DREAM and Sengoku Announce Partnership for DYNAMITE!!

It’s been rumored for weeks and finally its official: The Dynamite New Years Eve show will be co-promoted between DREAM, K-1 and Sengoku.

The DREAM promotion held a press conference yesterday in Japan and made the official announcement. Sengoku and DREAM were originally slated to be holding separate events, however, Sengoku announced recently they would not be holding their year end show.

The press conference announced one matchup from each promotion. Sengoku announced what will likely be pushed as their main event with Satoshi Ishii taken on Hidehiko Yoshida. Satoshi Ishii is the 2008 Gold Medalist in Judo and Hidehiko Yoshida won the same medal in 1992.

This will be Ishii’s mixed martial arts debut and a lot of pressure will be put on him to produce. It is clear that Sengoku is financially struggling and their top sponsor, Don Quitone, is on the verge of jumping ship to DREAM, which would likely be the end of Sengoku for certain. If Ishii can prove to be a big draw, he could be the saving grace of World Victory Road.

The DREAM fight we knew was going to be taking place on this card is the Super Hulk tournament finals between Sokoudjou vs. Ikuhisa Minowa. Although few have taken the tournament seriously with the lack of top competition, even more turned their back once Mousasi pulled out due to injury. Although neither is a top talent, both are known for putting on explosive fights and this should not be any different. 

K-1 as usual will also be taking part in this show. MASATO, one of the most popular K-1 fighters in history, will be having his retirement fight against lethal Dutch striker Andy Souwer. This is the old dog vs. the new guard as Souwer is the present and future of K-1 max and MASATO’s time has passed.

Although only a few fights were announced, many fighters were on hand for the press conference including: Kazushi Sakuraba, Shinya Aoki, Sakurai "Mach" Hayato, Hideo Tokoro, Hiroyuki Takaya, Katsuyori Shibata, Kazuhisa Watanabe, Hidehiko Yoshidau, Kazuo Misaki, Hiroshi Izumi, Sanae Kikuta, Akihiro Gono, Yokota Kazunori, Rui Hirota, Masanori Kanehara, Eiji Mitsuoka, and Nakao "Kiss" Yoshihiro.

Rumors also have it that Eddie Alvarez and UFC fighter Mirco Cro-Cop, could also be a part of the card.

Shinya Aoki and Tatsuya Kawajiri have also been rumored to be fighting, but nothing has been officially announced as of yet.

The card as of right now features:

• Satoshi Ishii vs. Hidehiko Yoshida (Gold Medalist vs. Gold Medalist)
• Masato vs. Andy Souwer (K-1)
• Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (Super Hulk Finals)
• Hiroya vs. Japan Masaaki Noiri (K-1 KOSHIEN semifinal)
• Katsuki Ishida vs. Shota Shimada (K-1 KOSHIEN semifinal)
• Tsukasa Fuji vs. Ryuya Kusakabe (K-1 KOSHIEN semifinal reserve)