Aoki

By FCF Staff

DREAM has confirmed today that its lightweight champion Shinya Aoki will fight former teammate and Sengoku champ Satoru Kitaoka, at the promotion’s upcoming New Year’s Eve event in Japan.

The December 31^st event will be hosted by Saitama’s Super Arena and will be broadcast live throughout North American on HDNet.

Aoki (29-5) will head into the NYE clash having won six straight fights since he lost by unanimous decision to Strikeforce champion Gilbert Melendez last April. Most recently, at DREAM 17 in September, the feared submission artist tapped out former WEC champ Rob McCullough with a first round neck crank.

Kitaoka (29-10-9) is riding a four fight win streak after dropping back-to-back bouts to Mizuto Hirota and Jorge Masvidal in 2009. Kitaoka also competed at DREAM 17 and worked his way to a split decision win over Willamy Freire.

The year end, DREAM card will also feature the semi-finals of the promotion’s ongoing bantamweight grand-prix, as Marques Diniz will take on Bibiano Fernandes and Antonio Banuelos will fight Masakazu Imanari.

Some of the other bouts that are scheduled for the card include featherweight champion Hiroyuki Takaya versus Takeshi “Lion” Inoue, Ryo Chonan versus Hayato Sakurai andTatsuya Kawajiri vs. Kazuyuki Miyata.

There has been considerable speculation that former Pride heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko might fight on the card, however, no bout has been confirmed.

Photo credit: DREAM