aoki def. Rob McCullough via submission (neck crank) – R1, 4:57
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Joachim Hansen via submission (arm-triangle choke), R3, 2:30
Takeshi Inoue def. Caol Uno via KO (head kick) – R1, 4:17
Yan Cabral def. Kazushi Sakuraba via submission (arm-triangle choke) – R1, 2:42
Satoru Kitaoka def. Willamy Freire via split decision
Gerald Harris def. Kazuhiro Nakamura via split decision
Ikuhisa Minowa def. Baru Harn via submission (scarf-hold armbar) – R1, 4:39

Bantamweight World GP Quarterfinal Bouts
Antonio Banuelos def. Hideo Tokoro via split decision
Bibiano Fernandes def. Takafumi Otuska via submission (rear-naked choke) – R1, 0:41
Masakazu Imanari def. Abel Cullum via submission (armbar) – R3, 0:46
Rodolfo Marques def. Yusup Saadulaev via unanimous decision

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