(C) IMF and J News UK, Chikako Osawa-Horowitz
Marius was back in Japan! He won the Dream Welterweight Grand Prix and became a Welterweight Champion in 2009. Žaromskis successfully defended his DREAM Welterweight Championship against Kazushi Sakuraba at ‘Dynamite!!’ 2010 on December 31, 2010. Then he has been competing in North America and Europe mostly. Since then, he hadn’t visited Japan until this year. Probably Sakuraba wanted revenge this time to invite him. First I met him when he was a part of the independent movie production in London. His role was a MMA fighter along with other famous Japanese actresses and a musician all in the same film. He also loves Sushi - well, he couldn’t get while he was staying in Tokyo this time unfortunately. Zaromskis might not notice but he is the one of the fighters who is associated with Japan. Now he brought Team Sambo to fight in Japan once again. So I flew from London to Tokyo to see this special event last month!
Mr Kazushi Sakuraba, who is a Japanese mixed martial artist and professional wrestler, launched a totally new grappling event at the Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Hall, Tokyo, in April for just one night. It’s not like an ordinary MMA event, only grappling with submission, no striking.
There were four teams with five fighters on each team, They must keep all five fighters total weight under 420kg.
First round: HALEO DREAM TEAM VS JUDO DREAM TEAM
Daisuke Nakamura vs Michihiro Omigawa (Draw)
Kazushi Sakuraba vs Shutaro Debana (Draw)
Hideo Tokoro (Win) vs Hyung Ju Kim
Hideo Tokoro vs Dong Sik Yoon (Win)
Marcos Souza (Win) vs Dong Sik Yoon
Marcos Souza vs Satoshi Ishii (Draw)
➡︎HALEO DREAM TEAM Wins
Second round: POLARIS DREAM TEAM VS SAMBO DREAM TEAM
Craig jones (Win) vs Mindaugas Verzbicka
Craig jones vs Sergej Grecicho (Draw)
Marcin Held (Win) vs Viktor Tomasevic
Marcin Held (Win) vs Teodoras Aukstuolis
Marcin Held vs Marius Žaromskis (Draw)
➡︎POLARIS DREAM TEAM Wins
Final round: HALEO DREAM TEAM VS POLARIS DREAM TEAM
Josh Barnett vs Gregor Gracie (Draw)
Daisuke Nakamura vs Dan Strauss (Win)
Hideo Tokoro vs Dan Strauss (Win)
Kazushi Sakuraba vs Dan Strauss (Draw)
Marcos Souza (Win) vs Caol Uno
Marcos Souza vs Craig Jones (Win)
➡︎POLARIS DREAM TEAM Wins
Marius’ Sambo team was defeated this time however he will be back to the fight with Donatas Simanaitis (mmabushido.com) somewhere in the world soon!
All of the fighters showed very high standard technique and people enjoyed watching this first ever event that was only grappling!
