The semifinal bouts for DREAM’s open weight tournament, which has been dubbed "Super Hulk," will now take place at DREAM 12 in October with an official date and venue pending.
The tournament semifinals were originally scheduled to take place at DREAM 11 on Sept. 23 from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan; however, Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) officials recently opted to push it back one month instead.
First up in tournament action 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.
Here is the current line up for DREAM 12:
"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)
For the latest and greatest on DREAM and its upcoming events click here.
Get the latest gear
