11 Participants Announced! Detailed DREAM 2009 Schedule
11 participants for the DREAM Featherweight GP were announced today. The only surprises are Hiroyuki Takaya and very talented Greco-Roman Wrestler Joe Warren who received a two-year doping suspension in 2007 when he failed a drug test (for the second time) which made him miss the 2008 Olympics. The rest are as expected and it looks like another quality Featherweight GP.
Update #1: DREAM EP Sasahara said that the participation of KID is still undecided. If he participates he will probably be seeded into the second round. If he doesn’t, there will be 8 FWGP fights in March.
Update #2: The weight of the GP will be announced next week. It will most likely be around 63-63.5 kg.
DREAM 2009 Schedule:
March 8th: DREAM.7 – Featherweight GP 1st Round (Saitama Super Arena)
April 5th: DREAM.8 – Welterweight GP 1st Round (Nippon Gaishi Hall)
May: DREAM.9 – Featherweight GP 2nd Round (Somewhere in Kanto)
July 20th: DREAM.10 – Welterweight GP Finals (Saitama Super Arena)
September: DREAM.11 – Featherweight GP Finals (Somewhere in Kanto)
October: DREAM.12 (Not decided)
December 31st: Dynamite!! (Saitama Super Arena)
HEIWA DREAM.7 Featherweight GP 2009 1st Round
Date: March 8th, 2009
Place: Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan
Featherweight GP Participants:
Masakazu Imanari
Hiroyuki Takaya
Takafumi Otsuka
Hideo Tokoro
Wicky Akiyo
Atsushi Yamamoto
Bibiano Fernandes
Micah Miller
Chase Beebe
Joe Warren
Kim Jong Won
SHOJI/DJ.taiki
Possible Participants:
Gegard Mousasi
Melvin Manhoef
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Sweetness. Excellent to have some of the names confirmed. Once they start matching people up the GP will really get exciting. I want to see Akiyo and Tokoro do good here.
wonder why KID is being a douche. any word on what people think about Kid not being announced?
Dude, KID had serious knee surgery and that takes a long time to recover from. He might just not be ready.
true, im still wondering what ppl in Japan think about hem maybe not fighting in a GP that he is being offered a first round bye too, that might of been constructed strictly for hem.
The casual fans probably think he is still injured (which might be true) as Sasahara said. Some hardcore fans probably think it’s because he wants to go to Zuffa maybe, some might think that DREAM sponsors are giving them a hard time because of KID’s marijuana thing.
If its the marajuana thing, I’m sure once Kid shows up and fights, the sponsors won’t complain anymore when the ratings go up
The ratings don’t matter, it’s bad publicity. Being associated with someone like that. It’s not like PRIDE had bad ratings before they lost their tv deal, but FujiTV were pressed to end the deal because of the bad press they were gonna receive for being associated with a yakuza org.