Left without an opponent when Bellator featherweight champ Joe Warren recently removed his name from consideration, Michihiro Omigawa will now face 16-5 Cole Escovedo at the September 25th event according to DREAM officials. Omigawa has won four straight fights and seven of his last eight. His opponent, 29-year old Escovedo, will be returning to the organization after knocking out Yoshiro Maeda in his debut with a head-kick at DREAM 13 last March.

Additionally, it was revealed fan-favorite Mitsuhiro Ishida will see action at the event against 11-5 Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura. Nishiura is 1-0 in DREAM after rendering Hideo Tokoro unconscious with strikes last May at DREAM 14, while Ishida will be looking to string together back-to-back wins in 2010 after dropping a pair of consecutive fights to close out last year.

Also, fresh off his eye-opening win over Joachim Hansen at DREAM 14, Hiroyuki Takaya will put his talent to the test against 25-year old Chase Beebe. Beebe will be looking to notch first win in the organization after losing to the previously mentioned Warren and Maeda in earlier attempts to do so.

Read below for the current DREAM 16 card as announced thus far:

Chase Beebe vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Cole Escovedo
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Akiyo Nishiura
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Jason “Mayhem” Miller
Shinya Aoki vs. Marcus Aurelio
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. “Lion” Takeshi Inoue
Hideo Tokoro vs. Joachim Hansen
Gegard Mousasi vs. Tatsuya Mizuno

Melendez vs. Ishida

There are members of Mitsuhiro Ishida‘s camp that hold strong suspicions that something slippery was going on in the  lightweight’s recent rematch defeat at the hands of Gilbert Melendez as part of “Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg” on Saturday evening.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com has been able to confirm through the California State Athletic Commission that members of Ishida’s camp have issued a verbal complaint that Melendez was greased up in the pair’s August 15 bout in San Jose, California.

Of course, a verbal complaint is nothing more than that; a verbal complaint. No formal complaint has been issued at this time, and Ishida’s camp has five days to submit something in writing if he has the intent to.

Melendez was able to wear down and finish “The Endless Warrior” in the rematch, stopping the Japanese fighter in the third round via TKO, and avenging his first professional defeat in the process.

Stay tuned to FiveOuncesOfPain.com as we keep you up to date on any further developments in this story.

Strikeforce

Thomson has been rehabilitating a broken leg suffered in training months ago, and apparently the injury has not been allowed the proper time to fully recover.

It was recently being reported by numerous sources that Mitsuhiro Ishida has been tabbed as a replacement for Thomson, and FiveOuncesOfPain.com has since been able to confirm the news of the bout-change through Strikeforce.

They will face off at “Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg“, which is slated for August 15 from the HP Pavilion in San Jose, California. The event will air live on Showtime.

The pair are far from strangers as Ishida holds the first defeat in the career of Melendez when they first met in Japan on New Years Eve, 2007. Ishida was able to control Melendez and edge out a hard fought unanimous decision in what was considered to be a mild upset at the time.

Melendez recently bounced back from losing his Strikeforce championship to Thomson in June of 2008 by knocking Rodrigo Damm senseless at “Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz” in April of this year.

Ishida will be looking to get back in the win column following a recent TKO defeat at the hands of Mizuto Hirota in Tokyo that came on the heels of back-to-back victories for the powerful wrestler known as “The Endless Warrior”.

Ishida, a strong wrestler who is regarded by many pundits as a top ten world lightweight, is probably best known for being the first man to ever defeat former Strikeforce lightweight champion Gilbert Melendez at the Yarennoka 2007 New Year’s Eve show in Saitama.

In addition to defeating Melendez at Yarennoka, Ishida was also a participant in DREAM’s recent lightweight Grand Prix. In round 1 during DREAM’s inaugural event on March 15, he defeated Bu Kyung Jung via unanimous decision. However, he was eliminated during the second round of the tournament at DREAM 3 in May when he was submitted in the second round by Caol Uno.

Ishida’s opponent, Wilcox, is a former star NCAA wrestler and former bodybuilder. He’s riding a four fight win streak with his last coming only nine days ago over infamous TUF veteran Gabe Ruediger.

The full card for “Strikeforce at the Mansion II” currently is as follows:

• Kazuo Misaki vs. Joe Riggs
• Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Anthony Ruiz
• Josh Thomson vs. Ashe Bowman (non-title)
  
• Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Justin Wilcox
• Terry Martin vs. Corey Devela

(Mitsuhiro Ishida pictured on right)

A featherweight (140 lbs.) bout between Wilson Reis and Brian Caraway is the latest fight to be added to EliteXC’s upcoming “Unfinished Business” card on July 26 in Stockton, Calif.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com learned of the news after contacting EliteXC Vice President Jared Shaw.

According to Shaw, the Reis vs. Caraway matchup will be the opener of SHOWTIME’s telecast at 8 p.m. ET, which will feature two fights and lead into CBS’ second-ever telecast of “Saturday Night Fights” at 9 p.m. ET.

Shaw also revealed to Five Ounces of Pain that light heavyweight sensation Rafael Feijao could be added to the card if a proper opponent can be secured.

A title will not be at stake when Reis and Caraway fight. Shaw indicated that it could be until next year until a title at 140 pounds is instituted by the promotion.

Reis, one of the fasting rising stars in the lighter weight ranks, is 2-0 in EliteXC and 4-0 lifetime as a pro. He made his EliteXC debut during the promotion’s ShoXC event this past January in Atlantic City, N.J., where he submitted former Division I wrestler Zach Makovsky with a rear naked choke in round 2. He followed up the win by submitting Justin Robbins with another rear naked choke, this time in round 1, during the undercard of EliteXC’s debut on CBS’ “Saturday Night Fights” in Newark, N.J. this past May.

Caraway fought and won on last Friday’s Strikeforce show that featured Josh Thomson winning the Strikeforce lightweight title from Gilbert Melendez. Fighting Alvin Cacdac, Caraway won via a rear naked choke submission at 1:39 of round 1. The victory was his seventh straight and improved his overall record to 9-2.

Training under Dennis Hallman, Caraway is undefeated at fights contested at 145 lbs. or lower.

The bout was confirmed to FiveOuncesOfPain.com (www.FiveOuncesOfPain.com) by two separate sources within the past 48 hours.

Reis, 3-0, had been scheduled to fight former UFC lightweight Doug Evans during EliteXC’s ShoXC event on April 5. However, he was scratched from the card during the week leading up to the fight due to a question about his medicals. The concern proved to be a false alarm but the proper clearance was not submitted to the California State Athletic Commission in time for Reis to remain on the card.

Reis was replaced by Bao Quach, who won a TKO over Evans at just 0:55 into round 1.

The Brazilian-born fighter trains full-time in the Philadelphia area and is a jiu-jitsu instructor at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United in Jenkintown, PA. A renowned competitive grappler, Reis made his professional MMA debut at Extreme Challenge 81 last July, recording a unanimous decision over Baba Shegeyasu.

He improved his record to 2-0 while fighting for Combat in the Cage last October, submitting Diego Jimenez with a rear naked choke at just 2:00 of round 1. He would go on to make his ShoXC debut this past January in Atlantic City, submitting former Division I wrestler Zach Makovsky at 1:15 of round 2.

Reis, who was promoted to black belt by Roberto Godoi, won the brown belt division at the Mundials in 2004. He is one of several fighters featured in Five Ounces Of Pain’s MMA Prospects section.

Robbins is 8-3-1, according to Sherdog.com’s fight finder. Based in the Midwest, he has fought primarily for the XFO, Shootfighting Challenge, and King of the Cage promotions. He competed for the WEC last August at WEC 29, losing a unanimous decision to Antonio Banuelos.

Robbins returned to action this past January at Warrior Concepts’ “Valhalla Rising,” where he submitted Jeff Hodges with an arm triangle choke at 0:47 of round 1.

Robbins also holds notable victories over Matt Jaggers and Tristan Yunker.

The bout will be contested at 140 pounds. A location for the event has not been finalized but the card will most likely take place in California.

Reis, 3-0, made his debut for the promotion on January 25 in Atlantic City at the Trump Taj Mahal, where he recorded a dominant victory over former Division I wrestler Zach Makovsky. Reis, who trains out of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu United in Jenkintown, PA under Lloyd Irvin black belt Jared Weiner, submitted Makovsky at 1:15 of round 2.

Reis’ previous wins took place in Ed Hsu’s Combat in the Cage promotion where he defeated Baba Shegeyasu via unanimous decision in his pro debut on July 28 and submitted Diego Jimenez at 2:00 of round 1 on October 26.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THE ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

Here’s the latest on the ShoXC card:

Main Card
• Eddie Alvarez vs. Ross “Da Boss” Ebanez
• Tonya Evinger vs. Julie Kedzie
• Sam Morgan vs. Paul Daley
• Ross “Kala Kolohe” Hose vs. Frederic Belleton
• Bobby McMaster vs. Bao Quach

Undercard

• Zach Makovsky vs. Wilson Reis (140 lbs)
• James “Binky” Jones vs. Mark Getto (150 lbs)
• Sergio Vinagre vs. Brett Linebarger (170 lbs)
• Matt Makowski vs. Joe Shilling (170 lbs)
• Doug Gordon vs. ??? (170 lbs)

Check out more ShoXC content on 5 Oz. of Pain.

While no fights have formally been signed for the event, FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned that a proposed main event between Cage Rage welterweight champion Paul Daley and Jose Rodriguez is being discussed.

The bulk of the undercard would primarily be comprised of some of the top undiscovered talent from the Northeast corridor of the U.S.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com has also learned that promoters are trying to secure bout agreements for a match Jim Bova vs. Wilson Reis and also Aaron Miesner and Zach Makovsky in separate bouts.

Miesner and Makovsky are top prospects that train out of separate fight camps in Philadelphia.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG.

New to the list are lightweights Jim Bova and Andre “Dida” Amade and featherweight Wilson Reis.

Click here to see the updated list.

One of those fighters I have no doubt that you’ll be seeing more of is Wilson Reis.

Despite being on 22, Wilson is already a black belt in Jiu-Jitsu and is an instructor at Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu United in Philadelphia. I train at BJJ United when I have free time, which is almost never, but I’ve attended a few of his classes and his skills are sick.

Below is video of his second pro fight from this past weekend’s event. He’s in the red trunks and you’ll notice that his opponent, Diego Jimenez, doesn’t get much offense in. Well, Jimenez is a strong fighter who trains out of Anthracite Combat Club in Minersville, PA with pros such as Jim Bova, Jon Murphy, and Shane Ott. Basically, Jimenez is no joke and Reis was able to earn a win in impressive fashion against a quality opponent.