FanHouse Joachim Hansen

MMA Twitter universe had plenty to say about Dream 11 on Tuesday morning, with a great lightweight fight betewen Shinya Aoki and Joachim Hansen, and a not-so-great series of mismatches and freak shows in other fights.

But before we get to that in our MMA Twitter mailbag, we'll look at how CBS is promoting Fedor Emelianenko. Your questions and my answers for our MMA Twitter mailbag are below.

Shinya Aoki won his rubber match with Joachim Hansen Tuesday at Dream 11, getting Hansen to tap out with an arm bar with just seconds remaining in the second round to win the Dream lightweight title.

FanHouse has DREAM results of DREAM.11 taking place at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan.

DREAM.11, the first of two DREAM events for October, will crown a featherweight champion between Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Hideo Tokoro and Joe Warren vs. Bibiano Fernandes. Also, Joachim Hansen returns to defend his lightweight title against Shinya Aoki.

The 16 competitors for DREAM.11 stepped on the scale Monday to make official Tuesday's card from the Yokohama Arena in Japan.

DREAM lightweight champion Joachim Hansen will defend his title in a rubber match against Shinya Aoki and a featherweight champion will be crowned at the conclusion of the 2009 Featherweight GP.

Below are the results from the weigh-ins.

This is how you sell a fight:



That's the video Dream is using to promote Tuesday's Dream 11 lightweight title fight between champion Joachim Hansen and challenger Shinya Aoki, and I think it does a masterful job of telling fans why this fight is a big one.

In B.J. Penn's seven fights since returning to the UFC in 2006, he's 4-3. That record doesn't even come close to telling the story of Penn, the most dominant lightweight fighter in MMA history.

Shinya Aoki will face champion Joachim Hansen for the DREAM lightweight title at DREAM.11 on Oct. 6 in Yokohama, Japan.

The championship bout will be the decider in what is now a best-of-three series which began New Year's Eve 2006 at PRIDE Shockwave. Aoki (21-4) won the encounter with a gogoplata 2:24 into the first round, and in the process popularized the submission maneuver. But when the two bumped into each other in the finals of last year's DREAM lightweight tournament, Hansen (19-7-1) exacted revenge by ground and pounding Aoki to capture the promotion's title. To Aoki's credit, though, he had gone through a full 15 minutes with Caol Uno earlier in the evening while Hansen won his reserve fight in two minutes and 33 seconds.

It was a big weekend for the lightweights in MMA, with Eddie Alvarez winning the Bellator lightweight tournament on Friday night (above) and Diego Sanchez beating Clay Guida by split decision in a fight of the year candidate Saturday at the Ultimate Fighter Finale.

So what's next for Alvarez and Sanchez? Bellator will have to work hard to attract some top-notch lightweights to challenge Alvarez in their second season (I'm hoping they sign Joachim Hansen), while Sanchez thinks he's earned a shot at the UFC lightweight belt (but I think he should fight Gray Maynard first). My list of the Top 10 lightweights in MMA is below.

After a weekend in mixed martial arts that saw big lightweight fights in both the UFC and Dream, it's time to revise our list of the Top 10 lightweights in MMA. Frank Edgar is new on our list after his impressive UFC 98 win over Sean Sherk, while Gesias "JZ Calvan" Cavalcante has dropped off the list after a disappointing loss to Tatsuya Kawajiri at Dream 9. The full Top 10 is below.

This past year has been one to forget for Gesias Cavalcante. Once considered one of the best lightweight fighters in the world, "JZ" hasn't competed since losing to Shinya Aoki last April at DREAM.2 in Saitama, Japan. After taking some time off to get healthy, his next two fights were either canceled or postponed.

On May 26, he finally returns to action against veteran Tatsuya Kawajiri at DREAM.9, with the American Top Team member looking to prove that he is as relevant as ever in the 155-pound division. Looming on the horizon is a chance to avenge losses to current DREAM lightweight champion Joachim Hansen or Aoki, and that alone is enough to fuel the Brazilian fighter.

FanHouse spoke to JZ about his time away from MMA and sharing the DREAM.9 spotlight with the likes of Jose Canseco. The full interview is below.