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Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Daiki Hata

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It’s been nearly a year since Ishida fought, and it hasn’t been because of injuries or contract negotiations. The culprit is Dream, which has left Ishida waiting on the sidelines for no apparent reason. Thankfully Ishida’s return comes accompanied with his long-awaited debut in the featherweight division.

Awaiting the “Endless Fighter” is veteran featherweight gatekeeper Hata, who is tenuously clinging to relevance in the uber-competitive division. That grip will likely get a little looser once Ishida is done with him. Don’t get me wrong: Hata is a solid fighter, but Ishida’s wrestling alone makes this an impossible matchup for him.

Thoughout his career, Hata has been vulnerable against superior wrestlers and Ishida is a true master of the top-control special. There will be no qualms on his end about grinding out an uneventful decision, and Hata won’t be able to do much of anything about it. It takes either killer takedown defense or some off-the-charts grappling skills to keep Ishida out of his zone, and Hata has neither.

I don’t think Rickson Gracie armed with the ultimate nullifier could get much going off his back against Ishida. Not exactly a comforting fact for Hata considering he’ll be stuck underneath Ishida for practically every second of this fight. A mostly uneventful bout will end with Ishida taking home a standard issue top control-fueled win.

Kazuhiro Nakamura vs. Karl Amoussou

It may not be the most high-profile bout on the card, but at least it’s a reasonably even matchup. Amoussou’s stiff starch striking style and Nakamura’s judo game make for an interesting little fight in Dream’s still nascent middleweight division.

What puts the fight in Nakamura’s favor is his vastly underrated boxing, which will make Amoussou’s attempts at striking dominance much more difficult than expected. Even then Nakamura still won’t be outclassing Amoussou on the feet unless he suddenly finds some previously unseen power in his low-density fists. Considering Nakamura’s willingness to mix it up standing, we could easily be in for a game of cat and mouse on the feet.

Willing as Nakamura may be to go blow for blow, it’s hard to imagine him ignoring the marked advantage he has on the mat against Amoussou. He may not be an all-timer on the ground, but Nakamura does have solid top control and enough offense to give Amoussou serious problems. Whether it be ground-and-pound or submission attempts, Amoussou won’t have much in the way of an answer.

Expect an evenly matched tilt on the feet and a decidedly less even affair on the mat with Nakamura being the one calling all the shots. It won’t be a blowout, but it will be a solid win for Nakamura in his ongoing quest to step out from behind the long shadow cast by his mentor Hidehiko Yoshida.

Michihiro Omigawa vs. Young Sam Jung

When athletic commissions are an ocean away, this is the kind of matchmaking promotions can get away with. That is the only explanation for why Omigawa, at bare minimum a top 10 featherweight, is being matched against Jung, who has an 0-2 record and roughly the same chance of winning this fight as a corpse would.

If Jung were to win it, he would join such improbable occurrences as the birth of the universe and Danny Lafever making Benji Radach go night night. However, the fact is that Omigawa has grown into an excellent fighter while Jung couldn’t even cut it on the Korean MMA circuit. It’s hard to imagine what awaits him against a serious world-class mixed martial artist, but it will almost certainly be painful to watch for anyone who counts Jung as a friend.

This may not be the most thorough breakdown ever, but such despicable matchmaking doesn’t deserve the usual consideration. The only thing to be grateful for in this bout is that Omigawa isn’t some monster one-hitter-quitter like Marlon Sandro, so the odds of Jung taking some horrific beating are decidedly marginal.