Shinya Aoki will take on Caol Uno, and Tatsuya Kawajiri will fight Eddie Alvarez on July 21 at DREAM 5 "Lightweight Grand Prix Final Round" at the Osaka-Jo Hall in Osaka, Japan. The finals will also take place the same night.
Aoki (16-2) is DREAM's highest ranked lightweight after an impressive performance in a rematch at DREAM 2 against Gesias "JZ" Calvancante. Aoki won this past Sunday in an even more spectacular fashion, submitting Katsuhiko Nagata with a gogoplata from full mount.
Uno (25-10-4) enters the semifinals with only one previous appearance in the tournament, an upset victory over Mitsuhiro Ishida.
Kawajiri (22-4-2) advanced with unanimous decisions over Luiz "Buscape" Firmino and Kultar "Black Mamba" Gill.
Alvarez (14-1) first gained notoriety as the first BodogFight welterweight champion, but his current stint with DREAM has put him in a position to make an entry into the top ten rankings. Alvarez stopped Andre Amade in the first round and put together one of the best fights of the year against former Shooto champion Joachim Hansen in the quarterfinals.
CURRENT DREAM 5 CARD:
Caol Uno vs. Shinya Aoki
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Eddie Alvarez
Winner of Uno-Aoki vs. Kawajiri-Alvarez
Norifumi "KID" Yamamoto vs. Joseph Benavidez
Yoshihiro Akiyama vs. TBA
Denis Kang vs. TBA
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