First Five Bouts Announced for DREAM 17 on July 16th

With FEG finally trying to get its house in order, they have announced DREAM 17 for July 16th at the Ariake Coliseum. For those that haven't kept up with FEG/K-1 news, they've decided to trudge on and scale back the promotion, opting to do away with the over the top theatrics and instead, focus on the MMA product. Last week was Dream: Fight For Japan, an event that was given the misnomer DREAM 17 due to it being the 17th show produced by FEG. None of us saw it and will have to wait until July 3rd in order to watch it.

DREAM 17 will feature two championship bouts as well as the finals of the Bantamweight tournament. If you don't want to be spoiled on the finals of the tournament, stop reading RIGHT THIS INSTANT!

Okay, so the rest of you who want to know what happened and don't want to wait for July 3rd, here's the official card.

Current Dream 17 Card:
Gegard Mousasi vs. Hiroshi Izumi (for Dream LHW title)
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Kazuyuki Miyata (for Dream FW title)
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Willamy "Chiquerim" Friere
Hideo Tokoro vs. Mazakazu Imanari (Finals of Japan BWGP)
Atsushi Yamamoto vs. Kenji Osawa (Third Place of Japan BWGP)

The proposed bout between Hiroyuki Takaya and Kazuyuki Miyata is one that I'm legitimately interested in. Miyata has been on a bit of a tear lately and Takaya is in a position where he needs to prove he's actually a talented FW instead of the over rated fighter that man feel he is. 

Mousasi will be defending perhaps the most insignificant LHW title in MMA against a Olympic Silver medalist Hiroshi Izumi. Last we saw Mousasi, he was fighting Keith Jardine to a draw. Izumi hasn't been in the ring since Dynamite!! 2010 where he defeated Ikuhisa Minowa. It'll be a one sided fight and one that Mousasi shouldn't have any trouble finishing in the first round.