Ishida vs. Nakamura, Aoki vs. Gardner Added to Dream 7 Top ten lightweight fighters Mitsuhiro Ishida and Shinya Aoki have been added to the March 8 Dream 7 card, with Ishida facing Daisuke Nakamura and Aoki facing David Gardner.
Ishida (17-4-1) is coming off a submission victory in his Strikeforce debut over Justin Wilcox in September. Ishida picked up steam in the end of 2004 when he was able to string together eight-consecutive wins, including defeats of Marcus Aurelio and David Bielkheden in PRIDE before losing to former PRIDE champion Takanori Gomi. Ishida was able to rebound with wins over Gilbert Melendez and Bu Kyung Jung, but lost prior to the fight with Wilcox to Caol Uno in Dream's lightweight tournament.
Nakamura (19-9) is currently on an eight-fight win streak, most recently defeating Hideo Tokoro by first round submission at the K-1 Dynamite!!. Like Ishida, Nakamura also holds a win over Jung, and each fighter has lost to Vitor “Shaolin” Ribeiro. In his last four fights Nakamura has won twice by flying armbar, and an additional time by armbar.
Aoki (19-3) surprisingly joins the March 8 card seeing as he is already signed up for Dream's welterweight tournament which kicks off April 5. Aoki enters the fight riding two-consecutive wins, submitting Eddie Alvarez and Todd Moore. Aoki's last defeat came in the finals of Dream's Lightweight Grand Prix when he was knocked out by Joachim Hansen. Despite the loss to Hansen, Aoki has climbed his way to the top of the lightweight rankings with recent wins over Gesias Cavalcante, Caol Uno, and Alvarez.
Gardner (16-10) enters next month's bout coming off a split decision win over Kenneth Alexander in November. Gardner's biggest career win came against Rich Clementi in 2004, but otherwise he has lost to his biggest competition, namely Koutetsu Boku, Marcus Aurelio, Josh Neer, and Jorge Masvidal.
The bout between Aoki and Gardner is scheduled to take place at a weight of 163 pounds.
Dream 7 will also feature the opening round of Dream's Featherweight Grand Prix.
PDG MMA NEWS 
