B.C. Trained Bibiano Fernandes vs. Joachim Hansen Officially Confirmed for DREAM.13, on March 22nd.

DREAM has now officially announced that Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen (19-8-1, #10 LW) will drop down from lightweight to face their featherweight champion, Bibiano "The Flash" Fernandes (7-2, #5 FW), at DREAM.13 on March 22nd.

This fight is of particular interest to B.C. MMA fans, of course, because Fernandes, a Brazilian by birth, currently trains out of Langley's Revolution Martial Arts. The fight will be televised on HDNet and is set to take place at the 17,000 spectator capacity Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan.

Fernandes burst onto the international MMA scene by winning DREAM's 2009 Featherweight Grand Prix. He did so against daunting odds to become the promotion's first ever 139lb. champion. Note: featherweight bouts in North America are contested at 145lbs. This will mark the first fight at featherweight for Norway's Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen who has built up an impressive career resume at lightweight. It's possible he feels that a move to the lower weight class will allow him to impose himself physically on smaller opponents, but perhaps Hansen has also finally had enough of butting heads with his greatest DREAM rival at lightweight, Shinya Aoki (23-4, #2 LW).

A win over Hansen would easily be the most significant of Bibiano Fernandes' MMA career, which makes the now-official DREAM.13 event on March, 22nd a can't-miss event for B.C. MMA fans.

B.C.'s Bibiano Fernandes Likely To Defend His Featherweight Title Against Joachim Hansen at DREAM 13

FiveOuncesOfPain.com is reporting today that B.C.-trained, Brazilian fighter and DREAM's featherweight champion, Bibiano "The Flash" Fernandes (7-2 [pictured left]) will put his world title on the line at DREAM 13. Fernandes trains with Langley, B.C.'s Revolution Fight Team. The challenger for the belt is rumored to be hard-hitting Norwegian Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen (19-8-1).

Despite winning the DREAM featherweight tournament which ran between March and October of 2009, Bibiano Fernandes is still a relative unknown to the majority of MMA fans. To come out on top of the field of sixteen world-class fighters, Fernandes first defeated Takafumi Otsuka (9-4-1) and Masakazu Iminari (18-7-2) in the early rounds to qualify for the Featherweight Grand Priz 2009 Finals at DREAM 11. Fernendes, who had been overlooked by many from the start, was not a favourite to win it all that night, but that didn't stop him form slapping an armbar on Joe Warren (2-1) or defeating Hiroyuki Takaya (12-8-1) by split-decision to claim the vacant DREAM featherweight title (139lbs. in Japan). Though he still has much more to prove, Bibiano Fernandes' performance at DREAM 11 forced the MMA world to take notice of his well-rounded skill-set and amazing submissions ability.

His rumoured opponent, Jaochim Hansen is much better known to MMA fans for a variety of memorable career moments, not the least of which were contained in his thrilling three-fight series against the world's #2 ranked lightweight, Japan's Shinya Aoki (23-4). Hansen was submitted by Aoki in the dying second of their third fight, giving Aoki the 2-1 edge in the series and apparently causing Hansen to consider dropping weight to 139lbs. to hunt for Fernendes' title.

Interestingly, Hansen vs. Aoki III took place on the very same night that Fernandes won his world title, on October 6th, 2009 at DREAM 11.

***DREAM is currently Japan's premier MMA promotion and is the spiritual successor to the widely beloved PRIDE Fighting Championships. So far, the company has yet to officially confirmed this fight and, for that matter, have not released a firm date for their thirteenth show.

Dream 12: Cage Of The Rising Sun

This is just a friendly programming reminder that DREAM.12:Alvarez vs. Kikuno takes place on October, 25th and will air live from Japan on HDNet. Actually, it begins (11pm/PST on Oct. 24th) just an hour after UFC 104 ends, which means that I, for one, will have a long night on my hands come this Saturday.

DREAM is the spiritual successor of Japan's most successful MMA promotion PRIDE, which was purchased by Zuffa/the UFC in 2007. Since that time, the Japanese promoters regrouped and, to date, have managed to stage eleven DREAM shows of varying degrees of success. The latest, DREAM.12, will be the first event in either DREAM or PRIDE to take place inside of an American-style cage-- in this case a heavenly-looking hexagon. Personally, I applaud the move because, to me, holding MMA fights in a boxing ring invites so many complications (such as getting tangled in the ropes, flying out of the ring, and having to constantly reset grounded fighters) that the sport is clearly much better off without ropes, turnbuckles, or squares of any kind.

However, it's important to know that this announcement does not signal a permanent change in approach. Rather, DREAM's operators, FEG Entertainment, have already announced that their snazzy, white cage will only be used once per year. Of course, none of this would matter if the fights were no good. Luckily for fans, DREAM.12 includes several intriguing match-ups. Some are less-than-competitive, but involve respected, world-ranked fighters against total tomato cans, which is sometimes pretty fun to watch-- the Japanese seem to enjoy that sort of thing, anyway.

Rankings courtesty of USA TODAY/SBN

Ranked Fighters Include: Eddie Alvarez (#3 Lightweight), Chase Beebe (#20 Bantamweight/BW), Yoshiro Maeda (#21 BW), Marius Zaromskis (#15 Welterweight), Paulo Filho (#24 Middleweight), Alistair Overeem (#12 Heavyweight).

Eddie Alvarez vs. Katsunori Kikuno
Chase Beebe vs. Yoshiro Maeda
(WW Champion) Marius Zaromskis vs. Myeon Ho Bae (non-title fight)
Paulo Filho vs. Yoon Dong Sik
Alistair Overeem vs. James Thompson
Zelg Galesic vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Kuniyoshi Hironaka vs. Won Sik Park
Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Katsuyori Shibata
Keisuke Fujiwara vs. Tomoya Miyashita


I'll Post Results Following The Show