DREAM Entertainment has announced the finals for the conclusion of its middleweight grand prix at DREAM 6 on September 23 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The event will air live stateside on HDNet.
Tournament favorite “Marvelous” Melvin Manhoef (22-4-1) is facing Jurojin pupil Gerard Mousasi (22-2-1). Manhoef is coming off a devastating TKO win over Japanese icon Kazushi Sakuraba at DREAM 4 back in June and is the winner of five straight - all by (T)KO.
He won’t have a free pass however as the “Armenian Assassin” Mousasi has been on something of a tear himself. Like Manhoef, Mousasi is also a perfect 2-0 in DREAM competition, including his opening round upset over potential tournament finalist Denis Kang at DREAM 2 earlier this year.
The winner of Manhoef vs. Mousasi will have the unenviable task of facing either Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (9-1) or Zelg “Benkei” Galesic (9-3), who face off in classic striker vs. grappler match. Souza earned his spot in June by outpointing Jason “Mayhem” Miller at DREAM 4 while Galesic bagged and tagged Taiei Kin and the same event.
Also added to the card is a featherweight bout pitting the new and improved Hideo Tokoro (21-13-1) against Shooto and Pancrase veteran Atsushi Yamamoto (11-5-1). Tokoro was victorious in both of his DREAM appearances, recently defeating Takeshi Yamazaki at DREAM 5. Yamamoto is coming off a decision loss to Masakatsu Ueda at Shooto 8 back in January despite a strong performance.
Also rumored to appear are PRIDE veterans and fan favorites Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai as well as the dangerous K-1 import Yoshihiro Akiyama.
Stay tuned for more announcements as the DREAM 6 card continues to come together.
38 Comments »
manhoef is taking this one hands down
Yeah, he looked pretty unstoppable against Sakuraba, but Jacare’s ground skills could be his Kriptonite. His last loss was a submission.
Jacre vs. Zleg
ManHoeff vs. Mussassi are the 2 best match ups that they could have put together. Should be 2 excellent fights and an amazing final. I think Jacre has the easire road. I dont think he will be able to stop the takedowns of Jacre and He cant defend his million sub attempts either. I think Jacre has a great chance of ending this fight with out taking much damage, ensuring that he will be fresh in the finals.
Moussassi vs. Manhoeff will be an all out freaking WAR! THese 2 are really going to go at it. MY guess is that Manhoeff wins, but I dont count Gerard out easily. He is ranked pretty high in my book. I thing that is for sure is that the winner f this fight will be banged up for the finals. U dont get through a match up like this unscathed.
On eof these fighters is going to go through hell to get to the finals.
All making it easier for my boy JACRE to win the tournament and Alligator crawl his ass all over the ring! I can not wait to eventually have him in the UFC’s middleweight division.
Once Jacre makes it to the UFC we would have some great match ups between any combonation of ju jitsu wizards:
Jacre
Maia
Leites
Almeida
Have they announced who is going to be in the Alternate Match? Hopefully Mayhem Miller will be in it. That would give him a chance to back up his girly statements about Souza if he was to win the alternate match and the winner of the Manhoeff and the Mousasi can’t continue into the finals.
No not yet. Best case scenario is Sakuraba vs. Mayhem!
Add Palhares to that list too.
Mania are you coming out with some predictions on this one?
FRIDAY MORNING CONVERSATION WITH KEVIN:
I debated all day yesterday, I’m going to get a little personal guys! My wife and I have been trying to have a second child for almost 2 years now. I was absolutely sickened by Rampage and Dana having a grand old time in that interview. I’m 100% sure him being god was a direct affect on that womans miscarriage, and he’s training and having fun. I really hope that Wand is his next opponent. this time I hope those knees leave Rampage in a coma. To think he used to be one of my favorites!
*
UFC 87 predictions:
I think this is the only card in a while that looks great on paper, but could go either way. It has the makings of a pretty boring night of fight!
GSP will win, I can’t see him losing, and if we’re lucky, we’ll see the exciting GSP and it will be a KO, rather than the scared of getting KO’d wrestling gsp.
I got Herring in one of two outcomes. Catching lesner with a knee when he shoots, or weathering the initial lesner flurry, and submitting him! IN a perfect world brock tries to stand with him, but I doubt it!
I think Florian will win quite easily! I think he is overall more experienced and has better skills! I’m one of the few guys who loves Kenny’s elbows (I refuse to call them Hell bows)
Manny gamburian…why is he televised other than for the guys who nut for TUF. Congo is finally fighting a stand up guy, and should have an exciting fight, and we’re stuck with Karo’s cousin (mini Karo), a bit disappointing! Manny wins!
Hopefully Kongo will get televised as an extra bout. Fingers crossed.
Seriously though, who does the UFC need to promote more a couple bottom tier LWs or a mid tier HW with a ton of potential?
Kev, Herring is still at +200, have you bet on him yet?
To me, Heath Herring is too unpredictable to bet on, or against. I could go on, but I can’t right this second….
lol, nothing big mike, 100! I agree with you, but I still think his experience pays off
Kevin I think maybe you should hold off on writing Rampage off. He is a really good guy and has two kids of his own, I don’t doubt that this might weigh heavy on his mind. What I’m thinking is he probably has spin control working against him and has been asked to keep the situation quiet until a verdict has been reached about if the miscarrage is a direct result of his recklessness. I would however like to see him appologize for his behavior and recklessness instead of making crazy excuses and also give a serious appology to all (including the woman and her lost child) that he had affected during that event in his life. Also I to can’t stand that Manny is on the main card… he literally is too small, sure he can beat down nobodies but when it comes to the higher caliber fighters he’s going to be eating jabs.
I kinda agree with rampage, until I read his and Dana’s comments on yahoo!
I just read that as well. Dana is right he is not a Judge or a Laywer and should wait to see what happens in court. I also just thought of something if anyone can help me out, does anyone know if there is a picture of the damage done to this womans car. It may not prove much because they will try to prove in court that the stress had caused the loss of her baby but Dana says only a mirror was knocked off which leads me to believe maybe this lady is just a gold digger. (not saying she lost that baby on purpose and I hope she is ok after the matter but just speculating)
Hopefully Crocop is back on this one with real competition.
I wonder who will be in the alternate fight? Will Mayhem Miller be asked?
That would be sweet. I would like to see him get some redemption.
probably mayhem vs. Sakuraba
wouldn’t that be awsome
I don’t know if it has already been posted but do Cro Cop and Sakurai have opponents? Did Cro Cop get Overeem and is there a possibility of bringing in Diaz and Sakurai? If those two fights happen as well on this card it’ll be a show stopper. I seriously love DREAM, if there was one promotion that I wish could stick around it’d be DREAM and Affliction is a close second.
Diaz won’t fight over there until he gets paid for his last fight.
I forgot about that, thanks for the heads up
See, Dana and Fertita haters love talking about how the UFC doesn’t take care of their fighters, when there are other promotions who have worse business practices.
Its cause people forget a lot of these fighters have become drama queens. Doesn’t it remind you of a football player who has a million dollar contract but wants a 10 million dollar contract. No matter how much you pay these people they will believe they deserve more when really here is their pay rate compared to the average business worker.
Average guy- $10 per hour
UFC newbie- 4k per 15 minutes
UFC champ- 200k per 25 minutes
Lol I’d wouldn’t even mind being a newbie.
I know some people believe that they should be paid for training but I think I look at it like the win bonus is the pay for training… if you didn’t get it then you didn’t train hard enough
There have been 2 cro cop rumors surrounding this event:
1) Cro cop fights Overeem
2) Cro Cop vs. THe middleweight Akiyama
AS for the alternate match. I am pretty sure that Mayhem will be in the alternate match. I good opponent would be:
Mayhem vs. Sakuraba….Alternate match up!
they did just sign gilbert, maybe they will match them up.
Possibly. I like to watch Gilbert fight. He is a tough guy with good muy ai, but he has to be one of the dirtiest and crazy Mofo’s in the game! He is just a lunatic!
i hope this show puts dream back up in the ratings, it would be a shame for an org. like this to fold and elite to keep going.
Will Jacre get a UFC contract any time soon??
GRACIEMAG.COM: What is the forecast for your next fight? Is it going to the ground?
JACARE: I’ve been training a lot, I’m well prepared. I will fight on October 13 and my opponent is named Wendell, who has knocked out everyone in the seven MMA fights he has fought. I’m going to go with MMA, I am prepared for anything.
GRACIEMAG.COM: After the event in Manaus, where are you headed? How have negotiations been going?
JACARE: There’s nothing I can tell you yet, the truth is I’m dying to sign a good contract. What I can tell you is that I’m not waiting past 2008, I want and will fight in a big event, even if I have to invade the ring, I mean
I mean.. ring or Octagon.
Where is he fighting this Wendell guy in October?? He is fighting in DREAM in September…
i think my pridiction might come true for once manhoef vs galesic in the final then manhoef with the win
Manhoef and Jacare in the finals and Galesic will be alternative since Mousasi will get knocked out hence be ineligible. I would like to see Miller Sakuraba though.
if you see mousasis fights youl see hes got great stand up, hes top ranked and only 22 dont count him out melvin’s gonna have to train extra hard!!!!!!!!!!
even though i think melvins gonna win the gp!!!!!!!!!
I am really liking this tournament even the set up of it with eliminations rather than Dana saying I want this guy to fight this guy for ratings F that.
My predictions
Jacare wins over Galesic
and the other one I am really not sure but I really want to see all out war and hopefully Gegard comes up on top.
But I really don’t think the winner will be able to continue on in the tournament I expect all out war two Dutch guys going at it.