Shinya Aoki (left) file photo: Taro Irei | Sherdog.com
What could conceivably be the last MMA offering from Japan’s Fighting Entertainment Group until new financing comes together, Dream 16 took shape this week as fights were announced at a news conference that saw company officials dodge questions about the stability of the company, the last vestige of the once-dominant Pride Fighting Championship.
Underneath a Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Jason "Mayhem" Miller headliner, the promotion announced Dream 16 on Sept. 25 in Nagoya will feature Shinya Aoki vs. Marcus Aurelio, Takeshi Inoue vs. Kazuyuki Miyata and Joachim Hansen vs. Hideo Tokoro. The event airs live in North America on HDNet and on primetime network television in Japan, where scoring high ratings are paramount to an MMA outfit’s survival.
The instability of the card shows many of the cracks in the foundation of FEG, whose U.S. representative has said may not promote an event past the MMA/kickboxing “Dynamite” event on New Year’s Eve. Aurelio pulled out of a Sept. 10 fight in the United States due to an injured elbow and is unsure if he will make the Aoki fight.
A purported bout between Joe Warren and Michihiro Omigawa appears off the table after event producer Keiichi Sasahara said during a news conference that the company couldn’t finalize a deal with the Sengoku Raiden Championships to use its fighters, like Omigawa. Deals also may not get done with notables Caol Uno and Hiroyuki Takaya, who are featured on the Dream 16 poster. Sasahara said the late fight announcements and other issues are tied to “issues” he declined to specify until after the event.
The company cancelled a planned October event in South Korea, and has not elaborated on an alliance with a Chinese investment bank that was apparently going to seek between $200 and $350 million in capital for FEG, which also promotes K-1, a sports institution in Japan since 1993. Industry analysts, including The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer, have begun to speculate that the investment announcement in July was mostly a show to deflect questions about Dream’s financial health after fighters began to complain about late payment. Bibiano Fernandes, the promotion’s featherweight champion, told Tatame.com that he was only recently paid for his fight against Joachim Hansen in March. Fernandes said he declined an offer to fight on Sept. 25.