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Fallout from DREAM 10 event
By Zach Arnold | July 21, 2009
DREAM 10 (7/20 Saitama Super Arena) drew a poor crowd. Claimed attendance for the show was 11,970. Still better than anything Sengoku’s drawn in the same building. DREAM is already pushing Marius Zaromskis as their Welterweight version of Mirko Cro Cop.
DREAM 11 will take place on 10/6 at Yokohama Arena. Shin’ya Aoki vs. Joachim Hansen has been booked for the show.
Here are some post-fight comments from a few of the fighters at DREAM 10 (I’ll add more quotes throughout the day).
JESSE TAYLOR (after beating Yoon Dong-Sik)
Interpreter: “So, how did you feel about your match? Could you please comment on it”
Jesse Taylor: “I feel great, it’s a win, it’s my first time here, definitely not my last. I really like being here in Japan and fighting here, I love the audience. I really loved it out here but I really wish you know it wasn’t an injury, I think I would have won any kind of way, I would have won anyways but I don’t like winning like that.”
Interpreter: “So if Mr. Yoon Dong-Sik wasn’t injured, what kind of technique would you try to perform after that?”
Jesse Taylor: “Well, obviously you guys saw me go for the rear naked choke, I became I’m pretty fond of that move and I’m a rear naked choke artist but I could stand and bang too so what I was going to do is break him down with some grappling and then I was going to do some punching as well towards the end.”
[This led to a very awkward moment because the translator had no idea how to translate ‘naked choke’ or ‘rear naked choke.’ If he had said ‘choke sleeper hold’ she probably would have figured out how to translate it accurately. She was trying to figure out a term like kata-hajime here.]
Interpreter: “So after you was only one week after your last fight. So when is your next fight?”
Jesse Taylor: “Well, I don’t know, I’ve been fighting quite a bit these days. I just stay busy, obviously I stay more focused, more grounded when I’m busy and fighting. It’s hard for me to say no to fights, I love to do it. It keeps me out of trouble.”
Interpreter: “So people are talking about how bad boy you are in Japan and you are getting popular, getting popularity because of that but actually I think you are a very skilled and capable fighter. So in the future, what kind of point do you want to show? You want to show to the fans? As in being a bad boy.”
Jesse Taylor: “Well, thank you very much. Yeah, the UFC kind of labeled me with that and I don’t know if I really like that or not but yeah I just want to show the fans, the people at home that I’m actually a pretty good guy. Obviously from my past I have a lot to prove now. I have two boys, two sons and you know this provides a means to an end and I really like fighting here, I mean, to tell the truth I like fighting here a lot more than in the States so hopefully you guys like me and hopefully I’ll be back and I want the best. I can also go both wegiht classes, so I can do welterweight or middleweight here, so wherever the fight you demand from me is where I’ll go.”
“Thank you. I got to keep beating people up so you guys have more questions for me. I’m done.”
MELVIN MANHOEF (who lost to Paulo Filho)
Interpreter: “Could you please comment on your fight.”
Melvin Manhoef: “Yeah. The fight went pretty good, you know, as you know I’m a stand-up fighter and I like to bang and I was hitting him pretty good and in the one moment I lost my distance a little bit and I don’t know how I get fall but I have seen it on the television and then I can see what went wrong, you know, because my distance was too close and I fell and I want to turn out of the armbar but it was like stuck, you know, and yeah. A little bit of shame because you know I really wanted to win from him because everybody’s yeah talking good about him because he’s very good and this and that and you know he’s one of the greatest ground fighters, so I really wanted to win from him you know and unfortunately it didn’t happen but yeah.”
Interpreter: “Will you keep on fighting in MMA going forward?”
Melvin Manhoef: “Yeah, of course, I’m keep on fighting, you know I’m a fighter you know and you can say that he win the fight but you know he didn’t hit me one time you know and yeah, you know, my Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is getting better but you know the guys are like doing it like 10 years already and I’m doing stand-up fighting also for technique so you see stand-up they cannot beat me but on the ground I’m very vulnerable. But I’m training every day, harder and harder, but my takedown defense is good because he couldn’t get me to the ground and you know I do both things, I do K-1 and I do DREAM you know, MMA, so it’s very difficult for me to focus me and myself on one thing so maybe if I focus myself on one thing, it will be much better but you know I like to fight so I want to fight both and I think you know if we do it again I think he cannot win you know, but now for this time he win because he was OK, he was yeah, he was not better but you know he was better on the ground so. But it’s my own fault, maybe also you know I was too greedy to finish it up you know you see every time when I fight I fight with aggression, sometimes I fight too much with my heart you know and if I fight too much with my heart I want to enjoy the fans and everybody and I want to finish everything quick and that is my fault again you know, I have 15 minutes the time but I want to finish him in two-three minutes and that’s also something to really [comment?] with my team you know, I have to be patient.”
TAREC SAFFIEDINE (who beat Seiichi Ikemoto)
Interpreter: “Could you tell us about your match? How did you feel? How did you fight?”
Tarec Saffiedine: “I fight I think I could do better, you know next time I bring more on the table I think and my opponent’s really tough, he’s really I mean it was tough when I kick him, kick him and he just kept coming at me and you know but right now I feel good, I feel good.”
Interpreter: “Was the double punch effective from your opponent?”
Tarec Saffiedine: “He got me with it one time with his right hand, it surprised me, he tried I think three times and I avoid them but just one time I think it was in the first round he got me one, it surprise me, yeah.”
Interpreter: “Well you said you wanted to bring more to the table next time. What would you like to show your audience or your fans or your opponent next time?”
Tarec Saffiedine: “I want to bring more aggressiveness because I knew I can finish the guy today but he was really tough so for my next fight I will train harder and I will show you more aggressiveness and more combination on the stand-up.”
Topics: DREAM, Japan, Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Any news of ratings?
11,970 claimed attendance
How much does it cost to run at Saitama Arena? I guess even with that crowd Dream are making money yes? Wouldn’t it better to run these kind of shows at the Budokan Hall?
Have to laugh at Marius Zaromskis being pushed as anything close to Cro Cop. The guy is decent, but let’s not fool ourselves. He beat an unmotivated Sakurai (who should be a Lightweight) and Jason High. And he showed a definitive lack of good takedown defense skills against Sakurai… And was open to some shots as well. He wouldn’t do very well in the UFC.
[…] over Korean Judoka Dong Sik-Yoon at DREAM 10 during the post-event press conference (transcript via FightOpinion.com). “JT Money” dominated the action from the get-go before it was halted because of an […]
[…] over Korean Judoka Dong Sik-Yoon at DREAM 10 during the post-event press conference (transcript via FightOpinion.com). “JT Money” dominated the action from the get-go before it was halted because of an […]
Since when was Sakurai ever a 155er though 45? He’s too big to make 155.
Yeah, once again 45 shows his ignorance regarding Japanese MMA. Sakurai always looks unmotivated. That’s his shtick. Even the Japanese call him a grumpy old man.
And Sakurai couldn’t even cut to 155 to fight Danzig way back when.
Top level fighters or not, it was a good show.