DREAM 5 Lightweight GP 2008 Final Round Review

DREAM 5 came to us all from the Osaka-Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan. Osaka has about 2.5 million people living within its city walls. Knowing how they love their fights and fighters in Japan, you’ve got to wonder what small percentage of these people weren’t watching the conclusion of DREAM’s first ever Lightweight Grand Prix Tournament.

Speaking of the Lightweight Tournament, how about Shinya Aoki vs. Caol Uno and Eddie Alvarez vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri for the right to fight in the final?

Time to hear what happened.

Andy Ologun and Daisuke Nakamura started things off. Early in the fight, Nakamura nearly pulled off a kneebar, but Ologun literally punched his way out. Then after a couple of Ologun leg kicks, Nakamura pulled guard and immediately transitioned into an armbar.

That’s all, folks.

Daisuke Nakamura wins via armbar in round one.

Next up was one of the first round Lightweight Grand Prix match ups between Caol Uno and Shinya Aoki. Needless to say, the crowd gave a lot of love to both of these native sons coming in.

They didn’t treat one another the same way, however.

After a feeling out process, Aoki connected with a flying knee and then took Uno down, transitioning straight into the mount position. But then Uno turned him over, ending up in his opponent’s guard.

Soon after, Aoki took a punch and then grabbed a leg. From there he nearly pulled off a heel hook, but Uno somehow managed to persevere through. Still, Aoki turned things over on his adversary again, this time taking Uno’s back. Then Uno turned things over, ending up on top. Then Aoki took his opponent’s back and started looking for the rear naked choke, but it was not to be had despite having a body triangle sunk in.

Aoki is a ridiculous submission fighter.

And that’s when he sunk in the triangle choke. We’re talking about a deep triangle, by the way. But Uno simply would not tap. Not sure how or why, but he just didn’t. Then Aoki went for an armbar, but Uno defended nicely.

Then came the bell. Aoki won the round easily; but Uno’s toughness and submission defense were impressive.

Early in the second, Aoki took Uno down. From there he took his opponent’s back and later landed a few nice punches. In fact, the two liked that position so much that everything stayed just like that until the one minute mark when Uno turned Aoki over and ended up in his guard.

But he was unable to do much as Aoki moved to the rubber guard. And then came the bell.

Shinya Aoki wins via unanimous decision.

Next was the other quarterfinal match up between Tatsuya Kawajiri and Eddie Alvarez. Early on, Alvarez countered his opponent’s kicks with one-two combinations that scored. From there, Alvarez went for a takedown and Kawajiri sprawled out of it, kneeing his opponent to the head. That’s when the brawl began to take form.

First, Kawajiri connected with a hard right and some kicks. After some trading, you could see that Alvarez had sustained a cut over his eye.

That’s when Alvarez started hitting home with hard leg kicks of his own. Then he connected with a tirade of punches that dropped Kawajiri. Alvarez kept coming but his opponent recovered and got to his feet.

After having the doctor take a look at Alvarez’s eye, the Philadelphia native came forward aggressively. Too aggressively, as a left by Kawajiri knocked him to the canvas. Kawajiri followed his opponent to the ground and eventually took the mount.

Somehow Alvarez recovered to get to his feet.

Then these two hit one another with power shot after power shot. We’re talking Rocky here, people. Terrific. Then Alvarez landed two unbelievably hard rights that dropped Kawajiri. There he followed his opponent to the canvas where the pounding continued. Kawajiri looked like he wanted to fight back, but simply couldn’t.

So the referee stopped the fight.

Awesome!

Eddie Alvarez wins via KO in the initial round.

Aoki is probably tired. Alvarez is bruised up and cut. In other words, Aoki may have an advantage coming into the final.

Next up was the tournament reserve match between Joachim Hansen and Kultar Gill. Hansen came right in and took his opponent down, eating some knees along the way. However, Gill did a good job of getting back up. Further, he did some nice striking on his feet. But then the fight went to the ground where Hansen caught his opponent in an armbar.

Joachim Hansen wins by way of first round armbar.

Next up was a match between Junya Kodo and Joseph Benavidez. Let’s just say that Benavidez took his opponent down rather hard early on. Then came some knees on the ground before Kodo got to his feet.

While upright, Kodo connected with a hard right. What did he get for his efforts? How about being slammed to the ground by Benavidez again. Moments later, Benavidez took the mount and choked his opponent out from there.

Joseph Benavidez wins by way of first round choke.

Next up was a match between Kuniyoshi Hironaka and the undefeated Motoki Miyazawa. Hironaka connected with more strikes early on before Miyazawa pulled guard. From there hardly anything happened and the referee stood the two fighters up.

Miyazawa then landed some punches. But for much of the rest of the round, one where Miyazawa was cut, Hironaka picked him apart in unfortunately rather unexciting fashion. Due to the cut Miyazawa sustained, however, the referee stopped the fight near the end of the stanza.

Kuniyoshi Hironaka wins via TKO in the first.

Next up was a fight between Takeshi Yamazaki and Hideo Tokoro. After some nice exchanges, Yamazaki took Tokoro down, eventually moving to side control. But Tokoro came to his feet soon after.

Then Tokoro connected with a huge right that floored his opponent. However, Yamazaki recovered soon after and got to his feet. In fact, Tokoro probably should’ve gone after him with more fervor after the knockdown.

Tokoro then landed some more nice shots and a big knee. Then, unfortunately for the second time in the fight, Tokoro connected with a low kick to the groin that forced a stop in the action. He was also penalized for the kick with a yellow card.

When the fight resumed, Tokoro connected with a big left and then a right. Yamazaki still had enough to take him down from there. After some jostling, Tokoro went for a kneebar unsuccessfully and then ended up on the bottom again. Even there, he landed more punches than his counterpart. Then came the bell.

The second round saw Tokoro land the better punches; while, Yamazaki took him down on multiple occasions. Not much else to say, as this one wasn’t nearly as exciting as Tokoro’s last fight.

Hideo Tokoro wins via unanimous decision.

Next up was a match between Katsuyori Shibata and Yoshihiro Akiyama. The first several minutes of this fight were as boring as they come, with Shibata landing sporadic leg kicks and not much else. Interestingly, Akiyama did hardly anything through the 5:00 mark. But then he went for a high kick, missed, and tripped his opponent to the canvas.

From there, Akiyama took side control, then the mount. Then he choked Shibata unconscious.

End of story.

Yoshihiro Akiyama wins by way of choke in the first round.

After this fight, Alvarez came out and spoke to the crowd, telling them that the doctors deemed him unable to fight in the final. He was gracious while speaking, saying that he “begged the doctors,” but they simply couldn’t let him fight. He also indicated that if he had to pick somebody to fight in the final instead of him it would’ve been the alternate winner Hansen, someone that Aoki has beaten in the past.

But first thing’s first: Alistair Overeem vs. Mark Hunt.

This fight started off with Hunt looking quick on his feet and then taking Overeem down. Bad move.

Overeem transitioned to an armbar and that was all there was.

Alistair Overeem wins via armbar early in the first round.

To the final: Joachim Hansen vs. Shinya Aoki. To start things off, Hansen took a swing at Aoki and was immediately taken down. From there the action was pretty slow until an up kick from Hansen hit Aoki in the groin.

Of course, that’s not the kind of action fans want. Not the normal ones, anyway.

The fight then started back with both fighters on their feet. Hansen swung and Aoki slipped the punch and pulled guard. There, Hellboy connected with a couple of nice punches. Moments later, he once again stood up out of Aoki’s guard and came down with a hard punch. A devastating left, in fact, that dazed the Japanese fighter terribly. Hansen then followed things up with a couple of more punches.

And it was all over, folks.

Joachim Hansen wins by way of first round knockout to become the DREAM 5 Lightweight Tournament Champion.

In the end, DREAM 5 was a very good night of fights. The Kawajiri- Alvarez fight was awesome. The Aoki- Uno bout wasn’t bad either. And the Hansen- Aoki contest was, well, somewhat surprising. Then again, should it really have been? This is Joachim Hansen, people.

See you next time.

DREAM 5: Lightweight Grand Prix 2008 Final Round Results