(Photo courtesy of Complex.)

When we last saw Nick Diaz, he was whipping Muhsin Corbbrey at EliteXC: The Return of the King, and advising KJ Noons not to be frightened. Diaz gets back into the cage this Saturday at the second installment of EliteXC’s “Saturday Night Fights” (CBS, 9 p.m. ET/PT), and while he won’t be settling his grudge with Noons, he’ll be facing the very tough Thomas Denny in front of a rabid hometown crowd at the Stockton Arena. The always outspoken Cesar Gracie-trained fighter recently chatted with us about the origins of his bad attitude, why MMA fights should be held in a ring, and why steroids should be legal.

***

CAGEPOTATO.COM: Are you disappointed that you’re not fighting KJ Noons on Saturday?
NICK DIAZ: Sure. I want to get that fight over and done with as soon as I can. But I gotta handle the Denny fight first, because if I don’t win it won’t look too good on my part, as far as a future fight with KJ goes. But KJ doesn’t want to fight me — he likes to pick his fights. I figure the only way he’ll fight me is if they make him do it, so I gotta be the guy in line.

Have you seen anything in Thomas Denny’s game that concerns you?
Well, everything concerns me. He’s a good fighter. But I’m ready for this type of guy. I know I train harder than him. I don’t have time to run a school and teach kids; he seems to have time to do a lot of things. It’s a lot to have on the table if you’re trying to be a professional fighter too.

The California State Athletic Commission is notorious for pulling fighters at the last minute — you went through it yourself back in March. How are you dealing with the CSAC this time so that you don’t have to experience that again?
I don’t have an issue with them. It was a big misunderstanding — the commission apologized and we’re all cool. It cost me a lot of money, but let’s get past it. I’ve forgotten about it pretty much.

So your medical marijuana card won’t be a problem this time?
No, not at all. It was never a problem before. I planned on testing clean in the last fight, and I’m going to test clean in this fight like all the other fighters, so that’s not even an issue. You get some of your freedoms screwed with, with the commission being as tight and all. But they own the shit and they run the shit. They’ve been manipulating us from the beginning. We’re not stupid, and I feel like we should stand up for our rights. If guys want to do steroids in this sport, then power to ‘em. I don’t do steroids, I’m not into chemicals or needles, it completely freaks me out. I don’t even do Advil. But if these guys want to do steroids, I would like them to do steroids.

(Alvarez vs. Kawajiri: Fight of the Night. Props to MMA-Core.)

Chaos rules when it comes to single-night tournaments, and today’s DREAM.5 show in Osaka was marked by an unexpected twist — lightweight grand prix alternate Joachim Hansen defeated crowd-favorite Shinya Aoki in the finals to become DREAM’s first lightweight champion, following an eye injury suffered by Eddie Alvarez in his semifinal match.

The first semifinal bout was dominated by Aoki, who threw his entire bag of submissions at Caol Uno, threatening Uno repeatedly with chokes, leglocks and armbars. Uno hung in like a champ, but the judges made the obvious choice when the clock ran out, and an exhausted Aoki advanced to the finals.

In the second semifinal, the Philadelphia-based Eddie Alvarez proved that he should be counted among the world’s best lightweights, getting the best of Tatsuya Kawajiri in a thrilling slugfest. Alvarez suffered a cut under his right eye early by Kawajiri’s nasty power punches, but Alvarez dropped Kawajiri with his own. After time was called for Alvarez’s eye to be checked out, the fight-restarted with Kawajiri taking control again, punching Alvarez to the mat and swarming him from the top. Alvarez eventually got to his feet, taking heavy damage in return. But Alvarez battled back, throwing his fists until Kawajiri succumbed. Unfortunately, it was later announced that Alvarez wouldn’t be able to continue to the finals because his eye was swollen shut.

The tournament’s alternate bout saw Joachim Hansen withstand an early assault by Indian fighter Kultar “Black Mamba” Gill; Hellboy quickly regained control and put away his outmatched opponent via armbar at the 2:33 mark. Hansen, who had lost to Alvarez at the lightweight GP quarterfinals in May, would now be replacing him in the finals.

(“Wii Fit not as easy as looks.”)

DREAM.5 is only three days away — not the most convenient time for the lineup to fall apart. First, the bad news: Featherweight star Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (pictured above) has injured his right knee in training and won’t fight at Monday’s show; the injury might put him on ice for six months. Even worse, a feature in the forthcoming issue of the Japanese tabloid Shukan Gendai alleges that Yamamoto is a regular user of marijuana. (Apparently, that’s looked down on over there; we Americans revere marijuana for its glaucoma-easing and gogoplata-inspiring properties.) Yamamoto last fought at K-1 Premium 2007 Dynamite!! (12/31/07), where he smoked Rani Yahya via TKO.

Featherweight Hideo Tokoro is also in danger of dropping from the card, as he was rear-ended while driving on Wednesday, and suffered a back injury could take a week to heal completely. Strangely enough, FightOpinion reports that Tokoro’s scheduled bout against Takeshi Yamazaki was being promoted as an “ikemen” (hot guy) match. And if that’s what it takes to sell fights in Japan, I think I’m going to arrange a superfight between Hard Gay and Bruno.

(The Super Samoan could make his DREAM debut this month.)

DREAM officials recently held a press conference announcing more matches for their fifth event (July 21st; Osaka, Japan). Along with the highly anticipated conclusion of their lightweight grand prix, a reserve match between Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen and Kultar “Black Mamba” Gill will take place in case one of the winning semi-finalists is unable to continue to the final round; Hansen defeated Kotetsu Boku in the GP’s opening round in March before dropping a decision to Eddie Alvarez in the quarterfinals, while Gill was bounced out of the first round by Tatsuya Kawajiri. Highly regarded middleweight Yoshihiro Akiyama will compete for the first time since his illegal soccer-kick KO of Kazuo Misaki at Yarennoka! last New Year’s Eve, taking on professional punching bag Katsuyori Shibata (2-4), who has dropped recent matches to Jason Miller and Kazushi Sakuraba.

DREAM.5 may also see the return of PRIDE/K-1 legend Mark Hunt, who was announced as a participant, though his opponent hasn’t been named yet. Hunt hasn’t competed in an MMA match since PRIDE Shockwave 2006 (12/31/06), when he was submitted by Fedor Emelianenko via kimura. And of course Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto will be in a featured featherweight bout against 7-0 Sacramento native Joseph Benavidez. The full lineup is after the jump…

The K-1 World GP 2008 went down last night in Fukuoka, Japan, with Brazil’s Ewerton Teixeira winning the eight-man tournament, knocking off Tsutomu Takahagi, Tsuyoshi Nakasako, and Keijiro Maeda along the way. In the night’s featured bouts, Morocco’s Badr Hari defended his heavyweight title with a first-round TKO victory over Glaube Feitosa, Semmy Schilt defended his super-heavyweight title by getting the better of Jerome Le Banner in a decision, and Peter Aerts waited until the third round to put down Jan Nortje via TKO. The Hari/Feitosa fight is above, and the Schilt/Le Banner match is below, courtesy of MMA Scraps. Teixeira/Takahagi and Aerts/Nortje are after the jump.

(One of these two men is still telling this story.)

What do you do when you’re an over-the-hill fighter who has repeatedly refused to take the dignified route to retirement? Apparently you challenge another over-the-hill fighter who you faced a couple of times back when you were both still relevant to the sport. That’s the only possible explanation for why Ken Shamrock thinks it’s a good idea to call out Royce Gracie like it’s 1995 all over again:

The second time I beat him in every aspect of the fight; in fact his corner had to carry him out. Fans have been calling for a rematch ever since. After this particular fight Royce left the UFC. As a matter of fact I ran the entire Gracie family out of the UFC. His talk is cheap. Let’s settle it in the cage. I heard Royce agree to a rematch three times now, every time he has come up with a reason not to fight me. Royce and my brother Frank should get together and write a book about how to set up fights and not fight.

At least Shamrock’s smack-talking skills haven’t atrophied at the same rate as his physical ones. Where this statement goes from being the typical crazy Shamrock banter to being completely out of touch with reality is when Shamrock claims that “fans have been calling for a rematch ever since.”

Really? Fans want to see a rematch of the thirty-six minute stallfest that ended in a draw? What fans? Where do they live? Could they accurately be described as fully functioning adults?

Fightlinker claims to think it’s a good idea as long as they do it in Japan with extended rounds. If the fight does happen, it had better not be in a place with an athletic commission, and any time you admit that you could only put on a fight in a place where there is no official oversight, aren’t you basically admitting that it’s a fight that is not athletically meaningful?

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.

(LOFL!)

— Brock Lesnar has brought in seven-time BJJ world champion Rodrigo “Comprido” Medeiros to help out with his ground game in preparation for his match against Heath Herring at UFC 87 (August 9th, Minneapolis). Lesnar by flying cockswordplata?

— UFC: Silva vs. Irvin is now officially listed on UFC.com’s events page, while UFC 88 (September 6th, Atlanta) has been dubbed “Breakthrough”; no matches are listed yet other than the Liddell/Evans headliner.

— Fightline.com reports that Jared Shaw has confirmed Kimbo Slice and Brett Rogers will fight in October. The fight will “more than likely” take place on CBS. A Nick Diaz/KJ Noons match is being discussed as a co-main event for the same card.

— Affliction: Banned will feature a performance by Megadeth (!), who will be rockin’ out at key points throughout the event. Hopefully that means they’ll be playing the end of “Peace Sells” during Fedor’s ring entrance, and then “Killing Is My Business” during the main event fight itself.

— A “Japan and South Korea friendship event” called Kakutougi Taikai GLADIATOR has been scheduled for August 16th in Okayama, Japan, featuring a headlining bout between crusty American legend Don Frye and Japanese middleweight Ikuhisa “The Punk” Minowa, aka “Minowaman.” Minowa is no stranger to freak show bouts, as he already holds wins over Paulo Cesar Silva, Eric “Butterbean” Esch, Bum Chan Kang, and Phil Baroni.

(Kazuo Misaki cracks Logan Clark a good one. Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

Far less publicized or attended than their first two cards, Sengoku held its third event yesterday at a half-full Saitama Super Arena, marked by former PRIDE star Kazuyuki Fujita’s upset by YAMMA heavyweight champ Travis Wiuff (who is now riding a nine-fight win streak), as well as Kazuo Misaki and Nick “The Goat” Thompson coming away with victories, and MMA elder statesman Maurice Smith’s comeback bid hitting a painful speed bump at the hands of Hidehiko Yoshida. Full recap is at Japan MMA; quick results are below.

Hidehiko Yoshida def. Maurice Smith via submission (neck crank), 2:23 of round 1
Travis Wiuff def. Kazuyuki Fujita via KO, 1:24 of round 1
Kazuo Misaki def. Logan Clark via unanimous decision
Nick Thompson def. Michael Costa via submission (kimura), 4:13 of round 2
Sanae Kikuta def. Chris Rice via submission (armbar), 3:54 of round 1
Marcio Cruz def. Choi Mu Bae via submission (triangle choke), 4:37 of round 1
Rodrigo Damm def. Jorge Masvidal via TKO, 4:38 of round 2
Fabio Silva def. Kazuo Takahashi via KO, 0:24 of round 2

At the event, it was announced that Sengoku IV (August 24th) will mark the beginning of a lightweight GP, with the winner to face Takanori Gomi. Satoru Kitaoka, Eiji Mitsuoka, Kazunori Yokota, Duane Ludwig, and Rodrigo Damm have already been booked for the tourney.

In other MMA news from the Far East…

From PRIDE Critical Countdown 2005 (6/26/2005). Because not much is going on this morning and I’ve been wanting to run the fight that produced this:

From Sakuraba’s divebomb attacks in the first round, to Arona’s relentless knees, to the “holy shit” moment when the second frame is over and Saku’s roadkill-face emerges, it’s a minor classic. Enjoy.

(Babyface Barnett sticks it to the Snowman.)

World Victory Road’s “Sengoku II: Second Battle” event was held today in Tokyo, with Josh Barnett dominating Jeff Monson to a decision victory, Kevin Randleman winning a decision in his first fight since October 2006, and heavyweight rising star Roger Gracie scoring a first-round submission win in his second pro MMA bout. Props to Sherdog. More vids after the jump.

Josh Barnett def. Jeff Monson via decision
Roger Gracie def. Yuki Kondo via submission (rear-naked choke), round 1
Kevin Randleman def. Ryo Kawamura via decision
Yoshihiro “Kiss” Nakao def. Jim York via KO, round 2
Jorge Santiago def. Yuki Sasaki via submission (armbar), round 3
Eiji Mitsuoka def. Kwang Hee Lee via submission (rear-naked choke), round 1
Mike Pyle def. Dan Hornbuckle via submission (triangle choke), round 1
Satoru Kitaoka def. Ian Schaffa via submission (guillotine choke), round 1

(Diaz rocks Inoue at DREAM.3 on Sunday.)

Though the participation of Nick Diaz and Eddie Alvarez at DREAM.3 already suggested that relations between ProElite and DREAM were friendly, the two organizations made it official during a press conference held on Saturday, announcing that they’ve formed a partnership that would have the fight clubs sharing fighters and working on co-promoted events.

Speaking for ProElite, executive William Kelly revealed the company’s goal of presenting EliteXC and Dream co-promoted shows on CBS and Showtime; he also announced ProElite’s intention of opening offices in Japan with the hopes of putting on an EliteXC show there at some point, as well as hosting co-promoted Dream/EliteXC events in places like England and Korea. ProElite executive and former ICON Sport owner T. Jay Thompson named Kimbo Slice, Jake Shields, and Robbie Lawler as other U.S. stars that the promotion wants to present to Japanese audiences in the future.

As long as the first installment of CBS/EliteXC’s Saturday Night Fights doesn’t tank, this could be a major development for the still-struggling ProElite. An ongoing network TV deal and access to some of the most exciting lightweights, welterweights, and middleweights in MMA could help establish the company as just as legitimate as the UFC — and it removes one more obstacle to the world’s best fighters facing each other. Plus, if Bob Sapp was popular enough in Japan to warrant an entire store in Tokyo devoted to his memorabilia, they’ll probably give Kimbo his own town…

(Jason Miller keeps ‘em laughing against Katsuyori Shibata.)

DREAM.3 went down today in Saitama, Japan, with two upsets pulled off in the lightweight grand prix, while Nick Diaz, Jason Miller, and Melvin Manhoef all scored first-round TKOs. The night’s biggest surprise was the defeat of top-ten lightweight Mitsuhiro Ishida at the hands of Caol Uno — who had received a bye into the GP’s quarterfinals — by way of rear-naked choke early in the second round. Eddie Alvarez also took an unexpected win, grinding down Joachim Hansen over 15 minutes en route to a unanimous decision. The card’s other marquee names didn’t disappoint, with K-1 vet Melvin Manhoef demolishing Dae Won Kim, and Nick Diaz getting the better of Katsuya Inoue in a slugfest. But Jason Miller did his best to steal the show, entering the ring in Zubaz-esque tights for his fight against the completely outmatched Katsuyori Shibata, and repeatedly posing for the camera. Full results are below, and videos are after the jump.

Lightweight GP Quarterfinals
Caol Uno def. Mitsuhiro Ishida via rear-naked choke, 1:39 of round 2
Eddie Alvarez def. Joachim Hansen via unanimous decision
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Luiz “Buscape” Firmino via unanimous decision

Welterweight Feature
Nick Diaz def. Katsuya Inoue via TKO (towel thrown), 6:47 of round 1

Middleweight GP Round 1
Jason Miller def. Katsuyori Shibata via TKO, 6:07 of round 1

Middleweight GP Reserve Fight
Melvin Manhoef def. Kim Dae Won via TKO, 4:08 of round 1

Lightweight Features
Daisuke Nakamura def. Jung Bukyung, 1:15 of round 2
Takeshi Yamazaki def. Shoji Maruyama via unanimous decision

(“Adrianu!”)

With a replacement unable to be found for the injured Shinya Aoki, DREAM officials have decided to allow Aoki to remain in their lightweight tournament, with his quarterfinal bout against Katsuhiko Nagata pushed from DREAM.3 (May 11th) to DREAM.4 (June 15th). Interestingly — and I only use the word “interestingly” because “bullshiteously” isn’t a word — Aoki’s doctor claims that the injury Aoki sustained against Calvancante on April 29th was a severely bruised rib, and not anything to do with his face, as was initially fabricated reported. Also, the doc says that during the Aoki/Calvancante re-match, Shinya was still recovering from a cervical injury he received during his first fight with JZ on March 15th, which impaired the feeling in his right arm. And cervical injuries are no joke, people; ask all my ex-girlfriends.

Anyway, this is great news for the lightweight GP’s credibility, although the newly-staggered nature of Aoki’s bracket will sap a little bit of the tournament’s drama. DREAM.4 will also feature Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic’s match against (possibly) Jerome LeBanner, as well as the second round of its Middleweight Grand Prix.

In other news from the Far East, Yuki Kondo has been booked to fight Roger Gracie at Sengoku II (May 18th; Tokyo, Japan), which is also slated to feature fights between Josh Barnett and Jeff Monson, and Kevin Randleman vs. Ryo Kawamura. Kondo has competed mainly as a light-heavyweight in Pancrase, the UFC, and PRIDE, and holds notable victories over Mario Sperry, Semmy Schilt, Ikuhisa Minowa, and Frank Shamrock. The 6’4″ Roger Gracie competed at heavyweight in his MMA debut, a first-round submission win over Ron Waterman in December 2006. Nightmare of Battle is reporting this one as an “open weight” bout, which would make it similar to Randleman’s match, in which the 205-pound vet is taking on a natural middleweight in Kawamura. It sounds like Sengoku could a use a little assistance in its fight-booking department — or, they’re more interested in spectacles than legitimate competition. Either way, it strikes us as kinda bullshiteous…

(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

(Our thoughts exactly.)

I would take this as a clear sign that EliteXC’s welterweight belt is cursed by poltergeists and refuses to be possessed by mortals.

The championship fight between top 170-pound contender Jake Shields and challenger Drew Fickett for EliteXC’s vacant welterweight title has been postponed for a second time, as it was announced today that Fickett has injured his knee and will not be able to compete at EliteXC’s June 14th event in Honolulu, Hawaii. The two fighters were originally supposed to meet at “Shamrock vs. Le” on March 29th, but Shields pulled a muscle in his back days before the event, and Fickett took on Jae Suk Lim instead, winning by guillotine choke in the first round. Luckily, Shields doesn’t seem to be too disappointed by Fickett’s injury, as his back may not be 100% recovered yet anyway. As he told MMAWeekly:

“I think I could be okay to fight by (June 14), but I think opting for July would probably be the smartest thing. It would give me more time to rehab before jumping into sparring, and I think there would be a little more exposure with it being on CBS (in July).”

The June 14th card still features K.J. Noons defending his lightweight title against Yves Edwards, as well as fights between Nick Diaz and Muhsin Corbbrey, Murilo “Ninja” Rua vs. Tony Bonello, Rafael Feijao vs. Wayne Cole, and Ron Waterman vs. Dave Herman.

Speaking of Diaz, the pot-abusing lightweight has joined the lineup of DREAM.3 (May 11th; Saitama, Japan), where he’ll take on Katsuya Inoue, a two-time welterweight King of Pancrase with a career record of 16-5-3. Reportedly, the winner of that fight will face Hayato Sakurai for DREAM’s welterweight title in July or September. (I guess not all the belts will be awarded via chaotic grand prix.) With this addition, DREAM.3′s mighty, mighty lineup is looking like this:

Lightweight GP Round 2
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis Buscape
Joachim Hansen vs. Eddie Alvarez
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Caol Uno
Katsuhiko Nagata vs. [whoever fills in for Shinya Aoki]

Middleweight GP Round 1 Fight
Jason Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Middleweight GP Reserve Fight
Melvin Manhoef vs. Kim Dae Won

Nick Diaz vs. Katsuya Inoue (welterweights)

Jung Bukyung vs. Daisuke Nakamura (lightweights)

Takeshi Yamazaki vs. TBA (featherweights)

(Aoki’s fancy flying guard-pull against Calvancante.)

Are you sitting down? Sherdog is reporting that Shinya Aoki suffered a facial injury in his fight against Gesias Calvancante yesterday, and will not be able to participate in the second round of DREAM’s lightweight grand prix (May 11th; Saitama, Japan). UPDATE: Sherdog amends their story: “Calvancante was approached about replacing the Japanese fighter, but the 24-year-old American Top Team representative could not come to terms with the promotion and has since left Japan.”

Aoki always seemed to have misgivings about continuing in the tournament. Here’s what he said in an interview on DREAM’s website a couple weeks ago:

Are you thinking about fighting on May 11 in DREAM 3?
I win on Apr 29, but not fight on May 11. That’s their business and not me. I’m not well-considered person to agree with fighting on May 11. I’m not thinking about a fight after Apr 29. I may fight if I had an easy fight on Apr 29.

Don’t you want a belt?
Not interested in. My next fight has more meaning than a belt.

And in another interview…

“I have no schedule after April 29 so far. I don’t even think about the 2R. I will have a good result on April 29 and clean up my past.”

So, it’s safe to say that Aoki’s heart wasn’t in DREAM’s lightweight GP past the marquee matchup of him vs. Calvancante, and now this so-called “facial injury” is sounding a little too convenient. But hey, he’s in good company: Kazushi Sakuraba wants nothing to do with DREAM’s middleweight tournament. Good lord, is it too much to ask for DREAM to book fighters that actually want to be involved with them?

We’ll kick things off with Kiyoshi Tamura’s quick demolition of Masakatsu Funaki, which turned out to be the night’s only stoppage-by-strikes (action starts at the 1:17 mark). More vids after the jump; for a recap of the event, click here.

UPDATE: All the broken vids have been replaced…hopefully this batch will last a bit longer.

DREAM has updated the official card for their second event (April 29th; Saitama, Japan), with seven fights of the upcoming middleweight tournament already locked down. The biggest surprise is the addition of Frank Trigg, who will be taking on Brazilian Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (7-1). Trigg, who we consider to be the #9 middleweight in the world, most recently competed at HDNet Fights: Reckless Abandon (12/15/07), where he submitted Edwin Dewees in the first round. The other six fights booked for DREAM’s middleweight GP are:

Denis Kang vs. Gegard Mousasi
Ikuhisa “Minowaman” Minowa vs Kin Taiei
Kazushi Sakuraba (depending on traffic) vs. Andrews Nakahara
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masakatsu Funaki
Magomed Sultanakhmadov vs. Zelg Galesic
Yoon Dong Sik vs. Shungo Oyama

Other fighters rumored to fill out the eighth and final tourney fight include Yoshihiro Akiyama (who has been battling injuries), Daniel Acacio, Dae Won Kim, and Mamed Khalidov. DREAM.2 will also feature the do-over match between Shinya Aoki and Gesias Calvancante, to decide who will advance to round two of the lightweight GP on May 11th. In addition, GracieFighter.com is saying that Nick Diaz has verbally accepted a DREAM.2 fight against Marcelo Garcia, a former competitive grappler who lost his pro MMA debut last October at a K-1 HERO’s event. However, Garcia has reportedly backed out of the fight, and a new opponent may not be found for Diaz.

(Photo courtesy of MMAWeekly.)

DREAM announced today that Gesias “JZ” Calvancante and Shinya Aoki will face each other again at DREAM.2 (April 29th; Saitama, Japan), to decide which fighter will proceed to the second round of its all-star lightweight grand prix. Calvancante and Aoki’s first match, at last month’s DREAM.1, ended in a no-contest after Calvancante landed a series of illegal elbow strikes to the back of Aoki’s neck, and Aoki wasn’t able to continue fighting; Calvancante had been dominating the action up to that point, and many fans speculated that Aoki overplayed his injury in order to escape the fight and avoid a loss.

DREAM.2 will also feature the opening round of a middleweight grand prix that will feature bouts between Denis Kang and Gegard Mousasi, Kiyoshi Tamura and Masakatsu Funaki, and (possibly) Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Andrews Nakahara; Yoshihiro Akiyama and Ikuhisa Minowa are also expected to participate. The winner of the JZ/Aoki battle will have to compete again just two weeks later at DREAM.3 (May 11th; Saitama, Japan) against Katsuhiko Nagata, who defeated Artur Oumakhanov by unanimous decision in the lightweight tourney’s first round. The rest of the lightweight GP’s second-round matchups look like this:

Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis “Buscape” Firmino (note: Kawajiri and Firmino previously met at PRIDE Bushido 8 in July 2005, where Kawajiri won by unanimous decision.)

Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Caol Uno (note: Uno, a UFC/K-1 Hero’s vet, didn’t compete in the lightweight GP’s first round, and is getting an automatic bye into the second.)

Joachim Hansen vs. Eddie Alvarez (note: Joachim Hansen is a freakin’ beast.)

Nightmare of Battle passes along the news that Sengoku II — which is scheduled for May 18th at Tokyo’s Ariake Colosseum — will feature a bout between Kevin “The Monster” Randleman and “Big” Jim York. You may remember Randleman as the former UFC heavyweight champion who got a suplex-variation named after him in 2004 and went through a nasty bout of staph last year. York is a New Zealand-based vet of the MARS and Spartan Reality Fight clubs, who’s won all nine of his fights since getting choked out in his pro debut. By comparison, Randleman has only won two of his last nine fights (though they’ve been against much, much tougher competition than York’s).

The match joins already-booked bouts between Satoru Kitaoka and Ian Schaffa, as well as Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Kwang Hee Lee; Roger Gracie, Yoshihiro Nakao, Yuki Sasaki are still expected to compete, against fighters to be names later.

In other semi-interesting fighter news, Affliction’s nascent MMA promotion has picked up Mark Hominick for its debut card, slated for July in Texas. Hominick most recently competed as a featherweight for WEC, and has also fought for TKO and the UFC; his opponent hasn’t yet been named. Hominick’s manager Shawn Tompkins confirmed that Affliction is no longer doing business with Golden Boy Productions: “I heard there was a conflict between HDNet and HBO wanting the TV rights to the shows.”

Hey man, it’s like John Thor said — everybody wants a piece of the action.

Can you read whatever this language is? Well, according to RedSweat, those bizarre combinations of letters and accent-marks suggest that Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic will take on PRIDE vet Sergei Kharitonov (pictured above) at DREAM 4 in mid-June. As the story goes:

Crocop was supposed to fight Kharitonov at the recent DREAM.1 event but Mirko turned down the bout stating that Sergei would be too tough a match for him after a six month break.

[*cough*]pussy! Sporting a 15-3 record, Kharitonov holds notable victories over Murilo Rua, Fabricio Werdum, and Pedro Rizzo, but he hasn’t fought since a K-1 HERO’s event last September, where he avenged an earlier loss to Alistair Overeem. We hope this matchup is legit, because it seems like a perfect test to determine if Cro Cop still has his fighting spirit, or if he lost it completely in the UFC’s cage.

Allegedly, an official announcement will be made at DREAM 2, which is scheduled to take place on April 29th. That event will host the first round of DREAM’s Middleweight GP.

(Just hangin’ around the house on a lazy Saturday.)

There’s been more than one message board in the MMA cyber world with posts claiming some pretty disappointing news. The rumor – and it is just that right now – is that DREAM officials are talking about Cro Cop fighting at DREAM 3…against Hong-Man Choi. The posters have been saying that the press in Japan are backing up these claims. Shit. That would suck more than enough ass.

If this shit happens, it won’t go to the mat unless HMC falls on top of Cro Cop like he did against Fedor. Neither guy has much by way of a ground game, so it’d probably amount to some low kicks to the Techno Goliath’s legs until he toppled. DREAM could certainly do better than this, but the Japanese seem insistant on making Hong-Man Choi an MMA star. Sure, it’s business and you need viewers. The ratings for DREAM 1 reportedly blew and HMC versus Crop Cop could bring in the Japanese viewers. Good for DREAM, bad for us.

Ratings aside, let’s hope this one doesn’t materialize and Cro Cop gets a solid test for his next fight. But if this is to be believed, I’m going to go drink myself into a coma. It is St. Patty’s Day afterall.

Classic shit from MMA Posters & Collectibles (go there and spend!) via MMA.tv:

(Shockwave 2005)

(Heavyweight GP 2004)

(Bushido 3)

And our favorite…

By far the best fight from Saturday’s DREAM show. Props to Boku for lasting 15 minutes with this animal…

(Evan Tanner, eating what appear to be testicles.)

While you were watching Cro Cop beat up a helpless Japanese boy…

— Evan Tanner announced that he’ll be returning to the Octagon this summer, but hasn’t revealed the date or his opponent yet. Tanner was most recently knocked out by Yushin Okami at UFC 82, but then defeated the urge to drink that came immediately afterward.

— Pancrase/PRIDE vet Kazuo “Grabaka Hitman” Misaki signed a two-fight deal with the San Jose-based Strikeforce organization; his first fight is expected to happen this summer. Since he’ll be fighting as a middleweight, Misaki could potentially face Frank Shamrock, Cung Le, or Joe Riggs. Misaki’s last two fights ended in a guillotine choke victory over Shooto champ Siyar Bahadurzada at Sengoku 1 (3/5/08), and a soccer-kick KO victory over Yoshihiro Akiyama at Yarennoka! (12/31/07) that was later ruled a no contest.

— Tito Ortiz sent Takanori Gomi a bunch of garbage in honor of his victory at Sengoku 1. Also, Rumina Sato just became a father.

— Dan Severn won his 106th match on March 9th, against Colin Robinson. JarryPark has an audio interview with the living legend about his “Kiss My Ass” retirement tour, YAMMA Pit Fighting, and his MMA legacy.

— Seven participating fighters in DREAM’s upcoming middleweight grand prix were announced on Saturday, including Kazushi Sakuraba, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and Ikuhisa “The Manboob Hunter” Minowa. Kiyoshi Tamura and Denis Kang are on the event poster, so they’ll likely be fighting as well. The first round of the DREAM middleweight tourney goes down April 29th at the Saitama Super Arena.

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…

The Sengoku submission party…

Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Peter Graham — Their pre-fight-beef gets squashed quickly in the ring as Fujita takes Graham down and chokes him out in 83 seconds.

Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos vs. Makoto Takimoto — ‘Borg comes out swinging in his usual style, but is even more dominant on the ground and gets the better of Takimoto in a heel-hook war.

Kazuo Misaki vs. Siyar Bahadurzada — Bahadurzada dishonors his Shooto belt by succumbing to a guillotine choke in the second round.

Earlier: Highlights from Gomi/Ludwig and Barnett/Yoshida.

(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.