photo via Sportsnavi
DREAM Event Producer Keiichi Sasahara held a press conference on Thursday and confirmed the first bout for the promotion’s upcoming Welterweight Grand Prix: a rematch between the tournaments two biggest stars, Shinya Aoki and Hayato “Mach” Sakurai. Sakurai narrowly outpointed a game-but-unknown Aoki in an August 2005 Shooto bout. (Video in the extended entry.) Sasahara said that the identities of the remaining four WWGP participants will be revealed next week, and that three of the four will be foreigners. This lends some credence to the rumored participation of Andre Galvao, Marcello Garcia and John Alessio.
OLYMPIA DREAM.8 Welterweight GP 2009 1st Round
April 5, 2009 // Nippon Gaishi Hall // Nagoya, JapanZelg Galešić (9-4) vs. Andrews Nakahara (1-1)
Ikuhisa Minowa (41-29-8) vs. Katsuyori Shibata (2-6-1)
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (10-2) vs. TBAWelterweight GP Bout
Shinya Aoki (20-3) vs. Hayato “Mach” Sakurai (34-8-2)Featherweight GP Bout
Hideo Tokoro (21-15-1) vs. Daiki “DJ.taiki” Hata (10-5-3)Welterweight GP Participants
Seichi Ikemoto (18-14-5)
Yuya Shirai (15-7)