Dream 1 Thoughts.....

This wasn't a bad card overall, not nearly the disaster that some are making it out to be. I gave the card somewhere in the 6.5 to 7 range out of 10. The card had it's freak show fights and huge mismatches but then again this is a Japanese MMA card, so what were you really expecting. Those two items are staples of the MMA Scene in japan, and are vital to helping get the product over to the average man on the street in Tokyo. You gonna see Bobby Ologunun, Zulu Jr, Giant Silva on future cards so you may as well get used to it now.

The lightweight grand prix had it's moments good and bad. One general feeling i got from the card was that the 155 ranks in the former K-1 Heroes was not very good. Just looking at the guys, a lot of them look like blown up 145ers. Discounting the quality of Heroes 155ers also tend to make me question the guy that has been running roughshod on them, one JZ Calvan. Calvan looked very impressive in his match with Aoki, despite the no contest. The main event of Aoki vs Calvan was a bit of a let down with the NC finish, but Calvan is lucky he made it out of the fight without a DQ loss on his record.

Some of the fights left a little to be desired action wise. One of the main draws for me of the old Pride cards was the wide open free flowing nature of the fights themselves. The Kawajiri and Ishida fights tended to be anything but wide open or free flowing. If i want to see boring lay and pray control from the top with no effort to finish, I can stick with most UFC cards.

The star of the card could turn out to be American Eddie Alvarez. He came in with his wrestling but unleashed a brutal round and pound that had the Dide that was mad-dogging him at the pre fight presser cowering and turtling up in submission. Alvarez is coming down from 170 and looked fresh and full of energy at 155. Whoever draws him in the next round will have their hands full.

Buscape and Hellboy Hansen looked impressive in their matches and pairing them up for the next round would be a really good contest. Hansen was choked out by Aoki's gogplata a while back, so Buscape's BJJ prowess would be a good measure to see if he has raised the bar for his game when the fight hits the ground.

Here is how i would pair them up for the next round:

Aoki vs Calvan 2
Hansen vs Buscape
Alvarez vs Ishida
Kawajiri vs Nagata - assures at least one japanese fighter makes it to the semi's