DREAM: New Year! 2011 Review

DREAM: New Year! 2011

2012 is finally here!  In Japan, the welcoming of a new year means only one thing.  Fights!  Thus, DREAM's new year's shows always combine MMA, Kickboxing and Pro-Wrestling in order to really bring a huge show for the fans.  Entertainment is the name of the game and there are some really entertaining names in this show's card.  Japanese stalwarts Kazushi Sakuraba, Shinya Aoki, and Kazuyuki Fujita, along with big names like Fedor Emelianenko, and Bibiano Fernandes will make this an interesting show.

MMA

Hideo Tokoro vs Yusup Saadulaev

 

What a start for this show!  Tokoro started fast and furious with a jumping knee but this only allowed Saadulaev to grab Tokoro's back and slam him head first into the mat which instantly knocked Tokoro out cold.  You never like to see someone get hurt, but that was a hardcore slam.  This makes Yusup Saadulaev a reserve for the Bantamweight Grand Prix which will be decided on that night.

Winner: Yusup Saadulaev by KO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUKzsMQn0BY

MMA

Masakazu Imanari vs Antonio Banuelos

After the start of the show, this fight was an incredible borefest.  Imanari has incredibly dangerous submissions and especially leg locks, but his really unorthodox style doesn't lend itself to entertaining fights but to entertaining moments.  At the end of the second round, Imanari got a hold of Banuelos' leg and was able to sweep him even after not doing much for the rest of the fight.  Banuelos did enough to get through to the final without any real damage.

Winner: Antonio Banuelos by Split Decision (one judge was smoking some strong shit!)

MMA

Bibiano Fernandes vs Rodolfo Marques

The battle of the Brazilians for the last spot in the Batamweight Grand Prix finals was pretty slow.  Fernandes was able to get a hold of Marques and kept him down for most of the fight.  Nothing too special came out of this except that Fernandes moves on to the finals to face Banuelos which should be an entertaining fight.

Winner: Bibiano Fernandes by Unanimous Decision

K-1

Kengo Sonoda vs Masaaki Noiri

It's good to see some old school kickboxing.  Noiri sort of coasted through the first two rounds and then he really turned it up in the third with some pretty head kicks and devastating leg kicks.  Good stuff.

Winner: Masaaki Noiri by Unanimous Decision

K-1

Nils Widlund vs Yuta Kubo

Apparently Yuta Kubo is the big player out of Japan in the world of K-1.  You would never have imagined it by looking at him.  

He can kick with the best of them though as I saw it through the gradual destruction of Swede Nils Widlund.  Kubo seemed to be playing around with Widlund during the first two rounds, with some mean looking jabs and some hardcore head kicks.  During the third round, Kubo just went after the finish.  Widlund was already tired and Kubo connected with a vicious head kick that wobbled Widlund and eventually sent him down to not get up by the ten count.  This kid, as goofy as he looks, is quite impressive.

Winner: Yuta Kubo by KO

There is a pretty lengthy intermission at this time, so HDNet has some footage from past shows to keep us entertained during the break.

The first is a fight between Minowaman and Sokoudjou during the final of the Super Hulk tournament.  Minowaman looked and looked for the submission during the first two rounds while Sokoudjou mostly hammered him.  Then, in the third round, they spent a whole 3 minutes doing absolutely nothing.  Two yellow cards (warnings for not fighting) were given out to each fighter. And all of a sudden, Minowaman connected with a right hand that sent Sokoudjou to the ground.  That was a weird fight.

So we are back for more fights!

MMA

Hayato 'Mach' Sakurai vs Ryo Chonan

These two are friends from way back.  Chonan beat Sakurai back in the days where MMA was pretty young through a cut and they are looking to see who will be the better of the two now.  The first two rounds were controlled by Sakurai even though there really wasn't much going on.  Chonan, sensing that it was two rounds to Sakurai, tightened up his striking and hit him with some stiff punches.  Chonan went for a flying knee at the same time as Mach went for a double leg and Mach was able to take him down and keep him there for the rest of the round.  If only Chonan would have fought this way for the whole fight...

Winner: Hayato 'Mach' Sakurai by Unanimous Decision

MMA

Kazuyuki Miyata vs Tatsuya Kawajiri

I'm a big fan of Kawajiri, so I'm looking forward to this fight.  Kawajiri was a monster in this fight.  He controlled the first round easily and eventually was able to get the arm triangle.  Crusher was better at what Miyata is best as, so the outcome was pretty simple.  Takedown, control and then go for the arm and the head.  Win number 30th for Kawajiri was a quite impressive one.

Winner: Tatsuya 'Crusher' Kawajiri by Submission

MMA

Karla Benitez vs Megumi Fujii

How impressive is Megumi Fujii.  I had never seen her fight before and she is probably the most skilled woman in MMA.  Fujii quickly went for the takedown and while Benitez was able to drop down and trap Fujii under her, it wasn't long before Fujii used her arms and legs to sweep Benitez and snap on an arm bar.  Skillful stuff.  Check her out.  She is a tiny little thing and while she probably couldn't beat someone like Cristianne Cyborg, but that is mostly because of the size difference and not because of her skill set.

Winner: Megumi Fujii by Submission

Pro-Wrestling

Hideki Suzuki vs Josh Barnett

I would have rather seen Barnett in an actual MMA fan, as I am not a big fan of Antonio Inoki's IGF, but I'm hopeful that this will at least be an entertaining bout.  I don't really get all the rules of IGF, but I guess there are no closed fists but every other strike is allowed and there is a 10 count for someone who gets knocked out.  It's weird.  While it was kinda sloppy, there were some pretty nice spots here and the whole pseudo-MMA thing makes for suplexes to look pretty kickass.  Barnett got a couple of them right.

Winner: Josh Barnett by Pinfall

Here we go to another intermission where the fight is Alistair Overeem against Todd Duffee.  I think we have an idea how this ends.  Overeem in 20 seconds.  After that, we also got Overeem versus Kazujiki Fujita.  That one ended quickly as well.  I'm sure Alistair will be able to destroy Brock Lesnar as well.

After all of this, the second half of the show began with Antonio Inoki and the most bizarre segment ever.  While he was talking to the crowd, three men wearing turbans.  Tiger Jeet Singh, someone who looked a lot like former WWE wrestler Mark Copani (Muhammad Hassan) and some other dude came to the ring.  Hassan hit Inoki with a kendo stick, Singh apologized profusely and they just left... what the hell!

Mixed Rules

Katsunori Kikuno vs Yuichiro Nagashima

First things first... Nagashima dresses like a girl.  Cosplaying as a girl before a fight... I will never understand these Japanese people... weird as hell.  Then, the Mixed rules is also weird.  The first round will be three minutes and will be K-1 rules.  The second round will be 5 minutes under DREAM rules and if there is no finish, the fight ends in a draw.  This first round was worth the whole time I've spent on this.  These two fighters traded shot after shot.  Kikuno was able to dominate for most of the round, leaving him dazed and wobbly.  Nagashima was able to land one shot on Kikuno that sent him down to the ground.  The second round was less frantic, both guys were pretty tired by then.  Kikuno was able to get Nagashima's back, take him down and then pound the side of his head relentlessly for the win.

Winner: Katsunori Kikuno by TKO

This wasn't what he was wearing, but it was a dress... and he had a little backpack...

MMA

Bantamweight Grand Prix Finals

Bibiano Fernandes vs Antonio Banuelos

This was an interesting matchup and the fight was looking to have some fireworks.  Unfortunately, Banuelos tripped going backwards and Fernandes just pounced on him relentlessly.  The ground and pound from Banuelos was just nasty and the referee couldn't do anything but stop the fight.  So, Bibiano Fernandes becomes the DREAM Bantamweight Grand Prix Champion

Winner: Bibiano Fernandes by TKO

Pro-Wrestling

Jerome Le Banner vs Tim Sylvia

I hate Tim Sylvia.  I thought he was the most boring champion ever.  And those sideburns?  Ugh.  Anyways, if I didn't care for him as an MMAer, I don't see how this will be any better unless Le Banner destroys him.  Tim Sylvia did get destroyed, but what the hell is this.  Its not MMA and its not really pro-wrestling.  Its a boring hybrid.  Almost like a choreographed fight scene in a movie, except without all the skill.

Winner: Jerome Le Banner by TKO

Pro-Wrestling

Peter Aerts vs Kazuyuki Fujita

Another of those weird matches.  Have to say, it was cool to see Fujita again in the ring.  Aerts hit him with a couple of solid shots to the body and to the head.  Fujita then went a heel and stomped Aerts around until he got him in a Boston Crab.

Winner: Kazuyuki Fujita by Submission

Pro-Wrestling

Katsuyori Shibata and Kazushi Sakuraba vs Shinichi Suzukawa and Atsushi Sawada

This was one hell of a hot mess.  Terrible stuff all around.  This style looks so sloppy its not even funny.  Don't really want to talk about this crapfest.

Winner: Shibata and Sakuraba by Submission

MMA

DREAM Featherweight Title Match

Takeshi Inoue vs Hiroyuki Takaya (c)

Finally back to MMA.  What a disappointing fight.  Inoue ran for the whole five rounds and it just seemed like he wanted to be anywhere but in that ring.  It was just a sad sight.  When you see a fight, the loser always gets some respect for giving it a shot and trying his hardest to win.  Not here.  It was disrespectful.  Takaya worked the whole fight and was active and got the better strikes and takedowns.

Winner: Hiroyuki Takaya by Unanimous Decision 

MMA

DREAM Lightweight Title Match

Satoru Kitaoka vs Shinya Aoki (c)

Kitaoka is a very good grappler, but Aoki is hailed by some as the best submission expert in MMA right now.  He has certainly amassed a nice highlight reel of submissions.  The first round had Kitaoka grab a quick guillotine but Aoki turned it quickly into a triangle choke which Kitaoka was able to get out of.  Aoki controlled the whole second round on the ground even though he really didn't go for any submissions.  The rest of the fight was more of the same.

Winner: Shinya Aoki by Unanimous Decision

MMA

Fedor Emelianenko vs Satoshi Ishii

The Last Emperor is back!  And with a bang!  Ishii looked like he was terrified to be in the ring with Fedor, and with reason.  Fedor just destroyed him with strikes.  He looked devastatingly accurate and strong and it was good to see him like this instead of being beaten by Werdum and Silva.  Fedor sadly suffered the curse of the Age of the Big Ass Heavyweights.  Before, people like Dan Henderson and Wanderlei Silva would fight against heavyweights without any problems, but none of those guys can really handle the new wave of heavyweights like Brock Lesnar, Alistair Overeem, Cain Velasquez, etc.  They are just too big.  It is good to see Fedor back to his winning ways, and even smiling.

Winner: Fedor Emelianenko by KO

Every time Fedor smiles, a hundred people are cured of cancer.

Conclusion: This was a marathon show.  Clocking a full 9 hours on my DVR, this was a marathon to get through.  With kickboxing, pro wrestling and MMA, the fans in Japan definitely got their moneys worth.  While the pro wrestling bouts were pretty sloppy and boring, most of the K-1 and MMA fights were pretty good (except Inoue...).  We got some nasty KOs in Fedor, Kubo and the nasty Saadulaev slam KO.  Some nice submissions from Fujii and Kawajiri, and we also got the slugfest between Kikuno and Nagashima.  It's a good thing that the old year is left behind with some fights.  Now, I need to watch UFC 141!

6.5 out of 10