DREAM.13 Weigh-In Results & Pics

DREAM.13 takes place early tomorrow morning at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan.

The weigh-in results:

  • Bibiano Fernandes (138.6lbs) vs. Joachim Hansen (138.8lbs)
  • Josh Barnett (253.5) vs. Siala “Mighty Mo” Siliga (253.5)
  • K.J. Noons (158.2) vs. Andre “Dida” Amado (157.6)
  • Ryo Chonan (167.1) vs. Andrews Nakahara (166.2)
  • Yoshiro Maeda (137.7) vs. Cole Escovedo (138.4)
  • Katsunori Kikuno (154.3) vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka (154.3)
  • Ikuhisa Minowa (196.2) vs. Jimmy Ambriz (275.5)

DREAM.13 airs live in the US on HDNet at 3AM ET.

More DREAM.13 weigh-in pics at DREAM Official

 

DREAM.13 Pre-Fight Interviews

UFC on Versus isn’t the only MMA event going down this weekend. DREAM.13 kicks off a few hours in Japan after the UFC card wraps up. Here’s a playlist of pre-fight interviews from all the fighters on the card including Josh Barnett and KJ Noons. Leland Roling has a solid event preview up at BE worth checking out as well. DREAM.13 airs live from Japan early Monday morning, March 22, at 3AM ET on HDNet.

 

Scott Coker Talks DREAM Alliance, Strikeforce In Japan & Fedor

Scott Coker talks to Fanhouse about their alliance with DREAM, potentially bringing Strikeforce to Japan and when Fedor might return.

 

Babalu & Sokoudjou Enter DREAM LHW GP With Mousasi, Zaromskis Returns In May

Gegard Mousasi will enter the DREAM Light Heavyweight Grand Prix with some familiar company. Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, the two fighters Mousasi beat in Strikeforce, are both set to compete in the tournament alongside him.

Gegard Mousasi, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and Renato Sobral will all be participating in the Dream Light Heavyweight Grand Prix, which will begin on May 30 at Dream.15.

Mousasi confirmed his own participation in an interview with MMAFighting.com on Wednesday, and Dream officials confirmed that Sokoudjou and Babalu will be part of the tournament as well.

Considering Mousasi put both Babalu and Sokoudjou away rather handily in Strikeforce already, I think it’s safe to say he will remain the favorite in the grand prix.

In other DREAM.15 news, Marius Zaromskis is expected to return to action on the card. It’s unknown if his welterweight title will be on the line or who he will fight.

Image via Esther Lin for Showtime

 

Josh Barnett Signs With DREAM

Josh Barnett has landed where everyone thought he would — in Japan fighting for DREAM.

Former UFC, Pride and Affliction fighter, Josh Barnett, has found a new home in Japan as the heavyweight stand-out has signed with Dream and will likely make his promotional debut at their March 22 show later this month.

The signing was confirmed by sources close to the situation to MMAWeekly.com late Monday evening, and the promotion is expected to announce Barnett’s addition in the coming days.

The next question is, who is he going to fight? Tim Sylvia and Antonio Silva have both reportedly turned down fights with Barnett for DREAM.13. That doesn’t leave a whole lot of options left, so you can almost bank on DREAM finding a can for him at the last minute. M-1 has expressed interest in Fedor fighting Barnett (not for March 22), so I wouldn’t rule out that possibility for later this year, especially if M-1 and Strikeforce don’t reach a new agreement.

Image via Sherdog

 

DREAM.13: Noons-Dida Announced As One Of Two Strikeforce vs DREAM Bouts

FEG announced three fights for their upcoming DREAM.13 event scheduled for March 22 earlier today. It appears KJ Noons’ return to MMA won’t happen in Strikeforce. Instead, they’re sending him overseas to fight Andre “Dida” Amado (Shogun Rua’s Muay Thai trainer) in a “Strikeforce vs. DREAM” match-up. They teased another SF-DREAM fight, but didn’t reveal who it would be, though they did hint it could involve one of Strikeforce’s top heavyweights.

Talking with the press after todays announcement, DREAM EP Sasahara said that there will be 3-4 additional fights to complete the DREAM.13 card. Two of the fights will be in heavier weight classes and one will be a DREAM vs. Strikeforce fight (Dida vs. Noons is the other one with this theme). These fights and the possible arrival of a big-shot Fedor-class Heavyweight (from Strikeforce?) are planned to be announced next week.

M-1 just announced Fedor will fight for Strikeforce in May against Fabricio Werdum, so we can probably rule those two out. I’ll let you guys speculate who else it might be.

The other two fights announced were Minowaman vs Jimmy Ambriz and Katsunori Kikuno vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka.

 

Alistair Overeem Takes Another Gimme Fight In April

For anyone holding out hope (Strikeforce perhaps) that Alistair Overeem would make it to the states in April to finally defend his Strikeforce title or at least fight I’ve got bad news for you. Alistair’s lined up to take on some dude named Sasa Milanovic, who’s not even in Sherdog’s Fight Finder, on April 24 at Glory 12 in Sarajevo. Strikeforce’s CBS card doesn’t have a date yet, but it’s heavily rumored for April 17 or April 24.

By the way, if April 24 is the date Strikeforce and CBS go with, it’s perhaps going to be the busiest day of mixed martial arts in the history of the sport. WEC 48 is already scheduled for pay-per-view that night and DREAM just announced they’re heading to South Korea for an event that day as well.

 

Minowaman’s Super Hluk Belt

Minowaman's Super Hulk Belt

Minowaman has received his belt for winning DREAM’s Super Hulk Tournament. It was handmade by a 3rd grade Japanese school girl who’s dream is to have her picture taken with Minowa, so that explains why it says “Hluk” instead of “Hulk.” I am impressed she spelled “tournament” correctly though.

Funny, I think I like this belt better than the old upside-down WAMMA belt. Yeah, that really happened.

 

Inside MMA 402: Tito Ortiz, Bruce Buffer, Reed Harris, Kenny Florian

Inside MMA airs on HDNet every Friday night at 9PM ET.

Inside MMA Archive

More segments after the jump.

 

Roger Huerta & Josh Barnett Headed To Strikeforce?

Roger HuertaStrikeforce has been gobbling up virtually all the big name talent not locked in a Zuffa contract as of late, and it looks like they’re not finished.