former UFC Middleweight Champion Murilo Bustamante. On December 31, 2005, Minowa fought the legendary Kazushi Sakuraba, in which he almost landed a kneebar and then a heel hook, but was caught with a Kimura lock and defeated at nine minutes into the first round. Minowa next fought at PRIDE Bushido 10, where he faced the 7-foot-2 Giant Silva. Minowa dominated the fight, using a forward roll to get past Silva's enormous reach and then landing a single leg takedown that put Silva on his back. Minowa promptly landed multiple knees to the head of Silva, causing the referee to stop the fight at 2:23 of the first round. Following that, he fell to Mirko Cro Cop due to strikes in the first round. However, he then rebounded with wins over Park Hyun Kab, Eric "Butterbean" Esch, and American professional wrestler Mike Plotcheck. Minowa was knocked out in his last fight for PRIDE by Kiyoshi Tamura at PRIDE Shockwave 2006, but celebrated 10 years as a fighter at the CMA Festival 2 event by defeating Min-Seok Heo in the main event after his opponent's corner threw in the towel after the first round. His next opponent was South Korean wrestler Choi Seung Hyun at Heat4: Mega Battle Heat from Nagoya. Minowa won the bout via shoulder lock. HERO'S Minowa later competed for K-1's HERO'S promotion. His biggest match there was another of his classical openweight affairs against Zuluzinho, who outweighed Minowa by 102 kg/225Ibs. The Japanese performed well, circling the less mobile Brazilian and at one point throwing him with seoi nage, but Zulu eventually caught and smothered him, finishing him with ground and pound. DREAM He fought MMA legend and former mentor Masakatsu Funaki at the DREAM 6 event on September 22, 2008. He was submitted in the first round via heel hook. At DREAM 8 he lost via decision to professional wrestler Katsuyori Shibata, after being suplexed by the young Japanese fighter, but rebounded at Dream 9 defeating Bob Sapp in what was his 80th fight. He faced the 7'2" 319 lb Choi Hong-man at DREAM 11 on October 6, 2009. Throughout the fight he attempted to take his opponent down, being successful on two occasions in the first round, before submitting his opponent in the second. At Dynamite!! 2009 Minowa squared off with Cameroonian fighter Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in the finals of the DREAM Super Hulk tournament. In