Fight-Sport Review 2: Mixed Martial Arts - DREAM.6

Well the day has come and gone, but I'll definitely remember Dream.6 for a long time. Dream is one of Japan's major Mixed Martial Arts promotions and during 2008 they've been hosting both a lightweight (155lbs) and middleweight (185 lbs) tournament of 16 fighters each to determine their first champions. The Lightweight Grand Prix finished in late July and at Dream.6 they would be holding the semi-finals and finals for the middleweight tournament, along with a number of other fighters. In total there were 12 fights and the show was set to start at 4:00. Yet, as I was reading Dream's website the night before, I realized that three of their most popular fighters (Fedor Emelianenko, Tatsuya Kawajiri, and Mitsuhiro Ishida) would be having a special fan greeting session with the first 300 fans to show up at the event.... And with that, I was out of the door bright and early.

They had the event about 40 minutes north of Tokyo by train in the city of Saitama, and more precisely, the Saitama Super Arena! The super arena was only recently constructed within the past 10 years and is home to a Gold's Gym and a John Lennon Museum as well as its main entertainment hall used for sporting events and popular concerts.
The Saitama Super Arena

When I arrived there were only about 80 people already there so I was a lock for the meet & greet session. First up was Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto - a featherweight fighter very famous in Japan since he comes from a prestigious Olympic family and also runs his own clothing line. He talked for a few minutes about rehabbing from his injury and then spoke with the fans.

After Kid Yamamoto left the podium, it was time for Fedor (mentioned in my previous post), Kawajiri (A semifinalist in the Lightweight GP) and Ishida (quarterfinalist in the lightweight GP) all made their way out for the meet & greet event.

I got to shake their hands and speak with each of them briefly, but the whole atmosphere during the fan fest was really exciting with people cheering and shouting out words of support to the fighters. At the conclusion, all three fighter announced they will be participating at Dream's New Years' Eve Show - the biggest event of the year in Japan.

...Now the show itself began as usual with an artistic intro video followed up with a pyrotechnics show while announcing the participants for the night's match ups. As seen below...

My seats were about 10 rows from the ring and I had some great views of all the action throughout the night. It wasn't a full sellout but it looked like 90% of the seats were filled and the announced attendance was 25,000. While the fights took place, all the fans are dead silent and you can really hear a pin drop - it made the action even more exciting as you could hear every punch and kick very clearly and crisply.

Taking a page out of Pro-Wrestling's handbook, Dream has a huge entrance ramp and lighting show for each of the fighters when they make their way to the ring. A lot of the fighters come out dancing to their music or choreographing some skit to entertain the fans. Dutch Kickboxing specialist Melvin Manhoef came to the ring like a chained dog!

Many of the foreign fighters didn't get too many cheers while the hometown Japanese fighters had large cheering sections. The only fighter to receive Boos was Yoshihiro Akiyama, a 2nd Generation Korean living in Japan who was caught greasing himself in both a judo competition and a MMA match in the past. There is no tolerance for cheaters in Japan and it certainly isn't helping Akiyama that he is Korean so he has become the fighter that fans love to hate in Japan. (At the same rate he is very well known in Japan's pop culture because he has a famous wife and has a budding singing career).

Akiyama's trademark bow & apology before entering the ring

In the final match of the night, Brazilian Ronaldo Souza (Jiu Jitsu specialist) faced Gegard Mousasi (well rounded kick-boxer), in the Middleweight GP final. Mousasi won the fight in dramatic fashion, knocking Souza out cold with an upkick from the ground that landed directly on Souza's chin. At only 22 years old, the half Dutch half Armenian, became Dream's first middleweight champion after beating four of the toughest fighters throughout the tournament. I was happy with it since he was my favorite fighter in the tournament and seemed like a nice & humble guy.

champion: Gegard Mousasi

Singing autographs after winning

Dream.6 ended up lasting about 6 hours in total, including the 40 minute intermission between the fights. I had an amazing time there and hope to go to more of their shows in the future. It was great talking to some of the Japanese fans at the show about MMA and also practicing my limited Japanese phrases with them. What a day!