Mirko Cro Cop Pulls Out Of Grappling Match

The world may never know how Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic would fare in a grappling match against Ralek Gracie, a member of the notorious Gracie Clan.

Cro Cop was scheduled to fight Ralek Gracie at DREAM 4, in a modified rules grappling comtest. Cro Cop has announced today that he is unable to compete due to a reaggravated elbow injury.

Many Cro Cop fans will be glad to hear that he is no longer fighting this match, as they were uncertian of how Cro Cop would perform, given that he is a noted striker, not a grappler. Cro Cop is expected to fight next at DREAM 5 next month, against proposed opponent Jerome Le Banner. This match is not yet confirmed.

DREAM 4 Preview On HD Net Fights

HDNet Fights have announced a show to be aired tomorrow night on HDNet Fights.

The show is an in depth look at DREAM 4, and the atch ups. The show is hosted by Inside MMA's Ron Kruck, and will air at 7PM ET.

Here is the write up about the show:

Ron Kruck previews the Middleweight Grand Prix Quarterfinal match-ups scheduled for DREAM 4. Fighters on the June 15th card include Jason "Mayhem" Miller, Gegard Mousasi, Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza and MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba.

DREAM 4 Card Finalized

With just over a week to spare, the fight card for DREAM 4 has been finalized.

Here we will see the final match up for the Lightweight Grand Prix Quarter finals, and the quarter finals for the Middleweight Grand Prix. There are some highly interesting match ups here. Here are the fights for this event:

Alistair Overeem vs Tae Hyun Lee

Alavutdin Gadzhiyev vs Cacareco

Mirko Cro Cop vs Ralek Gracie (grappling match)

Hideo Tokoro vs Darren Uyenoyama

Shinya Aoki vs Katsuhiko Nagata (LWGP)

Zelg Galesic vs Taiei Kin (MWGP)

Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza vs Jason “Mayhem” Miller (MWGP)

Gegard Mousasi vs Dong Sik Yoon (MWGP)

Kazushi Sakuraba vs Melvin Manhoef (MWGP)

Cro Cop To Fight At DREAM 4

We have recently learned that former Pride and UFC fighter Mirko Cro Cop will compete at DREAM 4.

The match will not be an MMA match, but instead will be a grappling match under ADCC rules. His opponent will be Ralek Gracie. Cro Cop was originally slated to face Jerome Le Banner at DREAM 4, but an injury forced the match to be pushed back to DREAM 5.

DREAM 4 takes place on June 15th in Japan. Check out our DREAM 4 section to see other news for this event.

DREAM Middleweight Tournament Match Ups Announced

With just three weeks left until the event, DREAM have announced their match ups for the quarter finals of the middleweight tournament.

The event takes place at DREAM 4on June 15th at the Saitama Super Arena. Also featured on the DREAM 4 card will be the Lightweight Tournament bout between Shinya Aoki and Kazuhiko Nagata. The tournament will conclude on September 23rd, with both the semi finals and finals being fought on the night.

Here are the match ups:

Melvin Manhoef (21-4-1) vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (24-10-1)
Gegard Mousasi (21-2-1) vs. Dong Sik Yoon (4-4)
Ronaldo "Jacare" de Souza (8-1) vs. Jason "Mayhem" Miller (21-5)
Zelg Galesic (8-3) vs. Taiei Kin (3-2)

*It is worth noting that Melvin Manhoef is featured in the tournament as a replacement for Kiyoshi Tamura who had to pull out of the contest due to injury.

UPDATE: Aoki Will Fight In Tournament

Earlier this week, we reported that Aoki may be out of the DREAM Tournament, and JZ may be his replacement (you can see the original story here http://mmatrivia.blogspot.com/2008/05/rumor-aoki-possibly-unable-to-continue.html)

After almost a week of deliberation, the DREAM executives have decided to allow Aoki to fight, but only after he has served his medical suspension. This means that the fight between Aoki and opponent Katsuhiko Nagata will take place in June at DREAM 4.