The bigger, the better for blown up middleweight Ikuhisa Minowa. The 196-pound Minowaman was given another huge opponent in 275-pound Jimmy Ambriz. After Ambriz took him down in the first, sat on him and punched him in the side of the head for the better part of six minutes, Minowa showed patience and toughness. He pulled off a submission via heel hook with 2:18 left in the fight to open DREAM 13 in Japan.
Minowa (45-30-8) is coming off a nice run in DREAM’s 2009 Super Hulk tournament. He ripped off three wins giving away an average of 125 pounds in his victories over 7-feet-2 Hong Man Choi and the massive Bob Sapp. He took the title by downing the much bigger Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in the finale.
Ambriz (14-13) looked like he could stand to lose about 20 pounds. His performance was pretty solid especially considering he was one of the guys the Florida Boxing Commission turned down as a possible opponent for Bobby Lashley back in January on a Strikeforce card.
Kikuno scores a highlight reel knockout
DREAM 13 heated up big time with brutal knockout on a nice kick-punch combination from Katsunori Kikuno against Kuniyoshi Hironaka. The trouble started for Hironaka when he got booted in the gut with a nice front kick. As he dropped his hands, Kikuno belted him with a right cross. Hironaka went down hard. Kikuno, making the transition from the world of karate, is now 13-2-1. Kikuno’s only loss since 2006 came in his last fight against top five lightweight Eddie Alvarez.