Dream 12 Roundup: Exciting Fights in a Cage of White

Hey MMA fans! Over here! Look to the east. There was another big fight on Saturday night. Dream 12 showcased the new gleaming white cage complete with fisherman net weave rope instead of a metal fence. The fights were not scored round by round, but by which fighter tried the hardest to finish the fight.

Chase Beebe vs. Yoshiro Maeda

Maeda looked impressive with such a quick submission and was one of the highlights of the first two hours. It was also the first fight where the cage had a real impact on the match.

Yoshiro was really light on his feet and threw some great combos, looking like a mini Asian Anderson Silva for a few seconds there. Ping-Pong indeed.

Nice catch by the ref when he threw his mouth piece, too!

Tarec Saffiedine vs. Dong Sik Yoon

This fight really showed the flaw in the full bout scoring. Though Dong looked great in round II, and Tarec took round I and III, the match went to Dong Bar, I assume for his intent to finish and his ground and pound in round II.

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Zelg Glesic

Glesic came out to Vanilla Ice, which is never a good omen. Sakuraba weathered a storm of blows on the ground, trying for every submission in the book, until he finally pulled out a punishing kneebar early in the first round.

For a moment, I thought I was watching PRIDE again. Classic.

Marius Zaromskis vs. Myeon Ho Bae

Quick. A brutal chest kick dropped Bae fast.

Zaromskis is a force and I wonder how long he will stay with dream.

Eddie Alvarez vs. Katsunori Kikuno

Solid action here, though both fighters seemed to be gassed halfway through the fight. It basically came down to Kikuno not being up to the challenge of Alvarez's submission skills.

Alistair Overeem vs. James Thompson

Overeem is on steroids. Machida vs. Shogun, this ain't. I felt sorry for Thompson, though it was funny that he was singing Overeem's entrance song. Kind of lame that there wasn't even a decent shot fired.

Overall, comparing D12 to UFC 104, one would have to say 104 squeaks by with the slightly better show, but with less diversity, and certainly less flare. This is largely due to poor officiating from the UFC crew and a lackluster title bout with a controversial ending.

DREAM is on a budget, but damn if they don't stretch that design and production dollar to give the fans a show. But where were the fans?

The worst thing about the show was the lack of atmosphere. Well into the "business end" of the ticket one could look out into the crowd and see a lot of empty red seats.

I hope Japan hasn't given up on MMA, because it's a great contrast to the problems in the UFC.