Dream (mixed martial arts)

Dream (styled DREAM in capitals) is a mixed martial arts (MMA) organization promoted by former PRIDE FC executives and K-1 promoter Fighting and Entertainment Group. DREAM replaced FEG's previous-run mixed martial arts fight series, Hero's. The series retains many of the stylistic flourishes and personnel from Pride FC broadcasts, including fight introducer Lenne Hardt. In America, the promotion is aired on HDNet. To date they have promoted over 20 shows highlighting some of the best Japanese and international MMA talent, establishing or enhancing the careers of top ranked fighters such as Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Eddie Alvarez, Joe Warren, and Gegard Mousasi.

History

Pride FC's buyout and Yarennoka!

After the Zuffa buyout of Pride FC, the former Dream Stage Entertainment executives put on a collaborative New Year's Eve mixed martial arts show with Shooto, M-1 Global, and the Fighting and Entertainment Group, called Yarennoka!. This show was intended to be a farewell show of Pride FC. However, due to its success and further petitioning by Japanese MMA fans, the FEG and the former DSE staff decided to combine their efforts and form a new Japanese promotion.

Hero's dissolution and Dream's emergence

Their new promotion was confirmed on February 13, 2008, along with Hero's dissolution. All of Hero's' fighters were confirmed (such as Hero's champions Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, Yoshihiro Akiyama and JZ Calvan) to be part of the new promotion along with the additions of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović, Shinya Aoki, Kazushi Sakuraba, Mitsuhiro Ishida, and Hayato "Mach" Sakurai.^[1] Another notable announcement was Dream's partnership with M-1 Global, who confirmed that they would allow the last Heavyweight Champion of Pride FC (and the winner of the 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix), Fedor Emelianenko, to fight in their events. Emelianenko was present at the Dream press conference to promote the alliance between the two shows.^[2]

Partnership with HDNet

On May 2, 2008, Dream aired for the first time in the United States with a repeat of Dream 1 on HDNet. A repeat of Dream 2 was aired the following day, while Dream 3 was aired live on May 11. All future Dream events will be airing on HDNet as a part of the network's HDNet Fights series.^[3]

Partnership with EliteXC

On May 10, 2008, Dream announced the working partnership with US promotion EliteXC. The two groups intended to share fighters and eventually co-promote shows. However, with EliteXC now bankrupt the alliance no longer exists.^[4]

Alliance with Strikeforce

On August 5, 2009, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker announced that the two promotions had signed a formal alliance. This is reportedly a deal that has been talked about for quite some time, but has finally come to fruition. The result of this deal is that the two organizations will exchange fighters and work together to bring MMA fans the best fights possible. Also, because of Strikeforce's recent agreement with Fedor Emelianenko and M-1 Global, it is presumable that they would be involved in the alliance as well.^[5] In October 2009, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker stated interest in unifying the titles between the two promotions. However Dream has yet to give a public response. It's likely all unification plans have been dropped due to Zuffa, the parent company of UFC, acquiring Stikeforce.

Alliance with ONE Fighting Championship Network

November 23, 2011 Sources close to ONE Fighting Championship announced a new alliance with DREAM to copromote shows and participate in fighter exchange. This follows weeks after ONE FC's deals with the Korean based Road Fighting championship, and the Filipino based URCC and Cage Fighting Championship in Australia. ONE FC, based in Singapore seeks to promote the rise of popularity of MMA in Asia.

Rules

Weight classes

Dream has 7 weight classes. Unlike Hero's, each weight class will have a champion with a defendable title.^[2]

• 61 kilograms (134 lb) – Bantamweight
• 65 kilograms (143 lb) – Featherweight
• 70 kilograms (154 lb) – Lightweight
• 76 kilograms (168 lb) – Welterweight
• 84 kilograms (185 lb) – Middleweight
• 93 kilograms (205 lb) – Light Heavyweight
• no upper limit – Heavyweight

It was announced that in 2011 Dream will create a new Bantamweight class at 61 kg (134 lb), and the Featherweight class will be raised to 65 kg (143 lb).^[6]

Round length

• There are three 5-minute rounds.

Judging

• Fights will be judged in their entirety by three judges, not on a round-by-round ten-point-must basis (more common to North American promotions).
• A winner will always be declared, as draws are not possible.

Attire

Dream allows fighters latitude in their choice of attire but open finger gloves, a mouthguard and a protective cup are mandatory. Fighters are allowed to use tape on parts of their body or to wear a gi top, gi pants, wrestling shoes, kneepads, elbow pads, or ankle supports at their own discretion, though each must be checked by the referee before the fight.

Fouls and violations

• Stomps and soccer kicks to the head of a grounded opponent are not allowed (unless both fighters are on the ground), but they are allowed to the rest of the body.
• Elbows to the head are prohibited.
• If there is a 15 kilograms (33 lb) or more weight difference between the fighters, knees to the head of a grounded opponent are not allowed.
• A grounded opponent is defined as one in a three-point position. If a fighter has, for example, both knees and one hand on the floor facing the mat, then no kicks to the head are allowed.
• Strikes to the back of the head are not allowed

Tournament substitutions

• In case of a "No Contest" or injury, the fighter who can continue will go through to the next round, if neither fighter is able to continue the promoter will choose a replacement fighter to go through.

Current champions

Tournament Finalists

Current Roster

Bantamweight

• Antonio Banuelos
• Yoshiro Maeda
• Hideo Tokoro
• Kenji Osawa
• Masakazu Imanari
• Keisuke Fujiwara
• Takafumi Otsuka
• Yusaku Nakamura
• Atsushi Yamamoto
• Bibiano Fernandes
• Rodolfo Marques

Featherweight

• Joachim Hansen
• Tatsuya Kawajiri
• Hiroyuki Takaya
• Daiki Hata
• Mitsuhiro Ishida
• Akiyo Nishiura
• Takeshi Inoue
• Kazuhisa Watanabe
• Kazuyuki Miyata
• Caol Uno
• Koichiro Matsumoto

Lightweight

• Rich Clementi
• Shane Nelson
• Drew Fickett
• Rob McCullough
• Andre Amade
• Willamy Freire
• Bruno Carvalho (fighter)
• Gesias Calvancante
• Vitor Ribeiro
• Marcus Aurélio
• Shinya Aoki
• Daisuke Nakamura
• Koutetsu Boku
• Tatsuya Kawajiri
• Katsunori Kikuno
• Katsuhiko Nagata
• Satoru Kitaoka

Welterweight

• Marius Zaromskis
• Jason High
• Tarec Saffiedine
• Andrews Nakahara
• Jung Bu-Kyung
• Andy Ologun
• Yan Cabral
• Kazushi Sakuraba
• Kuniyoshi Hironaka
• Ryo Chonan
• Katsuya Inoue
• Hayato Sakurai
• Yuya Shirai

Middleweight

• Karl Amoussou
• Zelg Galesic
• Gerald Harris
• Dong Sik Yoon
• Shungo Oyama
• Taiei Kin
• Kiyoshi Tamura
• Kazuhiro Nakamura

Light Heavyweight

• Gegard Mousasi
• Melvin Manhoef
• Ralek Gracie
• Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
• Yoshiyuki Nakanishi
• Tatsuya Mizuno
• Hiroshi Izumi
• Trevor Prangley

Heavyweight

• Jérôme Le Banner
• Fedor Emelianenko
• Bob Sapp
• Todd Duffee
• Jeff Monson
• Siala-Mou "Mighty Mo" Siliga
• James Thompson
• Hong Man Choi
• Katsuyori Shibata
• Satoshi Ishii
• Ikuhisa Minowa

Events

^[7]

Event locations

• Total event number: 20

These cities have hosted the following numbers of Dream events as of Dream 17:

References

External links

• Dream Official Website