Dream 18 marks the turn of the year in Japanese MMA

New Year's Eve was busy for fights in Japan, several events took place on the last day of 2012. Among them, Dream 18 had great prominence, with several fights between athletes who have already been in PRIDE and UFC, in addition to the presence of Brazilian Bibiano Fernandes.

The main fight of the event was a clash between two local fighters: the Japanese Tatsuya Kawajiri and Michihiro Omigawa. Kawajiri is a veteran of Dream himself, but also fought in PRIDE and Shooto. Your opponent, Michihiro Omigawa, is even more experienced, having attended several events during his career. Omigawa had fought his last fight for the UFC in August, at UFC on Fox: Shogun vs Vera, and was previously defeated by Brazilian Yuri “Marajó” Alcântara at UFC 142 – UFC Rio 2. After the three rounds, with five minutes each, Kawajiri was declared the winner by unanimous decision of the judges.

The only Brazilian at the event, Bibiano Fernandes, quickly defeated his opponent, the Japanese Yoshiro Maeda. Fernandes, who is the current Dream bantamweight champion, did not put his belt on the line in the fight against Maeda. He beat his opponent in 1:46 minutes, submitting him with a triangle choke.

Check below all the results from Dream 18, held on December 31, 2012, in Saitama, Japan:

– Tatsuya Kawajiri won Michihiro Omigawa by unanimous decision
– Georgi Karakhanyan defeated Hiroyuki Takaya by split decision
– Shinya Aoki submitted Antonio McKee via submission at 0:24 of the 2nd Round
- Bibiano Fernandes submitted Yoshiro Maeda at 1:46 of the 1st Round
– Melvin Manhoef defeated Denis Kang by technical knockout at 0:50 of the 1st Round
– Hayato Sakurai defeated Phil Baroni by unanimous decision
– Marloes Coenen submitted Fiona Muxlow at 3:29 of the 1st Round
– Will Brooks beat Satoru Kitaoka by technical knockout at 3:46 of the 2nd Round

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