FanHouse Dream.6

Fedor Emelianenko addressed Japanese mixed martial arts fans during the Dream.6 show last night and told them that they should get ready to see him on New Year's Eve:

But there's just one problem: Fedor is allegedly scheduled to fight for Affliction in the United States on January 17, and Affliction can't promote a Fedor main event if there's a chance that he's going to get hurt 18 days earlier. So what's going on here?

Sorting through all the possibilities, I think it basically breaks down to this: Either Fedor lied to the fans in Japan, or Affliction is lying to the fans in the U.S.

Gegard Mousasi delivered a devastating up-kick to knock out Ronaldo de Souza, the Brazilian submission specialist who is better known as Jacare, and win the Dream.6 middleweight Grand Prix.

It was an absolutely perfect kick from Mousasi, who had been taken to the ground by Jacare -- a dangerous place to be -- early in the fight. Mousasi is now the Dream middleweight champion, and with a career record of 24-2-1, he has to be considered one of the top middleweights in the world.

In the semifinals, both Jacare and Mousasi won with impressive first-round submissions. Mousasi used a triangle to choke out Melvin Manhoef at 1:28 of the first round, getting into perfect position after Manhoef slammed him to the ground. Jacare submitted Zelg Galesic with an arm bar at 1:27 of the first round.

The Armenian-Dutch Mousasi is now on a 10-fight winning streak. Jacare entered the final on a 10-fight winning streak of his own, but now his record falls to 10-2.

The highly anticipated heavyweight fight between Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic and Alistair Overeem at Dream.6 today had an extremely disappointing ending, as Overeem repeatedly kneed Cro Cop in the groin, preventing Cro Cop from going on and forcing the fight to end in a no contest.

Handling the TV commentary, Bas Rutten said that Cro Cop's corner had told him that "Cro Cop's right testicle is inside."

Shinya Aoki defeated Todd Moore today at Dream.6 with a first-round neck crank that showed, once again, that he's one of the best submission artists in mixed martial arts.

Aoki got on Moore's back less than a minute into the first round, and that's exactly where Aoki likes to be. He quickly brought Moore to the ground, applied the choke, and Moore tapped out in a little over a minute.

Aoki, who is No. 17 on the FanHouse list of the Top 25 pound-for-pound MMA fighters in the world, improved his pro MMA record to 18-3. Moore fell to 9-3.

After the fight, Aoki said he wants to fight Yoshihiro Akiyama next.

NOTE: I had initially thought it was a rear-naked choke, but it was actually a neck crank that got Moore to tap.

Fedor Emelianenko attended today's Dream.6 event in Japan and addressed the crowd during the intermission, and he suggested that he'll be back in Japan to fight on New Year's Eve for the sixth straight year.

That would be terrible news for Affliction, which has said it will have Fedor -- who is widely regarded as the best heavyweight in mixed martial arts -- in its January show in Southern California.

It should be noted that Fedor was speaking in Russian, it was translated to the crowd into Japanese, and I'm basing this post on the words of the HDNet translator who translated from Japanese into English. So it's possible something got lost here. But all indications were that as Fedor finished talking to the crowd, the fans were under the impression that they'll be seeing him on New Year's Eve.

As the hype builds for Dream.6 tonight in Japan, here's an excellent video preview from hiostaja:

The big fights include Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic vs. Alistair Overeem, Shinya Aoki vs. Todd Moore, Hayato Sakurai vs. Kuniyoshi Hironaka, and, of course, the middleweight Grand Prix semifinals and final, with Ronaldo "Jacare" de Souza fighting Zeig Galesic, Gegard Mousasi fighting Melvin Manhoef and the winners fighting each other.