silvawand

I've just been curious since I heard about the LW GP. For the most part every other fight has heavy favourites, but then they make two of the top LW's fight in the first round? I dunno, just thought GZ vs Aoki would be more exciting if it was in one of the later rounds of the GP.

If you look at the card you see what I mean.

Lightweight Grand Prix (16-man tournament):
-Shinya Aoki (#3 Lightweight in the World)* vs. Gesias "JZ" Calvancante (#4 Lightweight in the World)*

-Tatsuya Kawajiri (#2 Lightweight in the World)* vs. Kultar "Black Mamba" Gill
-Mitsuhiro Ishida (#5 Lightweight in the World)* vs. Jung Bu-Kyung
-Joachim Hansen (#10 Lightweight in the World)* vs. Koutetsu Boku
-Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Luiz "Buscape" Firmino
-Andre "Dida" Amade vs. Eddie Alvarez

-Artur Oumakhanov vs. Katsuhiko Nagata

See what I mean? Kawajiri, Ishida, Hansen, Buscape, and Dida all get, well, "easier" fights.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to have made Aoki vs. Oumankhanov and GZ vs. Nagata?

I guessing the main reason they are fighting so early is because it is a huge fight/draw for DREAM.1. But I just would have thought they'd save both of them for the next round...so RD 2 would be HUGE.

Am I missing something here?

TheNegation

Yes, you are. Even if Aoki and JZ got easy fights, it's not beyond the realm of possibility that one gets KO of the Gp. Then you have just blown one of the biggest matches ever.

Grabaka

It's mainly because they were supposed to fight eachother at Yarennoka, but it didn't go down due JZ's injury. They want to make sure that the fight goes down now, no matter what. It's not much different from when Gomi and Kawajiri fought in the 1st round of the PRIDE LWGP at Bushido 9 in 2005.

Also, Boku isn't an easy fight for Hansen. Hansen recently lost in Shooto to Eiji Mitsuoka, whom Boku had beaten 2 months prior. Boku trains at KB with Kid Yamamoto, and will be a tough test for Hansen. With that said, I hope Hansen wins. I'm a fan of "Hellboy".

silvawand

Yeah, true. I kinda forgot it was supposed to take place at Yarrenoka. Makes more sense the way you put it, it would totally suck if they didn't get to fight in one of the later rounds.

Making sure the fight happens does make sense, I just figured it would have been more exciting if it was the Semis or Finals even, oh well.

I wasn't complaining BTW, just curious.

vandalian

How is Kawajiri the No. 2 lightweight in the world? He has some solid wins, sure, but No. 2 in the world. Nu-uh. Top 10, yeah, but not No. 2. I put JZ, Gomi, Sherk, Penn and Melendez ahead of him. Not necessarily in that order, though.

By the way, Alvarez is no bum. He's a good striker who could give Dida some problems.

silvawand

Just for the record those are MMAWeekly's rankings, not mine.

vandalian

Oh, I know. By the way, I agree with you that it's too bad they've got Aoki/JZ in ROund 1. But I see how they want to make sure it happens.

bbjd7

Yea Alvarez will be KO'd in the first round but that doesn't make him a bum.

Kawajiri is the only guy who I thought got a very easy match up in the top 10 and you had to expect Dreams to protect at least one japanese fighter.

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silvawand

I didn't mean to come off like I was discrediting the other fighters.

Just when you compare the other match ups to JZ vs Aoki, well there isn't much comparison, because these two guys are arguably in the top 3 or 5 in the LW division.

Personally, I would have liked to see them fight in the Semis or even Finals.

But like we've already clarified, at least we get to see this fight for sure.

Rated

Since this is MMA and anything can happen, the two may not get to fight each other if they were separated. Having them fight in the 1st round is the safest route.

Edit: Nevermind. :0

But yeah, this is going to be a crazy card. I have a hard on just from thinking about it.

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