(Props: YouTube.com/DREAM)
What do you do when you’re a broken-down Japanese MMA legend and you’ve been booked against an unknown American boxer in a meaningless exhibition? Make an absolute farce out of it, obviously. Check out Kazushi Sakuraba get his physical-comedy on during the DREAM.11 weigh-ins today (starting at the 0:59 mark). Despite the bizarre behavior, Rubin Williams was nice enough to shout out Saku as a "great champion," and referred to himself as a former world champion boxer, which may not be true. During a pre-fight interview, Williams told media that "I had a guy that was working with me on some MMA moves back in Detroit…As far as the ground game, I’ve been getting pretty good at it over the last year. So I’ll display what I’ve learned in the fight Tuesday." Yikes. Rubin, you may be able to pass guard on a training dummy, but that’s not going to help you against one of the best grapplers in the history of the sport. Don’t overthink it — just throw that overhand right and hope for a miracle.
After the jump: Full weigh-in results, and video of the Super Hulks hitting the scale. Nice t-shirt, Hong — was it laundry day?
DREAM Lightweight Title Match
Joachim Hansen (68.2kg / 150.3 lbs) vs. Shinya Aoki (69.8kg / 153.8 lbs)
Middleweight Bout
Kazushi Sakuraba (83.5kg / 184 lbs) vs. Rubin "Mr. Hollywood" Williams (82.5kg / 181.8 lbs)
Lightweight Bout
Tatsuya Kawajiri (69.9kg / 154.1 lbs) vs. Melchor Manibusan (69.2kg / 152.5 lbs)
Super Hulk Tournament Semifinals
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (100kg / 220.4 lbs) vs. Bob Sapp (155kg / 341.7 lbs)
Hong Man Choi (145kg / 319.6 lbs) vs. Ikuhisa Minowa (87.5kg / 192.9 lbs)
2009 Featherweight Grand Prix Semifinals
Bibiano Fernandes (62.7kg / 138.2 lbs) vs. Joe Warren (62.7kg / 138.2 lbs)
Hiroyuki Takaya (63kg / 138.8 lbs) vs. Hideo Tokoro (62.8kg / 138.4 lbs)
2009 Featherweight Grand Prix Reserve Bout
Kazuyuki Miyata (62.8kg / 138.4 lbs) vs. Daiki "DJ.taiki" Hata (62.8kg / 138.4 lbs)
It's a shame.