FightUK.com

Nick Diaz throws a left hand at Josh Neer. Photo property of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Here are the complete results from last night’s DREAM.3 event, which took place at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan.

The event featured the second-round of the promotion's inaugural lightweight grand prix tournament. Tatsuya Kawajiri, Eddie Alvarez, and Caol Uno all moved on. Nick Diaz and Jason “Mayhem” Miller were also victorious in their respective DREAM debuts. A full recap of the event will come later today.

Takeshi Yamazaki def. Shoji Maruyama - Unanimous Decision
Jason Miller def. Katsuyori Shibata - TKO (Strikes)
Melvin Manhoef def. Dae Won Kim - TKO (Strikes)
Daisuke Nakamura def. Bu Kyung Jung - KO (Punch)
Nick Diaz def. Katsuya Inoue - TKO (Corner Stoppage)
Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Luiz Firmino - Unanimous Decision
Eddie Alvarez def. Joachim Hansen - Unanimous Decision
Caol Uno def. Mitsuhiro Ishida - Submission (Rear Naked Choke)

Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto throws a left hand at Genki Sudo. Photo courtesy of FEG.

Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, widely considered as one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in mixed martial arts today, will return to action as part of DREAM’s next scheduled event on June 15th.

DREAM officials confirmed Yamamoto’s participation during last night’s event broadcast.

Yamamoto originally informed the Japanese media last month that he hoped to return to the ring this summer. His contract with Fight Entertainment Group will have him competing inside the confines of DREAM exclusively. The 31-year-old has been with FEG since leaving Shooto in 2003.

While Yamamoto remains unsure of which weight he will fight at, it’s expected that he will take his talents to DREAM’s newly created featherweight division. Yamamoto last stopped World Extreme Cagefighting veteran Rani Yahya with strikes at K-1 Premium 2007 Dynamite!! on New Year's Eve.

HT: Gryphon Japan

Kimbo Slice could be one of ProElite’s contracted fighters headed to DREAM in the near future as part of a new working partnership between the two promotions. Photo by Esther Lin/EliteXC.

Elite Xtreme Combat parent company ProElite and Fight Entertainment Group’s DREAM yesterday announced a working partnership between the two promotions that will help bridge the once-distant gap between Japanese and American mixed martial arts.

The two sides made the official announcement yesterday at a pre-fight press conference for DREAM.3, which took place late last night in Japan. DREAM officials Keiichi Sasahara and Sadaharu Tanikawa were on hand to discuss details about the agreement along with ProElite’s William Kelly and ICON Sport promoter T. Jay Thompson.

“Last year’s Dynamite USA at the Los Angeles Coliseum was the largest attended mixed martial arts event ever in the USA,” Kelly said at the conference. “ProElite is delighted that we will be building on that by sharing fighters and referees and doing co-promotions in Japan and the US, and potentially the UK and Korea also. Japan is important to ProElite, and we have great US television partners, so we can bring DREAM to the American public.”

It’s expected that ProElite will also attempt to put at least one of the co-promoted shows on network television in the form of CBS.

According to MMA Weekly, ProElite contracted fighters that were mentioned as potential DREAM participants in the future at the press conference included Kimbo Slice, Jake Shields, and Robbie Lawler.

EliteXC fighters Nick Diaz, Jason Miller, and Eddie Alvarez all competed at DREAM’s third show yesterday in Japan, unofficially beginning the sharing of assets between the two organizations.

Coaches are literally a dime a dozen in mixed martial arts, but one stands quietly among the handful of elite teachers in the sport: Brazilian jiu-jitsu guru Marc Laimon.

Laimon has proven himself to be one of the more intelligent coaches in the sport of MMA. Laimon’s been in the sport for more than 12 years, when he went to his first jiu-jitsu class at the Gracie Academy. His desire to fight got Laimon interested in learning more about the discipline … the rest is history.

"I always wanted to know how to fight and I didn’t really know what was the best," Laimon told MMAmania.com. Laimon saw his first MMA event (UFC 4), which featured Royce Gracie defeating Dan Severn in the finals to win his third tournament.

Laimon was impressed and knew that jiu-jitsu was what he wanted to do.

"I saw UFC 4 and I saw Royce fight and I was like wow," Laimon said. "What he did made sense to me."

At the time, Laimon was going to college and looking to be a chiropractor, but he dropped out to practice jiu-jitsu full time. Laimon had a 3.87 GPA when he dropped out.

"I immersed myself in college and I wanted to succeed in that," Laimon said. "I pretty much did the same jiu-jitsu. I immersed myself in trying to be successful and understanding as much of it as possible."

Laimon views jiu-jitsu as much more than fighting. He views it more as a science.

"To me Jiu-Jitsu is a science, so is Mixed Martial Arts. Some people make stuff up and oh this will work theoretically, but I don’t really make things up and neither does science," Laimon said. "Science has a hypothesis and you have to test it and you have to be able to repeat those tests to make it a fact."

Much like science, jiu-jitsu also involves doing a lot of research, which includes studying what other fighters are doing.

"I find out what the best guys are doing, what are they doing consistently in their game and I have my guys implement it while I try it myself," Laimon said. "I think intelligence goes a long way because I’m not a very good athlete, I’m moderate, not a great athlete. One thing I do have is I have an applicable mind and I’m good at studying things. I really understand the technique so well that it makes me a better practitioner."

Laimon climbed the ladder rather quickly. A year after he started in jiu-jitsu, he became an instructor at the Beverly Hills Jiu-Jitsu Club.

A couple years later, Laimon found himself in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, where he trained at the Nova Uniao Jiu-Jitsu team.

Although he competed in grappling tournaments, Laimon knew he was made for coaching.

During his rise to the top, Laimon never technically had a coach, other than Ethan Milius. Milius taught Laimon a lot. That included helping Laimon be his own teacher.

"One day he just started breaking it down for me on how to study myself and he basically taught me how to be my own teacher, Laimon said. "I try to help my students do that too, because I tell them that ‘nobody cares more about your jiu-jitsu than you.’ I try to put a lot of time and effort into each of my classes."

Not much longer after coming to Las Vegas to train at JSECT Jiu-Jitsu, Laimon earned a black belt in jiu-jitsu — just five years after he started training.

Laimon’s success would soon hit the UFC and their hit reality show, The Ultimate Fighter. Laimon was apart of TUF seasons one, two and four, but it was his stint on four that gave him notoriety among the viewers.

Eventual TUF 4 welterweight winner Matt Serra got into a verbal spat with Laimon over the Royce Gracie - Matt Hughes fight. The episode turned Laimon into the antagonist. Laimon felt most of his strong points were left out of the episode.

"It was edited a lot on TV and they cut out a lot of my argument,” Laimon said.

Laimon feels his argument was valid when he was talking about Gracie and how the UFC legend gets "special" rules.

"My main argument being cut out was, why can’t they fight like everybody else. Royce has to have ’special’ rules to fight Sakuraba," Laimon said. "He can’t be like everybody else you know. As far as I know, Royce breathes oxygen. He breathes the same air as we do. The same concentration of nitrogen and oxygen and all the other stuff that’s in the air. He bleeds the same blood. He’s not really special."

Laimon believes that Gracie is just another fighter and that all fighters should fight under the same rules. He believes that all fights should be a "level playing field."

"No man is more important than anybody else. It’s all a matter of perspective," Laimon said. "When you start saying you need ’special’ rules to fight, well who are you, I don’t care if your name is Gracie, Laimon, Serra, St. Pierre, everybody should fight under the same rules of the sport. There shouldn’t be special exemptions because your last name is Gracie."

Laimon doesn’t let the incident on TUF bother him.

"I don’t let what people say really bother me. It makes no difference, he’s entitled to his opinion and I’m entitled to my opinion," Laimon said. "There’s nothing else I can really say about that except you can be the judge for yourself and you gotta make your own decisions in life."

Laimon is aware that since it’s a reality show, it’s going to need some drama.

"They’re not going to try and build a coach, they’re going to try and build their guy that won the show. I don’t fall for that because they have to create some sort of drama and somebody always has to be the bad guy," Laimon said. "I’ve been the bad guy my whole life, so I’m use to it, I have tough skin, I don’t care what people really say. I’m a big boy, I’ve had people tell me a lot nastier things than that. I’m still smiling and enjoying my life, so I can’t complain too much."

Since opening up the Cobra Kai Jiu-Jitsu in 2004, Laimon has had the opportunity to work with many excellent fighters. Laimon is personally looking forward to seeing one of his new crop of fighters make the transition into the elite of MMA.

His name is Jake Rosholt. He’s 4-0 in MMA with a win over Chad Jay at a Oklahoma event in March. Rosholt, who went to Oklahoma State, is a three time National Champion and a four time All-American.

Rosholt has been training with Laimon for four months now. Laimon had nothing but good things to say about Rosholt and has high hopes for the former wrestler.

"He is like a super computer, once he sees something, he’s able to do it," Laimon said. "I tell him what to do, he makes a little tweak and applies it instantly. He’s been an absolute joy to work with. He’s a phenomenal athlete."

Rosholt hasn’t made the transition to the larger MMA promotions, but Laimon believes his pupil could be UFC champion someday.

"He’s going to be UFC champ, nobody knows who he is," Laimon said. "He’s flying low under the radar right now, but in a little bit, people are going to know his name and they’re going to be buying his t-shirts."

Laimon enjoys what he does at Cobra Kai and loves teaching Jiu-Jitsu to whoever has the desire to learn.

"I’m really passionate about teaching," Laimon said. "The biggest reason of my success is that my students show up. I can be the best teacher in the world, which I’m not, but I’m pretty seasoned. I can be the best teacher, but if they’re not coming to learn, I’m not going to have any good students, so it’s a two way street. I have a lot of dedicated students, a lot of dedicated guys that come everyday to learn. They’re here to learn and that’s what they’re there to do. It’s tough training and I’m not easy on guys."

Laimon will always tell his students like it is, if that’s what it takes to improve.

"I don’t just tell them it sucks, but you know it sucks, but let’s see what we can do to fix this and address this problem and fix this," Laimon said.

Just like a good teacher should to get the very best out of his students.

Here’s Laimon in action at a recent grappling tournament … his passion is evident:

From robcee on Flickr.

English mixed martial arts legend Ian Freeman was victorious in his return from a brief retirement Saturday afternoon, earning an unanimous decision over Paul Cahoon and taking the former champion’s Cage Rage British light heavyweight title in Birmingham.

Freeman saw very little trouble during the course of the bout with Cahoon, save Cahoon taking the veteran’s back on a pair of separate occasions, while using an effective ground-and-pound assault to keep Cahoon at bay and leaving him unable to mount a suitable amount of offense.

After the fight, Freeman assured fans that a return fight against Cahoon was not a one-time thing and that he would be back to defend his title.

“I’m 41 years old now and I have to say that I’m in the best shape of my life,” Freeman said during a post-fight interview. “The training leading up to this fight was very difficult but the end result was worth it. I feel younger than I did years ago. Going back into retirement isn’t an option at this point. I’m not going anywhere.”

Marius Zaromskis was unsuccessful in his bid to win the vacant Cage Rage British welterweight belt, suffering a nasty cut in the beginning of the first round of his bout against Che Mills that forced the ringside doctor to stop the action after the first five minutes, ultimately awarding Mills the championship.

Matt Ewin controlled Mark Epstein over three rounds to win an unanimous decision and successfully defend his Cage Rage British middleweight title. UFC veteran Ross Pointon submitted Ross Mason with a heel hook and James Zikic submitted Rodney Faverus, handing the former kickboxer his fifth straight defeat.

Complete results from the event:

Harvey Harra def. Gary Kelly - Submission (Triangle)
Chris Rice def. Edgeleson Lue - TKO (Strikes)
Popek Rak def. Kevin Simms - TKO (Strikes)
Brad Pickett def. Paul Reed - Majority Decision
Henrique Nogueira vs. Marc Goddard - Draw
Matt Ewin def. Mark Epstein - Unanimous Decision
Ross Pointon def. Ross Mason - Submission (Heel Hook)
James Zikic def. Rodney Faverus - Submission (Armbar)
Che Mills def. Marius Zaromskis - TKO (Cut)
Ian Freeman def. Paul Cahoon - Unanimous Decision