Minowaman gets overdue 'Super Hulk' belt (and 10,000,000 yen) for Dec. 31 tournament win

From the files of "Better late than never," Ikuhisa Minowa finally received an official belt (along with a giant cardboard check) to reward his unlikely victory in the DREAM "Super Hulk Tournament" held in the latter part of 2009.

"Minowaman" entered the open weight, elimination-style tournament as an underdog, partly due to his non-Hulkish size, and partly due to the fact that Gegard Mousasi had also entered. After the "Dreamcatcher" bowed out with a sore shoulder. the possibility of "The Punk" winning it all didn't seem so unrealistic.

Especially when he made supersized slugger Bob Sapp cry uncle at DREAM 9 with a textbook Achilles lock in the opening round of the tournament.

From there Minowaman was in cruise control, submitting the gigantic Hong Man Choi via heel hook at DREAM 11 and clowning Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou with a barrage of punches to seal the deal at FieLDS Dynamite!! on New Year's Eve.

The Japanese promotion was so enamored with his unlikely win that they presented him with a big fat nothing at the conclusion of the tournament. No belt, no paycheck, just a good old fashioned pat on the back.

Fortunately for Minowaman, a nine-year old girl from Saitama named "Moeka" crafted a championship belt emblazoned with the words "Super Human" and gifted it to the popular fighter.

All's well that ends well I suppose. And Minowaman won't have time to rest on his laurels either. Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) today announced his participation in the upcoming DREAM 13 event against an opponent to be named.

And win or lose, at least he has his belt.