DREAM 16 Friday night: Miller wants to smack down idol Sakuraba

DREAM has put together another interesting card this weekend. Japan's top lightweight Shinya Aoki is featured as is former Olympic judo gold medalist Satoshi Ishii along with Gegard Mousasi. The fight Japanese fans might be looking forward to the most is another Kazushi Sakuraba superfight. The 41-year old legend faces American Jason Miller. "Mayhem" is a big hit in Japan, but he won't be getting too many cheers in Nagoya. Miller, 29, knows that, but he's still fired up to face a guy that he watched growing up.

"It was always my dream to fight Sakuraba," Miller told Heavy.com just before he left for Japan. "It's a bit surreal sitting here, packing my bags, getting ready to step over there across the sea and beat up a dude that I was like 'wow! Sakuraba!' It kicks ass. I'm excited about it."

Sakuraba (26-13-1) has been in there with the likes of Ken Shamrock, Ricardo Arona, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Kevin Randleman, Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic, Quinton Jackson, Renzo Gracie, Vitor Belfort, and three times each against Royce Gracie and Wanderlei Silva.

The Ishii fight against Ikuhisa Minowa is one worth watching. There have been rumors about the 24-year-old dropping to light heavyweight. This fight was announced just a few days ago which calls into question what sort of training camp Ishii was in. By the results of the weigh-in, it doesn't like he was going too hard. Ishii fights this one at a higher weight, 235 pounds, than his debut fight where he was only 229. Minowaman has a solid gas tank at only 193 pounds.

The card is loaded with fights in the 140-pound range. Those should produce some standup wars. Aoki is always a good watch as well. His reputation took a hit when he lost to Gilbert Melendez in a Strikeforce versus DREAM matchup back in June. He's still won four-of-five fights and severely injured Tatsuya Kawajiri and Mizuto Hirota in his last two victories. Marcus Aurelio is a very good Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner. It'll be interesting to see if he can hang with Aoki and more importantly not leave the ring with a snapped limb.

DREAM 16 weigh-in (Courtesy AOL Fanhouse):

Tatsuya Mizuno (203.5 lb) vs. Gegard Mousasi (204.6)
Jason Miller (184.8) vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (182.6)
Shinya Aoki (153.34) vs. Marcus Aurelio (153.34)
Satoshi Ishii (235.4) vs. Ikuhisa Minowa (193.6)
Chase Beebe (140.8) vs. Hiroyuki Takaya (140.8)
Michihiro Omigawa (143) vs. Cole Escovedo (143)
Joachim Hansen (138.6) vs. Hideo Tokoro (138.6)
Kazuyuki Miyata (143) vs. Takeshi Inoue (143)
Akiyo Nishiura (142.56) vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida (143)
Yusuke Kawaguchi (253) vs. James Thompson (290.4)