It was well short of the 10 fights we were promised, but on Monday at the ANA InterContinental Hotel in Tokyo, FEG President Sadaharu Tanigawa, DREAM Executive Producer Keiichi Sasahara and the newly announced Dynamite!! Executive Producer Antonio Inoki made five bouts official for FEG’s end of year effort.
Marius Zaromskis will defend his DREAM Welterweight Title for the first time against Kazushi Sakuraba who will be making his debut as a welterweight at 41 years old; 2010 K-1 MAX 63 kg Japan Tournament Champion Tetsuya Yamato will return to the FEG ring for the first time since capturing the promotion’s first belt at that weight limit to face K-1 débutante Akiyo “Wicky” Nishiura; and UFC veteran Caol Uno will debut as a featherweight against Kazuyuki Miyata.
Also made official were the “special rules” bout between DREAM Lightweight Champ Shinya Aoki and cosplayer Yuichiro “Jienotsu” Nagashima and the MMA bout between Tatsuya Kawajiri and Strikeforce’s Josh Thompson. The bout between Jerome Le Banner and Tatsuya Mizuno has not yet been made official despite the Frenchman’s management confirming it last week.
Sengoku continues its unique approach to mixed martial arts in Japan as the promotion announced Monday its plans for a 25-plus fight “martial arts festival” to be held on Dec. 30 at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, Japan.