DREAM 3 Results
So in the 11th hour, Nick Diaz was flown from California to Japan to fight Katsuya Inoue. Kat had fought at Middleweight and Nick has fought at Lightweight so it seemed a mismatch on paper. It was but not as I had thought. Diaz looked bigger and had a lot of reach and height on the normally tall Japanese people. Nick came to fight as he always does, but looked like the "Diablo" of old toying with his opponent, hands in the air, while striking with accuracy, repetition, and just brutal thudding body shots that were brilliant. It looked like his old bout with Robbie Lawler in which he TKO'd the heavily favored Miletich fighter and became a UFC fan favorite. Nick took some shots but gave far more just beating the crap outta Inoue. Staggered, bloody, and flailing, Inoue's corner threw in the towel as Diaz gave his most impressive performance in a while and will now supposedly face Mach Sakurai for the DREAM Welterweight Title after he fights next in Elite XC. Nick wanted to get busy with fighting and he will now have his chance.
Lightweight Tournament Bouts
Eddie Alvarez culled my upset pick by surprising Joachim Hansen with his power and muscling his way to a decision win. Eddie just controlled the bout and even dropped the normally hard chinned Norwegian at one point. Eddie moves on in the tourney taking out one of the favorites and puts himself into the Top 10 of all Lightweights!
Caol Uno had upset on his mind as well as he choked out Mitsuhiro Ishida in the 2nd round of their spirited contest. Guess its too soon to pass the torch as Ishida shows a very uncharacteristic performance and Uno takes the next step.
Tatsuya Kawajiri defeated Luiz Firmino by decision (what a shock, another decision) and immediately challenged Caol Uno for the next round seeking revenge for his fallen T-Blood teammate Ishida. I imagine DREAM will accommodate the request.
Daisuke Nakamura KO'd Bu Kyung Jung while Takeshi Yamazaki bested Shoji Maruyama to round out the tournament for the evening. Still no word on if Aoki will be making the next round with his current injuries.
Meanwhile Jason "Mayhem" Miller brought his "A" game to Japan beating the shit out of Katsuyori Shibata in a one sided but entertaining bout. Mayhem has long been a crowd favorite and really looked impressive here after a 5 month layoff. Now Jason becomes an alternate for the Middleweight Grand Prix should someone not be able to continue.
Finally "Manho" Melvin Manhoef struggled with Dae Won Kim before finally getting the TKO with ground and pound. My only issue here is that is looked to me like Manho landed a hard knee to the back of the head of Kim, while he was on the ground, which led to the victory. I could see the DREAM commission overturning this later similar to what happened with Kazuo Misaki illegally kicking Yoshihiro Akiyama in the head while down and having his win turned into a NC (no contest) later. But, give Melvin a break, he fought and lost by way of knockout to Remy Bonjasky on April 26 in Amsterdam. He went on to reveal the he got "injured in my last fight against Remy Bonjasky. Because I received a lot of kicks and punches in the ribs, I had to have surgery to take out blood from behind the lung and I was hospitalized for seven days. So, I couldn't fight as aggressively as I wanted, I needed to be patient.” Dude's a warrior.
Nice event with some good fights and the Americans represent while we await DREAM 4 in July. 6 & 1 on the picks bitches. Wish I could've picked the Takeshi Yamazaki fight but they wouldn't finalize the damn card in time. Upcoming news on the UFC putting the Heavyweight Title to bed and MMA on the mainstream. Bet.
So in the 11th hour, Nick Diaz was flown from California to Japan to fight Katsuya Inoue. Kat had fought at Middleweight and Nick has fought at Lightweight so it seemed a mismatch on paper. It was but not as I had thought. Diaz looked bigger and had a lot of reach and height on the normally tall Japanese people. Nick came to fight as he always does, but looked like the "Diablo" of old toying with his opponent, hands in the air, while striking with accuracy, repetition, and just brutal thudding body shots that were brilliant. It looked like his old bout with Robbie Lawler in which he TKO'd the heavily favored Miletich fighter and became a UFC fan favorite. Nick took some shots but gave far more just beating the crap outta Inoue. Staggered, bloody, and flailing, Inoue's corner threw in the towel as Diaz gave his most impressive performance in a while and will now supposedly face Mach Sakurai for the DREAM Welterweight Title after he fights next in Elite XC. Nick wanted to get busy with fighting and he will now have his chance.
Lightweight Tournament Bouts
Eddie Alvarez culled my upset pick by surprising Joachim Hansen with his power and muscling his way to a decision win. Eddie just controlled the bout and even dropped the normally hard chinned Norwegian at one point. Eddie moves on in the tourney taking out one of the favorites and puts himself into the Top 10 of all Lightweights!
Caol Uno had upset on his mind as well as he choked out Mitsuhiro Ishida in the 2nd round of their spirited contest. Guess its too soon to pass the torch as Ishida shows a very uncharacteristic performance and Uno takes the next step.
Tatsuya Kawajiri defeated Luiz Firmino by decision (what a shock, another decision) and immediately challenged Caol Uno for the next round seeking revenge for his fallen T-Blood teammate Ishida. I imagine DREAM will accommodate the request.
Daisuke Nakamura KO'd Bu Kyung Jung while Takeshi Yamazaki bested Shoji Maruyama to round out the tournament for the evening. Still no word on if Aoki will be making the next round with his current injuries.
Meanwhile Jason "Mayhem" Miller brought his "A" game to Japan beating the shit out of Katsuyori Shibata in a one sided but entertaining bout. Mayhem has long been a crowd favorite and really looked impressive here after a 5 month layoff. Now Jason becomes an alternate for the Middleweight Grand Prix should someone not be able to continue.
Finally "Manho" Melvin Manhoef struggled with Dae Won Kim before finally getting the TKO with ground and pound. My only issue here is that is looked to me like Manho landed a hard knee to the back of the head of Kim, while he was on the ground, which led to the victory. I could see the DREAM commission overturning this later similar to what happened with Kazuo Misaki illegally kicking Yoshihiro Akiyama in the head while down and having his win turned into a NC (no contest) later. But, give Melvin a break, he fought and lost by way of knockout to Remy Bonjasky on April 26 in Amsterdam. He went on to reveal the he got "injured in my last fight against Remy Bonjasky. Because I received a lot of kicks and punches in the ribs, I had to have surgery to take out blood from behind the lung and I was hospitalized for seven days. So, I couldn't fight as aggressively as I wanted, I needed to be patient.” Dude's a warrior.
Nice event with some good fights and the Americans represent while we await DREAM 4 in July. 6 & 1 on the picks bitches. Wish I could've picked the Takeshi Yamazaki fight but they wouldn't finalize the damn card in time. Upcoming news on the UFC putting the Heavyweight Title to bed and MMA on the mainstream. Bet.
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