Former UFC star and current Elite XC lightweight, Nick Diaz (15-7), will travel overseas to take on Inoue Katsuya (16-5-3) during the DREAM 3 event at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, on May 11.
This latest announcement gives the fighters just about 10 days to prepare for the showdown; however there’s no telling how long both of them have known about the fight. In fact, Diaz was in talks to take on Brazilian jiu-jitsu stud Marcelo Garcia on this same card prior to this most recent news.
Diaz will look to rebound from his loss to KJ Noons for the vacant EliteXC lightweight title back in November 2007. It’s been a long strange trip back to action for him ever since — he had surgery on the scar tissue around his eyes to prevent cuts (he’s a bleeder) and the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) yanked him off a recent card at the last minute under very bizarre circumstances (centering mostly around his medical marijuana card).
He is slated to take on Muhsin Corbbrey during the EliteXC show in Honolulu, Hawaii, on June 14.
Inoue is a Japanese fighter who has spent most of his time competing in the Pancrase organization. In more than 20 professional bouts he has never submitted an opponent or been submitted himself. That could all change; however, if Diaz decides to leverage his strengths.
Sometimes he just doesn’t do that.
DREAM 3 will feature the second round of the 2008 Lightweight Grand Prix tournament, as well as the return of Jason “Mayhem” Miller. Should be a nice card. DREAM 3 will air LIVE on the HDNet network at 3 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 11.
23 Comments »
Diaz back to his winning ways! Looking forward to seeing him fight again… stay off the weed tho!
Haven’t heard of Katsuya before, but his stats say he’s good at defending the subs. Ought to be interesting. Hopefully Diaz comes full strength, can’t wait to watch!
I am VERY happy to see that Nick Diaz is accepting fight after fight. He immediatly wanted to rematch KJ, but Noons declined. He’s now fighting on May 11 and June 14. Now THAT is keeping yourself buisy. The only reason that I would think that he is doing this is because he is getting himself in the best shape of his life by rededicating himself. He had very poor performances his last couple of fights. I am looking forward to see El Diablo come out on fire and get two quick wins over the next month and a half.
Him getting his scar tissue removed is going to prove to be a big deal. Nick can take a punch for sure. But then his fights get stopped because of blood/cuts, but every single time its the doctor that stops it - Nick always wants to continue!
Thats what I am talking about!
Kama Kaze: Earlier this week we talked about how great it would be if Diaz replaced Aoki/JZ in the lightweight grand prix. DREAM do come true .lol
I dont think that this fight is part of the grand prix. I wish it were because loosing both Aoki and JZ means that the tournament is loosing some star power, Diaz would boost it right back up! Hopefully he finds his way into the grand prix.
Great move by EliteXC and Diaz’s management. Stuff like this, makes EliteXC a very interesting destination for mma fighters. EliteXC allowing its fighters to compete in DREAM is a recruiting advantage that El;iteXC has over the UFC.
Very happy to hear about this fight, only thing better would be making it part of the grand Prix.
expect a ceaser gracie camp takeover!! eh john, i remember that conversation. premonissions dude. “DREAM do come true”. wtf? haha!! when you going to say something about the link on my blue name?
Diaz is on the right track fighting in Japan. Look at Melendez, he’s RANKED from beating guys down there. Diaz could get there real quick too after choking out a few of them PRIDE - i mean DREAM fighters VM: Yea, I’m eager to see how his face holds up after this surgery. Also, I’m even more excited he’s fighting at WW again & in contention for the WW belt!!!!! against Sakurai?!!? r u kidding me? sick! Gary Shaw might be ugly but he cares. ya heard?! lol
Diaz vs. Mach Sakurai will be an amazing fight and if Nicks face can hold up, he will be a force in Japan. Plus I like seeing Diaz compete under japanease rules. Diaz seems like a guy who has no problem STOMPING on someone’s face, and I look forward to seeing him do it in Japan.
I like the American fighters that DREAM is recruiting. 1st Eddie Alvarez, then Mayhem and now Diablo!!!! All thats missing is Melendez. I would even consider sending Jake Sheilds over there since Drew Ficket messed up his knee.
Its hard to bash Gary Shaw when we see stuff like this. I think the contact flexability that he is allowing his fighters is really smart because its the only way to make EliteXC a more attractive destination than the UFC for some Big Time Free agents.
KAMA KAZE, how do I download the events. Do I need to download that tool bar thing first?
Get the torrent file by clicking ‘download this torrent’. then install ‘utorrent’ (its free, do a search for it). open the torrent file with utorrent. familiarize yourself with P2P file sharing laws if you know what I mean.
Nick is one of my favorite fighters, but who has hdnet? I have comcast, and have never seen it before.
i’m on bresnan and have it. its one of my favorite channels.
I’m on Charter and have it. That’s where I watched the joke of a fight between Fedor and HMC
The DREAM.3 card on May 11th has been updated with 5 fights. Many new faces will enter DREAM for this event. Maybe the biggest fight out of these newly announced is Nick Diaz vs. Former 2-time Welterweight King Of Pancrase, Katsuya Inoue (he vacated the title to drop to Lightweight). Also on the card, Melvin Manhoef will face Korean Kim Dae Won, but the fight hasn’t been announced as part of the Middleweight GP.
Hiroyuki Takaya returns to Japan after losing in the WEC to take on GRABAKA’s Takeshi Yamazaki. Jung Bukyung finally gets a fight more at his level as his announced opponent is Daisuke Nakamura. The rumored Jason Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata fight was also announced.
Update: Some new information, Jason Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata will be a Middleweight GP fight and Melvin Manhoef vs. Dae Won Kim will be a reserve fight for the GP. They also deleted the Takaya fight from the card on the official DREAM website. Yamazaki was present at the press conference, so it’s odd. I think it also says that Diaz vs. Inoue is for the Welterweight title.
Update #2: Yamazaki is now listed as a participant, looks like he won’t fight Takaya.
Update #3: The winner of Diaz vs. Inoue will face Hayato Sakurai for the Welterweight title in July or September!
HEIWA DREAM.3 Lightweight GP 2008 2nd Round
Date: May 11th, 2008
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan
Lightweight GP 2nd Round (70 kg):
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luis Buscape
Joachim Hansen vs. Eddie Alvarez
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Caol Uno
Katsuhiko Nagata vs. (Shinya Aoki)
Middleweight GP 1st Round Fight (84 kg):
Jason Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Middleweight GP 1st Round Reserve Fight (84 kg):
Melvin Manhoef vs. Kim Dae Won
DREAM Welterweight Championship Eliminator Fight (76 kg):
Nick Diaz vs. Katsuya Inoue
Lightweight Fight (70 kg):
Jung Bukyung vs. Daisuke Nakamura
Featherweight Fight:
Takeshi Yamazaki vs. TBA
Nightmare Of Battle
DREAM | HEIWA DREAM.3 ƒ‰ƒCƒg‹‰ƒOƒ‰ƒ“ƒvƒŠ2008 2ndROUND
they will just turn over the win if he does pull it off, after the Gomi debacle I wouldnt want to fight for those guys
it would be good for his career if he fought those guys. but yea.. ill be pissed if they did that again. Gomi debacle was BS. everyone knows who REALLY won that 1.
It was the CSAC that robbed Diaz, not Pride.
oops..I meant NSAC
I just watched that fight again and it just proves how Nick can stay focused after getting rock a couple of times. Then I start thinking he was high the whole fight and if he fights that good high, he must be top notch sober. The UFC needs Nick back to kick ass in the US. This guys is great high or sober plus he’s marketable! His fight wit Diego is a classic eventhough he lost it was a great BJJ fight!
For someone that smokes that much weed Nick is one grumpy fellow.
Gotta love his fighting tho.
WHen you smoke a lot of weed, and then need to go a period of time NOT smoking, one does become grumpy.
It gets worse then being a little grumpy. I get down right irritated!
I heard the rumor is that Nick Diaz might have to postpone this fight! I guess his dealer is running low on hippie lettuce and Nick can’t fight unless he has hits from the bong!
can he pass the post fight test? it was funny how nick said that he had never been tested for weed before until after the gomi fight. test for weed but not for roids? kinda wierd.