Denis Kang pulled from DREAM.5 lineup

Texasboyballin · 07-12-2008, 08:05 AM

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Middleweight fighter Denis Kang, who had been attached to the DREAM.5 card that’s set to take place on July 21, has been removed from the show without an official reason being provided by event organizers.

MMAWeekly.com reported the development earlier this week.

An opponent for Kang had never been announced, however he had been advertised for the card by DREAM.

Kang, at one time a near-consensus top-ten middleweight, has fallen on hard times recently, losing three out of his last four fights. A veteran of PRIDE, he is 0-2 since signing with DREAM and its predecessor, K-1 HERO’s.

Fighting for K-1 HERO’s last October, Kang suffered a first round knockout loss to Yoshihiro Akiyama. He returned to the ring for his DREAM debut at DREAM.2 in April, submitting to a triangle choke by striking specialist Gegard Mousasi at 3:10 of round 1.

The loss knocked Kang out of the DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix in only the first round. He had been considered one of the favorites heading into the tournament.

According to previous reports, Kang has just one fight remaining on his contract with DREAM. However, despite training hard for DREAM.5, he did not express any hard feelings and apparently wants to continue fighting for the promotion.

“I want to stay with them, I have no problem with them,” Kang was quoted as saying by MMA Weekly’s Tom Hamlin. “I don’t know that any organization can be perfect. I understand that’s just the way business goes. You have to remember, FEG is running K-1 and K-1 Max, K-1 Heavyweight and DREAM at the same time. So I know they’re busy. It’s just very frustrating.”

If Kang does not re-sign with DREAM, he will likely still draw considerable interest on the open market in spite of his recent losing streak.