Mixed Martial Arts Forum banner

Dream 15

11K views 146 replies 21 participants last post by  kantowrestler 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)



Card:

* Champ Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri (for lightweight title)
* Melvin Manhoef vs. Tatsuya Mizuno (light-heavyweight grand prix opening round)
* Gesias "JZ" Cavalcante vs. Katsunori Kikuno
* Karl Amoussou vs. Kazuhiro Nakamura
* Michihiro Omigawa vs. Young Sam Jung
* Gegard Mousasi vs. Jake O'Brien (light-heavyweight grand prix opening round)
* Daiki "DJ.taiki" Hata vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida
The press conference was held today, here is the basic's/some general points.

1.) July 10th will be the date of Dream 15

2.) The planned participants will be Gegard Mousasi, Shinya Aoki, Kawajiri, Melvin Manhoef, and Alistar Overeem.

3.) Maybe, finally, Aoki vs. Kawajiri for the title.

4.) Two lightheavy fights will be on this card

5.) N.O.B states on his website that:
Fights for DREAM.15 will be announced at DREAM.14 on the 29th. It looks like DREAM.15 will be a card of rivals as footage of Sakuraba/Gracies, Antonio Inoki/Giant Baba, Kim Yuna/Mao Asada, etc. was shown after the press conference.
http://nightmareofbattle.com/

6.) FEG is in talks with the recently cut Caol Uno, so we might see him on this card.

Some last points:

Dream is trying to get Kimbo signed

An abroad event in 2010 for Dream

They have brought in two opponents for Alistar Overeem in July, maybe some top guys.

Omigawa might fight in Dream

Minowa is on Dream 14 - Maybe vs. Kimbo on Dream 15 if they can sign him.

Ishida vs. Jz was scrathed from Dream 14

From Sherdog:

TOKYO -- The light heavyweight grand prix that was cancelled for Dream 14 has been scheduled as a smaller four-man field at Dream 15 on July 10, FEG president Sadaharu Tanikawa and Dream event producer Keiichi Sasahara announced Thursday at a news conference.

The winners of the two tournament bouts at Dream 15 will face each other in September to determine Dream’s light heavyweight champion. Tanikawa and Sasahara also expressed hope for the Dream champion to face the Strikeforce champion in February 2011.

One of the participants in the four-man tournament will likely be former Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi, whom Sasahara and Tanikawa called upon during the presser for a brief telephone interview. Apart from stating his plans to begin training in earnest starting next week, Mousasi expressed no preference for a particular opponent in the tournament. However, he made clear his desire to rematch current Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal on New Year’s Eve at K-1 Dynamite.

Earlier rumored to take place in Japan’s Kansai region, Dream 15 will in fact take place at the promotion’s usual Kanto region venue, the Saitama Super Arena, and will return to using the ring after Dream 14’s use of the “White Cage.”

Sasahara and Tanikawa announced fighters such as Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Dream lightweight champion Shinya Aoki, Deep lightweight champion Katsunori Kikuno and Melvin Manhoef as expected participants.

Both officials also mentioned hopes to bring more Strikeforce alumni over to Japan to participate in the event. They did not discuss specific matchups, though they teased Overeem’s potential opponent as being a choice between two heavyweight candidates: one being an experienced heavyweight well-acquainted with fighting in Japan and the other being an established heavyweight talent that has not yet fought in Japan.

Given the event’s official tagline -- “A Fated Rivalry Bout, Realized” -- a potential Aoki-Kawajiri showdown for the lightweight title is expected. Despite Dream lightweight champion Aoki’s recent loss to Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez in April, a title shot for Kawajiri has been in the cards since his victory over Gesias Cavalcante in May 2009 at Dream 9.

Dream officials also announced that the upcoming May 29 Dream 14 event will be the promotion’s only cage event in 2010. The eighth and final bout on the card will pit Ikuhisa Minowa against an opponent to be determined. Questions and suggestions gathered from Internet-based fans pointed to Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson, who was recently released from his Zuffa contract. FEG president Tanikawa replied that though the fight may be impossible to make in time for Dream 14, Kimbo would be the most ideal opponent for Dream’s “Super Hulk” champion.
- 4 man tourney
 
See less See more
1
#13 ·
That's crap if he never got paid for the Sakuraba fight, if he doesn't get a fight in Dream soon, I hope Strikeforce/ UFC give him a shot, he's got the standup skills to worry a lot of fighters in his weight class, and is rarely in a boring fight if any, good luck Zelg.
 
#27 ·
Mousasi's DREAM 15 grand prix opponent announced:

Gegard Mousasi (28-3-1 MMA, 6-0 DREAM) and Jake O'Brien (13-3 MMA, 0-0 DREAM) have verbally agreed to meet at DREAM.15 in the promotion's scaled-down light-heavyweight grand prix.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) confirmed the fight Monday morning from sources close to the event, who said that while contracts have not been signed, the bout is expected to be finalized shortly.

DREAM.15 takes place July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, and features the opening round of the four-man tournament.

The bout is Mousasi's first since a disappointing showing at April's "Strikeforce: Nashville" event, in which he relinquished his belt to Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, who outwrestled him for five rounds en route to a unanimous-decision victory.

In 2008, the Dutch-Armenian fighter bested four fighters to win DREAM's middleweight grand prix, though he later vacated the belt when he decided to jump to light heavyweight. He defeated Mark Hunt in the opening round of the Japanese promotion's open-weight "Super Hulk" tournament before making the move to Strikeforce.

The 24-year-old Mousasi is currently training in Holland with Team Golden Glory and is expected to meet this week with M-1 Global executive Vadim Finkelstein to discuss the possibility of a European marketing deal.

O'Brien, meanwhile, is three months removed from a unanimous-decision victory over Toni Valtonen at Fight Festival 27 in Finland, which was his second consecutive victory since a submission loss to Jon Jones at UFC 100 brought his release from the promotion.

Once a heavyweight, O'Brien racked up six consecutive victories before he made his UFC debut. He opened his UFC career with three additional wins, including an upset of veteran Heath Herring at UFC Fight Night 6 in August 2006.

The sometime bouncer trains out of Integrated Fighting Academy in Indianapolis along with UFC veterans Chris Lytle and Matt Mitrione.

The winner of O'Brien vs. Mousasi meets the winner of Melvin Manhoef and Tatsuya Mizuno. DREAM officials then will crown the tourney champion the organization's first-ever light-heavyweight title-holder.
Link
 
#30 ·
Let's not jump to conclusions fellas... O'brien did wrestle at Purdue, and Mousasi didn't exactly show any form of TDD recently.

And yeah, O'brien sure as sh*t isn't athlete cut from the cloth of King Mo, but still... At least this might show if Mousasi has worked on his wrestling perhaps.
 
#31 ·
O'Brien is a great dark horse to me who has an excellent chance of coming out of this the winner. O'Brien is a good wrestler who had an insane amount of hype going into his fight with Arlovski but lets be honest his only losses are to Andrei Arlovski (before Fedor stole his soul, top HW at the time), Cain Velasquez (Jake is a wrestler, Cain a better one naturaly bigger guy) and to Jon Jones who again was a better wrestler. O'Brien beat Heath Herring and that is no easy task. Thing is he is matched up with a guy who showed his TD defense is not that good. Jake could easily hold Mousasi down and if Manhouf makes it to the finals that will be an easy win for Jake.

IMO my money is on Jake taking the whole thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SigFig
#36 ·
I don't know why but the way you describe it as "it isn't really like it is fun" made me laugh.

I would like to add that if this was Stateside and not in Japan I would have very little doubt O'Brian would come out on top. Its only because its in Japan that I am not positive.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top