Fading Russian MMA legend Fedor Emelianenko beat Satoshi Ishii by TKO in the first round at the Dream New Year 2011 event. According to reports coming out of Japan, Fedor did more than finish Ishii in that one fight, he may have ended his MMA career. Fight Opinion has the details:

Japanese weekly publication Cyzo reports that doctors have told Ishii that he suffered a cerebral edema from the NYE beating. As a result, he was warned that any further blows to the head would cause some serious damage. As Cyzo put it, Ishii is facing a retirement crisis. There had been some discussion that he would face Ricardo Arona in late March in Brazil but that fight didn't look to be in the cards. After this latest development, the MMA prospects for Ishii look to be bleak as well.

If these reports prove true, Ishii, a 25-year-old with a 4-2-1 pro MMA record will go down in MMA history as one of the biggest busts of all time. A gold medal winner in Judo at the 2008 Olympics, he announced his intention to fight MMA in early 2009.

Ishii managed to bungle his initial round of interest by first announcing he would be signing with Dream, then nearly signing with the UFC, then settling on Sengoku, the weakest option. That delayed his MMA debut until New Year's Eve 2009 when he fought the legendary Hidehiko Yoshida (himself a former Olympic gold medalist in Judo) for Sengoku and managed to lose an ugly decision.

He then roamed the Pacific, fighting in Hawaii and New Zealand before returning to Japan to fight for Dream and K-1. He picked up a couple of meaningless wins then fought aging kickboxer Jerome Le Banner at the 2010 Dynamite! NYE show. That fight saw Ishii booed mercilessly by the Japanese crowd and sealed his fate as a popular attraction.

Now sadly it appears that Ishii's once-promising career may have been ended by Antonio Inoki's decision to book him against Fedor, still a very dangerous fighter if no longer the best in the world.

Zach Arnold tells the tale of Ishii's career in the full entry.

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While his DREAM date with Brett Rogers was canceled due to a visa issue, Tim Sylvia has found work on New Year's Eve after all as he's been booked for a pro wrestling match with Jerome Le Banner, reported by Heavy MMA.

The bout will be part of the Inoki Genome Federation's contribution to the DREAM show, which features a mix of legitimate MMA bouts and pro wrestling matches featuring current MMA fighters. The card will be aired stateside on HDNet.

Fedor Emelianenko faces Satoshi Ishii in the main event with Hayato Sakurai vs. Ryo Chonan and Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka on the undercard. Josh Barnett returns to wrestling action against Hideki Suzuki on the 17-match card as he awaits the official announcement of his Strikeforce Grand Prix Final bout against Daniel Cormier.

The former UFC Heavyweight Champion Sylvia (30-7) is on a two-fight win streak and has victories in six of his last seven MMA fights. He made his wrestling debut against Barnett for the IGF in late-2010, while Le Banner is a former pro kickboxer who has competed six times in MMA. He also stepped into the ring against Barnett in wrestling action earlier this month and defeated the former UFC Heavyweight Champion by "knockout".

SBN coverage of DREAM: New Year! 2011

Satoshi Ishii entered the world of mixed martial arts with what were, in all likelihood, unfair expectations of greatness. It only took one bout, a debut loss against veteran Hidehiko Yoshida, for him to be written off as mostly hype by many fans. Since rattling off four wins and a draw (should be five wins), the 25 year old Ishii has somewhat rekindled interest in his future, and now a chance to face Fedor Emelianenko on New Year's Eve has him set to finally make the big splash many fans were hoping for.

Lowkick's Anton Guervich had a chance to ask Ishii some questions about the upcoming fight and it resulted in a very interesting interview. A small sample:

Many people say Fedor is a clear favorite against you. Do you like being the underdog, or it's something that gets in your head?
That is fine that people consider Fedor the favorite. And it does not bother me at all that everyone thinks that I am the underdog. Less pressure for me. He is the one who has the most to lose going 1-3 in his last 4 fights.

What in your opinion is your biggest advantage coming to this fight? How do you see your Judo skills coming in effect against Fedor Emelianenko?
I would not say that I have any real advantage over Fedor the man is a legend and has faced all styles. But I am confident wherever this fight goes. Whether we stand and trade or on the ground. As far as my Judo against him, well yes I do feel my Judo will play a big part of this fight if he decides to clinch with me.

Ishii also discusses training in America for this fight and being a Japanese fighter facing Fedor on a New Year's Eve card. Go give the full interview a read.

If there's one thing you can say for Japanese MMA, it's this: they sure know how to put together an entertaining card. This year's big New Year's Eve show is the Antonio Inoki/Dream co-promoted Genki Desu Ka!! and will be headlined by Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii. Now, we have a number of other fight announcements - and some are pretty fun.

First up, Japanese MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba will return to action, but for the first time since the 1990's, it will be in a pro wrestling match, not MMA. Sakuraba will team with fellow wrestler turned MMA fighter Katsuyori Shibata to wrestle against Shinichi Suzukawa and Atsushi Sawada. Sakuraba started his career as a pro wrestler training under Nobuhiko Takada before making the switch to MMA when Pride started. Good move for Sakuraba here, who has looked increasingly bad inside the MMA ring in recent years.

More on the pro-wrestling side: Peter Aerts, the legendary, multi-time K-1 champion, will face Kazuyuki Fujita. And there are rumblings of a possible Mirko Cro Cop vs. Jerome Le Banner wrestling match.

Back in the world of real fighting, they've also announced the sequel of sorts to one of last year's most bizarre fights. Yuichiro "Jienotsu" Nagashima, the cosplaying K-1 fighter who shockingly defeated Shinya Aoki in last year's mixed rules fight, will face Dream veteran Katsunori Kikuno. Again, the fight will be mixed rules, with a 3 minute K-1 rules round to start, and a 5 minutes Dream rules round for round 2.

One last announcement: in women's MMA action, it will be Bellator's Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez.

The Japan MMA scene may have had a rough year in 2011, but it's good to see there will still be a night of crazy action on New Year's Eve - it wouldn't be the end of the MMA year without it!

Complete card (for now) is as follows:

Fedor Emelianenko vs. Satoshi Ishii
DREAM Lightweight Title: Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka
DREAM Featherweight Title: Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi Inoue
DREAM Bantamweight Tournament Semi-Final: Bibiano Fernandes vs. Rodolfo Marques Diniz
DREAM Bantamweight Tournament Semi-Final: Antonio Banuelos vs. Masakazu Imanari
DREAM Bantamweight Tournament Reserve: Hideo Tokoro vs. Yusup Saadulaev
DREAM Bantamweight Tournament Final
Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata
Hayato Sakurai vs, Ryo Chonan
Megumi Fujii vs. Karla Benitez
DREAM/K-1 Mixed Rules: Yuichiro Nagashima vs. Katsunori Kikuno
IGF (Pro Wrestling) Rules: Peter Aerts vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
IGF Rules: Kazushi Sakuraba/Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shinichi Suzukawa/Atsushi Sawada

UPDATE: Three more new fights just added, including, at last, some K-1 action:

K-1 Rules: Yuta Kubo vs. Nils Widlund
K-1 Rules: Masaaki Noiri vs. Kengo Sonoda
IGF Rules: Josh Barnett vs. Hideki Suzuki

SBN coverage of DREAM: New Year! 2011

In a recent interview with Vadim Finkelstein at championat.com, Fedor Emelianenko's manager has some choice things to say about UFC president Dana White. It starts out with him explaining that the only fight they were willing to take at DREAM was the fight they took against Satoshi Ishii and transitions into taking some shots at the UFC and Dana.

From the interview (transcribed on The Underground by judom):

- There is information that Fedor will get 500,000$ for the Ishii fight. This is a solid sum considering the financial problems DREAM has experienced lately.

The sum 500,000$ is incorrect. This is all nonsense. At this moment, for us, the key thing is the level of the opponent, and not how much we get paid. I can say that if we were unable to agree with Ishii, we wouldn't participate in this tournament. We had concurrent offers with other DREAM fighters, but this is not for Fedor's level, and we didn't want to have a fight with mediocre fighters, taking a step backwards. We want to be taking steps forward and we will follow this in the future.

- So, these steps forward, likely implies that next year will be rich in events. What will that be for Fedor ?

We want to have 3 fights. One in Russia, one in Europe, and one in the USA. We really want to get a rematch with Werdum, but he is locked up in the prison called UFC, and because of that arranging for him to fight Fedor would be very difficult.

Dana White is like a dog on hay -- he neither eats it himself, nor lets the others eat it. There are many other good fighters, whom we are considering. For instance, Josh Barnett. We need to wait for the StrikeForce HW's tournament to end and then we can see how likely it is that we can arrange a fight.

This is just the reality of having a heavyweight without a Zuffa contract. Ishii is about as good of an option as there is for Fedor. The only top 25 heavyweights who aren't currently signed to the UFC or Strikeforce are Fedor and Cole Konrad, and Bellator isn't letting Konrad fight anyone but other Bellator fighters any time soon.

With the Strikeforce heavyweight division being eliminated it may free up someone decent but I don't see Zuffa just dumping a high level heavyweight fighter.

SBN coverage of DREAM: New Year! 2011

The much-anticipated heavyweight dream fight of the year of Brett Rogers vs. Tim Sylvia is off the New Year's Eve DREAM/M-1 Global event. (What, did you think I was talking about Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem?)

Heavy MMA reported the news on Thursday that just two days after from being released from a Minnesota jail, Rogers was told he wouldn't be granted a visa and thus he can't travel to Japan for the event. Instead of booking a replacement, Sylvia has been dropped off the card as well.

The story also said that Sylvia was considered as an opponent for Fedor Emelianenko before Satoshi Ishii was slotted for that fight instead. The show will also feature Shinya Aoki vs. Satoru Kitaoka and Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Takeshi Inoue.

Sylvia (30-7) is in on a two-fight streak and has won six of his last seven fights. Rogers (11-4) has lost two in a row and was released from Strikeforce following his arrest for domestic violence.

SBN coverage of DREAM: New Year! 2011

Fedor Emelianenko will face Satoshi Ishii in Japan on New Years Eve.

Sherdog was the first to confirm this rumored bout after speaking with people close to DREAM 'Genki Desu Ka! New Year! 2011." The fight was rumored after being mentioned in Fedor's post-fight speech at the M-1 event in Moscow. Fedor was able to bounce back from a three fight skid with losses to Fabricio Werdum, Antonio Silva, and Dan Henderson when he defeated Jeff Monson in November.

Ishii made news when he was wined and dined by the UFC only to choose Sengoku as his MMA home. His career got off to a rocky start with a loss to Hadehiko Yoshida but he's gone undefeated since with four wins and a questionable draw to Paulo Filho in September.

'Genki Desu Kai! New Year! 2011' will be live from the Saitama Super Arena on HD Net and will also feature the finals of DREAM's bantamweight tournament. DREAM is also showcasing two title fights with Shinya Aoki defending his lightweight belt against Satoru Kitaoka and Hiroyuki Takaya facing Takeshi Inoue.

SBN coverage of DREAM: New Year! 2011

Two big men looking to recapture some old glory are apparently scheduled to meet in Dream on December 31st. And one of them will practically be going straight from a jail cell to a ring to do it. Former UFC heavyweight champion Tim Sylvia is set to meet Brett Rogers. Heavy has the info:

Tim Sylvia and Brett Rogers will fight on Dream's New Year's Eve show at the Saitama Super Arena just north of Tokyo. Sources close to the negotiations on Wednesday confirmed the fight booking to Heavy.com. The fight has not yet been announced by Dream.

Yesterday, Rogers was sentenced to 60 days in jail after being convicted on felony third-degree assault charges, according to TwinCities.com. Rogers was given credit for 26 days already served, but will have to complete two-thirds of his sentence before being released. That means he'd get out on December 13th, leaving him just 18 days to train for the fight. His lawyer asked if Rogers could serve his term after the fight, but the judge denied that request. Rogers will also have to re-appear in court on January 19th for violating the conditions of his release.

Frankly, I'd be surprised if this bout actually happened. It's common knowledge that acquiring a visa to fight in Japan can be tough, especially for a man that's just coming out of jail. I'm sure Sylvia will compete that night. But Rogers? I wouldn't completely count on it.