Dream: Fedor knocks out Ishii and Bibiano wins bantamweight GP

After the successful debut of alistair overeem and the retirement of Brock Lesnar No. UFC 141, another MMA event marked the end of 2011. Dream “New Year”, a traditional Japanese show that always takes place on New Year's Eve, featured 17 fights, 10 of which were MMA, two title fights and a bantamweight GP. In the tournament, the big winner was the Brazilian Bibiano Fernandes, who defeated compatriot Rodolfo Marques in the semi-finals and North American Antonio Banuelos to emerge with the GP title. In the main fight of the night, the highlight is the legend Fedor Emelianenko, who continues to seek rehabilitation and scored his second consecutive triumph against the Japanese Satoshi Ishii, Olympic judo champion in Beijing, 2008.

Bibiano invoices GP
The manauara Bibiano Fernandes was one of the highlights of New Year's Eve in Japan. With two victories on the same night, the Brazilian won the bantamweight GP (up to 62 kg.) and is once again among the best athletes in the division. In the fight for the semifinals, Bibiano encountered difficulties against his compatriot Rodolfo Marques. But after two rounds of competition, the judges gave the victory to the Amazonas athletes. In the grand final, Bibiano needed just over a minute to dispatch veteran Antonio Banuelos, a former WEC fighter. Right at the beginning of the fight, the Brazilian athlete worked with combinations of straight punches and kicks to take down the North American. Once on the ground, Fernandes continued the ground and pound punishment until the referee stopped the fight and declared a technical knockout.

Fedor wins again
The Russian legend Fedor Emelianenko took another step towards rehabilitating his career. After suffering three consecutive defeats and until announcing his retirement, the former Pride champion came back and achieved his second triumph in the series. In front of the Japanese Satoshi Ishii, Olympic judo champion in Beijing 2008, Fedor worked on straight strikes in front of a frightened opponent. Without being able to stand up in the fight and unable to take down Emelianenko, Ishii became an easy target for the Russian's attacks. At 2:30 minutes into the fight, after a sequence of two punches, the Japanese athlete went to the ground and the referee interrupted the fight, declaring a technical knockout. (click here and watch the fight in full)

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Japanese defend Dream titles
Local idols Hiroyuki Takaya and Shinya Aoki delighted the crowd and retained their belts, both by unanimous decision from the judges. Takaya defeated Takeshi Inoue and defended the featherweight title, while Aoki defeated Satoru Kitaoka and remains lightweight champion.

Dream's year-end event also featured two kickboxing fights and a new one: four Pro Wrestling fights, with the participation of well-known fighters such as Josh Barnett, Tim Sylvia, Kazushi Sakuraba and Peter Aerts.

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