Cro Cop vs. Akiyama or Cro Cop vs. Overeem?
July 29, 2008 by Adam Morgan
Buried at the end of Dave Meltzer’s latest column at Yahoo! Sports regarding the health of the MMA business is this little tidbit about DREAM’s possible plans to put a fight together between Japan’s most hated fighter, Yoshihiro Akiyama, and their most beloved foreign fighter, Mirko Cro Cop:
Under the gun to draw ratings, the company is attempting to put together middleweight Akiyama against heavyweight Mirko Cro Cop, the country’s most popular foreign fighter.
Really? A top tier middlweight against a top tier heavyweight? Is DREAM doing so bad that it would really put this matchup together? It seems a little farfetched, especially since Cro Cop vs. Alistair Overeem is being rumored for the next DREAM, but Japanese promotions have done crazier fights in the past. Usually freakshow fights favor one fighter heavily over the other, such as Choi vs. Fedor, but this is a matchup that I have no interest in seeing. Perhaps the Japanese simply want to see Akiyama get smashed by Cro Cop because they hate him so much? That’s the only plausible reason I could see for putting on this fight. Here’s to hoping it doesn’t happen, but don’t color me surprised if it does.
Overeem PLEASE!
After the way he tooled Mark Hunt, I think he can show us if Mirko is serious about MMA any more.
Akiyama vs. Tamura is what they want and would do the best rating.
ya, i think we really need Overeem/CC..
not only does that just sound like a good fight, but it will answer all the questions that have been lingering over Cro Cop..
OVEREEM- hands down and will have a good chance to win.
btw, i like the new site layout..
Nothing would surprise me in the world of Mirko anymore….I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked this to be a grappling/wrestling match.
Seriously if they want Fedor to fight on N.Y with Cro-Cop being the “DREAM” opponent they need to start getting some fights under the croat’s belt and building some hype.
I hope hes not shot….I really do….He provided me with some of my favourite MMA watching moments, waking up early to watch Pride in England.
Man if they pit Cro Cop vs Akiyama, I will lose respect for DREAM, especially since Overeem challenged Cro Cop in the DREAM publicly aloud twice already and Cro Cop has already accepted.
CC-Akiyama is pointless. Overeem-CC is a great fight. If Fedor is fighting for Dream on New Years what better way to build him an opponent? If CC wins we get a great rematch. If Overeem wins he is on a 4 fight win streak and is 3-0 in Dream. If he finishes CC he will have beaten 2 common opponents in that span quicker than Fedor did.
I hope they do CC/Overeem…and I will be rooting for Overeem.
How about CC/Overeem (who has looked great at HW), then the winner gets Fedor on NYE. Either way, it would be very interesting to see.
[...] together into one supermatch. This would be all kool and the gang if those top draws weren’t middleweight Akiyama and heavyweight Mirko CroCop. You can’t really talk Akiyama without bringing up the fact that he’s pretty hated in [...]