DREAM returns from a 2 month absence following the lightweight grandprix finals back in July. On tonight’s show, we will see the crowning of the first ever DREAM middleweight champion as Zelg Galesi, Ronaldo Souza, Melvin Manhoef and Gegard Mousasi, will battle it out in the grandprix finals. The tournament reserve bout will featuring Yoon Dong-sik taking on Andrews Nakahara.
Also on the card, former Pride and UFC star Mirko Cro Cop will continue on the comeback trail as he takes on the dangerous Alistair Overeem. Cro Cop is coming off a win in his DREAM debut, which followed a disappointing run in the UFC. Overeem has looked impressive in recent performances, and rides a 3 fight win streak into tonight’s bout.
Cro Cop got a massive reaction when they introduced all the fighters to the live audience.
I believe they are doing the reserve bout first.
Kenny and Bas are our commentary team as always.
Dream officials have been forced to rethink the line up for this show, due to several of their marquee names being forced off the card. Nick Diaz was pulled from the show by EXC, “Kid” Yamamoto withdrew after sustaining a knee injury, the Mirko Cro Cop versus Jerome LeBanner fight was dropped, and it’s uncertain whether Hideo Tokoro can fight after being involved in a car crash last week. So alot of this card still remains a mystery.
There’s one thing we know for certain though, Dream’s first lightweight champion will be crowned by the end of this show. Shinya Aoki will fight Caol Uno in one semi, while Eddie Alvarez and Tatsuya Kawajiri will face off in the other. The winners will go on to meet in the grand prix final later on in the night.
It’s the usual HDNet commentary team of Bas Rutten and Kenny Rice calling the action. We start off the show with a recap of the tournament so far. This is Followed by the usual introductions of each fighter to the live crowd. Nakamura vs. Ologun is up first.
1. Daisuke Nakamura vs. Andy Ologun
After last week’s slobberknocker of a fight between Kimbo Slice and Tank Abbott, Strikeforce comes back this week with Bob Sapp’s first fight in the US. Sapp is a huge star in Japan I’ve read that he even had his own merchandise store at one point. You’re talking Michael Jordan level status. While I don’t think Strikeforce is depending on Bob Sapp in the same ways that EXC depends on Kimbo Slice, with their business model, they don’t need to. Their big market is in San Jose, California with local headliners Frank Shamrock and Cung Le. Seattle has been a good market for minor league MMA and Strikeforce is using Sapp and his local ties to the area to try to sell tickets. The fight is on HDNet, which very few people receive (something like 6 million people in all), but for those who do get it, it should be an interesting spectacle. There aren’t many big name fighters, though former UFC fighter Joe Riggs and former UFC champion, Maurice Smith are on the card. Interestingly, Smith beat Tank Abbot in a fight over 10 years ago. We’ll see if he can do better against kickboxer Rick Roufus than Abbott did against Slice.
I would say that you should try and go out of your way to see tonight’s WEC show on the Versus Network. There are three title matches and all of them should be pretty good. Carlos Condit is trying to avenge a previous loss a few years ago to Carlo Prater. The WEC shows are quick paced because of their focus on the lighter weight fighters and go by pretty quickly. Also, you get to hear Frank Mir talk about his win over Brock Lesner, since he’s the color commentator.
The main story today is that a new company called the Fighting Entertainment Group, made up of K-1 and the former Pride promotion, has created a new promotion called Dream. The Hero’s promotion is no more, and this new promotion will take it’s place and the network television deal they have in place with TBS in Japan. This is important because the main reason Pride eventually failed is because it lost TV and didn’t have the money to spend on what their fans loved, which was an insane fighting atmosphere and big named fighters.
Maybe even more importantly to US fans, Mirko Cro Cop is going to be involved with them, ending his short stay with UFC. Cro Cop says that his contract was ended by the UFC, though he still had several fights left on it. In a recent Wrestling Observer newsletter, Dave Meltzer mentioned that the UFC was trying to renegotiate his deal. His three fight UFC stay has to be looked at as nothing short of a disaster for the UFC.
Two big MMA names are on prime time network television, and there’s not much buzz about it. Tito Ortiz is one of the contestants on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice and Gina Carano is a gladiator on American Gladiators. I missed the first episode of Celebrity Apprentice because of DVR difficulties, but I’ll be watching it from here on out. Based on previous episodes I’ve seen of the show, this is tailor made for Ortiz and he should do well. As for American Gladiators, based on the Sunday Night premiere (I haven’t watched Monday’s show yet), Carano isn’t really show cased and doesn’t stand out, but she is the prettiest of the female gladiators (though really, that’s not saying much). I’m interested to see how she does because by being natural looking, she’s not memorable right off the bat.
If you get the chance, make sure you check out the UFC 81 site that I linked above. There’s a trailer where they show Brock Lesnar with his WWE belt and in the hype video for Mir and Lesnar, they even talk about his pro wrestling background. I think it’s great that the WWE allowed the UFC to use the footage, and let’s face it, it probably helps WWE just as much as it does UFC to have WWE footage on UFC TV. I especially liked it when Lesnar called Mir, Frank Mur.
Rather than do the regular news updates, I’m going to give out some awards. This will encompass all of MMA, but really, my focus will be on the American companies since I didn’t see much of Pride or K-1 this year.
Fighter Of The Year
There are some great candidates for this one, including guys that will get overlooked like Urijah Faber. But I think the year belonged to three men. Randy Couture had the comeback that all comebacks will be measured by, but near the end of the year, he was done with the UFC and any proposed big year end match was out the door. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson had a banner year by beating Marvin Eastman, Chuck Liddell, and Dan Henderson. Anderson Silva held the middleweight title all year long, beating Travis Lutter, Nate Marquardt, and Rich Franklin for the second time. If you look at someone who dominated their division, the choice is Silva. But if you’re looking for who won the toughest and biggest fights, the answer is Jackson.
Winner: Rampage Jackson
Fight Of The Year
In the early summer, Frank Shamrock and Phil Baroni had a war that ended when Shamrock called his own shot. Early on, he mocked Baroni, by putting his hands together on his cheek, insinuating that he was going to put Baroni to sleep. And after two rounds of fighting that left both guys completely exhausted, Shamrock caught Baroni in a choke and rather than tapping out, he went to sleep, just like Shamrock predicted. Tyson Griffin seemed to be on fire all year long, having great matches in wins against Clay Guida and Thiago Tavares. But his best fight was one in which he lost, against Frankie Edgar at UFC 67. It was a wrestling war and ended with Griffin pulling on Edgar’s knee at the bell after putting him in a knee bar. Edgar would take the decision. Right before year’s end, Roger Huerta shook off two losing rounds against Clay Guida at the season finale to The Ultimate Fighter Season 6. He would go on to finish him in the third round in a very exciting comeback victory. While the two UFC fights were great, I have to go with the fight I saw in person.
Winner: Frank Shamrock vs. Phil Baroni at Strikeforce Judgment Day
Frank Shamrock Hype Interview
Fight Card Of The Year
Strikeforce Judgment Day was an exciting card with a fantastic main event. UFC 68 had the most emotional MMA match that I’ve ever seen. UFC 76 had five matches that went the distance and had two of the biggest upsets of the year. And I was never able to see a good copy of the Pride show in February. But if I had to choose the card of the year, I’d have to go with The Ultimate Fighter Season 6 Finale. It had two fight of the year candidates with an exciting finish to end the night when Huerta came back to stop Guida. The War Machine vs. J-Rock was a great brawl as well.
Winner: The Ultimate Fighter Season 6 Finale
Upset Of The Year
Oh, there were many. How about Randy Couture coming out of retirement to chop down Tim Sylvia? What about Forrest Griffin beating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who was in his first UFC fight, after coming over from Pride. Keith Jardine outpointing Chuck Liddell? Or what about both Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick Kongo beating Mirko Cro Cop? Well, I guess that since he lost twice, maybe they weren’t such huge upsets. But the winner has to be Matt Serra beating Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69 in Houston. When that fight ended, my jaw hit the floor. St. Pierre came into the fight looking unstoppable and Serra took the fight right to him, knocking him out and shocking St. Pierre himself.
Winner: Matt Serra knocking out Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69.
Promotion Of The Year
When the UFC is the biggest game in town, how can they not be the best promotion? They are making money and drawing huge crowds and good PPV buyrates. Who are their competitors? Well, Zuffa, the same company that owns the UFC also owns the WEC, which put on some very fun and exciting cards, focusing on the smaller fighters. The San Jose based Strikeforce understands their fan base and sets up fights that the locals want to see. With local fighters like Cung Le and Frank Shamrock, they should have a pretty good 2008 as well.
