<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer is reporting that a press conference was held Wednesday at the Hotel Metropolitan in Tokyo to formally announce the formation of a new promotion featuring the former staff of PRIDE working in conjunction with FEG/K-1. The name of the new promotion is expected to be "Dreams," although no mention of the promotion's name is mentioned in Meltzer's report. It is believed that "Dreams" will feature the former staff of PRIDE running live event production with the K-1 staff handling television production and many key business deals. As a result of the new promotion, K-1 HERO's is being discontinued. The first show for the promotion is scheduled for March 15 at the Saitama Super Arena and will feature the first rounds of lightweight and middleweight tournaments intended to crown champions in both weight classes. A single bout to decide the new heavyweight champion is expected to take place as well. One fighter expected to be involved in the heavyweight title match is none other than Mirko Cro Cop. According to Meltzer, Cro Cop appeared at the press conference and has officially been released from his UFC contract. The only match officially announced for the show is a lightweight bout featuring Gesias "JZ Calvan" Calvancante taking on Shinya Aoki, which is a fight that had originally been slated to take place on the Yarennoka! card that was held on December 31. In addition to Cro Cop, other fighters reported to be at the press conference that are expected to fight for the promotion are Kazushi Sakuraba, Masakatsu Funaki, Minowa-man, Kiyoshi Tamura, Kid Yamamoto, Caol Uno, Hayato Sakurai and Yoshihiro Akiyama. A business deal with M-1 Global was also announced by the new promotion. As a result of the announcement, former PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko is expected to compete for the promotion sometime in the future. However, it is unknown if M-1 Global's management agreed to the deal or if it was Emelianenko's management that has made the commitment. Another fighter expected to be involved with the promotion is Royce Gracie, the winner of UFC 1 in 1993. Gracie addressed attendees via videotape but reportedly offered no indication as to when his first fight will be. The PRIDE/HERO's collaboration has no known ties to the World Victory Road promotion, which is scheduled to hold its debut show in Japan on March 5.</div> UFC needs some competition, especially since they failed to get all of the top former Pride fighters signed to give us the mega fights the fans of MMA wanted to see. I'm a big fan of Grand Prix's so this is really great news. Dana has dropped the ball again IMO.. I think the Feretta's may need to think about getting a new CEO to run a company this successful, Dana doesn't appear to have the finesse needed to run it
The UFC should've kept PRIDE going, then the fighters that like to compete in Japan could still be under their umbrella, and cross-promotional events could happen every few months, or even a fight on every card. Instead they killed PRIDE, and now it looks like DREAM will rise up out of the ashes and take its place. Dumb. All that money spent on PRIDE and the UFC got what out of it? A bunch of guys that keep losing and Big Nog. Spider and Rampage had both already left PRIDE.
according to Dana the way they do business in Japan was crazy and they couldn't get a TV deal done. No TV Deal no chance of surviving in Japan. Still it was silly and the only thing they appear to have done is fill up the 205 division and add cro-cop and Nog. there were/are a lot of good former Pride fighters out there and the UFC didn't want to pay for them. Until you get the best MMA fighters all in one org, MMA will be a minor league sport IMO. I'm just glad we're gonna get a grand prix this year
more details from mmaweekly <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'> Fight Entertainment Group on Wednesday announced a new promotion called Dream to replace its Hero’s mixed martial arts division. The new promotion is a collaboration organized by FEG and produced former Dream Stage Entertainment staff members. DSE was the parent company of Pride Fighting Championships. FEG released the 2008 schedule for the new promotion, kicking things off with its March 15 date, which features a Lightweight Grand Prix. The tournament – featuring fighters in the 70-kilogram (154-pound) weight class – includes fighters such as Shinya Aoki, Gesias “J.Z.” Calvancante, Andre “Dida” Amade, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Kotetsu Boku, Artur Oumakhanov, Caol Uno, Joachim Hansen, Gilbert Melendez, Luiz “Buscape” Firmino, Jung Bu-Kyung, and Kazuyuki Miyata. There will be a total of 16 fighters in the tournament. The only match-up of the tournament that has been announced thus far is Aoki versus Calvancante. With much speculation swirling about him recently, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic was in attendance at the press conference where it was announced that he would now be fighting under the Dream banner. One official of the new promotion said that he was hopeful they would be able to have Filipovic fight on the March 15 event, but that they could not officially confirm it yet. Addressing several question marks surrounding him, Filipovic stated that he is physically and mentally recovered from his recent disappointments in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He said that he didn’t really like the experience of fighting the cage and prefers fighting in a ring. Filipovic did state, however, that he would like to eventually return to the UFC and avenge his losses to Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick Kongo. Many rumors have swirled around Filipovic’s recent absence from the UFC with fingers pointing in both directions, but sources close to the situation indicate that his leaving the UFC to return to fight in Japan was amiable. As of the time of publication, the UFC has not made an official announcement in regards to Filipovic’s contract status. Also announced at Wednesday’s press conference were the addition of Kazushi Sakuraba, Kiyoshi Tamura, Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto, and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai, although no date for their debuts was announced. Other details forthcoming from the press conference included the promotion’s weight classes (which are extremely similar to the divisions commonly used in the UFC and most other mixed martial arts promotions) and many future dates for Dream events in 2008. The weight classes break down as follows: Heavyweight – 93.1 kg and above (over 205 pounds) Light Heavyweight – Up to 93 kg (up to 205 pounds) Middleweight – Up to 84 kg (up to 185 pounds) Welterweight – Up to 76 kg (up to 167.5 pounds) Lightweight – Up to 70 kg (up to 154 pounds) The Dream 2008 schedule as announced: March 15 HEIWA DREAM 1 – Lightweight Grand Prix Opening Round Saitama Super Arena April 29 OLYMPIA DREAM 2 – Middleweight Grand Prix Opening Round Saitama Super Arena May 11 HEIWA DREAM 3 – Lightweight Grand Prix Second Round Saitama Super Arena Mid-June OLYMPIA DREAM 4 – Middleweight Grand Prix Second Round (Possibly in Korea) July 21 HEIWA DREAM 5 – Lightweight Grand Prix Finals Osakajo Hall Late September OLYMPIA DREAM 6 – Middleweight Grand Prix Finals Saitama Super Arena</div> wow... just wow, the LW tourney is going to be historic IMO.
