DREAM, Japan's leading promotion is finally ready to return in full force as on Wednesday, Event Producer Keiichi Sasahara officially announced DREAM.17 for September 24 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama Japan.

The event, which is expected to feature the opening round of DREAM's Bantamweight World GP, has only one fight at this stage. Two generations of Shooto champions will clash with Caol Uno and "Lion" Takeshi Inoue meeting in a featherweight attraction.

Event Producer Keichii Sasahara also announced a rule change for DREAM, bringing the promotion slightly closer to the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts.

DREAM will be moving to the Unified Rules round structure of three 5 minute rounds for non-title fights and five 5 minute rounds for title fights. Until now, aside from the Sengoku vs. DREAM matches at Dynamite 2010, DREAM has employed the PRIDE Bushido round structure of one 10 minute round followed by one 5 minute round for non-title fights and one 10 minute round followed by two 5 minute rounds for title bouts.

Caol Uno, a former Shooto Welterweight (154 lbs) Champion and two-time UFC title contender, will come into the bout on the heels of his impressive victory over slugger "Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura. The May 29, 2011 decision over Nishiura marked Uno's first victory since May 2008.

"Lion" Takeshi Inoue, a former two-time Shooto Lightweight (143 lbs) Champion, employed his impressive counter-striking to pick up his first DREAM win on May 29, 2011 against DEEP ace Koichiro Matsumoto.

Although not officially announced, Sasahara also hinted that Satoru Kitaoka, former Pancrase and Sengoku champion, will also be making his promotional debut at DREAM.17.

DREAM.17 will be the first numbered event of the year for DREAM and will take place almost exactly one year after DREAM.16, which was held on September 25, 2010 in Nagoya. Due to financial difficulties and the March 11 Japan earthquake, DREAM has only managed two down-scaled "Fight for Japan" events in 2011 until now.



Source: DREAM Moves to 3 x 5 Minute Rounds; Caol Uno vs. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue Booked for DREAM.17

wtf!? this is the 3rd dream.17... =\

unless the other 2 were just meant to be fight for japan with no number...

yeah SyM the last two are considered a charity events so it didn't really count. I did mean to point that out earlier

but various sources called both of those dream.17 at different points...
ohhh well... hopefully it will get back to normal now...
i thought everyone was saying dream is dead...? =\

I liked the 10 minute round....a bit more like the old days of no time limit...

Five minutes is too short...a hump-artist can kill most of a round with one takedown. With 45 seconds left the referee stands them up, the crowd wakes up, only to have another takedown and the round end.

Ten minute rounds + the yellow card system = best fight structure