DREAM officials confirmed today that the upcoming Dream.14 event on May 29th will mark the return of the promotion’s White Cage. The cage, which is comprised of interwoven fish netting, was first used last year at Dream.12 and will once again be paired with a format of three, five-minute rounds.

While there were rumours that DREAM’s rules may also be modified for the event, there were no announcements to confirm that and it would appear that stomps, soccer kicks and elbows on the ground will be illegal. Dream.14 will feature the first round of the DREAM Light Heavyweight Grand Prix.

The decision to bring back the cage was made after requests from fighters including Japanese legend Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, who will face Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Nick Diaz at Dream.14. DREAM officials had previously stated that the cage would be used once per year as an experiment, but plans may have changed and the cage may be adopted for additional events in 2010. DREAM producer Keiichi Sasahara confirmed that he had received questions regarding rule changes, including a return to the ruleset used by the former Pride Fighting Championships, but no changes were confirmed.

Among those rumoured for the DREAM Light Heavyweight Grand Prix are Gegard “The Dreamcatcher” Mousasi, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, “The African Assassin” Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal, Christian M’Pumbu, Yoshiyuki Nakanishi and Tatsuya Mizuno. No participants have been officially confirmed. Also rumoured for non-tournament bouts are DREAM Welterweight Champion Marius “The Whitemare” Zaromskis and Katsunori Kikuno.

Dream.14 Fight Card (to date; subject to change):

– Hayato “Mach” Sakurai vs Nick Diaz
– Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen vs Hiroyuki “Streetfight Bancho” Takaya
– Hideo Tokoro vs Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura
– Kazuyuki Miyata vs Takafumi Otsuka

(Photo Credit: gbring.com)