After last week’s DREAM 6 show, it appears that the HERO’S/Pride hybrid’s first year as a promotion has ended with two champions crowned—Joachim Hansen (lightweight) and Gegard Mousasi (middleweight)—and a heavyweight division in disarray and completely up in the air. Now K-1’s itinerary includes the final rounds of the World-MAX and K-1 World Grand Prix tourneys, and of course the New Year’s Eve Dynamite!! show. As of now it’s not official whether DREAM will host its own New Year’s Eve show, so for now K-1’s is the only NYE show in Japan with DREAM fighters and MMA fights obviously to be on the card. This week is my list of suggestions for NYE and if you have a problem with most of them being dream matches (hint, hint), just remember that NYE is about dream matches and getting as big of a T.V. rating as possible.
Fedor Emelianenko Vs. Mirko Cro Cop II
This is strictly a ratings match as the two are on completely different sides of the ability spectrum at this point. Their first fight did help draw a big T.V. rating at the time and was an instant fight of the year candidate. A fight this time around would likely be over in the first round with the Russian once again victorious; but it would do a pretty good rating at least.
Alistair Overeem Vs. Mirko Cro Cop II
This seems to be the most likely scenario for Cro Cop as I doubt he’s ready or even wanting a fight with Fedor at this point and this issue does need to be resolved. To their credit, Overeem and Cro Cop did a good job in hyping their fight as more than it was, and Cro Cop’s offering to fight Kharitonov as well as Overeem last Tuesday was comedy gold, but may have brought about the groin shots he received. At the same time, despite two cut open eyes, other than the fact that Overeem had an easy time taking Cro Cop down, there was no indication that he wasn’t going to be able to get out of round one until the groin shots came into play. It’s an easy call and with an extra couple of months for Overeem to bash Cro Cop and talk about ending his career, and Cro Cop to talk about redemption and somehow reviving his career, it could create an interesting draw.
Kazushi Sakuraba Vs. Rickson Gracie
Why hasn’t this one happened already? This is still and will be THE dream match for Japanese MMA fans, and maybe all MMA insiders, until Sakuraba retires. It’s the only Sakuraba/Gracie fight that didn’t take place when it should’ve—when it would’ve broken records I’m sure. Plus, if this one doesn’t happen this NYE it likely never will, and if it doesn’t happen, then Rickson must either fight Yoshida on the January 4 WVR show or just stay out of the public eye content with his retirement and legacy as it is. Would this fight be good? Back in 2000 or 2001 it would’ve been at the top of the MMA world—like Sakuraba/Funaki would’ve been. But now, it would likely be a let down—like Sakuraba/Funaki from last NYE—or a replay of Sakuraba/Royce from the L.A. Coliseum. And while most dream matches in the MMA and pro wrestling worlds are letdowns, the difference is that people enjoy seeing a dream match happen more than the quality of the match itself. In this case, that would also apply.
Kazushi Sakuraba Vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
And really why hasn’t this one happened already? Considering the fact that these guys were in the same wrestling (UWFi) and MMA (Pride) promotions for nearly ten years, the fact that this one hasn’t happened already is more disappointed than puzzling. While Sakuraba is in the final years of his career due to taking more than a few beatings, Tamura is still in relatively good shape and has shown as much in the ring in the past few years. Plus, with all the talk about the need for ratings and bigger paid attendances, etc. this fight would seem to be a definite. Am I saying it would sell-out Saitama by itself? No, but it would help the cause in a great way and draw a hell of a T.V. rating that much I am sure of. Despite the fact that there may be another year or two at best that this fight could happen, this is the time and NYE and Saitama is the place for these two to finally hook up in an MMA ring as opposed to only in a wrestling ring. This fight should not become a what if like Yoshida/Sakuraba or Rickson/Sakuraba or Rickson/Yoshida because these two are in the same promotion, it’s a big show, it’s native vs. native (always the biggest draw for tickets and T.V.), and it’s legend vs. legend in Japan. Since the event itself is in Japan, this fight happening should be a formality.
Royce Gracie Vs. Masakatsu Funaki
If Royce is going to fight on NYE, this is the best and biggest drawing fight he could have. While Funaki’s comeback may have just been given its first breath of life in submitting Minowa in under a minute, the name is still legendary and can still draw as evident by the fact that his return fight last NYE with Sakuraba helped draw nearly 48,000, a number that would’ve been much lower if Funaki’s name meant absolutely nothing. Yes, his name doesn’t mean squat compared to what it used to, but you put Royce and Funaki out there and you can show all the old footage you need to and people are going to take to this fight for the same reasons as mentioned with Sakuraba/Tamura: people love dream matches and love seeing them for the sake of seeing them. In this case, neither man has anything better to look forward to and if Royce wants one more fight, it might as well be as high profile and against as high profile an opponent that’s not ten years younger than him right?
Kazushi Sakuraba Vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama II
If the Tamura fight doesn’t happen for Sakuraba, this one should. A potentially great Dynamite!! main-event and a crowning moment for Akiyama were both taken away when it was discovered that Akiyama had illegally applied body lotion causing Sakuraba to cry out at the referee several times during the fight that “[Akiyama is] slippery!” The fight was later ruled a no contest and Akiyama was suspended indefinitely from HERO’S even though he did return about 10 months later. The reason this fight should happen (if possible) is the same reason Cro Cop/Overeem II should happen: there’s still something to be resolved. Sakuraba and Akiyama were supposed to meet in ’06 in HERO’S light heavyweight tourney, but couldn’t because Sakuraba collapsed during training thus setting up their NYE fight. And through all of that, nothing was accomplished or resolved as we still don’t know if Akiyama could make that step in beating a legend, and if Akiyama is going to be one of the guys to lead DREAM even if it’s just from a drawing standpoint, we should know if he can beat Sakuraba since there was already one match that was supposed to decide that.
Joachim Hansen (c) Vs. Eddie Alvarez II (DREAM Lightweight Title)
I made reference to this being a potential NYE fight right after Hansen won DREAM’s lightweight title because he won it as a reserve after being eliminated from the tournament replacing the man who had eliminated him. In that one, long sentence I gave all the hype this fight would need because that’s really all there is to it. Hansen is a fixture in Japan as his whole career has been in the land of the rising sun, and Alvarez is slowly becoming a fan favorite in DREAM because of his two fight of the year candidates during the tournament: the semifinal against Kawajiri that saw Alvarez develop the eye injury that kept him out of the finals, and the quarterfinal against Hansen.
Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto Vs. Hideo Tokoro
You want big T.V. ratings? How about two of Japan’s favorite fighters—and one who’s a T.V. ratings magnet—hooking it up on NYE? I can’t go too into this one because of Yamamoto’s injury and status for NYE still very up in the air. If “Kid” fights on NYE, this is the fight it should be, as people don’t look for easy opponents for their big names on big shows. DREAM 6 was a good example of just having the big names on the card isn’t always enough, most of the time you need to have star power on both sides of the ring.
Semmy Schilt Vs. Anybody (Kickboxing or MMA)
When you look up the term “career reclamation,” the career of Semmy Schilt should be there. For a guy who’s record in MMA had spiraled to 23-14 by his elimination in Pride’s 2004 heavyweight grand prix, Schilt returned to K-1 and Kickboxing where he would become the first to ever win three straight K-1 World Grand Prix titles. He was just eliminated this past weekend and can’t win a fourth straight, but all that means is that Schilt has extra time to prepare if he’s got a fight NYE. Since K-1 is promoting the show I see no reason, barring an injury in training, that Schilt wouldn’t be on the show since he’s no longer in the tournament. And since he’s no longer in the tournament, that means he would have more of an option as to have an MMA fight or Kickboxing. Odds are he’d go with Kickboxing as Schilt has had only two MMA fights in the last four years (he won both). Whatever the case may be, the options are out there as to an opponent as if he were to be in an MMA fight he could fight Kharitonov or anyone K-1 could get to come in. And if it were Kickboxing, the number of potential opponents only gets bigger and Schilt’s K-1 Super Heavyweight Title comes into play as Schilt has defended it successfully twice this year and a third on the final day of the year could prove to be a reality.
Melvin Manhoef Vs. Dong Sik Yoon
With Manhoef not winning the middleweight tourney, but beating Sakuraba badly, he could still be in a fight NYE and have it considered high profile. Usually with an event like a NYE one in Japan, background and a story can’t hurt when the hype for a fight is concerned. Here it’s fairly simple: Other than Mousasi, Yoon was Manhoef’s last loss and it came at the L.A. Coliseum with Yoon making a seemingly impossible comeback and submitting Manhoef. Even if Melvin doesn’t want to publicly say it, I’m sure that loss still eats at him more than his loss to Akiyama in ’06 or the Mousasi loss because this one came against someone he was clearly superior to, someone he was heavily favored to beat, and someone he should have beat when their careers in the MMA world are put side-to-side. I say, “why not?” to this match happening NYE.
As for Badr Hari’s challenge made during DREAM 6, I’ll leave that one up to the powers that be at K-1.
