The Japanese MMA promotion Dream wanted something to hype up a Japanese crowd before a fight between Hayato “Mach” Sakurai and American Nick Diaz at its event Dream 14. With the recent loss of its lightweight champion Shinya Aoki against American Gilbert Melendez, Dream decided to play up the idea of American vs Japanese – including using images of World War II! They played this video, which some say has images from Pearl Harbor. As the fight was also shown live in the United States, this was a particularly interesting choice to show during the Memorial Day weekend.
What happened after that? It seems that using World War II as a metaphor wasn’t such a good idea, as Diaz submitted Sakurai with an armbar.
