The Weekly Wrap: March 7 - March 13

Dream featherweights advance

The first round of Dream’s featherweight grand prix did not produce much in the way of fireworks, but set up a solid bracket of competitors for the next round that takes place in May and will feature No. 2 ranked Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto.

Six fighters –- Masakazu Imanari, Hiroyuki Takaya, Yoshiro Maeda, Abel Cullum, Joe Warren and Bibiano Fernandes -- will advance to the next round after picking up victories on March 8. In addition to Yamamoto, who gets a bye into the second round, the winner of a fight between Hideo Tokoro and Daika Hata in April will round out the bracket.

The Dream 7 card, which emanated from the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan, also featured three super fights. Shinya Aoki submitted American David Gardner in a cut-and-dry first-round victory, Mitsuhiro Ishida out-grappled Daisuke Nakamura for a decision nod and Tatsuya Kawajiri defeated ShoXC veteran Ross Ebanez with a rear-naked choke.

In the all-important television ratings, the card drew a low 2.4 average share rating on the Tokyo Broadcasting System, down from a 9.0 rating for Dream 6 in September. A big part of the reason for the plunge was due to Dream 7’s time slot, as it aired past midnight in Japan as opposed to the primetime start of Dream 6. Dream event producer Keiichi Sasahara said the rating for the tape-delayed broadcast, which kicked off with Aoki’s fight, was acceptable considering the timeslot. The show airs Saturday night on HDNet.