At "Dream 5" Hansen defeated Kultar Gill in a reserve bout for the tournament. This became Hansen's ticket to the final after Alvarez, who went on to defeat Tatsuya Kawajiri in the semi-final, but was forced to withdraw due to a cut under his right eye. In the final, Hansen faced Japanese submission-specialist Shinya Aoki, who had previously defeated Hansen at "Pride Shockwave 2006". In the fight Aoki used his grappling experience to try and submit Hansen after taking him down, but the Norwegian escaped and responded with powerful ground-and-pound which hurt Aoki and eventually forced the referee to step in. The win made Hansen the 2008 Dream Lightweight Grand Prix Champion and the first ever Dream Lightweight Champion. After the bout Hansen told the crowd he wanted his first title defense to be against Eddie Alvarez whom he replaced, and who had previously eliminated him from the tournament.