After a dominant performance by Nick Diaz this past weekend at DREAM 3, he’ll be getting ready to take on one of Japan’s popular superstars at the DREAM 5 event. The former UFC contender will be facing Hayato "Mach" Sakurai in the next welterweight match-up of the grand prix 2008 tournament.
Sakurai is a former PrideFC fighter, holding notable wins over Jens Pulver, Shinya Aoki, Frank Trigg, Caol Uno, Mac Danzig and many others. The wrestling expert has an MMA record of 30-7-2, winning 5 of his last 6 bouts. Sakurai is very well known for his deadly kicks and we’ll most likely be seeing him use those legs as a weapon to destroy Diaz at DREAM 5.
At DREAM 3, Diaz defeated Katsuya Inoue via TKO-strikes during the sixth minute mark of the first round. It was a huge win for Diaz as he was coming back from a disappointing loss to KJ Noons at the EliteXC event in November of 2007. This win in Japan has given him the opportunity to continue competing in the next DREAM event.
DREAM 5 is scheduled to take place on July 21st in Osaka, Japan. Not only will Diaz be preparing for this fight against Sakurai, but he’ll also be training for a fight against Mushin Corbbrey for the EliteXC organization on June 14th. It will be a very busy schedule for the Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu expert this summer.
