“It’s just one of those moments where – you know I lost two fights in a row, and I was in a state where I told myself, ‘There’s no way I can lose this fight.’ 

“I got [Nortje] on the ground, just like I thought I would do, and I was pounding and I didn’t want to stop. But I should have stopped.

“There’s no bad blood. He’s been nice. We’ve run into each other, and every time he’s always been a gentlemen. I feel like a douchebag doing it. I’m really sorry for it.”

– In an appearance on Inside MMA, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou discusses his DREAM 9 victory over Jan Nortje. Sokoudjou finished off Nortje with ground and pound early in the opening round at the May 26th event, but continued to throw several extra punches after the referee intervened to halt the contest.

[Pictured: Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou]

Early in the bout, Miller connected with a kick to the top of Souza’s head while his opponent was on the ground, opening up a cut that would ultimately force the bout to come to a premature conclusion. The kick was deemed unintentional, but when the bout was eventually halted the fight was declared a no contest.

In other DREAM 9 action upsets were plentiful, as Joe Warren topped Norifumi “Kid Yamamoto by split decision in the second round of the featherweight grand prix, Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante suffered a unanimous decision loss to Tatsuya Kawajiri in a lightweight title eliminator, and Bob Sapp was submitted by Ikuhisa Minowa just over one-minute into their Super Hulk tournament matchup.

The official results for DREAM 9 were:

• Jason “Mayhem” Miller vs. Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza — No Contest#
  DREAM Middleweight Championship (vacant)
• Joe Warren def. Norifumi “Kid Yamamoto via split decision^
• Bibiano Fernandes def. Masakazu Iminari via unanimous decision^
• Hiroyuki Takaya def. Yoshiro Maeda via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 9:40^
• Hideo Tokoro def. Abel Cullum via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 2, 1:37^
• Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante via unanimous decision+
• Gegard Mousasi def. Mark Hunt via submission (arm bar) — Round 1, 1:19*
• Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou def. Jan Nortje via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 2:29*
• Hong Man Choi def. Jose Canseco via submission (strikes) — Round 1, 1:17*
• Ikuhisa Minowa def. Bob Sapp via submission (heel hook) — Round 1, 1:14*

* Super Hulk Tournament First Round
+ Lightweight Title Eliminator
^ Featherweight Grand Prix Second Round
# Cut stoppage from unintentional illegal kick by Miller to downed Souza

Bob Sapp

Fighting and Entertainment Group announced on Thursday an eight-man open weight “Super Hulk Tournament”, which will begin on May 26th at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Japan at DREAM 9.

The tournament’s opening round matchups are:

• Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Bob Sapp
• Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou vs. Jan Nortje
• Gegard Mousasi vs. Mark Hunt
• Hong Man Choi vs. Jose Canseco

In other DREAM 9 news, Japanese broadcast partner TBS will air boxer Daisuke Naito’s flyweight title defense against Xiong Zhao Zhong as a lead-in for the event, which should provide the promotion a greater initial audience which they’ll be tasked to retain. With the mixture of legitimate and freakshow matchups booked for the card, it shouldn’t be hard to prevent fans from tuning out.

For the latest DREAM rumors check out the MMAFrenzy.com MMA rumors section.

Update by Eric: Behold a truly glorious photo courtesy of kamipro. Can you tell which one is real?

Jason Mayhem Miller

Middleweights Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza (10-2) and Jason “Mayhem” Miller (21-6) could square off at DREAM 9 for the promotion’s middleweight title, which was vacated when previous title-holder Gegard Mousasi declared he’d be moving up to light heavyweight.

The event takes place on May 26th at the Yokohama Arena in Kanagawa, Japan and will air on HDNet.

“Jacaré’s fight will be for the title, at May 26th. The expectations are good and we’re ready to war”, Souza’s coach Josuel Distak told Tatame. “We’re still waiting for the confirmation and Dream’s answer, but the rumors say that will be against Jason Miller, but it’s not 100% confirmed yet.”

Miller, the host of MTV’s Bully Beatdown, has won four-straight bouts before dropping a unanimous decision to Jacare last June at DREAM 4 in the promotion’s middleweight grand prix. He has not competed since, but will take on Kala “Kolohe” Hose on Saturday in Hawaii.

Jacare advanced to the finals of DREAM’s middleweight grand prix, losing via first-round knockout to Mousasi at DREAM 6 in his first title opportunity.

For the latest DREAM news check out the MMAFrenzy.com DREAM archive.

Gina Carano

• Eddie Alvarez, Jorge Masvidal, and Dave Herman will be the featured fighters for Bellator’s fifth event on May 1st in Dayton, Ohio. Complete Bellator lineups are available in the MMAFrenzy.com MMA rumors section.
• Former WEC middleweight champion Paulo Filho will be moving up to light heavyweight to compete at DREAM 9 on May 26th in Japan against an opponent to be named. [Tatame]
• Conor Huen, who last week appeared on MTV’s Bully Beatdown, is likely to fight at Strikeforce’s June 6th event in St. Louis. [MMA Junkie]
• Seven-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion and DREAM welterweight grand prix participant Andre Galvao will soon make his Strikeforce debut. [MMA Junkie]
• Kim Couture and Miesha Tate will square off in a 135-pound women’s bout at ShoMMA: Strikeforce Challengers 1 on May 15th in Fresno, California.
• Daiki Hata has been forced out of the DREAM featherweight quarterfinals due to an eye injury and will be replaced by Hideo Tokoro, who he defeated in the grand prix’s opening round. DREAM also announced this week the matchups for the quarterfinals, which feature Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto vs. Joe Warren, Bibiano Fernandes vs. Masakazu Imanari, Yoshiro Maeda vs. Hiroyuki Takaya, and Abel Cullum vs. Hideo Tokoro.
• Tim Sylvia’ and Ray Mercer’s scheduled boxing headliner for Adrenaline MMA’s third event in Alabama will take place in an MMA cage. [MMA Junkie]
• Charles “Mask” Lewis, the co-founder of TapouT who recent died in a car accident, was free of drugs and alcohol at the time of the wreck. [OC Register]
• Strikeforce: Shamrock vs. Diaz drew an official attendace of 15,211 to the HP Pavilion in San Jose on Saturday for a live gate pegged unofficially at $750,000.
• Benji Radach suffered a “shattered” right hand in his Saturday Strikeforce loss to Scott Smith and underwent surgery immediately following the fight to repair the damage. [MMA Junkie]
• The highly-anticipated women’s fight between Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos is likely to take place in August in Strikeforce with the winner being crowned the promotion’s first-ever  female champion.
• As expected, Kevin Randleman has officially signed with Strikeforce and will soon make his debut of the promotion.
• A light heavyweight bout pitting Travis Wiuff against Stanislav Nedkov has been added to Sengoku Eighth Battle on May 2nd in Japan.
• The WEC is considering holding a future event in Ohio. [Dayton Daily News]

Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou

DREAM middleweight grand prix winner Gegard Mousasi could square off against former PRIDE and UFC fighter Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in a light heavyweight bout at DREAM 9 on May 26th in Japan.

“It’s possible, but we really haven’t talked about it with Dream yet,” Team Quest representative Heath Sims told Sherdog. “We’ve talked about fighting, but we’ve [also] talked about fighting other opponents. It’s a big fight and it’s a tough guy. Thierry’s really looking to re-build his career, so I’m not sure that’s a fight we really want to take at this point.”

Mousasi (27-2-1) hasn’t lost since 2006, racking off eleven straight wins over the span including four-straight victories over Denis Kang, Dong Sik Yoon, Melvin Manhoef, and Ronaldo Souza in 2008 to win the DREAM middleweight GP. He was last in action at K-1 Dynamite!! 2008 in December, defeating the favored Musashi via first-round knockout in the kickboxing bout. Mousasi tipped the scales at 216 pounds for the December matchup, and has expressed his desire in moving up from middleweight to light heavyweight and eventually heavyweight. Following the potential May bout, Mousasi is expected to fight at Affliction’s third event, which is rumored for July 11th.

The 24-year-old Sokoudjou (5-4) rose to fame with back-to-back first-round knockouts of Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona in PRIDE, before signing with the UFC. After dropping his UFC debut to Lyoto Machida in late-2007, Sokoudjou rebounded to defeat Kazuhiro Nakamura via TKO last May. However, he’d next suffer a TKO loss to Luiz Arthur Cane at UFC 89 in October which resulted in his release from the promotion. He next signed with Affliction, debuting against Renato “Babalu” Sobral, but was submitted in the second round of the January bout.

For the latest DREAM news check out the MMAFrenzy.com DREAM category.