Sergei Kharitonov

("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.

Gegard Mousasi vs. Melvin Manhoef

Zelg Galesic vs. Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza

The conclusion of Dream.6's middleweight Grand Prix, plus more, after the jump.

Props: MMA Scraps

Armenian-Dutch fighter Gegard Mousasi put in a career-making performance at today's DREAM.6 in Saitama, Japan, earning quick stoppage victories over Melvin Manhoef and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza to win the middleweight grand prix. In his first fight of the night, Mousasi easily dominated Manhoef, quickly scoring a trip-takedown, then securing the mount and clamping on a triangle choke when Manhoef reversed the position. Manhoef attempted to slam out of it, but was forced to tap at the 1:28 mark. Meanwhile on the other side of the bracket, Souza enjoyed a similarly brief win over Croatian Zelg Galesic. After getting a double-leg takedown, Souza passed from guard to mount and snatched an armbar when Galesic tried to buck.

Both men moved into the GP finals relatively fresh — not that they needed to be. When Mousasi and Souza finally met in the last fight of the night, it seemed like Mousasi was in over his head, as Souza first slammed him then began to drop punches from half-guard. But Souza made the fatal error of standing up, and Mousasi caught him with a Hail Mary upkick that knocked Jacare out cold as he began to dive in for a punch.

DREAM.6's non-tourney featured matches went pretty much as expected, with the stars beating up on the cans. Shinya Aoki returned to his flamboyantly winning ways, hopping on the back of WEC castoff Todd Moore and finishing him at the 1:10 mark with a neck crank. Jimmy Ambriz should be applauded for lasting over two minutes with Sergei Kharitonov, who battered The Titan with vicious strikes until Ambriz was forced to tap on the ground. After abusing him for most of the first round, Yoshihiro Akiyama submitted karate practitioner Masanori Tonooka (1-2), who, let's just say, is no Lyoto Machida.

The only real surprise (and disappointment) was how the heavyweight feature between Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and Alistair Overeem played out.

(Another one of Mirko's zany practical jokes?)

Yesterday's Dream.6 press conference got off to a fun start after news that Mighty Mo Siliga has had to pull out of his bout with Sergei Kharitonov with an injury suffered in training. That's when Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic stepped up to offer his services, despite the fact that he's also scheduled to take on Alistair Oveerem on the same night. Was this just another attempt to get under Oveerem's skin in their ongoing war of words, or could it be that Cro Cop is trying to make up for lost time?

At least it sounds like a sincere offer:

“Well I've just heard that Mighty Mo is not going to fight since he is injured,” said a serious Filipovic. “We are all professional fighters. I'm ready to jump in, in his place. If Dream agrees, I'm ready to fight two fights tomorrow. It doesn't mean that I underestimate Alistair, I would like to fight him first –- the fourth fight against him and the eleventh fight against Sergei. Sergei definitely trained hard for this and I'm sure he doesn't want to go home without a fight.”

Oveerem felt a little slighted by the offer, as you might imagine, telling reporters, "I think after I fight Mirko, he will never fight again."

Thankfully, Sergei Kharitonov stepped in to talk some sense:

("We'll see who is bag of douche.")

Dream's sixth event — which goes down September 23rd in Saitama, Japan — may just feature its most compelling card yet. The show's centerpiece is the semi-finals/finals of the middleweight grand prix, where Melvin Manhoef, Gegard Mousasi, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, and Zelg Galesic will do battle to crown a single champion. A welterweight strap will also be on the line, decided by the long-awaited match between Nick Diaz and Hayato "Mach" Sakurai. And now it looks like two big-name heavyweight bouts will be part of the action as well.

Over the weekend, PRIDE vet and reigning Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem revealed that he would be facing Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic at Dream 6. Overeem and Cro Cop have been getting their trash-talk on lately — who isn't these days? — with the Demolition Man calling Filipovic a "douche-bag" who ducked him in favor of fighting cans. Cro Cop hasn't fought since March, when he earned his first post-UFC victory with a 56-second TKO rout of Japanese can Tatsuya Mizuno. Since then, Overeem has competed and won twice, scoring a quick knockout of Tae Hyun Lee at Dream 4 in June, and an almost-as-quick submission of Mark Hunt at Dream 5 in July.

This month's Dream card will also feature the return of Russian PRIDE standout Sergei Kharitonov, who hasn't fought since his TKO victory over Alistair Overeem at a K-1 HERO's event last September. Kharitonov will be facing Siala-Mou "Mighty Mo" Siligia, the Samoan-American K-1 mainstay who defeated Justice Smith last month at the K-1 World GP 2008 in Hawaii. Mo is just 3-0 as a mixed martial artist, and hasn't done the MMA thing since last June, when he beat down Ruben Villareal at K-1 Dynamite!! USA.