It appears as if Alistair Overeem’s wish has come true, after campaigning to fight for the vacant DREAM heavyweight title, DREAM officials confirmed earlier today that he and Todd Duffee would in fact be fighting for the vacant DREAM Heavyweight Interim Title.
Both men will square off at the Dynamite!! 2010 event at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan in the ninth bout of the night.
Overeem was happy with the official news that the bout would be fore the vacant title.
“It is good to be here. I am happy they found an opponent. I am happier it is for the title. I will show you a great fight tomorrow, and I wish you all the best for 2011.”
While Duffee was more focused on the fight and his opponent rather than the title.
“I’m excited to be in Japan. I plan on having a good fight tomorrow. I don’t think Alistair has ever fought someone like me before, so it will be interesting.”
Overeem was recently crowned the K-1 World GP champ earlier this month, he’s only fought twice in the past year. He successfully defended his Strikeforce title against Brett Rogers by earning a first round TKO win at last May’s Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery event, and he knocked out Kazuyuki Fujita with a big knee at last years “Dynamite!! 2009″ show.
Duffee’s last MMA bout was a third round knockout loss to Mike Russow at UFC 114, ending his six fight unbeaten streak. Duffee was cut from the UFC in September for unknown reasons. He had been scheduled to face “TUF 10″ alumni Abe Wagner next month at a Titan Fighting Championship event but has since been replaced after taking the fight with Overeem.
Replacing Duffee at the Titan Fighting Championship 16 event, set for Jan. 28, will be former UFC heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia (28-6). He’ll face Wagner (6-3) in the shows main event at the Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan. The bout will be televised live on HDNet.
On Thursday Titan Fighting CEO Joe Kelly noted that “We’re very fortunate to be able to add Tim to Titan FC 16 on such short notice. By letting Todd take the fight against Overeem, we are allowing ourselves to get to work with Tim on our Jan. 28 show and then still get to book Todd on a future show.”
Sylvia has had a resurgence in his career winning four straight after his 9 second knockout loss to former boxer Ray Mercer in June of 2009. He is currently the Powerhouse World Promotions heavyweight champ and is scheduled to defend that title in February to Pedro Rizzo.
Wagner is 1-1 since his time on the “TUF 10″ show earning a first round win at a Fight to Win event in November. The loss was an 8 second knockout to Travis Brown at a Victory Fighting Championship show in February.