Tag: gegard mousasi

Dream 15: Aoki, Mousasi Bounce Back With Big Wins

Filed under: DREAM, Strikeforce, News, JapanTwo of the fighters who lost lopsided decisions on April’s Strikeforce card on CBS bounced back with impressive victories Saturday at Dream 15 in Saitama, Japan.

In the main event, Dream lightweight champion…

Filed under: , , ,

Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya KawajiriTwo of the fighters who lost lopsided decisions on April’s Strikeforce card on CBS bounced back with impressive victories Saturday at Dream 15 in Saitama, Japan.

In the main event, Dream lightweight champion Shinya Aoki submitted Tatsuya Kawajiri to retain his title, looking as good as he ever has three months after looking as bad as he ever had in a loss to Gilbert Melendez.

Aoki, wearing board shorts rather than his trademark spandex grappling pants, immediately took the fight to the ground and went for one of his signature foot lock submissions, twisting and turning Kawajiri’s leg for a full minute on the ground before Kawajiri finally had to tap out. There was nothing more to it than that, as Aoki — Japan’s biggest MMA star — did exactly what he wanted to do.

DREAM 15 Aftermath: Aoki, Mousasi Go Back To Japan, Where the Competition is a Little Easier

(VidProps: YouTube/evilbyte)
Give the DREAM bosses some credit, these guys sure know how to build suspense into what otherwise might be a fairly straightforward and pleasing night of MMA fights. As it turned out, there was no surprise run-in from …

(VidProps: YouTube/evilbyte)

Give the DREAM bosses some credit, these guys sure know how to build suspense into what otherwise might be a fairly straightforward and pleasing night of MMA fights. As it turned out, there was no surprise run-in from Alistair Overeem and the Japanese promotion with the fly-by-the-seat-of-its pants matchmaking style never found a fight for Ricco Rodriguez. We hope it paid for the flight and the sushi, at least.  On the bright side, DREAM finally did manage to convince Gegard Mousasi to put in the 31 seconds of work it took to defeat an overweight Jake O’Brien and Shinya Aoki likewise bounced back from an embarrassing loss in Strikeforce a few months ago to put a quick and typically stoic beating on Tatsuya Kawajiri.

Like “Sweet and Sassy,” Aoki called it an early night, withstanding some heel kicks to the face as he locked up an Achilles lock that secured the tap and appeared to damage his Kawajiri’s leg in just one minute, 53 seconds. A couple of days after possibly declaring his bi-sexuality at the event’s weigh-in (we assume he was being ironical), Aoki ditched his trademark colorful tights for relatively conservative board shorts and rushed from the ring following his win to get some lovin’ from his (possibly female) fiancé.

After the jump, O’Brien vs. Mousasi, where it will take you all of the first 15 seconds to see why the American had a little trouble making weight …

read more

DREAM 15 O’Brien-Mousasi Bout Back On After Gegard’s Camp Refuses Fight With Ricco Rodriguez

(GerardM? DREAM may be onto something awesome)
It’s seeming more and more like Ricco Rodriguez’s inclusion on the DREAM 15 card just wasn’t meant to be.
After Twittering early this morning that he may be stepping in for fellow MMA Agents repped fighte…


(GerardM? DREAM may be onto something awesome)

It’s seeming more and more like Ricco Rodriguez’s inclusion on the DREAM 15 card just wasn’t meant to be.

After Twittering early this morning that he may be stepping in for fellow MMA Agents repped fighter Jake O’Brien to face Gegard Mousasi in the opening round of the DREAM four-man light heavyweight grand prix tournament, it appears that the fight has reverted back to its original match-up as Mousasi’s camp has agreed to fight O’Brien in spite of the American reportedly being 21 pounds over the required 205-pound weight limit.

read more

DREAM.15 to Feature Overeem vs. Rodriguez, Mousasi vs. O’Brien

(Ricco Rodriguez: From flab to fab.)
Two months after his beatdown of Brett Rogers at Heavy Artillery, Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem will return to competition at DREAM.15 (July 10th, Saitama), where he’ll take on former UFC heavy…

Ricco Rodriguez fat MMARicco Rogriguez thin weight loss
(Ricco Rodriguez: From flab to fab.)

Two months after his beatdown of Brett Rogers at Heavy Artillery, Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem will return to competition at DREAM.15 (July 10th, Saitama), where he’ll take on former UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez in a non-title bout. While that may sound like Alistair is getting back to his Japanese squash-match roots, keep in mind that Rodriguez is on a seven-fight win streak since last July (six of which came by stoppage), including victories over veterans Travis Fulton and Moise Rimbon. He also looks a lot better physically these days (see above), and competed in the 218-pound division at last year’s ADCCs.

Can Rodriguez use Overeem as a springboard to a career rebirth? No, probably not — but he could impress a lot of people just by giving Overeem a tough fight and not spitting on anybody. In a related story, Ricco is no longer listed for that 7/18 Impact FC fight against Jeff Monson, which is unfortunate because you can bet that Paulo Filho and Ken Shamrock will be dropping out at the last minute…

read more

Evgeni Kogan Confident Gegard Mousasi Will Sign New Deal With M-1 Global

Filed under: Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive, M-1 Global, NewsIn February, then-Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi announced that he had split with M-1 Global. Mousasi even categorized the break-up as “bitter.” This led to speculatio…

Filed under: , , ,

In February, then-Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi announced that he had split with M-1 Global. Mousasi even categorized the break-up as “bitter.” This led to speculation that Mousasi was setting himself up for a departure to the UFC.

Four months later, Mousasi is no longer the 205-pound champion and, according to Evgeni Kogan, M-1 Global’s director of operations, “The Dreamcatcher” appears to be on his way back to M-1.