‘Mayhem’ Submits Sakuraba at Dream 16

Jason “Mayhem” Miller lived up to his vow, as he became the first man in more than 14 years to submit Japanese icon Kazushi Sakuraba at Dream 16 on Saturday at Nippon Gaishi Hall in Nagoya, Japan. Sakuraba -- who had not asked out of a fight since a July 1996 encounter with Kimo Leopoldo -- met his demise inside an arm-triangle choke 2:09 into round one, the crowd looking on in stunned silence.

Miller sprawled on Sakuraba, smacked around the Pride Fighting Championships veteran with right hands from half guard and moved into position for the finish. With the choke locked in, Miller passed to the side and solicited the tapout from the 41-year-old Sakuraba, who has lost four of his past six fights. The choke will get the headlines, but Miller’s ground-and-pound assault on Sakuraba was something to behold.

Meanwhile, Gegard Mousasi captured the Dream light heavyweight championship with his first-round submission victory over Tatsuya Mizuno. The end came at the 6:10 mark of the first round, as the gifted Armenian cinched a rear-naked choke for the tapout.

A winner in 17 of his past 18 bouts, Mousasi took longer than expected to dispatch Mizuno but got the job done. The 25-year-old mounted Mizuno, attacked with punches and forced him to go belly down a little more than midway through the first period. The choke and the submission followed soon after. Mousasi, who once held Dream’s middleweight crown, has rebounded nicely from his unanimous decision defeat to Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal in April, having rattled off back-to-back victories.

In a non-title affair, Dream lightweight champion Shinya Aoki outpointed Marcus Aurelio en route to a rather pedestrian unanimous decision. The world-ranked “Tobikan Judan” trapped Aurelio twice in a leg triangle and had the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt bleeding by the end of their one-sided affair.

Finally, world-ranked featherweight Michihiro Omigawa kept up his resurgence at 145 pounds, as he submitted Cole Escovedo with an inverted armbar 2:30 into the first round. A Hidehiko Yoshida protégé, the 34-year-old Omigawa has won eight of his last nine fights. Escovedo had never before been submitted.

Other Bouts
Satoshi Ishii def. Ikuhisa Minowa -- Unanimous Decision
Hiroyuki Takaya def. Chase Beebe -- KO (Punches) 1:45 R1
Joachim Hansen def. Hideo Tokoro -- Submission (Triangle Choke) 2:48 R1
Kazuyuki Miyata def. Takeshi Inoue -- Unanimous Decision
Mitsuhiro Ishida def. Akiyo Nishiura -- Split Decision
Yusuke Kawaguchi def. James Thompson -- Split Decision