Kawajiri drops to FW, fights Hansen at DREAM.17

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/8/4/2343618/tatsuya-kawajiri-drops-to-featherweight-takes-on-joachim-hansen-on
He's already the #9 ranked lightweight in the USA Today / SBN consensus rankings,
but he will soon be trying to crush guys in another division. He's done
very well at lightweight, but after failing to wrest both the DREAM and Strikeforce lightweight titles, DREAM officials have announced today that Tatsuya Kawajiri will now look to take on new challenges as a featherweight.

He will be making his debut against Joachim Hansen
on September 24th, as part of the DREAM.17 card. This will be a rematch
of their extremely quick and controversial bout back in 2006, when
Kawajiri defended his Shooto welterweight (154 lbs.) title.



DREAM.17 - September 24, 2011 - Saitama Super Arena, Japan

Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Joachim Hansen
Shinya Aoki vs. Rob McCullough
Takeshi Inoue vs. Caol Uno
Willamy Freire vs. Satoru Kitaoka

Might be a great move for Crusher.

Not a bad move at all, Should be a tough fight.

I think he knocks out Henson

Could this be Crushers ticket to the UFC? How many people are lining up to fight Aldo? Crusher is a ranked LW dropping to FW. Zuffa rules say he only needs 2 fights to to be a top ranked contender. Or a name change to Kenny Florian.

should be an easy fight for crusher. would be cool seeing him in the ufc and yes he would probably get a title shot eventually title shot and get destroyed by aldo. then again like most asian imports he would most likely not have success stateside. heck kenny would most likely beat him at lw or fw

throwdownfight1 wrote:

should be an easy fight for crusher. would be cool seeing him in the ufc and yes he would probably get a title shot eventually title shot and get destroyed by aldo. then again like most asian imports he would most likely not have success stateside. heck kenny would most likely beat him at lw or fw

Crusher has better wrestling then most Asian imports. I'd give him a great chance to beat Kenny at either weight class.

He should ragdoll Hansen here

The one thing I will say about this is that Kawajiri is fucking big at LW. That cut may be brutal

bobbitt15 wrote:

He should ragdoll Hansen here

Disagree

Hansen will hold his own.

Kawajiri is an enigma to me. He ragdolls a huge lw in Josh Thomson, then gets ragdolled by a small lw in Gilbert Melendez. I can't tell if he's big or small, but most lws I would think could make the cut except for guys like Maynard, Siver, Sherk and Tibau. Melendez should definitely drop if he can't make it against the UFC's top three or four. Kawajiri will bring it and not back down from Aldo the way pretty much everyone else does so that would be a sweet fight to see.

big move