Showing once again why MMA tournaments sometimes receive a bad wrap, Joachim Hansen, a finals alternate, won the DREAM Lightweight Grand Prix after defeating Shinya Aoki via TKO in the first round.
In the first LWGP semifinal match, Shinya Aoki battled Caol Uno for two full rounds en route to winning the unanimous decision victory. Aoki tried several times but was unable to secure a sumbission on the crafty veteran Uno.
In the second fight, Eddie Alvarez and Tatsuya Kawajiri fought an excellent battle that saw Kawajiri gettting the best early on and opening a cut on Alvarez’s eye. Alvarez bounced back and both fighters stood and trading heavy punches, each knocking the other to the canvas on different occassions. Eventually, Alvarez knocked Kawajiri to the mat for good and finished the fight off with several strikes to the down fighter.
In the tournament alternate bout, Joachim Hansen easily defeated Kultar Gill via triangle choke early in round one.
Before the LWGP finals started, it was announced that alternate Joachim Hansen would replace Eddie Alvarez in the finals due to Alvarez’s eye injury. Apparently, Eddie’s eye had completely swollen shut while waiting for the final to start and the doctor ruled that he was unfit to continue.
In the finals, Aoki grabbed his usual guard position on Hansen early on. From the bottom Hansen continued to pepper Aoki with punches and managed to land a very solid left square on Aoki’s chin that forced Aoki to roll over in pain. Hansen continued his onslaught on Aoki and the fight was stopped due to strikes making Hansen the 2008 LWGP champion.
Overall, the tournament was excellent from start to finish. My dark horse, Eddie Alvarez, made an excellent run and I really think he would have won the tournament had the eye injury not forced him out. Still, a well deserved victory for Hansen after having several tough battles in the tourney.
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felo
Mike
Tony
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Ben Cartlidge
Rich
Yael Grauer
ToughTexan
Hari Khalsa
i dont know it alvarez would of won but for sure he has a better chance of beating hansen {again} then aoki.
i just cant believe Overeem armbarred Hunt man, i really wanted to see Hunt punch his head into the third row. i dont care who you are a lost to Overeem looks bad on your record lol.
Ya Hunt surprised me too! bad move going to the ground so early in the fight.. If he waited a few min Overeem would have gassed, then he could do whatever he wants..
I think Aoki was still gassed from his first fight. He works the guard position great, but its definately a dangerous spot to be in, no matter how good you are. In the blink of an eye Hansen landed one shot and it was enough to stun Aoki, then he just battered him.
Alvarez vs Kawajiri was definately the fight of the night, it was back and forth like a rocky movie, like Bas likes to say lol.
Dam Basito was so loaded last night man LOL, slurred speech, hummin little ditties to himself and such lol.
i really like to hear bas commenting.Ultimate commenting team JOE ROGAN and BAS
lol Bas had me pissin my self all night lol him singing to himself was the best lol.
What a character Bas is.. hes the perfect color man, but you need a guy with him who can keep Bas in check too. Mauro does a good job of that, Bas always tends to go off on a tangent and sometimes hes not even talking about the fight. Like humming a little ditty lol.
It cants be all color men.. you need someone who is serious and knowledgeable about MMA.. like Mauro or Quardos, i personally dont like Mike Goldberg, i dont think he has enough insight into the technical aspects of mma. Although hes good at plugging the UFC sponsors every few min…
I think the best team was Bas and Quadros..