MMA Dream

HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. -- DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki made a special appearance at the Strikeforce weigh-ins on Friday, and FanHouse spoke to "Tobikan Judan" about the possibility of fighting in the United States in the near future.

Aoki also talked about unifying the DREAM and Strikeforce lightweight titles and when he expects to fight again. The full video interview is below.

Kazushi Sakuraba's stunning submission of Zelg Galesic at Dream 12 was one of the most stunning endings to an MMA fight we've had all year. Video and commentary below.

Marius Zaromskis is still known only to the hardest of the hard-core MMA fans in the United States, but if he keeps winning fights like he won his fight against Myeon Ho Bae Sunday at Dream 12, American fans will learn about him soon. Video below.

A heavyweight bout between Fedor Emelianenko and Alistair Overeem is increasingly looking like it will be one of the big MMA fights of 2010. The question is whether it will happen in the United States in the Strikeforce cage, or in Japan in the Dream ring -- and Dream Event Producer Keiichi Sasahara says he's hoping to get the deal done in his promotion.

Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez, widely considered the No. 3 lightweight in the world, tapped out DEEP titleholder Katsunori Kikuno at DREAM.12 on Sunday. But early on Alvarez was in trouble when he was caught in a move, which he claimed, was "something I've never been in before."

The move is called the standing crucifix, a neck crank obtained when the applier can secure double underhooks and join his hands around his opponent's back. It can be transitioned from a guillotine choke and also be utilized when defending a takedown, which happened in this case.

After beating James Thompson in a Dream 12 squash match Sunday, Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem said he wants his next MMA fight to be against a much, much tougher opponent: The best fighter in MMA, Fedor Emelianenko.

In North America, people who know who Alistair Overeem is know him as an MMA fighter. He's the Strikeforce heavyweight champion, and his 14 fights in Pride included one in Las Vegas (against Shogun Rua) and one against Chuck Liddell when Liddell was the most popular fighter in the UFC. To the extent that Overeem has any name value in this country, it's for what he's done in MMA.

In a match-up of the Bellator Fighting Championships lightweight champion and the DEEP lightweight champion, Eddie Alvarez demonstrated by defeating Katsunori Kikuno with a second-round submission at Dream 12 that he's a fighter who just keeps getting better.

Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem tapped out British veteran James Thompson with a first-round standing guillotine in the main event of Sunday's DREAM.12 at the Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, Japan.

Thompson immediately tried to rush Overeem, but was shrugged off. Overeem launched a high flying knee that almost caught his own left arm on the top of the cage. Thompson rushed Overeem once more but was caught in Overeem's trademark choke.

FanHouse has live results of DREAM.12 at the Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, Japan.

DREAM.12 marks the first time ever that a major Japanese promotion will utilize a cage, a hexagon dubbed as the "White Cage." A trifecta of titleholders are scheduled for action: Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, Bellator lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and DREAM's own welterweight champion Marius Zaromskis.

The live blog is below.