PRIDE & HERO's Gone, DREAM Emerges
by Robert Sargent
Rising from the ashes of PRIDE and the now-former HERO's division of K-1, Fight & Entertainment Group and the Tokyo Broadcasting System announced that they will co-promote a new Japanese MMA promotion named DREAM.
Promotion of the event will be handled by FEG and TBS, while the team that put on the "Yarennoka!" event this past New Year's Eve will take care of production for the events.
The first DREAM event will take place on March 15th, at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan, where many PRIDE events took place.
In what is essentially a "dream" partnership, so to speak, between Fight & Entertainment Group (the company behind K-1) and Dream Stage Entertainment (the former promoters for PRIDE), DREAM is poised to reach, or possibly even surpass, the level of success which PRIDE had prior to 2007. It will naturally take time, and require extensive marketing in the crowded North American market, but the partnership of the two top Japanese MMA promotions of the past five years is surely a consolation for fans of PRIDE and HERO's, both of which are now promotions of the past.
FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa announced that he will continue to support K-1 events, such as the K-1 World Grand Prix and K-1 Max kickboxing events, while Keiichi Sasahara will lead DREAM and handle all of its matchmaking.
Sasahara stated that the success of the "Yarennoka!" event, coupled with fans' reactions and desire for similar events in the future, led to the partnership and formation of DREAM. He expressed an intention to create a promotion that will, above all else, please the fans and put on exciting events. He referred to the 3,000+ signatures received from fans who wanted the "world's greatest production team" to continue on with new events. DREAM will do just that.
DREAM's first event, on March 15th, will be the opening round of the first-ever DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix 2008, which will be headlined by the long-awaited matchup between Shooto Champion Shinya "Tobikan Judan" Aoki and HERO's Champion Gesias "JZ Calvan" Calvancante.
Other top-10 lightweights on the card will be Tatsuya "Crusher" Kawajiri, "The Endless Warrior" Mitsuhiro Ishida, Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen and Gilbert "El Niņo" Melendez. Other top lightweights will include Caol Uno, Andre "Dida" Amade and By Kyung Jung, who gave Aoki all he could handle at "Yarennoka!"
Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, who now competes as a featherweight at 145 pounds, will be a part of the DREAM promotion, and will compete in a weight class to be determined at a later date.
Another surprise participant at the March event will be Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović, whose contract with the UFC allowed for re-negotiation should he lose two fights in a row. In a mutual decision with UFC President Dana White, Filipović will compete in the DREAM promotion for the foreseeable future. He has stated that he intends to return to the UFC in the future, but has always preferred competing in a ring and in Japan, so DREAM will be his home for now.
Both Royce Gracie and Fedor Emelianenko have also expressed a desire to participate in future DREAM events.
There will also be a Middleweight Grand Prix in 2008, which will alternate events with the Lightweight Grand Prix. No participants have been announced as of yet, but it is safe to assume that a rematch between Yoshihiro Akiyama and Kazuo "Grabaka Hitman" Misaki will likely headline the first event.
DREAM weight classes will be as follows:
Heavyweight: 205+ pounds (93+ kilograms)
Light Heavyweight: 186-205 pounds (84-93 kilograms)
Middleweight: 169-185 pounds (76-84 kilograms)
Welterweight: 155-168 pounds (70-76 kilograms)
Lightweight: 154 pounds and under (70 kilograms and under)
The schedule for 2008 will be as follows, with "Heiwa" for Lightweight events and "Olympia" for Middleweight events:
March 15th: Heiwa Dream.1 - 2008 Lightweight Grand Prix Opening Round at the Saitama Super Arena
April 29th: Olympia Dream.2 - 2008 Middleweight Grand Prix Opening Round at the Saitama Super Arena
May 11th: Heiwa Dream.3 - 2008 Lightweight Grand Prix Second Round at the Saitama Super Arena
Mid-June (TBD): Olympia Dream.4 - 2008 Middleweight Grand Prix Second Round in Japan or Korea
July 21st: Heiwa Dream.5 - 2008 Lightweight Grand Prix Final Round at Osaka Castle Hall
Late-September (TBD): Olympia Dream.6 - 2008 Middleweight Grand Prix Final Round at the Saitama Super Arena
With World Victory Road also holding an event soon, and M-1 Global working with many of the world's top promotions, the future of MMA around the world is now very bright.
