("That’s what I thought, bitch!" Photo courtesy of the Kazushi Sakuraba – Laughter 7 Facebook page)
As first reported by MMA Junkie, Japanese MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba will return to action on New Year’s Eve at Dynamite!! 2010, where he’ll challenge Marius Zaromskis for DREAM’s welterweight title. Though the 41-year-old vet has generally competed as a middleweight, he’ll be dropping to the lighter division following back-to-back losses against Ralek Gracie and Jason Miller.
The match will also serve as a comeback attempt for Zaromskis, who’s coming off of a disastrous Strikeforce run this year which saw him suffer first-round knockouts against Nick Diaz and Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos, then eye-poke his way into a six-second no-contest against Waachim Spiritwolf last month. Zaromskis went 4-0 under the DREAM banner in 2009, with three of those wins coming via head-kick knockout.
As of now, the only other fights booked for this year’s Dynamite!! card are a featherweight title fight between Bibiano Fernandes and Hiroyuki Takaya, and a lightweight feature between Josh Thomson and Tatsuya Kawajiri. Shinya Aoki, Melvin Manhoef, and Gegard Mousasi are also reported for the event, but their fights haven’t been finalized. But hey, the show’s not for another three weeks. Plenty of time.