European Throwdown: Notes from Iberia to Siberia

With most top North and South American 185-pound talent currently locked up in the UFC and WEC as well as EliteXC, Dream is diligently looking at the European market to fill the brackets of its middleweight grand prix, set to start April 29.

Therefore a Dream executive was in Holland at the beginning of the month for the first M-1 team challenge. Most winning fighters received a provisional agreement to participate in Dream at a later stage.

In addition to Croatian kickboxer Zelg Galesic (Pictures), several other European fighters are rumored to be among the initial field of 16 participants. From France, Karl Amoussou (Pictures) is almost certainly in the game. Since Amar Suloev (Pictures) will be fighting in St. Petersburg earlier in April, it is expected that fellow Red Devil Arman Gambaryan will be the Russian representative.

Gegard Mousasi (Pictures), who recently fought in various organizations as a light heavyweight, may also consider dropping back down to middleweight to represent Holland. The well-rounded 22-year-old was the discovery of the Bushido 183-pound grand prix in 2006.

As reported in an earlier edition of European Throwdown, Chechen star Mamed Khalidov is also considering moving down in weight to be part of the action in the Dream GP. An outside chance goes to Lithuania's Kestutis Smirnovas (Pictures), who was heavily featured in the Hero's events.

Speaking of Hero's, Melvin Manhoef (Pictures), arguably the strongest foreign fighter to grace the K-1 MMA ring in the past two years, won't be able to participate in the middleweight tournament. The Dutch knockout artist is headlining the K-1 World GP in Amsterdam in a K-1 rules bout against Peter Aerts (Pictures) on April 26.

"Pythagoras" Fights in FX3

Top European featherweight Emmanuel "Pythagoras" Fernandez will headline the seventh FX3 Fight Night on Saturday at the Rivermead Complex in Reading, England. The highly decorated Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt will fight undefeated Scotsman Paul Reed (Pictures) for the promotion's featherweight world title.

Fernandez, a 35-year-old grappler from Cognac on the French Atlantic coast, was widely considered the No. 1 145-pound fighter in Europe until he lost the Cage Warriors featherweight title to Danny Batten (Pictures) in May 2005. A win over the irksome Reed could set up a rematch with Batten for European supremacy in their weight class.

In the co-main event, Fernandez's younger brother, Frederic, will take on former Cage Rage star Brad Pickett (Pictures). Both men are in desperate need of success after winning just once in their last three fights. Fighting on Saturday will be something special for Frederic, who will turn 32 the day of his fight.

Gadzhiyev Hunts for Pancrase Crown

Russian samboist Alavutdin Gadzhiyev (Pictures) is looking to climb the ladder in the Pancrase rankings when he collides with Hikaru Sato (Pictures) on March 26 at the second stop of the promotion's Shining Tour.

Albeit a bit sloppy and hasty at times, the 25-year-old teammate of Cage Force lightweight tournament winner Artur Oumakhanov (Pictures) has shown some promise in his first round destructions of inexperienced Masahiro Toryu (Pictures) and journeyman Yuji Hisamatsu (Pictures).

Sato, a veteran of 38 fights, will be the first real test for Gadzhiyev. Another impressive win could propel the sambo teacher of Japanese team SK Absolute further up the rankings, where he is currently featured at No. 4.

Notably, the current middleweight King of Pancrase is Gadzhiyev's teammate Izuru Takeuchi (Pictures).