Dream (mixed martial arts)

History

Formation

After Zuffa acquired Pride, former Dream Stage Entertainment executives put on a collaborative New Year's Eve mixed martial arts event with Shooto, M-1 Global, and the Fighting and Entertainment Group, called Yarennoka!. While the event was intended to be a farewell show for Pride, its success and further petitioning by Japanese MMA fans prompted the FEG and the DSE staff to combine their efforts and form a new promotion.

Their new promotion was confirmed on February 13, 2008, along with Hero's dissolution. All of Hero's' fighters were confirmed (such as Hero's champions Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, Yoshihiro Akiyama and JZ Calvan) to be part of the new promotion along with the additions of Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipović, Shinya Aoki, Kazushi Sakuraba, Mitsuhiro Ishida, and Hayato "Mach" Sakurai. Another notable announcement was Dream's partnership with M-1 Global, who confirmed that they would allow the last Heavyweight Champion of Pride (and the winner of the 2004 Heavyweight Grand Prix), Fedor Emelianenko, to fight in their events. Emelianenko was present at the Dream press conference to promote the alliance between the two shows.

Partnerships

On May 2, 2008, Dream aired for the first time in the United States with a repeat of Dream 1 on HDNet. A repeat of Dream 2 was aired the following day, while Dream 3 was aired live on May 11. The promotion's later events would air as a part of the network's HDNet Fights series.

On May 10, 2008, Dream announced the working partnership with US promotion EliteXC. The two groups intended to share fighters and eventually co-promote shows. However, with EliteXC went bankrupt before the alliance could materialize.

On August 5, 2009, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker announced that the two promotions had signed a formal alliance, in-which the two organizations will exchange fighters.

On, November 23, 2011, sources close to ONE Championship announced a new alliance with Dream to copromote shows and participate in fighter exchange.

On January 17, 2012 ProElite announced a partnership with Dream to copromote shows and exchange fighters.

Cease of business operations

On May 16, 2012, Sadaharu Tanikawa officially declared the bankruptcy of FEG. The promotion began to be managed by its proper parental company Real Entertainment Co. Ltd. and as of June 3, 2012, Dream has effectively gone out of business.

The promotion's final show, "Dream.18: Special NYE 2012", was announced for December 31, 2012, under the financial backing of kickboxing promotion Glory Sports International. The event promoted mixed martial arts and kickboxing bouts at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, carrying on the tradition of fight events every New Year's Eve.

Rules

Weight classes

Dream had 7 weight classes. Unlike Hero's, each weight class had a champion with a defendable title.

• Bantamweight – 61 kg
• Featherweight – 65 kg
• Lightweight – 70 kg
• Welterweight – 76 kg
• Middleweight – 84 kg
• Light Heavyweight – 93 kg
• Heavyweight – no upper limit

Round length

• There were three 5-minute rounds.

Judging

• Fights were to be judged in their entirety by three judges, not on a round-by-round ten-point-must basis (more common to North American promotions).
• A winner was always to be declared, as draws were not possible.

Attire

Dream allowed fighters latitude in their choice of attire, but open finger gloves, a mouthguard and a protective cup were mandatory. Fighters were allowed to use tape on parts of their body or to wear a gi top, gi pants, wrestling shoes, kneepads, elbow pads, or ankle supports at their own discretion, though each had to be checked by the referee before the fight.

Fouls and violations

• Stomps and soccer kicks to the head of a grounded opponent were not allowed (unless both fighters were on the ground), but they were allowed to the rest of the body.
• Elbows to the head were prohibited.
• If there was a 15 kg or more weight difference between the fighters, knees to the head of a grounded opponent were not allowed.
• A grounded opponent was defined as one in a three-point position. If a fighter had, for example, both knees and one hand on the floor facing the mat, then no kicks to the head were allowed.
• Strikes to the back of the head were not allowed.

Tournament substitutions

• In case of a "no contest" or injury, the fighter able to continue would go through to the next round; if neither fighter was able to continue, the promoter would choose a replacement fighter to go through.

Final champions

Main article: List of Dream champions

Tournament finalists

Notable fighters

Bantamweight

• USA Antonio Banuelos
• Japan Yoshiro Maeda
• Japan Hideo Tokoro
• Japan Kenji Osawa
• Japan Masakazu Imanari
• Japan Keisuke Fujiwara
• Japan Atsushi Yamamoto
• Brazil Bibiano Fernandes (Dream Bantamweight Champion)
• Brazil Rodolfo Marques

Featherweight

• Norway Joachim Hansen
• Japan Tatsuya Kawajiri
• Japan Hiroyuki Takaya (Dream Featherweight Champion)
• Japan Daiki Hata
• Japan Mitsuhiro Ishida
• Japan Akiyo Nishiura
• Japan Takeshi Inoue
• Japan Kazuhisa Watanabe
• Japan Kazuyuki Miyata
• Japan Caol Uno

Lightweight

• USA Rich Clementi
• USA Shane Nelson
• USA Drew Fickett
• USA Rob McCullough
• Brazil Andre Amade
• Brazil Willamy Freire
• Brazil Gesias Calvancante
• Brazil Vítor Ribeiro
• Brazil Marcus Aurélio
• Japan Shinya Aoki (Dream Lightweight Champion)
• Japan Daisuke Nakamura
• Japan Koutetsu Boku
• Japan Tatsuya Kawajiri
• Japan Katsunori Kikuno
• Japan Katsuhiko Nagata
• Japan Satoru Kitaoka

Welterweight

• Lithuania Marius Zaromskis (Dream Welterweight Champion)
• USA Jason High
• Belgium Tarec Saffiedine
• South Korea Jung Bu-Kyung
• Nigeria Andy Ologun
• Brazil Yan Cabral
• Japan Kazushi Sakuraba
• Japan Kuniyoshi Hironaka
• Japan Ryo Chonan
• Japan Hayato Sakurai
• Japan Yuya Shirai

Middleweight

• France Karl Amoussou
• Croatia Zelg Galesic
• USA Gerald Harris
• South Korea Dong Sik Yoon
• Japan Shungo Oyama
• Japan Taiei Kin
• Japan Kiyoshi Tamura
• Japan Kazuhiro Nakamura

Light Heavyweight

• Netherlands Gegard Mousasi (Dream Light Heavyweight Champion)
• NED Melvin Manhoef
• USA Ralek Gracie
• Cameroon Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
• Japan Tatsuya Mizuno
• Japan Hiroshi Izumi
• South Africa Trevor Prangley

Heavyweight

• New Zealand Mark Hunt
• France Jérôme Le Banner
• Russia Fedor Emelianenko
• USA Bob Sapp
• USA Todd Duffee
• USA Jeff Monson
• American Samoa Siala-Mou "Mighty Mo" Siliga
• UK James Thompson
• South Korea Hong Man Choi
• Japan Katsuyori Shibata
• Japan Satoshi Ishii
• Japan Ikuhisa Minowa
• Holland Alistair Overeem
• Croatia Mirko Cro Cop

Events

In America, the promotion was aired on HDNet.

Event locations

• Total event number: 24

These cities have hosted the following numbers of Dream events as of Dream 18:

• JPN Japan (24) : Saitama – 15 : Yokohama – 4 : Nagoya – 2 : Osaka – 2 : Tokyo - 1

References

References

1. (February 13, 2008). "K-1's new Dream includes Cro Cop". Mma Weekly.
2. Loiseleur, Tony. (February 13, 2008). "'Dream' Come True?". Sherdog.com.
3. "Mark Cuban's HDNET to air Japan's Dream". Mma Weekly.
4. (2008). "PRO ELITE & Dream ANNOUNCE PARTNERSHIP". MMAWeekly.
5. (September 2017). "Strikeforce and Dream Formalizing "Alliance"". MMAWeekly}}{{dead link.
6. (November 28, 2011). "Dream, One FC Announce Deal to Co-Promote Events, Exchange Talent". mmafighting.com.
7. (January 17, 2012). "ProElite to Partner With Dream". mmafighting.com.
8. link. (2012-06-09 , May 17, 2012, Muay Thai TV)
9. (June 3, 2012). "The Dream is Gone; Japanese MMA Promotion Runs Out of Viable Options". mmaweekly.com.
10. Gross, Josh. (October 25, 2012). "GSI fight card set for Dec. 31 in Japan". ESPN.com.
11. Loiseleur, Tony. (2011-04-20). "‘Dream: Fight For Japan’ Bantamweight Tournament Bracket Set". Sherdog.com.
12. (2008-02-14). "新格闘技イベント「Dream」誕生！ミルコの参戦も決定3.15さいたまで旗揚げ、総勢23選手が会見に出席". Sportsnavi.yahoo.co.jp.
13. (2012-10-24). "'GLORY teams up with Dream to stage 'Dream 18 - Special NYE 2012'". GLORYWorldSeries.com.
14. Tony Loiseleur. "Aoki Subs Hansen; Fernandes Wins Dream GP".
15. [http://sherdog.com/news/news/dream-run-zaromskis-wins-grand-prix-18622 Dream Run: Zaromskis Wins Grand Prix]
16. DiPietro, Monty. (March 8, 2009). "HELLO JAPAN! SHINYA AOKI WINS AT Dream 7". MMAWeekly.com.