DREAM 16 Results; Mousasi wins gold, "Mayhem" taps Sakuraba

In the main event, Gegard Mousasi added the title of "DREAM light heavyweight champion"to his recent list of accolades. After positionally dominating in the grappling and peppering Tatsuya Mizuno with ground and pound, Mousasi sunk in a rear naked choke to take the victory just over six-minutes into the bout. Mousasi said in his pre-fight interview that a win here could position him to fight for the Strikeforce light heavyweight belt, but that remains to be seen.

The co-feature of the night saw Jason "Mayhem" Miller quickly submit the faded, Kazushi Sakuraba, in just over two minutes into the fight. "Mayhem" was out striking Sakuraba until he decided to take the fight to the floor, pass his guard, and lock up the fight-ending arm triangle choke. This was only Sakuraba's second ever submission loss in his 40+ fight career. The first of which was his first ever recorded MMA fight against Kimo Leopoldo in 1996, and the submission was ironically, the arm triangle. Despite that fight being considered a "work", could we see Sakuraba come into and exit mixed martial arts with losing to the same submission? At this point, I think it's appropriate.

DREAM lightweight champion, Shinya Aoki, wasn't able to finish the fight but did pick up a clear unanimous decision win over UFC and PRIDE veteran, Marcus Aurelio. Aoki controlled and out grappled the BJJ black belt for most of the fight en route to his twenty-fifth career victory. "The Tobikan Judan" has expressed interest in fighting on DEEP's 50 Anniversary event on October 24th and after taking little damage, a fight for him will likely be booked.

Satoshi Ishii earned his biggest win in his short MMA career as he defeated Super Hulk champion, Ikuhisa Minowa, via unanimous decision. Ishii's inexperience was evident as he couldn't get much serious offense going on the floor but he was able to take dominant positions and control the veteran "Punk" long enough to be the clear victor. DREAM President, Keiichi Sasahara, was quoted as saying that Ishii is an "intriguing fighter" and he would like to have the 2008 Gold Medalist on the "Dynamite" card on New Year's Eve.

Featherweight action, full results, and more after the jump.

Featherweights, Joachim Hansen and Michihiro Omigawa, both impressed with first round submission finishes over their respective opponents. Omigawa tapped out WEC veteran, Cole Escovedo, with a very well executed inverted armbar. The Yoshida Dojo product is now 2-0 since joining the DREAM promotion earlier this year. The former DREAM lightweight champion, Hansen, snapped a three-fight loss streak with his triangle choke win over experienced, Hideo Tokoro.

DREAM featherweight tournament finalist, Hiroyuki Takaya, added another stirring knockout to his highlight reel as he disposed of former WEC champion, Chase Beebe. Takaya was notably disappointed he wasn't getting the opportunity to fight current champion, Bibiano Fernandes, on this card but with this win, "The Streetfight Bancho" definitely makes a stronger case for that title shot.

Mitsuhiro Ishida and Kazuyuki Miyata took similar wrestling-based decision wins in their bouts last night. A match-up between the two would be very interesting for DREAM's stacked 65 KG division.

Late replacement, Yusuke Kawaguchi, took a controversial decision over PRIDE veteran, James "The Colossus" Thompson. The DEEP Megaton champion clearly won the first round as he pelted Thompson standing with punch after punch. A finish never seemed to be too close for Kawaguchi but he certainly hurt Thompson a few times. Thompson controlled the second round in top position with ground and pound but he was too winded to unload and get the finish. That cost him as Kawaguchi was awarded a split-decision.

According to Sherdog.com's Tony Loiseleur, there were 9,304 in attendance at the 10,000 seat, Nippon Gaishi Hall.

Full results:
-Gegard Mousasi def. Tatsuya Mizuno via submission (rear naked choke) at 6:10 of round 1.
-Jason "Mayhem" Miller def. Kazushi Sakuraba via submission (arm triangle choke) at 2:09 of round 1.
-Shinya Aoki def. Marcus Aurelio via unanimous decision.
-Satoshi Ishii def. Ikuhisa Minowa via unanimous decision.
-Hiroyuki Takaya def. Chase Beebe via knockout (punches) at 1:45 of round 1.
-Michihiro Omigawa def. Cole Escovedo via submission (inverted armbar) at 2:30 of round 1.
-Joachim Hansen def. Hideo Tokoro via submission (triangle choke) at 2:48 of round 1.
-Kazuyuki Miyata def. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue via unanimous decision.
-Mitsuhiro Ishida def. "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura via split decision.
-Yusuke Kawaguchi def. James Thompson via split decision.