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 …

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Dream.15 Live Blog: Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri Updates

Filed under: DREAMThis is the Dream.15 live blog for Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri, a lightweight championship bout on tonight’s Dream event from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Aoki will defend his lightweight belt against rival Kawajir…

Filed under:

This is the Dream.15 live blog for Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri, a lightweight championship bout on tonight’s Dream event from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Aoki will defend his lightweight belt against rival Kawajiri in the main event.

The live blog is below.



Shinya Aoki Fighting Anything and Everything

Filed under: DREAM, interview, JapanShinya Aoki has not allowed me to take a decent photo of him in over a year. Every time I ask him for a photo he covers his face. I have never had any problems with him, and we used to have a good working relationshi…

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Shinya Aoki has not allowed me to take a decent photo of him in over a year. Every time I ask him for a photo he covers his face. I have never had any problems with him, and we used to have a good working relationship. It wasn’t just me though, it was all foreign press. I have often wondered what caused this dramatic change in attitude.

Watching the signing ceremony for his title fight against Tatsuya Kawajiri at DREAM.15, I noticed that he was doing the same thing with the Japanese media. On Thursday, a member of the Japanese press commented on it.

“At the signing ceremony you had the aura that it was difficult for us to get close to you…”

Aoki commented without looking up.

“Well I don’t feel any different now.”

MMA FightPicker Update: DREAM.15 Pools Open for Pickin’

(That little son-of-a-bitch is at it again… / ‘Shop courtesy of urdirt)
Alistair Overeem won’t be beating anybody up, but this Saturday’s DREAM event — which will be broadcast live on HDNet at 3 a.m. ET / midnight PT — will still be goo…

Arianny Celeste Shinya Aoki
(That little son-of-a-bitch is at it again… / ‘Shop courtesy of urdirt)

Alistair Overeem won’t be beating anybody up, but this Saturday’s DREAM event — which will be broadcast live on HDNet at 3 a.m. ET / midnight PT — will still be good for some late-night thrills, so set those DVRs, kiddies. In the main event, Shinya Aoki defends his DREAM lightweight belt (and attempts to bounce back from his humiliation in Strikeforce) against fellow Japanese mainstay Tatsuya "Crusher" Kawajiri, who’s on a four-fight win streak and hasn’t been submitted in five years. Also on the card, Gegard Mousasi and Melvin Manhoef headline that kinda-pointless mini-LHWGP, Mitushiro Ishida makes his featherweight debut against Daiki Hata, Michihiro Omigawa gets fed a can, and Gesias Cavalcante looks for his first win in three years against Katsunori Kikuno. If you’d like to make it interesting, head over to fightpicker.cagepotato.com (or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker) to make your predictions. This week’s pool-questions are…

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Dream.15 Fight Card: Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri

Filed under: DREAMA lightweight championship bout between two fan favorites and the opening of Dream’s light heavyweight tournament highlight the upcoming Dream.15 on July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

In the main event, Shinya Aoki…

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A lightweight championship bout between two fan favorites and the opening of Dream’s light heavyweight tournament highlight the upcoming Dream.15 on July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

In the main event, Shinya Aoki defends his belt against Tatsuya Kawajiri to determine the top Japanese lightweight in the world. In Grand Prix action, Melvin Manhoef battles Tatsuya Mizuno and Gegard Mousasi meets Jake O’Brien.

The card is still coming together but the current lineup is below.

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…

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