The charismatic Jason "Mayhem" Miller is in talks to once again do battle with grappling phenom Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza at DREAM 11 from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, in September, according to "Mayhem's" Twitter.
No specific date has been set for the event at this time.
The bout will once again be contested for the vacant DREAM middleweight title because the former holder, Gegard Mousasi (24-2-1), relinquished the strap to prepare for a move up to light heavyweight.
This will be the third encounter between the bitter rivals "Jacare" and "Mayhem" — the pair first met during the promotion's middleweight grand prix quarterfinals at "DREAM 4" in June 2008. The bout would go the distance and the conclusion would see Souza garner a unanimous decision victory.
The second outing between the pair would be nearly as decisive -- it was halted early in the first round because of an errant blow from Miller to a downed Souza. The strike carved a deep laceration to Souza’s head, which forced ringside officials to call off the match prematurely because of its severity.
The fight was ruled a no contest.
The outcome brought their rivalry to new heights, as well as left the DREAM middleweight title vacant. It now appears that we’ll have to wait till September to get a more decisive outcome and a new champion.
The semifinal bouts for DREAM’s open weight tournament, which has been dubbed the "Super Hulk" tournament, are also set to go down in September.
First up will be Japanese fan favorite Ikuhisa Minowa, who has fought virtually every big name overseas under the sun (albeit with inconsistent results). He has the daunting task of facing off against 7’2" gargantuan, Hong Man Choi.
Minowa earned his spot by knocking off the modern day Goliath, Bob Sapp, which he did by locking in an achilles lock that forced "The Beast" to tap at DREAM 9. He will face a similar assignment against Choi — who wailed on baseball’s steroid stool pigeon Jose "Can"seco for his advancement in the grand prix ... at an even greater size disadvantage.
On the other side of the bracket, Gegard Mousasi, who vacated his DREAM middleweight title recently because he desired a move to light heavyweight, will face off against the dangerous Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou.
Mousasi made short work of "Super Samoan" Mark Hunt in his quarterfinal bout, taking his much larger counterpart to the mat quickly where he would go to work for a kimura straight away, eventually getting it and forcing Hunt to tap.
While in his preliminary bout, Sokoudjou got back to his winning ways by trouncing 6’ 11", 330-pound Jan "The Giant" Nortje. Despite being considerably outsized, "The African Assassin" was able to take "The Giant" down and pound on him furiously, which forced the referee to intervene and waive off the action.
The "Super Hulk" tournament finalists will then do battle on New Years Eve at the annual Dynamite!! event.
DREAM 11 is also expected to feature the semifinal bouts of the featherweight grand prix. Though the pairings are still to be announced, it will feature fan favorite and underdog Hideo Tokoro, jiu-jitsu phenom Bibiano Fernandes, hard-hitting slugger Hiroyuki Takaya and also wrestling stud Joe Warren, who shocked the World recently by defeating featherweight superstar Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto.
Here is the current line-up for DREAM 11:
DREAM middleweight title:
Jason Miller (22-6) vs. Ronaldo Souza (10-2)Featherweight grand prix participants:
Joe Warren (2-0)
Hideo Tokoro (22-16-1)
Bibiano Fernandes (5-2)
Hiroyuki Takaya (11-6-1)"Super Hulk" open weight grand prix semifinals:
Hong Man-Choi (2-2) vs. Ikuhisa Minowa (42-30-8)
Gegard Mousasi (25-2-1) vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (6-4)
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