The DREAM 7 Featherweight Grand Prix took place on March 8th at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan. The event featured six of the opening round fights of the tournament which is contested at a 139-pound weight limit. The event consisted of nine MMA bouts where six of the bouts were part of Dream’s 2009 featherweight grand prix, with the remaining bout of the tournament’s opening round (DJ Taiki vs. Hideo Tokoro) taking place at DREAM 8 due to DJ Taiki being injured. Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto who is also participating in the tournament was also given the opportunity to fight in the tournament later on, allowing him to recover from an ankle injury he suffered in 2008.
Here are the first round results:
- Bibiano Fernandes defeats Takafumi Otsuka via a Unanimous Decision
- Joe Warren defeats Chase Beebe via TKO (Cut) in Round 1
- Abel Cullum defeats Akiyo Nishiura via a Unanimous Decision
- Mitsuhiro Ishida defeats Daisuke Nakamura via a Unanimous Decision
- Shinya Aoki defeats David Gardner via a rear-naked choke submission at 5:58 of Round 1
- Tatsuya Kawajiri defeats Ross Ebanez via a rear-naked choke submission at 4:04 of Round 1
- Yoshiro Maeda defeats Micah Miller via a Unanimous Decision
- Hiroyuki Takaya defeats Kim Jong Won via KO (Punches) at 0:40 of Round 2
- Masakazu Imanari defeats Atsushi Yamamoto via a Split Decision
