DREAM: Sasahara talks about Mirko

DREAM had a press conference in Tokyo on Mar 16. Winners of Lightweight tournament 1st round showed up and talked about their ambitions for the next round. In this conference, Sasahara answered questions from reporters.

Keiichi Sasahara:

- Any update about Calvan vs Aoki?

At first, I want Aoki to go hospital and see a doctor. I understand that Aoki is at a loss for words now, because after the fight on NYE was cancelled, he finally got an opportunity to fight Calvan and trained hard, but the result turned out to be the no contest. We will wait until he is ready to talk. I hope we can talk to him within a week and decide what to do.

- Did you take questionnaire from fans who came to the event on Mar 15?

Yes. I think it was hard for fans to think what fight they want to see in 2nd round of the light weight tournament. Although, they gave me some suggestions and I will work to arrange fights our fans want to see. I'm going to announce the result of Aoki vs Calvan and all 8 fighters at the same time, hopefully within a week.

- Any thought about the first event?

I'm disappointed to see the result of the main event, however, I'm going to make use of this experience for our next event. Based on my experience, the debut event of PRIDE had a bad energy. We worked hard to create better events time after time, and at the end PRIDE brought a big MMA boom in Japan. I am satisfied with the way we broadcasted last night though.

- Does Uno fight in the tournament in the 2nd round? Other fighters are against it though?

I understand the feeling of fighters who won in the 1st round why Uno is treated special. I haven't decided yet, but Uno may participate in the 2nd round as a recommended fighter by DREAM. Then, I hope other fighters show their anger in their fighting spirit and show us exciting fights.

- Does Tamura fight in the middleweight GP?

I want him to fight in the tournament, although he hasn't taken an offer yet. I'm going to have more great fighters like our fans are surprised.

- What do you think about Mirko's next fight?

I have to have a scenario for Dynamite. He wants to get a belt . Before arranging a championship fight, we got to arrange fights with some strong fighters and see if he is still good or not. I'm excited to see him fight Mighty Mo and Choi Hong Man, who he has never fought before.

- Does he have chance to fight Fedor for a belt?

I want Mirko to fight Fedor for a heavy weight championship belt in Dynamite. I have talked to M-1 Global about Fedor.