Among the group of fighters finding success on the ground was now dual-divisional DREAM champion Gegard Mousasi. The 25-year old, who had previously held the promotion’s middleweight strap before voluntarily relinquishing it, beat Tatsuya Mizuno by way of Rear-Naked Choke a little more than midway through the opening round of their bout. The performance brought Mousasi’s record to 30-3-1 and was his second consecutive victory since dropping Strikeforce’s light heavyweight belt to Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal this past April.

Also a winner by submission, Jason “Mayhem” Miller lived up to his promise of tapping out Japanese icon Kazushi Sakuraba and became the first fighter to do so since Kimo Leopoldo in Sakuraba’s MMA debut (circa 1996). Miller, who donned an orange-stripe in his hair rather than red out of respect for “Saku”, controlled the fight throughout its two-minute duration, even taking a moment to pause and flash his patented peace-sign pose while in top position. After raining down a few stiff shots shortly thereafter, Miller eventually locked in an Arm-Triangle Choke and fulfilled a life-goal in the process. The loss dropped Sakuraba’s record to 2-2 since the beginning of 2009 and was his second in a row.

As expected, the bulk of the action between submission-specialists Marcus Aurelio and Shinya Aoki took place on the mat. However, Aoki’s dominance and overall aggressiveness likely opened a few eyes. The “Tobikan Judan” offered little room for Aurelio’s offense, taking him down early and holding him there while doing a good deal of damage from the top as well. In fact, a large portion of the bout involved a slick double-leg triangle that kept Aurelio immobilized on the bottom for the most part. Aoki eventually went on to win the ground-war by way of unanimous decision.

Here is a complete rundown of DREAM 16 results:

Yusuke Kawaguchi def. James Thompson via Split Decision
Mitsuhiro Ishida def. Akiyo Nishiura via Split Decision
Kazuyuki Miyata def. Takeshi “Lion” Inoue via Unanimous Decision
Joachim Hansen def. Hideo Tokoro via Submission Round 2 (Triangle Choke)
Michihiro Omigawa def. Cole Escovedo via Submission Round 2 (Inverted Armbar)
Hiroyuki Takaya def. Chase Beebe via Knockout Round 1 (Strikes)
Satoshi Ishii def. Ikuhisa “Punk” Minowa via Unanimous Decision
Shinya Aoki def. Marcus Aurelio via Unanimous Decision
Jason “Mayhem” Miller def. Kazushi Sakuraba via Submission Round 1 (Arm-Triangle Choke)
Gegard Mousasi def. Tatsuya Mizuno via Submission Round 1 (Arm-Triangle Choke)

Over the weekend DREAM-promoter FEG announced Aoki would put his high-level Jiu-Jitsu skills up against a fellow blackbelt at the art of tapping opponents out, Marcus Aurelio, in a non-title affair.

Aurelio has won four of his last five bouts including two straight and is 20-8 in his career. Seventeen of his victories have come by way of a finishing performance, including thirteen submissions with his most notable victim being Takaonori Gomi in 2006.

His opponent, Aoki, is also 4-1 over his previous five in-ring appearances with the only loss coming to Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez this past April.

Additionally, DREAM also revealed Joachim Hansen will face Hideo Tokoro at the show, while “Lion” Takeshi Inoue will fight Kazuyuki Miyata in hopes of getting back on the winning track after a split decision loss to Hatsu Hioki at a Shooto event in May.

Matched up against his former American Top Team teammate Franca, Aurelio sustained his second consecutive defeat in the Octagon when he lost a unanimous decision. Prior to the Franca loss, Aurelio dropped another unanimous decision at UFC 86 in July, this time to Tyson Griffin.

Aurelio, who submitted Takanori Gomi with an arm triangle choke at PRIDE Bushido 10, will now look to rebound during the debut event for the World Cagefighting Alliance to be held on February 6 at the Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, N.J.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com was informed Wednesday afternoon by WCA matchmaker Gary Marino that Aurelio has agreed to compete during the inaugural show’s main event against UFC and EliteXC veteran Chris Liguori in a bout to be contested at lightweight. The fight is still subject to approval from the New Jersey Athletic Control Board but is expected to be finalized soon.

Liguori fought for the UFC in 2003 at UFC 45, where he lost to Keith Rockel via first round submission. Competing for EliteXC during the undercard of the promotion’s first-ever telecast on CBS on May 31, Liguori was triumphant when he bested Jim Bova via TKO.

He most recently fought for Lou Neglia’s Ring of Combat in November where he won the promotion’s lightweight title after submitting Corey Mahon at 3:41 of round 2. Liguori also holds notable wins in his career over the likes of M-1′s Erik Oganov, Matt Brown of the UFC, and TUF 6 veteran Dorian Price.

Aurelio is most recently coming off a defeat to lightweight title contender Tyson Griffin at UFC 86 and is currently 2-2 in the UFC after a very successful careeer in the PRIDE organization. He’ll be looking to get past the .500 mark in the UFC in this bout against former ATT training partner Franca.

“It doesn’t matter who I fight; it’s a big challenge,” Franca is quoted telling Sherdog. “It is what it is. We’re both professionals. I think it’s better for me. I know his game really well. I’ve never trained with Gleison before.”

Franca is coming off a unanimous decision loss to Frankie Edgar at UFC Fight Night 14 in what was considered the Fight of the Night. That was Franca’s first fight back in over a year since being suspended for testing positive for steroids following his loss to Sean Sherk in July of 2007 at UFC 73.

The hotly anticipated Gesias “JZ” Calvancante (14-1-1) vs. Shinya Aoki (12-2) match-up — first promised to the world and then removed from a New Year’s Eve “Yarennoka!” card in Japan — has been reset for a March date in Japan.

American Top Team General Manager Richie Guerrero confirmed the K-1 sanctioned fight during his appearance on Wednesday’s episode of TAGG Radio.

While it seems like the Japanese had no intentions of ever putting this fight on the Yarennoka! card to begin with, it’s good to see that these two guys will eventually get it on inside the ring. This will be one of the most highly anticipated matchups in the first part of 2008 with both of these men ranked in almost everyone’s top ten lightweight rankings if not the top five.

1. Shungo Oyama def. Carlos Newton R3 via submission
2. Kim Dae Won def. Marcelo Garcia R2 via doctor stoppage
3. Min Suk Heo def. Katsuyori Shibata R1 via KO
4. Poai Suganauma def. Bernard Ackah R1 via submission
5. Tae Hyun Lee def. Yoshihisa Yamamoto R1 via TKO
6. Min Soo-Kim def. Ikuhisa Minowa R1 via TKO
7. Zelg Galesic def. Taiei Kin R1 via TKO
8. Dong Sik-Yoon def. Fabio Silva R1 via submission
9. Yoshihiro Akiyama def. Denis Kang R1 via TKO

This will be Akiyama’s first fight since a 10-month suspension after being accused of applying an excessive amount of moisturizer to his body prior to his match against Kazushi Sakuraba last Dec. 31.

For Kang, who is half-Korean, it will mark his first match under the K-1 HERO’s banner.

Opponents for both Kang and Akiyama have yet to be named.