FIGHT! Rankings: DREAM.16

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(Mousasi beats up Mizuno. Photo by Susumu Nagao.)

At FIGHT! Magazine, we believe there is a need for a completely objective and unbiased ranking system for fighters to replace the myriad subjective rankings that have become skewed, in many instances, by fighter popularity. In an effort to address this issue FIGHT! Magazine brings you its computerized rankings system which takes into account a fighters strength of opponent, strength of performance, and frequency of activity.

DREAM.16 featured a bevy of big-name fighters in relatively mis-matched bouts, so other than a handful of upsets and a weight class reassignment, there wasn’t a lot of meaningful movement in the rankings after Saturday night’s fights were in the books.

The four-man DREAM Light Heavyweight Grand Prix culminated in the Gegard Mousasi winning the vacant DREAM Light Heavyweight Championship with a win over Tatsuya Mizuno. Mousasi holds on to #6 in FIGHT!’s Light Heavyweight Rankings while Mizuno enters the rankings at #25.

DREAM’s Lightweight Champion, Shinya Aoki, defended his belt against Marcus Aurelio, hanging tight at #3 in our Lightweight Rankings. Aurelio slips one spot, from #70 to #71.

In a less-meaningful main event bout, heavyweight judoka Satoshi Ishii beat middleweight Ikuhisa Minowa. Ishii remains unranked until he logs his third qualifying fight; “Minowaman” drops from #10 to #26 in the Middleweight Rankings. Also at middleweight, Jason Miller jumps back into the top 20, from #34 to #18, with a win over a worn-out Kazushi Sakuraba, who falls from #38 to #58.

The card was stacked with featherweight fights but again, there was little movement. Michihiro Omigawa held fast at #4 in our Featherweight Rankings with a win over Cole Escovedo, who stays put at #35. Hiroyuki Takaya sits tight at #8 after his win over Chase Beebe, who slips from #41 to #43. Kazuyuki Miyata moves up one spot, from #26 to #25, with a win over unranked Takeshi “Lion” Inoue. Joachim “Hellboy” Hansen sits tight at #14 with his win over Hideo Tokoro, who drops one spot, from #44 to #45. Mitsuhiro Ishida started the night as FIGHT!’s #60-ranked Lightweight, but after being reassinged to 145 pounds, he comes in at #19 with a weight mis-match win over Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura, who enters our Bantamweight Rankings at #16.

In the night’s only other bout, James “Colossus” Thompson re-enters our Heavyweight Rankings at #78 after his loss to unranked Yusuke Kawaguchi.

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(Miller ends his hero’s night early. Photo by Susumu Nagao.)

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