Three of the four semifinalists are now set for the DREAM
Lightweight GP following an exceptionally entertaining night of fights. DREAM.3 was the most impressive effort to
date in the promotionâs young history with solid bouts top to bottom as well as
the best attended with over 22,000 fans witnessing the proceedings at the
Saitama Super Arena outside of Tokyo.Â
The three featured matchups of the evening were the quarterfinals for
the Lightweight GP tournament and saw Caol Uno, Eddie Alverez and Tatsuya Kawajiri
advance. Theyâll be joined by the winner
of next monthâs Shinya Aoki/Katsuhiko Nagata contest when the tournament
resumes on July 21st at Osakaâs Osaka-jo Hall.
Eddie Alverez prevailed in a great fight with former Shooto
lightweight champion Joachim Hansen.Â
Alverez looked particularly sharp in his striking game, which allowed
him to dominate the first round. He
knocked Hansen down a couple of times and at one point looked to be on the
verge of a stoppage as the round drew to a close. The double tough Hansen would take over early
in the 2nd round and put on a submission clinic, throwing a variety
of chokes, arm bars and leglocks at his American opponent who had a counter or
escape for everything. At the final bell
the two warriors embraced and slumped to the mat together in a moving display
of mutual respect. Alverezâs precise punching in the first carried the day,
however, earning him a unanimous decision victory. This was easily the best fight of the night
and an early candidate for âfight of the yearâ consideration.
Caol Unoâs matchup against Mitsuhiro Ishida may not have
been as epic, but his victory over the substantially favored opponent dubbed âThe
Endless Warriorâ for his toughness and endurance was almost shocking in its
decisiveness. The fight started with a
good deal of acrimony including an intense staredown and a refusal to shake
hands. Unoâs sharp punching skills
dominated early before he caught an inadvertent low kick which stopped the
action temporarily. After recovering, he
continued to pepper Ishida with power punches including an upper cut that
severely bloodied and perhaps broke Ishidaâs nose. It looked nasty, but passed the scrutiny of
the ringside physician and the fight continued.
The second round began with much more balanced activity as
the two fighters went at it first throwing punches and then on the ground
trading takedowns and submissions. The
end came when Uno escaped an Ishida kimura
attempt and then quickly took his opponentâs back. Uno locked in a tight rear naked choke that
forced his opponent to tap despite him not having his legs âhookedâ in. The loss was only the 4th of
Ishidaâs career and just the second by way of stoppage, the first coming by TKO
to one of the best âpound for poundâ fighters in the world in Takanori Gomi.
In the eveningâs other lightweight GP tournament match,
Tatsuya Kawajiri used his takedown defense and ground and pound offense to earn
a workmanlike decision over Brazilian Top Team member Luiz âBuscapeâ
Firmino. Kawajiri repeatedly stuffed
Buscapeâs takedown attempts and on the occasions where he did meet the canvas
managed to gain a reversal and continue his âground and poundâ attack. While the fight paled to the other tournament
matchups in terms of drama, intensity and technique it was a decisive win for
the Japanese veteran of PRIDE and Shooto.Â
While perhaps not as charismatic and entertaining as the other remaining
LWGP contestants his fighting style is made to order for a tournament of this
type. In many ways heâs similar to UFC
competitor Sean Sherk in that while he may not have the martial arts background
to equal his opponents heâs able to win with conditioning, toughness and
suffocating ground and pound.
Aside from the Lightweight GP bouts the other significant
takeaway from the night was a solidly impressive performance by the enigmatic
Nick Diaz in a stoppage victory over Katsuya Inoue. This match wasnât announced until last
weekend and in the intervening 7 days was âonâ and âoffâ several times due to
political machinations between EliteXC and DREAM, followed by concern on Diazâs
part that he wouldnât be able to make weight.Â
In a bout that was essentially all standup punching, Diaz dominated from
the opening bell. A professional level
boxer, Diaz used all the tools of âthe sweet scienceâ to bewilder Inoue
establishing a solid jab and mixing up combinations to the head and body. Though Inoue was able to get off some effective
counterstrikes on a few occasions, he was no match in the punching exchanges
overall. Despite being used for target
practice during most of the 2nd round the rugged Inoue never went
down and his corner was eventually forced to âthrow in the towelâ to save their
fighter from a further beating.
The brutally talented but often troubled and controversial
Diaz needed an impressive performance in this fight and he more than
delivered. Following run-ins with the
athletic commissions in California and Nevada due to his marijuana use (both
clinical and recreational) and an ugly showing following a stoppage loss due to
a cut where he made obscene gestures to both the ringside physician and the fans
on his way out of the ring, Diaz showed nothing but skill during the bout and
class before and after. He was gracious
in his postfight comments to the fans and was greeted enthusiastically by them
on his way out of the arena, slapping hands and exchanging hugs. With all of the ups and downs Diaz has
already experienced in his career its easy to forget that heâs only 24 years
old. Hopefully his performance signals a
renewed focus on his profession as when his âhead is in the gameâ thereâs few
fighters in the sport as consistently exciting to watch. In the postfight press conference Diaz
indicated that heâd eventually like to fight lightweight contender Shinya Aoki
in what could be a âdream matchupâ (no pun intended) shout it materialize.Â
In other action, Korean judoka
Dae Won Kim dominated the entire way keeping Dutch kickboxer Melvin Manhoef off
balance with a mixture of throws and a surprisingly effective punching game. Unfortunately, Kim ended up on the wrong end
of a KO loss as he was caught with a couple of brutal knees midway through the
first round and knocked out cold. Â Ironically, it was the first significant offense
of the fight by Manhoef who looked listless throughout. The self proclaimed âmonkey kingâ and one of
the more interesting âcharactersâ in the sport, Jason âMayhemâ Miller dominated
Katsuyori Shibata in a completely one sided affair. Even Millerâs frequently flamboyant ring
entrancesâthink âPrinceâ Nassem Hamed with more humor and less Broadway pompâwas
restrained with only some brief breakdancing.Â
A very knowledgeable boxing expert once made the profound
observation to me that you shouldnât judge a fighter by his record alone. Olympic Silver Medalist and former World Cup
Judo champion Bu Kyung Jung is a perfect example of thisâhe lost by 2nd
round KO to Daisuke Nakamura to drop his record to 0-3 but was an especially
game competitor throughout. His judo
skills and general toughness gave his Japanese foe fits during the first frame
as they fought to a standstill. In the 2nd,
Nakamura landed a perfectly placed right cross to âthe buttonâ for the KO
win. The punch was so perfectly placed
and thrown that it would have knocked out anyone. Both of Kimâs previous two losses were by
decision to two of the sportâs eliteâMitsuhiro Ishida and Shinya Aoki. The fact that he fought the submission expert
Aoki in his first professional MMA bout and took him the distance is borderline
unfathomable.
DREAM.3 was the first of the promotionâs events to be
televised live to the US on HDNet and for American fans that provided perhaps
the only negative of the evening. HDNetâs
production was awful and the commentary ranged from tedious to embarrassing. Kenny Rice was passable, though somewhat
lackluster with his monotone delivery.Â
Bas Ruttenâwhom I respect as a fighter and trainer and is by all
accounts a great guyâwas nothing short of disastrous on commentary. As the card progressed he seem more
interested in making stereotypical ethnic jokes, singing and humming along to
the ring entrance music and doing horrible impressions of Bruce Lee and Elvis
than he did in calling the action. Iâm
sure Ruttenâs a riot if youâre out drinking beer with him but without a strong
presence on play by play to ârein him inâ his commentary quickly took on the
tone of âOpen Mic Nightâ at âThe Improvâ.Â
HDNetâs overall production quality was arguably the worst by a major
promotion in the history of the sport.Â
On a show with such high quality fights this sort of pitiful effort is
inexcusable and an insult to the sport and the fighters who compete in it.
Despite the shabby production on the US HDNet broadcast,
DREAM.3 was an unqualified success and delivered the sort of dramatic
highlights in the midst of wall to wall quality fighting that characterized
PRIDE at its best. If the promotion can
sustain this sort of quality in terms of their product and effectively leverage
their brand new partnership with EliteXC they could be on the verge of emerging
from the shadow of their PRIDE forbearers.Â
All in all a must see event if you didnât catch it live, particularly the
Alverez/Hansen bout which was simply fighting at its highest level.