Tag: Jerome LeBanner

Tim Sylvia vs. Jerome LeBanner Booked for DREAM NYE Event… Under Pro Wrestling Rules


(“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.


(“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

Potential Slugfest Alert: Mousasi vs. Le Banner in the Works for K-1 Dynamite! NYE Show

("Want a Baby Ruth?")
MMAJunkie is reporting that a heavyweight tilt between K-1 star Jerome LeBanner and DREAM light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi could be added to the K-1 Dynamite New Year’s Eve show December 31 at the Saitama Super…


("Want a Baby Ruth?")

MMAJunkie is reporting that a heavyweight tilt between K-1 star Jerome LeBanner and DREAM light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi could be added to the K-1 Dynamite New Year’s Eve show December 31 at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

Mousasi says he has verbally agreed to the bout and is awaiting a contract to make the fight official.

"I don’t know if I’m fighting him yet," Mousasi said of Le Banner. "They haven’t confirmed. They asked me, and I said yes, so now if he said yes, the fight is on."

Although some question whether or not at 3-1 (1 NC) in MMA if LeBanner is experienced enough to pose a challenge for Mousasi, "The Dream Catcher" says he feels he will, especially standing.

"If I fight Jerome LeBanner in the U.S., [he] wouldn’t be considered a good MMA fighter," Mousasi said. "But in Europe because he’s a popular K-1 fighter, it’s fighting a big fight. It doesn’t matter if it’s MMA or K-1, so it’s good for me (and) my name in Europe if I could beat him. And he’s big and strong, so it’s a challenge for me to get him down. I know that once I can get him down, I can win. But that’s the challenge."

The fight will be only Mousasi’s second as a heavyweight. He defeated aging MMA veteran Gary Goodridge at last year’s year-end Dynamite! show.

He is currently walking around at 223 pounds and says he likely won’t go into the fight with his 260-pound opponent much bigger than he is now.

"It’s too short a time to put a lot of weight on, so maybe two or three kilos more, but that’s it," said Mousasi, who heard Satoshi Ishii also could be a potential opponent for the year-end DREAM event. "But I don’t consider weight to be that big of a deal. As long as my technique is better, it will make up for his strength."

As far as his next Strikeforce opponent, Mousasi revealed that Mike Kyle may be on tap for him in the New Year.

Check out some Lebanner and Mousasi highlights after the jump.

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