MMA Combat - Dream 17 - Fight for Japan

MMA Combat - Dream 17 - Fight for Japan

May 29, 2011, the Saitama Super Arena, in Saitama, Japan hosted Dream 17 - Fight for Japan. The event featured the promotion's Bantamweight Tournament Quarterfinal and Semifinal match-ups, as well as a highly publicized appearance for Shinya Aoki who's opponent for the evening was uncertain until a mere 10 days ago when UFC veteran Rich Clementi took the fight on short notice.

Reports from the event, which did not air live in Japan or the United States, speak of Aoki (28-5-0) utilizing his superior grappling ability, achieving a back-mount on his opponent for nearly the duration of the first round, while peppering Clementi (40-20-1) with shots. "No Love" survived the first frame but experienced much of the same in the second when Aoki took his back once more; softening the American with blows, the Dream lightweight ace stopped Clementi at 2:32 of the second round via neck-crank.

In tournament action, Masakazu Imanari (23-8-2) and Hideo Tokoro (29-23-1) saw their way through to Bantamweight Grand Prix Finals defeating Kenji Osawa and Atsushi Yamamoto respectively in the semifinals.

Other results from the evening can be found below:

Bantamweight Tournament Semifinals
Masakazu Imanari def. Kenji Osawa via submission (Achilles lock) - Round 2, 0:58
Bantamweight Tournament Semifinals
Hideo Tokoro def. Atsushi Yamamoto via split decision

Shinya Aoki def. Rich Clementi via submission (neck crank) - Round 2, 2:17
Katsunori Kikuno def. Daisuke Nakamura via unanimous decision
Caol Uno def. Akiyo "Wicky" Nishiura via unanimous decision
Takeshi Inoue def. Koichiro Matsumoto via TKO (strikes) - Round, 6:51
Joachim Hansen def. Mitsuhiro Ishida via split decision

Bantamweight Tournament Quarterfinals
Kenji Osawa def. Takafumi Otsuka via split decision
Bantamweight Tournament Quarterfinals
Masakazu Imanari def. Keisuke Fujiwara via unanimous decision
Bantamweight Tournament Quarterfinals
Hideo Tokoro def. Yoshiro Maeda via TKO (corner's stoppage) - Round 2, 0:43
Bantamweight Tournament Quarterfinals
Atsushi Yamamoto def. Yusaku Nakamura via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 8:43


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