The power of nostalgia is an amazing thing. So powerful that it can make an average product appear to be much more than it really is so long that it offers a few elements that take you back to a time of greatness.

In the past 12 hours I’ve received a lot of e-mails, IMs, and phone calls that pretty much go like this: “Did you watch DREAM!? Man, how great was that?”

Great!? Wow, since when did the standard for greatness sink so low?

DREAM.3 wasn’t a bad way to kill nearly five hours on a Sunday afternoon. But aside from a fight of the year candidate between Eddie Alvarez and Joachim Hansen, what was so great about it? DREAM might have similar look to PRIDE; use a lot of its unique elements such as the Grand Prix format; and utilize a lot of the same fighters, but it’s not PRIDE. Not by a longshot.

I realize I am in the minority when I say that I was hardly impressed by DREAM.3, but then again, I stopped drinking the PRIDE kool-aid the day Zuffa bought the company from Dream Stage Entertainment. I think it’s high-time people start judging DREAM on the merits of DREAM and not on the past accomplishments of PRIDE.

And when you look at DREAM as a stand alone product, you begin to see it for what it really is:

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1. Takeshi Yamazaki > Shoji Maruyama, decision

Shoji easily got the best of any standup and action but Yamazaki took him down frequently and laid on him while trying half-heartedly for submissions. In the MMA world Yamazaki deserved the win. In a perfect world Shoji deserved the victory.

2. Mayhem Miller > Katsuyori Shibata, strikes, Rd1

Mayhem, wearing Aoki tights, grabbed immediate mount and just unloaded with fists and knees on Shibata’s face making him a mess. He was playing to the crowd and the cameras acting like he does. Just complete domination and fun for Mayhem and the referree kindly stopped the fight.

3. Melvin Manhoef > Kim Dae Won, strikes, Rd1

Seeing this result you might picture it in your head as it was the most obvious of the card but it didn’t go that way. Won won (lulz) some standup early and then he slammed Manhoef down to the ground and was in his half guard. Manhoef was eventually able to get on top and pound him hard until Won quit and the ref mercifully stopped the fight after a hard knee.

4. Daisuke Nakamura > Jung Bu Kyung, strikes, Rd2

Nakamura really controlled the action from the feet and on the ground. Bu Kyung put up a fight but got caught right on the jaw and ref stopped the fight. Nakamura would have won a decision had he not stopped the fight.

5. Nick Diaz > Katsuya Inoue, strikes, Rd1

Diaz won the early standup and messed up Inoue’s nose pretty badly. It got closer but Diaz began just picking Inoue apart punch after punch and you saw the white towel (flag) fly into the ring as Inoue’s corner couldn’t take it any longer. Diaz just picked him apart at the end.

6. Tatsuya Kawajiri > Luis Buscape, decision

Kawajiri dominated the ground game for 14 minutes and Firmino had control for the last minute. No serious damage up and down in an uneventful fight but Kawajiri won a boring decision based on the rules.

7. Eddie Alvarez > Joachim Hansen, decision

Fight of the card so far. Alvarez really controlled the action but Hansen came back with a vengeance in round two. Alvarez won the decision, awesome fight. He won the standup, he won the ground game, just a very good fight though this one was rather close.

8. Caol Uno > Mitsuhiro Ishida, sub, Rd2

Ishida controlled most of the first and used his wrestling when he needed it. Uno put up a solid fight and fought back but Ishida controlled most of the action. In the second round, Uno took him down, got control, and out of almost nowhere landed a choke to finish the fight.

As reported yesterday it looks as if Nick Diaz vs Katsuya Inoue is officially back on this weekend’s DREAM.3 card from Saitama Super Arena. Sherdog has the scoop.

Questions arose when Diaz was originally pulled off the card as he had apparently gained weight due to the belief he wasn’t fighting.

Diaz will spend his last few hours in the United States cutting weight before heading to Japan to face former King of Pancrase Katsuya Inoue in Dream.

“Tonight we will be pulling an all-nighter cutting weight,” Gracie said late Wednesday.

Unfortunate for Diaz and hopefully he’s at 100% for the weekend. And according to Cesar Gracie the man we have to thank is apparently ProElite CEO Doug DeLuca….

“He thought Nick sort of got screwed with the whole California Athletic Commission thing,”

We still don’t have all the details on that situation but one would assume he needn’t bring his questionable medical marijuana card to Japan.

Cesar Gracie called in and talked to T.J. DeSantis on the Sherdog Radio Network this afternoon and said that Nick Diaz may be back on the DREAM 3 card against Katsuya Inoue. According to DeSantis, Gracie had just spoken with a representative from EliteXC who greenlit the fight to take place at DREAM 3.

Unfortunately, however, Gracie told DeSantis that Diaz has gained back a bunch of the weight that he had lost in preparation for the bout and wouldn’t be able to make the weight for the fight. DeSantis said that Gracie was going to talk to representatives from the DREAM organization as soon as possible to see if the fight could take place at a catch weight of 175 lbs.

We’ll keep you posted on the status of Diaz on the DREAM 3 card, so keep it dialed in to FiveOuncesOfPain.com!

DREAM’s official website was updated today both confirming rumored fights and adding a couple of their own. Along with the Nick Diaz and Mayhem Miller vs. Shibata announcement they’ve also added bouts between Melvin Manhoef and Dae Won Kim as well as Daisuke Nakamura battling Bu Kyung Jung. This brings the official tally of the May 11th card to seven finished fights and counting. Here is the card as it currently stands:

• Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Caol Uno
• Joachim Hansen vs. Eddie Alvarez
• Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Luiz Firmino
• Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Katsuyori Shibata
• Nick Diaz vs. Katsuya Inoue
• Melvin Manhoef vs. Dae Won Kim
• Daisuke Nakamura vs. Bu Kyung Jung
• Katsuhiko Nagata vs. TBA
• Takeshi Yamazaki vs. TBA

The May 11th card will air on TBS in Japan and live on HDNet in the United States at 3am with a replay that afternoon at 4pm.

DREAM made the announcement on their website today that the ever controversial Nick Diaz will be competing on the DREAM 3 card on May 11th.

Diaz will be facing off in a bout against Katsuya Inoue, a Pancrase veteran. Diaz has not competed since November 2007 when he lost a fight due to doctor stoppage against K.J. Noons for the EliteXC lightweight title.

Diaz was scheduled to fight on March 29th at the EliteXC/Strikeforce card but was unable to compete due to some issues with his medical paperwork and possibly an issue with his medical marijuana card.

Sergio Non, USA Today’s resident MMA blogger, got the scoop on Aoki’s status for the second round of the DREAM lightweight grand prix:

Aoki “wants to go on, but it’s up to the doctors,” said Mike Kogan, head of U.S. promotion for Dream’s owner, Fight Entertainment Group. The examination is scheduled for later on Friday — keep in mind that Japan is a day ahead of North America — so Aoki’s fate could be known several hours from now.

I find it highly doubtful that Aoki will continue, especially seeing as how he stated even before the second JZ fight that he didn’t have much intention on continuing on in the tournament. Stay tuned…

According to Sherdog, Shinya Aoki will not be continuing on in DREAM’s lightweight grand prix due to a facial injury suffered during Tuesday’s fight with Gesias “JZ Calvan” Calvancante. There had been much speculation that Calvancante would step in to replace the injured Aoki and continue on in the grand prix but that now seems highly unlikely:

Calvancante was approached about replacing the Japanese fighter, but the 24-year-old American Top Team representative could not come to terms with the promotion and has since left Japan.

That’s a bummer for DREAM, but that’s what happens when you don’t make a clear ruling on the first fight between the two. DREAM deciding that the first fight was a no contest put them in this position. Aoki had expressed a while back that he may not continue on in the tournament regardless of the outcome of the second fight with JZ or whether or not he was injured, so DREAM has no one to blame but themselves for this predicament.