Tatsuya Kawajiri | UFC Betting Sites - The Best MMA Online Bookies

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…

Filed under: DREAM, interview, Japan

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…

(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…

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…

Filed under: DREAM

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: 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…