Put a Nail in the DREAM Light Heavyweight GP; It's Done

When we reported a few days back that the Light Heavyweight GP was in limbo, it was one of the few times when you could fully trust a rumor coming out of Japan. According to SI.com's Josh Gross, FEG officially sent out the paperwork to the contracted fighters for the Light Heavyweight GP formally cancelling the very troubled GP, citing possible conflicts with the Tokyo Broadcasting Station (TBS).

This, of course, comes hot off the heels of the announcement that the show will take place inside of DREAM's white fishnet cage again, with their last all-cage show being DREAM.12, featuring Alistair Overeem almost flying out of the tiny cage when he threw a flying knee. Now, to believe that these two things don't correlate is to be crass. TBS as well as DREAM's fledgling sponsors have been on their case for quite a while about trying to improve ratings and build up more stars. The fall of KID Yamamoto, Kazushi Sakuraba, retirement of Genki Sudo and the passing of fads like Bob Sapp and Bobby Olgun has put MMA in Japan into a bit of an odd place. To catch on like other fads in Japan again, MMA needs a strong native star to rise up at the right time and be the right mix of skill, budo spirit and boyish good looks to drive up female viewership (if you still refuse to admit this is why Masato, KID Yamamoto, etc. were stars you are in denial).

As you can imagine, FEG, Real Entertainment and TBS are not getting along very well in regards to MMA and the future of DREAM. I fully expect the rumors which were in the past just whispers of FEG trying to sell DREAM turning into more than just whispers. The K-1 brand remains strong, if not hitting a few hitches in Asia recently but having no problems promoting in Europe and shifting their focus there a bit, but MMA legislations in European countries is a crapshoot at this point, as is the lack of popularity.

So instead, trying to cash in off of the very recent rise in attention to American MMA, "cage fighting" so-to-speak, DREAM will try to drum up interest by putting on another event in the cage with Strikeforce and former-UFC star Nick Diaz headlining the show.