Planet Tapout 05.07.08: How Well Can Dream Do?
Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 05.07.2008
Two Dream events down and so far Pride-lite hasn't done a bad job. But how long can it last? In the latest edition of Planet Tapout, 411Mania's Lotfi Sariahmed delves into the Japanese organization and looks into the future!
Welcome to the MMA column that always plays to its fans. It's Planet Tapout here at 411Mania.com and I am the man who would also lower ticket prices to make sure my fans get in (if you were paying anything to begin with), Lotfi Sariahmed. As always before we get to the column, lets head over to the Mailbag!
Mailbag!
The appropriately named "Guest" starts us off on Dream's MWGP after I said I was less than thrilled with it last week.
That may be true (about the MWGP), but I still plan on seeing how Mousasi fares
against dongbars. And Sakuraba-Tamura, as well as a possible Jacare-Sakuraba.
Well after his win over Kang, Mousasi has turned into a nice little story now hasn't he? He's become one of the prohibitive favorites ("Mayhem" being the other if he wins) and for as deadly as the "Dongbars" may be, I like Mousasi to beat Yoon Dong-Sik. A Sakuraba v. Tamura fight has to happen, though pardon me if I don't go nuts over it. Overall though I still stand by what I said last week…I'm not thrilled about it.
"Guest" continues on with his thoughts on the "WFC" (go read the column if you don't know).
Almost forgot:
1) I thought merging the WEC into the UFC was seriously being considered?
2) It would have to be a merger (as opposed to the consolidation suggested in
this article). Why eliminate the UFC brand?
3) Filho and Silva won't fight, seeing as how they're both affiliated with
Black House (and Filho isn't Roy Jones, Jr).
4) If this were to happen, I don't see why they should keep a second set of
belts to use in the LW-LHW divisions. If anything they'll be treated like the
PRIDE belts of Henderson and Nogueira.
5) What will become of Frank Mir and Todd Harris' commentary?
Since you gave us a list, lets deal with these points in order. I have heard the rumors as well about the WEC and UFC merging so it wasn't as if I was pulling something out of midair for last week's column. If this merge were to happen of course you'd just keep the UFC brand. The WEC has been around for a week (I know it's been longer) so Zuffa would bring the fighters into the UFC and just say they came from the WEC, which also touches on your 4th point. What Zuffa would do with the WEC belts is exactly what they did with the UFC belts. Brian Stann would fight Quinton Jackson to "unify" the belts. Of course you'd never actually see the WEC belt but that's another issue all together. As for the commentary team of Mir and Harris…I don't know. One can only hope they form some crazy four man tag of some kind where Mir and Harris would split broadcasts with Goldberg and Rogan. And finally yes, Filho and Silva will not fight. But that doesn't mean this guy can't dream does it?
Finally this week in the mailbag, Jamie chimes in on the potential merger.
I have heard that they will be absorbing the redundant weights into the UFC.
Not sure where that leaves WEC - but I am guessing that 135 and 145 would stay
put, and I would guess that 125 would come along next.
Another thing they could do is add super heavy - see how marketable it is.
They could also try the 225 class everyone pushes for.
Maybe Dana will finally give women's MMA a shot.
See Jamie I think it would be an all or nothing thing if the UFC decides to go the route of this merger. Why run a whole separate organization based on those two, maybe three, potential weight classes? Instead, why not add two more belts to what the UFC already has so that way you'd never run the risk of being without a title fight on a PPV (UFC 85 for example). I think it does the UFC more good to bring everything in. As for a super heavyweight division, I've never been keen on the idea. Mainly because you'd just have out of shape guys filling it up. I wouldn't mind putting no limit on the weight class and that would allow for guys like a Hunt or Pele or even an Antonio Silva to eventually come in and compete. But there's no need for an entirely separate division. And finally about giving women's MMA a shot in the UFC. I don't see Dana White ever doing it…that is unless Gina Carano suddenly became available and he would then claim he was the man behind the boom in women's MMA. But I digress…
You know how it works by now. Email remains the same. I know you have takes. Let me know. It's PlanetTapout@gmail.com . Now lets get started shall we?
So the third installment of PRIDE-lite (Dream for those of you that missed the joke) is set for this Sunday. Dream's had its fair share of trouble getting on TV in Japan and only recently finished up its deal to be broadcast on HDNet here in the states. But it's early, so you don't want to judge Dream's potential success based on what it accomplished during its TV negotiations. It's also entered a market in which Sengoku is competing for some of the top MMA stars still out there. In addition, it's on relatively equal footing with Sengoku when it comes to competing for the MMA market share in Japan. And don't forget, K-1 is still the #1 show when it comes to combat in Japan. So with all that said, how successful can Dream really end up being?
Well it's hard to complain about Dream's first show. It was the start of a lightweight grand prix with some of the best in the world at the weight. Calvancante, Aoki, Kawajiri and Ishida are all worthy of being in or at least close to Top 10 status at the weight. Then there was "Buscape" Firmino, Eddie Alvarez, Kotetsu Boku and Joachim Hansen too. This was all just part of the lightweight tourney. They also had Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic starting his long road back to become "Cro Cop" again and Hayato Sakurai as well. So really there wasn't too much to complain about at least going in. Of course we can't hold Dream responsible for what happened in the Calvancante v. Aoki fight the first time around but it gave them the opportunity for a rematch. Now, this lightweight grand prix will continue on Sunday serving as the highlight to its Dream 3 card. On the card you have Kawajiri taking on "Buscape," Ishida taking on Caol Uno and the best of the three bouts sees Eddie Alvarez battling Joachim Hansen. But there are some other fights on this card as well. Jason "Mayhem" Miller takes on Katsuyori Shibata in the last fight of the opening round of the MWGP. There's also Melvin Manhoef and Nick Diaz in action on this card.
For those of you that have been paying attention you may have noticed I skipped over the middleweight grand prix that started Dream 2. Don't worry, there's a reason behind my madness. For as strong as the lightweight grand prix is, I question just how good Dream can be outside of the lightweight GP. Unless I missed something entirely, Dream will be highlighted by these big tournaments in each weight class. So far they have scheduled up through the middleweight finale. But I think its safe to assume a welterweight; light heavyweight and heavyweight GP will follow.
But I've already touched on my worries about this middleweight GP and what it could possibly mean for Dream moving forward. We're looking at a potential final four of the middleweight GP featuring Jacare, Mousasi, "Mayhem," and Kiyoshi Tamura. It's not bad by any stretch but none of those guys are definitive Top 10 fighters. How much of this is Dream's fault is debatable but lets look at what this means down the road. Lets say Dream decides to put on a welterweight GP next. Who are they going to bring in? Is Aoki going to move up to compete at 170? All the top 10 fighters are either Zuffa or EliteXC owned. I mean they MIGHT get Matt Hughes to come over after he's retired but at best you have two guys of any sort of stature. Drew Fickett makes three and Nick Diaz would give you four because he just always seems to be on (or scheduled to be on) MMA cards in Japan. But you understand my point, for a promotion to be successful it needs fighters. The lightweights are there but who else is there?
How about at light heavyweight? Well this is where Dream can benefit from the UFC's letting go of so many fighters. If things fall right for Dream, maybe they could pull Tito Ortiz. Dream will almost certainly get the loser of the Nakamura v. Sokoudjou fight at UFC 84. A Rogerio Nogueira is a possibility here too along with Renato "Babalu" Sobral. So there you may have four fighters but as you can see we're stretching here.
It's at heavyweight where things can get VERY interesting. Josh Barnett is out there, Tim Sylvia is out there, Ben Rothwell is out there and the list goes on. Andrei Arlovski, Sergei Kharitonov, Alistair Overeem and these guys named Fedor and Randy Couture…you may have heard of them.
So there's talent out there. But can promotions work together to get something like this done? You hear all this talk about how every organization is willing to cross-promote but it really hasn't happened. I spoke to Jay Larkin last week and he said everyone is trying to protect its own little piece of land. But if Dream were to put on this heavyweight grand prix, it might be the first significant step these smaller promotions are taking to try and unseat the power that is Zuffa.
But back to the matter at hand here, for Dream to be successful it needs the fighters. You can't put on grand prix tournaments with sixteen fighters and only two or three big names per tournament. You can't be successful that way. Dream has the opportunity to succeed, but a lot lies in the hands of other organizations.
That's it for this week on Planet Tapout! Don't forget to check out ESPN's E:60 tonight (if you're reading this on Tuesday). Gina Carano and everyone's favorite Kimbo are set to be on.
I'm a fan of the comments and emails so feel free too so send them my way. The email address is PlanetTapout@gmail.com .
Make sure you come back next Tuesday for another edition of Planet Tapout! This week in MMA gives us a PFC card on the 8th. The MFC and PureCombat give us cards on the 9th and then of course there's the Dream card on the 11th. Enjoy the fights everyone.
