DREAM 2: 1st Round Middleweight Grand Prix

Middleweight Tournament Bouts:
Kazushi Sakuraba toyed with "karate expert" Andrews Nakahara but when Sak got serious he locked in a neck crank of all things to tap the sacrificial lamb fed to him by DREAM to ensure the Japanese legend would continue into round 2 of the tournament.

Denis Kang controlled Gegard Mousasi taking him to the floor and basically having his way. Gegard did show some much improved ground defense but it was Kang's inexplicable mistake of basically kneeling into a triangle choke that ended the best matchup of the tourney so far. Just what the hell is wrong with Denis these days as a former Top 5 Middleweight just continues to freefall out of the Top 10 losing 3 of his last 4 bouts! Mousasi continues the "MMA On The Fringe" luck charm as after I feature him he excels against a great opponent and pulls the upset win.

Kiyoshi Tamura takes out Masakatsu Funaki in 57 seconds via TKO. Funaki is just too old and rusty to continue this ill fated "comeback" and needs to stop cashing the good checks of the DREAM staff.

Ronaldo Jacare Souza frightened Frank Trigg out of their scheduled fight and forced Ian Murphy to make his MMA debut against the ridiculously talented Ju-Jitsu blackbelt and force him to tapout. Souza could really be the dark horse (no pun intended) in this tournament.

Magomed "Furball" Sultanakhmadov took down "Lil Cro Cop" Zelg Galesik to avoid his great striking and got caught in an armbar. Magomed pulled and threw Zelg around but he wasn't about to release and got a quick win and advances.

Yoon Dong Sik continues his win streak by taking an easy decision over Shungo Oyama who did show a lot of heart. The Judo expert entered MMA and lost his 1st 4 bouts which would deter any man but has stuck to it and won his last 4 to even his record and show much improvement.

Taiei Kin gets the upset win over Ikuhisa Minowa by decision. What a battle of the mediocre and Kin moves on to lost in the next round.

Lightweight Tournament Rematch:
Shinya Aoki defeats Gesias "JZ" Calvancante by decision in their rematch though by defense only. The win is legit, don't get me wrong, but Aoki lost that 1st bout with those phantom illegal strikes by JZ. JZ should have just stood up and stopped trying to out work Aoki's submissions on the ground. Dude is slick but this whole rematch thing was a joke from the start.

So I didn't realize the date of the Grand Prix and thus didn't get my picks in time but I would've been 100% correct I swear. Mousasi has to be the tournament favorite now with Souza sneaking in to surprise some people. Still an interesting event.