Joe Warren celebrates win over Kid Yamamoto at Dream.9 {Photo Credit: Sherdog.com}

Dream’s 139-lbs. featherweight division was tailored to fit diminutive Japanese superstar Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto. He was one of the first fighters named as part of the fledgling promotion in 2008. Yamamoto was supposed to debut in July of last year but suffered an injury in training–a partial tear of his right anterior cruciate ligament–forcing him out of a bout with Joe Benavidez. He was replaced by Junya Kudo in the fight, who lost in the second minute by guillotine choke to the still-undefeated Californian. In hindsight, Dream’s choice of opponent for Yamamoto’s debut was ambitious.

With Yamamoto out of action Dream decided to delay and put together a featherweight tournament, beginning in March, anticipating that the Kawasaki-native would be rehabilitated by then. He wasn’t. So, out of necessity, Dream gave him a first round bye and hosted six first round matches instead of eight. The winners were Bibano Fernandes, a Brazilian fighting out of Vancouver, Canada; Abel Cullum, reigning King of the Cage champion; Yoshiro Maeda, who made a name for himself on the US circuit with a fight of the year against Miguel Torres; Hiroyuki Takaya, a freestyle fighter from Japan; and Joe Warren, an inexperienced American from Team Quest. It was up to Dream to generate their second round matches since a fixed bracket had not been established. The next round of the grand prix was scheduled for May, and Joe Warren was selected to fight Yamamoto.

Warren’s win over Chase Beebe in the first round of Dream’s tournament was his first professional mixed martial arts fight. The 32-year old had wrestled at Michigan State, first beginning as a freestyle wrestler then switching to Greco-Roman. From 2006 to 2007 Warren won three world titles in Greco-Roman Wrestling and was an early favourite for gold at the Bejing Olympics in 2008, but a positive drug test (THC) earned him a two year suspension from international competition. Rather than wait out the suspension and continue with his amateur career, Warren joined Team Quest, the famous mixed martial arts school headed by former PRIDE FC double champion Dan Henderson.

Warren’s debut against Chase Beebe in Japan demonstrated that he could transfer his wrestling talents to mixed martial arts successfully. In the fight Warren caused a cut over the right eye of Beebe which led to a doctor’s stoppage between the first and second rounds. Though Warren had won the fight, he was still considered the weakest of the six quarter-finalists, and Dream management fed him to Yamamoto in the second round.

In preparation for the fight Warren was aided by former WEC Featherweight Champion Urijah Faber, who is widely considered the best or second best fighter in the world in the American version of the weight class (145-lbs.), the other being Mike Thomas Brown.

To be continued.