FanHouse HayatoSakurai

Marius Zaromskis shocked the mixed martial arts world on Monday in Japan, pulling off a huge upset by knocking out Hayato Sakurai in the semifinals of the Dream 10 welterweight grand prix, then returning to the ring a couple hours later and knocking out Jason High in the final.

FanHouse is live-blogging for DREAM.10 Welterweight Grand Prix 2009 Final Round from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Hayato Sakurai, Marius Zaromskis, Jason High and Andre Galvao are in the running to be crowned the promotion's 168-pound champion. Also on the card is an intriguing matchup for grappling enthusiasts, a lightweight tilt pitting Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro against Shinya Aoki.

Coverage begins 3:30 a.m. ET. Follow the live blog below.

At one point in 2007, it seemed as though Hayato "Mach" Sakurai was ready to ply his trade across the globe in the UFC. But the Japanese MMA star never quite made it. For various reasons, Sakurai stayed in Japan, where he remains one of the stalwarts of the nation's MMA scene. In the DREAM welterweight Grand Prix quarterfinals in April, he scored a dominant TKO win over Shinya Aoki (video above).

On Monday, Sakurai (35-8) will square off in a semifinal bout with Marius Zaromskis, a native Lithuanian with a 9-2 record. The winner will meet the Jason High-Andre Galvao victor later in the night for the tournament championship. The event will air on HDNet.

Sakurai recently answered some questions about the fight and his career for FanHouse via email and through an intrepreter.

2009 may end up becoming a tale of two years for Jason High. First, he lost to Jay Hieron via knockout in just 64 seconds in his Affliction and pay-per-view debut in January. The loss marked his first in seven professional MMA fights.

However, High rebounded quickly by defeating Yuya Shirai in the opening round of DREAM's welterweight grand prix in April. On Monday, he faces Andre Galvao in the semifinals, and should he win, he will meet the winner of Hayato Sakurai and Marius Zaromskis in the finals on the same night.

FanHouse spoke to High about competing in the tournament and fighting in Japan. Check out the full interview below.

We've been handing out our half-year MMA awards, so here's my take on the biggest upset of the last six months.

As is often the case in MMA, there were plenty of upsets to choose from. But at the end of the day, I had to go with Joe Warren defeating Kid Yamamoto via split decision at Dream.9 on May 26 (part one of the fight is above; part two is here.)