Saturday's DREAM Bantamweight Japan GP Final received another blow on Thursday as event producer Keichii Sasahara revealed that former pound-for-pound great Hayato "Mach" Sakurai suffered a minor ligament injury in his right knee three or four days ago and has been forced out of his anticipated non-tile bout with DREAM welterweight ace Marius Zaromskis.

Stepping in on two day's notice will be long-time Deep and Pancrase veteran Eiji Ishikawa (22-16-2) - a fighter that Zaromskis apparently knows "zero" about.

"There's not a lot of things to say," said a nonchalant Zaromskis. "I landed and they first told me there would be an opponent change. I was surprised but [there's] nothing I can do. Change is change - I came here to Japan to fight. If [Sakurai cannot fight], I'll fight another person. I'm not really disappointed. If I had no [opponent] then I'd be disappointed but I have an opponent so at least I can fight."

Given that he is coming into the bout on short notice, Ishikawa is unable to make the 76 kilograms (168 lb) weight limit and so the bout shall be contested at a catchweight.

DREAM's second event for the year, originialy title DREAM.17, received another blow earlier this week when Todd Duffee was injured and forced out of his bout with Nick Gaston.


DREAM - Fight For Japan: 2011 Bantamweight Japan Tournament Final
July 16 at Ariake Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan.

DREAM Light Heavyweight Championship
Gegard Mousasi vs. Hiroshi Izumi

DREAM Featherweight Championship
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Kazuyuki Miyata

Bantamweight Japan Tournament Final
Masakazu Imanari vs. Hideo Tokoro

Bantamweight Japan Tournament Third Place
Keisuke Fujiwara vs. Kenji Osawa

Marius Zaromskis vs. Eiji Ishikawa
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Drew Fickett
Tatsuya Mizuno vs. Trevor Prangley
Eiji Mitsuoka vs. Bruno Carvalho


Source: Hayato "Mach" Sakurai Injured; Eiji Ishikawa Steps in to Face Marius Zaromskis at DREAM