Dream 11 Preview

Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Melchor Manibusan

The Breakdown: Someone in the Dream front office has a serious man crush on “Crusher.” Simply put, Kawajiri is better than Manibusan at everything. Manibusan has not fought in three years, holds a 2-3 record and has no business even entertaining the notion of taking this fight. Someone out there may try and convince us that Manibusan’s amateur wrestling credentials and submission background add an interesting wrinkle to this fight; those people are crazy.

Kawajiri is an excellent wrestler who can stuff takedowns as easily as he executes them. Even if Manibusan can ground Kawajiri, he does not have the game to finish him and will have to deal with Kawajiri’s ever-improving striking skills sooner or later.

The X Factor: No matter how obvious the outcome of a fight may appear, a variable usually exists that can throw everything out of whack. Not this time. Unless Manibusan has somehow spent the past three years recreating Rocky Balboa’s training camp for Ivan Drago and the Clubber Lang rematch, one can feel comfortable banking on Kawajiri.

* * * The Bottom Line: In all honesty, these kinds of throw-away matches often yield less than inspiring results. If Kawajiri is not tuned in for a fight, we may get a boring lopsided decision instead a scintillating knockout. Either way, Kawajiri takes the win, Manibusan gets a paycheck and everyone walks away happy; that’s what it’s all about anyway. Seriously, check Dream’s rulebook.