Cage Talk – MMA – All The Latest Mixed Martial Arts News

(VidProps: YouTube/evilbyte)

Give the DREAM bosses some credit, these guys sure know how to build suspense into what otherwise might be a fairly straightforward and pleasing night of MMA fights. As it turned out, there was no surprise run-in from Alistair Overeem and the Japanese promotion with the fly-by-the-seat-of-its pants matchmaking style never found a fight for Ricco Rodriguez. We hope it paid for the flight and the sushi, at least.  On the bright side, DREAM finally did manage to convince Gegard Mousasi to put in the 31 seconds of work it took to defeat an overweight Jake O’Brien and Shinya Aoki likewise bounced back from an embarrassing loss in Strikeforce a few months ago to put a quick and typically stoic beating on Tatsuya Kawajiri.

Like “Sweet and Sassy,” Aoki called it an early night, withstanding some heel kicks to the face as he locked up an Achilles lock that secured the tap and appeared to damage his Kawajiri’s leg in just one minute, 53 seconds. A couple of days after possibly declaring his bi-sexuality at the event’s weigh-in (we assume he was being ironical), Aoki ditched his trademark colorful tights for relatively conservative board shorts and rushed from the ring following his win to get some lovin’ from his (possibly female) fiancé.

After the jump, O’Brien vs. Mousasi, where it will take you all of the first 15 seconds to see why the American had a little trouble making weight …

read more

News DREAM, dream.15, Gegard Mousasi, Melvin Manhoef, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

(That little son-of-a-bitch is at it again... / 'Shop courtesy of urdirt)

Alistair Overeem won't be beating anybody up, but this Saturday's DREAM event — which will be broadcast live on HDNet at 3 a.m. ET / midnight PT — will still be good for some late-night thrills, so set those DVRs, kiddies. In the main event, Shinya Aoki defends his DREAM lightweight belt (and attempts to bounce back from his humiliation in Strikeforce) against fellow Japanese mainstay Tatsuya "Crusher" Kawajiri, who's on a four-fight win streak and hasn't been submitted in five years. Also on the card, Gegard Mousasi and Melvin Manhoef headline that kinda-pointless mini-LHWGP, Mitushiro Ishida makes his featherweight debut against Daiki Hata, Michihiro Omigawa gets fed a can, and Gesias Cavalcante looks for his first win in three years against Katsunori Kikuno. If you'd like to make it interesting, head over to fightpicker.cagepotato.com (or apps.facebook.com/fightpicker) to make your predictions. This week's pool-questions are...

read more

News Announcement, dream.15, MMA FightPicker, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

(Ricco Rodriguez: From flab to fab.)

Two months after his beatdown of Brett Rogers at Heavy Artillery, Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem will return to competition at DREAM.15 (July 10th, Saitama), where he'll take on former UFC heavyweight champ Ricco Rodriguez in a non-title bout. While that may sound like Alistair is getting back to his Japanese squash-match roots, keep in mind that Rodriguez is on a seven-fight win streak since last July (six of which came by stoppage), including victories over veterans Travis Fulton and Moise Rimbon. He also looks a lot better physically these days (see above), and competed in the 218-pound division at last year's ADCCs.

Can Rodriguez use Overeem as a springboard to a career rebirth? No, probably not — but he could impress a lot of people just by giving Overeem a tough fight and not spitting on anybody. In a related story, Ricco is no longer listed for that 7/18 Impact FC fight against Jeff Monson, which is unfortunate because you can bet that Paulo Filho and Ken Shamrock will be dropping out at the last minute...

read more

News Alistair Overeem, dream.15, Gegard Mousasi, Jake OBrien, Ricco Rodriguez, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Lightweights

The UFC lightweight championship has changed hands and the Strikeforce champion has beaten the Dream champion since we last ranked the MMA lightweights, but that has muddied the top of the rankings more than it has clarified things.

For starters, there's the issue of Frankie Edgar beating B.J. Penn: I now consider Edgar the best lightweight in the world, but at the same time I suspect that they'll have a rematch this year, and that Penn will win. So I'm not real confident in my top choice.

And then there's Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez dominating Dream champion Shinya Aoki. Melendez, to his credit, wasn't trying to claim after the fight that he's now the best lightweight in the sport, but he did make the argument that he's in the top three, presumably meaning along with Edgar and Penn. I don't have him quite that high, but I do have him moving up my latest lightweight ranking, which is below.

News B.J. Penn, Eddie Alvarez, Frank Edgar, George Sotiropoulos, Gilbert Melendez, Gray Maynard, Kenny Florian, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Tyson Griffin

Filed under: DREAM, News, Japan

Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Alistair Overeem, Katsunori Kikuno, Gegard Mousasi and Melvin Manhoef are all confirmed participants for DREAM.15 on July 10 at the Saitama Super Arena, DREAM Event Producer Keiichi Sasahara and FEG President Sadaharu Tanikawa announced Thursday.

While no match ups were announced, a lightweight title match between Shinya Aoki and Tatsuya Kawajiri seems likely given the event title of "A Fated Rivalry Bout, Realized."

News Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

Filed under: DREAM, interview, Japan

Shinya Aoki has not allowed me to take a decent photo of him in over a year. Every time I ask him for a photo he covers his face. I have never had any problems with him, and we used to have a good working relationship. It wasn't just me though, it was all foreign press. I have often wondered what caused this dramatic change in attitude.

Watching the signing ceremony for his title fight against Tatsuya Kawajiri at DREAM.15, I noticed that he was doing the same thing with the Japanese media. On Thursday, a member of the Japanese press commented on it.

"At the signing ceremony you had the aura that it was difficult for us to get close to you..."

Aoki commented without looking up.

"Well I don't feel any different now."

News dream.15, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

Filed under: DREAM, Strikeforce, News, Japan

Two of the fighters who lost lopsided decisions on April's Strikeforce card on CBS bounced back with impressive victories Saturday at Dream 15 in Saitama, Japan.

In the main event, Dream lightweight champion Shinya Aoki submitted Tatsuya Kawajiri to retain his title, looking as good as he ever has three months after looking as bad as he ever had in a loss to Gilbert Melendez.

Aoki, wearing board shorts rather than his trademark spandex grappling pants, immediately took the fight to the ground and went for one of his signature foot lock submissions, twisting and turning Kawajiri's leg for a full minute on the ground before Kawajiri finally had to tap out. There was nothing more to it than that, as Aoki -- Japan's biggest MMA star -- did exactly what he wanted to do.

---

---

News dream.15, Gegard Mousasi, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

Filed under: DREAM

---

---

News dream.15, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

Filed under: DREAM, Results, Japan

MMAFighting.com has complete Dream.15 results of Shinya Aoki vs. Tatsuya Kawajiri and the six other fights on the July 10 card happening from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

On the heels of a devastating loss to Gilbert Melendez in a Strikeforce championship bout last April, Aoki is back in action in Japan to defend his Dream lightweight belt against rival Kawajiri.

Full Dream.15 results are below.

News dream.15, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri

Filed under: DREAM, UFC, Strikeforce, Rankings, Lightweights

The UFC might not have a better main event all year than it had in its first main event of the year, as Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard fought for 25 furious minutes and showed why they're the two best lightweights in the world.

Is it disappointing that Edgar-Maynard ended up a draw? In a sense, it's always disappointing, in any competition, not to see a definitive winner. But this time the draw was the right decision (I scored it 47-47) Fortunately, the UFC made the right decision and said after the fight that Edgar and Maynard will get it on one more time to determine who's No. 1.

At the moment, Edgar and Maynard are 1-2 on my list and just about everyone else's. Take a look at how the rest of the lightweight rankings stack up below.

News Anthony Pettis, Eddie Alvarez, Frankie Edgar, George Sotiropoulos, Gilbert Melendez, Gray Maynard, Jim Miller, Kenny Florian, Shinya Aoki, Tatsuya Kawajiri