“ The feet is quicker than the eye in this case. ” – Kenny Rice
Andrews Nakahara – Dong Sik Yoon
A good, so-so fight as a prelude for the event. I think that Dong, who is the more experienced fighter ought to have won this fight, but it was the younger and newer fighter that won. I think that Nakahara showed that he was stronger, and had more spirit. To me, Soon seemed more on finishing the fight on the ground, but was not able to get the fight go the way he intended too. For Nakahara, it was a good showing of ground and pound to end the fight, and he gets his first MMA victory. It’s only two fights into his career, but if Nakahara keeps improving himself in all facets of the MMA game, and gets more victories, I think he could become a contender. Perhaps not on the level of, or still far off the level and quality of guys such as Mousasi or Jacare as yet (and definitely way, way below the top middleweight fighter Anderson Silva), but as stated earlier it would all falls in how he would evolve in this sport. My Fight Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Gegard Mousasi – Melvin Manhoef
A good quick victory from Mousasi, who pulled off with a great submission (triangle). The opposite has to be said for Manhoef, who came in with bad fightplan/methods. And taking into account from what he said in his post fight interview, where he was really expecting from Mousasi to stand, hit and bang as Mousasi said so, that is bad assumption from Manhoef himself. It’s a fight both guys want to win, he should be smart enough about mind games or that sort of deceptive talks.
It also in a way brought down some of the powerful striking aura as Manhoef was submitted so quickly into the fight (and as Bas commentated he made a bad move by sticking onto Mousasi to slam him on the ring, which enable Mousasi to further stronghold that triangle). It also was a sort of a letdown especially after the over the top entrance from Manhoef. All in all a quick fight with a nice sub, hence my fight rating of the first DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix semifinal as written below.
My Fight Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Zelg Galesic – Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza
Perhaps a similar, carbon copy of the first semifinal, except it was a quicker fight with an even better submission victory (perhaps the best submission of the event, from the fights I have seen of DREAM.6). Jacare showed the most dangerous ground game capability and threat from all the participated fighters in the event. That was a real slick submission, a sort of triangle decoyed move transitioned into an armbar.
My Fight Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5
Atsushi Yamamoto – Hideo Tokoro
Yamamoto showed he was stronger and hit harder in this fight, and control Tokoro most of the time, and in the end getting the probable victory. It was too bad and unfortunate and also tough luck for Tokoro, as he showed resolve and spirit to get back and tried to win the fight (especially he made a last minute attempt to pull out an armbar to snatch a comeback victory). He also made that great spinning kick as he jumped and rolled against Yamamoto that cut Yamamoto. I think that Yamatoto would have won the fight earlier if he had pursued for the win more aggressively and punished Tokoro more.
My Fight Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Kuniyoshi Hironika – Hayato Sakurai
I believe that the veteran Sakurai had the better fight. Stood up and stroke well against his counterpart, withered the ground game from Hironika and did as best he could when he was on top on the ground.
My Fight Rating: 2 ½ stars out of 5
Yoshihiro Akiyama – Masanori Tonooka
This was another fight that one controlled the fight and the other fighter. Akiyama should have finished the fight earlier, there were several submission attempts that he probably could have made but he didn’t (Bas Rutten was commentating about this). Just wondering what was he stalling on? Anyway, what the hell was with that entrance of his? Eccentric in a way, but not as long and bosh as Manhoef’s was. Then again, Akiyama is the showstopper isn’t he?
My Fight Rating: 2 ½ stars out of 5
Shinya Aoki – Todd Moore
The quickest fight of the night? Aoki showed again his crazy grappling, flexibility and dexterity in speedily getting on Moore’s back, and from then on applied that neck crank (and of course that distracting colored pants of his). That finishing move by Aoki adds substance to my fight rating for this duel. My Fight Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Mirko Filipovic – Alistair Overeem
This was an extremely disappointing fight.
It was the one fight that I’ve been looking forward to the most (more than the MW fights) as CroCop was back in this event, and yet his performance and of course the eventual outcome made the whole thing extremely disappointing. No doubt that Overeem dominated the fight from the beginning (and did the more vicious striking).
It was very hard to see CroCop unable to counter Overeem, and more so when he was damaged during the fight.
A tough sight, seeing him once again in a backward and deteriorating performance. CroCop really looked old.
The eagerly awaiting comeback of his former self, that hope seemed eternally doubtful as ever.
My Fight Rating: 2 stars out of 5
Gegard Mousasi – Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza
The beginning was very cagey, as both fighters were standing and kept their distance from each other. But the fight’s intensity began as soon as Jacare lunged for the takedown, and the fight showed that Jacare was exceedingly hesitant in getting the fight to the ground (as obviously he has the better ground game capability). In the end, his hesitant or over eagerness to dominate over Mousasi on the ground perhaps was his downfall in the fight.
" The feet is quicker than the eye in this case"Adding to the fact that it was another quick fight. That kick from Mousasi could have been lucky or a well placed shot, either way I think if Jacare fought smarter and more patiently maybe he would have won.
Of course not to take anything away from Mousasi, it was a great victory for him, in which his victory culminated with his capture of DREAM’s Middleweight title. Mousasi now has that ‘next big thing’ tag further ingrained on him and his career prospective. The training he’s doing with Red Devil (and the knowledge from Fedor as well) can only be better for Mousasi. And with his victory in DREAM’s Middleweight Grand Prix, it further improves his record, career and a great expectation for his future in the sport (and awaiting upcoming interesting challenges henceforth).
My Fight Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5 Other thoughts on DREAM.6
On production values and spectacle wise, I think the event was alright. Of course, not as great as the PRIDE events, and I believe earlier DREAM events were better than DREAM.6. On the commentating aspect though, I found it boring. Bas Rutten was clowning at times on his own, and Kenny Rice was like didn’t do much (seemed lethargic at most times). Definitely cannot match up to the duo of Quadros Rutten. Even Ranallo-Rutten and UFC’s Goldberg-Rogan were better and more engaging. On a final note, those DREAM Middleweight belts looked real cool belts.
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