Dream 8 Breakdown

Dream Featherweight Grand Prix
Hideo Tokoro vs. Daiki Hata

The Storyline: Tokoro (21-15-1) may not have the most impressive record, but he remains one of the Japanese fans’ favorite fighters because of his offensive grappling style. The 31-year-old Akira Maeda understudy has suffered just three stoppage defeats in his own weight class. Hata (10-5-3) has won two straight.

The Breakdown: Tokoro’s encounter with Hata was moved to Dream 8 to give “DJ.taiki” more time to recover from his qualification bout against former King of Pancrase Shoji Maruyama in mid February. Hata is being billed as Japan’s top featherweight striker, while Tokoro is one of the most advanced ground fighters in the 139-pound weight class.

* * *

The Prediction: One of Hata’s main strengths is that he’s incredibly hard to put away. Despite facing a variety of quality opponents with totally different skill sets, he has never been finished. Tokoro seems unlikely to change that statistic; even though he certainly possesses the finishing maneuvers to do it, he has often been satisfied to display his technical superiority in the past. Take Tokoro in a close decision in this one.