Semifinal bouts set for DREAM 10 Welterweight Grand Prix on July 20

Japan’s Fighting & Entertainment Group (FEG) recently announced the pairings for the semifinals of its welterweight grand prix, which will take place at DREAM 10 on July 20 from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

The focal point of which will be veteran of the sport Hayato "Mach" Sakurai.

In his quarterfinal bout at DREAM 8, he easily disposed of the highly regarded Shinya Aoki, who was making the jump up in weight from lightweight. He was sent packing when "Mach" crushed him in a mere 27 seconds, putting an exclamation mark on the bout with some deadly knees that would leave Aoki out cold before he even had chance to contemplate working some of his ground magic.

Now he’s drawn Cage Rage veteran Marius Zaromskis in what should promise to be an entertaining showdown, when they meet in their semifinal bout at DREAM 10.

Zaromskis earned his spot when he was able to get the upper hand on the scorecards against Seichi Ikemoto (18-15-5), in a bout that saw its share of crazy moments, including one point when Zaromskis tried to backflip into Ikemoto’s guard.

When it came to its conclusion it was Zaromskis who was declared the victor, garnering a hard fought unanimous decision.

Rounding out the rest of the grand prix will be jiu-jitsu ace Andre Galvao, who is set to clash with the explosive Jason High.

Galvao progressed to the next stage of the tournament by dominating his quarterfinal fight on the ground back at DREAM 8 and eventually went on to submit opponent John Alessio by armbar late into the opening stanza.

High dominated his preliminary bout against Yuya Shirai from the get-go, coming out strong and landing a flurry of punches which would knock down Shirai and allow High to take his back and choke him unconscious.

Also in non-tournament action will be WAMMA lightweight champion Shinya Aoki who is set to do battle with DREAM 2008 lightweight grand prix winner Joachim Hansen for the promotions lightweight strap.

This will be the third showdown between the pair.

Their first meeting would go down at ‘Pride Shockwave 2006’ which would see "Hellboy" succumb to the ground game of the "Tobikan Judan" and become part of the ever growing highlight reel of Aoki by being victimized via gogoplata.

They would end up facing off again in the DREAM Lightweight Tournament Final at DREAM 5 last July, and the second encounter would go a little differently.

Aoki was trying to work his ground game as usual, when Hansen decided he wanted no part of it and got back to his feet and threw a earth shattering left punch to the jaw of the still grounded Aoki. This would leave him dazed and prepped for more punishment courtesy of some nasty strikes forcing the referee to jump in and save the helpless victim.

Now a rubber match is in place for one of the combatants to get the upper hand in their feud.

Here is the current line-up for DREAM 10’:

DREAM Lightweight Title:
Joachim Hansen (19-7) vs. Shinya Aoki (20-4)

Welterweight Grand Prix Semifinals:
Andre Galvao (3-0) vs. Jason High (7-1)
Hayato Sakurai (35-8-2) vs. Marius Zaromskis (9-2)

That’s it for now. Look for more fights to be added as we get closer to July 20.

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