DREAM’s Middleweight Grand Prix set to take place during the second event on April 29 has made some big updates to their card since I last visited it some weeks ago. The more name recognizable news from casual fans is the addition of Ronaldo Jacare vs. Frank “Twinkletoes” Trigg to the Grand Prix along with Magomed Sultanakhmadov vs. Zelg Galesic, and Yoon Dong “Dongbar” Sik vs. Shungo Oyama. Oh yeah… Minowaman is also in there taking on Kin Taiei. The word on the street is that Yoshihiro Akiyama and Daniel Acacio may make entrances into the Grand Prix as well to round out the field, and Marcelo Garcia is rumored to be at least fighting at the event in a non-GP bout.
Although DREAM had some poor ratings in their last show, this is definitely looking to be a great show for hardcore fans and should pick up in ratings from their last event. Jacare is a world-class grappling champion while Trigg is an older UFC/PRIDE veteran with a spark of life still left in his wrestling ability. Although fans coined the moniker “Rear Naked Trigg” to his name for his losses in the UFC, Trigg still remains a very good fighter for his age and his abilities. Jacare will be a very tough challenge, and it should be interesting to see if he can handle the dynamic grappling from Jacare. One disadvantage that Jacare won’t have is the fact that he has actually been fighting MMA for quite some time, unlike fellow champion grappler Marcelo Garcia who lost his first MMA bout.
Yoon Dong Sik finally makes a return to the ring after a small layoff after his win over Fabio Silva at the K-1 Olympia Hero’s event in October of last year. At 3-4, his record fools most fans into believing he isn’t a good fighter, but his first 4 bouts were against top tier competition. He now seems to be blasting through the middleweights in Japan, and we could finally see some big names up against his controlling judo and jiu-jitsu skills on the ground.
With the potential for seeing Tamura, Kang, Mousasi, Trigg, Jacare, Dong Sik Yoon, Galesic, and potentially Akiyama in the Grand Prix in bouts facing one another, this should make for a very entertaining DREAM event. Hopefully the super bouts will also begin to materialize soon.