Dream is closed, to no one’s surprise. How many fighters do you think end up heading to One FC and who will try to make it to the UFC or Bellator? I’m more interested in a fighter like Tatsuya Kawajiri, who has looked very good recently but might not have a lot of their prime left for the UFC. Also, what are the odds on my dream of having Hideo Tokoro in the UFC for just one fight? You can be brutally honest. -- Mike from Hartford
Regarding those stars, it seems two of the choicest free agents to emerge from the shutdown are already settling in elsewhere. The UFC announced the signing of bantamweight champ Bibiano Fernandes last week -- the day after the Dream news broke. In my eyes, he was the most interesting commodity to be snatched up; as he’s a supremely gifted athlete and still relatively young, I think he has gone to the right place. It doesn’t hurt that he’s based in Canada, either. If he finds success in the Octagon, there’s even a built-in storyline for a potential rematch with Urijah Faber down the line.
Then there’s Shinya Aoki, who sources say is close to signing with Singapore’s One Fighting Championship and may appear on its Sept. 1 card in Manila. That’s all well and good if Aoki just wants to keep busy, but breaking back into the lightweight Top 10 from there will be an arduous task, if not downright impossible. While One FC has managed some exciting shows with its first three outings, it is not exactly sitting on a stockpile of top-tier 155ers. In fact, the most prominent name it has had in that weight class so far is the unranked Kawajiri, who Aoki submitted not two years ago.
It’s impossible to say which or how many fighters from Dream will end up with One FC and which will head stateside, but Fernandes and Aoki seem to represent the two options well. In Fernandes, you see a guy in his prime looking to improve his standing by fighting even stiffer competition than he has been handed. But it sounds like Aoki -- who recently dropped his long-held Top 10 spot after being knocked out by Eddie Alvarez -- might be content to tread water and continue fighting the caliber of opponent he has been getting in Dream. Of course, not every fighter will have the option of joining the UFC, but there’s no doubt Sean Shelby and Co. are aware of the guys deserving of a shot, like Hiroyuki Takaya, Kazuyuki Miyata and Takeshi Inoue.
Kawajiri seems like he could go either way, but it sure would be nice to see him in the UFC at 145 pounds. As you say, his window might be closing, and I’d hate to see one of the best Japanese fighters round out his career thumping blown-up bantamweights.
As for Tokoro ... in your heart, you already know the answer to this one, right? Even if he’s beloved by fight heads and even if he's a potential draw for a future Saitama show, the UFC’s not in the habit of signing guys for one-off fights and certainly not guys coming off back-to-back losses. Sorry to be a downer, but on the upside, at least you won’t have to watch Tokoro get smashed as a tune-up opponent for Scott Jorgensen or somebody.