Bibiano Fernandes retains title, Josh Barnett and K.J. Noons victorious at DREAM.13
by Steven Marrocco on Mar 22, 2010 at 9:35 am ET
Bibiano Fernandes edged Joachim Hansen to retain his DREAM featherweight championship, and Josh Barnett picked up his first win in 14 months with a submission victory over Siala-Mou "Mighty Mo" Siligia at today's DREAM.13 event.
The show took place at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan, and aired live in North America on HDNet.
Other winners from the seven-fight lineup included K.J. Noons, Cole Escovedo and Ikuhisa Minowa.
It wasn't a spectacular affair, but Fernandes (8-2 MMA, 5-0 DREAM) did just enough to retain his belt against a game Hansen (19-9-1 MMA, 3-3 DREAM).
Fernandes, a decorated jiu-jitsu competitor, baited Hansen into advancing with a series of low kicks. When Hansen obliged, he quickly took the action to the ground. Hansen, however, wouldn't let Fernandes do much once there and quickly scrambled, and he was never in danger of being submitted.
Hansen tried desperately to corner Fernandes and land his straight right, but the Brazilian blocked most of the shots and returned fire with right hand hooks. The shots stopped Hansen in his path and forced him to reset.
As the bout progressed, Hansen grew bolder with his strikes and caught Fernandes flush on several occasions. None of the punches, though, were powerful enough to rattle the champion. Neither fighter went for broke during the course of the fight, and most of the exchanges did not move beyond two or three strikes.
In the end, Fernandes' ground work appeared to be the deciding factor in the fight. Two judges gave him the decision win while one judge dissented in Hansen's favor.
In his first MMA fight since a canceled bid to knock off top-ranked heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko in January 2009,
Barnett (25-5 MMA, 1-0 DREAM) stopped
Siala-Mou "Mighty Mo" Siligia (3-2 MMA, 0-1 DREAM) in a bout broken into two halves by an inadvertent low kick.
Barnett chose to stand early in the bout and paid for it almost immediately. A low kick brought a Siligia counter hook that dropped Barnett on his butt. He sprang up and charged into a tie-up, but when the action stalled against the ropes, the two were separated and back in the center of the ring.
There, Barnett called on his recent Savate kickboxing work and attacked a Siligia kick with a kick of his own. The shot hit Siligia squarely in the groin and immediately dropped him to the canvas. Siligia lay on the canvas for some time as DREAM officials gathered around him. The former kickboxer could be heard moaning in pain, and later, arguing with those who asked him to continue the fight.
"That's the hardest I've ever been kicked in the balls in my entire life," Siligia said.
For several moments, it looked like the fight would be called off. At one point, Barnett came over to Siligia's corner and begged him to continue only to be waved off by officials. But after a long spell on his ring chair, "Mighty Mo" made his way back to his feet and resumed the bout. It was clear, though, that his heart was no longer in the fight.
When Barnett eventually got the action down, he hadn't even started cranking on a kimura before Siligia tapped out.
As both fighters' camps streamed into the ring, Barnett offered an immediate apology and gave Siligia a free shot to his groin, and Siligia quickly obliged.
In other action, former EliteXC lightweight champion
Noons (8-2 MMA, 1-0 DREAM) stalked his way to a decision victory over Chute Boxe's
Andre "Dida" Amade (6-4-1 MMA, 0-3 DREAM).
Throughout the fight the former champion became more and more desperate to engage as Amada continued to backpedal. Frustrated, Noons got a little too loose late in the fight and nearly got caught by Amade's knees. But he bobbed and weaved out of most trouble, and he kept control of the fight to take the clear-cut decision victory.
Former WEC featherweight champion
Escovedo's comeback trail, meanwhile, took a huge step forward in a highlight reel performance against veteran
Yoshiro Maeda. After Maeda (26-8-2 MMA, 2-2 DREAM) charged in with a flurry of punches and flying knee, Escovedo (16-4 MMA, 1-0 DREAM) returned fire with a right inside leg kick that buckled Maeda forward. In a flash, Escovedo followed with a left high kick that slapped Maeda's jaw. Maeda was out from the second the blow landed and crashed to the canvas. Escovedo's follow-up punch on the prone Maeda was an un-needed bonus.
In an open-weight bout, DREAM Super Hulk Tournament winner
Minowa (45-30-8 MMA, 4-3 DREAM), giving up nearly 80 pounds to American journeyman
Jimmy Ambriz (14-13-1 MMA, 0-2 DREAM), felt the size deficit from the get-go. He took but a few seconds to shoot in for a takedown and wound up on his back eating punches as his hulking opponent nimbly passed guard.
That seemed okay to Minowa, though, because Ambriz did little from top position other than fire off short punches to the side of his head and dump him to the mat when he stood up. Only a referee's yellow card cramped his style. Ambriz had a brief ray of light in an arm triangle attempt from the top, but that was about it.
When the fight went back to its feet, Ambriz appeared to be a punch away from expiring. Minowa nearly helped him there with a strong lead left hook, but after several flurries, neither man finished the fight before the first round expired.
Ambriz remembered to wrestle in the second round and mounted Minowa with ease. But his bulk made a reversal easy for the red-trunked fighter, and Minowa wasted little time in diving for a toehold. Ambriz quickly succumbed to the lock late in the round.
Official DREAM.13 results included:
- Bibiano Fernandes def. Joachim Hansen via split decision (retains DREAM featherweight title)
- Josh Barnett def. Siala-Mou "Mighty Mo" Siligia via submission (kimura) - Round 1, 4:41
- K.J. Noons def. Andre Amade via unanimous decision
- Ryo Chonan def. Andrews Nakahara via unanimous decision
- Cole Escovedo def. Yoshiro Maeda via KO (head kick) - Round 1, 2:29
- Katsunori Kikuno def. Kuniyoshi Hironaka via KO (strikes) - Round 1, 1:26
- Ikuhisa Minowa def. Jimmy Ambriz via submission (toe hold) - Round 2, 2:42
DREAM.13 - Mar 22, 2010
