DREAM vs. Sengoku Officially Announced for New Year's Eve

At a joint press conference held Wednesday morning in Tokyo, K-1 and DREAM parent company Fighting and Entertainment Group (FEG) officially confirmed the addition of a "DREAM vs. Sengoku" theme to FEG's annual New Year's Eve "Dynamite!!" show at Saitama Super Arena. The announcement comes two weeks after reports emerged that Sengoku would cancel its own December 31st event at Ariake Coliseum - a show which would have been headlined by a high-profile clash of heavyweight judokas in Satoshi Ishii and Hidehiko Yoshida.

Since then, numerous blogs and fans alike have predicted that Sengoku will begin cooperating with (or, in more severe estimations, be completely absorbed by) its former rival, and that the Ishii-Yoshida bout would be included as part of a package deal with FEG.

However, while it's now clear that a number of Sengoku fighters will be included on the planned 19-bout "Dynamite!!" card - five to seven, says FEG president Sadaharu Tanigawa - it doesn't appear that the elder Olympic gold medalist is fully on board with the crossover.

Sherdog's Tony Loiseleur reports:

"At first, I thought I was going to fight at Ariake Colosseum on New Year's Eve, so to all the fans and media, I'd like to offer my apologies for announcing so late that I won't be," said Yoshida.

Curiously, though FEG's Tanigawa insisted that the bout would happen on Dynamite, Yoshida's comments on the bout sounded less committed.

"Am I fighting Ishii? That was something that was decided by Sengoku, actually. Since then, I haven't really heard who it is I'm supposed to be facing, so I don't know. I suggest that you ask the related parties [for confirmation]," said a cryptic Yoshida about the Ishii bout.

It's safe to assume that this fight hasn't yet been signed for "Dynamite!!" yet, or it likely would have been confirmed today. In fact, no bouts were announced today, though the following Sengoku fighters were present:

Hidehiko Yoshida, Kazuo Misaki, Hiroshi Izumi, Sanae Kikuta, Akihiro Gono, Kazunori Yokota, Mizuto Hirota [LW champion], Masanori Kanehara [FW champion], Eiji Mitsuoka, and Yoshihiro "KISS" Nakao

(An aside: one Sengoku fighter you shouldn't expect to see at FEG's soiree? Welterweight heatseeker Dan Hornbuckle. BloodyElbow.com has learned that the Indiana-based "Handler" will find his way into Bellator Fighting Championships' next season.)

As for the future of Sengoku parent company World Victory Road and its rumored falling out with backer Don Quijote:

... WVR head Inamura's only comments were an insistence that parent company Don Quijote was still involved with the promotion and was devoted to supporting it into 2010. WVR said it already has plans in place to continue promoting in the new year.

Pachinko machine manufacturer FieLDS was confirmed as the official sponsor for "Dynamite!!" today, squashing rumors that the discount giant known as Donki could switch allegiances as early as New Year's Eve.

It's expected that FEG will begin making formal additions to the "Dynamite!!" fight card next week.