FEG and Sengoku Outline Year-End Plans

DREAM parent company Fighting and Entertainment Group and rival organization Sengoku Raiden Championship are each planning shows for the end of December, and while neither has confirmed any bouts, both began to lay out plans for their events this week.

In Tokyo on Thursday, FEG rep Sadaharu Tanikawa and DREAM event producer Keiichi Sasahara held a press conference to formally announce FEG's annual New Year's Eve "Dynamite!!" mega-show. It had been rumored that DREAM lightweight ace Shinya Aoki would attend the meeting, possibly to announce a Dec. 31 rematch against Strikeforce champ Gilbert Melendez, however Sasahara told press that Aoki's fight was not yet finalized, and that he hopes to reveal it in the next few days.

Some bullet points from the presser:

• "Dynamite!! 2010" will start at 4:00 p.m. local time (2:00 a.m. ET) on Dec. 31 and will air on the Tokyo Broadcasting System. No word on when the event will be broadcast on HDNet in North America, though last year's iteration aired live.
• The card will consist of 12 or 13 bouts and will be focused primarily on mixed martial arts. Previous "Dynamite!!" cards have been headlined by K-1 bouts, but it appears that MMA will take the spotlight this year.
• There will likely be no DREAM vs. SRC bouts on this year's show, but if possible, Sasahara said he'd like to cooperate with Sengoku's event.
• The rumored bout between Olympic judokas Satoshi Ishii and Hiroshi Izumi will not take place at "Dynamite!!"

Meanwhile, Nightmare of Battle reports that SRC president Toru Mukai was interviewed on the fight-centric satellite channel Samurai TV, where Mukai confirmed some details for Sengoku's Dec. 30 "Soul of Fight" event.

The all-day show will host up to 30 professional fights, including MMA, kickboxing and submission grappling, the latter two being handled by the Japan Martial Arts Games Association. The event will have a "family" atmosphere, with relatively inexpensive admission which allows attendees to come and go as they please. According to Mukai, there's also a possibility that Sengoku title bouts could appear on the card.