By Kelsey Mowatt As many MMA observers expected, Gegard Mousasi had little difficulty defeating Tatsuya Mizuno today in Nagoya, Japan, adding a second Dream championship to his growing trophy collection.
Mizuno came out aggressively to begin the light-heavyweight grand prix finale, but a calm Mousasi effectively avoided the Japanese fighter’s strikes and eventually took the bout to the mat. Although the former Dream middleweight champ was forced to defend himself from a couple of Mizuno’s submission attempts, Mousasi dominated the action with hard strikes from the top position. Eventually Mizuno gave up his neck during a scramble and Mousasi closed out the deal with a rear-naked-choke.
Jason “Mayhem” Miller (pictured above) got his pre-fight wish, as the charismatic fighter tapped out his idol, Japanese legend Kazushi Sakuraba, with a first round, arm-triangle-choke. After a few striking exchanges, Sakuraba began looking for a takedown, but found himself working from his back. Sakuraba spun in an attempt to lock up one of Miller’s legs, but the middleweight countered nicely and began raining down punches on the aging fighter. When Sakuraba attempted to make his move out from the precarious position, Miller beautifully transitioned into the fight ending choke, to hand the veteran his first submission loss since 1996.
Dream Lightweight Champion Shinya Aoki worked his way to a Unanimous Decision victory over Marcus Aurelio, and although it was far from one of the submission wizard’s more entertaining performances, it was a dominant one nonetheless. Aoki consistently took Aurelio to the mat and secured a tight body-triangle from the top position, before punishing the UFC vet with strikes. Aurelio managed to escape on a couple of occasions, but was largely unable to launch any effective opposition of his own, throughout the fight.
OlympicJudo Gold Medalist Satoshi Ishii scored an important win over Ikuhisa Minowa in his still young MMA career, controlling and outscoring the veteran from the top position for the Unanimous Decision victory. Although Ishii was considerably larger than Minowa and had a clear advantage in that respect, the highly touted prospect impressed with nicely timed sweeps and an active top game.
Here are the results for Dream 16:
Gegard Mousasi def. Tatsuya Mizuno via Submission (rear-naked choke) - R1, 6:10
"Mayhem" Miller def. Kazushi Sakuraba via Submission (arm-triangle choke) - R1, 2:09
Shinya Aoki def. Marcus Aurelio via Unanimous Decision
Satoshi Ishii def. Ikuhisa Minowa via Unanimous Decision
Hiroyuki Takaya def. Chase Beebe via KO (punches) - R1, 1:45
Michihiro Omigawa def. Cole Escovedo via Submission (armbar) - R1, 2:30
Joachim Hansen def. Hideo Tokoro via Submission (triangle choke) - R1, 2:48
Kazuyuki Miyata def. Takeshi "Lion" Inoue via Unanimous Decision
Mitsuhiro Ishida def. Akiyo "Wicky" Nishiura via Split Decision
Yusuke Kawaguchi def. James Thompson via Split Decision
