Japan's Dream MMA promotion has announced most of the participants in its upcoming Featherweight Grand Prix, but there's one big name who isn't officially part of the tournament yet: Kid Yamamoto.
Dream's web site lists 13 participants in the featherweight tournament, which will begin with Dream 7 on March 8, and right now, Yamamoto isn't one of those 13. Yamamoto is 17-1 and was once considered among the handful of best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, but he's coming off a serious knee injury and hasn't fought since 2007. It's possible that Yamamoto will fight in the tournament, and if he does he'll be its favorite and its biggest star.
But it's also possible that he won't be part of this tournament at all, which would be a major disappointment to fans in Japan and to those of us in the United States who watch Dream cards in the wee hours of the morning on HDNet. MMA tournaments are always fun to watch, but if Yamamoto isn't in the Featherweight Grand Prix, this tournament will be seriously lacking in star power.
The full Dream.7 card hasn't been announced yet, but it looks like it will feature four fights in the Featherweight Grand Prix and then a couple of others, possibly including Gegard Mousasi and Melvin Manhoef. The 13 Featherweight Grand Prix participants announced so far are listed below:
Masakazu Imanari
Hiroyuki Takaya
Takafumi Otsuka
Hideo Tokoro
Wicky Akiyo
Atsushi Yamamoto
Bibiano Fernandes
Micah Miller
Chase Beebe
Joe Warren
Kim Jong Won
Shoji Maruyama
Daiki "DJ.taiki" Hata
See more on Dream.7 at Nightmare of Battle.
Dream's web site lists 13 participants in the featherweight tournament, which will begin with Dream 7 on March 8, and right now, Yamamoto isn't one of those 13. Yamamoto is 17-1 and was once considered among the handful of best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, but he's coming off a serious knee injury and hasn't fought since 2007. It's possible that Yamamoto will fight in the tournament, and if he does he'll be its favorite and its biggest star.
But it's also possible that he won't be part of this tournament at all, which would be a major disappointment to fans in Japan and to those of us in the United States who watch Dream cards in the wee hours of the morning on HDNet. MMA tournaments are always fun to watch, but if Yamamoto isn't in the Featherweight Grand Prix, this tournament will be seriously lacking in star power.
The full Dream.7 card hasn't been announced yet, but it looks like it will feature four fights in the Featherweight Grand Prix and then a couple of others, possibly including Gegard Mousasi and Melvin Manhoef. The 13 Featherweight Grand Prix participants announced so far are listed below:
Masakazu Imanari
Hiroyuki Takaya
Takafumi Otsuka
Hideo Tokoro
Wicky Akiyo
Atsushi Yamamoto
Bibiano Fernandes
Micah Miller
Chase Beebe
Joe Warren
Kim Jong Won
Shoji Maruyama
Daiki "DJ.taiki" Hata
See more on Dream.7 at Nightmare of Battle.