(Melvin Manhoef def. Denis Kang via knee-to-the-body KO, 0:50 of round 1. Fight starts at the 3:44 mark, but we’ve got the video cued up to the *real* action.)

From Mirko Cro Cop arm-barring a professional wrestler, to Bob Sapp scoring a massive upset over Alistair Overeem (in arm-wrestling), New Year’s weekend in Japan was loaded with, shall we say, “sports entertainment.” But there was at least one legit event — the hybrid DREAM 18/Glory 4 MMA-kickboxing spectacular that went down December 31st at the Saitama Super Arena. Thanks to Suhwaniya Fight Club, we’ve got complete videos of all eight MMA fights that took place that night, which featured such stars as Shinya Aoki, Melvin Manhoef, Marloes Coenen, Phil Baroni, Michihiro Omigawa, and Bibiano Fernandes. Enjoy, and welcome to 2013 everybody.

(Shinya Aoki def. Antonio McKee via submission due to eye-punch, 0:24 of round 2)

At UFC 144, the organization made a triumphant return to the Land of the Rising Sun with an evening full of exciting fights, culminating in Benson Henderson winning the lightweight championship from Frankie Edgar. Add on the way that the polite, educated Japanese fans packed the Saitama Super Arena, and it felt like it would only be a matter of time before the organization returned to Japan for more events.

Today, Japanese sportspaper NikkanSports is reporting (translated by MMAWeekly) that the UFC is planning on returning to Japan with a series of four smaller events in 2013. The events will showcase local, Japanese talent and will take place at a small, yet-to-be-determined venue. The UFC is reportedly aiming for 5,000 people attending each event.

A million arigatos to our friends at TerezOwens for sending us actual footage of the rap concert that Quinton Jackson did in Tokyo immediately following his loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 144. We can’t tell if this clip is an excerpt from Rampage’s new “doggy style” tribute, but either way, the lyrics are $kala-caliber. FYI, the performance went down at a club called Vanity in Tokyo’s Roppongi district. (As in, “vanity project.” As in, “My God this vanity project.”) Allow us to half-assedly transcribe:

Rampage:
Get on sowaggichain
Get down with Rampage
We party like we paid
Move! Yo ass, like you wanna get laid
Now shake it, *you* shake it
I wanna see that ass butt-naked

Rampage’s Asian hype-man:
Yo, whassup?
Everybody get down on the floor wuhsay
HALT! Sup?
New York [Ed. note: You're in Tokyo, idiot.]

The video was uploaded to the YouTube account ShuHirata1968; Hirata is like the Ed Soares of Japan, and he always seems to have his video camera with him. For example, here’s another recent clip from Shu’s account that made us even more uncomfortable than Rampage’s rap show…

(All videos courtesy of mfight.) 

After capturing the lightweight title at UFC 144 last Saturday in Japan, Benson “Smooth” Henderson swung over to South Korea along with his mother, where he received a hero’s welcome reminiscent of the glorious ending to Star Fox 64. Sure, it wasn’t quite as grandiose as the trumpet blaring fiesta Junior Dos Santos received in Brazil, but one can only show so much enthusiasm when guards armed with semi-automatic rifles stand just a few feet away.

As you may or may not know, Henderson’s mother is Korean, making Benson the second Korean blooded UFC champion in the promotion’s history (B.J. Penn being the first).

Join us after the jump for more musings from the land of Oldboy, including a heartwarming video of Benson and his mother, and a horrifying look at a group of 6-15 year old children who could whoop all our asses. 

(This punch-face that Bendo gave Frankie Edgar? Good *and* ugly.)

By Mark Dorsey

Inspired by the 1966 Spaghetti Western film about three gunmen who set out to find a hidden fortune during the American Civil War, this post-event wrap-up is dedicated to the moments that may have slipped through the cracks or deserve a little bit more analysis. Before we bid adieu to the resounding success that was UFC 144, join us for a look back at the event with a solid, squinty-eyed gaze that would make a macho legend like Clint Eastwood proud.

The Good
• The Japanese crowd. As expected, the Japanese crowd was politely engaged in the fights throughout the entire event. There were long periods of respectful silence during most of the action, prompting Joe Rogan to urge Mike Goldberg to take off his headphones in order to soak in the eerie quiet in the arena. Rogan is a stand-up comic who doesn’t often get the opportunity to crack jokes during the fights but it was funny when he said that event was akin to watching “a cagefight in a church.” Despite the reverent atmosphere, the crowd also had its moments of vocal fervor, erupting into chants of Hioki’s name and random “UFC” chants, while also scolding Ryan Bader with boos when he tried to tie-up Rampage from the bottom. The Japanese fans showed a lot of support to non-native fighters such as Vaughan Lee after his impressive armbar victory over Kid Yamamoto, and Tim Boetsch after his shocking comeback win over Yushin Okami. The vibe in Japan was markedly different from the UFC’s amazing shows in Toronto and Rio, but anytime there’s an event when the fans become one of the main talking points, it speaks to their passion.

• Referees. Referees usually only get the spotlight if they make a mistake or controversial decision, but sometimes they should get mentioned simply because they did a solid job. That was certainly the case at UFC 144 which saw some great stoppages. Particularly noteworthy was Herb Dean’s reaction time, jumping in to stop Mark Hunt and Issei Tamura from inflicting more damage after their devastating knockouts of Cheick Kongo and Zhang Tiequan, respectively. In a similar vein, during the Lauzon/Pettis fight, referee Marc Goddard was right on top of the action, quickly stepping in to prevent follow-up damage after Lauzon was KO’d.

(They’re both dangerous on the mat and on their feet. They’re both impossible to finish. But hell will freeze over before they both wear suits on the same day. / Photo courtesy of CombatLifestyle. For more photos from this gallery, click here.)

Konichiwa, bitches, and welcome to our liveblog presentation of the UFC 144 pay-per-view card. We’ve got seven more fights to go at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan, leading up to the headlining lightweight title bout between Frankie Edgar and Ben Henderson. Along the way, Anthony “Showtime” Pettis will try to invent a new kick against Joe Lauzon, Yoshihiro Akiyama makes his last sexy stand against Jake Shields, and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson defends his old PRIDE turf against Ryan Bader.

Handling play-by-play for this leg of our journey is Anthony Gannon, who will be throwin’ down results after the jump starting at 10 p.m. ET. Refresh the page every few minutes for all the latest, and let your voice be heard in the comments section. As was predicted in the ancient fart scrolls, this is gonna be one hell of a night.

(“Where’s your other fist and why do they call you ‘Master’ anyway?”)

Just a friendly reminder that the UFC is on Japanese time this weekend, so everything will be happening a bit later than usual.

Today’s weigh-ins are going down at 11:00 pm ET and we’ll have the live stream for you below.

Will the fighters play up to the Japanese crowd? Will young local girls cover their mouths and laugh when fighters disrobe? Will Akiyama cause mass hysteria and women to pass out? Will Dana be booed by the PRIDE faithful?

All of these questions and more will be answered after the jump.

(“TRX is a workout thingy? I thought it was a rap group.”)

In spite of the fact that it was mostly made up of clips from this week’s pre-fight presser, Dana’s second UFC 144 vlog was pretty entertaining.

Check out the highlights and the video after the jump if your boss blocked YouTube at work. What is this, 1984?

There’s a lot to like about this new 45-minute video feature from MMAFighting.com. First of all, it’s nice to see that Quinton Jackson and Ariel Helwani have squashed their beef. Also, it’s nice to see Rampage out in public in Japan without humiliating the locals.

So here we have Quinton and Ariel on the streets of Tokyo four days before UFC 144, walking and talking, and walking and talking, and walking and talking until they finally arrive at an arcade to play Tekken Tag. Along the way, they discuss Rampage’s first trip to Japan fighting Kazushi Sakuraba, the different kind of racism in Japan, the unmatched atmosphere of PRIDE in its heyday, how a person’s personality is determined by their blood type, fight fixing, his betrayal by you-know-who and subsequent reckless driving arrest. Then they walk some more, and Quinton talks about parenting, matchmaking, his greatest career triumph, privacy, retirement, and how he won’t be fully appreciated until he’s gone.

It’s probably the most in-depth interview with Rampage you’ll ever see. Give it a look.

(“I’m gonna puke…I’m gonna puke.”)

Following his UFC 139 victory over Kyle Kingsbury Saturday night, Stephan Bonnar wasted no time in planting the seed for his next fight. “The Ultimate Fighter 1″ runner-up, who has racked up a recent three-fight winning streak, told reporters that he would love a step up in competition.

“I’ve always wanted to fight [Quinton] ‘Rampage’ [Jackson],” Bonnar said. “You know, I’ve got a few wins now and maybe (I can) get a big name [next].”

Earlier in the week, “The American Psycho explained to Heavy.com that facing Jackson would be his “dream fight.”

“He’s good, he’s a big puncher, he’s tough. But he does have holes in his game,” Bonnar pointed out. “He’s really famous. ‘The A-Team’ movie, talk shows – everyone knows who he is. Fighting him, it’s going to be a huge fight. Forrest [Griffin] got a close win over him, [Keith] Jardine fought a good fight with him. I feel like I could fight him good.”

(The team during easier times.)

According to Golden Glory head Bas Boon, fences have been mended between the UFC and his management group and fight team — so much so that the promotion is bringing back heavyweight John Olav Einemo and is in discussions to sign K-1 standout Siyar Bahadurzada as well.

“John Olaf Einemo is now back with the UFC and Siyar Bahadurzada just got offered a UFC contract,” Boon wrote in an email received by CagePotato earlier today.

The email went on to state that Golden Glory’s relationship with the UFC is good and that contrary to media speculation, neither side is guilty of any wrongdoing during the recent negotiations to sign former Golden Glory star Alistair Overeem to a contract with the Las Vegas-based promotion.

“I want to make the following statement to clear up any speculation.The UFC did nothing wrong and neither did Golden Glory management – when signing up Alistair Overeem with the UFC. It is public knowledge how the UFC does business,” Boon explained. “ALL correspondence between the UFC and Golden Glory was also shared/CC’d to Alistair Overeem who finally made a decision to sign the agreements. There will be a lot of rumors like in thet recent past when 4 Golden Glory fighters were released from the UFC and Strikeforce and that was the so-called end of GG’s relationship with the UFC. Not long after this rumor Golden Glory made a mega deal with Alistair Overeem signing with the UFC.”

(Sorry, kids. Christmas is canceled this year.)

Josh Barnett is currently scheduled to face Sergei Kharitonov in the semi-finals of the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, September 10th in Cincinnati. He was also scheduled to face kickboxing legend Jerome Le Banner in an August 27th pro-wrestling match for IGF in Japan, because he’s Josh Barnett, and fake-fighting dudes that he could just as easily fight for real is what he does, damn it.

But while that sort of thing wouldn’t have batted an eye under Scott Coker’s droopy watch, Zuffa runs a much tighter ship, and won’t run the risk of Barnett suffering an injury in a worked puroresu match two weeks before he has to show up for a legit cage-fight. As Fighters Only reports:

With all of the MMA fighters trying their hands at reality television, it was inevitable that washouts like Butterbean and Bob Sapp would follow suit.

Sapp is pitching the show above to The Travel Channel in the hopes that they’ll pick it up long-term. Unfortunately for Sapp, besides maybe a handful of us and the Japanese, not many people, especially those who watch The Travel Channel could sit through more than one episode of “The Beast” making faces and and a fool out of himself.

(“Well, maybe *you* can’t tell the difference between 18k gold and 14k gold…”)

Though he was slated to face Scott Lighty in a featured light-heavyweight matchup at this Friday’s Strikeforce Challengers event at the Stockton Arena in Sad City, Olympic gold-medalist judoka Satoshi Ishii has been forced to withdraw from the fight. Strikeforce announced this morning that due to the recent natural disasters in Japan, Ishii was unable to acquire a visa permitting him to leave his homeland in time for the event. Stepping in for him will be Lorenz Larkin, an undefeated knockout-artist who is currently 9-0 as a pro, following a 7-0 amateur career.

The Stockton Challengers show — headlined by a lightweight meeting between Justin Wilcox and Rodrigo Damm — would have been Ishii’s first MMA appearance in the United States. After losing his MMA debut in a decision to Hidehiko Yoshida on New Year’s Eve 2009, Ishii went 4-0 in 2010, with notable victories over Ikuhisa Minowa and Jerome Le Banner. Maybe when his visa issues are sorted out, a judoka vs. judoka bout between Ishii and fellow Strikeforce light-heavyweight Rhadi Ferguson is in order.

By Cage Potato Japanese Correspondent, Stewart Fulton

(“Thunder” is currently in holding pattern awaiting word of his next opponent.)

We visited Yushin Okami at RJW (Real Japan Wrestling, part of the Wajutsu Keishukai network) where he trains several days a week to interview him and watch him take the MMA class with some of the resident professional and amateur fighters.

RJW is located in a very unlikely spot – a residential area of Tokyo on a converted floor of a condominium, rather hard to find for anyone unfamiliar with Tokyo or the Japanese language.

A foam matted area and a marked wrestling-matted area with padded walls is about all there is. No heavy bags; no fancy equipment. Just the smell of old sweat barely masked by disinfectant. The cleaning of the mats is done by all of those who train that day after practice, and this is the norm for all martial arts dojos of any discipline across Japan.

Okami was happy to have the opportunity to speak to the international media. His English is almost non-existent, and he is much less known in his own country than abroad, making it a rare occasion for him to speak publicly to the international audience.

He was very adamant about his position in terms of a title shot against Anderson Silva, confident that he will take the middleweight belt and completely uninterested in the talk of a GSP versus Silva match up. In fact, he expressed his disdain at the notion of anyone switching weight class and getting an automatic title shot.

Check out what the perennial UFC number one middleweight contender had to say after the jump.

Well, it’s on a poster now, so I guess this fight’s really happening. But if you ask me, the old “U.S. vs. U.K.” opposing-flags angle is a little tired. I’d rather focus on what Nick Diaz and Paul Daley have in common. They’re both perpetually grumpy, for one thing. And they both do some of their best fighting after the last bell. (Who can forget Daley’s Josh Koscheck sucker-punch incident, or the Nashville brawl, or the Joe Riggs hospital fight?)

Unfortunately, one of the names on the poster — lightweight title contender Tatsuya Kawajiri — might have to drop out of the event, due to the current devastation in Japan. According to an MMAJunkie report, Jorge Masvidal and KJ Noons have been asked to stand by as replacements in case Kawajiri and Shinya Aoki are unable to compete. Masvidal and Noons were originally slated to face each other on the “Diaz vs. Daley” card, which goes down April 9th card in San Diego; now we could be seeing Melendez vs. Masvidal and Noons vs. Lyle Beerbohm. We’ll let you know when things are official.

Related: Following destruction in Japan, Akiyama pulls out of bout at UFC 128

We feel you, bro.

Those of you living under a rock may not have heard, but the future state of MMA is the least of Japan’s problems right now. Friday’s devastating earthquake not only moved the entire “city” of Japan eight feet, but it also shifted the Earth’s axis. Did you read that? It shifted the fucking planet’s axis. If that measly butterfly flapping its wings in Tokyo could cause big changes worldwide, you’ve already gathered that this little doozy is going to have an effect as well.

But I don’t want to bore you with the details of the Japanese fending off a potential nuclear armageddon, not when there’s big picture stuff like fighters being pulled from the March 19^th UFC 128 card. Though he and his family are reportedly safe and out of harm’s way, Yoshihiro Akiyama has understandably withdrawn from his bout with Nate Marquardt.

(Props: MMAPromo)

When fight promoters are willing to jeopardize their health by stiffing one of the baddest heavyweights in the world, you know they really don’t have the money. That’s the situation with Alistair Overeem, who revealed on last week’s edition of MMA Live that he still hasn’t been paid for his K-1 World Grand Prix win in December.

Of course, Overeem is far from the first fighter to be shortchanged while competing in Japan — but as their grand prix champ and one of their biggest stars, you’d think K-1 would do everything in their power to keep him happy. The news gives even more support to rumors that K-1 is heading for bankruptcy, as Dutch kickboxing promoter Simon Rutz claimed in an interview earlier this week.

As for the Japanese MMA scene, keep in mind that neither DREAM nor Sengoku have scheduled their first event in 2011 yet, and Sengoku has been mysteriously shedding talent. Between poor management and local fans simply moving on from MMA and kickboxing, are we witnessing the death knell of combat sports in Japan?

("Five…five dolla…five dolla, foot rong." [Ed. note: I sincerely apologize for that awful caption.] / Photo courtesy of sportsnavi.)

His MMA career? Dead in the water. His boxing comeback? Who knows. But the Miami Pound Machine gotta eat. And so, Kimbo Slice has reportedly agreed to perform at an IGF pro wrestling tournament on February 5th in Fukuoka, Japan. His opponent will be Shinichi "Wakakirin" Suzukawa, the marijuana-scandalized sumo wrestler who allegedly went off the script against Mark Coleman last year. (Wakakirin was also supposed to wrestle Bob Sapp at Dynamite!! 2010, but Frankenhood pulled out at the last moment like the professional he is.) And before you ask, yes, Josh Barnett will be part of the tourney as well. 

Note to Kimbo: If you "win" your first match, Antonio Inoki may want to slap the shit out of you in front of everybody. I know, if that happened on a street-corner in Perrine, he would be as dead as yesterday’s chicken. (That’s something that people say, right?) As it turns out, the slapping is actually a sign of respect and well-wishing. Please inform your crew.

(Video courtesy Vimeo/TheReem)

While speaking with Golden Glory founder and manager Bas Boon a couple weeks ago, I told him how much the Potato Nation was digging The Reem series and I asked him if there were any plans to profile other GG fighters like Marloes Coenen, Sergei Kharitonov or Semmy Schilt in a similar fashion. 

According to Boon, the cost of making The Reem (which is completely produced out of pocket by his company) is very high as they have had to hire a crew to follow Alistair 24-7. Although it isn’t something he says they are working on at the moment,  he says he hasn’t closed the door on the notion altogether.

This isn’t the only fan-centric initiative Golden Glory has put on.

If you recall, the Holland-based gym also streamed its Glory MMA and kickboxing event last month for free, although they could have easily charged fans to watch it. Boon told us that the reasoning behind the decision was that they simply wanted to increase the exposure of their fighters and the sport, which is why they decided to give it away.

We need more people involved in MMA who value the fans as much as Golden Glory does.

From today’s Dynamite!! 2009 event in Saitama. Videos to come later...

- Masato def. Andy Souwer via unanimous decision (K-1 MAX bout)

- Hidehiko Yoshida def. Satoshi Ishii via unanimous decision
– Gegard Mousasi def. Gary Goodridge via TKO, round 1

DREAM vs. SRC
– Shinya Aoki def. Mizuto Hirota via injury stoppage (Aoki’s armlock snaps Hirota’s arm), round 1 (Channeling Nick Diaz and BJ Penn, Aoki followed up the gruesome submission by flipping Hirota the Tokyo Heybuddy, then telling the crowd to visit ShinyaAoki.com, which doesn’t even exist. What an asshole!)
– Alistair Overeem def. Kazuyuki Fujita via KO (knee), round 1
– Masanori Kanehara def. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto via unanimous decision
– Tatsuya Kawajiri def. Kazunori Yokota via unanimous decision
– Hideo Tokoro def. Jong Man Kim via unanimous decision
– Melvin Manhoef def. Kazuo Misaki via TKO, round 1 (this fight, along with Minowa/Sokoudjou were arguably early stoppages)
– Akihiro Gono def. Hayato Sakurai via submission (armbar), round 2
– Michihiro Omigawa def. Hiroyuki Takaya via TKO, round 1
– Hiroshi Izumi def. Katsuyori Shibata via unanimous decision
Final score: DREAM (5), Sengoku (4)

– Ray Sefo def. Yosuke Nishijima via unanimous decision (K-1 bout)

DREAM Super Hulk Final
– Ikuhisa Minowa def. Rameau Sokoudjou via TKO, round 3

K-1 Koshien Tournament:
– Masaaki Noiri def. Shota Shimada via unanimous decision (final)
– Shota Shimada def. Katsuki Ishida via majority decision (semi-final)
– Masaaki Noiri def. Hiroya via unanimous decision (semi-final)

(‘Wait, this Mousasi? The dude that’s been beating the hell out of everybody, that’s the guy ya’ll want me to fight? Gentlemen, I think there’s been a misunderstanding.’)

Greetings from the City of the Rising Sun, Potato Nation.  Yours truly is spending New Year’s in Tokyo to attend the Fields Dynamite!! show (you’ll be able to read all about the experience in a future Fight Magazine issue), and already it’s been quite a learning experience.  For instance, I just got back from the press conference where I was surrounded by a horde of teenage girls who waited for over an hour just to fawn over Masato.  Alistair Overeem, Gegard Mousasi, and Shinya Aoki?  To these girls they barely seemed worth the effort to flip open their trinket-laden cell phones and snap a photo.

The event organizers expect to draw at least 35,000 fans to the Saitama Super Arena for the show, and representatives from both Dream and Sengoku did their best to pump up the lukewarm rivalry between the two organizations, though without much apparent interest from the fans.  A couple things worth noting:

JZ Cavalcante talks fight preparation, competing in Japan – Watch more Funny Videos

After spending a few days at American Top Team in Florida last week, I came away with a real appreciation for how hard Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante works in the gym.  From a grueling session with his strength and conditioning coach to his intense sparring matches with WEC champ Mike Brown and others from the ATT stable, JZ is putting in serious work to get ready for Tatsuya Kawajiri at Dream.9 later this month.  In this video he talks about the important psychological benefits of his training, whether he’d get in the ring with Fedor Emelianenko like Shinya Aoki did, and one of the stranger things that’s happened to him while fighting in Japan.

(And to think this all started with a colorful gi, some little shorts, and a dream.)

It looks like Combat Sambo tournaments might actually lead to career advancement opportunities, after all.  Blagoi Ivanov has signed a three-fight deal with Sengoku and will reportedly face former Pride fighter Kazuyuki Fujita in his first fight at Sengoku 9 in August.  Ivanov is the guy who made minor waves (more like ripples by the time they reached the U.S.) when he beat Fedor Emelianenko on points in the World Combat Sambo Championships last November.  Fujita’s claim to fame is that he once hit Fedor so hard it briefly stunned him.  Neither of these accomplishments is enough to make this a truly interesting fight, although Sengoku has got to take what they can get when it comes to heavyweights. 

(Marlon Sandro vs. Nick Denis; props to MMA Scraps.)

After a shaky start that saw Maximo Blanco get DQ’d after misinterpreting the "foot stomps yes, soccer kicks no" rule, and Travis Wiuff getting kneed in the balls about two dozen times before losing via TKO, Sengoku managed to put on a pretty damn entertaining show yesterday (or late Friday for us). The focal point of "Eighth Battle" was the quarterfinals of their featherweight grand prix, and unsuprisingly, top-ten featherweights Hatsu Hioki and Marlon Sandro advanced to the semis; Hioki was able to submit Ronnie Mann in the opening round, while Sandro needed all of 19 seconds to flatten Nick Denis with punches.

Elsewhere in the bracket, Michihiro Omigawa continued his career comeback, stopping Nam Phan with ground-and-pound late in the first round; after entering the tournament with a 4-7-1 record, Omigawa now holds back-to-back wins over two very credible featherweights. Korean fighter Chan Sung Jung wasn’t so fortunate, as he dropped a decision to Masanori Kanehara in what many fans felt was a race-based robbery.

Complete results from the event and more fight videos after the jump…

(Main-eventers Ronnie Mann and Hatsu Hioki. Image courtesy of allelbows.)

Attention insomniacs and members of the undead: HDNet is hooking you up tonight with a live broadcast of "Sengoku Eighth Battle," which kicks off at 3 a.m. ET/midnight PT. Though the card lacks big names, it will feature the quarterfinals of their ongoing featherweight grand prix — and if the fights are as entertaining as the FWGP’s first round, we’ll be in for a treat, so DVR this bitch at the very least. Here’s what the matchups will look like…

FEATHERWEIGHT GRAND PRIX BOUTS
Hatsu Hioki vs. Ronnie Mann
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Nam Phan
Masanori Kanehara vs. Chan Sung Jung
Marlon Sandro vs. Nick Denis

(Photo courtesy of Kamipro via N.o.B.)

Faced with sub-par TV ratings, DREAM is responding by giving Japanese MMA fans what they need — complete and utter insanity. The lineup for DREAM.9 (May 26th, Yokohama, Japan) is already stacked with the quarterfinals for their featherweight GP, the middleweight title fight between Jason Miller and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, and a lightweight feature between Gesias Cavalcante and Tatsuya Kawajiri. But according to Nightmare of Battle, the event will also host the first round of DREAM’s new "Super Hulk Tournament – World Superman Championship" open-weight grand prix. Are you sitting down? Good. Because these matchups may shock you…

(Photos courtesy of Sportsnavi)

Though it was officially ruled "no winner" due to its status as an exhibition match, Fedor Emelianenko pretty much manhandled Shinya Aoki earlier today in Tokyo during their Sambo-ish bout at DEEP/M-1 Challenge 3rd Edition, tossing the Japanese lightweight around the ring before finishing him with a leglock. According to one fan’s report on BloodyElbow:

Brock Lesnar is giddy as a school girl after stalking around the woods (okay, more like lumbering around the woods) in pursuit of a whitetail deer.  What can you say, the big man loves to hunt.  His claim that the whitetail deer is one of the most difficult animals to hunt is severely undermined, however, when he misses his first shot at the buck and it is kind enough to prance out in the open to give him a better one.  Ernest Hemingway hunted lions, Brock.  And he was just some sissy writer.

After the jump: some Kung Fu Football, and how they hype a fight in Japan.

(The hoax match-up the world has been talking about since never.)

It’s a crazy rumor no more.  Now Fedor Emelianenko vs. Shinya Aoki is a crazy fact, according to press release sent out today by M-1 Global.  The two will square off in a "five-minute special sparring exhibition" at the "M-1 Challenge Presented by Affliction" on April 29 in Tokyo.  So what will the lightweight and the heavyweight try to do to each other over the course of the most bizarre and pointless five minutes in MMA history?  According to the press release:

Complete rules of the Fedor vs. Aoki sparring exhibition are still being negotiated, but it will be presented as a special attraction during a 19-bout event scheduled to feature head-to-head M-1 Challenge matchups between host country Japan vs. England, Team USA West vs. South Korea, and Spain vs. France.

Well, that’s appropriately vague.  I guess this is what happens when you start to run out of credible opponents (who won’t ask for a lot money to fight you) but you still want to get out of the house and break a sweat: you spar with a skinny guy in tights.  Sounds reasonable.  Oh, wait.  No, it’s completely insane.  But what do we expect at this point?