In the beginning, there was Pride.
And although Pride Never Die, it died.
A number of figures from Pride formed parent company FEG, and tried to do it again, with DREAM. From 2008 to the present, DREAM promoted 23 events. Fighters included Eddie Alvarez, Shinya Aoki, Mirko Crocop, Bibiano Fernandes, Joachim Hansen, Gegard Mousasi, Alistair Overeem, and Kazushi Sakuraba.
The promotion encountered difficulties, failed to pay a number of fighters, and was pronounced dead.
It is now back from the dead, under GLORY, the promotional arm of Holland’s Golden Glory. Anyone who did not want to support DREAM because they were screwing over fighters can now support DREAM, because the prime mover behind recovering the lost funds now runs the show.
AsianMMA is reporting the details from the recent DREAM press conference:
•Pierre Andurand and GLORY Sports International are bankrolling the show.
•FEG have no involvement at all.
•Bas Boon basically set the whole deal to hold a NYE show up.
•GLORY hope to hold ten events in Japan next year; it is unknown what the kickboxing/MMA split will be.
•Dream.18 will he held New Year’s Eve, at the Saitama Super Arena, and will have high production value that JMMA fans die for.
•Dream.18 aims to have 13 fights – 10 MMA and 3 Kickboxing.
•Satoru Kitaoka, Hiroyuki Takaya and Tatsuya Kawajiri are the only confirmed fighters so far.
