Dream Deux Delivers Gators, Legends and Aoki-‘JZ’ Do-Over

Every NFL draft there is some absurdly large mass of humanity who is instantly billed as the "Next Warren Sapp." Inevitably, this absurdly large mass of humanity fails to become the next Warren Sapp.

Zelg "Benkei" Galesic can definitely relate to the Dewayne Robertsons of the world, as being a Croatian-born kickboxer led to many a fan declaring him the next "Cro Cop."

Given some of Cro Cop's recent struggles, that may not seem such a lofty goal, but Galesic has been racking up losses to middling Japanese grapplers of late. While Cro Cop is hardly bulletproof, he's always done a fine job of dispatching unworthy opponents in sufficiently sadistic fashion.

Regardless, Galesic has been exposed as something of a one-dimensional kickboxer while his opponent is likely headed for the same status.

Magomed Sultanakhmedov (Pictures) is undoubtedly talented, same as Galesic, and just like Galesic, he isn't the sort of multi-faceted performer that modern MMA demands. Set in his ways as a kickboxer, Sultanakhmedov (4-1) is as unchanging as the IQ of the New York Knicks front office. Staying true to those kickboxing roots against Galesic will work out about as well as Isiah Thomas putting Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph on the same team. That is to say, not very well at all.

Galesic is the more refined and more powerful striker of the two and will be all too happy to let loose against an opponent willing to oblige his desire for a standup-only affair.

The early going will be competitive enough, but Galesic's pace and power will wear on Sultanakhmedov until "Benkei" lands the coup de grace late in the first round.

Now we can move on to more important questions, like who will be the next Zelg Galesic (Pictures)?

Yoon vs. Oyama

Because no card is complete without a battle between two sub-.500 judo players, Dream delivers the goods with a dustup between Shungo Oyama (Pictures) and Dong Sik Yoon (Pictures). Hardly inspiring pillars of MMA greatness, but look a bit more closely and you'll find plenty to like about both fighters, particularly Yoon.

Yoon (3-4) was thrown to the wolves, lions, tigers and just about any other animal Pride could find early in his career. The net result was an 0-4 record, although he showed flashes of legitimate talent in bouts with Quinton Jackson (Pictures) and Murilo Bustamante (Pictures). Talent that has only recently risen to the surface, as Yoon has reeled off three straight wins via submission, including a "Rudy"-inspired come-from-behind effort against Melvin Manhoef (Pictures).

While it'll be a good long time before Yoon erases the memory of his disastrous start in MMA, it is quickly becoming plain for all to see that Dream has found a potential prospect.

With seven years of MMA experience behind him, no one is going to confuse Oyama (7-10) with one of the sport's young bucks. Much like Yoon, Oyama is best remembered for a career defined by mismatches that would make Mike Tyson cringe.

That's tragic considering Oyama has shown he can hold his own in picking up wins over solid veterans such as Rodrigo and Renzo Gracie (Pictures). In other words, the man can fight; he just shouldn't be fighting anyone twice his size, which is an all too common occurrence throughout Oyama's career.

Thankfully matched up against an opponent who won't use him as a bench press bar, Oyama still has a major stylistic disadvantage to deal with. Yoon has transformed himself into an aggressive grappler regardless of position, but Oyama is typically content to wait out the judges' decision. Not a good idea against an opponent prepared to go for broke in search of a submission.

While Oyama is a fair grappler in his own right, it won't be long before Yoon takes advantage of Oyama's passive top control and counters with his usual array of armbar transitions. It'll be enough to get the job done for Yoon, who takes home Oyama's arm and a win to boot.

Kin vs. Minowa

If MMA really needed a superhero, Ikuhisa "The Punk" Minowa was probably the last guy anyone expected to don the cape and take over the role. Then again, Minowa has never been the most stable character around, and maybe he is the only fighter we have who thinks the underoo look is still fashionable.

Less risqué but decidedly more focused is the fighter slotted to take on "Minowaman," Taiei Kin (Pictures).

While Kin (2-2) won't blow anyone away with his record, he obviously has the skills to make a name for himself in the sport based on his impressive showings against Tokumitsu Ishizawa and Kiyoshi Tamura (Pictures). A loss in his MMA debut to the incredibly talented Yoshihiro Akiyama (Pictures) is more than excusable, and a doctor's stoppage loss to Zelg Galesic (Pictures) was more a function of bad luck than anything else. In other words, Kin is the goods and Minowa has hardly been preparing himself for this tournament by taking on MMA's best and brightest.

I'm sure Minowa's scrambled neurons registered Min Soo Kim and Zuluzinho as worthy super villains, but to the rest of us, they were sideshow bouts steeped in the Japanese matchmaking tradition of playing to the lowest common denominator. That's unfortunate for all involved since Minowa (39-27-8) does have some talent but lately seems more focused on playing to the crowd and going for the gusto than actually doing something useful with that talent.

Not exactly the best approach to have against a serious competitor such as Kin, who will come out looking to deposit Minowa's head somewhere in the third row while Minowa will probably be content to flop around and attempt rolling kneebars from halfway across the ring.

That approach won't go over well for Minowa, who ends up getting laid out courtesy of a high kick by Kin.

Of course, this only sets up the inevitable resurrection of the Minowaman storyline we've all been waiting on.