Saturday’s DREAM.1 at Saitama Super Arena was the whole Japanese MMA shabang from tip to toe.
The K-1/former-PRIDE collaboration featured mismatches of size and skill, world-class MMA, late stoppages, carnival theatrics, a tournament format, and the banshee herself, Lenne Hardt, introducing it all.
The card featured the opening round of DREAM’s lightweight grand prix in which Eddie Alvarez (13-1), “Buscape” Luiz Firmino (12-3), “Hellboy” Joachim Hansen (17-6-1), “Endless Fighter” Mitsuhiro Ishida (16-3-1), “Crusher” Tatsuya Kawajiri (21-4-2), and Katsuhiko Nagata (4-2) all advanced to the next round.
The tournaments seventh and most anticipated match-up betwen “Tobikan Judan” Shinya Aoki (14-2) and “JZ” Gesias Calvancante (14-1-1) ended in a No Contest.
In non-tournament bouts, “Mach” Hayato Sakurai (32-7-2) and “Cro Cop” Mirko Filipovic both won first round TKOs and “The Punk” Ikuhisa Minowa won a first round submission.
Ishida and Korean judoka Bu Kyung Jung (0-2) fought the most competitive bout with Ishida squeezing a unanimous decision over the MMA rookie.
The Japanese wrestler, Ishida, whirled around Jung for the first two minutes, peppering leg kicks into the Korean’s thighs. On Jung’s lunging clinch attempt, Ishida slammed him to the mat.
On the mat, inside Jung’s tightly closed guard, Ishida heaved him into the air and slammed him again before raising back to his feet.
Jung followed and lunged to clinch again, but Ishida ducked. Jung slammed face first into the corner, Ishida pouncing atop him.
From a full guard body lock, Jung transitioned into an armbar as the Japanese fighter tried to yank free. It was close, and Jung took the opportunity to kick the struggling wrestler in the face before Ishida broke free. Another powerful Ishida slam countered Jung’s near miss.
As the ground game went on, Ishida’s spurts of G’n'P became more effective as the Korean filed through submissions, but the ref stood them anyway.
Backed into a corner, Ishida threw a clumsy left roundhouse kick Jung blocked as Ishida slipped. This time it was Jung who pounced, locking Ishida’s head beneath his armpit for another tight neck crank submission attempt.
Again, Ishida popped free, both fighters slick with sweat by that point, and worked an effective ground’n'pound until the ref stood the fighters.
This time it was Ishida who lunged for a single leg takedown and Jung pulled guard, then slipped a slick armbar on the wrestler. Again, the “Endless Fighter” slipped free and hammered on the judoka to the first round bell.
The second round began as the first, with Ishida avoiding a head-on collision by circling. Ishida shot for the same single leg takedown that got him in trouble near the end of round one and Jung again pulled guard and sucked up arms at angles looking for submissions. Ishida countered by grinding fists into Jung’s face until the ref stood them up.
Ishida made it a trilogy with a third identical takedown and Jung responded as he had to the first two. Both fighters exchanged leather while Jung worked his high guard into a weak triangle choke, but wasn’t able to lock his leg beneath his knee.
The bout ended with both exhausted fighters pitty-patting each other on the mat.
An argument could be made to give the judoka the win, but the judges saw Ishida’s aggressive ground’n'pound as the deal breaker and awarded him a unanimous decision.
In another exciting tournament fight, at the bell Alvarez and “Dida” Andre Amade (6-3-1) stormed to the center of the ring throwing leather. The American shot a single leg and stood-up with the ankle he had snatched. He swept Dida’s other foot from beneath him and dumped the BJJ black belt on his back.
The ref stood Dida and he immediately resumed throwing haymakers, catching Alvarez square on the chin with two big left hooks, then dropping him with a third as the American retreated.
But on the mat Alvarez’s superior wrestling positioned him for a two-minute vicious ground’n'pound onslaught that lead to the TKO stoppage at 6:47 of round one. Dida was simply overpowered and out-positioned.
Tattooed Norwegian Hansen resembled a snow leopard feasting on Kotetsu Boku (13-5-1) of Krazy Bee. Since becoming the first MMA fighter to tap in a gogoplata in 2006, the former kickboxer Hansen has been all out on the mat. He took Boku to the ground and paired an octopus-like submission game with brutal ground’n'pound for the entire 15 minutes. The decision was unanimous for Hansen.
“Buscape” of Brazilian Top Team found a rear naked choke on undersized Kazuyuki Miyata (5-7) at 7:37 of round one.
In a mild upset, Nagata took a unanimous decision over the Russian Artur Oumakhanov (7-3).
Kawajiri earned the sixth spot in round two of DREAM’s lightweight grand prix with a unanimous decision over surprisingly durable “Black Mamba” Kultar Gill (9-7) of Canada.
The tournament’s most hyped match-up fizzled when Aoki took an errant elbow to the back of the head from Calvancanti after much ado about nothing. There’s been no clarification about a rematch or whether either fighter will advance in the tournament.
Hidetaka Monma (14-8-3) was never in his fight with Sakurai, but evidently the ref was unaware of the mismatch. From the top position, Sakurai pounded Monma in the head 20-seconds longer than necessary before the referee called a stoppage at 4:12 of round one.
I’m hereby dividing the MMA universe into two halves. Those, like me, who’re disgusted to witness “Cro Cop” as a characterture of himself matched up against veritable heads-on-a-tee like Tatsuya Mizuno (3-3) and those who lust to see the former PRIDE OWGP champ served-up such heads for entertainment, not sport. “Cro Cop”, in an awkward performance, TKO’d Mizuno at :56 of round one.
And in the last of the three rings that made-up non tournament action at DREAM.1, Minowaman swung from half mount into a kneebar to submit overweight Korean Bum Chang Kang (1-2) at 1:25 of round one.
DREAM.2 follows on 29 April with the first round a a middleweight grand prix.
