(Melvin Manhoef def. Denis Kang via knee-to-the-body KO, 0:50 of round 1. Fight starts at the 3:44 mark, but we’ve got the video cued up to the *real* action.)

From Mirko Cro Cop arm-barring a professional wrestler, to Bob Sapp scoring a massive upset over Alistair Overeem (in arm-wrestling), New Year’s weekend in Japan was loaded with, shall we say, “sports entertainment.” But there was at least one legit event — the hybrid DREAM 18/Glory 4 MMA-kickboxing spectacular that went down December 31st at the Saitama Super Arena. Thanks to Suhwaniya Fight Club, we’ve got complete videos of all eight MMA fights that took place that night, which featured such stars as Shinya Aoki, Melvin Manhoef, Marloes Coenen, Phil Baroni, Michihiro Omigawa, and Bibiano Fernandes. Enjoy, and welcome to 2013 everybody.

(Shinya Aoki def. Antonio McKee via submission due to eye-punch, 0:24 of round 2)

(Jenna Haze: Pound-for-pound G.O.A.T.)

Yes, friends and neighbors, there’s a fighter on the upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter who has done porn — and not the normal kind, either. Since it’s a slow news week, this TUF 15 sub-plot has blown up to monumental proportions on MMA forums, but let’s put this in perspective: Dakota Cochrane isn’t the first MMA fighter to pick up some extra cash by appearing in adult films, and he probably won’t be the last. Send the kids out of the room, and follow us on a journey through the porn/MMA continuum…

Sorry, Nation. This will not be happening again this Saturday. VidProps: lsydogma01/YouTube

Well, dammit again. The upcoming (and ludicrously titled) DREAM card took another hit when it was announced that Hayato Sakurai was suffering from a leg injury and would not be able to compete against Marius Zaromskis this Saturday. The non-title bout was a rematch; Zaromskis scored a head kick KO that you’ve not doubt seen (which will not stop us from showing you again) when the two met in DREAM’s welterweight GP event two years ago. Zaromskis went on to win the title with another headkick knockout over Jason High.

Zaromskis will instead meet Pancrase and DEEP veteran Eiji Ishikawa, a journeyman grappler out of Tokyo’s Grabaka gym. Ishikawa’s record carries losses to some guys you know (Hector Lombard, Yushin Okami, Yuki Kondo), a draw with Nate Marquardt (under the Pancrase banner back in 2004), and one win over a guy you’ve ever heard of (a majority decision over Ryo Chonan in 2002). In forty fights, Ishikawa has just six stoppage wins. So … yeah.
Man, what is up with main events in 2011?

[RX]

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.

(Diaz vs. Sakurai. The actual fighting begins about the 3:15 mark. VidProps: YouTube.)

His claims of being the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world are a bit of a stretch, but Nick Diaz did what everyone expected him to do last night at Dream.14, handling Hayato “Mach” Sakurai en route to a first-round submission win. The biggest surprise of the fight was Sakurai’s striking, as he came out throwing enough heavy leather to make the Strikeforce welterweight champ decide he didn’t want none on the feet in the early going.

Aside from a couple of stand-up exchanges however,  Diaz smothered Sakurai on the ground, eventually securing an arm bar three minutes, 54 seconds into the first round. For Sakurai, who said earlier this week he wanted to retire as soon as he became an “ordinary” fighter, that time may be now.

Complete Dream.14 results after the jump.

(A motivated Sakuraba is a dangerous Sakuraba. That doesn’t apply here, obviously, but I’m just saying. Check out more DREAM.14 weigh-in photos at dreamofficial.com.)

We haven’t given this event much play because, let’s face it, none of these fights really amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Nick Diaz is probably going to chew up Hayato Sakurai, who has been stopped in his last two outings. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ralek Gracie is a sideshow, even if it’s one with a historic hook. (Minowaman vs. random fat-guy Imani Lee is just a sideshow, period.) Kid Yamamoto is facing a middling prospect, while Joachim Hansen — who’s riding his own two-fight losing streak — will look for his first win at featherweight. The only real questions are: 1) How good will Diaz look? and 2) Will Saku add another beating to his highlight reel? Still, if you happen to have HDNet and DVR service (or insomnia), it’s better than nothing. Weigh-in results are below. Come back tomorrow for complete results and selected fight videos.

8. WW: Nick Diaz 76.0kg vs. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai 76.5kg
7. 88kg Catchweight: Kazushi Sakuraba 86.5kg vs. Ralek Gracie 87.4kg
6. FW: Hiroyuki Takaya 65.0kg vs. Joachim Hansen 65.0kg
5. FW: Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto 59.8kg vs. Federico "Kiko" Lopez 62.0 kg* (Lopez came in way over the fight’s 60kg limit; he will be given time to lose the weight this afternoon.)
4. FW: Hideo Tokoro 63.0kg vs. Akiyo "Wicky" Nishiura 62.8kg
3. FW: Kazuyuki Miyata 64.2kg vs. Takafumi Otsuka 64.4kg
2. FW: Yoshiro Maeda 60.7kg vs. Kenji Osawa 61.0kg
1. Openweight: Minowaman 88kg vs. Imani Lee 150kg

After the jump: Diaz explains why he’s the #1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world.

(Sorry Nick, but there’s no way you’re winning this competition for overall chest viewership. Photo courtesy of Esther Lin’s archives.)

You can probably put this in the ‘fights that would have been great two years ago’ category, but at least it’s happening. According to GracieFighter.com – your go-to source for very brief stories on why the Gracie squad rules and you totally suck – Nick Diaz will be fighting Hayato “Mach” Sakurai in a 170-pound, non-title bout at Dream.15 in Tokyo at the end of May.

It’s a fight Diaz has been trying to secure for some time, only in light of Sakurai’s recent decline it seems far less competitive now. Sakurai lost his last two fights in decisive fashion, first to recent Diaz victim Marius Zaromskis via head kick, and then to Akihiro Gono via armbar. What’s worse is how uninspired he looked against Gono, as if he would rather be anywhere else than in the ring.

If that same Sakurai shows up to fight Diaz, who’s riding a six-fight winning streak since his TKO loss due to cuts against KJ Noons, it could be a very quick and painful night in front of his home crowd.

(Props: spicadocious via Fightlinker)

This kickass highlight reel — which could also be titled "Rise of the Whitemare" — covers DREAM’s welterweight grand prix from earlier this year, in which Marius Zaromskis smashed his way to the top of an eight-man field that also included such notables as Hayato Sakurai, Shinya Aoki, and Andre Galvao. Highlights include Zaromskis’s fake-flying-knee superman punch at the 2:39 mark, and of course his knockout-of-the-year candidate against Jason High at the 4:19 mark. DREAM returns on October 8th with the semifinals and finals of its featherweight grand prix, the second round of the Super Hulk Tournament, and the lightweight title fight between Joachim Hansen and Shinya Aoki.

After the jump: Anderson Silva shows off his boxing skills against a local pugilist at Freddie Roach’s boxing club.

(Zaromskis vs. High. Props to MMA Linker.)

We should have known there would be trouble after Hayato "Mach" Sakurai needed seven and a half extra hours to make weight for today’s DREAM’s welterweight GP finals. The tournament favorite might have been fighting through exhaustion when he met Marius Zaromskis in the semis, in a bout marked by wild striking exchanges. Sakurai absorbed the more damaging blows, and the fight was halted about four minutes in so that doctors could check on a spurting gash under Mach’s left eye. When it was finally restarted after a long break, Zaromskis measured up Sakurai then threw a high left kick that put his lights out. A few more punches on the ground, and it was game over.

On the other side of the bracket, Jason High scored an upset of his own, handing jiu-jitsu juggernaut Andre Galvao his first MMA loss in a very close decision fight; one judge gave it to Galvao for his submission attempts in the first round, while the other two saw it for High due to his superior striking in the second. But the thrill of victory wouldn’t last long for High, as Zaromskis scored another head kick knockout — this time with the right leg — in their finals match.

In non-tournament action, Shinya Aoki outpointed Vitor Ribeiro in a disappointingly dull 15-minute bout, Dong Sik Yoon had to quit just a minute into his fight against Jesse Taylor after suffering a foot injury, and Paulo Filho survived a brutal striking assault from Melvin Manhoef and won the fight via armbar in what might be the leading contender for comeback fight of 2009. Complete results and more DREAM.10 fight videos are after the jump.

(Hayato Sakurai vs. Shinya Aoki. Listen for the Japanese version of Frank Trigg calling the action at the 1:20-1:27 mark of the video.)

The opening round of DREAM’s 2009 welterweight grand prix went down today at DREAM.8 in Nagoya, Japan, with Hayato Sakurai and Andre Galvao establishing themselves as early favorites to go all the way. In the evening’s main event, Sakurai was able to defeat Shinya Aoki for the second time in his career, reversing position after a slick takedown from Aoki, then unleashing a brutal series of knees to the head and punches that forced a stop to the action just 27 seconds into the fight. Aoki, who didn’t bother putting on weight for the match, hopefully learned that he’s better off at lightweight.

Elsewhere in the welterweight GP, Andre Galvao looked impressive yet again, taking out UFC/WEC vet John Alessio by armbar at 7:34 of the first round; the powerful jiu-jitsu ace increases his record to 3-0, with all wins by armbar. Jason High was able to bounce back to the W column with a quick choke-out of Yuya Shirai, while Marius Zaromskis edged out Seichi Ikemoto by decision after a 15-minute slugfest.

In the non-tournament bouts, Jeff Monson won for the third time in three weeks (!), using his significant grappling advantage over Sergei Kharitonov to sink in a north-south choke early in the first round. Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro was also victorious in his return to competition, controlling Katsuhiko Nagata for most of the first round of their match until a series of knee-strikes from Ribeiro opened up a nasty gash on Nagata’s head; doctors immediately went in to check the wound, and decided to stop the fight. And in a minor upset, Riki Fukuda — a late replacement for Dong Sik Yoon — was able to score a very close decision over Murilo Rua after a 15-minute standup battle.

Full results and more videos after the jump…

("I used to be an AFC like Shinya. Now that I’ve learned the Mystery Method, I pull more tail than Hayato.")

DREAM’s 2009 welterweight grand prix kicks off April 5th at DREAM 8, and four of the tournament matchups have just been announced, along with a few features in other weight classes. The event will be headlined by a rematch between Shinya Aoki and Hayato "Mach" Sakurai; Sakurai previously won a decision over Aoki at a Shooto event in August ’05. Check out the current lineup below, and keep in mind that the opening round kicks off ten days from now, and only half the field is assembled. Not that this is the first time that DREAM hasn’t had all their GP participants locked down before the opening round, but this is really pushing it…

I don’t see how the winner of Aoki/Sakurai doesn’t just pwn the fuck out of this field, which is easily the weakest of any DREAM GP to date. Shirai and Ikemoto are local jobbers, and UFC/WEC-castoff John Alessio is only slightly better. High just got owned by Jay Hieron at Affliction: Day of Reckoning; too bad the Thoroughbred isn’t available for this tournament. And while Andre Galvao is a stud when it comes to jiu-jitsu, he’s underexperienced in MMA. There’d better be some big names attached to those last four spots, or the tourney could be a gigantic bust.

And the other bouts on the card aren’t much better. The Kharitonov/Monson clash could be entertaining, but of the six men in the other non-GP bouts, only Minowaman and Ninja have winning records. Seriously. DREAM is hoping for a big ratings resurgence when they return to a decent time-slot, but it’ll be hard to get fans interested — especially in the U.S., where once again, HDNet is airing the event days later on tape-delay.

(You call that a fighter’s fist pose, Sakurai? Show me some goddamned intensity! Photo courtesy of DreamOfficial.com via Suki MMA.)

Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) — the parent company of Japanese MMA promotion DREAM — announced today that their upcoming welterweight grand prix will feature #9 pound-for-pounder Shinya Aoki, moving back up in weight class from last year’s lightweight GP, in which he was a finalist. Perennial welterweight threat/amateur porn star Hayato "Mach" Sakurai will also participate in the 168-pound tournament (which kicks off April 5th in Nagoya, Japan), and freak show mainstay Ikuhisa Minowa will be on the card in a non-GP match. No other fighters have been named for the grand prix, though the winner of the DEEP 40 bout between Hidetaka Monma and Seichi Ikemoto is expected to join the field.

No word yet if Aoki and Sakurai will have to face each other in the first round of the grand prix, but the two fighters previously met at a Shooto event in August 2005, where the far-more-experienced (at the time) Sakurai defeated Aoki by unanimous decision. Aoki went on to win Shooto’s middleweight (168 pounds) championship the next year — which he still technically holds — before dropping to lightweight in 2007. Both men have won their last two fights, with Sakurai winning a decision against Kuniyoshi Hironaka at DREAM 6 last September and scoring a TKO over Katsuyori Shibata at Dynamite!! 2008 on New Year’s Eve, and Aoki earning quick submission victories over Todd Moore and Eddie Alvarez at the same events.

According to GracieFighter.com, Nick Diaz will no longer be fighting Hayato “Mach” Sakurai at DREAM.5 (July 21st; Osaka, Japan) for the league’s vacant welterweight title, due to contractual obligations with EliteXC: “Apparently EliteXC has other plans for Diaz and the July date might conflict with their plans.” You could probably figure out what those plans are, but for the record, sources have informed FiveOuncesofPain that a rematch between Diaz and K.J. Noons for EliteXC’s 160-pound title will be added to the next “Saturday Night Fights” broadcast on July 26th.

Though the event was initially rumored to be held in St. Louis, it looks like that idea is being scrapped, as several major sporting events (including a monster truck rally; go figure) are already scheduled to take place in the Gateway City around that time. Now, the buzz is that the Diaz/Noons bout will take place somewhere in Stockton, California, the city that spawned those rotten Diaz brothers. Obviously, it’s a wise move from a marketing standpoint — just as EliteXC’s “Street Certified” event featuring Kimbo Slice was a hit in Kimbo’s hometown of Miami, and “Shamrock vs. Le” did bang-up business in San Jose, Nick Diaz’s rabid civic pride could translate into a wild sellout crowd in Stockton, which would be a perfect backdrop to a live television event (providing that there are no riots in the arena, of course).

At this point, EliteXC: Unfinished Business (working title) will still be headlined by the middleweight championship rematch between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith, as well as Jake Shields vs. TBA for the vacant welterweight belt.

(Savant Young and Takeshi Inoue: Guess who won the decision? Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

It looks like we’ll be putting together another update to our Power Rankings pretty soon — #5-ranked welterweight Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and #4-ranked featherweight Takeshi Inoue got punked yesterday at Shooto’s first 20th anniversary series show in Tokyo. Sakurai faced European Shooto vet David Baron in a slugfest that ended suddenly when Baron sunk in a guillotine choke during a takedown attempt by Sakurai. It was Sakurai’s first loss since being knocked out by Takanori Gomi at PRIDE Shockwave on New Year’s Eve 2005. In the night’s other upset, IFL vet Trenell “Savant” Young (who had an 8-7 record going into the fight) outlasted former Shooto featherweight champ “Lion” Takeshi Inoue en route to a unanimous decision victory. Near the end of the second and final round, Young caught Inoue in a guillotine choke and Inoue scrambled through the ropes to escape; Inoue seemed to be momentarily unconscious when the ref broke up the fighters and moved them to the center of the ring.

In other action, Shooto’s welterweight Pac-Rim champion Takashi Nakakura became the league’s World Welterweight champ with his unanimous decision win over Ganjo Tentsuku, and Akitoshi Tamura submitted Rumina Sato near the end of an action packed three-round brawl. Full results are below, and videos are after the jump.

Takashi Nakakura def. Ganjo Tentsuku via decision
David Baron def. Hayato Sakurai via submission (guillotine choke), 4:50 of round 1
Akitoshi Tamura def. Rumina Sato via submission (north-south choke), 2:37 of round 3
Savant Young def. Takeshi Inoue via decision
Ryuich Miki vs. Yasuhiro Urushitani ended in a draw
Yusuke Endo def. Vince Ortiz via submission (rear-naked choke), 3:34 of round 1
Bendy Casimir def. Shinji Sasaki via decision
Shinpei Tahara def. Katsuya Murofushi via TKO (doctor’s stoppage due to cut), 0:46 of round 2
Hayate Usui def. Sakae Kasuya via decision

(Shane Carwin: Just one of the new faces looking for a big debut at UFC 84.)

— The UFC has confirmed the lineup for UFC 84: Ill Will (5/24, Las Vegas). Besides Penn/Sherk, Ortiz/Machida, and Silva/Jardine, the televised card will feature a light-heavyweight match between undefeated UFC newcomer Goran Reljic and Wilson Gouveia (who most recently knocked out Jason Lambert at UFC 80), as well as another 205-pound match between Thiago Silva and Octagon newbie Antonio “Samuray” Mendes. Ill Will’s undercard features appearances by Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Rob Emerson, Jon Koppenhaver, and new heavyweight acquisition Shane Carwin. Check out the complete card here.

— Shooto has announced their 20th anniversary show on May 3rd, and it’s shaping up to be a killer. Japanese welterweight star Hayato “Mach” Sakurai — whose last three fights resulted in wins against Hidetaka Monma at DREAM.1, Hidehiko Hasegawa at Yarennoka!, and Mac Danzig at PRIDE 33 — will be taking on 13-2 submission specialist David Baron, while “Lion” Takeshi Inoue and Rumina Sato will also compete against opponents to be named later.

— After suffering a nasty eye injury last September during a fight against Gesias Calvancante, Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro is back in the gym and planning his next move. That t-shirt he’s wearing should help to explain why we think he’s the fifth greatest lightweight in the world.

From Saturday…

Mirko Cro Cop steamrolls Tatsuya Mizuno in 56 seconds.

The night’s freak-show feature: “Minowaman” taps out doughy Korean ex-baseball player Lee Kwan via kneebar.

(Sorry bro, rock beats finger.)

Nightmare of Battle has the official fight order for Saturday’s highly-anticipated DREAM show. Notably, the fight between Gesias Calvancante and Shinya Aoki will headline the event, Cro Cop’s match with Tatsuya Mizuno will serve as a break between the first half of the lightweight tournament bouts and the second, and the opener will be Ikuhisa Minowa in an “open-weight” fight against a freak to be named tomorrow. Cutting it kind of close, huh? Anyway, the lineup goes like this:

Lightweight Tournament 1st Round (second group)
10. J.Z. Calvan vs. Shinya Aoki
9. Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Black Mamba (Kultar Gill)
8. Andre Dida vs. Eddie Alvarez

Heavyweight Feature
7. Mirko CroCop vs. Tatsuya Mizuno

Lightweight Tournament 1st Round (first group)
6. Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Jung Bu Kyung
5. Katsuhiko Nagata vs. Artur Umakhanov
4. Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Luis Buscape
3. Kotetsu Boku vs. Joachim Hansen

Welterweight Feature
2. Hayato Sakurai vs. Hidetaka Monma (correction: This fight isn’t part of the lightweight tournament, as we said yesterday. Props to reader “robnashville” for being smarter than us.)

Open Weight Fight
1. Minowaman vs. TBA

Christ, I’d give my left nipple to be at this show. Joachim Hansen could be a dark horse to win it all, though most likely the eventual winner will be the guy who survives Saturday’s main event. Calvancante’s utter domination of his past opponents make him the obvious front-runner, and he’s been working with Eddie Bravo to deal with Aoki’s rubber guard and straightjacket-like grappling. There are some interesting betting lines here, which list Ishida/Kyung-Jung as the biggest first-round mismatch (-1000/+550), Kawajiri as the favorite to win the entire tournament, and Kultar “Black Mamba” Gill as a laughable +3800 under-underdog to go all the way. Holler at a brotha’s comments section if you have any big predictions for the show…

(Koscheck/Sanchez 3 will happen when Kos allows it to happen.)

People don’t stop running their mouths just because it’s the weekend. Here’s what you may have missed…

Dana White on haters: “All I have to say about that is don’t ever (expletive) doubt us. All these (expletive) idiots out there that like to talk (expletive) and (expletive) don’t ever doubt us, man. Don’t ever, ever doubt us.”

Josh Koscheck on Diego Sanchez: “I think I’m in his head. He’s only been thinking and focusing about me for the last year. It’s actually kind of nice. He’s in the same shoes I was after The Ultimate Fighter. For two straight years I woke up every morning hating Diego Sanchez.”

Rich Franklin on his future title prospects: “Realistically, another fight with Anderson wouldn’t be that interesting for fans.”

Dana White on stock car racing: “You come over to my house this weekend and we kick back and watch TV. We put on (expletive) NASCAR. We’re like, ‘Holy (expletive). Look at all the (expletive) people at this race. All those fans and this and that. These guys got television deals and merchandise deals and all this crazy (expletive). You know what? Let’s steal two of their drivers, and let’s start our own (expletive) company. We’ll call it (expletive), you know, GASCAR instead of (expletive) NASCAR.’ That’s how (expletive) stupid it is.”

(Mach Sakurai works over Mac Danzig at PRIDE 33.)

A lot of news coming from Japan in the wake of Sengoku’s first show and the run-up to next week’s DREAM debut…

— Nokaut.com reports that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic has finally gotten an opponent for the first DREAM show, with only nine days to spare. As Mirko wrote on his official blog: “A little over an hour ago I was contacted by DREAM officials. They informed me that my opponent on March 15 will be Yoshihiro Nakao from Japan. It was very important for me to fight as soon as possible and I’m happy that DREAM was able to find the opponent for me.” You may remember Nakao as the dude Heath Herring knocked out after a tender expression of affection was misinterpreted as an insult; hopefully Nakao won’t make that mistake again. DREAM1 goes down next Saturday at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

— Hayato “Mach” Sakurai has also locked down an opponent for the DREAM show. As SukiMMA translates from his blog: “I fight Hidetaka Monma from Keisyukai. One foreign fighter and one Japanese fighter canceled and finally I got an opponent!” Monma has a 14-7-3 record, with notable wins over…well, basically nobody. The Sakurai/Monma fight doesn’t seem to be a part of the lightweight Grand Prix that’s also going down at DREAM1, but it should be an ugly rout just like the Cro Cop/Nakao feature.