Alvarez had an early scare, as Kikuno used an early shot to hook a standing neck crank that had the American wobbly. Alvarez came on in the second round, dropping Kikuno with a right hook. He later used a Kikuno guillotine choke attempt to attain position for an arm triangle submission.
Dream claimed an attendance of 16,000 in Osaka, Japan, for Dream 12 “Cage of the Rising Sun” -- a number that was almost certainly inflated, as most Japanese crowd tallies often are. The fights aired in a late-night time slot on Tokyo Broadcasting System in Japan and scored a low 1.7 share rating, according to the Nightmare of Battle blog; it peaked for the Alistair Overeem vs. James Thompson fight. The show aired in primetime on Japanese pay-per-view and live in North America on HDNet.
The fights took place in a six-sided cage, the walls of which were made of mesh material used in fishing. Fighters indicated they liked the spaciousness of the cage and the spring of its walls, which did not damage them when they were pushed up against it. It was not clear if Dream would bring back the cage or just use it as a special attraction. The fights were contested under three, five-minute rounds, but judges did not use a 10-point must system.
Overeem ran through Thompson in 33 seconds, starting with a flying knee that allowed him to rest his elbow on the top of the cage and finishing with a standing guillotine. Welterweight champion Marius Zaromskis scored his third consecutive head kick knockout, leveling tough Korean Myeon Ho Bae in the first round of their non-title bout. Yoshiro Maeda came out dynamic against Chase Beebe, using sharp punches and kicks and capitalizing on a scramble by the former World Extreme Cagefighting champion. Maeda latched a rear-naked choke for the first-round submission. Maeda did an interview while sitting on the cage wall, as UFC victors typically do, and said he was interested in taking on featherweight champion Bibiano Fernandes in 2010. It was Beebe’s fifth consecutive loss, though his recent decision defeat to Mike Easton remains under review.
The legendary Kazushi Sakuraba fought for the second time in three weeks, taking dozens of punches to the face from Zelg Galesic as he tried a series of leg and foot locks. He eventually lined up the kneebar for the first-round tapout. Sakuraba, who has undoubtedly taken one shot too many in his MMA career, suffered bad facial bruising and required a post-fight hospital examination, but he received the loudest rise of the night out of the crowd. He questioned whether or not it would be possible for him to compete again on New Year’s Eve.
Finally, Dong Sik Yoon barely edged Tarec Saffiedine via decision despite gassing in the third frame. Saffiedine was a last-minute replacement for the flaky Paulo Filho, whom Dream officials said they could not locate come show time. Filho’s agent, Ed Soares, told MMAWeekly.com the situation was related to a visa complication.
Other winners at Dream 12 were Katsuyori Shibata (first-round TKO over Tokimitsu Ishizawa), Tomoya Miyashita (decision over Keisuke Fujiwara) and Kuniyoshi Hironaka (corner stoppage over Won Sik Park).