(“Who wants some?”)

When it was announced yesterday that Mike Kyle sustained an injury, forcing him out of his planned Strikeforce: Tate vs. Rousey main card bout with Gegard Mousasi, speculation arose that Mousasi would likely be scratched from the event. If the UFC brass would sign off on a crossover bout between Gegard and one of its fighters, the fight could be salvaged and Mousasi could get an upgrade opponent in the process.

Check out who we’d like to see step up on three week’s notice to take on “The Dreamcatcher.”

A light heavyweight tilt between former Strikeforce 205-pound kingpin Gegard Mousasi and controversial American Kickboxing Academy fighter Mike Kyle has been added to Strikeforce’s March 3 “Tate vs. Rousey” event in Columbus, Ohio.

Kyle revealed the news today via Twitter.

Yeah, she spent more time on the cage than in it. (Photo: Las Vegas Sun)

Since the late 90′s I’ve seen the same assertion rear its head on MMA email lists, usenet groups, and internet forums from time to time: The best fighter in the world isn’t in the cage or the ring. He’s toiling away in a South American coal mine or defending his land in Sub-Saharan Africa. His legend will never extend beyond the shores of his remote Pacific island and he’ll never be able to prove his abilities to the world. To a certain degree, this must be what life is like for Gilbert Melendez.

Finding out that your company is staying afloat and that your job is secure would normally be terrific news, but despite his admirable towing of the company line, you have to know that “El Niño” was gutted when he realized that Strikeforce wasn’t going anywhere and neither was he. The bright lights, big networks, and top paydays of the UFC will not be his. More importantly, neither is the opportunity to prove himself against the best in the world.

(Oh man. This is not going to end well. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle.com. For more photos from this set, click here.)

Can you believe it’s been over three months since Strikeforce put on a legit non-Challengers card? The promotion finally gets back to business tonight with two title fights — Gilbert Melendez vs. Jorge Masvidal in the lightweight division and Cris Cyborg vs. Hiroko Yamanaka at women’s featherweight — plus a light-heavyweight bout between Gegard Mousasi and Ovince St. Preux that could produce a contender to the vacant belt.

Round-by-round results from the “Melendez vs. Masvidal” main card broadcast on Showtime will be collecting after the jump beginning at 10:30 p.m. ET, courtesy of CagePotato liveblog rookie Steve Silverman; please do your best to make him feel welcome. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest.

(Photo via Strikeforce.com)

By Anton Gurevich

This weekend, Ovince St. Preux will step inside the Strikeforce cage to face the former Light Heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi as part of the stacked Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal fight card in San Diego, California. Representing Knoxville Martial Arts Academy, 11-4 St. Preux will look to prove a point about his future as one of the best 205′ers on the planet.

Twenty-eight year old Ovince St. Preux turned his career around after fighting six times (!) in 2010, improving his MMA record from 3-4 to a more appropriate 9-4. In 2011, St. Preux recorded two important victories against Abongo Humphrey and Joe Cason that eventually solidified his place on the Light Heavyweight landscape.

Speaking in an interview to LowKick.com, St. Preux gave Gegard Mousasi the credit for being the biggest name he ever faced inside the cage or ring. The Haiti-born fighter expects a well-rounded game from Mousasi, who he considers as one of the 10 best Light Heavyweights in MMA.

Check out this interview on Lowkick.Blitzcorner.com!

(“Get a clue, Rashad. It’s not happening.”)

Within an hour today UFC president Dana White announced and then promptly recanted the news that Lyoto Machida would be squaring off with Phil Davis at UFC 140 in Toronto in December. According to White, the announcement was premature since, unbeknownst to him, Davis is still recuperating from knee surgery to fix the injury that forced him out out of his scheduled UFC 133 bout with Rashad Evans.

Luckily for Dana and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, we have three viable replacements lined up for Machida and we won’t even charge our usual finder’s fee.

Agree or disagree with our line-up after the jump.

(All in favor of seeing Anderson attempt to improve his moneyweight record, say ‘I.’”)

Since Anderson Silva has effectively cleared out the UFC’s middleweight division and will likely eventually start a string of rematches against the likes of Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort and Dan Henderson, we figured why not come up with a list of fights he could take in the interim that stoke the fires of fans.

Check them out, in no particular order after the jump.

Izumi’s mouthpiece (and teeth) seek greener pastures. (Pic: MMAFighting.com)

Somewhere in time, between our last night and our this morning, Japan was getting busy with the Dream Fight For Japan Grand Prix Finals. As is par for the course, this event was not broadcast here in the USA, but it probably will be at some point in the next few weeks, so if you can hold out and don’t want to ruin the show by reading the results look away, and look away now.

Last minute injuries and changes in line-up aren’t exclusive to American promotions, and this Dream show had its fair share of adjustments to its card. Within days of the event both Todd Duffee and Mach Sakurai were forced from their bouts due to injuries suffered in training, but there was plenty else at stake and the show did go on.

A pithy synopsis and full results await you after the jump.

VidProps: BloodstreamMMA100/YouTube

Strikeforce is forging ahead with this crazy “Grand Prix” gimmick — no telling how they came up with a concept like that, but props to them — and the semifinals could go down in September. If everything goes according to plan, the event should be packed with good matchups. Let’s take a look.

The heavyweight GP will continue with Alistair Overeem squaring off with Antonio “Bigfoot” Silva, and “War Master” Josh Barnett against “The Russian Concussion” Sergei Kharitonov. Those two fights alone would be enough to carry a card, but Coker and company want to make it worth your while to watch, so they’ve continued to put together bouts with an eye on producing a blockbuster.

Every other bout currently rumored for the show features a current or former champion for the Strikeforce banner, including a title match for current middleweight champ “Jacare” Souza.

The dearth of awesome fan-made promos does not bode well for DREAM. VidProps: DREAM

DREAM returns for the final round of the Japan Bantamweight Grand Prix on July 16, and there are a few interesting matchups on the card (which is apparently *not* DREAM.17 as we’d been thinking). Even if there weren’t, it’s smack in the middle of the summer MMA doldrums, and there’s not much else going on. Even if there were something else going on, jesus, don’t you assholes care about Japan?

Come on in past the jump and we’ll fill you in on the bouts slated for the event, with a few notes for your enlightenment and/or entertainment. Just call us the love child of the Buddha and Louis CK.

(Careful, Gegard. If he bites you, you become one of them. Photo courtesy of Esther Lin/Strikeforce)

According to a new report, former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi could meet Mike Kyle at the promotion’s September 10th card (venue TBA).

The two fighters were originally scheduled to meet at the ‘Diaz vs. Daley’ card in April, but Kyle was forced to withdraw due to a broken hand; Mousasi wound up fighting to a disappointing draw against late-replacement Keith Jardine. The “Armenian Assassin” is already slated to defend his DREAM light-heavyweight belt against Hiroshi Izumi in Tokyo on July 16th.

(“By the way, my offer to piss in your mouth? I’m still down if you are.” Photo courtesy of JoshLBarnett.)

The UFC is holding its annual Fighter Summit this week in Las Vegas, bringing together the entire UFC and Strikeforce rosters for the purposes of education and camaraderie — pretty boring stuff, judging from Gegard Mousasi’s amazingly child-like doodles. But it did provide opportunities for old rivals to rub shoulders. Josh Barnett posted this photo yesterday evening with the note, “Pigs have now flown. Watch for Hell to freeze over next. Me and @danawhite together again.”

Barnett has publicly criticized the UFC and Dana White in the past, but when Zuffa bought Strikeforce in March, all of a sudden DW was a pretty fucking metal dude in Josh’s opinion. (That’s a compliment.) Barnett is scheduled to face Brett Rogers at Strikeforce’s “Overeem vs. Werdum” event on June 18th in Dallas. Whether he has a future in the company after that is still anybody’s guess, no matter how friendly he and Dana appear to be when somebody’s pointing a camera-phone at them.

(“My suit? No, it’s not Mr. Big and Tall, it’s Brooks Brothers. I got a Zuffa corporate card now.”)

The California State Athletic Commission today revealed the salaries from last weekend’s Diaz vs. Daly event in Stockton, and for the most part the fighters from the card were pretty well compensated.

The top money-earner of the night was welterweight champ Nick Diaz who netted $175,000 for his beatdown of Paul Daley. For his effort, Daley took home $65,000. Tied for second place in the night’s salary rankings are Strikeforce lightweight kingpin Gilbert Melendez and former light heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi who both took home $150,000 for their efforts. The disparity between the take-home pay of Melendez and Mousasi’s opponents was interesting. Tatsuya Kawajiri picked up $97,612.50 for eating a handful of Melendez’s “hellbows” while Keith Jardine made just $25,000 for taking Mousasi the distance.

(I’m just saying, it’s a little ironic to wear a ‘Fight for Japan’ patch on your shorts while you’re personally contributing to the agony of Japanese people. Props: MMAFighting.com)

It might be a while before we get to see cross-promotional fights between UFC and Strikeforce talent. But what’s the harm in a little theoretical speculation? For this installment of the Armchair Matchmaker, we decided to pair up Saturday’s winners and losers with the UFC fighters they should face next, if that sort of thing was possible. And even if it’s a completely meaningless exercise, it’s still more interesting than talking about Diaz vs. Woodley and Melendez vs. the winner of Wilcox/Masvidal. (Ugh, reality. So tedious.) Let’s get started…

Nick Diaz: I know Georges St. Pierre is the obvious answer, but then I think about GSP out-wrestling Nick for five rounds and the dream-fight becomes a lot less dreamy. I’d actually be more interested in seeing Diaz try to avenge his 2005 decision loss to Diego Sanchez, another fighter who puts on a thrilling show every time he steps into a cage. Diaz has probably not forgotten his beef with Sanchez, and Diego has actually suggested that the two settle their rivalry as opposing coaches on TUF. Cosigned, homey.

It’s just as well. Frankly “011-44-115″ is harder to remember than “209″ (Pic: Strikeforce.com)

The first major Strikeforce event under the Zuffa/Forza banner delivered a full night of action and first round stoppages, with a little of the obligatory ‘Majority Draw’ bullshit mixed in for good measure. While it was a typical Strikeforce show from top to bottom, the UFC hardly tried to keep a low profile at the event. Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta were both in attendance, the cage floor advertised the upcoming GSP-Shields fight, and talk of cross-promotional bouts peppered the event from the commentator booth to the stupid text polls. Maybe it’s just us, but there are far more important issues to vote on.

After years of watching Nick Diaz win the stand-up battle against “better strikers”, is it now time for us all to admit that he is the better striker? In true Diaz fashion, he did exactly what he said he would do and exactly what the media and fans alike discouraged- stand up with a dangerous striker. Like a successful version of Jorge Gurgel, Diaz has built his mystique and fanbase upon his refusal to utilize his Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt and his unquenchable thirst to punch dudes in the face. While victorious once again, that doesn’t mean he dominated the fight. Daley’s power was a known commodity headed into this bout, which made the both the risk and the reward to stand and bang with him all the greater for Diaz. The two exchanged heavily throughout the one-round fight, and twice “Semtex” dropped Diaz to the floor in what looked like the beginning of the end for the pride of Stockton.

(Well, that explains it.)

When message board commenters gush about how much better The Ultimate Fighter alumni are than the rest of the fighters in their respective division, we typically just give the little TUF noobs a proverbial pinch on the cheek and dismiss their uninformed opinions as being asinine as a result of the impeccable job the UFC and SPIKE did convincing them its true.

But when a so-called MMA expert like Franklin McNeil continually gives the edge to fighters who have appeared on the reality show in bouts against fighters who are widely considered more skilled and are thus ranked accordingly, it makes us shake our heads in disbelief that ESPN, the leader in sports coverage, gives this guy a forum to spew his skewed view of the sport under the guise of journalism. We may print a ton of opinion pieces here, but CagePotato isn’t proclaiming to be the CNN of MMA coverage and we’re clear in stating that editorials contain (sometimes cynically humorous) bias and are not to be taken as fact or even seriously in some cases. ESPN, however, is a different animal than CP.

Josh Gross, you have our sympathy.

(Pic: Tapology)

It’s hard to even know what to think about Paul Daley anymore. Given what we understand about the current MMA landscape, the ’60s radical in us wants to pump our fist and shout out a Hopper-esque “Right on, man!” every time Daley goes on record saying he’s not going to “kiss ass” for the UFC empire. Then again, Daley himself is so thoroughly detestable that it’s also hard not to hope Nick Diaz takes him down and chokes him out in like 45 seconds this weekend during their Strikeforce welterweight title match. Then, if Diaz, Daley, Brock Lesnar, Georges St. Pierre and BJ Penn joined hands in the cage, sang “We Shall Overcome” and announced they were filing a joint antitrust suit against Zuffa, LLC, well, that’d be about perfect … as long as one of them didn’t try to steal a bunch of beer from a riverboat casino later that night … but anyways …

Of the five betting websites we perused this morning, only one – Bookmaker.com – is offering lines on all four of Strikeforce’s scheduled televised bouts as well as a couple from the undercard. Most electronic bookies are steadfastly avoiding Gegard Mousasi vs. Keith Jardine, likely because they don’t want to be complicit in Jardine’s untimely demise. Not Bookmaker though, those brave motherfuckers are posting odds on that fight and somehow still allowing prop bets on the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix. A guy can still get Fab Werdum to win it all at +550 over there, if you’re interested. In order to stay focused on the here and now however, after the jump are the lines for Saturday night’s “Diaz vs. Daley” show courtesy Bookmaker, plus our picks.

(‘Diaz vs. Daley’ video hype, via ESPN)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…

- Gegard Mousasi Speaks About Upcoming Fight with Keith Jardine (BleacherReport.com/MMA)

- 40 of the Greatest Dana White F-Bombs in the History of the UFC (MiddleEasy)

- From Heavyweight to Bantamweight: Seven Future UFC Champions (LowKick)

- Paul Daley: “I’m Not a Kiss-Ass, I’m Not Really a Company Guy” (5thRound)

- Mayhem Miller Moves Past Nick Diaz Feud, Vows to ‘Beat the Brakes Off’ UFC Middleweights (MMA Fighting)

- The Tragedy of the Murder of Sergio Salcido (MMA Convert)

- Fabricio Werdum Eyeing UFC Title-Shot After Strikeforce Grand Prix (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Georges St. Pierre Pretty Damn Confident He’s Going to Beat Jake Shields (MMA-Scraps)

- ‘TUF’ Talk: How Important is Lesnar’s Stint on ‘The Ultimate Fighter’? (Versus MMA Beat)

- MMA Rankings: Alvarez & Wilcox Stay Put At Lightweight (Fight Magazine)

TROLL POWER!

While we were busy thinking of Strikeforce related April Fool’s Day pranks, it turns out that Strikeforce was busy finding a replacement for Mike Kyle. Due to the timing of the announcement, I’ve been skeptical to report it as real news. However, it appears that Keith Jardine will be stepping in for Mike Kyle on April 9^th to fight Gegard Mousasi.

Go figure.

(Yeah, now that you mention it, you never see Mike Kyle and Newark mayor Cory Booker in the same room together…)

Due to a broken hand suffered in training, Strikeforce light-heavyweight contender Mike Kyle has been forced to withdraw from his scheduled match against Gegard Mousasi at ‘Strikeforce: Diaz vs. Daley‘ (April 9th, San Diego). The Kyle/Mousasi match would have likely produced the next challenger to Dan Henderson’s 205-pound title. Strikeforce is currently looking for a replacement opponent for Mousasi, who has scored wins over Jake O’Brien and Tatsuya Mizuno while competing in DREAM since losing the Strikeforce light-heavyweight title to Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal last April.

The news of Kyle’s injury withdrawal comes just a day after we learned that Jon Fitch — who trains alongside Kyle at American Kickboxing Academy — would not be making his rematch date with BJ Penn because of a shoulder injury. Speaking of which, Carlos Condit is down to step in against BJ Penn…as soon as the UFC asks him to.

(Considering the mostly-negative response to our “MMAshed Potato” host candidates, we figured we’d bring in a professional. Excellent use of the green-screen, buddy. /// Update: Having problems with the embed at the moment…click the image to watch the video.)

UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch Weigh-In Results, Streamed and Updated Live Beginning at 10 p.m. ET (Lowkick)

James Toney Talks About the IRS Confiscating His Entire UFC 118 Purse (MiddleEasy)

Gegard Mousasi vs. Roger Gracie In Talks for April 9 Strikeforce Card (MMAWeekly)

Exclusive Video: The Ultimate Fighter 13 Tryouts (CageWriter)

Manny Gamburyan Pulls Out of UFC 128 With Back Injury (MMAFighting)

The 10 Most Ridiculous MMA Tattoos Of All Time (MTV Clutch)

9 Badass TV and Movie Characters That Don’t Talk (Guyism)

True Sh*t: Ten Movies the 2011 Academy Award Nominees Don’t Want You to See (Bullz-Eye)

Gemma Merna Unleashes Giant Cleavage in Loaded Magazine (BustedCoverage)

Hangover 2 Exclusive Teaser Trailer (TheRugged)

50 Mind Blowing Facts (OnlineSchools.org)

Lacrosse Fight Ends in Devastating Knockout (NothingToxic)

What You Can Learn From Her Tattoo (MadeMan)

Charlie Sheen’s Philosophies Examined And Discussed (HolyTaco)

It seems like every MMA site and their brother has put out a ranking of hottest MMA wives and girlfriends. For this list, we’re more interested in the couples who would kick the most ass together in a street-fight — or in one of those freaky-ass tag-team MMA bouts. If we’ve left out any notable MMA couples, holler at us in the comments section…

#6: BRANDON AND KERRY VERA

Combined MMA record: 13-6
Status: Married since 2006
Tough cred: Brandon’s career skid in the UFC has culminated in three consecutive losses (though that last one might be overturned). On the bright side, his adorable wife Kerry is currently 2-0 as a mixed martial artist following a successful kickboxing career, including a first-round shellacking of Kim Couture in her Strikeforce debut.

#5. JORGE GURGEL AND ZOILA FRAUSTO

Combined MMA record: 23-8
Status: Just married
Tough cred: Like the Veras, the male half of this couple has had a tough go of it lately, losing four of his last five fights; Jorge will have a chance to redeem himself against Tyler Combs on the preliminary card of Strikeforce: Feijao vs. Henderson on March 5th. Meanwhile, Frausto has established herself as one of the greatest female fighters in the world, grabbing Bellator’s 115-pound title and putting an end to Megumi Fujii’s 22-fight win streak. (She’ll also be returning to action on March 5th, against Karina Hallinan at Bellator 35.) Hopefully that isn’t a problem for Gurgel’s ego.

Vicious upkick KO – Watch more Funny Videos

This went down last Sunday at ProFC Union Nation Cup 13 in the Ukraine. Byakhtiyar Abbasov tries to set up a leg-lock off a scramble, and Igor Sliusarchuk axe-kicks him in the jaw not once, but twice. Even while unconscious, Abbasov refuses to let go of that mouthpiece. Sliusarchuck now joins the MMA Upkick Hall of Fame, alongside Renzo Gracie, Gegard Mousasi, and Anderson Silva.

(Video courtesy of YouTube/ShoSports)

It’s curious that whenever you see Fedor Emelianenko training, it always seems to be with younger, smaller, less skillful opponents and that he never seems to be going above 50% intensity. The fact that he’s talking about bringing in Shane Carwin to help him prepare for the later rounds of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix may be an indicator of the level of training partners he has to pick from in his gym since his brother Aleksander and Gegard Mousasi left the Red Devil team.

As you can see in the video above, Fedor had an OK training camp, but didn’t really seem to get pushed much in the clips we saw. It makes you wonder what kind of shape he would be in and whether or not he would have lost to Werdum if he had spent the last year training at, say, Xtreme Couture. They say when you’re the top dog in the gym, it’s time to find a new gym where you’re in the middle of the pack trying to work your way to the top.

(Somehow, screwing this guy over in a business deal would never cross our minds. PicProps: Top MMA News)

A couple years ago I interviewed UFC and Pride vet and all-around good guy Gary Goodridge as part of a project I was working on for another publication. At the beginning of our conversation I think I asked something innocuous like, “Hey Gary, how you doing?” to which Goodridge responded with an audible sigh and said: “Man, I’m broke as a joke and looking for a job.” I laughed. Nervously. During the course of our talk it became clear that “Big Daddy” wasn’t kidding. After  nearly 50 MMA fights and 40 kickboxing bouts, the 15-year fight vet was pretty much at loose ends. He’d morphed into a cautionary tale – and a particularly heartbreaking one because he is such a nice dude – for all the young fighters out there who are living like they think those paychecks are just going to keep coming forever.

For obvious reasons, it was not at all surprising when Goodridge agreed to take on Gegard Mousasi at K-1’s New Year’s Eve Dynamite!! 2009 show on kind of ridiculously short notice, was further depressingly predictable that he lost that fight by ugly TKO inside of two minutes and unbelievably ridiculous that FEG took more than a year to send Gary his paycheck. Since this was so clearly an example of an aging fighter taking a fight he had no business taking simply because he needed a payday, the whole “getting paid” stage was a pretty important part of the equation. So, it warms even the blackest heart to report that Goodridge finally got his bread this week. Well, most of it.

Although the promotion has only "officially" announced one of the match-ups for its annual New Year’s Eve extravaganza, the December 31 K-1 Dynamite! show, in Saitama, Japan, which may include at least two title fights, is looking pretty good so far.

K-1 announced today that DREAM featherweight champion Bibiano Fernandes will rematch Hiroyuki Takaya on the card and that it will be a five-round affair that will see the Brazilian defend his belt for the second time.

According to a Tatame story, Sengoku fetherweight champion Marlon Sandro is in negotiations to put his belt on the line against Japanese standout Hatsu Hioki at the event as well. Sandro says he has verbally agreed to the bout and is awaiting the contract to make it official.

("Want a Baby Ruth?")

MMAJunkie is reporting that a heavyweight tilt between K-1 star Jerome LeBanner and DREAM light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi could be added to the K-1 Dynamite New Year’s Eve show December 31 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Mousasi says he has verbally agreed to the bout and is awaiting a contract to make the fight official.

"I don’t know if I’m fighting him yet," Mousasi said of Le Banner. "They haven’t confirmed. They asked me, and I said yes, so now if he said yes, the fight is on."

Although some question whether or not at 3-1 (1 NC) in MMA if LeBanner is experienced enough to pose a challenge for Mousasi, "The Dream Catcher" says he feels he will, especially standing.

"If I fight Jerome LeBanner in the U.S., [he] wouldn’t be considered a good MMA fighter," Mousasi said. "But in Europe because he’s a popular K-1 fighter, it’s fighting a big fight. It doesn’t matter if it’s MMA or K-1, so it’s good for me (and) my name in Europe if I could beat him. And he’s big and strong, so it’s a challenge for me to get him down. I know that once I can get him down, I can win. But that’s the challenge."

The fight will be only Mousasi’s second as a heavyweight. He defeated aging MMA veteran Gary Goodridge at last year’s year-end Dynamite! show.

He is currently walking around at 223 pounds and says he likely won’t go into the fight with his 260-pound opponent much bigger than he is now.

"It’s too short a time to put a lot of weight on, so maybe two or three kilos more, but that’s it," said Mousasi, who heard Satoshi Ishii also could be a potential opponent for the year-end DREAM event. "But I don’t consider weight to be that big of a deal. As long as my technique is better, it will make up for his strength."

As far as his next Strikeforce opponent, Mousasi revealed that Mike Kyle may be on tap for him in the New Year.

Check out some Lebanner and Mousasi highlights after the jump.

(Video courtesy YouTube/Middleeasy)

Remember when Gegard Mousasi was on a 15-fight win streak, was knocking and tapping fools out left, right and center and everyone was calling him the next Fedor? That was awesome.

Then King Mo came along, laid Mousasi on his back and peppered him with more non-committal shots to the face than Jenna Jameson took in her heyday for the majority of their 25-minute fight.

While he isn’t necessarily a better fighter, Mo, who is regarded by anyone who has spoken at length with him about the sport as an MMA savant, executed the perfect game plan to beat Mousasi. In his next fight against Rafael Cavalcante...not so much.

(VidProps: YouTube/evilbyte)

Give the DREAM bosses some credit, these guys sure know how to build suspense into what otherwise might be a fairly straightforward and pleasing night of MMA fights. As it turned out, there was no surprise run-in from Alistair Overeem and the Japanese promotion with the fly-by-the-seat-of-its pants matchmaking style never found a fight for Ricco Rodriguez. We hope it paid for the flight and the sushi, at least.  On the bright side, DREAM finally did manage to convince Gegard Mousasi to put in the 31 seconds of work it took to defeat an overweight Jake O’Brien and Shinya Aoki likewise bounced back from an embarrassing loss in Strikeforce a few months ago to put a quick and typically stoic beating on Tatsuya Kawajiri.

Like “Sweet and Sassy,” Aoki called it an early night, withstanding some heel kicks to the face as he locked up an Achilles lock that secured the tap and appeared to damage his Kawajiri’s leg in just one minute, 53 seconds. A couple of days after possibly declaring his bi-sexuality at the event’s weigh-in (we assume he was being ironical), Aoki ditched his trademark colorful tights for relatively conservative board shorts and rushed from the ring following his win to get some lovin’ from his (possibly female) fiancé.

After the jump, O’Brien vs. Mousasi, where it will take you all of the first 15 seconds to see why the American had a little trouble making weight …

(GerardM? DREAM may be onto something awesome)

It’s seeming more and more like Ricco Rodriguez’s inclusion on the DREAM 15 card just wasn’t meant to be.

After Twittering early this morning that he may be stepping in for fellow MMA Agents repped fighter Jake O’Brien to face Gegard Mousasi in the opening round of the DREAM four-man light heavyweight grand prix tournament, it appears that the fight has reverted back to its original match-up as Mousasi’s camp has agreed to fight O’Brien in spite of the American reportedly being 21 pounds over the required 205-pound weight limit.