DREAM.17: Another JMMA Event We Won't See Live. Does It Matter?

Dream.17 or Dream: Fight for Japan GP Final is tis weekend. Unfortunately, you won't see it. FEG is still in that weird transition period where they are figuring out finances and securing new investors to hopefully carry on the DREAM and K-1 brands. What this also means is that until further noticed, fans will not see FEG events live. Having held the 63kg MAX Japan tournament on youtube, you could see the lack of funding on display. With D level commentary and a small event feel, it wasn't what fans have become accustomed with when thinking of JMMA or K-1. 

The Dream.17 card isn't terrible either, it's just not great. Highlighted by Hiroyuki Takaya defending his Featherweight title against Kazuyuki Miyata, that is far and away the most competitive bout on the card. The other championship fight is Gegard Mousasi putting his DREAM Light Heavyweight title on the line against Hiroshi Izumi, an Olympic Silver medalist in Judo. We last saw Izumi defeat an incredibly outsized Ikuhisa Minowa at Dynamite!! 2010 if his name isn't instantly recognized. It's a squash match for Mousasi and demonstrates the state of the Light Heavyweight division in Japan. 

The Japanese Bantamweight Tournament will also reach a conclusion when Masakazu Imanari and Hideo Tokoro meet in what will surely be a grappling focused championship match. It's should be competitive but when thinking about compelling Bantamweight fights, this really doesn't get me excited. Tokoro has never really been an elite fighter and Imanari has been content fighting low end talent in DEEP for much of his career. 

The rest of the card is rounded out with mediocre match ups that will be fun but not meaningful. A fight between Tatsuya Kawajiri and Drew Fickett either means that Kawajiri has fallen off a lot more than previously thought or that Fickett is going through a revitilzation of his career. Hayato Sakurai and Marius Zaromskis meet in a rematch of their 2009 fight in the DREAM Welterweight tournament but with Sakurai a shell of the man he once was and Zaromskis showing that he was majorly overrated, is it really a fight worth watching with any sort of divisional importance? 

Outside of the title fights the most interesting match on the card in my opinion in one between Bruna Carvalho and Eiji Mitsuoka. Carvalho is a Brazilian fighter that has finally been "discovered" by the JMMA scene while Mitsuoka is a fighter that holds wins over Joachim Hansen, Rodrigo Damm, and Brian Cobb. He's an interesting Japanese lightweight and could be someone to look for in the future. It's an interesting fight because both fighters are just appearing on people's radars and it could be the fight to break them through. 

With really one 4 compelling fights and the rest composed of a cast of "never was's" does not seeing Dream.17 live really matter? Has JMMA lost the luster that forced us to find means to stay up until sun rise? I'm not sold on the event and if I wasn't covering the sport of MMA, even if it was live, I'm not sure if there is enough reason to stay up. I hope the show can live up to whatever expectations people have set. I just won't hold my breath.

SBN coverage of DREAM Fight For Japan: 2011 Bantamweight Japan Tournament Final