A report from MMAFighting.com on Thursday has DREAM lightweight champion Shinya Aoki (26-5) taking on the 2010 K-1 World MAX 2010 -70kg Japan Tournament winner Yuichiro “Jienotsu” Nagashima (3-2 MMA) in a hybrid match at this years Dynamite!! 2010 event in Japan.
The hybrid match has the two fighters squaring off in alternating rounds of mma and K-1 rules fighting.
Aoki is coming off a win over Yokthai Sithoar in a non-title bout in October at the Deep: 50th Impact event. That win was the DREAM champs third in a row and sixth victory in seven fights. The only loss in that streak was to Gilbert Melendez at last April’s Strikeforce: Nashville event.
Nagashima, who has both a professional kickboxing (16-4) and mma record (3-2), took his last fight at the K-1 World Max 2010 Final losing to Mike Zambidis in the quarter finals of the World Championship Tournament in November. His last mma bout was back in November of 2006 where he lost a unanimous decision to Hiroshi Shiba.
The Dynamite!! event is starting to fill up with bouts both under MMA and K-1 rules. Featured so far will be a DREAM featherweight title match between champ Bibiano Fernandes vs. Hiroyuki Takaya, mma bouts between Jerome Le Banner vs. Tatsuya Mizuno and Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Josh Thomson.
A rumored matchup could see former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champ Gegard Mousasi take on former sumo Shinichi Suzukawa.