Zaromskis Wins DREAM 2009 Welterweight Grand Prix

DREAM.10 was held yesterday in Japan and the even featured the finals of the 2009 DREAM Welterweight Grand Prix tournament.

The semifinal competitors included favorite Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, Andre Galvao, Marius Zaromskis, and Jason High.

In the semifinals Brazilian BJJ expert Andre Galvao was matched up against American Jason High. Galvao seemed to easily control the first round on the mat as he attempted numerous submission attempts but was unable to finish the fight.

In the second round, Jason High was able to keep the fight standing and picked apart the submission ace with strikes which gave him enough on the judges scorecards to win a split decision victory and advance to the finals.

DREAM.10 was expected to be a showcase event for crowd favorite Hayato Sakurai, but Marius Zaromskis had other plans. Zaromskis was all energy from the opening bell and opened up a cut over Sakurai’s left eye the forced a pause in the action to stop the bleeding.

When the match restarted, Zaromskis continued his high pace and dropped “Mach” Sakurai with a nice high kick where he finished the fight with a few more strikes.

In the finals, High and Zaromskis seemed to be at a stalemate early on as neither wanted to give too much room to his opponent. After some grappling back and forth on the mat, the fight was stood back up by the referee and Zaromskis saw his opening. Another beautiful high kick landed firmly on High’s chin and sent High to the mat unconscious.

In other action, Shinya Aoki defeated Vitor Ribeiro in an extremely boring standup fight between two of the best grapplers in MMA today.

Former WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho returned to action and appeared to be looking at another loss at the hands of Melvin Manhoef after a full eight month layoff. Filho ate several of Manhoef’s trademark power punches and hit the mat early on.

The Brazilian was able to withstand the punishment however and was able to take down the Dutchman later on in the round. Once Filho found himself in dominant position on the ground, it was only a matter of time before he secured an armbar submission to end the fight.

Below are the full results for DREAM.10

• Marius Zaromskis def. Jason High via KO – Rd 1
• Shinya Aoki def. Vitor Ribeiro via decision
• Jesse Taylor def. Dong Sik Yoon via TKO – Rd 1
• Paulo Fihlo def. Melvin Manhoef via submisison – Rd 1
• Katsunori Kikuno def. Andre Amade via TKO – Rd 1
• Jason High def. Andre Galvao via decision
• Marius Zaromskis def. Hayato Sakurai via TKO – Rd 1
• Tarec Saffiedine def. Seichi Ikemoto via decision