The Weekly Wrap: May 29 - June 5

Dream brought out its “white cage” and did away with 10-minute rounds for the second time on May 29 as part of Dream 14. The event had a USA vs. Japan theme that was represented in the main event between Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz and perennial Japanese welterweight contender Hayato Sakurai.

After the television broadcast interspersed images of Shinya Aoki’s sound loss to Gilbert Melendez in April to footage of Pearl Harbor, Diaz made short work of the fading Sakurai, tapping him with an armbar in the first round. It was the seventh straight win for Diaz, in whom UFC President Dana White expressed fresh interest this past weekend. Sakurai found some success with overhand rights early but got caught working in guard off a double-leg takedown and was caught in the submission.

Dream 14 took place at Saitama Super Arena before an unannounced crowd that Sherdog.com estimated between 6,000 and 7,000. The card aired as a tape-delayed late-night special on Tokyo Broadcasting System in Japan and in America on HDNet.

In a semi-main event designed to conjure the Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Gracie family series that sparked an MMA boom in Japan, Sakuraba faced Ralek Gracie, the 24-year-old son of Rorion Gracie, in his third professional fight. Gracie was faster and avoided Sakuraba’s myriad kimura attempts to hold top control and win the position game toward a unanimous decision win. Gracie had an armbar locked as the fight ended.

There were some moments of Japanese pride. At featherweight, Hiroyuki Takaya and Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto bounced back from back-to-back losses with first-round knockouts. Takaya caught Joachim Hansen toward the end of the first with a right straight as the popular Norwegian stepped forward with his hands down. A follow-up right hook put his lights out, as Hansen dropped his second straight fight at 143 pounds. Yamamoto, wearing wrestling shoes in the cage, landed a short right hook that put away overmatched Federico Lopez, who was also coming off two straight losses.

Also picking up wins at Dream 14 were Akiyo Nishiura (first-round TKO over Hideo Tokoro), Kenji Osawa (split decision over Yoshiro Maeda), Ikuhisa Minowa (first-round rear-naked choke submission over Imani Lee) and Kazuyuki Miyata (split decision over Takafumi Otsuka).

Dream returns, sans cage, on July 10 for Dream 15, featuring the long-awaited Aoki-Tatsuya Kawajiri match. Both fighters addressed the crowd at Dream 14.