(“Josh, quit squeezing. I’m gonna shit my pants.”)
On the bright side, DREAM promoters have managed to secure a replacement opponent for Tim Sylvia following the visa denial of Brett Rogers. Unfortunately, “The Maineac” will now appear on the fake fighting portion of the card when he takes on kickboxing legend Jerome LeBanner in a pro wrestling match.
Sylvia will join fellow former UFC heavyweight champion and avid wrestling fan Josh Barnett, who will take on Suzuki Hideki in DREAM’s version of the squared circle.
This won’t be Sylvia’s first time at the wrestling rodeo. He “fought” Barnett in 2010 under the Inoki Genome Federation banner back in September 2010, where he dressed as a black-hatted cowboy for the bout. I guess he figured a poopy-panted cop with moobs wasn’t as cool.
Here’s how the card, which will go down at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan on New Year’s Eve (and will be broadcast live on HDNet starting at 1:00 am ET until 10:00 am ET) will look:
Kickboxing Bouts
Noiri Masaaki vs. Sonoda Kengo
Kubo Yuta vs. Nils Widlund
Professional Wrestling Bouts
Jerome Le Banner vs. Tim Sylvia
Josh Barnett vs. Suzuki Hideki
Sawada Atsushi and Susukawa Shinitchi vs. Sakuraba Kasushi and Shiabata Katsuyori (Tag Team)
Fujita Kazuyuki vs. Peter Aerts
Dream Bantamweight Tournament Bouts
Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev (Reserve Bout)
Antonio Banuelos vs. Masakazu Imanari
Bibiano Fernades vs. Rodolfo Marquez Diniz
MMA Bouts
Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
Kikuno Katsunori vs. Nagashima Jienotsu Yuichiro
Hayato Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan
Dream Featherweight Championship Bout
Takeshi Inoue vs. Hiroyuki Takaya
Dream Lightweight Championship Bout
Satoru Kitaoka vs. Shinya Aoki
Main Event
Satoshi Ishii vs. Fedor Emelianenko