(At ease, boys.)

Though the smack talk between Alistair Overeem and Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic has been heating up ever since their testicle-smashing meeting in September, it appears that Dream is not interested in a rematch on New Year’s Eve.  At a press conference an FEG executive said that Overeem is "begging" for the fight, but for reasons all their own Dream has decided to hold off on this one.

Fed up with Overeem’s insinuations that he’s ducking the fight, Cro Cop has gone so far as to invite his Dutch friend down to his basement where they can square off in Cro Cop’s own personal cage with "neutral referees."  As awesome as that sounds, and as perfect a plot for an action movie as it would be, it seems doubtful that Overeem will go for it.  Word is he’ll actually have a paying fight on New Year’s against Sergei Kharitonov.

In other Japanese MMA news, former EliteXC champ and steroid-denier Antonio Silva has signed with Sengoku and will fight on their Jan. 4 card against Yoshihiro "Kiss" Nakao.  You remember him, he’s the guy who made the mistake of showing his affection right on Heath Herring‘s lips, and then he got knocked out, because they don’t play like that where Herring is from.

Silva’s signing with Sengoku is a sign that he’s decided to just ignore his steroid suspension in California, which really amounts to a steroid suspension in the entire U.S.  Technically he can go fight in Japan while under suspension here.  No one will actually step in and stop him, anyway.  But if he ever wants to come back to the states it could get tricky, if not altogether impossible.  Maybe he’s hoping the CSAC will misplace his file with all the turnover there these days. 

Or maybe he figures that a big, kind of freakish-looking heavyweight belongs in Japan to begin with.  And maybe that’s a stance none of us can really disagree with.